The Fortune enchantment is a valuable enhancement in Minecraft that significantly boosts your resource collection capabilities. This guide will explore how the Fortune enchantment works, how to apply it, and the benefits it offers to players.
Understanding Enchantments
Enchantments in Minecraft are magical enhancements applied to tools, weapons, and armor to improve their abilities. These include effects like increasing the speed of a tool with Efficiency, reducing fall damage with Feather Falling, or turning water into ice with Frost Walker. Enchantments generally come with multiple power levels, which enhance their effects further. For example, Feather Falling IV offers the maximum reduction in fall damage, cutting it by 48 percent.
To upgrade enchantments to higher levels, players need experience, which can be gathered by defeating mobs, mining, fishing, trading, smelting, and other activities. An enchanted item can be upgraded using an Enchanting Table or an Anvil, the latter allowing for the combination of multiple enchantments to strengthen them.
Fortune Enchantment

What is Fortune?
The Fortune enchantment is one of the most beneficial enchantments for players engaged in mining. Applying Fortune to a mining or digging tool increases the likelihood of obtaining more drops from specific blocks. For instance, mining a single block of diamond ore with Fortune III can yield up to four diamonds. Similarly, using a Fortune III-enchanted tool on gravel ensures a 100% chance of receiving flint.
Applying Fortune
Fortune can be applied to pickaxes, axes, hoes, and shovels. It has three levels of potency:
- Fortune I: Increases the number of items dropped from blocks.
- Fortune II: Further enhances the drop rate and quantity.
- Fortune III: Maximizes the drop quantity and chance.
With each level, Fortune increases the number of items obtained from ore mining, such as diamonds, redstone, and lapis lazuli. However, some items, like glow stones and melons, have a maximum number of drops that cannot be exceeded by Fortune.
Limitations and Compatibility
The Fortune enchantment cannot be used simultaneously with the Silk Touch enchantment. Silk Touch allows players to collect blocks themselves, whereas Fortune increases the number of items dropped from blocks. Attempting to use both on the same item will result in one enchantment overriding the other. Advanced players can use console commands to exceed Fortune III, though this is generally not achievable in standard gameplay. Did you like the article? Read also about Looting in Minecraft.
How to Obtain the Fortune Enchantment
Enchanting Table
To enchant an item with Fortune, players need an Enchanting Table. Crafting this requires a book, two diamonds, and four obsidian blocks. To access higher levels of Fortune, surround the Enchanting Table with bookshelves:
- Level 1-5: Surround with 1-2 bookshelves.
- Level 6-10: Surround with 6-14 bookshelves.
- Level 30: Surround with a total of 15 bookshelves for the maximum enchantment levels.
Applying Fortune with the Anvil

Players can also use an Anvil to apply Fortune from an Enchanted Book to a tool. To do this, simply place the enchanted book and the item you wish to enchant into the Anvil.
Conclusion
The Fortune enchantment is a powerful tool for any Minecraft player looking to maximize their resource collection. By understanding how to apply and optimize Fortune, you can significantly enhance your mining efficiency and gain access to valuable resources more effectively.
For more information on Minecraft enchantments and other game mechanics, visit Wikipedia’s Minecraft page.