Minecraft resource gathering/Using Silk Touch

Silk Touch is an enchantment for tools that makes blocks drop themselves when broken, even when they usually drop nothing (e.g. Glass) or another item (e.g. coal ore). This page is a guide to using Silk Touch.

Use

Let's say you need coal ore for a build. When mining a block of coal ore, you would normally get coal. If you use Silk Touch, you would get the coal ore block you wanted. While nearly all blocks can be collected using Silk Touch, some blocks (listed below) can never drop themselves and have to be obtained through other means.

Block	Alternative method
Cake	While Cake can be crafted, it is impossible to retrieve after you have placed it
Budding Amethyst	Budding Amethysts generate in Geodes, but cannot be moved
Monster Spawner	Spawners generate in Dungeons and Bastions, but cannot be moved
Reinforced Deepslate	Reinforced Deepslate generates in Ancient Cities, but cannot be moved
Powder Snow	Powder Snow can be picked up and placed with a Bucket
Frogspawn	Frogspawn blocks are placed by frogs and are unobtainable in Survival Mode
Frosted Ice	Frosted Ice blocks are plased by the Frost Walker enchantment and are unobtainable in Survival Mode

Obtaining

You can enchant a tool with Silk Touch in two ways:

• Using an Enchanting Table
• Using a Silk Touch Enchanted Book at an anvil