Mining speed

Mining speed is an invisible statistic that determines how fast the player can mine. Its value shows the time per hit in 60th of second (a mining speed of 15 means that the pickaxe swings a hit every 15/60ths of a second). This value is determined only by the following:


 * Tool mining speed
 * Speed modifying prefix on the tool itself
 * Buffs and items specifically increasing mining speed

The tool mining speed (or tool speed) is independent of the "speed" value that is displayed on the Pickaxes page. Best speed modifying prefix on a tool is "Light" which increases mining speed by 15%.

Mining speed can be furthermore improved by up to 70% using following buffs and items: This increase is capped at 70%, even though all items together add 85%.
 * Mining effect from Mining Potion adds 25%
 * Set bonus of Mining armor adds 30%
 * Celestial Stone adds 15%
 * Sun Stone and Moon Stone add 15% during day and night respectively.

Useful prefixes
All pickaxes can be reforged, and the speed bonus will improve their mining speed. Useful prefixes in this regard are: While the best prefix for mining in general is Light, certain pickaxes with a prefix with 10% speed bonus will produce the same speed due to rounding. Therefore it is much easier (and cheaper) to reforge such pickaxes, as there 6 more prefixes that will work (including Legendary). This is true for Candy Cane, Mythril, Orichalcum, Adamantite, Titanium, Chlorophyte, Spectre Pickaxes, Pickaxe Axe and Picksaw. Shroomite Digging Claw still requires Light prefix to dig faster. Mythril Pickaxe and Spectre Pickaxe also allow the Murderous prefix with only 6% speed increase.

Formula
Mining tool speed is improved by the prefix speed value, and then rounded to the nearest number. Then the bonus from items and buffs is applied, and the final value is rounded down.

Example: Light Shroomite Digging Claw has mining speed 3. When Mining (Buff) is active and Celestial Stone is worn, the mining speed is multiplied by 0.6 (40% better than 1.0), and we get mining speed of 1.8 which gets rounded down to 1. This tool will swing 60 hits per second (e.g. it will mine 60 dirt blocks per second).

Example: Light Bone Pickaxe has mining speed 9. With Mining (Buff) active and full Mining armor, the mining speed is multiplied by 0.45 (55% better than 1.0), and we get mining speed of 4.05 which gets rounded down to 4. This will be fastest pre-hardmode pickaxe for mining dirt, sand and other easy materials.

Mining speed table
Note: Legendary prefix can be applied to all pickaxes in place of Quick or Murderous in the table and the speed will stay the same.

Note: Drills Do Not have the same mining speed as pickaxes, which are faster, except for Orichalcum Drill which is slower than Orichalcum Pickaxe (Speed 10 instead of 8). Additionally the drills cannot be reforged to increase speed.

Fastest mining tools
Pre-hardmode the fastest digging tools are: In hardmode, Light Shroomite Digging Claw is the fastest tool, but players can prefer also:
 * Light Bone Pickaxe for Dirt, Mud, Sand, Snow and other easy blocks
 * Light Reaver Shark for all blocks more difficult than Dirt (Stone, Meteorite, Obsidian, Ebonstone etc.)
 * Light Molten Pickaxe for Stone blocks, Bricks, Meteorite, Obsidian, Ores; Light Deathbringer Pickaxe for Hellstone, Crimstone, Ebonstone, Pearlstone, Dungeon Bricks.
 * Legendary / Quick / Deadly / Agile / Nasty / Light Adamantite Pickaxe or Titanium Pickaxe is accessible significantly sooner
 * Legendary / Quick / Deadly / Agile / Nasty / Light Chlorophyte Pickaxe has extra range and should be obtained next
 * Legendary / Quick / Deadly / Agile / Nasty / Light Picksaw is second fastest after the Shroomite Digging Claw and has much higher range

Drills cannot be reforged to increase speed and may be considered by some to be inferior to pickaxes.
 * However, clicking "resets" the digging process, so clicking rapidly on a stronger block (such as Adamantite) can mine far quicker than a pickaxe with no modifiers, albeit with little more effort.