Pickaxe
A Pickaxe, useful for gathering ore from rocks.
The Pickaxe is a melee tool in Rust for mining ore. It deals 30 damage per hit (20 stab and 10 slash) and swings once every 1.5 seconds, 20 damage per second. You craft it at a Level 1 Workbench, and its blueprint costs 40 scrap to research.
About the Pickaxe
It can be thrown as well as swung. Every hit on an ore node costs it 1 condition, so from full condition it mines for 400 hits. On an animal corpse it takes 5 health per hit and loses 1 condition each time.
On the tech tree it sits behind 2 other unlocks: Engineering Workbench and Salvaged Hammer. It is for sale at 2 vendors: Tools & Stuff for 50 scrap and Water Well Shop Keeper for 30 to 40 scrap. In all, 39 loot sources drop it; the full list of where it drops gives the chance for each.
Pickaxe damage and stats
Its gather rate on ore nodes is 30 health per hit, 20 per second of steady mining. Of the 7 tools that mine ore, it ranks 3rd for gather rate.
How to craft the Pickaxe
Crafting one takes 15 seconds at a Level 1 Workbench and costs 100 × Wood and 125 × Metal Fragments.
100 
125 
How to get the Pickaxe blueprint
Research it for 40 scrap, or unlock it on the Level 1 tech tree for 3 Blueprint Fragments in total.
1 Item 
40 Scrap Blueprint 40 
Node 
1 Blueprint Fragment Unlocked 3 How to repair the Pickaxe
A full repair at a Repair Bench costs 21 × Wood and 26 × Metal Fragments, and you need its blueprint.
×21 ×26 Per hit is how much of the node one swing takes; wasted is the share destroyed rather than collected, which is why two tools at the same damage do not yield the same. Wear is the condition the tool loses per hit.
What the Pickaxe recycles into
A green recycler always gives back 50 × Wood and 62 × Metal Fragments for one.
×50 ×62 50% ×60 ×75 
×75 ×93 75% 
×40 ×50 Where to find the Pickaxe
Scientist has the best chance at 36%, followed by Boat Scientist at 36% and Junkpile Scientist at 24%.
Metal Detector — 9% ×1 
Shops that hand it out
Tools & StuffShop×1for50 (25–100)Scrap
Water Well Shop KeeperShop×1for30–40Scrap
Stats checked against the Rust game files on 12 November 2026.
