Pickaxes

Pickaxes are tools used to remove ("mine") blocks and furniture, normally converting them to item form. They cannot remove background walls (this requires a hammer instead), nor cut down trees (which requires an axe or chainsaw). They also double as basic melee weapons. Some of the Hardmode-tier pickaxes have drill counterparts, which as of will mine faster than their pickaxe counterparts. New players spawn with a Copper Pickaxe; in with an Iron Pickaxe instead.

When evaluating the practical efficiency of a pickaxe, two things should be taken into consideration: the amount of hits required (from high pickaxe power); as well as the ticks per hit from low mining speed – see the respective pages for more details. The use time attribute can safely be disregarded, because it reflects the weapon swing/animation and is not related to the hits for mining.

Pickaxes can use modifiers that increase speed, like Quick and Light. Accessories with a melee speed bonus will only affect the weapon swing, and will not affect mining hits (by affecting use speed not mining speed).