Pickaxe Block

This article documents an April Fools' joke.

This feature was exclusively part of a joke version and is not currently planned for addition to regular Minecraft.
It is documented here on the wiki due to being officially-released content by Mojang Studios, even if not present in a final version.

This feature is exclusive to Java Edition.

This article is a work in progress.

Please help in the expansion or creation of this article by expanding or improving it. The talk page may contain suggestions.

This article needs cleanup to comply with the style guide. ^[discuss^]

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Pickaxe Block

South
West
North
East
Up
Down

Renewable

Yes

Stackable

Yes (64)

Tool

Blast resistance

?

Hardness

3

Luminous

No

Transparent

No

Flammable

No

Catches fire from lava

No

The pickaxe block is a joke block, unlocked by a vote, that can instantly destroy any other block (including indestructible blocks) when it receives a Redstone signal.

Obtaining[]

Breaking[]

A pickaxe block has similar properties to other stone related blocks. It can be mined with any pickaxe, in which case it drops itself as one item. If mined without a pickaxe, the block breaks but drops no item.

Block	Pickaxe Block
Hardness	3
Tool
Breaking time^[A]
Default	15
Wooden	2.25
Stone	1.15
Iron	0.75
Diamond	0.6
Netherite	0.5
Golden	0.4

↑ Times are for unenchanted tools as wielded by players with no status effects, measured in seconds. For more information, see Breaking § Speed.

Crafting[]

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Cobblestone + Wooden Pickaxe or Stone Pickaxe or Iron Pickaxe or Golden Pickaxe or Diamond Pickaxe or Netherite Pickaxe + Redstone Dust

Usage[]

As part of the April Fools' update of 2023, the pickaxe block can only gets "used" when the vote for minecraft:pickaxe_block was approved earlier. If this is not the case, the block cannot get:

placed (nothing happens just like in adventure mode).
dropped (the block gets removed from the inventory but no item appears).
activated (the block loses its functionality and doesn't react to redstone signals).
crafted (the output of the crafting table stays empty).

Basic Utility[]

If unlocked, the pickaxe block can be used to instantly break any block in front of it. This includes everything that is destroyable in creative mode with a left click. (So even bedrock but not water or lava). When broken, all blocks react as when they got destroyed by a diamond or netherite pickaxe without silk touch. So spawners drop experience and ores drops their raw contents. Pickaxe blocks can be incredibly useful for all kinds of redstone contraptions as they are moveable by pistons an make for excellent mining devices.

A pickaxe block can be placed so that its mining side faces in any direction, including up or down. When placed, the mining side faces toward the player. The texture of this side is identical to the output of an observer.

Activation[]

A pickaxe block can be activated by:

an adjacent active power component (Exceptions: a redstone torch does not turn ON a pickaxe block it is attached to)
an adjacent powered opaque block (strongly-powered or weakly-powered)
a powered redstone repeater or redstone comparator facing the pickaxe block
powered redstone dust configured to point at the pickaxe block, or on top of it, or a directionless "dot" next to it; a pickaxe block is not activated by adjacent powered redstone dust that is configured to point in another direction.

A pickaxe block is not activated by adjacent powered redstone dust that is configured to point in another direction.

Interesting behavior[]

As previously mentioned, the pickaxe block is the only glitchless way of breaking bedrock in an uncheated vanilla game of survival Minecraft. On top of that it can also destroy end portal frames, end gateways , barrier blocks, structure blocks, structure void and command blocks (Without dropping them).

The pickaxe block can destroy (and drop) the dragon egg without it teleporting away.

Although it can be crafted using any pickaxe, it actually makes no difference which one is used, as there is only one variant of the block which doesn't save additional NBT data.

Sounds[]

Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	`block.stone.break`	`subtitles.block.generic.break`	1.0	0.8	16
Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	`block.stone.place`	`subtitles.block.generic.place`	1.0	0.8	16
Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	`block.stone.hit`	`subtitles.block.generic.hit`	0.25	0.5	16
None^{[sound 1]}	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	`block.stone.fall`	None^{[sound 1]}	0.5	0.75	16
Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	`block.stone.step`	`subtitles.block.generic.footsteps`	0.15	1.0	16