Pickaxe

Basic item · Patch 26.21 · numbers from Riot's Data Dragon files, refreshed every patch

Total cost875 g

Sells for613 g

Gold efficiency100%

Pickaxe stats

+25 Attack Damage

Build path

Builds into

Gold efficiency

Stat	Amount	Gold per point	Gold value
Attack Damage	25	35 g	875 g
Total stat value			875 g

Gold efficiency = stat value ÷ item cost = 875 ÷ 875 = 100%. The gold per point comes from basic items of the same patch (for example, Long Sword: 35 g per Attack Damage). Passives and actives are not counted.

Pickaxe patch history

Patch	Change
2013	Earliest record in Riot's Data Dragon (2013); the item is older

We compare cost and stats patch by patch in Riot's Data Dragon files. "Effect text changed" means the passive or active wording changed in that patch.

Pickaxe is the mid-sized Attack Damage component in League of Legends: 25 Attack Damage for 875 gold in patch 26.21, no passive, no components beneath it. Eighteen finished items and components build out of it, including Infinity Edge, Bloodthirster, Black Cleaver, Death’s Dance and Blade of the Ruined King, and Riot has not changed it once in the data going back to 2013.

What does Pickaxe do?

It adds 25 Attack Damage. Two and a half Long Swords in a single slot, which is the main reason to buy it over the smaller piece when the gold is there.

At the first recall that is a serious amount of damage. A marksman going from roughly 60 to 85 Attack Damage at level four hits noticeably harder on every auto, clears waves faster and threatens a kill in trades that were even before, so the Pickaxe is often the item that decides whether the next three minutes of lane are comfortable (the enemy feels it before they see it in the scoreboard). Should you save for the B. F. Sword instead? Only if your finished item needs one and you can get there on the same recall, since sitting on 1,100 gold waiting for 1,300 means fighting without the damage you already paid for.

Is it worth the gold?

Exactly even: 100%. At the reference rate of 35 gold per point of Attack Damage, set by Long Sword, 25 AD is worth 875 gold and the Pickaxe costs 875 gold.

The sell value is 613 gold. Thing is, efficiency is not the point with components; slot economy is. Three Long Swords take three inventory spaces and give only a little more damage than one Pickaxe, and inventory space runs out faster than most players expect once boots, a ward and a potion are in the bag. For the larger version of the same idea, B. F. Sword packs more AD still into one slot.

What does Pickaxe build into?

Eighteen items, covering every kind of physical damage dealer:

Crit marksman items: Infinity Edge, Bloodthirster, Statikk Shiv, Immortal Shieldbow, Mercurial Scimitar and The Collector.
Fighter items: Black Cleaver, Death’s Dance, Sterak’s Gage, Spear of Shojin, Hullbreaker and Blade of the Ruined King.
Lethality: The Brutalizer, Serpent’s Fang and Eclipse.
Others: Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Endless Hunger and Hexoptics C44.

So a Pickaxe bought early commits you to almost nothing at all, whichever way the game turns. Who else can say that? In practice a top laner can hold one for two recalls while deciding between Black Cleaver and Death’s Dance, and a marksman can do the same between Infinity Edge and Bloodthirster. Prices for the full list are in the LoL items database.

Who buys it?

Marksmen, fighters, assassins and AD junglers. Honestly, it is hard to name a physical damage champion who does not buy a Pickaxe in most games, because the finished items it feeds cover crit, Lethality, on-hit and bruiser builds alike. Mages, tanks and enchanters never need one (a Pickaxe on a support is a misclick, not a strategy).

How has it changed over the patches?

It hasn’t. Riot’s data lists the Pickaxe at 875 gold with 25 Attack Damage from 2013 or earlier and records no change since, through every item overhaul including the big one in 2024. Funny enough, that makes it more stable than the Long Sword it is priced against, which lost 50 gold over the same years.

When should you buy it?

On a recall where you have between 875 and roughly 1,300 gold, your next item builds from one, and a B. F. Sword is out of reach. Below that range, a Long Sword or two; above it, the Sword. For what it’s worth, the first-recall Pickaxe is one of the most common purchases in the game for a reason: it is the biggest damage spike available for under 900 gold. If you want to know which positions lean on physical damage and build this way, the guide to LoL roles covers it, and Pickaxe turns up early in all of them.