There are a handful of items you must prioritize getting your hands on at the very start of a Minecraft game. Among them is shelter, food, and a few specific tools.
Just like the sword, which is essential for early game combat, the pickaxe is a very important tool.
It is practically the symbol of Minecraft, and it allows you to mine the various types of stones and ores you find in the game, helping you progress.
In this post we will show you how to make a pickaxe in Minecraft and how to use it efficiently.
Minecraft Pickaxe Recipe
- 3 wooden/cobblestone blocks OR iron/gold nuggets OR diamonds
- 2 sticks
This is the recipe for the most basic pickaxe which you will need at the start of the game. You will need to make a wooden pickaxe first in order to be able to mine stone.
Once you have stone, you can make a stone pickaxe.
From then on you can mine slightly stronger blocks and upgrade all of your tools.
Iron and gold will be the next materials you will be obtaining right after stone. You will want to upgrade your pickaxe before any other tools, in order to be able to mine diamonds later in the game.
Each pickaxe, luckily, follows the same recipe, but simply alternates the materials.
Netherite Pickaxe Recipe
Netherite is the strongest material which you can get in Minecraft, and it is much stronger than diamonds. Crafting with it is quite different to crafting with other materials.
Firstly, you will not be using a crafting table.
Instead, you will be using a smithing table and a diamond pickaxe. You will combine the pickaxe with a netherite ingot.
To make a netherite ingot you will firstly have to combine netherite scraps with gold ingots to make a netherite ingot.
A single netherite ingot is enough to upgrade any diamond tool into a netherite one.
How to Use a Pickaxe
The way you use a pickaxe will depend entirely on the strength of it.
A wooden pickaxe can only mine blocks like stone and coal ore. In order to mine iron or copper you will need a stone pickaxe or something stronger.
This is why upgrading your pickaxe as soon as possible is important.
As soon as you have wood, upgrade to stone, and rush to upgrade to iron. An iron pickaxe can mine almost all blocks, obsidian being an exception. This is why an iron pickaxe is the most viable tool for the most of the game.
A diamond pickaxe is important for when you want to enter the Nether as it’s the first pickaxe you can make that can mine obsidian.
The quality of your pickaxe also changes the speed at which you mine blocks and how long each pickaxe lasts.
The higher grade material the better. This means netherite is the fastest and most durable.
Enchanting Pickaxes
Even if netherite is the fastest and most durable pickaxe, there is still a long way to go in order to get the very best pickaxe in Minecraft.
Repairing and enchanting your pickaxes doesn’t only make them last longer, but it can make them work faster, too.
It is worth your time to look at some of these enchantments and apply them to your tools.
