Originally posted by Cooperal:

I'd bet it is because of the other solutions that would have rendered those tools obsolete in no time at all.

You only need your bare hands to fulfil the necessity to gather flint and stone from the ground. Trolls can break boulders for you including copper and tin veins. And the antler pickaxe is easy to access within the first or second hour for repeat players.

I have little doubt that it would be easy to implement them, but you don't want to confuse the newbies with more items that run out of use in less time than it takes to acquire them. *cough* bronze equipment *cough*

As a new player I was actually more confused by not having a craftable pickaxe from the get-go, and the thing is that the stone pickaxe is already implemented in the game - it's just not craftable.

If it was about the pickaxe becoming obsolete, then why do they have a stone AND a flint axe? Why not just a stone axe OR a flint axe? There's a lack of consistent logic here and I'm just curious if there's an explanation.

And yes, of course it's easy to get the antler pickaxe, but I'm wondering why there's even a stone pickaxe in-game at all if it's not able to be crafted.