Mining speed

Mining speed (also known as "tool speed") is an invisible statistic that determines how fast the player can mine (or break walls, or chop down trees/cacti). Its value shows the time per hit in 60ths of second. It is therefore something of a misnomer: it's presented in the form of the amount of time taken for a certain event, whereas speed is the number of events that take place in a certain amount of time (or, in mathematical terms, the number you see is the reciprocal of the speed). This means that faster tools have smaller numbers, not larger. For example, a mining speed of 15 means that the tool will hit the block every 15/60 of a second, or four times per second. A mining speed of 20, on the other hand, means that the tool will hit the block every 20/60 of a second, or three times per second.

When breaking walls, its value is cut in half, then rounded down to the nearest whole number. Thus, walls break twice as fast as blocks.

Your final mining speed is determined only by the following:


 * Your tool's base tool speed, which is hidden in the game's code and not normally visible (but can be looked up on this wiki, referred to as "tool speed" on each tool's page and as "mining speed" as a column header in a table of tools).
 * Any speed-modifying prefix on the tool (the best being "Light," with a 15% increase. Note that for some tools, there are other prefixes which will work just as well. Details below). Changing other stats via a prefix (e.g. damage) has no effect on mining speed.
 * Buffs and items specifically increasing mining speed. Note that these only apply to tools that are capable of actual "mining," i.e. Pickaxes and Drills. An interesting quirk is that the Drax, Laser Drill, Pickaxe Axe, Picksaw and Shroomite Digging Claw, which can function as both pickaxes and axes, will benefit from these bonuses even when being used as an axe.

In particular, a tool's mining speed is independent of how quickly it swings, which is the speed you can see in the in-game tooltip (e.g. "Copper Pickaxe—Fast Speed"). That statistic is properly called "use time." This gets confusing when one considers that speed-modifying prefixes change both mining speed and use time, potentially leading to the misconception that "melee speed" bonuses improve mining speed. In truth, melee speed bonuses affect only use time.

Useful prefixes
Pickaxes (including the Pickaxe Axe, Shroomite Digging Claw, and Picksaw), axes, hammers, and hamaxes (including The Axe) can be reforged with speed bonuses to improve their mining speed. Drills (including the Drax), chainsaws, and the Chlorophyte Jackhammer cannot. The speed-increasing prefixes are: While the best prefix for mining in general is Light, certain tools will achieve the same speed with lesser prefixes due to rounding, which means it is much easier (and cheaper) to reforge these tools, since there are more prefixes that tie for "most optimal." This is complicated by the fact that tool speed is halved and floored when hammering, but the long and short of it is this:
 * Tools with a tool speed of 6, 7, 8, or 16 will achieve equal block/tree/cactus-breaking speeds with either a +10% or +15% prefix—these include the Adamantite, Candy Cane, Chlorophyte, Orichalcum, and Titanium Pickaxes, the Pickaxe Axe and the Picksaw; as well as the Adamantite, Chlorophyte, Cobalt, Mythril, Orichalcum, Palladium, and Titanium Axes, the Luminite, Meteor, and Spectre Hamaxes and The Axe.
 * Tools with a tool speed of 9 or 10 will achieve equal block/tree/cactus-breaking speeds with either a +6%, +10%, or +15% prefix—these include the Mythril and Spectre Pickaxes.
 * Tools with a tool speed of 4 or 5 require the Light prefix for their speed to be improved at all—these include the Luminite Pickaxes and the Shroomite Digging Claw. And if there were any tools with a tool speed of less than 4, not even the Light prefix would improve their speed.
 * Hammers with a tool speed of 8, 17, 19, 21, or 23 will achieve equal wall-breaking speeds with either a +10% or +15% prefix—these include...well, almost half the hammers in the game, actually: the Boreal Wood, Copper, Gold, Lead, Palm Wood, Pearlwood, Platinum, Silver, and Tin Hammers, the Flesh Grinder, The Breaker, and the Spectre Hamaxe.
 * If there were any hammers with a tool speed of 10, they would achieve equal wall-breaking speeds with either a +6%, +10%, or +15% prefix.
 * Hammers with a tool speed of 12, 14, or 16 will achieve equal wall-breaking speeds with either a +5%, +6%, +10%, or +15% prefix—these include the Chlorophyte Warhammer, Hammush, Rockfish, Pwnhammer, and the Meteor and Molten Hamaxes.
 * Hammers with a tool speed of 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, or 13 cannot have their wall-breaking speed improved by prefixes at all—these include the Luminite Hamaxes and The Axe.
 * This means that the only hammers for which "Light" actually is the exclusive best prefix are the Ebonwood, Iron, Shadewood, Tungsten and Wooden Hammers.

