Tinkers Tools

This page provides data and information about the tinkers tools.

If you want to look at spreadsheet data yourself, look at this part of the spreadsheet.

The following lists recommended materials over some tiers for some tools, more should follow over time.

Pickaxe/Shovel/Axe
General rule of thumb for pickaxes is to use the head with the best mining level you can get. You can more or less follow similarly with shovels/axes, only speed/durability matter here.

Steam

 * Head: Bronze
 * Binding: Any (Any material you want, this only adds the trait and has NO other effect)
 * Tool Rod: Slime Crystal (requires an Alloy Smelter, slime - find that island!) > Bronze

LV

 * Head: Alumite, Cobalt (post-Electric Blast Furnace. Can only smelt ingots in Tinker's Smeltery, but afterwards can be cast into parts)
 * Binding: Any (Paper or Thaumium add an extra modifier, which is given as a quest reward also. Paper/Thaumium parts are made in the part builder)
 * Tool Rod: Slime Crystal > Alumite/Steel > Bronze. If you don't care about durability, you can use Thaumium for the extra modifier (does not stack with Thaumium binding).

MV

 * Cobalt Head, Vanadiumsteel (post MV extruder)
 * Binding: Paper or Thaumium
 * Reinforced Tool Rod (The metal "Reinforced Ingot", requires an implosion compressor or luck from loot bags) > Damascus Steel > Vanadiumsteel, or stick with Thaumium

After that
Energetic Alloy, Vibrant Alloy, or most other GT metals are good upgrades for later on, but by then you will be using the tools exclusively for base building. Later on you can make a Vajra which essentially acts as all tools plus GT tools in one and insta-mines blocks.

Hammer/Lumberaxe/Excavator
Hammers should be rushed ASAP as it will greatly speed up your mining.

Which large plates and head you use are very important, as they all impact your Hammer's durability and mining speed (i.e using large plates with worse mining speed will lower your actual hammer's mining speed; likewise with durability). Early game you can take advantage of this by using worse large plates with a decent head, minimizing the experience needed to level up your hammer (more durability on the tool will have higher experience requirements to level). If you would prefer to not repair too much (aka use the highest durability) then you can just use the best material for your tier, at the cost of leveling it slower.

For Lumberaxes and Excavators, you can use the same materials as the Hammer, as mining speed/durability of a mix tends to be important here. However, since dirt/sand or logs have no mining level, it is a common strategy to build your initial Excavator/Lumberaxes solely out of Netherrack, using the minimal least durability. This allows you to speed-level your tools extremely quickly, using either Haste or Reinforced modifiers to level/use longer faster. You can quickly max your Lumberaxe by chopping in forests, and you can replace the tool parts with ease. When you get a MV Extruder, you can slap on Perditio Large Plates for faster mining/lowest durability.

Steam

 * Head: Alumite (if you can afford steel/aluminum) or Bronze (common)
 * Large Plates: Alumite (high durability), iron (worst durability for faster leveling)
 * Tool Rod: Slime Crystal > Alumite/Steel > Bronze > Iron

LV

 * Head: Alumite/Bronze, Cobalt (post Electric Blast Furnace)
 * Large Plates: Cobalt > Alumite, Iron
 * Tool Rod: Slime Crystal > Alumite/Steel > Bronze > Iron

MV

 * Head: Cobalt, Vanadiumsteel (post MV extruder)
 * Large Plates: You can use either Vanadiumsteel (good balance of durability/mining speed) or Perditio (very low durability but high mining speed)
 * Tool Rod: Reinforced Ingot > Damascus Steel > Vanadiumsteel

After that
You should be switching to at least MV+ miners, which will do the mining for you without user input. At that point, you'll be using your hammer mostly for base building.

Broadsword/Rapier/Cleaver
Broadsword is more or less an early game sword which becomes replaceable quickly by Crossbow in terms of total damage starting in LV from there. There are some certain cases where you will have to use a melee sword, such as Withers when they have protection from crossbows on, or against Vengenance mobs or Witch spiders. Rapiers are okay in that their damage goes through armor, which can be particularly effective vs some bosses like Lich, but Broadsword does just fine.

Cleaver is not recommended to generally make, as its damage is poor in comparison to Crossbow. You'd only ideally make one for the Beheading bonus (Cleaver comes with innate 20% Beheading chance) which you will likely make in HV-tier due to the NASA Workbench requiring 9 Nether Stars, which require Wither kills. If you are at this point, you can make the MV one identically; large plates only affect durability and speed, so it doesn't matter what you want to use here. It is recommended to make a Skullfire Sword instead of a Cleaver as they guarantee 3 Wither Skeleton heads on every regular Skeleton kill, but this path requires some Thaumcraft progression (up to the Infusion altar).

Every other weapon not mentioned aren't known to be strong/meta, mostly a meme, or impossible to make in a Tool Forge (i.e. Katanas which you can only get from loot bags).

Steam/LV

 * Blade: Alumite (2 damage) > Bronze/Iron (1.5 damage)
 * Binding: Any with Reinforced or bonus modifier (Paper/Thaumium)
 * Tool Rod: Slime Crystal (or the best durability multiplier you can find) > Wood

MV

 * Blade: Vanadiumsteel (7 damage, post MV Extruder)
 * Binding: Thaumium
 * Tool Rod: Reinforced Ingot > Damascus Steel > Vanadiumsteel

The only better upgrades after Vanadiumsteel Blade in order of progression are Meteoric Steel (12 damage, EV-tier post-moon), Tungstensteel (14 damage, mid-EV), Neutronium and Infinity (20 and 25 damage respectively, both very late game).

