Axes
| Axes | |
|---|---|
| Type | Tool |
The Axe sits in the starting backpack and turns the valley's trees into Wood and Sap. Robin asks for Wood for every building she puts up, and most crafting recipes want it too, so the Axe rarely leaves the hotbar. Upgrading it at the Blacksmith cuts the swings needed per tree and unlocks the Large Stumps and Large Logs that drop Hardwood instead of ordinary Wood. The Steel Axe clears the fallen log on the mountain road and opens the way into the Secret Woods. An Axe is also the only tool that harvests a Giant Crop, so a merged block of Cauliflower, Melon or Pumpkin waits until one is in hand.
Use
Swinging the Axe at a fully grown tree brings it down after ten hits with the starter version. Wood drops as the trunk falls, and Sap comes with it. Chopping the stump that remains, or a branch that blew onto the farm overnight, adds more Wood to the pile. A grown tree can carry a Tapper instead, so many farms keep a ring of trees standing and clear the rest.
The Axe doubles as a clearing tool. It removes placed equipment, unwanted crops and small plants from the farm in a single swing. That is quick for tidying up a corner of the farm, and it is easy to wipe out a row of Kegs by accident.
Hardwood comes only from the heavy timber. Large Stumps and Large Logs sit in the Secret Woods, on the Forest Farm map and in odd corners of the valley, and each one yields Hardwood. Hardwood goes into the Tapper, the Cask and most of the better crafting recipes, which is why the hit counts in the upgrade table matter more than they look.
Each Foraging level adds a point of Axe proficiency, and proficiency is the energy a swing costs. A morning of felling trees drains far less stamina late in a save than it does in the first spring.
Monsters take a small amount of damage from an Axe. That is enough for a slime that wanders onto the farm, though a proper weapon is the better answer in the Mines.
Upgrades
Clint does the work at the Blacksmith, and each step wants five bars of a single metal alongside the gold. Copper Bars come first, then Iron Bars, then Gold Bars, then Iridium Bars. The ladder has to be climbed in order, so a Copper Axe cannot be taken straight to iridium.
Handing the Axe over costs two mornings. It can be used during the day and dropped off before the shop shuts, the next day starts without it, and on the following day it has to be collected in person. Clint keeps selling ore and breaking open geodes while the work is underway.
The Copper Axe is the step that changes the early game. Trees fall in eight hits rather than ten, and Large Stumps become choppable, which is the first steady supply of Hardwood on most farms. The Steel Axe reaches Large Logs and the blocked path to the Secret Woods, so it tends to be the upgrade people save hardest for. The Gold Axe halves the work again, and the Iridium Axe drops a grown tree in two swings and a small stump in one.
The Axe is a common choice for the first tool upgrade of a save, because wood demand never stops and every later building depends on it.
The Forge on the tenth floor of the Volcano Dungeon adds one random enchantment for a Prismatic Shard and twenty Cinder Shards. Powerful raises the Axe by two power levels, which means an enchanted starter Axe can clear Large Stumps and Large Logs that it could not otherwise touch. Shaving adds three extra Wood from Oak, Maple, Pine and Palm Trees, Hardwood from a Mahogany Tree, and a Red Mushroom from a Mushroom Tree. Efficient takes the energy drain away entirely, and Swift makes the swing a third faster. A tool holds one enchantment at a time, an upgrade keeps whatever is already on it, and a fresh roll at the same price replaces a result that was not wanted.
Notes
The Axe cannot be thrown away or dropped, which protects it from a tidy-up gone wrong. Losing it in the Mines is still possible after a knockout. A plain replacement turns up the next day beside the bed, in the refrigerator of an upgraded farmhouse, or in the Lost and Found box at the Mayor's Manor, and Mayor Lewis sometimes posts a letter about it.
Giant Crops form when a three by three block of the same fully grown, watered crop merges overnight. Breaking one open with an Axe gives roughly double the harvest of the plants it swallowed, so the Axe belongs on the hotbar on harvest mornings as well as in the woods.
The Shaving enchantment also adds a chance of extra Hardwood from stumps and extra produce from Giant Crops, which stacks neatly with a farm that grows the same crop in wide blocks.
All Tools
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
| Name | Image | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Iridium Rod | 
|
25000g |
| Auto-Grabber | 
|
25000g |
| Auto-Petter | 
|
50000g |
| Axes | - | - |
| Bamboo Pole | 
|
500g |
| Fiberglass Rod | 
|
1800g |
| Golden Scythe | 
|
- |
| Hay Hopper | 
|
- |
| Heater | 
|
2000g |
| Hoes | - | - |
| Incubator | 
|
- |
| Iridium Rod | 
|
7500g |
| Iridium Scythe | 
|
- |
| Milk Pail | 
|
1000g |
| Pans | - | - |
| Pickaxes | - | - |
| Scythe | 
|
- |
| Shears | 
|
1000g |
| Training Rod | 
|
25g |
| Trash Cans | - | - |
| Watering Cans | - | - |