Silk Touch Enchantment in Minecraft: What It Does and How to Use It

Max level

I

Applies to

Pickaxe, Shovel, Axe, Hoe, Shears

Incompatible with

Fortune

Obtained via

Enchanting table, anvil, villager trade

Silk Touch makes a block drop itself, instead of whatever it would normally drop — no dice roll involved, exactly one copy of the block every time.

What Silk Touch actually does

Normally, mining a block like stone, grass, or an ore gives you a derived drop (cobblestone instead of stone, dirt instead of grass, raw ore instead of the ore block itself). Silk Touch overrides that entirely: the block drops as itself, deterministically, with no randomness at all. This is what lets you actually collect things that otherwise can't be obtained any other way — ice, glass, grass blocks, mycelium, and most ore blocks in their un-smelted state.

There are real exceptions where even Silk Touch can't get you the block: Budding Amethyst drops nothing, Cake can't be collected, Farmland reverts to dirt, Fire and Frosted Ice can't be picked up as items, a Monster Spawner only drops experience, and Powder Snow needs a bucket instead. Infested Blocks (the silverfish-hiding ones) drop their non-infested version rather than their infested self.

How to use it

Silk Touch is for collecting a block you want in its placed-in-the-world form — glass panes for a build, ice for an ice farm, a full ore block for decoration or a later Fortune-free smelt. It directly conflicts with Fortune (see Fortune vs. Silk Touch): a tool can have one or the other, never both, so most players keep a dedicated tool enchanted each way.

Well-known builds that use it

Silk Touch is the other half of the standard pickaxe/shovel/hoe loadout alongside Fortune — see The Ideal Pickaxe Enchantments's "Silk Touch Pick" build, The Ideal Shovel Enchantments, and The Ideal Hoe Enchantments (Silk Touch is the only way to pick up leaves or sculk intact).

• Silk Touch I
• Efficiency V
• Unbreaking III
• Mending I

Build the Silk Touch Pick in the calculator →

Frequently asked questions

Does Silk Touch have levels?

No — Silk Touch has a maximum (and only) level of I. There's no stronger version to chase.

Can you Silk Touch a spawner?

No. A monster spawner only ever drops experience when mined, even with Silk Touch — it can't be collected as a placeable item in survival.

Can you have Fortune and Silk Touch on the same tool?

No, they're mutually exclusive. Applying one to a tool with the other replaces it.

What's the only way to pick up leaves intact?

Silk Touch. Without it, leaves have a small chance to drop saplings/sticks (or nothing) rather than the leaf block itself.