Crossbow
Like most tools, binding only give its trait, so you would use the highest reinforced stat possible (obsidian) or free modifier (thaumium). Paper tough binding is not possible to make, so only use these two.

Steam

 * You can only make a crossbow once you have access to the Tool Forge, at that point you should be more or less close to LV. Invest in a hammer instead of a crossbow
 * If you still want one, you can follow the quests where it tells you to make a wooden crossbow in Steam page after Tool Forge, but not recommended. A broadsword will be fine for your early game needs though.

LV

 * Limb: Carbon
 * Bowstring: Fiery (Spiders in Nether drops them like candy)
 * Binding: Obsidian or Thaumium
 * Body: Slime Crystal > Wooden

MV

 * Limb: Carbon
 * Bowstring: Fiery
 * Binding: Thaumium
 * Body: Reinforced Ingot (requires implosion compressor) > Damascus Steel > Vanadiumsteel (post MV extruder)

HV

 * Limb: Energetic Alloy
 * Bowstring: Fiery
 * Binding: Thaumium
 * Body: Reinforced Ingot > Damascus Steel > Vanadiumsteel

IV

 * Limb: Osmiridium
 * Bowstring: Fiery
 * Binding: Thaumium
 * Reinforced Ingot > Damascus Steel > Vanadiumsteel

After that

 * Upgrade the head to Infinity.


 * Upgrade body to:

In that order at any point when you feel like it and have access to the material, only changes durability. (durability multiplication modifier)
 * 1) Neutronium
 * 2) Draconium
 * 3) Trinium
 * 4) Awakened Draconium
 * 5) Infinity

Crossbow Bolts
Rule of thumb is "highest damage tip material with the lightest rod". You'll be using Slimeleaf fletching for all bolts.

With the Tinker's Smeltery you can cast only some basic materials such as Iron directly on a tool rod placed on the casting table, tipping the rod with the same metal. For higher tier of tips, you will need a MV fluid solidifier.

You can upgrade the bolt by using a tool rod tipped with any metal, replacing the tool rod and/or tip with whatever you want via a Crafting Station or a Tool Forge.

Steam

 * The quest asks you to make an iron tipped wooden rod that you can use the Smeltery to make, although still not recommended here.

LV

 * Tool Rod: Slime Crystal
 * Tip: Alumite
 * Fletching: Slimeleaf

MV

 * Tool Rod: Carbon
 * Tip: Vanadiumsteel
 * Fletching: Slimeleaf

HV

 * Tool Rod: Energetic Alloy
 * Tip: Meteoric Steel (post Moon, NOT Meteoric Iron!), Vanadiumsteel
 * Fletching: Slimeleaf

EV/IV

 * Tool Rod: Energetic Alloy
 * Tip: Palladium
 * Fletching: Slimeleaf

Modifiers
Keep in mind that you can always make a new tool, especially in or after MV, at this point you get access to better materials and machines.

So, you can always just make new pickaxe for example, just for base building in case your main pick is too fast and annoying.

Pickaxe
Redstone until you hit 30 mining level, don't go above that, it'll get annoying when base building.

(You'll switch to a hammer anyways so just stick with it until then)

Lapis, after redstone, don't bother before you have enough speed.

No Diamond.

Emerald might be acceptable, depends on you and if you have enough modifiers for it.

No Moss.

Reinforced X once you get everything else.

Hammer
Redstone only, you'll only use it for mining.

Lapis once you can mine normal stone like netherrack.

NO Diamond.

No Emerald, only if you're feeling funny.

No Moss.

No Reinforced.

Lumberaxe
No Redstone.

No Lapis.

No Diamond.

No Emerald.

No Moss.

Reinforced X, then you can do what you want with it. (use rainforest oak to get it to 10)

Shovel
Redstone until around 22 mining speed, at this point you can instantly mine dirt, sand, gravel, etc. You could add more but you don't have to.

No Lapis.

No Diamond.

No Emerald.

No Moss

Reinforced after everything else

Excavator
Redstone only.

No Lapis needed.

No Diamond.

No Emerald.

No Moss.

Maybe Reinforced after Redstone, probably still not worth it.

Crossbow
Redstone only.

Lapis once you hit 0.25 drawspeed.

No Quartz. Only affects melee damage.

No Diamond.

No Emerald.

Maybe Moss later once you have everything else.

No Reinforced, takes to many modifier slots.

No Beheading, melee only.

No Knockback, maybe once you have everything, only adds melee knockback.

No Fiery, melee only.

No Lifesteal, maybe once you have everything, melee only.

Bolt
Moss, add two, until you can craft Moss you add the one you got from the quest.

Quartz only.

No Diamond, waste of modifiers.

Maybe Emerald, once you do enough (>200 hearts maybe?) damage, just add more quartz lol.

Maybe Smite if you plan on killing a lot of undead stuff.

Based on current knowledge no other modifiers do anything on bolts (or don't do anything usefull), if you know some more modifiers that actually do something, tell MrJakobLaich or add them here yourself.

To be extended at some point.