Have tested and confirmed wooden is sufficient, even with zombies.
Axe is best and that is facts
except in bedrock edition, where the axe has zero benefit in combat situations.
I do believe the axe should have the greatest attack damage if it's slower to wield, and it having armour penetration would make sense, because not even the best of body armour is enough to prevent an axe from doing serious damage to it. It may prevent a stab wound, but it most definitely won't stop a good swing from a heavy weapon from going through. This mechanic would also make Piglin brutes more challenging to fight, and Vindicators.
except in bedrock edition, where the axe has zero benefit in combat situations.
I do believe the axe should have the greatest attack damage if it's slower to wield, and it having armour penetration would make sense, because not even the best of body armour is enough to prevent an axe from doing serious damage to it. It may prevent a stab wound, but it most definitely won't stop a good swing from a heavy weapon from going through. This mechanic would also make Piglin brutes more challenging to fight, and Vindicators.
Yeah the axe is yikes, but iirc axe-wielding enemies do a lot of damage as is compared to sword users, plus they can disable shields for a few seconds.
Yeah the axe is yikes, but iirc axe-wielding enemies do a lot of damage as is compared to sword users, plus they can disable shields for a few seconds.
Yeah that sounds like a very fun combat feature, in this case I would enjoy its implementation if put in bedrock edition. It is a controversial change I admit, but a needed one, because it makes combat less dull and forces players to think more carefully about their weapon setups.
There is already a small amount of strategy involved in the old combat system as we've discussed earlier. Close range weapons like in the poll don't work in every situation, neither the sword nor the axe are effective against Ghast, and that fact is indisputable, you have to use the bow or trident, or else you'll probably either die or at the very least you'll be wasting time. The sword definitely wouldn't work against Ender Dragon unless on ground level.
No one complains about this, so why should they complain about axes being able to do more damage than the sword? I have no problem, just as long as the sword the lighter weapon, has one advantage the axe doesn't, and that's having a reduced cool-down, so can be used to hit enemies in succession and at the weapons maximum power, at a faster rate, this gives players an option to deal with fast moving or attacking enemies, such as the baby zombie or Wither skeleton, because clearly, you can't rely on raw power alone if you're too slow to hit your enemy enough times.
If players don't like the enormous damage dealt to them by the axe, they then need to learn to anticipate it and avoid it.
Knockback on swords can help keep Piglin Brutes and Vindicators out of harms way long enough for you to take another max power swing before they do, speaking of axes and swords, a more strict enchantment limit could be done on both in my opinion, no more than 3 or 4 enchantments per weapon if they want unlimited repairs, this would force players to specialize weapons, not rely on one single overpowered weapon to slaughter most enemies. Think of it like elemental types like in Pokemon or Borderlands 2, no one type of weapon or attack is good at every job, and that's a good nerf the game needs, it may receive some backslash, but in the long term it is something most people can adapt to and get good at even if casual. There are much more harsh and punishing ways to add difficulty to a game than this, such as the removal of enchantments.
Small update on my position - if I were to pick to use 1 weapon only and had to have my offhand busy with something else (ex. when using some specific data packs), I use sword since it swings more often and can keep my distance from melee attackers much better - especially with knockback enchantment involved. When fighting ranged attackers I can close in and dish out maximum DPM before I take too many arrows.
If I could have my shield in my offhand like I mostly do, I'd use axe because the shield keeps me safe from both melee and ranged attackers and higher alpha damage allows me to keep myself safe with shield for a longer time - plus it's completely viable weapon without using up exp or lapis so it saves me resources I hoard.
Exception to those situations are pre-enchantment tool tier - where axe reigns supreme even without shield involved - because stone axe is more damaging than stone sword and about as apt as (at that point needlessly expensive) unenchanted iron sword at light combat against individual mobs when I'm still gathering simple resources.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Dwarf gamer found:
Buildings - square, not round
Materials - from rubble mound
Dark caves - lit 'n' cleaned out
Settlements - deep underground
Farmability - to grinder bound
Shields - made creepers but sound
Axes and crossbows - taking mobs out
Good luck on maintaining them though, or having them break in the middle of a fight or caving expedition; if I used unenchanted iron swords in my first world I'd have gone though more than 2,600 so far, and that doesn't even consider the fact that you need to use them more often (in 1.6.4 a Sharpness V diamond sword deals 14.25 damage, killing even Endermen in 3 hits and most other mobs in 2; even just 1 critical hit for spiders. For comparison, an iron sword deals 7 damage, just half as much, and requires 3 hits against zombies, which make up half the mobs I kill):
Also, imagine mining more than 4.4 million blocks with unenchanted iron tools... that would require 17,683 iron pickaxes; in fact, I'd go through more than a dozen every day. Just plain rubbish (I do use iron pickaxes taken from minecarts for digging railways and secondary bases so all the uses of my diamond pickaxe represent caving; I also do enchant these at level 1 and gradually combine them to as high as Efficiency V and Unbreaking III but the overall usage is very low, a few thousand blocks/several maxed items every couple months and the incremental cost is negligible, as opposed to if I applied high-level enchantments to regularly-used iron gear. The repair system in 1.6.4 also means it would take more XP and anvils to maintain my gear (anvils are my only major use of iron post early-game; I've crafted 116 so far, which needs less iron than 2,600 swords, much less 17,683 pickaxes).
And diamonds?
The screenshot above is about a year out-of-date (I took it after I'd accumulated a chest's worth of diamond blocks) - I've since made even more - over 2,000 blocks or 18,000 diamonds (which isn't even that much compared to the total resources I've collected, more than 3.5 million, not including all the coal I used to make torches and smelt items):
I didn't even use Fortune to mine most of that - this is why (presumably) Mojang made ores much rarer in 1.18 - I regularly mine more than 3,000 ores per play session, if only 15 diamonds (which says more about the sheer amount of time I've spent in this one world). Actually, I don't even use mined diamonds in this world anymore - I trade for all the items I need to repair my gear (in 1.6.4 you must repair items in the anvil while since 1.9 you can just put Mending on an item and repair it with only XP).
In my modded worlds I go even further, using an extremely rare, even for my playstyle, resource which replaces diamond as the best material - it is about 8 times rarer than diamond while caving and just common enough to meet my needs without using Fortune (which I do use when collecting what I need to make my gear), in my last world I accumulated less than a full stack over more than 7 months of daily playing spent caving - and I would never settle for anything less (diamond gear itself was nerfed in protection/damage/speed so it is basically iron with more durability; of course, iron itself was also nerfed, not unlike how Mojang nerfed armor and weapons in 1.9 - there are people who claim that Netherite is just so overpowered yet it is actually worse than diamond used to be (attacks now penetrate armor, reducing its defense more as damage increases, Netherite has more "armor toughness" but even a 5 damage attack, which reduces defense from 80% to 76%, still amounts to 20% more damage taken), and a Sharpness V Netherite sword deals 11 damage - less than a Sharpness V wooden sword in 1.6.4!).
Diamond deals much higher damage, and that's quite important considering how swords rely on DPM.
If you want a weapon almost the same performance regardless of material used and limited reliance on enchantments go axes&shields.
Stone axe hits just as hard as a diamond one.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Dwarf gamer found:
Buildings - square, not round
Materials - from rubble mound
Dark caves - lit 'n' cleaned out
Settlements - deep underground
Farmability - to grinder bound
Shields - made creepers but sound
Axes and crossbows - taking mobs out
Diamond deals much higher damage, and that's quite important considering how swords rely on DPM.
If you want a weapon almost the same performance regardless of material used and limited reliance on enchantments go axes&shields.
Stone axe hits just as hard as a diamond one.
