What is the best way to mine coral in Minecraft?

Coral, found in Minecraft's coral reef structures in warm ocean biomes, is technically an animal mob. However, it retains a block form as opposed to being a moving entity.

Introduced in Minecraft's Update Aquatic, coral is an entity capable of living or dying based on its conditions, much like the real world.

Like many floras in the game, coral can occasionally be created in warm ocean biomes by applying bone meal to dirt, coarse dirt, sand, red sand, gravel, and clay.

Regardless, there's only one way to physically acquire coral blocks. Players will want to utilize this method if they want to collect coral.

Note: This article reflects the opinions of the writer

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Steps to efficiently obtain coral blocks in Minecraft

Players will need a Silk Touch tool to collect coral safely (Image via Mojang)

To reclaim coral blocks in Minecraft without outwardly destroying them, players will need a tool enchanted with Silk Touch. To collect dead coral blocks, in particular, players will need a pickaxe enchanted with Silk Touch.

This means in order to collect both living and dead coral with one tool, players will want to enchant a pickaxe with Silk Touch as opposed to a shovel, axe, or gardening hoe.

Fortunately, Silk Touch is a relatively easy enchantment to obtain, so players shouldn't have too much trouble enchanting their pickaxe with it.

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Using a Silk Touch pickaxe to mine coral

1. Head over to or create an enchanting table. Enchanting tables can be crafted in Minecraft by combining four blocks of obsidian, two diamonds, and one book.
2. Access the enchanting table by right-clicking or pressing the "use button" on a controller while the player's crosshairs are over the table.
3. Place the pickaxe in the item slot and fill the lapis lazuli slot with as much lapis as possible in order to maximize the potential enchantments available. Players will also want several levels of experience in order to acquire Silk Touch and apply it to their pickaxe.
4. Hover over to check each enchantment listed. If players don't have Silk Touch available as one of the listed enchantments, there's a way to refresh the list. Simply enchant another item with a low-cost listed enchantment (standard books are great for refreshing enchanting tables). Doing so will refresh the list of enchantments. Once Silk Touch is available, simply click the option, and it will be applied to the pickaxe.
5. With their newly-enchanted pickaxe, Minecraft players will want to head to the warm ocean biome where they can find a coral reef structure. It should now be possible to harvest both living and dead coral blocks by using the Silk Touch pickaxe. Instead of simply breaking, the coral blocks should now drop themselves, and players can pick them up at their leisure.