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The following table summarizes the damage that swords of different materials inflict. Enchantments can change these statistics.

Critical hits add a damage bonus of 50%, before sword enchantments.
Material Wooden Golden Stone Iron Diamond
Damage 5 (Heart.svgHeart.svgHalf Heart.svg) 5 (Heart.svgHeart.svgHalf Heart.svg) 6 (Heart.svgHeart.svgHeart.svg) 7 (Heart.svgHeart.svgHeart.svgHalf Heart.svg) 8 (Heart.svgHeart.svgHeart.svgHeart.svg)
Approx. Lifetime Number of Kills 15–24 8–13 39–66 87–138 624–1015
Lifetime Damage Inflicted 300–480 points
(150–240 × Heart.svg) 165–264 points
(82–132 × Heart.svg) 792–1320 points
(396–660 × Heart.svg) 1757–2761 points
(878–1380 × Heart.svg) 12,496–20,306 points
(6248–10,153 × Heart.svg)

The formula to find the minimum of the total lifetime damage is Durability × Damage per hit = Lifetime damage minimum. The formula to find the maximum is Durability × Critical Hits = Lifetime damage maximum.

In 1.9[upcoming], damage done when using a sword as a weapon has changed. Swords have an attack speed modifier of -2.4, meaning they take about 0.63 seconds to recover.
Attack speed Attack damage Damage/Second (DPS)
1.6

4 (Heart.svgHeart.svg)
5 (Heart.svgHeart.svgHalf Heart.svg)
6 (Heart.svgHeart.svgHeart.svg)
7 (Heart.svgHeart.svgHeart.svgHalf Heart.svg)

6.4
8
9.6
11.2

If attacking with a sword while moving at walking speed or slower, enemies near the hit enemy will be knocked back and damaged by 1 (Half Heart.svg) from the slashing attack. The amount of knockback is 80% that of the knockback due to Knockback I, and does not benefit from that enchantment. All enemies within 1 block horizontally and 0.25 blocks vertically of any part of the attacked mob and within 3 blocks of the player will be knocked back.
Sword breaking times
Main article: Breaking

A sword can also be used to destroy certain blocks more quickly than with fists. Using a sword to destroy any block that doesn't break instantly decreases its durability by 2.

The following table shows the time it takes to break blocks on which swords have any effect. Colors indicate what will be dropped:

White: an original block.
Blue: block's normal drop (e.g. seeds, sapling, apple).
Red: nothing.

Block Fists Sword Proper/fastest tool

Cobweb 20 s 0.4 s
0.4 s

Jack o'Lantern 1.5 s 1 s
0.125 – 0.75 s

Melon 1.5 s 1 s
0.125 – 0.75 s

Pumpkin 1.5s 1 s
0.125 – 0.75 s

Cocoa 0.3s 0.2s
0.025 – 0.15 s

Leaves 0.3 s 0.2 s
0.02s

Vines 0.3 s 0.2 s
0.025 – 0.15 s

0.02 s
Enchantments

Swords can receive the following enchantments:

Fire Aspect
Looting
Unbreaking
Sharpness[note 1]
Smite[note 1]
Bane of Arthropods[note 1]
Knockback

Notes

Sharpness, Smite, and Bane of Arthropods are mutually exclusive.