But that damage is only really useful against situations like the Wither boss or other players, and in the case of the Wither, with Smite V enchantment. Iron Swords will do for almost every other case. It is true that Iron gear has low durability, but with mending and unbreaking III, it no longer matters.
in fact having items with lots of durability take a longer time to repair. It isn't an issue with swords or axes for obvious reasons, because the XP orbs drop immediately upon killing an enemy which is all that's required for mending to work.
But unless you're mining ores with a non silk touch pickaxe, the pickaxes will wear down, so netherite pickaxes are a lot of upkeep as I've already experienced. I literally have to rely on mob kills to keep it maintained in this case.
I can imagine how annoying it would become if mending were to receive a severe nerf where it would affect axes and swords. And judging by how obsessed Mojang have become with nerfing things in the game, as opposed to actually adding in newer and better features, it does appear likely that mending as well as the enchantment system will be on the chopping block soon, TMC did mention armour had already been nerfed since the earlier versions.
Good luck on maintaining them though, or having them break in the middle of a fight or caving expedition; if I used unenchanted iron swords in my first world I'd have gone though more than 2,600 so far, and that doesn't even consider the fact that you need to use them more often (in 1.6.4 a Sharpness V diamond sword deals 14.25 damage, killing even Endermen in 3 hits and most other mobs in 2; even just 1 critical hit for spiders. For comparison, an iron sword deals 7 damage, just half as much, and requires 3 hits against zombies, which make up half the mobs I kill):
Also, imagine mining more than 4.4 million blocks with unenchanted iron tools... that would require 17,683 iron pickaxes; in fact, I'd go through more than a dozen every day. Just plain rubbish (I do use iron pickaxes taken from minecarts for digging railways and secondary bases so all the uses of my diamond pickaxe represent caving; I also do enchant these at level 1 and gradually combine them to as high as Efficiency V and Unbreaking III but the overall usage is very low, a few thousand blocks/several maxed items every couple months and the incremental cost is negligible, as opposed to if I applied high-level enchantments to regularly-used iron gear. The repair system in 1.6.4 also means it would take more XP and anvils to maintain my gear (anvils are my only major use of iron post early-game; I've crafted 116 so far, which needs less iron than 2,600 swords, much less 17,683 pickaxes).
And diamonds?
The screenshot above is about a year out-of-date (I took it after I'd accumulated a chest's worth of diamond blocks) - I've since made even more - over 2,000 blocks or 18,000 diamonds (which isn't even that much compared to the total resources I've collected, more than 3.5 million, not including all the coal I used to make torches and smelt items):
I didn't even use Fortune to mine most of that - this is why (presumably) Mojang made ores much rarer in 1.18 - I regularly mine more than 3,000 ores per play session, if only 15 diamonds (which says more about the sheer amount of time I've spent in this one world). Actually, I don't even use mined diamonds in this world anymore - I trade for all the items I need to repair my gear (in 1.6.4 you must repair items in the anvil while since 1.9 you can just put Mending on an item and repair it with only XP).
In my modded worlds I go even further, using an extremely rare, even for my playstyle, resource which replaces diamond as the best material - it is about 8 times rarer than diamond while caving and just common enough to meet my needs without using Fortune (which I do use when collecting what I need to make my gear), in my last world I accumulated less than a full stack over more than 7 months of daily playing spent caving - and I would never settle for anything less (diamond gear itself was nerfed in protection/damage/speed so it is basically iron with more durability; of course, iron itself was also nerfed, not unlike how Mojang nerfed armor and weapons in 1.9 - there are people who claim that Netherite is just so overpowered yet it is actually worse than diamond used to be (attacks now penetrate armor, reducing its defense more as damage increases, Netherite has more "armor toughness" but even a 5 damage attack, which reduces defense from 80% to 76%, still amounts to 20% more damage taken), and a Sharpness V Netherite sword deals 11 damage - less than a Sharpness V wooden sword in 1.6.4!).
Yes, exactly, ores are harder to find now in 1.18 and it has been tested, if you were playing the more recent versions you'd know. The game is progressively becoming more grindy without features to justify it. Isn't it bad enough that deepslate takes longer to mine than stone? Mojang clearly weren't satisfied with that even though some of us would consider that fact alone to be a considerable nerf to strip or branch mining, they doubled down and also made ores themselves more difficult to find, meaning it can easily take a multiple real life hours mining session before you find enough Iron and diamonds for the gear you use, if you're unlucky, it could even take an entire day before you find all the diamonds you'd need, and even then you still need lapis lazuli before you can use the enchantment table.
It's actually worse that Iron is more difficult to find than it used to be because that is the third strongest tool and armour material, and is needed for more than just armour, tools and anvils. It's also needed for making beacons, iron bars, iron doors, regular rails, mine carts, cauldrons and so on.
This is not a good way to encourage people to mine and earn items legitimately instead of cheating or exploiting controversial mechanics like Iron Golem farms. Mojang is actually discouraging people from going on an adventure by doing this.
And I don't like being forced to remain on Iron tools if I don't have to, for the simple reason that their durability quite frankly sucks, as you alluded to by saying imagine having to use them unenchanted. 250 durability points tool makes them borderline useless for large build projects like mine which is why I have to have diamond or netherite for them and so does a friend who frequents my server. Unfortunately this also means we have to use Drowned Zombies or some other XP farming method to maintain them, but it's better than the alternative of relying on weak and crappy tools that can't even survive enough of a beating to fill up a single chest or barrel without enchantments on them.
There is a lot of bad design choices in this game, and I doubt Mojang will ever listen to my suggestion of adding steel as a compromise
to encourage players to consider Iron as a tool resource late game.
There is still a slight increase in axe strength over material, but the change is more gradual and critical hits make up for the difference. Axes it is.
There is still a slight increase in axe strength over material, but the change is more gradual and critical hits make up for the difference. Axes it is.
I'd have to carry an axe around more often when this update comes to bedrock edition. However I don't mind because I like using axes with Silk Touch, saves me having to carry around shears when I am not getting wool or making jack o lanterns. I can keep the axe as a multi purpose tool for gardening and defending myself against hostile mobs. Smite V would probably be the most useful for the axe, to quickly deal with Wither skeletons.
I'd have to carry an axe around more often when this update comes to bedrock edition. However I don't mind because I like using axes with Silk Touch, saves me having to carry around shears when I am not getting wool or making jack o lanterns. I can keep the axe as a multi purpose tool for gardening and defending myself against hostile mobs. Smite V would probably be the most useful for the axe, to quickly deal with Wither skeletons.
I still see little reason to ever use an axe for combat (even for unenchanted stone tools; a stone axe deals 9 damage while a stone sword deals 5; a zombie requires 3 hits with an axe and 5 with a sword (4 for skeletons and creepers) but the sword attacks twice as fast; 1.25 * 3 = 3.75 seconds for the axe and 0.625 * 5 = 3.125 seconds for the sword); a Sharpness V Netherite sword deals 11 damage, killing most mobs in two hits - unless you are dealing 20+ damage there will be no difference, and only to undead mobs, even if they are the most commonly encountered mobs - but I'd very much rather have higher general damage without having to deal crits, faster attacks (this is why TMCW does not have a general cooldown, only a "spam clicking penalty") as well as Knockback (apparently, they do plan to allow axes to receive sword-exclusive enchantments), and axes lose two points of durability per hit (maybe not so much of an issue with Mending and a playstyle like mine but you said that "we have to use Drowned Zombies or some other XP farming method to maintain them". Also, going back to the stone tools, the sword would still last longer as it takes 5 durability vs 6 for an axe).
