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

_Published October 16, 2026_

How Silk Touch preserves the mined block itself, why it conflicts with Fortune, and the spawner myth it doesn't break.

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](/guides/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](/guides/ideal-pickaxe)'s "Silk Touch Pick" build, [The Ideal Shovel Enchantments](/guides/ideal-shovel), and [The Ideal Hoe Enchantments](/guides/ideal-hoe) (Silk Touch is the only way to pick up leaves or sculk intact).

**Diamond Pickaxe:** Silk Touch I, Efficiency V, Unbreaking III, Mending I

[Build the Silk Touch Pick in the calculator →](https://anvilcalc.com/#eyJpIjoiZGlhbW9uZF9waWNrYXhlIiwiZSI6W10sInAiOjAsIm4iOiIiLCJ0IjpbWyJzaWxrX3RvdWNoIiwxXSxbImVmZmljaWVuY3kiLDVdLFsidW5icmVha2luZyIsM10sWyJtZW5kaW5nIiwxXV19)

## 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.