Exploring the underwater world in Minecraft can be both fascinating and dangerous. So to make your underwater adventure a whole lot safer and still exciting, we’ve compiled a list of the five best underwater enchantments you can work with.
Enchantments are like special powers you can add to your equipment, allowing you to breathe longer underwater, mine blocks faster, and move around more easily. With the perfect enchantments, you can swim and dive deeper wherever you want into the ocean and discover some amazing treasures and different kinds of fish and corals in Minecraft’s oceans.
And one of the most important things to do is equip yourself with the right gear and enchantments. We compiled the five best Minecraft enchantments for exploring underwater in 2023.
Top 5 Enchantments for Exploring Underwater in Minecraft
Underwater adventures in Minecraft can be exciting yet tricky, as you never know what you may encounter. You may obtain and discover hidden treasures, find new types of fish, or even encounter dangerous mobs that will attack you at any moment.
However, with the right gear and enchantments, this will be fairly easier and safer for you as traversing the vast ocean will take quite a bit of time and be quite challenging for any unprepared adventurer.
1. Mending Enchantment
The Mending enchantment is one of the most amazing and useful enchantments. It repairs your gear as you gain experience points. This enchantment can be applied to any equipment, including weapons, making it perfect for long underwater expeditions.
One of the most notable benefits of Mending is its versatility. It can be applied to any equipment, including armor, weapons, and tools. The only exception is that a bow cannot have Mending and Infinity. You have to choose one or the other.
With the Mending enchantment, you can keep your gear in good condition without returning to the surface for repairs. This means you can keep all your gear in pristine condition as you explore the underwater world of Minecraft.
The drawback to this enchantment is that it consumes the experience points you gain to repair your equipment. So instead of gaining experience points and leveling up from killing mobs, it is redirected to your equipment’s restoration.
2. Aqua Affinity Enchantment
The Aqua Affinity enchantment speeds up how fast you can mine blocks underwater. It means that your mining speed will be equivalent to mining on land. The enchantment can be added to any helmet or leather cap using an enchanting table or game command.
Unlike some enchantments, Aqua Affinity does not have multiple levels. There is no activation or method to it, but rather a flat increase in mining speed only when underwater. However, you will need to wear the helmet/cap that has the enchantment to experience the effects.
The mining penalty while floating in water is unaffected by Aqua Affinity, so mine while standing on the ground. You can obtain Aqua Affinity (other than commands) in three ways.
Read: List of All Hoe Enchantments
You can enchant a helmet or Turtle Shell in an Enchanting Table, find an enchanted book, or a villager willing to trade it to obtain the Aqua Affinity enchantment.
The Enchanting Table will be your best bet, as you can keep rolling until you get it instead of just looting chests and villages, as the chances of finding a book or villager willing to trade it are extremely low. If you do happen to find a book with the enchantment, just use an anvil to apply the book to whatever helmet or Turtle Shell you would like.
3. Respiration Enchantment
The Respiration enchantment is a helmet-exclusive enchantment for extending your breathing time underwater. It extends the duration. You can stay underwater for 15 seconds at each level. With Respiration III, you can dive for about 60 seconds without submerging.
Furthermore, this effect can be extended by 10 seconds if you wear a turtle shell helmet, as it is one of the most common ways to breathe underwater in Minecraft. This enchantment reduces the need for frequent surfacing and grants you more time to gather resources, build structures, or even engage in underwater combat.
Respiration also mitigates the adverse effects of water fog, which can greatly impede visibility underwater, particularly in deeper areas. The enchantment clears the murky water fog, allowing for clearer vision and thus enabling you to navigate more efficiently underwater. This feature can be particularly useful when searching for underwater caves or treasure chests, where spotting items hidden in the darkness can be challenging.
In older versions of Minecraft, this enchantment also has a hidden effect of letting you see better underwater. Overall, Respiration is a nice effect to have.
4. Depth Strider Enchantment
The Depth Strider enchantment is one of the most useful enchantments in Minecraft. This enchantment helps increase your movement speed in swimming by over 33% per level, which can make a huge difference when exploring vast bodies of water.
In addition to improving your movement speed, Depth Strider also reduces the effect of water currents on your movement, allowing you to navigate very easily underwater. This enchantment allows you to explore the ocean’s depths more easily and confidently.
Depth Strider also pairs well with enchantments like Respiration and Aqua Affinity, giving you a more immersive and effective underwater experience.
5. Impaling Enchantment
The Impaling enchantment is exclusive for tridents, allowing it to deal extra damage each hit against aquatic mobs. Each level of Impaling adds 2.5 damage per hit, with the maximum being V, which equates to a 12.5 damage bonus.
This enchantment allows players to dispatch all aquatic mobs. This includes axolotls, dolphins, guardians, elder guardians, squid, glow squids, turtles, and all fish variants. However, Drowned do not count, as they are classified as undead instead of aquatic.
It’s important to note that Impaling is specifically designed for underwater combat and therefore has no effect on land-based mobs or other environments. Additionally, while Impaling is a powerful enchantment, it can be rare and difficult. However, when obtained, impaling can be a precious tool for underwater exploration and combat.