The best use case of an axe would be passive mob farming as they do not have a sweep attack (currently on Java Edition only, but if they plan to add it to Bedrock then it will also be an issue there), which will otherwise damage nearby mobs, including babies, and cause them to panic or eventually die (without Sweeping Edge each indirect hit deals 1 damage, or 4 to kill a chicken. This can be very useful though against a large group of mobs as only (health) hits, much less with Sweeping Edge, can kill dozens of mobs). Likewise, axes are safer to use around "neutral" mobs (e.g. zombie pigmen) as a sweep attack might accidentally hit them (IMO, sweep attacks should require Sweeping Edge, not come by default, and is the biggest drawback of using a sword).
I still see little reason to ever use an axe for combat (even for unenchanted stone tools; a stone axe deals 9 damage while a stone sword deals 5; a zombie requires 3 hits with an axe and 5 with a sword (4 for skeletons and creepers) but the sword attacks twice as fast; 1.25 * 3 = 3.75 seconds for the axe and 0.625 * 5 = 3.125 seconds for the sword); a Sharpness V Netherite sword deals 11 damage, killing most mobs in two hits - unless you are dealing 20+ damage there will be no difference
Swords rely on attack speed to out-DPM axes; if one is a heavy shield user with clumsy reflexes like I am then axe has a benefit of exposing the player less - two slashes from a stone sword may deal a bit more damage than one chop from stone axe, but I am not shielded for twice as long with a sword.
Creepers due to their explosive nature also are better off to hit and run rather than try to DPM, and axe can bring one down with just 2 chops as long as the second chop is critical.
More strikes means more knockback that can slow down killing certain mobs because they have to reapproach you more times as well.
Also, higher alpha damage means more shock factor - while theoretically a critical stone sword has better DPM than critical axe, time it takes to kill an average 20 HP mob is equal - sword needs second blow after 625ms and a third finishing one after 1250ms, while the axe can finish only after 1250ms with second blow - or it's even longer for sword because you don't have perfect timing and because of tendency to knock the mob back.
Axe, due to lack of sweeping strike is much safer to operate within villages, and combined with high alpha, can be also used to dispose silverfish without triggering the rest to jump you.
Regarding high enchantment levels, extra alpha damage on netherite gear allows you to one-shot a wider variety of enemies when you're drugged with strength potions - Critical sharpness V netherite axe on strength II is the only combo that allows the player to annihilate pillagers, vindicators and evokers that have 24 HP with a single strike, and netherite sword needs Strength II to do the same with common 20 HP zombies, creepers or skeletons - while axe can do the same just on strength I, which in potion form can last four times as long, and in beacon form has its base material prerequisite roughly cut in half.
Dwarf gamer found:
Buildings - square, not round
Materials - from rubble mound
Dark caves - lit 'n' cleaned out
Settlements - deep underground
Farmability - to grinder bound
Shields - made creepers but sound
Axes and crossbows - taking mobs out
But that damage is only really useful against situations like the Wither boss or other players, and in the case of the Wither, with Smite V enchantment. Iron Swords will do for almost every other case. It is true that Iron gear has low durability, but with mending and unbreaking III, it no longer matters.
in fact having items with lots of durability take a longer time to repair. It isn't an issue with swords or axes for obvious reasons, because the XP orbs drop immediately upon killing an enemy which is all that's required for mending to work.
So, I did sword testing on spiders, skeletons, zombies and hoglins, plus some extra on vindicator and cave spider (Fe/C - iron/diamond, number - sharpness level, sweep - not crit, crit-crit)
For Fe0 and C0 difference is big, but if you get a sword you most likely can enchant it too, so I'll skip that entirely.
From enchanted swords, only Fe1 can't 2-crit a skele with crits and Only C5 can 3-crit a hoglin, while all other have to 4-crit it, and only one to 4-sweep it, while all C' and Fe3> have to 5-sweep. C5 is also the only one to 2-sweep a skeleton.
Fe5 and C2 are also the level from which you can start 1-critting cave spiders and 2-critting vindis.
Wanna it as Libreoffice calc file?
Additionally, all the C' have an edge in getting better enchantments via enchantment table, and can be further upgraded with netherite, which has further improved damage and is completely impervious to lava.
Also, at least in my inventories there are barely any mending tools, those are quite hard to get by, and at least in my case it's more common to grab enough diamonds to use a carbon weapon, and durability of what I have matters quite a good bit. Alternatively I just use iron weaponry which gets damaged and I either repair with another model of one or just grind it down and enchant a completely new one.
Or, most commonly, I keep on brawling with a stone axe that I can craft in dozens with zero experience useup and adopt a more defensive stance with fortifications, ranged weapons and my trusty shield.
I can imagine how annoying it would become if mending were to receive a severe nerf where it would affect axes and swords. And judging by how obsessed Mojang have become with nerfing things in the game, as opposed to actually adding in newer and better features, it does appear likely that mending as well as the enchantment system will be on the chopping block soon, TMC did mention armour had already been nerfed since the earlier versions.
But unless you're mining ores with a non silk touch pickaxe, the pickaxes will wear down, so netherite pickaxes are a lot of upkeep as I've already experienced. I literally have to rely on mob kills to keep it maintained in this case.
And I don't like being forced to remain on Iron tools if I don't have to, for the simple reason that their durability quite frankly sucks, as you alluded to by saying imagine having to use them unenchanted. 250 durability points tool makes them borderline useless for large build projects like mine which is why I have to have diamond or netherite for them and so does a friend who frequents my server. Unfortunately this also means we have to use Drowned Zombies or some other XP farming method to maintain them, but it's better than the alternative of relying on weak and crappy tools that can't even survive enough of a beating to fill up a single chest or barrel without enchantments on them.
Hah, lad, you missed a very handy lifehack here!
Smelt a lot of cacti in furnaces, and pick green dye up when your mending tool is damaged.
That specific plant when smelted gives a TRAINLOAD of experience - on Java at least - and the pickups from smelting can pass on the tool you currently hold in your main hand or offhand even if it's not directly related to the furnace in any way, it only matters you are holding it and you get some form of exp.
Hell, if you'd want to do it a lot you could even connect the furnaces to cactus and bamboo automatic farms to always have the dye lying in wait in furnaces.
Just two things - if you want to smelt for exp, smokers and blast furnaces will cut your exp gains per item in half, and using hoppers to suck the items up will make the furnace accumulate the experience until somebody manually removes a sample of product from the output slot, realistically only after disabling the hopper that collects the product.
Dwarf gamer found:
Buildings - square, not round
Materials - from rubble mound
Dark caves - lit 'n' cleaned out
Settlements - deep underground
Farmability - to grinder bound
Shields - made creepers but sound
Axes and crossbows - taking mobs out
You'd also still need a lot - 780 to fully repair a diamond tool, more for Netherite and any other items that are being repaired at the same time (total XP = total durability restored / 2), and in any case I never want to have to rely on XP farms to maintain my gear - my playstyle gives me more XP than I can ever use, even in my modded worlds (TMCW's amethyst items cost up to 49 levels to repair), and even in vanilla 1.6.4 many items cost more to repair (e.g. 33 levels for a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V and Unbreaking III; 1.6.4 has a lower leveling-up curve than 1.8+ but it still requires 1032 XP to reach level 33; this can be reduced to 31 levels, or 887 XP if you take advantage of the 12% durability bonus (the repair cost is based on the durability of the sacrifice and ranges from 1-17 for diamond tools), but that is still higher, and if you add Fortune III you can now only repair it 25% at a time (one diamond) for 37 levels or 1406 XP each - that's 5624 XP for a full repair, or over 7 times the cost of the same item with Mending in 1.9+ Even then, I once used such a pickaxe as my only mining tool while caving and gained enough XP from natural sources to repair it and everything else).
So, I did sword testing on spiders, skeletons, zombies and hoglins, plus some extra on vindicator and cave spider (Fe/C - iron/diamond, number - sharpness level, sweep - not crit, crit-crit)
For Fe0 and C0 difference is big, but if you get a sword you most likely can enchant it too, so I'll skip that entirely.
