Terraria Mining Guide: Best Ores, Pickaxes and Mining Strategies

Mining is the backbone of Terraria progression. Every weapon upgrade, every armor set, and every boss fight runs through the ores buried beneath your feet — and getting to those ores requires the right pickaxe first. This guide covers the complete pickaxe and ore progression from your first wooden pickaxe all the way to the Picksaw, plus the strategies and shortcuts that make every ore run faster.

New to the game? Start with our Terraria beginner’s guide for your first night and first boss. For the full game roadmap including where mining fits into every phase, see our Terraria progression guide.

The Mining Loop: Why Pickaxe Power Matters

Terraria’s mining system is built on a bootstrap sequence: higher-tier ores require a better pickaxe to mine, and that pickaxe is crafted from the previous tier’s ores. This creates a gate-locked progression system where you literally cannot reach the next ore tier without first mining the current one.

Every pickaxe in the game has a pickaxe power rating. Certain ores have a minimum pickaxe power requirement — try to mine Obsidian with a 55% pickaxe and it does nothing. The sequence works like this:

1. Mine Tier N ore with your current pickaxe
2. Smelt ore into bars, craft the Tier N pickaxe
3. That pickaxe’s higher power unlocks access to Tier N+1 ore
4. Repeat until you reach the current content ceiling

Understanding pickaxe power percentages tells you exactly which ores you can and can’t mine at any point in the game — and where the critical shortcuts are.

Pre-Hardmode Pickaxe Tier List

Pre-Hardmode has seven pickaxe tiers. Most players grind through all of them in sequence, but as you’ll see in the Reaver Shark section below, there is a significant shortcut available early that skips most of the grind.

The Gold Pickaxe Milestone

Reaching 100% power with the Gold or Platinum Pickaxe opens up two important ore tiers. Meteorite falls from the sky after you destroy your first Shadow Orb or Crimson Heart — a meteorite crater appears and the ore is available to mine directly. Demonite or Crimtane ore spawns in underground veins in your world’s evil biome, and also drops from the Eater of Worlds or Brain of Cthulhu bosses. Both ores are essential for the pre-HM gear push before the Wall of Flesh.

The Molten Pickaxe is the most important pre-HM pickaxe unlock: at 150% power, it is the first pickaxe that can mine Hellstone in the Underworld. Hellstone Bars are used to craft Molten Armor — the best pre-HM armor set — plus the Fiery Greatsword and the Imp Staff. Getting there requires a bootstrapping trick: use Bombs to blast Hellstone and collect drops, since explosion damage bypasses pickaxe power requirements. Smelt the Hellstone Bars at a Hellforge, craft the Molten Pickaxe, then mine freely.

The Reaver Shark Fishing Shortcut

The Reaver Shark is a pickaxe obtained as a rare fishing catch in any ocean biome or far offshore — available from the very start of pre-Hardmode. At 100% pickaxe power, it matches the Gold Pickaxe exactly and functions as a complete replacement for the Iron, Silver, and Gold pickaxe tiers.

What makes this powerful: dedicated fishing in the ocean can yield the Reaver Shark within your first in-game day. Instead of grinding four ore tiers progressively, you fish once and arrive at 100% power before touching a cave. From there, mine Meteorite immediately after your first Shadow Orb or Crimson Heart, skip straight to Demonite or Crimtane farming, and begin the push toward Hellstone without the intermediate grind.

How to get the Reaver Shark:

• Craft or find any Fishing Rod (even the Reinforced Fishing Pole works)
• Stock up on bait with at least 15% bait power (Fireflies, Worms, or Daybloom bait)
• Fish in the ocean biome — the large water bodies at the far edges of your world
• Alternatively, fish far enough offshore in surface water that reads as “Ocean”
• Reaver Shark appears in ocean fishing loot tables throughout pre-Hardmode

One important limitation: the Reaver Shark is a 100% pickaxe, not 150%. It cannot mine Hellstone. After grabbing it, your next target is still the Molten Pickaxe via the bomb-mining bootstrapping method. But for everything between starting equipment and Hellstone, the Reaver Shark is the single most efficient route to maximum pre-HM mining power.

Hardmode Pickaxe Progression

Defeating the Wall of Flesh and entering Hardmode resets the mining challenge entirely. Three new ore tiers spawn across the world in large blotches and each one requires a progressively stronger pickaxe. The Hardmode bootstrap sequence follows the same principle as pre-HM but moves faster — each ore tier is unlocked within a few mining sessions rather than hours of grinding.

For a full breakdown of the Wall of Flesh fight and your first priorities once Hardmode begins, see our Terraria hardmode guide.

Drax vs. Pickaxe: Which Should You Use?

