Which blocks require the Silk Touch enchantment, or benefit from it?

In Minecraft, which blocks:

1. Can only be acquired with a Silk Touch enchanted tool, or
2. Do not drop themselves or 100% of their components when broken, so Silk Touch is still useful, even if the block can be built or acquired without Silk Touch?

1 Answer

All the blocks that can only be obtained by silk touch are listed in green here

• Bee Nest (not to be confused with Bee Hive)
• Coal ore
• Cobwebs (requires the enchantment to be on shears)
• Diamond ore
• Dirt covered with grass or mycellium
• Emerald ore
• Ice
• Lapis Lazuli ore
• Mushroom blocks
• Quartz ore
• Redstone ore

The blocks that can be obtained in other ways, but are affected by silk touch are:

• Bookshelves
• Clay
• Enderchests
• Glass
• Glowstone
• Gravel will always drop (rather than flint)
• Snow blocks
• Stone