Speed-increasing buffs and items
These are the buffs and items which improve mining speed (again: pickaxes and drills only): This increase is capped at 70%, even though all items together add 100%.
 * The Mining buff from the Mining Potion adds 25%.
 * The set bonus of the Mining armor adds 30%.
 * The Celestial Shell and Celestial Stone each add 15%.
 * The Sun Stone and Moon Stone add 15% during day and night respectively.

Formula
1. Start with your tool's tool speed (as documented on this wiki). 2. Multiply by [1 - speed modification from tool prefix]. 3. Round to the nearest whole number.

If your tool is a pickaxe or drill: 4. Add up all the bonuses to mining speed from buffs and items. 5. If you got more than 70%, use 70% instead. 6. Multiply the number you got in step 3 by [1 - the number you got in step 5]. 7. Round down.

If you are hammering: 4. Divide by 2. 5. Round down.

Example: digging a tunnel with a Light Shroomite Digging Claw, having drunk a Mining Potion and wearing a Celestial Stone. Performance will be one hit every 1/60s (e.g. it will mine 60/1 = 60 dirt blocks per second).
 * 1) The Claw's tool speed is 4
 * 2) The Light prefix has +15% speed. 4&times;(1-0.15) = 3.4
 * 3) 3.4 is rounded to 3
 * 4) The Mining Potion adds 25% and the Celestial Stone adds 15%. These total 40%
 * 5) 40% is less than 70% so we leave it alone
 * 6) 3&times;(1-0.40) = 1.8
 * 7) 1.8 is rounded down to 1

Example: chopping trees with an Annoying Pickaxe Axe, having drunk a Mining Potion. Performance will be one hit every 6/60s, or 60/6 = 10 hits per second. Trees have 500% hit points and the Pickaxe Axe has 110% axe power, so it will take CEILING(500%/110%) = 5 hits to chop down a tree, which will take (6&times;5)/60 = 0.5 seconds.
 * 1) The Pickaxe Axe's tool speed is 7.
 * 2) The Annoying prefix has -15% speed. 7&times;(1-(-0.15)) = 8.05
 * 3) 8.05 is rounded to 8
 * 4) The Mining Potion adds 25%
 * 5) 25% is less than 70% so we leave it alone
 * 6) 8&times;(1-0.25) = 6
 * 7) 6 is already a whole number

Example: tearing down background walls with a Murderous The Axe, wearing full Mining armor. Step 3 illustrates why some tools do not have their speed improved by some prefixes. The Mining armor was a red herring: it has no effect on The Axe. Performance will be one hit every 3/60s, so it will break 60/3 = 20 walls per second.
 * 1) The Axe's tool speed is 7
 * 2) The Murderous prefix has +6% speed. 7&times;(1-0.06) = 6.58
 * 3) 6.58 is rounded to 7
 * 4) 7/2 = 3.5
 * 5) 3.5 is rounded down to 3

Mining speed tables
Note: the Legendary, Deadly, Agile, and Nasty prefixes have exactly the same impact on mining speed as Quick.

Pickaxes/Drills
Note: modifiers aside, all drills which have a corresponding pickaxe are functionally identical to that pickaxe and have therefore been omitted, except for the Orichalcum Drill.

Axes/Chainsaws
Note: modifiers aside, all chainsaws which have a corresponding axe are functionally identical to that axe and have therefore been omitted, except for the Chlorophyte Chainsaw.

