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Wood, stone, copper, iron, gold, diamond, netherite, plus shears, swords and the bare hand.
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| Tool | Speed | Break time | Drops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loading... | |||
Minecraft never stores a break time directly. It works out how much progress you add per game tick: your tool's mining speed divided by the block's hardness, then divided by 30 if the tool is correct for drops or 100 if it is not. If that value reaches 1 the block breaks instantly. Otherwise the block takes ceil(1 / progress) ticks, and there are 20 ticks in a second.
The simple version most players know is break time = hardness x 1.5 seconds with the correct tool, or hardness x 5 seconds without it, divided by your tool's speed multiplier. A bare hand and a wrong-category tool use a multiplier of 1, while a correct-tier tool speeds things up: wood 2, stone 4, iron 6, diamond 8, netherite 9 and gold 12. Gold is the fastest tier of all, it just wears out almost immediately.
Because the final result is rounded up to a whole game tick, very fast mines snap to clean tick counts and anything that adds 1 or more progress per tick becomes an instamine (0 ticks). The calculator above shows the exact damage-per-tick math for whatever block and tool you pick, so you can see precisely where a block crosses into instant breaking.
| Tool tier | Speed multiplier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bare hand / wrong tool | 1 | No bonus, often no drops |
| Wooden | 2 | Lowest tier, low durability |
| Stone | 4 | Cheap upgrade over wood |
| Iron | 6 | Mines diamond and obsidian tier |
| Diamond | 8 | Fast, high durability |
| Netherite | 9 | Fastest durable tier |
| Gold | 12 | Fastest speed, worst durability |
One catch: using the wrong tool does not just remove the speed bonus. For blocks flagged as needing a correct tool, mining with the wrong tool also uses the slower divide-by-100 formula and yields no drops at all, so the block breaks but you get nothing. Iron ore mined with a wooden pickaxe is the classic example.
Once you have the base speed, four kinds of modifier change it. Efficiency adds level squared plus 1 to the speed, so Efficiency V adds 26, but only when the tool's base speed is already above 1, meaning it does nothing on blocks your tool cannot mine quickly. Haste from a beacon or conduit multiplies the speed by 1 plus 0.2 per level, so Haste II is a flat 40 percent boost. Together they are how players reach instamine on stone, ores and deepslate.
The penalties cut the other way. Mining Fatigue from an elder guardian uses hardcoded Java multipliers of 0.3, 0.09, 0.0027 and 0.00081 for levels I to IV, which makes mining feel almost frozen. Mining underwater without the Aqua Affinity helmet enchantment divides your speed by 5, and being off the ground(jumping, flying or swimming) divides it by 5 again. Stack both and you mine 25 times slower, which is exactly why underwater builders put Aqua Affinity on their helmet and stand on a block.
| Block | Hardness | Hand (s) | Wood pickaxe (s) | Diamond pickaxe (s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dirt / Sand | 0.5 | 0.75 | 0.4 | 0.1 |
| Stone | 1.5 | 2.25 | 1.15 | 0.25 |
| Oak Log | 2 | 3 | 1.5 | 0.4 |
| Iron Ore | 3 | 4.5 | 2.25 | 0.6 |
| Deepslate | 3 | 4.5 | 2.25 | 0.6 |
| Obsidian | 50 | 250 | n/a | 9.4 |
These times assume a correct, unenchanted tool with no modifiers. Obsidian needs a diamond or netherite pickaxe to break at a sensible speed, so a wooden pickaxe is marked n/a: it would technically chip away over more than four minutes and still drop nothing. Use the calculator to layer Efficiency, Haste and the environment penalties onto any of these and read off the exact result.
Minecraft works out a damage-per-tick value, not a time. It takes your tool's mining speed against the block, divides by the block's hardness, then divides by 30 if your tool is correct for drops or 100 if it is not. If that value is 1 or more the block breaks instantly. Otherwise the number of game ticks to break it is ceil(1 / damage), and seconds are ticks divided by 20.
A correct tier tool against a block in its mining category has a base mining speed of 2 for wood, 4 for stone, 6 for iron, 8 for diamond, 9 for netherite and 12 for gold. Gold is the fastest tier but has the worst durability. The bare hand and a wrong-category tool use a speed of 1.
Yes. Efficiency adds level squared plus 1 to your tool's mining speed, but only when the tool's base speed is already above 1 (so it does nothing on blocks the tool cannot mine faster than your hand). Haste then multiplies the whole speed by 1 plus 0.2 per level. Running both together is how players reach instamine on stone and ores.
If your eyes are underwater and you do not have the Aqua Affinity enchantment on your helmet, your mining speed is divided by 5. Being off the ground (jumping, flying or swimming) divides it by another 5. Stacking both penalties makes you mine 25 times slower, which is why Aqua Affinity and standing on a block matter underwater.
Stone has a hardness of 1.5, so the base break time with a correct tool is 1.5 times 1.5 = 2.25 seconds (45 ticks) by hand. With a diamond pickaxe (speed 8) it is about 0.25 seconds (5 ticks), and a wooden pickaxe (speed 2) takes about 1.15 seconds (23 ticks). Add Efficiency and Haste to push stone into instamine territory.
Obsidian has a hardness of 50 and requires a diamond or netherite pickaxe to drop anything. A wooden pickaxe is not the correct tool, so the game uses the slower divide-by-100 formula and the block yields no drops. Only a diamond pickaxe (about 9.4 seconds) or netherite pickaxe (about 8.35 seconds) mines and drops it in a reasonable time.
Planning your enchantments? Or browse more Minecraft tools:
