Silk Touch

Silk Touch

Maximum level	1
Primary items
Secondary items	‌[BE only]
Enchantment weight	1
Incompatible with	Fortune
Overleveling behavior	No change

Silk Touch is an enchantment applied to tools that causes certain blocks to drop themselves instead of their normal drops.

Obtaining

Silk Touch can be obtained from enchanting tables, drops from mobs that have spawned in a raid,‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} books obtained by fishing, monster room chests, librarian villagers, and non-village structure loot.

Usage

Silk Touch changes the items dropped from mining certain blocks. For example, mining a stone block using a pickaxe without Silk Touch would drop cobblestone; however, when using a pickaxe with Silk Touch, the stone block itself drops. The table below lists blocks that do not normally drop themselves as items:

Block	Normal drops	Obtainable with Silk Touch?	Notes
Amethyst Bud	Nothing	Yes	The bud keeps its growth stage.
Amethyst Cluster	4 Amethyst Shard with a pickaxe, otherwise 2 Amethyst Shard	Yes
Bee Nest	Nothing	Yes	When mined with a Silk Touch tool, the nest can still contain 1-3 bees.
Beehive (occupied)	Beehive (empty)	Yes	When mined with a Silk Touch tool, the hive can still contain 1-3 bees.
Blue Ice[a]	Nothing	Yes
Bookshelf	3 Book	Yes
Budding Amethyst	Nothing	No
Cake[a]	Nothing	No
Campfire	2 Charcoal	Yes
Chiseled Bookshelf	Nothing	Yes	Any books placed in the bookshelf are dropped.
Clay	4 Clay Ball	Yes	Clay can also be obtained by crafting with the clay balls the block drops, or killing an enderman holding the block.
Coal Ore[a]	1 Coal	Yes (only with a pickaxe)
Cobweb[b]	1 String	Yes	Drops itself when mined with shears.
Copper Ore	2-5 Raw Copper	Yes (only with a stone pickaxe or better)
Coral Blocks[a]	Dead Coral Blocks	Yes (only with a pickaxe)
Coral[a] Coral Fans[a]	Nothing	Yes
Creaking Heart	1-3 Resin Clump	Yes
Decorated Pot	4 pottery sherd(s)/brick(s) when broken with a tool in the main hand, else it drops itself.	Yes
Deepslate	Cobbled Deepslate	Yes (only with a pickaxe)	Can also be smelted from cobbled deepslate.
Diamond Ore[a]	1 Diamond	Yes (only with an iron pickaxe or better)
Double Slab	2 Slab	No	All slabs except wooden drop nothing when mined without a pickaxe.
Emerald Ore[a]	1 Emerald	Yes (only with an iron pickaxe or better)
Ender Chest	8 Obsidian	Yes
Farmland	Dirt	No
Fire[a]	Nothing	No	Fire cannot be obtained as an item, but it can be created using a flint and steel or fire charge.
Frosted Ice[a]	Nothing (becomes a water source)	No (no water source forms)	Frosted Ice cannot be obtained as an item, but can be created using Frost Walker boots.
Gilded Blackstone[a]	90% chance for Gilded Blackstone and 10% chance for 2-5 Gold Nuggets	Yes (only with a pickaxe)
Glass Pane[a] Glass[a]	Nothing	Yes
Glowstone	2-4 Glowstone Dust	Yes	Can also be crafted with 4 glowstone dust.
Gold Ore	1 Raw Gold	Yes (only with an iron pickaxe or better)
Grass Block	Dirt	Yes	Can also be obtained by killing an enderman holding the block.
Dirt Path	Dirt	Yes‌[BE only]
		No‌[JE only]
Gravel	90% chance for Gravel and 10% chance for Flint	Yes	The block always drops itself if it falls into an occupied block space.
Ice[a]	Nothing (Becomes a water source)	Yes
Infested Block	Spawns 1 Silverfish	No	When mined with a Silk Touch tool, it drops the original version of the block, not the infested block, and no silverfish spawn.
Iron Ore	1 Raw Iron	Yes (only with a stone pickaxe or better)
Lapis Lazuli Ore[a]	4-8 Lapis Lazuli	Yes (only with a stone pickaxe or better)
Leaves	0-1 Saplings 0-2 Sticks 0-1 Apple from oak and dark oak leaves	Yes	Leaf blocks can also be obtained by mining them with shears.
Melon	3-7 Melon Slice	Yes	Can also be crafted with 9 melon slices, or killing an enderman holding the block.
Monster Spawner[a]	Nothing	No	The monster spawner drops experience if mined with a pickaxe.
Mushroom Blocks	0-2 Mushrooms	Yes
Mycelium	Dirt	Yes	Can also be obtained by killing an enderman holding the block.
Nether Gold Ore[a]	2-6 Gold Nugget	Yes (only with a pickaxe)
Nether Quartz Ore[a]	1 Nether Quartz	Yes (only with a pickaxe)
Nylium[a]	Netherrack	Yes (only with a pickaxe)	Can also be obtained by killing an enderman holding the block.
Ominous Vault[a]	Nothing	No	It cannot be obtained as an item and cannot be moved by pistons.
Packed Ice[a]	Nothing	Yes
Podzol	Dirt	Yes	Can also be obtained by killing an enderman holding the block, or buying it from a wandering trader.
Powder Snow	Nothing	No	Can be collected with a bucket.
Redstone Ore[a]	4-5 Redstone Dust	Yes (only with an iron pickaxe or better)
Reinforced Deepslate[a]	Nothing	No
Sculk Sculk Catalyst Sculk Sensor Calibrated Sculk Sensor Sculk Shrieker Sculk Vein[a]	Nothing	Yes	Every sculk family block except sculk vein drops experience when mined without Silk Touch.
Sea Lantern	2-3 Prismarine Crystals	Yes
Short Dry Grass Tall Dry Grass	Nothing	Yes	Can also be obtained by mining them with shears.
Snow[a]	In Java Edition: 1 Snowball (per layer) In Bedrock Edition: 1 Snowball for 1-3 layers 2 Snowball for 4-5 layers 3 Snowball for 6-7 layers 4 Snowball for 8 layers	Yes (only with a shovel)	At 8 layers, drops a snow block instead.[1] Can also be crafted with 3 snow blocks.
Snow Block[a]	4 Snowball	Yes (only with a shovel)	Can also be crafted with 4 snowballs.
Soul Campfire	Soul Soil	Yes
Stone[a]	Cobblestone	Yes (only with a pickaxe)	Can also be smelted from cobblestone.
Suspicious Gravel Suspicious Sand	Nothing	No	Can be obtained by making the block fall for more than 30 seconds.[2]
Turtle Egg[a]	Nothing	Yes
Twisting Vines	33% chance for Twisting Vines	Yes	Also drops 100% of the time if broken with Fortune III or shears.
Weeping Vines	33% chance for Weeping Vines	Yes	Also drops 100% of the time if broken with Fortune III or shears.