From enchanted swords, only Fe1 can't 2-crit a skele with crits and Only C5 can 3-crit a hoglin, while all other have to 4-crit it, and only one to 4-sweep it, while all C' and Fe3> have to 5-sweep. C5 is also the only one to 2-sweep a skeleton.
Fe5 and C2 are also the level from which you can start 1-critting cave spiders and 2-critting vindis.
Wanna it as Libreoffice calc file?
Additionally, all the C' have an edge in getting better enchantments via enchantment table, and can be further upgraded with netherite, which has further improved damage and is completely impervious to lava.
Also, at least in my inventories there are barely any mending tools, those are quite hard to get by, and at least in my case it's more common to grab enough diamonds to use a carbon weapon, and durability of what I have matters quite a good bit. Alternatively I just use iron weaponry which gets damaged and I either repair with another model of one or just grind it down and enchant a completely new one.
Or, most commonly, I keep on brawling with a stone axe that I can craft in dozens with zero experience useup and adopt a more defensive stance with fortifications, ranged weapons and my trusty shield.
Hah, lad, you missed a very handy lifehack here!
Smelt a lot of cacti in furnaces, and pick green dye up when your mending tool is damaged.
That specific plant when smelted gives a TRAINLOAD of experience - on Java at least - and the pickups from smelting can pass on the tool you currently hold in your main hand or offhand even if it's not directly related to the furnace in any way, it only matters you are holding it and you get some form of exp.
Hell, if you'd want to do it a lot you could even connect the furnaces to cactus and bamboo automatic farms to always have the dye lying in wait in furnaces.
Just two things - if you want to smelt for exp, smokers and blast furnaces will cut your exp gains per item in half, and using hoppers to suck the items up will make the furnace accumulate the experience until somebody manually removes a sample of product from the output slot, realistically only after disabling the hopper that collects the product.
It's only hard to get mending if you fish for them, if you have a villager trade system and a farm handy then it's no longer a big problem.
My problem this is that there is no alternative to indefinitely repair equipment, if you try to do this with the anvil you'll eventually run into the "too expensive" nonsense due to prior work penalty, it doesn't matter if your items have only 1 or 7 enchantments, all are affected, so if you don't want your prized possession to be lost forever because of a thing called entropy, you're forced to use mending.
You can combine two non enchanted tools or weapons and get a full repair, but I find this to be annoying because non enchanted tools don't last very long anyhow. I like having tools that actually let me get my work done, instead of having to repeatedly backtrack to maintain them so mending has become essential for my playstyle.
Iron tools suck in this game, in late game I wouldn't even consider using a non enchanted Iron tool unless it was something like shears, because you can't make a diamond or netherite set of shears you have no other option but to use them.
It's not so much having to craft additional tools that bothers me, it's when you have to do it too often then it takes the fun out of the game because it gets in the way of what you would like to do with that extra time. I suppose for a survival player who isn't fussed with this or doesn't do a lot of large scale build projects, it wouldn't bother them, but I and friends who play on my world intend on building a city. I decided to make a bedrock 1.18 server for friends to play on after some careful consideration, the 320 Y build height and extra terrain depth could prove useful later on, and we wouldn't want to miss out on the 1.19 Wild update which is going to add extra animals and mangrove trees, another plant type, so for the time being despite the horrible ore generation in 1.18 I've chosen to suck it up for the time being, perhaps Mojang would fix the issue, perhaps they won't, but it's not like for now we don't have enchantments to keep our tools maintained and useful.
Adding in the combat mechanics Java already has into bedrock edition would be very nice though, it would make axes more useful and the combat system more rewarding.
My problem this is that there is no alternative to indefinitely repair equipment, if you try to do this with the anvil you'll eventually run into the "too expensive" nonsense due to prior work penalty, it doesn't matter if your items have only 1 or 7 enchantments, all are affected, so if you don't want your prized possession to be lost forever because of a thing called entropy, you're forced to use mending.
You can combine two non enchanted tools or weapons and get a full repair, but I find this to be annoying because non enchanted tools don't last very long anyhow. I like having tools that actually let me get my work done, instead of having to repeatedly backtrack to maintain them so mending has become essential for my playstyle.
Iron tools suck in this game, in late game I wouldn't even consider using a non enchanted Iron tool unless it was something like shears, because you can't make a diamond or netherite set of shears you have no other option but to use them.
It's not so much having to craft additional tools that bothers me, it's when you have to do it too often then it takes the fun out of the game because it gets in the way of what you would like to do with that extra time. I suppose for a survival player who isn't fussed with this or doesn't do a lot of large scale build projects, it wouldn't bother them, but I and friends who play on my world intend on building a city. I decided to make a bedrock 1.18 server for friends to play on after some careful consideration, the 320 Y build height and extra terrain depth could prove useful later on, and we wouldn't want to miss out on the 1.19 Wild update which is going to add extra animals and mangrove trees, another plant type, so for the time being despite the horrible ore generation in 1.18 I've chosen to suck it up for the time being, perhaps Mojang would fix the issue, perhaps they won't, but it's not like for now we don't have enchantments to keep our tools maintained and useful.
You mean, like, you don't want to have to return to your permanent base of operations very often and just have tools that could theoretically last indefinite amount of time in the field, or just not have to either fight RNG much or use exp grinders to recraft the same tool?
Judging that you want steel not to be indestructible I guess it's the latter, and in case of that one I'd like to ask a question - how would getting villager blacksmiths to mass produce the tool you consider appropriately enchanted for your needs suit you?
You don't need to maintain the same tool indefinitely when you can just repair it once or twice on anvil, then break it down to experience and materials and buy an identical copy for emeralds.
Hell, you can buy them in batches and return to the base only once the whole set is falling apart.
Also, how does carrying a stack of logs and cobblestone and just plopping down a crafting bench and making a new tool or a batch on the spot suit you? To me it's, like, a dozen seconds of intermission, and stone tools are already more time-consuming to use even disregarding their inferior durability enough to be in larger part listening to a podcast or having a chat than playing MC when doing some bulk labor with those.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Dwarf gamer found:
Buildings - square, not round
Materials - from rubble mound
Dark caves - lit 'n' cleaned out
Settlements - deep underground
Farmability - to grinder bound
Shields - made creepers but sound
Axes and crossbows - taking mobs out
You mean, like, you don't want to have to return to your permanent base of operations very often and just have tools that could theoretically last indefinite amount of time in the field, or just not have to either fight RNG much or use exp grinders to recraft the same tool?
Judging that you want steel not to be indestructible I guess it's the latter, and in case of that one I'd like to ask a question - how would getting villager blacksmiths to mass produce the tool you consider appropriately enchanted for your needs suit you?
You don't need to maintain the same tool indefinitely when you can just repair it once or twice on anvil, then break it down to experience and materials and buy an identical copy for emeralds.
Hell, you can buy them in batches and return to the base only once the whole set is falling apart.
Also, how does carrying a stack of logs and cobblestone and just plopping down a crafting bench and making a new tool or a batch on the spot suit you? To me it's, like, a dozen seconds of intermission, and stone tools are already more time-consuming to use even disregarding their inferior durability enough to be in larger part listening to a podcast or having a chat than playing MC when doing some bulk labor with those.
Steel would be a suitable compromise to make up for the abysmal durability issue of iron tools late game, 750 durability as per my suggestion in a different thread, isn't perfect by any means but it's usable, it means you can collect 11 stacks of something without even having to enchant the tool, and it makes it far more practical to use for large scale projects.
I've even suggested a simple crafting recipe for it, coal and iron ingots, which is what steel is, an alloy composed of iron and carbon atoms.
Perhaps the smithing table could be used for upgrading already existing iron tools to steel, so iron tools can be upgraded on the Smithing table, not just diamond gear to netherite.
