Stone Axe, Fireaxe, Pickaxe, Hammer, what?

[Optimistic Cynic]

I'm trying to figure why people would really ever move away from the stone axe. It does just about everything. But then the tech tree splits the jobs across three other tools. Fireaxe for wood, pickaxe for stone, and hammer for building and repairing. Is it just a speed thing? I suppose the other tools can be used as a weapon whereas the stone axe is not a good one, but most people have their own preferred weapons for that job. I do see some challenges that are for the pickaxe, but that doesn't seem like a great incentive to use all these resources to craft the tools.
Am I missing something obvious that is going right over my head?

[BIT Bear]

The other tools give a higher output as well as doing things faster BUT with that said i'm sort of in the same boat. I do almost everything with a stone axe until I get Nail Gun for building and Steel pickaxe for mining and destruction.

[Shurenai]

I mean... Going from swinging what feels like 50 times per block to 2 times or even 1 time per block is pretty huge. You can take better advantage of bonuses like the +100% mining gains candy too.

Some people do just use the stone axe forever. It's a bit of a mix in the community. Personally I always get the better tools; I'd rather waste the hotbar spots on specialization and do things in a timely manner than save 2 spaces and take 10-50x longer to do anything that requires me to break something.

There's the same issue of choice in normal tools vs gas tools; Some think the gas tools are must-haves, and some think they're worthless and overblown (I'm the latter in most cases.. There's specific usecases, but i'd never use the gas ones as a general use tool)

[william_es]

Speed.

When you start to get steel tools, especially high quality ones with mods slots, they will hands down beat the stone axe. Each tier of tools (iron, steel, etc) basically _starts_ nearly at where the last tier maxes out. They made it even more obvious when they deliberately lowered the mod slots even on a max quality level 6 stone axe. A steel quality 6 pick will have more mod slots.

Once you've got specialized tools, you can chop out stairs (wood, concrete, whatever) in a few minutes, to turn nearly any location into a temporary night shelter. Most playthroughs I stop even bothering to carry lockpicks. My pickaxe IS my lockpick. When I go into a POI, I just start going straight THROUGH the walls, like dig dug, straight to treasure rooms. Forget the guided funhouse tour, with all the pop out scares. There are some treasure rooms where you can loot the WHOLE room without triggering the waves. Loot, leave, grofit!

[DC| TehAgent]

Much quicker 'working time' and better harvests/damage. Time is also a commodity, and you cant buy, craft, or salvage it.

[Michael]

Originally posted by Optimistic Cynic:

I'm trying to figure why people would really ever move away from the stone axe. It does just about everything. But then the tech tree splits the jobs across three other tools. Fireaxe for wood, pickaxe for stone, and hammer for building and repairing. Is it just a speed thing? I suppose the other tools can be used as a weapon whereas the stone axe is not a good one, but most people have their own preferred weapons for that job. I do see some challenges that are for the pickaxe, but that doesn't seem like a great incentive to use all these resources to craft the tools.
Am I missing something obvious that is going right over my head?

Have you ever tried using anything other than the stone axe? Go find an iron vein and see how long it takes you to mine 6000 iron with a stone axe, then do the same thing with an iron pickaxe and compare the times. See how long it takes you to chop down 20 trees with a stone axe, then do the same with a fire axe. They're just not in the same league in terms of efficiency, and that's just iron.

So yeah, you're missing something obvious. The stone axe does everything, but it does everything badly. So why keep using it when there are better options?

[Katitoff]

Same reason you moved from walking to driving a bike to driving a car.
Its just more efficient once you can afford it and allows you to do much more in much shorter time.

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

eventually you'll replace it with a nail gun for around the base.
along with a steel axe and pick for travelling.
and you'll never regret it.

[CatPerson]

Over the years I think they also improved other gear so even a lvl1 iron shovel outstrips the lvl 5 stone axe in terms of block damage/swings to destroy. Although an iron shovel always swings more slowly/less attacks per minute, the timing is still faster.