Incompatibilities

Silk Touch is incompatible with Fortune. If commands are used to apply both Silk Touch and Fortune to an item, the Silk Touch enchantment takes precedence over the Fortune enchantment for blocks affected by both enchantments.

Silk Touch cannot be applied to swords or fishing rods in normal gameplay.

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Enchantment definition

{
  "anvil_cost": 8,
  "description": {
    "translate": "enchantment.minecraft.silk_touch"
  },
  "effects": {
    "minecraft:block_experience": [
      {
        "effect": {
          "type": "minecraft:set",
          "value": 0.0
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "exclusive_set": "#minecraft:exclusive_set/mining",
  "max_cost": {
    "base": 65,
    "per_level_above_first": 0
  },
  "max_level": 1,
  "min_cost": {
    "base": 15,
    "per_level_above_first": 0
  },
  "slots": [
    "mainhand"
  ],
  "supported_items": "#minecraft:enchantable/mining_loot",
  "weight": 1
}

Achievements

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		Total Beelocation	Move and place a Bee Nest, with 3 bees inside, using Silk Touch.	—	30	Silver

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Total Beelocation	Move a Bee Nest or Beehive, with 3 Bees inside, using Silk Touch	Break a bee nest, with 3 bees inside, using Silk Touch. Contrary to the in-game description, a beehive cannot trigger the advancement.

History

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Legacy Console Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

Issues

Issues relating to "Silk Touch" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

References