Hammers
Notes:
 * The hit points of a wall are more than 60% and at most 70% (the exact value is unknown). Therefore: tools with at least 70% hammer power will break a wall in one hit, the Wooden Hammer will take three hits, and all other hammers will take two hits.
 * The Chlorophyte Jackhammer is the only jackhammer in the game.
 * While the Meteor and Molten Hamaxes do not further improve their hammer performance with prefixes beyond Nimble, they can improve their axe performance.
 * While the Luminite Hamaxes and The Axe do not improve their hammer performance with prefixes, they can improve their axe performance.

Fastest mining tools
Note: again, the Legendary, Deadly, Agile, and Nasty prefixes have exactly the same impact on mining speed as Quick.

Pre-hardmode
Pickaxes
 * Light Bone Pickaxe for things that it can break in one hit (e.g. Dirt, Mud, Sand, Snow), as well as things that will take two hits no matter how strong your pick is (e.g. Grass).
 * If you can't get a Bone Pickaxe, substitute a Light Deathbringer Pickaxe.
 * If using a Bone Pickaxe, also use it for everything else that it can mine (namely, Meteorite ore and below, plus Spikes).
 * If using a Deathbringer Pickaxe, also use it for things it mines in three hits: Ebonstone, Crimstone, Hellstone ore and Dungeon Brick.
 * Light Reaver Shark or Light Molten Pickaxe  for everything else.

Axes
 * Light Molten Hamaxe.
 * Without access to Hellstone, the best chopping tool is a Sawtooth Shark (any prefix), followed by a Quick/Light Meteor Hamaxe.

Hammers
 * Rockfish/Molten Hamaxe with any speed-increasing prefix.
 * Meteor Hamaxe with any speed-increasing prefix is a distant second, since it takes two hits to break a wall.

Hardmode
Pickaxes
 * Light Shroomite Digging Claw for everything except Lihzahrd Brick (which it cannot mine).
 * Light Luminite Pickaxe or Quick/Light Picksaw  for Lihzahrd Brick, or if the Claw's -1 range cramps your style.
 * Laser Drill (any prefix) when you are willing to sacrifice speed for extreme range.
 * Quick/Light Chlorophyte Pickaxe before you beat Plantera (a Quick/Light Pickaxe Axe, which must be crafted first, has the same speed but lacks a range bonus).
 * Quick/Light Adamantite/Titanium Pickaxe before your beat all the Mechanical Bosses.

Axes
 * Light Shroomite Digging Claw.
 * Quick/Light The Axe if the Claw's -1 range cramps your style.
 * Quick/Light Picksaw if you can't get The Axe or can't stand its sound effect.
 * Quick/Light Luminite Hamaxe if you absolutely must have more range than even a Picksaw or The Axe.
 * Quick/Light Chlorophyte Greataxe before you beat Plantera (a Quick/Light Adamantite/Titanium Waraxe has the same speed but lacks a range bonus).
 * Quick/Light Adamantite/Titanium Waraxe before you beat all the Mechanical Bosses.

Hammers
 * Luminite Hamaxe or The Axe, with any speed-increasing or speed-neutral prefix.
 * Quick/Light Spectre Hamaxe if you can't get The Axe, can't stand its sound effect, or want even more range.
 * Chlorophyte Warhammer with any speed-increasing prefix before you beat Plantera (a Hammush/Pwnhammer/Molten Hamaxe/Rockfish with any speed-increasing prefix has the same speed but lacks a range bonus).
 * Hammush/Pwnhammer/Molten Hamaxe/Rockfish with any speed-increasing prefix before you beat all the Mechanical Bosses.

Trivia
Despite being presumably higher-tech, Drills and Chainsaws are generally inferior to Pickaxes and Axes made out of the same material: they have the same or worse tool speed speed and they cannot be reforged to increase that speed. They do have the advantage that clicking "resets" the digging process, so you can theoretically make up the difference (and then some) by clicking rapidly. However, faster tools require faster clicking to keep up, and realistically, doing this with even Cobalt tools is very demanding, most likely requiring two hands on the mouse for any player not thoroughly seasoned in rapid clicking from other games.