What is the difference between using a shovel or pickaxe to dig?

[Andarvi]

Q

[PlutonArioch]

The Shovel is faster and digs away more Dirt/Sand at once (like a bigger patch of ground, not more resources), at least if you are using a higher tier Shovel. Try it out. Take a Golden Pick and a Golden Shovel, then dig into the ground...
But, yeah... dont use the Shovel on Rocks ;)

[Tunagoblin]

? So one guy says use shavel and another says don't use it on rocks.... which one is it?
Shavel for soil and pick axe for rock as intended? Is that the most efficient way?

[LETSGORON]

If you look on the tooltips it'll show you.

Using Gold Tools as a comparison:

Pickaxes deal 155 damage to resources (read: mine faster) and cover a 2x2 area each swing. They also give a +5 bonus to resources collected.

Shovels only deal 63 damage, cover a 3x3 area, and only give a +2 bonus to resources.

Dirt and sand have low durability and can be one-hit collected with a shovel. As you go up in tiers though, shovels won't be able to one hit gather anymore. Even aluminum takes 2 hits with a gold pickaxe.

For stuff that a shovel can one-hit, like dirt and sand, it'll mine more blocks faster, but give you less resources per block. Use shovels on dirt and sand that there is a ton of and you won't mind missing out on extra resources. Use Pickaxes for the higher durability materials that you'll want to squeeze as much out of as possible.

[Bliny]

The yield is different, too. For example when you mine petroleum or coal, the shovel yields much more than the pickaxe.

[gp2.eXe ・ マルク]

Yup, there is a difference as others have pointed. I made a long post detailing the differences on the official board[board.pathea.net] some time ago (Reply #7). Mining hasn't changed all that much since then so the information is still fairly accurate, you can draw your own conclusions from that discussion.

Originally posted by zlorf:

when you mine petroleum or coal, the shovel yields much more than the pickaxe.

Not quite, that is just the impression it gives. I would like to direct you to that info as well if you want to check out why. :)

[PlutonArioch]

The animation of the Shovel is faster. you hit more often in the same time. You get more oil and coal because you get a bigger area. As resources are not scarce at all, its also more efficient for that.
@Tunagoblin: Shovel for fast digging yes, but not on rocks.