Hammers

A hammer is a multi-block mining tool. Where a vanilla pickaxe breaks one block per swing, a hammer breaks an area — tiered by hammer material from a small line to a large box.

If you mine more than once a session, hammers are the upgrade.

How they work

You craft a hammer (recipe is a tier-specific arrangement of materials around a stick). You hold it and swing. The "swing area" is centered on the block you targeted, and the hammer breaks every matching block in that area.

Recipe (iron hammer)

The hammer respects vanilla rules:

• Pickaxe-tier required — you can't mine diamond with a wood hammer
• Drops are normal — vanilla drops, applied to every block in the area
• Enchantments work — Fortune III on a netherite hammer multiplies drops on every ore in the area
• Durability cost — each block in the area costs durability; an area of 9 = 9 durability per swing

Tier table

Hold Shift while swinging to mine a single block instead of the area — useful when you don't want to chew through your floor.

A netherite hammer mines 45 blocks per swing. A 3×3×5 swath. One swing through a stone wall and you have a 45-block hole.

Pair with custom enchants

Hammers benefit massively from custom tool enchants:

Vein Miner

If a vein extends past the hammer's swing area, Vein Miner picks up the rest. A diamond vein in a 3×3×5 swath gets the full ore drop.

Telekinesis

All 45 blocks of dirt or stone go straight to your inventory instead of dropping at your feet. No item-pickup pause.

Smelting Touch

Mine an iron deposit with a Smelting Touch netherite hammer + Vein Miner + Telekinesis, and you get a stack of smelted iron ingots in your inventory in one swing.

Mending + Unbreaking III

Hammer durability drains fast (45 blocks per swing). Mending and Unbreaking III are essential for serious mining sessions.

Practical loadouts

"Wide-tunnel" hammer

Netherite hammer + Mending + Unbreaking III + Telekinesis. Make a 3×3×5 tunnel in seconds, all drops to inventory.

"Quarry" hammer

Netherite hammer + Mending + Unbreaking III + Smelting Touch + Vein Miner + Telekinesis. Strip-quarry a chunk in 20 minutes; all ore comes back as smelted ingots in your inventory.

"Cave-clearer" hammer

Iron or diamond hammer + Mending + Unbreaking III. Bigger swing for clearing cave walls; less mat-cost than netherite.

When NOT to use a hammer

• Surgical mining — hand-mining around a vein you want to preserve
• Building — hammers are mining tools, not placement tools (you'll over-break)
• Underground exploration — you might break too much, exposing yourself to mob spawns
• Aesthetic stone-cutting — when you want exactly the blocks you can see

For most other situations, the hammer wins.

Crafting tips

• Save your iron for an iron hammer first, then upgrade — going from stone hammer straight to netherite skips real progression
• Carry a smaller hammer for tight spaces — you'll over-break with a 3×3×5 in a 2-wide tunnel
• Repair via anvil + matching ingot — same as vanilla tools

A note on building considerations

Big hammers are powerful but noisy — they break a lot of blocks fast. Be considerate:

• Don't hammer-clear in someone else's territory
• Don't hammer-clear right next to spawn or community builds (chunk noise / TPS impact)
• Don't accidentally mine into a player's hidden base (yes, this happens — keep an eye on what you're hitting)

If a server-wide TPS drop coincides with someone hammering, staff may ask the hammer-user to slow down. Common-sense usage is fine; hammer-spamming for hours during peak server hours is impolite.

See also

• Tools enchantments — the enchants that make hammers shine
• Machines — process the bulk hammered ore into ingots and blocks
• Logistics — route the products between machines
• Best tool selection — auto-swap tools based on what you're hitting