Minecraft tools: crafting recipes and stats

Tools are the absolute foundation of survival in Minecraft. Without them you can't mine stone or till the soil for crops, and chopping trees takes forever. You can craft every tool from five different materials: wood, stone (cobblestone), iron, gold and diamond. The sixth tier, netherite, comes from upgrading a diamond tool at a smithing table. Every tool needs sticks as its basic component, so make sure you have plenty of them before you start crafting.

If you're just starting out, read our first steps guide, which walks you step by step through your first minutes in the game, from gathering wood to crafting your first tool.

Pickaxe

The pickaxe is without question the most important tool in the whole game. You use it to mine stone, ores, mineral blocks and many other hard materials. Without a pickaxe you won't get a single block of cobblestone, let alone valuable iron, gold or diamond ore. The pickaxe recipe is simple: put 3 of your chosen material in the top row of the 3x3 grid, then 2 sticks in a vertical line under the middle one.

The pickaxe's tier decides which blocks you can mine. A wooden pickaxe can mine stone and coal ore, but for iron ore you need a stone pickaxe. You need an iron pickaxe to mine diamond, gold and emerald ore. Obsidian (which you need to build a Nether portal) takes at least a diamond pickaxe. You'll find more pickaxe recipes in our recipe database.

Shovel

A shovel speeds up digging soft blocks: dirt, sand, gravel, clay, snow and podzol. The recipe is very simple: 1 of the material at the top of the middle column, with 2 sticks below it. The shovel isn't as critical as the pickaxe, but without one, digging these blocks takes much longer.

A handy shovel feature is making paths: right-click a grass block to turn it into a smooth dirt path. It isn't just decorative but practical too, because paths sit slightly lower than full blocks, which can come in handy when you're landscaping. A shovel also puts out campfires: just right-click one.

Axe

The axe is mainly for quickly chopping wood and breaking wooden blocks, but in Java Edition it's also a powerful weapon. It deals more damage per hit than a sword of the same material (a diamond axe deals 9 damage versus 7 for a diamond sword), although it attacks more slowly. The axe recipe takes 3 of the material in an L shape (2 on top and 1 to the side) plus 2 sticks underneath.

In Java Edition the axe has one more trick: hitting an opponent who is holding up a shield disables the shield for 5 seconds, which makes the axe extremely useful in PvP. An axe can also scrape wax off copper blocks and strip the bark from logs (turning them into stripped logs). In Bedrock Edition, on the other hand, the axe gets no damage bonus, which is an important difference between the editions.

Hoe

The hoe is mainly for tilling soil so you can plant crops. Right-click a dirt or grass block to turn it into farmland, where you can plant wheat, carrots, potatoes, beetroots and other crops. The hoe recipe: 2 of the material in the top row (one in the corner and one next to it, in the middle), plus 2 sticks in a vertical line under the middle.

Since version 1.16, the hoe has an extra use: it's now the tool for quickly breaking leaves, hay bales, sponges, wet sponges, moss blocks, sculk and many other organic blocks. That makes a hoe made from a high-durability material (iron or diamond) much more useful than it used to be. If you're building automatic farms, you'll need a hoe to prepare the farmland.

Fishing rod

A fishing rod isn't a typical mining tool, but it's an important part of every player's kit. The recipe: 3 sticks diagonally across the grid plus 2 string (dropped by spiders) below them. With a fishing rod you can catch fish (a food source), but also rare items: enchanted books, bows, fishing rods, saddles and even name tags. Put the Luck of the Sea III enchantment on it and your chances of rare loot go up significantly.

Tool upgrade strategy

Experienced players follow a clear plan when upgrading their gear. Here's the recommended order for investing your materials:

• Wood to stone: move on as fast as you can. You only need 3 cobblestone to craft a stone pickaxe.
• Stone to iron: priority number one. An iron pickaxe gives you access to diamonds.
• Iron to diamond: spend your diamonds on the pickaxe and sword first. Don't waste them on a shovel or hoe; the iron versions of those tools are good enough.
• Diamond to netherite: upgrading is expensive (it takes ancient debris from the Nether), so start with the pickaxe. There's more detail in the netherite chapter.