If diamond and likewise netherite is going to be so elusive, then it only makes sense to add this material in so players are encouraged to improvise with less expensive gear. Don't even get me started on stone, I've broken so many of those tools I've lost track of how many are gone clearing away terrain, including mountains on a previous world of mine, to make it suitable for building farmlands and buildings on top of.
It doesn't matter that you can get as many Iron tools as you want off the tool smiths, the durability problem remains present and it's still absurd that tools eventually become impossible to fix on the anvil. It's a delusional choice that I never would've made, if I were a software developer and an employee at Mojang.
Edit: Note, anvils don't repair gear for free, they cost you resources and XP to repair and enchant equipment which is fair enough. This isn't the issue, it's the fact that prior work penalty essentially makes the anvil useless on that same tool or weapon after a set number of repairs, this happens regardless of whether your weapon was an axe or sword.
I'm not suggesting items be indestructible, if I were, then I wouldn't be calling for Mojang to rework mending so that it allows indefinite repairs on the anvil using resources and XP. Also amount of diamonds or ingots spent should be proportional to the durability left on the tool, as this mechanic is logical and is as balanced as it gets.
When you're developing a game, one of the things you should never do is make the player bored.
Steel would be a suitable compromise to make up for the abysmal durability issue of iron tools late game, 750 durability as per my suggestion in a different thread, isn't perfect by any means but it's usable, it means you can collect 11 stacks of something without even having to enchant the tool, and it makes it far more practical to use for large scale projects.
I've even suggested a simple crafting recipe for it, coal and iron ingots, which is what steel is, an alloy composed of iron and carbon atoms.
Perhaps the smithing table could be used for upgrading already existing iron tools to steel, so iron tools can be upgraded on the Smithing table, not just diamond gear to netherite.
If diamond and likewise netherite is going to be so elusive, then it only makes sense to add this material in so players are encouraged to improvise with less expensive gear. Don't even get me started on stone, I've broken so many of those tools I've lost track of how many are gone clearing away terrain, including mountains on a previous world of mine, to make it suitable for building farmlands and buildings on top of.
It doesn't matter that you can get as many Iron tools as you want off the tool smiths, the durability problem remains present and it's still absurd that tools eventually become impossible to fix on the anvil. It's a delusional choice that I never would've made, if I were a software developer and an employee at Mojang.
I don't understand durability problem concerning items that I can get consistently in large quantity.
If one breaks I just get another one and continue working, where's the issue? I'm heavy stone tool user just because they are so cheap most of the time I feel like I have a tool with infinite durability (a factor why I use axes rather than swords by the way)
Also, coal is so cheap that iron tools would become completely redundant and everyone would just switch straight from iron to steel.
Mojang could just as well simply triple durability of iron tools, no need to add another tier that just leads to existence of completely obsolete items.
Dwarf gamer found:
Buildings - square, not round
Materials - from rubble mound
Dark caves - lit 'n' cleaned out
Settlements - deep underground
Farmability - to grinder bound
Shields - made creepers but sound
Axes and crossbows - taking mobs out
I don't understand durability problem concerning items that I can get consistently in large quantity.
If one breaks I just get another one and continue working, where's the issue? I'm heavy stone tool user just because they are so cheap most of the time I feel like I have a tool with infinite durability (a factor why I use axes rather than swords by the way)
Also, coal is so cheap that iron tools would become completely redundant and everyone would just switch straight from iron to steel.
Mojang could just as well simply triple durability of iron tools, no need to add another tier that just leads to existence of completely obsolete items.
I'm not into stone age gameplay, sorry.
I don't see the appeal of weak tools just for the illusion of balance.
If this were real life stone tools wouldn't even be practical let alone usable, there's a very good reason why the majority of our tools use iron these days and are made into a stainless steel alloy, you want tools to be long lasting because then it saves you time and money on having to replace them too often.
I don't see the appeal of weak tools just for the illusion of balance.
Exactly - I accept no less than max-enchanted diamond tools - as anybody would if they did as much mining as I do:
How much is that in real-time? Just considering ores (around 75% of all blocks I mine with a pickaxe), an unenchanted stone pickaxe takes 1.45 seconds to mine the ores it is effective against (see, we already have a little problem here, as some ores require iron), while a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V takes only 0.45 seconds (both of these times include a 0.3 second delay between blocks; the Wiki lists coal as taking 1.15 seconds without this delay and mining speed is calculated as (hardness * 1.5) / (base speed + efficiency factor), which is (3 * 1.5) / (8 + 26) for coal ore mined with a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V = 0.15, rounded up to the next multiple of 0.05) - that's an entire second saved per block and an average of 3,105 seconds saved per day - nearly an entire hour (obviously, I wouldn't be mining 3,100 ores per day if that were the case).
Then consider how much I've mined overall in my first world:
That's a total of 3.1 million ore, which would take 52 days to mine with unenchanted stone tools and 16 days to mine with Efficiency V diamond (for comparison, I've probably spent around 83% of the time in this world caving, or 150 out of 180 days, based on the differences between ores mined per session overall and when I've only been caving (the drop in October was due to building a new secondary base and railway) - the additional time spent with stone tools is by itself more than this difference).
Not to mention that rails, the most common non-mineral resource that I collect and third most common overall, can be instantly mined with Efficiency V diamond but take 0.6 seconds with stone (in this case, stone is a staggering 12 times slower as "instant mining" is 1 block per tick/0.05 seconds; in practice, my movement speed limits how fast I can mine).
Also, I recently used an Efficiency IV diamond pickaxe while mining quartz in the Nether - aside from taking much less time to mine quartz, which has the same hardness as other ores, the ability to instantly mine netherrack is more of a help than a drawback, plus the aforementioned 0.3 second delay is applied between quartz ore and netherrack behind it (i.e. it is based on the current block, not the next block) so I can avoid mining it (I generally only mine exposed ores but I dig tunnels as shortcuts back to the portal), and due to the nature of the dimension stone tools are not sustainable (neither are diamond, but I found more diamonds than I needed for repairs in fortresses, while cobblestone can't be found at all, at least in 1.6.4, and you can bring in villagers to trade with for diamond items).
except in bedrock edition, where the axe has zero benefit in combat situations.
I do believe the axe should have the greatest attack damage if it's slower to wield, and it having armour penetration would make sense, because not even the best of body armour is enough to prevent an axe from doing serious damage to it. It may prevent a stab wound, but it most definitely won't stop a good swing from a heavy weapon from going through. This mechanic would also make Piglin brutes more challenging to fight, and Vindicators.
Yeah the axe is yikes, but iirc axe-wielding enemies do a lot of damage as is compared to sword users, plus they can disable shields for a few seconds.
Yeah that sounds like a very fun combat feature, in this case I would enjoy its implementation if put in bedrock edition. It is a controversial change I admit, but a needed one, because it makes combat less dull and forces players to think more carefully about their weapon setups.
There is already a small amount of strategy involved in the old combat system as we've discussed earlier. Close range weapons like in the poll don't work in every situation, neither the sword nor the axe are effective against Ghast, and that fact is indisputable, you have to use the bow or trident, or else you'll probably either die or at the very least you'll be wasting time. The sword definitely wouldn't work against Ender Dragon unless on ground level.
No one complains about this, so why should they complain about axes being able to do more damage than the sword? I have no problem, just as long as the sword the lighter weapon, has one advantage the axe doesn't, and that's having a reduced cool-down, so can be used to hit enemies in succession and at the weapons maximum power, at a faster rate, this gives players an option to deal with fast moving or attacking enemies, such as the baby zombie or Wither skeleton, because clearly, you can't rely on raw power alone if you're too slow to hit your enemy enough times.
If players don't like the enormous damage dealt to them by the axe, they then need to learn to anticipate it and avoid it.
