Factorio Forums

If I try to mine a chest but my inventory is full, axe durability is decreased even if I'm unable to mine the chest.

I don't know if I'd consider this a bug, seems to me as expected behavior. This is so minor though, it doesn't matter to me if it gets changed or left as is.

I consider it as a bug.
in no other cases durability is decreased if no item is "mined".
Further, it opens the door to a situation where "different actions that cause the same results have different side effects".
In other words, opening a chest, taking everything inside up to my inventory max do not decrease durability, but trying to mine the chest, and obtaining exactly the same final result (chest there, inventory full) decrease durability.

I would consider it to belong to "minor issues" category, not to "not a bug" one.

It is consistent:
I've just tried decreasing stone axe durability 100 times and not mining a piece of copper (press the button, wait until it fills the progressbar halfway and then let go) and it ate about 70% of my axe. The same thing when mining with inventory full.