Overview
A Golden Axe chops wood faster than any other axe in the game and then falls apart after 32 swings, which is the same bargain gold offers everywhere. Its mining multiplier of 12 beats netherite's 9, so with Efficiency V a golden axe drops a full tree almost as fast as you can move between the logs. Damage is a modest 7 — the same as wood — so it is not a weapon. The real argument for crafting one is gold's enchantability of 22, the highest in the game: at a level-30 table a golden axe rolls Efficiency V and Unbreaking III far more often than iron or diamond, and those enchantments can be pulled onto a book with a grindstone and moved to a tool that will actually survive the week. If you have a piglin bartering farm the ingots are effectively free, and there is a certain joy in a disposable axe that clears a build site in one burst. Just do not take one to the Nether expecting it to come home. Keep it at base, use it for one build session, and let it go without ceremony.
A short burst of extremely fast tree clearing, and cheap high-tier enchantment rolls that can be transferred to a durable tool with a grindstone and an anvil.
Golden Axe is one of the 6 variants of this shape in the game. What changes between them is the material, and with it the hardness, the drops, the durability and the recipe — so every figure on this page is this variant's own. Stone Axe is the same shape in a different material.
Golden Axe is a tool item in Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4. Durability is 32. An anvil plus Gold Ingot restores it; two worn copies can also be merged.
It can be enchanted, which is usually worth doing before heavy use. It is unstackable. You get it by killing Piglin Brute.
It is crafted from Gold Ingot and Stick. It goes into exactly one recipe: Gold Nugget.
About the golden tool set
How to get it
Craft 1 from 3 Gold Ingots and 2 Sticks. It breaks after 32 swings, but its mining multiplier of 12 is the fastest wood-cutting speed of any tier.
Tips
- Efficiency V on gold fells trees faster than netherite does — for exactly 32 blocks, then it is gone.
- Enchant gold, grindstone the enchantment into experience or an anvil transfer, and keep the good roll.
- Gold ingots barter with piglins for pearls, obsidian and fire charges, which is usually worth more.
- It deals only 7 damage, so keep a sword in the hotbar rather than treating it as a weapon.
Damage and attack speed
Golden Axe deals 7 damage per hit and swings 1 times a second, which works out at 7 damage per second when every swing is fully charged.
A swing that lands before the cooldown bar refills deals a fraction of that, so waiting for the bar is worth more than clicking faster.
That is 3 hits to kill a zombie or a creeper, the same for a skeleton, and 3 hits for a spider.
Properties
Golden Axe lasts 32 uses before it breaks, and Gold Ingot repairs it on an anvil. Two worn copies can also be merged, on an anvil or a grindstone. Unbreaking III roughly quadruples the lifespan, and Mending replaces the repair cost with experience. Its enchantability of 22 decides how good the enchanting table's offers are: the higher the number, the more often a level-30 table offers the top-tier enchantment rather than a weak one. Golden Axe does not stack — each one occupies an inventory slot of its own.
- Damage per second
- 7
- Enchantability
- 22
- Repaired with
- Gold Ingot
- Renewable
- Yes
- Category
- Tools
How it compares to the rest of the set
Every tier of axe in the game, side by side, so the trade-off is visible in one place: Golden Axe sits 4 of 6.
Gold is the outlier: it enchants better than anything else (enchantability 22) and breaks almost immediately, which is why gold gear is enchanted and then upgraded rather than used.
| Item | Durability | Attack damage | Attack speed | Enchantability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wooden Axe | 59 | 7 | 0.8 | 15 |
| Stone Axe | 131 | 9 | 0.8 | 5 |
| Iron Axe | 250 | 9 | 0.9 | 14 |
| Golden Axe | 32 | 7 | 1 | 22 |
| Diamond Axe | 1,561 | 9 | 1 | 10 |
| Netherite Axe | 2,031 | 10 | 1 | 15 |
Crafting recipe
Crafting Table
Golden Axe
Dropped by
1 mobs drop Golden Axe: Piglin Brute. Looting raises the maximum on most of them.
Used to craft
Golden Axe is an ingredient in 1 recipes, producing Gold Nugget.
Enchantments it can take
8 enchantments can be applied to Golden Axe: Bane of Arthropods, Efficiency, Fortune, Mending, Sharpness, Silk Touch, Smite, and Unbreaking.
Mending is a treasure enchantment and never appears at an enchanting table — they come from loot chests, fishing or villager trades only.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you make Golden Axe in Minecraft?
Golden Axe is crafted from Gold Ingot and Stick.
What is the stack size of Golden Axe?
Golden Axe does not stack at all. Every one you carry takes an inventory slot of its own, which is the practical limit on how many you take on a trip.
How much damage does Golden Axe do?
7 damage per fully charged hit, at 1 attacks per second — 7 damage per second. Sharpness V adds 3 damage on top of that, and Strength II adds 6 more.
How much durability does Golden Axe have?
Golden Axe has 32 durability, and can be repaired on an anvil with Gold Ingot.
Can Golden Axe be enchanted?
Yes — 8 enchantments apply to it, at an enchanting table with fifteen bookshelves, or from an enchanted book on an anvil. Mending is usually the one worth hunting for, because it removes the repair cost entirely.
The rest of the set
Golden Axe is one of 6 variants of the same shape. The others are made from different materials, so their numbers differ:
