Pickaxes
| Pickaxes | |
|---|---|
| Type | Tool |
The Pickaxe is the tool that pays for the rest of them, because every bar the Blacksmith asks for starts as ore broken out of a rock. It comes in the starting backpack, and it is the only tool that can put tilled ground back the way it was. It also lifts placed machines, flooring and Sprinklers off the ground without destroying them, so it quietly doubles as the farm's moving van. Each tier at the Blacksmith reduces the hits a node takes, and the Steel Pickaxe is the first one that can clear the boulders sitting on the farm. By the iridium tier a rock in Skull Cavern falls in a single swing, which is what makes deep runs for Iridium Ore practical at all.
Use
Striking a rock in the Mines breaks it open and drops Stone, ore or a gem depending on what the node was. The starter Pickaxe needs two hits for the tougher rocks on the upper floors and three for a Copper Node, so the first levels of the Mines are slow going until copper arrives.
Lifting rather than breaking is the other half of the job. A tap of the Pickaxe picks up a Sprinkler, a floor tile or a piece of artisan equipment and puts it back in the bag intact. On a tile with something standing on flooring, the first hit takes the object and leaves the floor, which makes rearranging a shed far less painful than it sounds.
Un-tilling works the same way, in two stages. The first strike clears whatever crop is growing and leaves the soil and its fertiliser alone. A second strike on the bare soil turns it back into plain ground, and the fertiliser goes with it. That order is handy: a crop planted in the wrong spot can be pulled without wasting the Deluxe Fertiliser underneath.
Weeds, young plants and unwanted crops on the farm all come out under a Pickaxe swing. Monsters take a little damage from it too, which is enough to see off something small that gets in the way underground.
Mining level is what makes all of this cheap. Each level adds a point of Pickaxe proficiency, so the same descent through the Mines costs less and less stamina as the skill climbs.
Upgrades
The Blacksmith wants gold plus five bars at every rung, and the rungs run copper, iron, gold, iridium in that fixed order. The Pickaxe spends two mornings with Clint, which is a real inconvenience given how often rocks get in the way.
What each tier buys is best read as a list of places that open up. Copper clears the first forty floors of the Mines in single hits. Steel breaks the boulders on the farm, cracks the barrier that blocks the way to the Dwarf, and starts making Iron and Gold Nodes reasonable. Gold shatters a Meteorite on the farm and takes the deepest floors of the Mines in one hit each. Iridium flattens rocks in the Quarry Mine and Skull Cavern in a single swing and opens gem nodes just as fast, with Diamond Nodes the only ones that need two.
Several upgrade guides put the Pickaxe later in the queue than the Axe and Hoe, on the grounds that Bombs do the bulk clearing in the Mines anyway. The counterargument is the farm itself: the boulders sitting in the way of a planned layout need steel, and a Meteorite needs gold.
At the Forge, a Prismatic Shard and twenty Cinder Shards buy one random enchantment. Powerful adds a power level, which means a lower-tier Pickaxe hits like the next one up. Efficient wipes out the energy cost, turning a long Skull Cavern run into a question of time rather than stamina. Swift speeds the swing by a third, and over hundreds of rocks that adds up to real minutes saved.
Notes
The Pickaxe cannot be sold or binned. If it goes missing after a trip to the Mines ends badly, a basic one turns up the following morning next to the bed, in the refrigerator or in the Lost and Found box at the Mayor's Manor.
Ore in the Quarry grows back on its own, so a Steel Pickaxe and a short walk across the repaired bridge gives a steady trickle of metal without a trip underground.
Smelting is what links the Pickaxe to its own upgrades. Copper, Iron, Gold and Iridium Ore all go into a Furnace with Coal to become the bars Clint asks for, so the tool effectively upgrades itself out of what it digs.
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 | - | - |