The Minecraft upgrade system is pretty straight-forward. From a wooden pickaxe to stone tools to iron tools to diamond tools. Leather armor to iron armor to diamond armor. The one thing that confuses almost all minecrafters is exactly where gold fits in. Is it useless like everybody seems to think, or are we just ignorant? The answer may surprise you!

Is Gold Any Good?

To get to the heart of the matter, we shall start with the rarity of gold. There are about 7.5 gold ores per chunk, and to put that into perspective, there are also 3 diamonds and 84 iron in each chunk. That means gold is VERY rare. As you may have heard, gold isn't just rare; it's easy to break. The durability of a gold tool is 33 uses, even less than wood! Why make one then? Well, have I got news for you. Gold picks and shovels are faster than diamond. They can only break the blocks wood picks break, but they do it with amazing speed! That's not all though, because golden tools and armor both have high enchantability. What this means is that if you were to enchant a golden pick with a Lvl. 1 enchant, it could possibly be Silk Touch, unlike all other tools which need 30 levels. High enchantments at the cost of low durability seems to be a very fair trade-off. Golden armor, though weaker and less durable than iron armor, is actually much better than leather and a good upgrade if you have access to the materials. So... is gold any good? Yes, yes it is! Thanks for reading, - Tomandgreen