Data values
ID
Item ID Name Numerical ID
Wooden Sword wooden_sword 268
Stone Sword stone_sword 272
Iron Sword iron_sword 267
Diamond Sword diamond_sword 276
Golden Sword golden_sword 283
Video
Achievements
Main article: Achievements
Icon Achievement In-game description Prerequisites Actual requirements (if different) Version restriction Xbox points earned Trophy type (PS)
Achievement-plain.png
Time to Strike! Use planks and sticks to make a sword Benchmarking Pick up any type of sword from a crafting table output. None 10G Bronze
Achievement-fancy.png
Overkill Deal nine hearts of damage in a single hit Enchanter Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have nine hearts of health overall. PC, Xbox and Windows 10 30G N/A
History
Indev
0.31 January 29, 2010 Added craftable swords.
Alpha
1.2.0 Zombie pigmen added, holding golden swords.
Beta
1.2 Swords, like all tools, have more durability.
1.5 All melee attacks, including fists, did 1 (Half Heart.svg) more damage, making the stone sword arguably nearly as effective as the iron one as it kills most mobs in the same number of hits. If the player combines swordplay with archery, the iron sword's extra damage will save some arrows and closely matches performance with the diamond sword.
1.7.3 All melee attacks no longer do an extra 1 (Half Heart.svg) of damage.
1.8 Added the ability to block, giving the player more options in combat.
Swords no longer inflict more damage than bows.
Official release
1.0.0 Beta 1.9-pre3 Swords have been nerfed to make way for enchanting. A diamond sword now deals 7 (Heart.svgHeart.svgHeart.svgHalf Heart.svg) damage instead of 10 (Heart.svgHeart.svgHeart.svgHeart.svgHeart.svg).
Beta 1.9-pre4 Swords can now be enchanted in the enchantment table.
1.2.1 12w06a One has a rare chance to obtain iron swords by killing zombies and golden swords from zombie pigmen from the addition of rare drops. These swords have a 20% chance of being enchanted.
1.3.1 12w21a With the trading implementation, you can sell renewable items such as wheat to buy a diamond sword. This makes all swords renewable.
1.4.2 12w32a Zombies may sometimes wield iron swords, dealing extra damage.
12w34a If you have dyed leather armor equipped and selected a sword of any kind, it will appear the color of the dye applied to the armor, when switching to second or third person view.
12w36a Wither skeletons added, holding stone swords.
1.4.6 12w49a You can apply Unbreaking to a sword with an enchanted book.
1.6.1 13w25b In Creative mode, swords no longer break blocks, and no sound will play when they're hit with one.
1.6.2 Instead of replacing the barehanded damage (1 (Half Heart.svg)), swords now add their damage onto the barehanded damage, which results in all swords doing 1 (Half Heart.svg) more damage than before.
Upcoming
1.9 15w31a Enchanted iron and diamond swords can now be found in end city ship chests.
15w33c Swords no longer block attacks. Instead, shields are used.
15w34b Swords now use the attack speed attribute. The attack speed of a sword is 1.25 or 0.8 seconds.
15w34c Swords now do one less damage and have an attack speed of 1.45, or 0.69 seconds.
Swords can now do a sweep attack when moving at walking speed or slower, which will knock back mobs near the one hit. The attack speed meter must be filled for it to work.
15w37a Swords now have an attack speed of 1.6, or 0.63 seconds.
15w43a Decreased average yield of golden swords in nether fortress chests.
15w49a Sweep attack now does 1 (Half Heart.svg) damage to affected mobs.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.2.0 Added stone swords.
0.3.0 Added wooden swords.
0.3.2 Added diamond, iron and gold swords.
0.11.0 build 11 Wooden, stone, golden, and diamond swords are now available in the creative inventory.
build 12 Removed wooden, stone, golden, and diamond swords from creative.
build 13 All swords are available in creative mode again.
0.12.1 build 1 In Creative mode, swords no longer break blocks, and no sound will play when they're hit with one.
Console Edition
TU1 CU1 1.0 Added swords (all five types).
TU5 Added the ability to block, giving the player more options in combat.
Pi Edition
0.1.1 Added iron swords.

ObtainingNatural generation

Wooden pickaxes can be found in 55.7% of bonus chests in groups of 1. In 1.9,[upcoming] wooden pickaxes can be found in 75.0% of bonus chests in groups of 1.

Stone pickaxes can be found in 38.1% of bonus chests in groups of 1. In 1.9,[upcoming] stone pickaxes can be found in 25.0% of bonus chests in groups of 1.

Iron pickaxes can be found in 12.2% of stronghold altar chests, 26.0% of village blacksmith chests, 5.5% of chest minecarts in abandoned mine shafts, and 4.0% of stronghold storeroom chests, all in groups of 1. In 1.9,[upcoming] iron pickaxes can be found in 12.2% of stronghold altar chests, 26.0% of village blacksmith chests, 7.0% of chest minecarts in abandoned mine shafts, and 4.0% of stronghold storeroom chests, all in groups of 1.

In 1.9,[upcoming] enchanted iron pickaxes can be found in 13.4% of End city chests in groups of 1.[upcoming]

In 1.9,[upcoming] enchanted diamond pickaxes can be found in 13.4% of End city chests in groups of 1.[upcoming]

Trading

Tool Smith villagers sell enchanted iron pickaxes for 9–11 emeralds as one of their second tier trades, and enchanted diamond pickaxes for 12–15 emeralds as one of their third tier trades. The enchantments will be the same as might be obtained from an enchantment table at levels 5–19.

Crafting

Pickaxes are crafted using 2 sticks and 3 units of a tool material.

Stick +
Wood Planks,
Cobblestone,
Iron Ingot,
Gold Ingot, or
Diamond

Damaged Wooden Pickaxe or
Damaged Stone Pickaxe or
Damaged Iron Pickaxe or
Damaged Golden Pickaxe or
Damaged Diamond Pickaxe

The durability of the two pickaxes is added together, plus an extra 5% durability.

Usage

A pickaxe is used to break stone and metal based materials faster. When a block is broken using a pickaxe, the pickaxe takes 1 damage. Pickaxes have different amounts of uses based on the type:

Different qualities of pickaxe are required to successfully harvest certain ores and blocks. For example, while stone can be mined with any pickaxe, gold ore must be mined with an iron or diamond pickaxe, or else the player will harvest no ore. Different pickaxes also mine many materials at different speeds (see the speed table below).

Weapon

If you hit a mob while holding a pickaxe, it increases your attack damage. Pickaxes take 2 damage when used as a weapon. They deal different damage based on the type:

In 1.9[upcoming], damage done when using a pickaxe as a weapon has decreased. Pickaxes have an attack speed modifier of -2.8, meaning they take about 0.83 seconds to recover.