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Tools and tiers: from flint to Coreforged.
Every tool is built from three materials, and its tier, speed and lifespan all come from the properties of those materials.
A tool is three materials
A pickaxe, axe, shovel, hoe, blade, spear, fishing rod or sword is made from a head, a handle and a binder. You choose the materials. The crafting screen picks the best parts you can afford, or you can pick them yourself.
- Head: any solid with a hardness of at least 1. Soil, leaves and fibre are too soft. Liquids and gases are not solids.
- Handle: wood, bone, metal, an alloy or a composite.
- Binder: a fibre, a hide, a resin or sap, or a metal.
Bows and crossbows follow their own rules (flexing limbs), and guns need a metal barrel and a metal lock. See Weapons and ammunition.
Material units per tool
A block is 4 units and a piece (an ingot, a stick, a flint shard) is 1 unit, so blocks and pieces mix freely when you craft.
| Tool | Head | Handle | Binder |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pickaxe | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Axe | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Shovel | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Hoe | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Blade | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Spear | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Fishing Rod (hook, rod, line) | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Sword | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| War Hammer | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| Watering Can (tank, handle, binder) | 3 | 1 | 1 |
The tool score and the tier
The game rates a head material with a tool score: its hardness multiplied by how tough it is. Toughness rewards low brittleness and high elasticity. That is why a tough copper head beats a harder but brittle flint head.
The score is then banded into a tier:
| Tool tier | Name | Tool score needed | Example heads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Bare hands | below 1.8 | Stone, Bone, Tin, Lead |
| 1 | Flint | 1.8 | Flint, Obsidian, Gold, Aluminium, Quartz |
| 2 | Copper | 2.6 | Copper, Brass |
| 3 | Bronze | 3.1 | Bronze, Nickel, Platinum |
| 4 | Iron | 3.8 | Iron, Cobalt, Greyfin Tooth |
| 5 | Steel | 4.8 | Steel, Stainless Steel, Titanium, Vitalmetal |
| 6 | Tungsten | 5.7 | Titanium Alloy, Tungsten, Tungsten Carbide, Chromium, Star-Iron, Runesteel |
| 8 | Coreforged | an alloy forged only from Outer Core metals | see Alloys and the Forge |
Tier 7 is named Plasma in the game, but no head material reaches it by score: you go from Tungsten straight to Coreforged.
Tool scores of common heads
| Head | Hardness | Tool score | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flint | 3.4 | 1.99 | 1 |
| Copper | 3 | 2.80 | 2 |
| Bronze | 3.6 | 3.20 | 3 |
| Iron | 4.5 | 3.93 | 4 |
| Steel | 5.5 | 5.10 | 5 |
| Titanium Alloy | 6.2 | 5.75 | 6 |
| Tungsten | 7.5 | 6.02 | 6 |
| Tungsten Carbide | 9 | 7.06 | 6 |
| Diamond | 10 | 7.08 | 6 |
| Hexaferrum | 9.2 | 8.04 | 6 |
| Stellarite | 10.5 | 8.85 | 6 |
| Nova Alloy | 10.8 | 9.59 | 6 |
| Pyrrhonite | 9 | 7.79 | 8 (Coreforged) |
A harder head still digs faster and lasts longer, even when the tier does not change.
Which tier mines what
A tool can only break a material whose tier is no higher than its own. The material's tier comes from its hardness:
| Material hardness | Tool tier needed |
|---|---|
| below 1.2 | 0, bare hands |
| 1.2 to below 2.6 | 1, Flint |
| 2.6 to below 3.6 | 2, Copper |
| 3.6 to below 4.3 | 3, Bronze |
| 4.3 to below 5.3 | 4, Iron |
| 5.3 to below 6.8 | 5, Steel |
| 6.8 to below 8.5 | 6, Tungsten |
| 8.5 to below 10 | 7, Plasma: only a Coreforged tool can break it |
| 10 or more | 8, Coreforged |
If your tool is too weak the game tells you which tier you need. Some special blocks cannot be broken with any tool, and liquids cannot be broken either.
Examples: Diamond (hardness 10) and Stellarite (10.5) need a Coreforged tool. Chromium (8.5) and Pyrrhonite (9) need tier 7, which in practice also means Coreforged. Tungsten ore and Osmium need Tungsten tier. The full list is in Ores and where to find them.
Speed, power and wear
- Power grows with the head's tool score and falls a little if the tool is heavy (dense heads and handles swing slower).
- Time to break a block is
(0.25 + hardness x 0.75)seconds divided by the tool's power and by its efficiency for that kind of material. - Durability depends on the score and on the toughness of all three parts, so a flexible handle and binder help.
Examples with an Oak handle and a Plant Fibre binder, a pickaxe:
| Head | Power | Durability |
|---|---|---|
| Flint | 1.43 | 52 |
| Copper | 1.65 | 173 |
| Bronze | 1.8 | 177 |
| Iron | 2.09 | 203 |
| Steel | 2.52 | 280 |
| Titanium Alloy | 2.86 | 310 |
| Tungsten | 2.54 | 249 |
| Tungsten Carbide | 3 | 275 |
Tough metals last far longer than brittle flint, which chips quickly.
Which tool for which job
Each kind digs different materials at a different speed (1 is full speed):
| Tool | Rock | Metal | Crystal | Soil | Wood | Plants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pickaxe | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.5 |
| Axe | 0.3 | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.35 | 1.25 | 1 |
| Shovel | 0.3 | 0.25 | 0.25 | 1.5 | 0.3 | 0.6 |
| Hoe | 0.25 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1 | 0.3 | 1.3 |
| Blade | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 1.6 |
| Sword | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.35 | 0.5 | 1.3 |
| War Hammer | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.2 |
Guns, bows and the Watering Can dig almost nothing. Bare hands work on soil and plants only. Keep a pickaxe, an axe and a shovel on your belt.
Where tools are made
- By hand, anywhere: knapped tools with a Flint head (the knappable kind) and a non-metal handle and binder. This is tier 1.
- At a Workbench: tools up to tier 2, the Copper tier.
- At a Forge Bench: any tier. Guns need a Forge Bench or a Gun Bench.
The craft takes 1.4 seconds by hand, 2.4 seconds at a Workbench and, at a Forge Bench, 2.2 seconds plus 0.35 per tier (and 1.2 more for a gun), never more than 5. See Crafting stations.
Quality and masterworks
Every tool and suit comes out in one of four grades: Standard, Fine, Superb or Flawless. What lifts it:
- The bench: a Forge Bench adds 0.45 points, a Workbench 0.1, working by hand nothing.
- The head: a better tool score adds up to 1.6 points.
- Your Crafting skill: 0.04 points per level above the first, plus any research bonus.
- A random roll of up to 0.7 points. The points are rounded down to the grade, so by hand with flint you only ever get Standard.
Each grade adds 5 per cent to power and 12 per cent to durability. Any craft has a small chance of a Masterwork: 3 per cent, plus 2 per cent for each grade, plus more with skill. A Masterwork adds a further 12 per cent power and 25 per cent durability, and carries your name as its maker.
Each Crafting level also shortens crafts by 3 per cent. Research can help too: see Research and the Lab Bench.
Tips
- The best head you can afford is usually worth the extra materials: it changes both tier and lifespan.
- Wooden handles and fibre bindings burn at low heat; their melting points set the tool's heat limit.
- Keep a spare pickaxe before you head underground: a tool that is too weak just bounces off.
- For the Coreforged route to Stellarite, see Alloys and the Forge and Going deep.
← Back to the wiki · Last updated 25 October 2026. Mantlenaut is in alpha, so things change.