Better than Adventure! Forum

the dreaded debate.

steel vs diamonds

Diamond tools and steel armor

Red Slime wrote: ↑29 Nov 2025, 18:45 Diamond tools and steel armor

VALID

Depends on my mood and situation really.

Red Slime wrote: ↑29 Nov 2025, 18:45 Diamond tools and steel armor

I use diamond tools and iron armor, kinda sucks having to watch your armor degrade

diamonds for:
pick #1, shovel
steel for:
pick #2 and literally anything else

in most scenarios, i just use steel tools.
however, my armor setup is a combination of steel, diamonds and chain armor:

diamond for pickaxe, steel for everything else. esp for swords, since steel swords entirely outclass diamond swords. for armor i dont usually use either, but steel can be pretty nice just to not worry about durability

steel for everything with an extra diamond shovel and pick for when i want to go faster

practical advantages are nothing compared to being covered in diamond

If I'm not mistaken diamond picks are faster than steel, so at least in that singular category if you're looking to save time a diamond pickaxe is preferred.

I usually carry around steel tools for general use but then if I have a project where I need to dig out a big area or something I'll make diamond tools to get it done faster.

I always use a steel sword tho. I think diamond technically does more damage but it really ends up being about the same since most mobs die in two hits regardless of which one you are using.

For armor tho... I prefer chainmail

betim wrote: ↑29 Nov 2025, 20:09 in most scenarios, i just use steel tools.
however, my armor setup is a combination of steel, diamonds and chain armor:

why not maximize for combat protection like I have in the screenshot? I find it works much more consistently when I bump my difficulty up to normal or hard and still lets me blast jump for faster horizontal or vertical movement when exploring

Diamond shovel and pick since diamonds are fairly simple to find and they are the most effective with their speeds. Steel for mostly everything else

STEEL for tools, STEEL (and chainmail) for armor

I’ll use diamonds more often at first, especially for large projects, but once I have a sizeable amount of olivine I’ll switch to using steel the vast majority of the time because it’s easier to get.

Steel tool FTW! It's a very good solution in replacement with the lack of diamond tools when you're playing multiplayer, and all your friends have scorched the underground and took all the diamonds.

adamng04 wrote: ↑30 Nov 2025, 09:04 Steel tool FTW! It's a very good solution in replacement with the lack of diamond tools when you're playing multiplayer, and all your friends have scorched the underground and took all the diamonds.

so real for this, adam

I use steel for pick, axe, and shovel the logic being that they last 3 times longer than diamond so I can focus on just grinding whatever I need without worrying about the tools breaking and having to go back to craft another one. This is especially important when I go caving because I want to maximize how much I can mine before having to return to the surface. Sword is diamond because I think doing more damage per hit is more important than durability and I'm a fairly passive player so a diamond sword lasts me forever. I do occasionally use diamond tools mostly when I'm building and I want to clear stuff out quickly. As for armor, I just use full diamond cause it's what I'm used to

I used to use steel tools a lot, but I got used to the speed of diamond, so I can't go back.

my tool usage evolves over time, early game it's mostly steel, but late game when I can afford diamonds I use those for tools besides the sword which I use steel for.
for armour I use 2 chain pieces, one steel, and leather boots

Depends. Diamond for those mundane tasks that you want to finish quickly (unless c418 is playing), steel for all other situations.