Key Takeaway
To make a Diamond Pickaxe, you’ll need 3 Diamonds and 2 Sticks. On a Crafting Table, place the 3 Diamonds in the top row and the 2 Sticks in the center column.
A Diamond Pickaxe in Minecraft is the best mining tool that you can get without having to go to The Nether. It is also the only tool that will let you properly mine Obsidian and a few other kinds of rare resources.
Table Of Contents
The Crafting Recipe for Diamond Pickaxes
To make a Diamond Pickaxe, you’ll need 3 Diamonds and 2 Sticks. To assemble one, you’ll need to use a Crafting Table. Fill the top row of the Crafting Table with the 3 Diamonds. Afterward, place 1 Stick in the centermost slot and then place the other Stick in the bottom center slot. This recipe will give you 1 Diamond Pickaxe.
How to Get Diamonds
Diamond Ore blocks are found deep underground. They begin spawning at level 15, but can also be found lower. Every time you mine a Diamond Ore block successfully, it will drop 1 Diamond.
Annoyingly, Diamonds are found around the same level as lava, so be careful when mining this far down! Be sure to bring a Water Bucket to quickly neutralize any lava flowing your way.
However, before you can mine any Diamond Ore blocks, you’ll need an Iron Pickaxe or better. On a related note: Gold Pickaxes, while harder to make than Iron Pickaxes, will not let you mine Diamonds from Diamond Ore blocks.
Besides mining Diamond Ore blocks, you can also find Diamonds as loot in the Chests of the following structures and randomly spawned containers:
- Mineshaft
- Bastion Remnant
- Buried Treasure
- Desert Temple
- End City
- Jungle Temple
- Nether Fortress
- Shipwreck
- Stronghold
- Village
How to Get Sticks
To craft Sticks, you can place Wooden Planks on top of one another in any crafting grid. Like when crafting many other wooden items, you can mix and match different types of wood to get Sticks. Alternatively, you can use the same crafting configuration with Bamboo to make Sticks.
Using this crafting configuration with 2 Wooden Planks will give you 4 Sticks while using it with Bamboo will only give you 1 Stick. As such, you’re better off using Wooden Planks to make Sticks.
On occasion, you can also reel in Sticks as junk items while fishing. Besides that, breaking Dead Bushes can give you up to 2 Sticks—as can decayed Leaf blocks.
In terms of mob drops, the only creature that can naturally drop Sticks is a Witch. When you defeat a Witch, they can drop up to 6 Sticks.
Lastly, you can also loot Sticks from the Chests of Cartographers, Fletchers, and Toolsmiths in any kind of Village. Toolsmith Chests have the highest chance of containing Sticks
Where to Find Enchanted Diamond Pickaxes
In addition to making a Diamond Pickaxe yourself, you can also find one in the Chests of certain structures. There is a small chance of finding an Enchanted Diamond Pickaxe in the Chests of End Cities and Bastion Remnants.
Furthermore, you can trade with master-level Toolsmiths to get an Enchanted Diamond Pickaxe. In the Java Edition of the game, master-level Toolsmiths will sell you one for 13 Emeralds while, in the Bedrock Edition, master-level Toolsmiths will sell you one for somewhere between 18 to 35 Emeralds.
How to Upgrade a Diamond Pickaxe Into a Netherite Pickaxe
The only way to get a Netherite Pickaxe is to upgrade to a Diamond Pickaxe. To do so, you’ll need to place a Diamond Pickaxe into the left slot of a Smithing Table and then place a Netherite Ingot into the middle slot.
To make a Smithing Table, you’ll need 4 Wooden Planks of any kind and 2 Iron Ingots. On a Crafting Table, make a square with the Wooden Planks, and then place the 2 Iron Ingots on top of the square.
In order to make a Netherite Ingot, you’ll need 4 Netherite Scraps and 4 Gold Ingots. Fill the top row of a Crafting Table with 3 Netherite Scraps and then place the final one in the middle-left slot. Afterward, fill the rest of the slots—except the bottom-right one—with the 4 Gold Ingots.
Netherite Scraps can only be obtained from smelting Ancient Debris in a Furnace. To find Ancient Debris, you’ll have to dig through The Nether. However, they are very rare (about 1 to 2 Ancient Debris blocks spawn per chunk) and Ancient Debris never spawns while exposed to air. As such, you’ll have to dig through a lot of Netherrack to find some.
The Stats of a Diamond Pickaxe
Diamond Pickaxes, even when unupgraded, have much more durability than Iron Pickaxes. A Diamond Pickaxe has a durability of 1,562 points. For comparison, an Iron Pickaxe only has a durability of 251. As such, you can mine approximately 6 times as many blocks with a Diamond Pickaxe as you can with an Iron Pickaxe.
