Fortune vs Silk Touch

The difference

Fortune multiplies the drops of ores and some other blocks: on diamond ore, Fortune III gives 2.2 diamonds per ore on average. Silk Touch drops the block itself: the ore, glass, ice, grass blocks, bookshelves or a bee nest with its bees.

A common trick: mine ores with Silk Touch, carry them home, place them and mine them again with Fortune. You get the same Fortune bonus. Keep in mind that ores mined with Silk Touch drop no experience, so you get the XP only from the second, Fortune break.

Level by level

Fortune III more than doubles your diamonds. Each extra level helps less than the one before, but the jump from Fortune II to III still adds 45 diamonds per 100 ores.

Which to pick, situation by situation

• Diamond and lapis mining. Fortune III. It averages 2.2 diamonds per ore and multiplies lapis, coal, emerald and quartz too.
• Branch mining far from home. Silk Touch if your inventory fills fast. Ore blocks stack to 64, then you break them with Fortune back at base.
• Building blocks. Silk Touch. Glass, ice, packed ice, blue ice, grass blocks, mycelium and bookshelves only drop themselves with it.
• Moving bees. Silk Touch. A bee nest or beehive mined with it keeps its bees and honey inside.
• Ancient debris. Neither. Ancient debris always drops itself, so bring Efficiency and fire resistance instead.
• Amethyst and glowstone. Fortune for shards and dust. Silk Touch only if you want the cluster or the glowstone block itself.
• Early game. Fortune. Your first diamonds matter most, and Silk Touch mainly helps with decorative blocks.

Max build with each

Here is what a full pickaxe costs with each option, books combined in the cheapest order on a fresh pickaxe:

Open the Fortune build or the Silk Touch build in the calculator. The pickaxe enchant order walks through every anvil step. The best pickaxe enchantments page explains each book in the build.

Which items take each

• Fortune goes on axe, pickaxe, shovel and hoe. The enchanting table can offer it on all of them.
• Silk Touch goes on axe, pickaxe, shovel, hoe and shears. The enchanting table offers it on the axe, pickaxe, shovel and hoe, while the shears need a book. Related questions: Silk Touch on shears.

What each one does

Fortune

Fortune gives extra drops from ores, crops and some other blocks. On ores like diamond, Fortune III averages about 2.2 drops per block.

• Fortune and Silk Touch exclude each other. Keep one pickaxe of each.
• Mine ores with Silk Touch, then place and break them with Fortune for the same result.

Silk Touch

Silk Touch makes blocks drop themselves instead of their usual drop: ores, glass, ice, grass blocks, bookshelves and more. Blocks mined this way give no experience.

• In Bedrock Edition, shears can also take Silk Touch.
• Needed for moving bee nests with bees, collecting ender chests and blue ice.

Where to get them and what they cost

• Fortune: max level III, from the enchanting table, librarian villagers, trial chamber vaults and enchanted loot from fishing and chests. Once you have one, a max book costs 6 levels on a fresh item.
• Silk Touch: max level I, from the enchanting table, librarian villagers, trial chamber vaults and enchanted loot from fishing and chests. Once you have one, a max book costs 4 levels on a fresh item.

They are incompatible, so you choose one per item. Both can go on the axe, pickaxe, shovel and hoe. Whichever you pick, combine the books in the cheapest order with the enchantment calculator or follow the axe enchant order.

Good to know

Both also work on axes, shovels and hoes. A Silk Touch shovel collects grass blocks, mycelium and podzol, which otherwise drop dirt. Meanwhile, a Silk Touch axe keeps bookshelves whole instead of dropping books.

Efficiency, Unbreaking and Mending fit with either choice. So both of your pickaxes can be max tools, and only one book differs.

Common mistakes

• Mining diamond ore with Silk Touch by accident. You get the ore block, not diamonds. Still, nothing is lost: place it and break it again with Fortune.
• Using Fortune on ancient debris. Ancient debris ignores Fortune, so you always get one block per block.
• Breaking a bee nest without Silk Touch. The bees come out angry, and the nest is lost. Use Silk Touch to move it.

Switching from one to the other

An anvil never swaps Fortune for Silk Touch. If the book only holds the conflicting enchantment, the anvil has nothing to add. So the only way to switch on the same item is a grindstone. It strips every enchantment except curses, then you enchant the item again from scratch.

There is no need to swap. A second pickaxe is cheap compared with the levels you would lose grinding a finished one.

Java and Bedrock differences

In Bedrock 26.60, Fortune and Silk Touch are incompatible. Bedrock also lets shears take Silk Touch, which Java does not. The anvil also differs between the editions. Bedrock only charges for the levels a book adds and nothing for a conflicting enchantment it skips. Commands work differently too: Bedrock's /give can't add enchantments, so you hold the item and run /enchant once per enchantment. This page shows the Bedrock 26.60 numbers.

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