Players need tools to do daily tasks efficiently in Minecraft. Without one, the player’s actions will become heavily limited since doing anything barehanded is time-consuming and inefficient. Necessary tasks such as farming and mining that players must do to progress in the game rely heavily on the usage of tools, and for that manner, players must obtain tools as early on in the game as possible. And one of those tools is an axe. Like in real life, axes are mainly used to chop wood, even in Minecraft. But in the game, there is so much more to an axe than merely using it for chopping wood. As there are various ways to use an axe in the game, this article will tackle each one and discuss its specific uses.
What is an Axe in Minecraft?
An axe is a tool mainly used for chopping wood and other wooden blocks, but it has other purposes as well. Like other tools in Minecraft, an axe has a total of 6 tiers, which players can craft, namely: wooden, stone, iron, golden, diamond, and netherite. The durability of each axe tier will vary depending on the material used for crafting. For example, a diamond axe is sturdier than a wooden axe due to diamonds being stronger than wood.
How to Craft an Axe in Minecraft?
Crafting your first axe is simple and easy. You need the right materials and a crafting table, and then you’re good to go. The recipe for each tier of the axe is precisely the same save for the material used. When crafting axes of different tiers, you can easily use the same crafting pattern and replace the current crafting material with a different one.
To craft an [wooden] axe, you need two sticks and three crafting blocks (in this case, three planks). The pattern when crafting an axe is as follows as should be followed in the exact order; otherwise, the crafting recipe will not work:
- Open the crafting table menu and look for the 3×3 crafting grid.
- First, place one plank on the top-left slot and the top-center slot for a total of 2 planks on the top row.
- Next, place one plank on the left slot of the middle row and one stick on the centermost slot.
- And finally, place one stick on the bottom-center slot.
- Once the image of the wooden axe appears in the results slot, click and drag it into your inventory to complete the crafting process.
How to Use an Axe in Minecraft?
1. Axe used for chopping wood
The axe is mainly used for chopping down wood, logs, and other wooden blocks or items in the game. Since chopping wood is its primary purpose, it breaks wooden blocks much faster than other tools or weapons. Regardless of the axe tier, all axes will lose one durability to break one block. Upgrading into a better axe will allow the player to chop wood faster and give more durability to the axe, allowing for more uses. However, other blocks that break instantly using an axe will not lose any durability.
2. Axe used for stripping wood
Every time you use an axe on a log, wooden block, or a block of copper, they will turn into a stripped log, a stripped wooden block, or remove one layer of oxidization or wax, respectively. Once they turn into another block, they cannot be turned back into their original form and will remain the same even when broken. This action will cause the axe to lose one durability per block.
3. Axe used as a weapon
Like most tools, axes can also be used as a weapon as a substitute for a sword. The axe’s base attack damage is the same as the sword’s in Minecraft Java Edition. However, it only deals 1 less damage than a sword in Minecraft Bedrock Edition. But the best part about an axe isn’t its damage but its ability to break shields and armor faster than any other tool or weapon in the game. This can be used most especially during Minecraft multiplayer, in which attacking a shield-wielding player will disable the shield for the next 5 seconds after the attack.
4. Axe used as a fuel source
Wooden axes can be used as a substitute for coal in a furnace by acting as the fuel source for smelting materials. However, like all the other tools in Minecraft, this only works for wooden axes. Any other tool tier of the axe, such as diamond, gold, and iron, is not flammable and thus cannot be used as fuel in a furnace. For every wooden axe used, you can smelt up to 1 item only. Therefore, you will need multiple wooden axes to smelt more items.
5. Axe used as a smelting ingredient
Iron axes and golden axes can be used in a furnace not as a fuel source but as an ingredient for smelting. You can obtain an iron nugget or a gold nugget by smelting an iron axe or a golden axe. This might not be the best way to use an axe with stronger durability than wood, but you can use this method once the durability of your iron or golden axe is low or about to break. So instead of losing a tool through breaking, you can smelt them instead in your furnace to obtain valuable resources such as iron and gold nuggets.
6. Axe used as a distraction
Piglins are well-known mobs hostile to players on sight, especially when the player is not wearing any golden armor. They will not cease attacking the player unless he or she wears armor of gold tier. Luckily, you can use their love of gold to your advantage. By dropping a golden axe on the ground while they are attacking you, they will become distracted for a few seconds by picking up the golden axe before placing it in their inventory. Only then will they resume attacking you. It’s a good thing a few seconds is all you’ll need to successfully slip away while they have their eyes on the golden axe prize.
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