However, it should be mentioned that, if used to fight mobs, all Pickaxes will lose 2 points of durability per strike. When mining, Pickaxe durability will only decrease by 1 per block broken.
Blocks That Can Only Be Mined With a Diamond Pickaxe (or Better)
There are 5 types of blocks that can only be mined with a Diamond (or Netherite) Pickaxe:
- Ancient Debris
- Block of Netherite
- Crying Obsidian
- Obsidian
- Respawn Anchor
How Much Damage Diamond Pickaxes Do
In the Java Edition of the game, an unupgraded Diamond Pickaxe will deal 2.5 Hearts of damage. Alternatively, in the Bedrock Edition, unupgraded Diamond Pickaxes will deal 3 Hearts of damage.
When compared to Swords, these are pitiful amounts. As such, you should not bother using your Diamond Pickaxe as a weapon. All you’ll do is slightly hurt your foes while drastically wearing down the durability of your valuable mining tool.
Enchantments You Can Put on a Diamond Pickaxe
There are 6 types of enchantments that you can place on a Diamond Pickaxe. However, only 4 of them can be applied when using an Enchanting Table; the other 2 will require you to use an Anvil. Here’s a list of all possible enchantments, their maximum level, and the method to get them onto your Diamond Pickaxe:
- Efficiency – max level 5 (Enchanting Table or Anvil)
- Fortune – max level 3 (Enchanting Table or Anvil)
- Silk Touch – max level 1 (Enchanting Table or Anvil)
- Unbreaking – max level 3 (Enchanting Table or Anvil)
- Mending – max level 1 (Anvil only)
- Curse of Vanishing – max level 1 (Anvil only)
You can apply a maximum of 2 enchantments to your Diamond Pickaxe, however, some cannot stack together. The Fortune and Silk Touch enchantments are incompatible—you can only have one or the other. With that said, the rest can coexist happily on an Enchanted Diamond Pickaxe.
How to Make an Enchanting Table
To make an Enchanting Table, you’ll need 4 blocks of Obsidian, 2 Diamonds, and 1 Book. Place 3 Obsidian on the bottom row of a Crafting Table and then place the last block of it in the centermost slot. Following this, put 1 Diamond in the middle-left slot and the other in the middle-right slot. Finally, put the Book in the top-middle slot.
How to Enchant a Diamond Pickaxe on an Enchanting Table
If you want to use an Enchanting Table to enchant your Diamond Pickaxe, you’ll first need to place the tool in the leftmost slot of the Enchanting Table. Then, you’ll need to place some Lapis Lazuli in the slot to the right of the Diamond Pickaxe.
You’ll need 1 Lapis for a level 1 enchantment, 2 for a level 2 enchantment, and 3 for a level 3 enchantment. Additionally, you’ll need to spend levels of experience to enchant your Diamond Pickaxe: 1 level for a level 1 enchantment, 2 levels for a level 2 enchantment, and 3 levels for a level 3 enchantment.
How to Make an Anvil
In order to make an Anvil, you’ll need a ton of Iron Ingots. Before assembling the Anvil, you’ll need to use 27 Iron Ingots to create 3 Blocks of Iron. When you fill all 9 slots of a Crafting Table with Iron Ingots, you’ll get 1 Block of Iron. Do this 3 times to get 3 Blocks of Iron.
Afterward, on a Crafting Table, place the 3 Blocks of Iron on the top row. Next, place 1 Iron Ingot in the centermost slot, and then place 3 more Iron Ingots in the bottom row.
How to Enchant a Diamond Pickaxe on an Anvil
When you open up the Anvil’s menu, you’ll first need to place the Diamond Pickaxe in the left slot. After that, you’ll need to place an Enchanted Book in the middle slot.
Whatever enchantment you have on your Enchanted Book will get applied to your Diamond Pickaxe. The Enchanted Book gets consumed in this process, however, you don’t need to spend Lapis Lazuli or levels of experience for this enchantment method.
What Are the Best Enchantments for a Diamond Pickaxe?
That depends entirely on what you need your Diamond Pickaxe for. However, if you just want a great tool for strip-mining, most players prefer the Efficiency enchantment for a faster mining speed and the Unbreaking enchantment to reduce durability consumption.
Alternatively, if you need a tool to harvest specific kinds of blocks that don’t drop themselves, you’ll need the Silk Touch enchantment. Fortune is pretty good for getting more loot from broken blocks, but keep in mind that this only works for ore and other natural resources—not terrain blocks.
Mending is highly overrated, as it steals XP from you. Instead of using Mending to auto-repair your Diamond Pickaxe, it’s better to combine your Enchanted Diamond Pickaxe with an unenchanted one on an Anvil.
As for the Curse of Vanishing—this is a purely detrimental effect! When you die, this will cause your Diamond Pickaxe to despawn, so it’s never a good idea to apply this enchantment to any of your tools.
