Tiers

Tiers refer to the different levels and materials of tools and weapons.

Tiers

There are currently seven tiers in the game: wood, gold, stone, copper, iron, diamond, and netherite. The tier of an item determines its mining level, durability, mining efficiency, damage bonus, enchantability, and repair item. Note that all items in Bedrock Edition have 1 more durability than listed.

Tier name	Mining level	Durability	Mining efficiency	Damage bonus	Enchantability	Repair item
Wood	0	59	2	0	15	Planks
Gold		32	12		22 (25 on armor)	Gold Ingot
Stone	1	131	4	1	5	Cobbled Deepslate Cobblestone Blackstone
Copper		191	5		13 (8 on armor)	Copper Ingot
Iron	2	250	6	2	14 (9 on armor)	Iron Ingot
Diamond	3	1561	8	3	10	Diamond
Netherite	4	2031	9	4	15	Netherite Ingot

Mining level

Mining level is an internal numeric value used by pickaxes that represents an additional restriction to whether or not blocks drop anything when mined, in addition to requiring the correct tool type. While it is used only by pickaxes, other tools have mining level values internally that match their tier.

A block with the tag minecraft:needs_stone_tool requires a mining level of 1 or higher, a block with the tag minecraft:needs_iron_tool requires a mining level of 2 or higher, and a block with the tag minecraft:needs_diamond_tool requires a tool with mining level 3 or higher. If a block has no mining level tags, it can be mined with a mining level of 0. There is an unused 4th mining level with the tag minecraft:needs_netherite_tool.

For a table of which mining level every block has, see Breaking § Best tools. The "Metal" and "Rock" categories are split by mining level.

Affected items

All of the swords, axes, pickaxes, shovels, hoes, and spears use tiers.

History

Java Edition

Java Edition Indev
0.31			20100131				Tier system for wooden, stone, iron, diamond, and gold tools added. Each tier has a different mining speed multiplier and durability. Swords also have a different damage bonus.
			20100201-2227				Added mining levels. Before this update, blocks and ores could be broken by hand.
			20100202-4				All tools can now be used to hit mobs. Damage bonuses apply to all tools instead of just swords.
20100206-2034							Added hoes. Since they did not mine any block types faster, the only differences between each tier were their durability and their damage bonus.
Java Edition Infdev
20100313							The durability of diamond-tier items has been increased from 257 to 513.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.3							The durability of diamond-tier items has been increased to 1025.
Java Edition Beta
1.2							The durability of wood, stone, iron, and diamond tier items have been increased to about twice the previous value.
							The mining speed multiplier of gold-tier items has been increased to 12.​[more information needed]
Java Edition
1.0.0			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3				Added the enchanting system. Each tier has a different level of enchantability.
1.4.2			12w41a				Added the ability to repair items in an anvil. Each tier requires a different material to be used.
1.9			15w35a				Damage bonuses no longer apply to hoes.
1.13.1			18w30b				The durability of all tiers has been decreased by one due to the fix of MC-120664.
1.16			20w06a				Netherite tools added to tier system.
			20w09a				Hoes can now break certain block types more quickly, making them affected by mining speed multipliers.
			20w22a				Blackstone can now be used to repair stone-tier items.
1.16.2			20w29a				Tools are now sorted based on their tier in the creative inventory.
1.17			21w07a				Grimstone (now called "Deepslate") can now be used to repair stone-tier items.
			21w08a				Cobbled deepslate is now used to repair stone-tier items instead of regular deepslate.
1.21.9			25w31a				Copper tools added to tier system.
1.21.11			25w41a				Added spears, which use the tier system.

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.2.0							Added stone-tier items. They have infinite durability.
v0.3.0							Added mining levels. Before this update, blocks and ores could be broken by hand.
							Added wooden-tier items. They have 11 durability.
							Stone-tier items' durability has been decreased to 132 uses.
v0.3.2							Added diamond, gold, and iron tier items.
v0.3.3							The durabilities of all tiers have been increased to match Java Edition. The durability of gold tools was not increased, but they were given a speed boost.
v0.4.0							Added hoes. Since they did not mine any block types faster, the only differences between each tier were their durability and their damage bonus.
v0.12.1			build 1				Added the ability to repair items in an anvil. Each tier requires a different material to be used.
							Added the enchanting system. Each tier has a different level of enchantability.
Bedrock Edition
1.16.0			beta 1.16.0.51				Netherite tools added to tier system.
1.17.0			beta 1.17.0.52				Cobblestone and cobbled deepslate can now be used to repair stone-tier items.
							Stone can no longer be used to repair stone-tier items.
1.21.100 Experiment Drop 3 2025			Preview 1.21.100.23				Copper tools added to tier system.
1.21.130			Preview 1.21.130.20				Added spears, which use the tier system.

Legacy Console Edition

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU1	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Tier system for wooden, stone, iron, diamond, and gold tools added.​[more information needed]
TU14		1.04					Added the ability to repair items in an anvil. Each tier requires a different material to be used.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Tier system for wooden, stone, iron, diamond, and gold tools added.

See also

• Armor materials
• Materials