Cobalt Drill

The drill digs faster out of the box, but it ignores every mining speed bonus in the game. Stack a Mining Potion and a mining set and the Cobalt Pickaxe pulls ahead and stays ahead. Bare, with no buffs running, the drill wins. Decide based on whether you actually buff up before a dig session, because most players who claim drills are faster have never tested it with potions running.

Shorter range means more walking per tunnel and real trouble hitting a block through a gap or clearing an awkward ore pocket. For a straight vertical shaft you never notice. For picking apart a vein wedged behind other tiles you notice constantly.

It opens mythril and orichalcum, which is the whole reason to make one, and then it gets replaced almost immediately by whatever those bars build. If your world rolled the other ore, the Palladium Drill is a hair stronger and the difference will never come up in play.