Minecraft wiki entry for Tips_and_tricks, associated text: As you can tell from the name of this game, mining is pretty important. Mining is more general than it sounds, including almost any situation where you collect or harvest resources by simply breaking the blocks they consist of. Those blocks fall into four general categories according to their tool: Wood, mined with an axe, dirt-type blocks mined with a shovel, the classic stone-type blocks (including ores) which are mined with a pickaxe, and "other" blocks, which are mined with "bare hands" or, more quickly, with a hoe. Swords can be used to break cobwebs and bamboo.