Every tool, where to get it, and when upgrading is worth it

The shovel, rod and other tools come from shops, quests or cutscenes. Six upgrade tiers increase the area of a charged swing.

Where each tool comes from

The game hands you exactly one item on day one: Worn Sword. Everything else has to be collected, and three of them are easy to miss because nothing tells you they are for sale.

Tool	How you get the first one
Worn Sword	In your bag at the start
Worn Axe	Given during a cutscene on your farm, from Spring 2
Worn Pickaxe	Reward for a short quest; talk to Olric
Worn Net	Reward for a short quest; meet Luc at the inn
Worn Hoe	General Store, 150g
Worn Watering Can	General Store, 150g
Worn Shovel	General Store, 500g
Worn Fishing Rod	Tackle Shop, 500g

The shovel sits on the shelf at General Store from the first day and costs 500g. It has no quest or other unlock, and no quest awards one later.

What the six tiers change

Every tool has six grades: worn, copper, iron, silver, gold and mistril. For the axe, pickaxe, hoe, watering can, shovel and net, holding the button charges a swing. The tool’s tier sets the largest area that swing can cover.

Area is the only statistic gained by the hoe, watering can, shovel and net. Every net tier catches the same bugs.

Two costs come with it. A charged swing spends one stamina per tile, so a full mistril sweep is 54 stamina out of a base pool of 100. And a charged axe or pickaxe swing lands one grade weaker than the same tool used on a single tile, so a charged copper pickaxe behaves like a worn one. Mistril is the exception and never suffers the penalty.

The pickaxe is the tier that gates progress

Rocks have hardness levels, and a pickaxe below the required tier cannot damage them. Large farm rocks and boulders in the shallow mines require copper. Deeper biomes require iron, silver and then gold, so pickaxe tier controls access as well as mining speed.

Damage per hit also rises with the tier, from 1 to 6, and rocks have between 6 and 20 hit points, so a better pickaxe both unlocks harder rocks and clears them in fewer swings.

The axe is gentler: every tree can be felled with the worn one. Only the large stumps and the deep-woods stumps require copper.

Where to upgrade

You can craft upgrades or buy them, depending on your skill levels and mine progress.

Craft at a forge. Four ingots of the matching metal, plus 30 to 40 minutes, at blacksmithing level 4 for copper, 10 for iron, 16 for silver, 22 for gold and 28 for mistril. Each ingot is 10 ore, and the ingot recipes themselves need blacksmithing 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8. A placeable Forge costs 2,000g at Carpenter's Shop.

Buy at the Blacksmith's Shop. Copper is always in stock; iron, silver, gold and mistril appear once you have reached mine floor 21, 41, 61 and 81. Prices run 1,000g at copper up to 5,000g at mistril. This route ignores your blacksmithing level entirely, which makes it the practical one for anyone who does not smith.

Fishing rods are the exception: the Blacksmith's Shop does not stock them. Tackle Shop sells each grade instead, unlocked at fishing skill 8, 15, 20, 30 and 45.

What rod upgrades change

A rod upgrade changes casting distance, reaction time and the fish silhouette. Distance rises from 6 to 16, so the mistril rod reaches nearly three times as far. This helps most at the beach and in the mines, where useful water may be far from shore. Higher tiers also give more forgiving timing and silhouettes. Fish rarity stays unchanged.

The fish pool and rare-fish rate depend on season, water, weather, hour and fishing perks. The fishing planner shows those conditions.

Sword upgrades

The sword uses a separate weapon system, costs no stamina to swing and deals 4 damage at worn tier or 24 at mistril. After the General Store sword, higher grades must be forged or found. Forging requires blacksmithing levels 8, 14, 20, 26 and 32 and takes one hour each. Every mine biome also drops a sword between the crafted grades.

It is also the tool that cuts grass, which is covered in how to get hay. The first-week money guide shows which upgrades pay for themselves first, and the mine guide covers where the ore comes from.

Getting fish bait

Bait exists in three grades and is sold nowhere. It comes from a Terrarium, which you get from a quest that arrives once your town renown reaches 30, and can craft afterwards at woodcrafting level 10.

Put four bugs in a terrarium and wait three days to receive bait or bug pheromones. Thrown bait forces the next fish into a common, uncommon or rare band. A handful of fish appear only through bait and form their own museum set, so full museum completion eventually requires a terrarium.

The stations you need to own

All four are on the shelf at Carpenter's Shop:

• Crafting Station, 1,000g: furniture, chests and decor
• Level 1 Kitchen, 1,000g: one- and two-star dishes; two better kitchens exist for higher cooking levels
• Forge, 2,000g: every tool, weapon and ingot
• Mini Mill, 5,000g: animal feed and milled goods, with no milling wait. It appears after the carpenter’s shop is rebuilt.

Later on, Mistril Forge can be crafted at woodcrafting level 40 from 20 Refined Stone and 8 Mistril Ingot. Full recipes, ingredients and craft times for everything these stations make are in the cooking and crafting browser.