Drills and pickaxes at the same power tier mine at identical speeds in most conditions. The practical difference: drills mine faster when aimed precisely at a single block, while pickaxes offer better area coverage through their swing arc and can hit multiple adjacent blocks in one motion. For targeted ore vein mining, most players prefer pickaxes. For tunneling and carving out large spaces, drills edge ahead in efficiency.

The Drax (officially the Pickaxaxe — with two “axe”s) is notable because it is obtained from Hallowed Bars dropped by mechanical bosses rather than ore crafting. This means you can unlock 200% pickaxe power as a boss reward while still actively mining Adamantite or Titanium ore. It also functions as an axe for tree chopping, combining two tools in one slot.

Chlorophyte: Best Non-Endgame Pickaxe

Chlorophyte Ore is unique in Hardmode — it grows and spreads through mud in the Underground Jungle biome once Hardmode activates. Mining it requires the Adamantite or Titanium Drill at 200% power, but the investment pays off. The Chlorophyte Pickaxe mines at 200% power with faster base speed than the Adamantite Drill, making it the most efficient pre-endgame pickaxe available. Farm the Underground Jungle after defeating Plantera for the best yield — Chlorophyte density increases significantly in Plantera’s post-defeat state.

Mining Strategies That Actually Work

Better pickaxe power gets you access to new ores, but the right technique determines how fast you actually find them. These are the proven methods that cut ore hunt time dramatically.

Spelunker Potion: Use It Every Time

The Spelunker Potion is the single most powerful mining aid in the game. While active, it highlights all ores, treasure chests, Life Crystals, and other buried items through surrounding stone — turning invisible ore veins into bright golden beacons visible from across a cave system. A 30-minute ore hunt without Spelunker becomes a 5-minute collecting run with it.

Craft Spelunker Potions at a Placed Bottle using Bottled Water + Blinkroot + Moonglow + one Gold or Platinum Ore. The ore cost is minimal, and the time savings on every ore session make it one of the highest return-on-investment items in the game. Brew a full stack before every cave session — no exceptions.

Mining Armor Speed Bonus

The Mining Armor set (Mining Helmet + Mining Shirt + Mining Pants) provides a combined 30% mining speed bonus as its set effect. It is crafted from Copper or Tin Bars and has negligible defense, so only equip it during dedicated ore runs when you are not expecting combat. For pure ore gathering sessions with Spelunker active, the speed bonus meaningfully reduces time per vein.

Dangersense Potion for Safe Mining

Underground cave systems are laced with traps — boulder traps, dart traps, and spike floors that can kill you before you see them. The Dangersense Potion highlights all nearby traps through walls, the same way Spelunker highlights ores. Craft from Bottled Water + Cobweb + Shiverthorn. Running Dangersense alongside Spelunker in unfamiliar cave systems eliminates most trap-related deaths on ore runs.

Mine in Horizontal Layers at Ore Depth

Random cave exploration is the least efficient mining approach. Instead, dig horizontal tunnels at the specific depth band where your target ore spawns. Each ore has a vertical band in the world (see the table below) — a horizontal shaft through that band will intersect every vein in that column. With Spelunker active, you spot each vein through the walls before you reach it and take the shortest path to collect it. This method reduces ore hunt time by 40–60% compared to random exploration.

World Tier Depths: Where Each Ore Spawns

Ore spawn depths vary slightly by world size (small, medium, large), but the general depth bands are consistent across all worlds:

Frequently Asked Questions

What pickaxe do I need to mine Hellstone?

The Molten Pickaxe at 150% power is the minimum required to mine Hellstone. The Gold Pickaxe and Reaver Shark (both 100% power) do not work on Hellstone blocks. Since the Molten Pickaxe is itself crafted from Hellstone Bars, the standard bootstrapping method is to use Bombs to blast Hellstone in the Underworld, collect the dropped bars, then craft and equip the Molten Pickaxe before continuing to mine normally.

Is it worth farming the Reaver Shark early?

Yes, for most playthroughs. The Reaver Shark skips three pickaxe tiers (Iron → Silver → Gold) and reaches 100% power faster than grinding the full ore sequence. With a decent rod and 35%+ bait in the ocean, you can realistically catch one within the first few in-game hours. The total time spent fishing is almost always less than the time spent mining through three intermediate ore tiers, especially on your first playthrough when you are not speed-running ore routes.

What is the strongest pickaxe in Terraria?

The Picksaw at 230% power is the strongest obtainable pickaxe in standard progression. It drops from Golem — the post-Plantera boss in the Jungle Temple — and mines all blocks including Lihzahrd Bricks. The Luminite Pickaxes crafted from Moon Lord drops are 225% power, slightly below the Picksaw, but have comparable mining speed. For endgame mining, the Picksaw remains the go-to tool until Luminite gear is fully assembled.

Sources

• Terraria Wiki — Pickaxe
• Terraria Wiki — Getting Started Guide
• The Gamer — Terraria Mining Guide

Michael R.

I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.