You can enhance any kind of major tool with the Fortune enchantment in Minecraft to increase item drops while mining. Depending on the enchantment level, you can get 2, 3, or even 4 times more drops–making Fortune very useful.
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How the Fortune Enchantment Works
When you mine a block with an unenchanted tool, there is a range of how many items it will drop. Sometimes this is 1, like how Iron Ore blocks only drop 1 Raw Iron at a time. Other times, a block will drop multiple items, like when you break a Redstone Ore block and Redstone Dust goes everywhere. The Fortune enchantment will multiply these odds, with higher-level versions of Fortune increasing the multiplier. There are 3 levels of the Fortune enchantment.
Fortune Enchantment Level Breakdown
- Fortune Level 1 = Grants a 66% chance to drop x1 of the max value of the broken block and a 33% chance to drop x2 of the max value
- Fortune Level 2 = Grants a 50% chance to drop x1 of the max value of the broken block, a 25% chance to drop x2 of the max value, and a 25% chance to drop x3 of the max value
- Fortune Level 3 = Grants a 40% chance to drop x1 of the max value of the broken block, a 20% chance to drop x2 of the max value, a 20% chance to drop x3 of the max value, and a 20% chance to drop x4 of the max value
To figure out how much of a certain ore, or other drops, you’ll get from breaking a block, multiply the max value of that block’s regular drop rate by the value of your Fortune enchantment.
For example, you can determine the max potential yield from mining an Iron Ore block. If you have Fortune level 1 on a pickaxe, you’ll have a 66% of getting 1 Raw Iron and a 33% of getting 2 Raw Iron.
Minimum and Maximum Base Drop Rates for All Ores
- Coal (from Coal Ore) = 1 – 1
- Diamond (from Diamond Ore) = 1 – 1
- Emerald (from Emerald Ore) = 1 – 1
- Raw Iron (from Iron Ore) = 1 – 1
- Raw Copper (from Copper Ore) = 2 – 3
- Raw Gold (from Gold Ore) = 1 – 1
- Gold Nuggets (from Nether Gold Ore) = 2 – 6
- Nether Quartz (from Nether Quartz Ore) = 1 – 1
- Lapis Lazuli (from Lapis Lazuli Ore) = 4 – 9
- Amethyst Shards (from Amethyst Cluster) = 4 – 4
- Redstone Dust (from Redstone Ore) = 4 – 5
- Glowstone Dust (from Glowstone) = 2 – 4
Minimum and Maximum Base Drop Rates for All Nature Blocks
In addition to being able to get more drops from ore blocks, you can also get more drops from nature blocks with the Fortune enchantment. Here’s a breakdown of the few nature blocks that can give you multiple drops.
- Melon Slices (from Melon) = 3 – 7
- Nether Wart (from fully matured Nether Wart) = 2 – 4
- Prismarine Crystals (from Sea Lantern) = 2 – 3
- Sweet Berries (from fully matured Sweet Berry Bush) = 2 – 3
Incompatible Enchantments
You can put multiple enchantments on the same tool, however, there are some that don’t work with each other. If you have a Fortune enchantment on a tool, you can’t enchant that same tool with Silk Touch. The reverse is true as well–tools with Silk Touch can’t be enchanted with Fortune. For this reason, you can’t get multiple drops of certain blocks that you can only mine by using the Silk Touch enchantment.