Knockback on swords can help keep Piglin Brutes and Vindicators out of harms way long enough for you to take another max power swing before they do, speaking of axes and swords, a more strict enchantment limit could be done on both in my opinion, no more than 3 or 4 enchantments per weapon if they want unlimited repairs, this would force players to specialize weapons, not rely on one single overpowered weapon to slaughter most enemies. Think of it like elemental types like in Pokemon or Borderlands 2, no one type of weapon or attack is good at every job, and that's a good nerf the game needs, it may receive some backslash, but in the long term it is something most people can adapt to and get good at even if casual. There are much more harsh and punishing ways to add difficulty to a game than this, such as the removal of enchantments.
Small update on my position - if I were to pick to use 1 weapon only and had to have my offhand busy with something else (ex. when using some specific data packs), I use sword since it swings more often and can keep my distance from melee attackers much better - especially with knockback enchantment involved. When fighting ranged attackers I can close in and dish out maximum DPM before I take too many arrows.
If I could have my shield in my offhand like I mostly do, I'd use axe because the shield keeps me safe from both melee and ranged attackers and higher alpha damage allows me to keep myself safe with shield for a longer time - plus it's completely viable weapon without using up exp or lapis so it saves me resources I hoard.
Exception to those situations are pre-enchantment tool tier - where axe reigns supreme even without shield involved - because stone axe is more damaging than stone sword and about as apt as (at that point needlessly expensive) unenchanted iron sword at light combat against individual mobs when I'm still gathering simple resources.
Dwarf gamer found:
Buildings - square, not round
Materials - from rubble mound
Dark caves - lit 'n' cleaned out
Settlements - deep underground
Farmability - to grinder bound
Shields - made creepers but sound
Axes and crossbows - taking mobs out
Iron sword, no need to waste on diamond
EdenCraftMC <3
Good luck on maintaining them though, or having them break in the middle of a fight or caving expedition; if I used unenchanted iron swords in my first world I'd have gone though more than 2,600 so far, and that doesn't even consider the fact that you need to use them more often (in 1.6.4 a Sharpness V diamond sword deals 14.25 damage, killing even Endermen in 3 hits and most other mobs in 2; even just 1 critical hit for spiders. For comparison, an iron sword deals 7 damage, just half as much, and requires 3 hits against zombies, which make up half the mobs I kill):
Also, imagine mining more than 4.4 million blocks with unenchanted iron tools... that would require 17,683 iron pickaxes; in fact, I'd go through more than a dozen every day. Just plain rubbish (I do use iron pickaxes taken from minecarts for digging railways and secondary bases so all the uses of my diamond pickaxe represent caving; I also do enchant these at level 1 and gradually combine them to as high as Efficiency V and Unbreaking III but the overall usage is very low, a few thousand blocks/several maxed items every couple months and the incremental cost is negligible, as opposed to if I applied high-level enchantments to regularly-used iron gear. The repair system in 1.6.4 also means it would take more XP and anvils to maintain my gear (anvils are my only major use of iron post early-game; I've crafted 116 so far, which needs less iron than 2,600 swords, much less 17,683 pickaxes).
And diamonds?
The screenshot above is about a year out-of-date (I took it after I'd accumulated a chest's worth of diamond blocks) - I've since made even more - over 2,000 blocks or 18,000 diamonds (which isn't even that much compared to the total resources I've collected, more than 3.5 million, not including all the coal I used to make torches and smelt items):
I didn't even use Fortune to mine most of that - this is why (presumably) Mojang made ores much rarer in 1.18 - I regularly mine more than 3,000 ores per play session, if only 15 diamonds (which says more about the sheer amount of time I've spent in this one world). Actually, I don't even use mined diamonds in this world anymore - I trade for all the items I need to repair my gear (in 1.6.4 you must repair items in the anvil while since 1.9 you can just put Mending on an item and repair it with only XP).
In my modded worlds I go even further, using an extremely rare, even for my playstyle, resource which replaces diamond as the best material - it is about 8 times rarer than diamond while caving and just common enough to meet my needs without using Fortune (which I do use when collecting what I need to make my gear), in my last world I accumulated less than a full stack over more than 7 months of daily playing spent caving - and I would never settle for anything less (diamond gear itself was nerfed in protection/damage/speed so it is basically iron with more durability; of course, iron itself was also nerfed, not unlike how Mojang nerfed armor and weapons in 1.9 - there are people who claim that Netherite is just so overpowered yet it is actually worse than diamond used to be (attacks now penetrate armor, reducing its defense more as damage increases, Netherite has more "armor toughness" but even a 5 damage attack, which reduces defense from 80% to 76%, still amounts to 20% more damage taken), and a Sharpness V Netherite sword deals 11 damage - less than a Sharpness V wooden sword in 1.6.4!).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Diamond deals much higher damage, and that's quite important considering how swords rely on DPM.
If you want a weapon almost the same performance regardless of material used and limited reliance on enchantments go axes&shields.
Stone axe hits just as hard as a diamond one.
Dwarf gamer found:
Buildings - square, not round
Materials - from rubble mound
Dark caves - lit 'n' cleaned out
Settlements - deep underground
Farmability - to grinder bound
Shields - made creepers but sound
Axes and crossbows - taking mobs out
But that damage is only really useful against situations like the Wither boss or other players, and in the case of the Wither, with Smite V enchantment. Iron Swords will do for almost every other case. It is true that Iron gear has low durability, but with mending and unbreaking III, it no longer matters.
in fact having items with lots of durability take a longer time to repair. It isn't an issue with swords or axes for obvious reasons, because the XP orbs drop immediately upon killing an enemy which is all that's required for mending to work.
But unless you're mining ores with a non silk touch pickaxe, the pickaxes will wear down, so netherite pickaxes are a lot of upkeep as I've already experienced. I literally have to rely on mob kills to keep it maintained in this case.
I can imagine how annoying it would become if mending were to receive a severe nerf where it would affect axes and swords. And judging by how obsessed Mojang have become with nerfing things in the game, as opposed to actually adding in newer and better features, it does appear likely that mending as well as the enchantment system will be on the chopping block soon, TMC did mention armour had already been nerfed since the earlier versions.
Yes, exactly, ores are harder to find now in 1.18 and it has been tested, if you were playing the more recent versions you'd know. The game is progressively becoming more grindy without features to justify it. Isn't it bad enough that deepslate takes longer to mine than stone? Mojang clearly weren't satisfied with that even though some of us would consider that fact alone to be a considerable nerf to strip or branch mining, they doubled down and also made ores themselves more difficult to find, meaning it can easily take a multiple real life hours mining session before you find enough Iron and diamonds for the gear you use, if you're unlucky, it could even take an entire day before you find all the diamonds you'd need, and even then you still need lapis lazuli before you can use the enchantment table.
It's actually worse that Iron is more difficult to find than it used to be because that is the third strongest tool and armour material, and is needed for more than just armour, tools and anvils. It's also needed for making beacons, iron bars, iron doors, regular rails, mine carts, cauldrons and so on.
This is not a good way to encourage people to mine and earn items legitimately instead of cheating or exploiting controversial mechanics like Iron Golem farms. Mojang is actually discouraging people from going on an adventure by doing this.
And I don't like being forced to remain on Iron tools if I don't have to, for the simple reason that their durability quite frankly sucks, as you alluded to by saying imagine having to use them unenchanted. 250 durability points tool makes them borderline useless for large build projects like mine which is why I have to have diamond or netherite for them and so does a friend who frequents my server. Unfortunately this also means we have to use Drowned Zombies or some other XP farming method to maintain them, but it's better than the alternative of relying on weak and crappy tools that can't even survive enough of a beating to fill up a single chest or barrel without enchantments on them.
There is a lot of bad design choices in this game, and I doubt Mojang will ever listen to my suggestion of adding steel as a compromise
to encourage players to consider Iron as a tool resource late game.
