So I've got the iridium pickaxe, but it still takes like 4 hits to break iridium ore. Are there any mods that either add a better pickaxe, or make the pickaxes better?
Not that I've seen, and I've looked through the mods, here, pretty thoroughly. That said, if you want this, consider asking one of the modder who has already made a mod readjusting tool values if they will create what you want.
I haven't seen one either, and I've definitely looked. I hope someone can make one. I'm only familiar with doing dialogue and retextures, otherwise I'd give it a shot. The Skull Cavern past level 500 looks like this, lol. No choice but to invest in massive amounts of bombs when it's four hits per.
If only we could warp in! I use Skull Cavern Elevator set to every 10 floors (after finishing the challenge the non-cheaty way), so it's not the worst to get back to that level. It would be nice to have a desert obelisk as another money sink for us lazies even though it's a short walk to the bus stop.