When booting up a new world in Terraria, there's one material that everyone tries to get first: good old reliable wood. That's because this plentiful resource makes itself invaluable in most construction projects– from that first night when it forms your starting hovel to the depths of Hardmode, where its platforms define your boss arenas, wood will always have a place in a great player's inventory.
Related: Terraria: Best Pre-Hardmode Weapons
But you can't get wood without axes, and considering how much building you're liable to do over the course of your journey to the Moon Lord, you'll need a fantastic one to expedite the process of taking tree trunks to the task. Luckily for you, there are a ton of great axes to use when exploring your world.
10 War Axe Of The Night
The War Axe of the Night isn't a bad place to start when looking for great axes– despite the fact that it's a Pre-Hardmode axe, likely obtained after a fight or two with the Eye of Cthulu, it manages to outperform the Hardmode Cobalt Axe with five percent more Axe Power.
If you're looking for a resource-efficient axe, this one should be able to carry you a decent bit past defeating the Wall of Flesh. The War Axe of the Night has an average swing speed as well, making it good for batting off Eaters of Souls while you collect Ebonwood.
9 Blood Lust Cluster
The Blood Lust Cluster performs about as well as its Corruption counterpart if you're looking to cut down trees– given its identical Axe Power and cutting speed, there's nothing that separates this tool from its sibling when looking at pure woodcutting ability.
But the Blood Lust Cluster comes into its own during combat, surpassing the War Axe of the Night; sporting a slower swing speed with higher damage, this axe is a weapon, and an axe upgrade rolled into one. Slower swing speed, though, comes with slightly weaker protection from projectiles and flying enemies while chopping at trees.
8 Palladium Waraxe
Since Palladium is the easiest of the Hardmode ores to obtain, it's likely that it'll be the material that makes up your first Hardmode axe. What's strange is that it has an Axe Power similar to the Pre-Hardmode axes obtained from the evil biomes' ores.
Related: Terraria: How To Stop Corruption And Crimson Spreading In Hardmode
Regardless, The Palladium Waraxe is still faster than its predecessors at tree-cutting, making it better in every way than its alternate-ore counterpart, the Cobalt Waraxe– thankfully, this tier of axe is short-lived enough that you shouldn't need to consider abandoning any worlds graced by the inferior Cobalt.
7 Mythril Waraxe
The Mythril Waraxe, unlike the axes that precede it, is a fairly cut-and-dry upgrade in terms of progression. It offers an Axe Power of 85 percent as well as a decent boost to the rate at which trees are cut down.
If you have the resources, it may even be in your best interest to skip the bottom tier of Hardmode ores to head straight for this axe– this is especially true if your world gets saddled with Cobalt rather than Palladium. Lower-tier metal can be used more efficiently in armors with specific set bonuses because they tend to have longer-term value than single-purpose tools.
6 Orichalcum Waraxe
In the trend of alternate ores that are outright superior to their counterparts, the Orichalcum Waraxe is good enough that it can be considered a direct upgrade to the Mythril Waraxe. This is the last axe to have an Axe Power under 100 percent, just ten percent below the threshold.
Unlike most alternate ore items, the Orichalcum Waraxe is good enough that you might consider world-hopping to get it. Unlike the lowest tier of metals introduced in Hardmode, Orichalcum and Mythril have a pretty long shelf life before they get upgraded. If this tool is the only reason you're world-hopping, though, it's probably better to stick to the still-fantastic Mythril Waraxe.
5 Adamantite Waraxe
Adamantite is all around a pretty rare material, meaning that investing the resources to make an axe from it should be a carefully thought-out decision. When the improvement to your woodcutting efficiency isn't even immediately noticeable, only the most dedicated of lumberjacks should consider making axes at this tier.
Still, the Adamantite Waraxe is the first dedicated axe to have a Power of 100 percent, only matched by the considerably slower Meteor Hamaxe– since trees have a health of 500 percent, you can rest easy knowing that no effort is wasted per chop.
4 Titanium Waraxe
The Titanium Waraxe is the alternate-ore version of the Adamantite Waraxe, having five percent more Axe Power than its sibling overall. Despite this, the axe isn't actually faster than its counterpart, nearly matching Adamantite's speed at cutting down trees.
Related: Best Tools In Terraria
The Titanium Waraxe sets itself apart by being slightly better suited for combat, sporting a minor damage increase as well as the best knockback of all available tools with Axe Power– while it isn't a good idea to drop traditional weapons for this axe, chopping down Gem Trees will feel significantly safer when you know you can bat off the toughest enemies with the best of them.
3 Chlorophyte Greataxe
If you upgrade to the Chlorophyte Greataxe, it's for no other reason than the increased protection during tree-chopping expeditions. Its damage comes close to the values of Early-Hardmode weapons, and its knockback is pretty decent despite not being that of the Titanium Waraxe.
The Chlorophyte Greataxe is only marginally better than the Adamantine and Titanium Waraxes, meaning that crafting it is ill-advised until you've done everything else you can do with the extremely difficult-to-get Chlorphyte. Still, if you're trying to build a grand mansion out of Shadewood, bringing along the big guns when the Herplings come to play wouldn't hurt.
2 Lucy The Axe
Lucy the Axe is a part of the Don't Starve and Terraria crossover, dropped by the Deerclops boss a fourth of the time– the unique selling point of the tool is its ability to occasionally talk to you, making comments about the environment, complaining when put into storage, and generally begging you to cut down even more trees.
In a move that seems like an attempt by the Terraria team to ingratiate themselves with the developers of Don't Starve, Lucy the Axe has been made one of the most powerful axes in the game, sharing an Axe Power value with the Post-Moon Lord Hamaxes despite being accessible Pre-Hardmode.
1 Axe Of Regrowth
The Axe of Regrowth is the best axe you can hope to get your hands on in Terraria, gated behind being lucky enough to find the ever-elusive Staff of Regrowth– as a tree-cutting implement alone; this tool is able to match the Mythril Waraxe in speed and Post-Moon Lord Hamaxes in Power.
But beyond your work as a lumberjack, the Axe of Regrowth is useful because it replants trees instantly, increases how many herbs and seeds you get when harvesting plants, and allows the growth of grass on blocks without seeds. It's possible to obtain this item Pre-Hardmode if you have enough luck, but until you find its rare components, you'll have to work through the standard-ore axe progression.
Next: Terraria: The Best Hammers
