Due to a programming oversight, the player can wear down their axe by simply equipping it and repeatedly reading the bulletin board or entering houses. This is because the game uses both a hit counter and durability counter to measure how many times the player can hit objects with the axe before it breaks; hitting a tree updates the hit counter by one point, while hitting a hard object like a wall, sign, or rock increases it by three. When the hit counter reaches or surpasses nine points, the durability counter is updated by one, and when the durability counter reaches eight points, the axe breaks.

When the player presses A with the axe equipped, the game checks to see if they are facing a tree, a solid object, or blank space. Because swinging the axe, reading a sign, and entering a house are all tied to the A button, the game increases the hit counter because it detects a solid object in front of the player, but the durability check is overwritten by the other interaction. Consequently, it is possible to wear down an axe simply by reading the bulletin board or entering a house multiple times and then hitting the tool against an object. Conversely, it is also possible to reset the hit counter and thus prolong the axe's longevity by reading the board or entering a house so many times that the value rolls back over to zero.