How to explore underwater in Minecraft 1.19 update?

Minecraft’s map is one of the biggest in all of gaming, with only a handful of games like Elite Dangerous and No Man’s Sky surpassing its gargantuan size. While a large map is great for players as they get a ton of content and area to explore, it can get boring pretty quickly if it isn’t dynamic enough.

Thankfully, Minecraft’s random world generation, the 1.19 update, and the game’s different biomes give players a lot to explore. A ton of that content comes in the form of exploring oceans and water bodies. This article will guide players about everything related to underwater exploration in the game.

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Minecraft 1.19: Tips for players to explore underwater locations

Ever since the release of Minecraft 1.17, the game’s terrain and world generation have received progressively impactful changes, from the beautiful glow squids and adorable axolotls in the Caves and Cliffs part 1 to the 1.18 water-based features like aquifers and oceans draining into gigantic caves keep players hooked all the time.

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Drowning

Exploring underwater in Minecraft can be rewarding, but it can also be quite dangerous. While there are lesser hostile mobs to harm players than on land, the added factor of drowning doesn't help at all. The first order of affairs for players should be to counter or reduce the chances of them drowning. This can be done using various methods.

The first method is to use a turtle helmet, which grants players 10 seconds of immunity to oxygen loss in water, after which players' 15-second air bubble meter (bottom right of the screen) starts to deplete.

The second method is to use enchantments. The respiration enchantment is a 3-level enchantment that can be applied to helmets to increase water breathing time capacity by 15 seconds per level. Similarly, players can use the potion of water breathing to gain some extra water breathing time and conduits to stop their oxygen bar from depleting while they are within its range.

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Hostile mobs

Players must be wary of hostile aquatic mobs. These include the drowned, guardians, elder guardians, and occasionally pufferfish. Drowned are like zombies, except they can swim and attack players underwater.

A unique variant of the drowned mob carries a trident, which it uses to shoot trident projectiles at players, dealing a significant amount of damage. Guardians and elder guardians are found in ocean monuments and can harm players with lasers and the mining fatigue status effect, which causes players to mine extremely slowly.

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Exploring underwater caves and aquifers

Minecraft 1.18 added a ton of new cave variants to the game, including one that is completely underwater. When combined with the depth and sheer size of the revamped cave systems, players get some unique and enriching underwater experiences. Many of these caves turn out to be aquifers, which are mostly underwater caves that often house underground lakes. Players can find ores and resources in these caves.