Iron Pickaxe

Overview

An iron pickaxe that makes mining ore much easier.

Iron Pickaxe is the Foothills-tier mining tool in Windrose. Its item description flags it as a pickaxe that makes mining ore much easier, which is the in-game way of saying it is the specific tool the Sulfur route needs. That makes it one of the cleanest single-craft progression milestones in the game.

Item Info

Crafting

Loot Sources

Similar to the Iron Axe, one Iron Pickaxe is handed to players as a guaranteed drop from the Highlands Start Chest equip slot. This functions as a scripted starter cache for the Highlands biome rather than a reliable farming target, but it is useful for any player who skipped the Foothills iron-smelting detour.

Vendor Availability

The Iron Pickaxe is not bought or sold by any vendor. The tool is either crafted at a Workbench Lvl 2 or recovered from the Highlands Start Chest.

Why it Matters

The Iron Pickaxe is the clear mining upgrade over the Copper Pickaxe: 40 percent more durability and a small ATK bump on the same 5-ingot recipe. The progression reason to craft it is narrower, though. It is the tool step that opens Sulfur mining, which in turn feeds the Millstone and makes Homemade Gunpowder supply dependable instead of loot-dependent.

The same pickaxe also continues to mine every lower-tier node (Stone, Copper Ore, Foothills Iron Ore) with fewer swings per node and longer runs before a break.

Progression Role

Crafting an Iron Pickaxe requires two upstream investments: a Workbench upgraded to Lvl 2, and a working iron chain. Most players reach this point around the time they build their first Foothills Iron Ingot stack and upgrade the workbench in their main camp. Once both are ready, five ingots and five Wood produce the pickaxe in a single craft.

Nodes the Iron Pickaxe Handles

• Every node the Copper Pickaxe already handles: Stone, Copper Ore, Clay, Fertile Soil, and Foothills Iron Ore.

• Sulfur deposits. These are the only nodes the Copper Pickaxe cannot hit, so the upgrade path is binary: Copper for Iron and below, Iron for Sulfur and below.

• Hardened grey boulders in Foothills and early Highlands routes. Handles these noticeably faster than the Copper Pickaxe thanks to the 200 Durability pool.

Mining Tool Comparison

The three crafted pickaxes share the same five-ingredient recipe shape and the same node coverage rule (each tier mines its own tier and everything below it). The differences are durability, the highest node tier each can reach, and the ingot they consume.

Copper Pickaxe durability is the one figure here that varies between data sources; the Iron Pickaxe at 200 and the Swamp Pickaxe at 300 are the consistent reference values. The practical takeaway is unchanged: build Iron the moment you need Sulfur, then skip straight to the Swamp Pickaxe once Cursed Swamps is open.

Tips

• Craft the Iron Pickaxe and the Iron Axe together at the first Foothills smelting batch. Both tools share the same recipe pattern (5 ingot + 5 wood) and cover the two gathering halves of the Foothills zone.

• A single Iron Pickaxe usually lasts a full Sulfur farming loop, which is the practical run for any gunpowder-focused session.

• Do not stockpile extra Iron Pickaxes once the Weaponsmith Workshop Lvl 3 is available. The Swamp Pickaxe at 300 Durability is the next clean upgrade.

See Also

• Tools

• Copper Pickaxe

• Iron Axe

• Swamp Pickaxe

• Foothills Iron Ingot

• Sulfur

• Gunpowder

• Workbench

Details

Properties

Crafted By

Crafted at: Workbench

Unlocked By

• DISCOVERY Iron tools, crafting stations upgrades and larger ship cannons

• Foothills

• Foothills Iron Ore

Disassembles Into