Is the Raider Axe Better Than the Aspect of the End? A Damage and Progression Comparison for Hypixel Skyblock Players

When it comes to slaying hordes of zombies and upgrading your gear as a Hypixel Skyblock player, two of the most common weapon choices in the early to mid stages of the game are the Raider Axe and the Aspect of the End (AOTE). But which of these weapons is objectively better?

For most early game players, the AOTE is the clear winner – it‘s more affordable, easier to upgrade to its maximum potential, and has a tremendously useful teleportation ability.

However, patient late game players can unlock the Raider Axe‘s higher damage capabilities, though it requires an enormous wood collection grind to incrementally boost its stats.

Let‘s dig into the nitty gritty details comparing these two iconic weapons. As a Skyblock expert dedicated to helping players min/max their playthroughs, I‘ve broken down key differences between the Raider Axe and AOTE in damage, abilities, accessibility/affordability, and scaling potential.

Base Damage Comparison

First, let‘s examine the baseline numbers for an unenchanted Raider Axe versus an AOTE right off the bat:

As you can see, an out-of-the-box AOTE edges out the Raider Axe‘s potential at the start.

But as you collect more wood, the Raider Axe‘s strength bonus increases based on the following milestones, capping out at +35 strength from wood collection alone:

As you can see, at around the 15 million wood collection mark, a base Raider Axe starts out-hitting an AOTE‘s base damage.

Factoring in enchantments, reforges, and hilt enchantments, here is how the two weapons can scale up:

As far as pure damage numbers go, a fully enchanted, reforged, and hot potato booked Raider Axe eventually beats out even a maxed AOTE…but only once you‘ve collected over 50 million wood!

Mobility and Abilities

A key area where the AOTE dominates is with its incredibly powerful teleport ability, enabling you to swiftly dash around areas when grinding or lock onto priority targets.

By comparison, the Raider Axe lacks any integrated abilities – you‘re relying purely on its raw damage and any mobility boosts coming from your armor and accessories.

This teleport gives AOTE users a sizable advantage in terms of playstyle flexibility, allowing techniques like:

• Rapid traversal through large areas in the End and Blazing Fortress
• Quick navigation of the Park to reach slayer quests
• Targeted teleports to take out Suicide Bombers/Withers/Guardians before they can retaliate
• Teleport spamming to chase down and assassinate players in PvP games
• Clutch escapes from sticky situations by teleporting over gaps most mobs can‘t clear

For farmers and slayers relying on speed and mobility, the AOTE enables movement strategies the Raider simply can‘t replicate on its own due to cooldown limitations on items like Aspect of the Jerry.

Grind Comparison: Resource Investment

Obtaining and upgrading each weapon has vastly different requirements as summarized below:

As shown above, the AOTE is far more accessible early on. Within a few hours of grinding zealots or bazaar flipping, even fresh Skyblock profiles can afford an AOTE without too much hassle.

Meanwhile. the Raider Axe requires vastly more investment over long periods of time:

• Saving up 5 million coins is steep for brand new players
• Chopping millions and millions of logs takes weeks for casual players
• Having the enchanted wood on hand for upgrading is challenging until you‘ve automated a grinder tree farm

All said, you‘re realistically looking at a 15-20 million coin and 6+ hour minimum work requirement to max out a Raider Axe.

That‘s over 3 times the cost and effort an AOTE demands! The convenience factor clearly favors the AOTE for players still in early or mid game gear progression.

Evaluating Late Game Scaling

The grind doesn‘t stop at the upgrades covered above though. To push either weapon to its theoretical limits, you need:

• All wood collection milestones unlocked on the Raider Axe
• God potion active for +25% stats
• Level 100 Legendary Ender Dragon giving +55% damage
• 20 Hilt Enchantment levels for another +100 strength
• Perfect Gemstones giving +40% bonus crit damage
• 5 Star Enchantments like Cubism V and First Strike IV
• +10 Hot Potato Books mythic reforged

With all this juicing in the super late game, you can hit 800-1,000 damage with the Raider Axe depending on your Strength stat from armor.

Fully optimized, the AOTE caps out around 550-650 damage despite a faster attack speed. It simply doesn‘t scale to the same exponential heights as the Raider Axe.

So for the top .1% of sweatiest players with unlimited resources, they will eventually outgrow the AOTE and transition to the Raider Axe, Livid Dagger, Hyperion, and other "end game" alternatives.

But reaching that peak performance Raider Axe is a monumental amount of work – we‘re talking hundreds of hours of grinding and billions of coins invested. You have to evaluate if that long term project is worth it or if you‘d prefer alternative weapons.

Intangibles – Joy of Use & Flex Potential

Stepping beyond statistics, there are also more subjective considerations that draw players to these iconic weapons like:

Visceral Enjoyment

• Cleaving through zombies in a single spin attack with the muscular Raider Axe
• Teleporting through The End at warp speed with the AOTE

Fashionscape Drip

• Menacing black/red particle effects on the Raider Axe
• Futuristic teal glow and lenses of the AOTE

Clout

• Impressing noobs with your maxed Raider Axe‘s damage
• Bragging rights from soloing floor 5 with just an AOTE

These factors are much more difficult to quantify numerically, but absolutely contribute to their popularity and appeal to Hypixel Skyblock players.

Given all the data and insights covered, here are the key takeaways on whether the Raider Axe or Aspect of the End reigns supreme in Hypixel Skyblock:

Early to Mid Game (first few weeks):

• AOTE is far more affordable and accessible
• Teleport ability enables beneficial mobility not offered by Raider Axe
• Significantly easier to upgrade to max potential quickly

Mid Game (after 1-2 months):

• Upgraded Raider Axe starts out-damaging AOTE but wood collection reqs are steep
• Balance of mobility, affordability and damage still leans towards AOTE

Late Game (after 6+ months):

• Fully optimized Raider Axe overtakes AOTE in raw DPS
• But the extreme material and time costs are not efficient uses of most players‘ time

So in summary – the AOTE delivers tremendous bang for your buck to accelerate early game progression, while the Raider Axe offers long term potential for die-hard farmers to keep pushing their damage into the stratosphere. Choose which weapon aligns better with your playstyle and advancement goals!

What weapon do you think is better? Let me know in the comments along with any requests for future weapon comparison guides!