Pickaxes
A pickaxe does two things: it grants mining power, and its tier unlocks the ores you can extract. The two stop progressing at different points, and that is the whole trade.
Power and ores, tier by tier
Power climbs steadily, between +23 % and +60 % per step, with no surprises. What stops dead is the right-hand column.
| Pickaxe | Power | Net worth | Ores | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | 1 000 | Stone | ||
| T2 | 3 000 | Iron | ||
| T3 | 55 000 | Gold | ||
| T4 | 205 000 | Obsidian | ||
| T5 | 625 000 | Aquanite · Cobalt · Sapphire | ||
| T6 | 1 445 000 | Chloronite · Emerald · Mithril | ||
| T7 | 5 070 000 | Adamantite · Deserite · Ruby | ||
| T8 | 12 135 000 | Frozenite · Magmanite | ||
| T9 | 18 145 000 | Demonite | ||
| T10 | 25 515 000 | Perfect Prism | ||
| T11 | 32 445 000 | none | ||
| T12 | 39 950 000 | none |
The last two tiers unlock nothing more. Perfect Prism, the last one on the list, drops as early as tier 10. Past tier 10, going up buys nothing but raw power, and raw power is far cheaper elsewhere.
The price of one power point
What one power point costs, tier by tier. The curve has two steps and a flat ending, and nobody sees them reading twelve pages one after another.
| Pickaxe | Cost of one point | In figures | Vs previous tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | Wooden Pickaxe | 20 | · | |
| T2 | Stone Pickaxe | 38 | ×1,88 | |
| T3 | Iron Pickaxe | 458 | ×12,2 | |
| T4 | Gold Pickaxe | 1 206 | ×2,63 | |
| T5 | Obsidian Pickaxe | 2 717 | ×2,25 | |
| T6 | Cobalt Pickaxe | 4 817 | ×1,77 | |
| T7 | Steel Pickaxe | 13 000 | ×2,70 | |
| T8 | Mithril Pickaxe | 24 270 | ×1,87 | |
| T9 | Adamantite Pickaxe | 28 802 | ×1,19 | |
| T10 | Celestial Pickaxe | 32 712 | ×1,14 | |
| T11 | Elemental Pickaxe | 33 797 | ×1,03 | |
| T12 | Infernal Pickaxe | 33 292 | ×0,99 |
The first wall is the tier where the furnace enters the recipe: the price of one power point is multiplied by twelve at once. The second is at tier 7, ×2,70. Past the last wall, everything flattens out. The last tier is even the only one in the game cheaper per point than the one below it.
What that means in practice: Cobalt Pickaxe → Steel Pickaxe, and the price of every point gained is multiplied by 2,7. If you have to skip one tier in a progression, that is the one to prepare for, not one of the last four, which all cost about the same.
What the curve makes visible
The comparison that neither a single page nor a tier table can make on its own: power is not only bought by going up a tier.
Quality legendary, temper 10, maximum power modifier, power enchantment level 5. Net worth of the recipe: 5 070 000.
Crafted at crafting table, with no temper, rune or enchantment. Net worth of the recipe: 39 950 000.
131 % more power for one eighth of the value: a steel pickaxe pushed to the top of its progression beats a infernal pickaxe with no upgrade at all. The last five tiers therefore have only one real reason to exist: Ores, and they stop unlocking any at tier 10.
The seven tool families
Rings, Shields, Swords and Boots fall outside the tier logic: they take no temper, they take no rune, and there are not twelve of them.
The family page says so up front rather than letting you work out why >tools temper turns them down.