This page covers the long answer to a commonly asked question of how to make the best tool in Tinkers’ Construct 3.

To start, it is important to emphasize the fact that Tinkers’ Construct by design does not have best tools. We give you a ton of options with different advantages and disadvantages to build tools, and it is up to you to choose which options are the best for you and your goal. The title of this page is really a misnomer, as instead of aiming for the best tool it is better to just try and make a good tool; you can always improve it later to make a better tool. Also, do not be afraid to make mistakes; overall its pretty hard to make a bad tool unintentionally, so just about any design you make should be good.

Decide your goals

The first step to making a tool is identifying the tool’s purpose. Be as specific as possible; “the best weapon” gives you noting to go off, as opposed to:

  • A sword for quickly killing the wither.
  • A pickaxe with fortune that will last for a long mining expedition.
  • A bow that maximizes damage output per arrow.

The more specific your goal, the stronger the tool will be. For example, a general use melee weapon will be weaker than a wither killer; however a wither killer likely won’t be useful against blazes.

One way to decide on a goal is to select a tool type and possibly one or more ability modifiers to design the tool around. For example, you might decide you want to make a shield, or that you want a spitting slimestaff.

After selecting a primary goal, decide if you have any secondary goals. For instance, on a pickaxe you may care about a large amount of durability for mining, but it does not matter as much for building. A sword for collecting wither skulls may want looting, but do you care about that for your general defense weapon? These considerations may affect your later choices. You also should decide on any “deal-breakers” here; for example the highest velocity bows often have very low drawspeed, is that an issue or acceptable?

Material Selection

Once you have a goal in mind, your first choice is materials. A good way to start is finding which materials you can currently craft. For instance, if you do not have access to a smeltery, you may be limited to part builder or melter materials. Remember you can always swap out parts later; don’t be afraid to use materials now with a plan to switch once you get more options.

To narrow down choices in materials, an easy method is to consider material stats. For example, if your goal is a strong weapon, start by considering the materials you can craft with the highest damage. For advanced tool building, consider material traits. See if any of the trait conditions are well suited to your goal or seem like a good target to optimize later.

Modifiers

Once you have a tool built, you can start applying modifiers. If you are limited on resources, you can always come back and do this step later once you are more established; remember you can stop building a tool any time to use it, and revisit the design later. Also keep in mind you can always build a temporary tool while you wait for resources needed to finish your main design; e.g. maybe you make a disposable pickaxe while you collect resources for luck.

The first type of modifier to decide is usually ability modifiers. You might already have some in mind from your goal; if so just apply those. If you do not have any in mind, look through options for one that matches your goal. If none seem suited, consider gilded to trade your ability slot for 2 upgrades.

If crafting armor, the next step is to fill defense slots. Remember that defense is a property of the whole set of armor, and caps at 80%. If using plate armor, you can easily get 5 different defense modifiers on each piece, giving you 20 for the whole set. This means if you go for all 5 protection types you get 4 levels of each. Alternaively, if you don’t think all are important, consider revitalized to boost max health; its effectively protection against all damage at the cost of healing taking longer. Combine with the protection ability to maximize protection for the set; which can be further increased using some shield options. Also keep in mind most defense modifiers have a bonus that acts based on the piece with the largest level; so you may want a melee protection piece and a fire protection piece for instance.

Consider if you have any slotless modifiers to apply. Pay particular attention to modifiers that grant more modifier slots. Again, you can always add more later once you have more resources.

Finally, fill in upgrades that meet your goal.

  • Diamond, emerald, and netherite provide large stat boosts if available.
  • A simple choice to fill extra slots is haste for mining tools, sharpness for melee weapons, power for longbows, etc.
  • Conditional damage or mining speed may be better than flat if they match your goal.
  • Reinforcements are good to increase effective durability.