How to Craft a Wooden Excavator and Start Digging

Gather Your First Materials

A Wooden Excavator is your entry point into 3x3 digging. You need only wood planks and sticks, so punch a tree and turn logs into planks at a crafting table. The Wooden Excavator is one of the 19 registered excavators, and it is the cheapest to make.

Craft the Excavator

Open a crafting table and arrange your planks and sticks in a shovel-like shape. The Wooden Excavator uses a shaped crafting recipe, meaning the exact arrangement of ingredients matters. Once crafted, hold it and right-click or left-click a diggable block to break a 3x3 area instead of a single block. This makes clearing dirt, sand, and gravel far faster than a normal shovel.

Use It Wisely

Wooden tools have low durability, so the Wooden Excavator will wear out quickly. Use it to clear small patches of soil, then upgrade. Keep spare planks in your inventory so you can craft a replacement on the spot. When you have stone or iron, move up to the Stone Excavator or Iron Excavator for longer life and faster digging. The Wooden Excavator is a stepping stone, not a permanent tool.