Has anyone else fallen in love with diamond shovels?

[FlowerChild]

In the early to mid game, I find myself *really* valuing diamond diamond shovels right now as a means to clear out huge areas of dirt and gravel very quickly and expose the stone underneath for possible resources, and doing so nice and cheap given how inexpensive the shovel recipe is. Given dirt and gravel are now also very useful for building roads and barricades, I find I'm quite happy with the massive volume that generates.

Anyone else run into this? I wasn't really expecting to fall in love with them in this way, so I'm wondering if it's an experience anyone else is having.

[Foxy Boxes]

I named it Eskimo, although it was only an iron shovel.

[FlowerChild]

I certainly feel an attraction for iron shovels, but I find the diamond ones are really what set my loins on fire in a "OMG! I CAN CLEAR SO MUCH DIRT!" kinda way.

[Calo290]

BTW: Now with shovel fetishes.

[FlowerChild]

BTW: Now with shovel fetishes.

Bah...that's not news. BTW has long been a haven for fetishistic behavior of all kinds :)

[DiamondArms]

I typically use an enchanted Iron shovel for this. On my old SSP world I did use a Refined shovel solely for sand/glass purposes, though. Regular enchanting still gives efficiency and unbreaking to tools, right?

[ExpHP]

Heh, I remember one person in the IRC even teasing me about the diamond shovel in my hotbar.

Back when I was starting my ocean base, they were the greatest thing ever. That one diamond extends the life of the shovel tremendously. Even if you don't need to do a lot of digging, it's a pretty fair investment considering that one diamond shovel could probably last you until the steel age (saving you the rest of your precious Iron for other uses!).


The thing I find more amazing though is the Iron Axe. It's so fast! Shame on anybody who's still cutting down trees with rocks when they have iron to spare.

[Zhil]

I find that diamond tools in general have a very special role in BTW. They feel much more unique and their own thing in BTW than in vanilla, because making one requires completely different tasks from creating a steel tool.

Kudos on that :)

[EmptyNight]

I just tried a diamond shovel because I need to excavate an enormous amount of dirt so i can expand the river I settled on and get more water into my mob trap (I don't have enough iron right now to invest in screw pumps) and read this topic right before I started on that project.
My god is it fast. Thank you!

[Wafflewaffle]

Ow! Thats pretty smart! I tend to use diamond axes a lot, as building with wood tends to consume a lot of axes early game.

Since you gave me a tip ill give you one too! Early when you are out to get wood, leave the stumps of the trees. Not only it leaves a cool deflorestation effect around your base, they make for incredibly cheap land marks
I go on hunting trips and leave trails of cut trees in my wake.

[Fret]

Ow! Thats pretty smart! I tend to use diamond axes a lot, as building with wood tends to consume a lot of axes early game.

Since you gave me a tip ill give you one too! Early when you are out to get wood, leave the stumps of the trees. Not only it leaves a cool deflorestation effect around your base, they make for incredibly cheap land marks
I go on hunting trips and leave trails of cut trees in my wake.

Oh wow, I love that idea, from now on that is how I chop wood. Thx!

[utakataJ6]

Ow! Thats pretty smart! I tend to use diamond axes a lot, as building with wood tends to consume a lot of axes early game.

Since you gave me a tip ill give you one too! Early when you are out to get wood, leave the stumps of the trees. Not only it leaves a cool deflorestation effect around your base, they make for incredibly cheap land marks
I go on hunting trips and leave trails of cut trees in my wake.

That's an instant top BTW play suggestion ever. Thanks a ton!

[DaveYanakov]

As much as I love diamond shovels, lenses have first call on every single diamond I find after the first three.

And I never have enough lenses!

[Gormador]

As much as I love diamond shovels, lenses have first call on every single diamond I find after the first three.

And I never have enough lenses!

This, my good sir, is brilliant (pun not initially intended). It looks awesome too!

[DreamsofFury]

As much as I love diamond shovels, lenses have first call on every single diamond I find after the first three.

And I never have enough lenses!

I think I have found an aesthetic use for all of the extra lenses I have.....

But back on topic, I have always kept a few spare diamond shovels around just in case, I just recently checked an old world to find my tool chest full of mattoks and battleaxes with a few diamond shovels in there.