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Pickaxes are arguably the most important item in Minecraft. Swords might be the most popular, mostly being the one that is used to defeat the Ender Dragon and beat the game; but without pickaxes, it's almost impossible to get to that point. In fact, most of the time, nothing can be done without first making a pickaxe.
With that in mind, it's extremely important to have a good pickaxe. Netherite is incredibly difficult to get, but it should still be the end goal for all high-end tools and armor. To start out, crafters should aim for the strongest diamond pickaxe and then upgrade it when they eventually find enough Ancient Debris.
Making the strongest pickaxe is not always as straightforward as it seems and there is a way to do it more efficiently to save XP levels. Here's how.
Minecraft 1.19: Making the strongest pickaxe in the most efficient way
A diamond pickaxe requires three diamonds and two sticks made in the shape of a pickaxe in the crafting table grid. The following enchantments are available for the pickaxe, all of which can make it stronger and better:
- Efficiency (up to level five)
- Fortune (up to level three)
- Unbreaking (up to level three)
- Mending
- Silk Touch
Not all of these can go on the same pickaxe, though. Silk Touch and Fortune are mutually exclusive. Silk Touch allows the mined item to drop exactly as it is. For example, diamond ore will drop as diamond ore.
Fortune makes ores drop more items than they normally would. A diamond ore normally drops about one diamond, but it can drop four with Fortune III. These two enchantments are basically opposites of one another, which is why they can't go on the same pickaxe.
To get the strongest pickaxe, Minecraft gamers should go with Fortune. Silk Touch has its use and is valuable, but not more so than Fortune.
To start, crafters need to put the most expensive book on the pickaxe. The cost of enchanting goes up as more enchantments are put on.
It also goes up if the book is a higher level, so the most cost-efficient way to enchant it is with the highest level books first.
That means that Efficiency V should be first. Efficiency is the only pickaxe enchantment that goes up to level five. The second book can be either Fortune III or Unbreaking III; the order does not matter.
If one of those books is level two, then it should be third overall, but if they're maxed out, it doesn't matter.
Mending is the last book to put on almost any item, including a pickaxe. This might cost 15-20 levels of XP, but putting higher level books on last will cost a lot more.
Those four enchantments are all that can be placed on a pickaxe other than the Curse of Vanishing, but that's not one most players are willing to put on anything they have.
Once players get enough Ancient Debris and gold for a Netherite ingot, they can upgrade their pickaxe and have a truly maxed out item.
