Minecraft Fortune vs Silk Touch, When to Use Each

Fortune and Silk Touch are mutually exclusive mining enchantments. Fortune multiplies drop quantities; Silk Touch drops the block itself instead of its normal product. Knowing which to put on which tool saves you diamonds, time, and headaches.

How Fortune works

Fortune increases the number of items dropped by certain blocks. At Fortune III, diamond ore drops an average of 2.2 diamonds instead of 1. Coal, lapis, redstone, emerald, copper, amethyst, nether gold, and nether quartz all benefit similarly. Fortune does not affect iron or gold ore (they drop raw ore regardless), and it does not speed up mining.

How Silk Touch works

Silk Touch makes a block drop itself in its placed form. Mining diamond ore with Silk Touch gives you the diamond ore block, not a diamond. Mining glass gives you the glass block instead of nothing. Mining grass blocks, mycelium, ice, coral, ender chests, and bookshelves all benefit from Silk Touch because their normal drops differ from the block itself.

Diamond mining: Fortune wins

Always mine diamonds with Fortune III. The average yield of 2.2 diamonds per ore block means a vein of 8 ore gives you roughly 17 diamonds instead of 8. Over a full mining session, Fortune more than doubles your diamond income. Using Silk Touch on diamond ore only makes sense if you want to store the ore and smelt it later for XP, or if you do not have Fortune yet and want to wait.

When Silk Touch is mandatory

• Glass and glass panes: break into nothing without Silk Touch.
• Ender chests: drop 8 obsidian without Silk Touch, destroying the ender chest.
• Ice: melts into water without Silk Touch. Ice is used in nether highways for boat travel.
• Bookshelves: drop 3 books instead of the bookshelf block without Silk Touch.
• Coral: dies and turns grey without Silk Touch.
• Grass blocks and mycelium: drop dirt without Silk Touch.
• Sculk blocks: drop nothing without Silk Touch.

Iron and gold ore

Iron and gold ore drop raw iron and raw gold regardless of Fortune or Silk Touch (since 1.17). However, Fortune III does increase raw ore drops, you can get up to 4 raw iron from a single ore block with Fortune III. This makes Fortune the better choice for iron and gold mining too.

The practical setup

Carry two pickaxes: one with Fortune III for all ore mining, and one with Silk Touch for collecting blocks (glass, ice, ender chests, spawners if on a plugin that supports it, and any decorative blocks you want to move). Put Efficiency V and Unbreaking III on both. Most players use their Fortune pick 90% of the time and swap to Silk Touch only when needed.

Can you put both on one tool?

No. Fortune and Silk Touch are mutually exclusive. The game will not let you combine them on an anvil. You need separate tools for each enchantment.

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