There is still a slight increase in axe strength over material, but the change is more gradual and critical hits make up for the difference. Axes it is.
I'd have to carry an axe around more often when this update comes to bedrock edition. However I don't mind because I like using axes with Silk Touch, saves me having to carry around shears when I am not getting wool or making jack o lanterns. I can keep the axe as a multi purpose tool for gardening and defending myself against hostile mobs. Smite V would probably be the most useful for the axe, to quickly deal with Wither skeletons.
I still see little reason to ever use an axe for combat (even for unenchanted stone tools; a stone axe deals 9 damage while a stone sword deals 5; a zombie requires 3 hits with an axe and 5 with a sword (4 for skeletons and creepers) but the sword attacks twice as fast; 1.25 * 3 = 3.75 seconds for the axe and 0.625 * 5 = 3.125 seconds for the sword); a Sharpness V Netherite sword deals 11 damage, killing most mobs in two hits - unless you are dealing 20+ damage there will be no difference, and only to undead mobs, even if they are the most commonly encountered mobs - but I'd very much rather have higher general damage without having to deal crits, faster attacks (this is why TMCW does not have a general cooldown, only a "spam clicking penalty") as well as Knockback (apparently, they do plan to allow axes to receive sword-exclusive enchantments), and axes lose two points of durability per hit (maybe not so much of an issue with Mending and a playstyle like mine but you said that "we have to use Drowned Zombies or some other XP farming method to maintain them". Also, going back to the stone tools, the sword would still last longer as it takes 5 durability vs 6 for an axe).
The best use case of an axe would be passive mob farming as they do not have a sweep attack (currently on Java Edition only, but if they plan to add it to Bedrock then it will also be an issue there), which will otherwise damage nearby mobs, including babies, and cause them to panic or eventually die (without Sweeping Edge each indirect hit deals 1 damage, or 4 to kill a chicken. This can be very useful though against a large group of mobs as only (health) hits, much less with Sweeping Edge, can kill dozens of mobs). Likewise, axes are safer to use around "neutral" mobs (e.g. zombie pigmen) as a sweep attack might accidentally hit them (IMO, sweep attacks should require Sweeping Edge, not come by default, and is the biggest drawback of using a sword).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Swords rely on attack speed to out-DPM axes; if one is a heavy shield user with clumsy reflexes like I am then axe has a benefit of exposing the player less - two slashes from a stone sword may deal a bit more damage than one chop from stone axe, but I am not shielded for twice as long with a sword.
Creepers due to their explosive nature also are better off to hit and run rather than try to DPM, and axe can bring one down with just 2 chops as long as the second chop is critical.
More strikes means more knockback that can slow down killing certain mobs because they have to reapproach you more times as well.
Also, higher alpha damage means more shock factor - while theoretically a critical stone sword has better DPM than critical axe, time it takes to kill an average 20 HP mob is equal - sword needs second blow after 625ms and a third finishing one after 1250ms, while the axe can finish only after 1250ms with second blow - or it's even longer for sword because you don't have perfect timing and because of tendency to knock the mob back.
Axe, due to lack of sweeping strike is much safer to operate within villages, and combined with high alpha, can be also used to dispose silverfish without triggering the rest to jump you.
Regarding high enchantment levels, extra alpha damage on netherite gear allows you to one-shot a wider variety of enemies when you're drugged with strength potions - Critical sharpness V netherite axe on strength II is the only combo that allows the player to annihilate pillagers, vindicators and evokers that have 24 HP with a single strike, and netherite sword needs Strength II to do the same with common 20 HP zombies, creepers or skeletons - while axe can do the same just on strength I, which in potion form can last four times as long, and in beacon form has its base material prerequisite roughly cut in half.
Dwarf gamer found:
Buildings - square, not round
Materials - from rubble mound
Dark caves - lit 'n' cleaned out
Settlements - deep underground
Farmability - to grinder bound
Shields - made creepers but sound
Axes and crossbows - taking mobs out
So, I did sword testing on spiders, skeletons, zombies and hoglins, plus some extra on vindicator and cave spider (Fe/C - iron/diamond, number - sharpness level, sweep - not crit, crit-crit)
For Fe0 and C0 difference is big, but if you get a sword you most likely can enchant it too, so I'll skip that entirely.
From enchanted swords, only Fe1 can't 2-crit a skele with crits and Only C5 can 3-crit a hoglin, while all other have to 4-crit it, and only one to 4-sweep it, while all C' and Fe3> have to 5-sweep. C5 is also the only one to 2-sweep a skeleton.
Fe5 and C2 are also the level from which you can start 1-critting cave spiders and 2-critting vindis.
Wanna it as Libreoffice calc file?
Additionally, all the C' have an edge in getting better enchantments via enchantment table, and can be further upgraded with netherite, which has further improved damage and is completely impervious to lava.
Also, at least in my inventories there are barely any mending tools, those are quite hard to get by, and at least in my case it's more common to grab enough diamonds to use a carbon weapon, and durability of what I have matters quite a good bit. Alternatively I just use iron weaponry which gets damaged and I either repair with another model of one or just grind it down and enchant a completely new one.
Or, most commonly, I keep on brawling with a stone axe that I can craft in dozens with zero experience useup and adopt a more defensive stance with fortifications, ranged weapons and my trusty shield.
Hah, lad, you missed a very handy lifehack here!
Smelt a lot of cacti in furnaces, and pick green dye up when your mending tool is damaged.
That specific plant when smelted gives a TRAINLOAD of experience - on Java at least - and the pickups from smelting can pass on the tool you currently hold in your main hand or offhand even if it's not directly related to the furnace in any way, it only matters you are holding it and you get some form of exp.
Hell, if you'd want to do it a lot you could even connect the furnaces to cactus and bamboo automatic farms to always have the dye lying in wait in furnaces.
Just two things - if you want to smelt for exp, smokers and blast furnaces will cut your exp gains per item in half, and using hoppers to suck the items up will make the furnace accumulate the experience until somebody manually removes a sample of product from the output slot, realistically only after disabling the hopper that collects the product.
Dwarf gamer found:
Buildings - square, not round
Materials - from rubble mound
Dark caves - lit 'n' cleaned out
Settlements - deep underground
Farmability - to grinder bound
Shields - made creepers but sound
Axes and crossbows - taking mobs out
This is actually a bug - it should only give 0.2 XP, not 1, as it does in older versions like 1.6.4, so I would not rely on it:
MC-210211 Smelting cactus gives too much experience since 1.13
You'd also still need a lot - 780 to fully repair a diamond tool, more for Netherite and any other items that are being repaired at the same time (total XP = total durability restored / 2), and in any case I never want to have to rely on XP farms to maintain my gear - my playstyle gives me more XP than I can ever use, even in my modded worlds (TMCW's amethyst items cost up to 49 levels to repair), and even in vanilla 1.6.4 many items cost more to repair (e.g. 33 levels for a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V and Unbreaking III; 1.6.4 has a lower leveling-up curve than 1.8+ but it still requires 1032 XP to reach level 33; this can be reduced to 31 levels, or 887 XP if you take advantage of the 12% durability bonus (the repair cost is based on the durability of the sacrifice and ranges from 1-17 for diamond tools), but that is still higher, and if you add Fortune III you can now only repair it 25% at a time (one diamond) for 37 levels or 1406 XP each - that's 5624 XP for a full repair, or over 7 times the cost of the same item with Mending in 1.9+ Even then, I once used such a pickaxe as my only mining tool while caving and gained enough XP from natural sources to repair it and everything else).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
It's only hard to get mending if you fish for them, if you have a villager trade system and a farm handy then it's no longer a big problem.
