Tools

This article is about the in-game items. For program enhancing software, see Programs and Editors.

[edit] Tools

Tools are items used by the player while held to perform actions faster and more efficiently, to gather materials not obtainable by hand, to gain information, or to perform completely new actions. With the exception of the clock and compass, tools do not stack in the inventory. Tools can be repaired, see Item Repair

Name	Ingredients	Input » Output	Description
Axes	Sticks + Wooden Plank or Cobblestone or Iron Ingots or Gold Ingots or Diamond Gems		Used to chop wood-related blocks faster than by hand.
Pickaxes	Sticks + Wooden Plank or Cobblestone or Iron Ingots or Gold Ingots or Diamond Gems		Required to mine stone-related blocks and ore.
Shovels	Sticks + Wooden Plank or Cobblestone or Iron Ingots or Gold Ingots or Diamond Gems		Used to dig dirt, grass, sand, gravel and snow faster than by hand. Shovels are required to dig snowballs.
Hoes	Sticks + Wooden Plank or Cobblestone or Iron Ingots or Gold Ingots or Diamond Gems		Used to till dirt and grass blocks to prepare for crops.
Flint and Steel	Iron Ingot + Flint		Used to create fire.
Bucket	Iron Ingots		Used to hold and transport water, lava and milk.
Compass	Iron Ingots + Redstone Dust		Points to the player's spawn point.
Maps	Paper + Compass		Will create an image of an area explored while held. This can be used for path-finding.
Clock	Gold Ingots + Redstone Dust		Displays positions of the Sun and Moon.
Fishing Rod	Sticks + String		Used to catch fish. Can also be used to pull mobs and other entities.
Shears	Iron Ingots		Used to collect leaves, tall grass, vines and wool from Sheep. Also breaks Wool faster than by hand.

[edit] Item durability

Main article: Item Durability

A use is counted only if a player completely breaks apart one block or hits a mob. If a block is partially broken this is not counted as a full use. If a player happens to use a tool that is not suitable for the task at hand (e.g. Using an axe to dig through stone instead of a pickaxe, or fighting a mob with a shovel instead of a sword), will count as two uses rather than one as this is not using the item in hand for its designed use.

Proper use of tools will maximize their durabilities. Assuming a player uses a tool appropriately, the following list shows the maximum durabilities for tools of each material type.

• Wood - 60 uses
• Stone - 132 uses
• Iron - 251 uses
• Gold - 33 uses
• Diamond - 1562 uses

Please note though, even though that gold tools have lower durability, they do the work faster.

[edit] Diamond tools vs. Gold tools

Gold tools mine blocks the fastest of all tools in the game and have the highest enchantability (making it possible to get Silk Touch with a level 1 enchantment, which is impossible with another tool tier), however they also have the fewest uses (33) and cannot harvest most ores. Most players with the resources opt instead to use diamond tools, which are nearly as fast and have 1562 uses before breaking. Since enchanted tools often gain unbreaking or efficiency, which are of limited use on a golden tool, making and enchanting a gold tool is wasteful, unless the player is trying to get silk touch with the fewest experience levels spent as possible. Fortune is also of little use on a golden pickaxe, which can't mine important ores like diamonds. However, since gold is now renewable, players may prefer gold tools over diamond tools in small scaled mining operation since they may want to reserve the rare, non-renewable diamonds for large scaled projects

[edit] Trivia

• If you switch from a more valuable to a less valuable tool, without releasing the mouse button, just before a block breaks, the time required will be similar to using the former tool, while the mined block will be counted against the latter's durability. This is true for shovels, axes and pickaxes. However, in the case of pickaxes, this only works if the latter can mine this type of block, e.g. for iron and stone pickaxe while mining iron ore it would work, but for diamond and iron pickaxe while mining obsidian it wouldn't. Profitable uses for this (in terms of time saved) are rare.
• Jens told us around 1:30 in this video [1] that it is going to be possible to upgrade your tools, which is now known as Enchanting.

[edit] See also

• Item Repair

Items Raw Materials Blaze Rod • Bone • Clay Balls • Coal ( Charcoal) • Diamond Gem • Ender Pearl • Feather • Flint • Ghast Tear • Glowstone Dust • Gold Ingot ( Nugget)  • Gunpowder • Iron Ingot • Leather • Nether Wart • Redstone Dust • Slimeball • String Manufactured Blaze Powder • Book • Bowl • Brick • Eye of Ender • Fermented Spider Eye • Glass Bottle • Glistering Melon • Magma Cream • Paper • Potions ( Splash) • Stick • Sugar Food Bread • Cake • Cookie • Chicken Egg • Melon Slice • Milk • Mushroom Stew • Raw Beef ( Steak) • Raw Chicken ( Cooked) • Raw Fish ( Cooked) • Raw Porkchop ( Cooked) • Red Apple ( Golden) • Rotten Flesh • Spider Eye Plants Seeds ( Wheat • Pumpkin • Melon) • Sugar Cane • Wheat Wool Dyes Bone Meal • Light Gray Dye • Gray Dye • Ink Sac • Pink Dye • Rose Red • Orange Dye • Dandelion Yellow • Lime Dye • Cactus Green • Light Blue Dye • Cyan Dye • Lapis Lazuli Dye • Purple Dye • Magenta Dye • Cocoa Beans Tools Axe • Bucket ( Water • Lava) • Fishing Rod • Flint and Steel • Hoe • Pickaxe • Shears • Shovel Informative Clock • Compass • Map Weapons Bow ( Arrow) • Snowball • Sword Armor Boots • Chestplate • Helmet • Leggings Vehicles Boat • Minecart ( with Furnace • with Chest) Utility Bed • Brewing Stand • Cauldron • Doors • Redstone Repeater • Saddle • Sign Decoration Music Discs • Painting Planned Bottle o' Enchanting • Fire Charge Creative only Chain Armor • Spawn Egg Unimplemented Quiver