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If you want to look at spreadsheet data yourself, look at this part of the spreadsheet (slightly outdated).

Pickaxe/Shovel/Axe/Mattock
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, as only speed/durability matter here. If ingots are in short supply, it's fine to hold off upgrading your shovel/axe/mattock. Don't upgrade a to pickaxe head you don't have the ability to repair.

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 - Slimy trait will occasionally spawn small slimes) > Bronze

LV

 * Head: Alumite
 * 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: Alumite/Steel > Bronze > Iron

LV

 * Head: Alumite/Bronze
 * Large Plates: Alumite, Iron
 * Tool Rod: 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 > Aeon Steel

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 ranged attacks 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 for all the early game needs.

Cleaver is not recommended to 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 better upgrades after Vanadiumsteel Blade in order of progression are Meteoric Steel (12 damage, early EV), Tungstensteel (14 damage, mid-EV), Palladium (16 damage, IV), Adamantium (19 damage, LuV), and Neutronium (20 damage, UV).

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
 * Body: 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

LuV

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

Modifiers
Here we'll discuss modifiers that more or less change completely on how your tool will function; some arguably a lot more important/meta for certain tools, which is detailed below.

Note that you can add three base modifier slots to all of your tools, and some loot bags have a chance to give you a Creative Tool Modifier for an additional slot:


 * Diamond + Gold Block
 * Golden Apple (enchanted) + Diamond Block
 * Nether Star

Pickaxe/Shovel/Axe

 * Redstone
 * Diamond

There are only two modifiers worth using early game - Redstone for faster mining, and optionally Diamond for upgrading your mining level so you can mine Obsidian if you didn't find any to upgrade to Alumite or above.

Reinforced or Moss are generally not worth it, largely due to the nature that the tools are incredibly easy to repair (typically 1-3 ingots to full durability) and you will generally get more than those ingots when mining.

Hammer

 * Redstone

The only modifier you will be putting on your hammer is Redstone. This is non-negotiable - hammers tremendously benefit from mining speed, which helps with fast-clearing veins. Hammers are already fat in durability and therefore don't really need any other modifiers.

Lapis is optional, however they only affect small ores from mining, which is probably good for very very few ores like Silver, though they spawn as ore in Twilight Forest and later on. Since miners later on will have in-built Fortune bonus, this modifier is effectively pointless once you get there and you'll only use it for base building.

Lumberaxe

 * Reinforced

The general strategy with lumberaxe (as mentioned above) is making them out of Netherrack and then cutting as many trees as possible to level them up before making them Unbreakable. After that you can put on whatever you want with it.

Excavator

 * Redstone
 * Reinforced

The idea is to max out Redstone until you can basically one-tick blocks, which occur at 22 mining speed. After that, use Reinforced.

Broadsword/Rapier/Cleaver/any melee weapon

 * Quartz
 * Beheading (maybe)

Virtually every other modifier is terrible in comparison to Quartz for more damage on these weapons. Beheading is only an option if you want to improve chance on Cleavers for heads if you do not want to bother with Thaumcraft for Skullfire Sword.

Crossbow

 * Redstone
 * Lapis
 * Diamond (optional)
 * Reinforced

In that order. You want to hit a 0.25 draw speed on your Crossbow ASAP, which effectively turns it into a gun turret. Afterwards, you can apply Lapis on it for Fortune bonus; this will also apply to your Bolt for kills.

After the modifiers, you can add a Diamond if you are using a Carbon limb to help with durability, or stack Reinforceds on it after everything else.

Note that every other modifier (such as Quartz) only works if you use the Crossbow as a melee weapon, so don't bother putting them on!

Bolt

 * Moss
 * Quartz

This is the only Tinker's tool where it's recommended to use 2x Moss on your Bolt, which work really well with it once you have a maximized draw speed on your Crossbow for faster regen. You'll have one Moss from one of the early quests - definitely use it on here once you get it. For a second Moss, you will have to do some research in Thaumcraft on GTNH tab - it's an Infusion recipe, so it may be a while for you to get a second one. Alternatively, opening early game loot bags has a chance to give a Pierce bolt which has an innate Moss and Diamond (plus extra modifier slots) but that's more or less RNG.

After that, spam Quartz on it for more damage. Keep doing it until you get 200 hearts of damage - then add more Quartz!