My problem this is that there is no alternative to indefinitely repair equipment, if you try to do this with the anvil you'll eventually run into the "too expensive" nonsense due to prior work penalty, it doesn't matter if your items have only 1 or 7 enchantments, all are affected, so if you don't want your prized possession to be lost forever because of a thing called entropy, you're forced to use mending.
You can combine two non enchanted tools or weapons and get a full repair, but I find this to be annoying because non enchanted tools don't last very long anyhow. I like having tools that actually let me get my work done, instead of having to repeatedly backtrack to maintain them so mending has become essential for my playstyle.
Iron tools suck in this game, in late game I wouldn't even consider using a non enchanted Iron tool unless it was something like shears, because you can't make a diamond or netherite set of shears you have no other option but to use them.
It's not so much having to craft additional tools that bothers me, it's when you have to do it too often then it takes the fun out of the game because it gets in the way of what you would like to do with that extra time. I suppose for a survival player who isn't fussed with this or doesn't do a lot of large scale build projects, it wouldn't bother them, but I and friends who play on my world intend on building a city. I decided to make a bedrock 1.18 server for friends to play on after some careful consideration, the 320 Y build height and extra terrain depth could prove useful later on, and we wouldn't want to miss out on the 1.19 Wild update which is going to add extra animals and mangrove trees, another plant type, so for the time being despite the horrible ore generation in 1.18 I've chosen to suck it up for the time being, perhaps Mojang would fix the issue, perhaps they won't, but it's not like for now we don't have enchantments to keep our tools maintained and useful.
Adding in the combat mechanics Java already has into bedrock edition would be very nice though, it would make axes more useful and the combat system more rewarding.
You mean, like, you don't want to have to return to your permanent base of operations very often and just have tools that could theoretically last indefinite amount of time in the field, or just not have to either fight RNG much or use exp grinders to recraft the same tool?
Judging that you want steel not to be indestructible I guess it's the latter, and in case of that one I'd like to ask a question - how would getting villager blacksmiths to mass produce the tool you consider appropriately enchanted for your needs suit you?
You don't need to maintain the same tool indefinitely when you can just repair it once or twice on anvil, then break it down to experience and materials and buy an identical copy for emeralds.
Hell, you can buy them in batches and return to the base only once the whole set is falling apart.
Also, how does carrying a stack of logs and cobblestone and just plopping down a crafting bench and making a new tool or a batch on the spot suit you? To me it's, like, a dozen seconds of intermission, and stone tools are already more time-consuming to use even disregarding their inferior durability enough to be in larger part listening to a podcast or having a chat than playing MC when doing some bulk labor with those.
Dwarf gamer found:
Buildings - square, not round
Materials - from rubble mound
Dark caves - lit 'n' cleaned out
Settlements - deep underground
Farmability - to grinder bound
Shields - made creepers but sound
Axes and crossbows - taking mobs out
Steel would be a suitable compromise to make up for the abysmal durability issue of iron tools late game, 750 durability as per my suggestion in a different thread, isn't perfect by any means but it's usable, it means you can collect 11 stacks of something without even having to enchant the tool, and it makes it far more practical to use for large scale projects.
I've even suggested a simple crafting recipe for it, coal and iron ingots, which is what steel is, an alloy composed of iron and carbon atoms.
Perhaps the smithing table could be used for upgrading already existing iron tools to steel, so iron tools can be upgraded on the Smithing table, not just diamond gear to netherite.
If diamond and likewise netherite is going to be so elusive, then it only makes sense to add this material in so players are encouraged to improvise with less expensive gear. Don't even get me started on stone, I've broken so many of those tools I've lost track of how many are gone clearing away terrain, including mountains on a previous world of mine, to make it suitable for building farmlands and buildings on top of.
It doesn't matter that you can get as many Iron tools as you want off the tool smiths, the durability problem remains present and it's still absurd that tools eventually become impossible to fix on the anvil. It's a delusional choice that I never would've made, if I were a software developer and an employee at Mojang.
Edit: Note, anvils don't repair gear for free, they cost you resources and XP to repair and enchant equipment which is fair enough. This isn't the issue, it's the fact that prior work penalty essentially makes the anvil useless on that same tool or weapon after a set number of repairs, this happens regardless of whether your weapon was an axe or sword.
I'm not suggesting items be indestructible, if I were, then I wouldn't be calling for Mojang to rework mending so that it allows indefinite repairs on the anvil using resources and XP. Also amount of diamonds or ingots spent should be proportional to the durability left on the tool, as this mechanic is logical and is as balanced as it gets.
When you're developing a game, one of the things you should never do is make the player bored.
I don't understand durability problem concerning items that I can get consistently in large quantity.
If one breaks I just get another one and continue working, where's the issue? I'm heavy stone tool user just because they are so cheap most of the time I feel like I have a tool with infinite durability (a factor why I use axes rather than swords by the way)
Also, coal is so cheap that iron tools would become completely redundant and everyone would just switch straight from iron to steel.
Mojang could just as well simply triple durability of iron tools, no need to add another tier that just leads to existence of completely obsolete items.
Dwarf gamer found:
Buildings - square, not round
Materials - from rubble mound
Dark caves - lit 'n' cleaned out
Settlements - deep underground
Farmability - to grinder bound
Shields - made creepers but sound
Axes and crossbows - taking mobs out
I'm not into stone age gameplay, sorry.
I don't see the appeal of weak tools just for the illusion of balance.
If this were real life stone tools wouldn't even be practical let alone usable, there's a very good reason why the majority of our tools use iron these days and are made into a stainless steel alloy, you want tools to be long lasting because then it saves you time and money on having to replace them too often.
Exactly - I accept no less than max-enchanted diamond tools - as anybody would if they did as much mining as I do:
How much is that in real-time? Just considering ores (around 75% of all blocks I mine with a pickaxe), an unenchanted stone pickaxe takes 1.45 seconds to mine the ores it is effective against (see, we already have a little problem here, as some ores require iron), while a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V takes only 0.45 seconds (both of these times include a 0.3 second delay between blocks; the Wiki lists coal as taking 1.15 seconds without this delay and mining speed is calculated as (hardness * 1.5) / (base speed + efficiency factor), which is (3 * 1.5) / (8 + 26) for coal ore mined with a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V = 0.15, rounded up to the next multiple of 0.05) - that's an entire second saved per block and an average of 3,105 seconds saved per day - nearly an entire hour (obviously, I wouldn't be mining 3,100 ores per day if that were the case).
Then consider how much I've mined overall in my first world:
That's a total of 3.1 million ore, which would take 52 days to mine with unenchanted stone tools and 16 days to mine with Efficiency V diamond (for comparison, I've probably spent around 83% of the time in this world caving, or 150 out of 180 days, based on the differences between ores mined per session overall and when I've only been caving (the drop in October was due to building a new secondary base and railway) - the additional time spent with stone tools is by itself more than this difference).
Not to mention that rails, the most common non-mineral resource that I collect and third most common overall, can be instantly mined with Efficiency V diamond but take 0.6 seconds with stone (in this case, stone is a staggering 12 times slower as "instant mining" is 1 block per tick/0.05 seconds; in practice, my movement speed limits how fast I can mine).
Also, I recently used an Efficiency IV diamond pickaxe while mining quartz in the Nether - aside from taking much less time to mine quartz, which has the same hardness as other ores, the ability to instantly mine netherrack is more of a help than a drawback, plus the aforementioned 0.3 second delay is applied between quartz ore and netherrack behind it (i.e. it is based on the current block, not the next block) so I can avoid mining it (I generally only mine exposed ores but I dig tunnels as shortcuts back to the portal), and due to the nature of the dimension stone tools are not sustainable (neither are diamond, but I found more diamonds than I needed for repairs in fortresses, while cobblestone can't be found at all, at least in 1.6.4, and you can bring in villagers to trade with for diamond items).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?