My "problem" has always been not wanting the hotbar to be filled with a ton of tools. I don't want to feel like I "need" a shovel, pickaxe, hammer/drill, ratchet, two weapons and so on. Becomes annoying flopping between all of things all the time.

What I often end up doing is eventually putting all those mods into a ratchet/salvage tool. or whatever your pick is, and simply use that for everything most of the time, if running around looting/going through POI's etc, with maybe one repair tool on hand. Is that a bit slower on specific blocks, sure. But it's still decent all-purpose singular. If I'm planning on a long mining session I'd switch to a pickaxe tho.

[Serious]

Originally posted by Katitoff:

Same reason you moved from walking to driving a bike to driving a car.
Its just more efficient once you can afford it and allows you to do much more in much shorter time.

this

Just as example a 5000 hp crate needs ~100 hits from a good stone axe, but <10 from steel pick.
And with enough points into miner69 you won't need a stamina pause.
You don't need 5 minutes, but just 20 seconds.

[Macdallan]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

I mean... Going from swinging what feels like 50 times per block to 2 times or even 1 time per block is pretty huge. You can take better advantage of bonuses like the +100% mining gains candy too.

Some people do just use the stone axe forever. It's a bit of a mix in the community. Personally I always get the better tools; I'd rather waste the hotbar spots on specialization and do things in a timely manner than save 2 spaces and take 10-50x longer to do anything that requires me to break something.

There's the same issue of choice in normal tools vs gas tools; Some think the gas tools are must-haves, and some think they're worthless and overblown (I'm the latter in most cases.. There's specific usecases, but i'd never use the gas ones as a general use tool)

I try not to build a lot until I have a hammer. Two hits to upgrade 100 blocks instead of 3 hits means 100 less swings.

One reason I think a lot of folks stick with the stone axe is because can be repaired with a single stone - so it's a free repair and the repair takes about 1 second. Low stamina cost per swing, too.

[uni790]

For me it's speed, the stone axe take 20+ hits to get through a metal door, the steel pick takes 3, or 4, even the iron gets through in half the time or less the the stone axe does, and the hotbar has plenty of space for every tool and weapon you could ever want, along with medical items.

[CatPerson]

Maybe I should expand on my dislike for filling the hotbar with too many tools etc.

it's less that I mind the tools - it's more that I dislike the shape-selection process of blocks. It's great I can pick so many shapes, don't get me wrong, but it can be a long process when you're switching shape to shape or rotation to rotation. Since I build a lot, I tend to fill the hotbar with 2-4 blocks set to certain shapes so I don't have to keep re-setting those shapes. Personal quirk I guess. :P But I do also have this input delay issue in recent alpha's re; quickly cycling hotbar with mouse wheel wheel at times - I can cycle faster than the game registers it, causing misclicks - which is also aggravating.

The repair tool speed is a major factor re: swapping out stone axe now. I seem to recall a time when repair speed of stone axe was a bit better, but it's definitely very subpar these days vs. the other later options. In the long run the space of a nailgun which is mostly "repair only" is far preferable.

And as I already mentioned, a modded up salvage tool is a pretty good all-around general everything, if space/wanting more of an all-purpose is a consideration for someone, no matter the reason.

[JErosion]

Originally posted by CatPerson:

Maybe I should expand on my dislike for filling the hotbar with too many tools etc.

I'll keep an axe, a shovel and a salvaging tool on my hot bar, i trade out for a pickaxe, knife or building tool as needed

[Macdallan]

Originally posted by CatPerson:

...it's more that I dislike the shape-selection process of blocks. It's great I can pick so many shapes, don't get me wrong, but it can be a long process when you're switching shape to shape or rotation to rotation. Since I build a lot, I tend to fill the hotbar with 2-4 blocks set to certain shapes so I don't have to keep re-setting those shapes. Personal quirk I guess. :P But I do also have this input delay issue in recent alpha's re; quickly cycling hotbar with mouse wheel wheel at times - I can cycle faster than the game registers it, causing misclicks - which is also aggravating.

I miss the old block system. I feel like the new one is too slow and very clunky even though it has a large number of options.