You're at the bottom of a deep, dark ocean monument, and that little bubble bar above your hotbar is flickering. It's flashing red. You've got maybe three seconds before your lungs give out and you start taking drown damage. Honestly, it’s one of the most stressful feelings in the game. That’s exactly why the potion of underwater breathing isn't just a luxury; it’s a total survival necessity if you’re planning on doing anything more than just looking at a few tropical fish from the shore.
Most players think they can just "wing it" with a bunch of doors or some sugar cane to create air pockets. Sure, that worked back in the day. But ever since the Update Aquatic changed how water physics work, those old-school tricks are basically useless in a lot of modern scenarios. You need a real solution.
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Making the Potion of Underwater Breathing: What You Actually Need
If you want to stop drowning, you've gotta get comfortable with the brewing stand. It’s not that complicated, but it does require a trip to the Nether, which is where most people get tripped up. You can't even start without Blaze Powder to fuel the stand. It’s the literal gasoline of the Minecraft alchemy world.
First, you need an Awkward Potion. This is the "base" for almost every useful drink in the game. You make it by brewing a Nether Wart into a Water Bottle. Simple enough. But here’s the part people forget: the key ingredient for the potion of underwater breathing is a Pufferfish.
Catching the Fish
You can find Pufferfish in warm or lukewarm ocean biomes. You can use a fishing rod, but it's kinda slow. If you’re feeling brave, you can just jump in and whack them with a sword, but be careful—they’ll poison you if you get too close while they’re puffed up. Once you have that spiked little guy, pop him into the brewing stand with your Awkward Potion. Boom. You have a three-minute potion.
But three minutes is nothing. It goes by in a heartbeat when you're distracted by a Guardian. You absolutely have to add Redstone Dust to that mixture. That’s what bumps the duration up to eight minutes. Now we're talking. Eight minutes gives you enough time to actually explore a shipwreck or start mining out a conduit setup without panicking every thirty seconds.
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Why the Ocean Monument is Your Biggest Test
Let's talk about the Elder Guardian. It’s a nightmare. Not just because it hits hard, but because it gives you Mining Fatigue III. If you don't have a potion of underwater breathing, you are effectively dead meat the second you enter that temple. You can't break blocks to escape, and you can't swim to the surface fast enough if you run out of air.
Experts like the YouTuber Hermitcraft players or technical masters from the SciCraft server often emphasize that "buff management" is the difference between a successful raid and losing all your diamond gear. When you're inside a monument, you aren't just fighting mobs; you're fighting the environment itself. The potion lets you ignore the timer. It turns the ocean floor into your backyard.
The Hidden Benefits of Breathing Water
Did you know it affects your vision too? It’s subtle, but when you have the underwater breathing effect active, your vision clarity under the waves actually improves slightly. It’s not as dramatic as the Night Vision potion—which, by the way, you should totally stack with this for the best experience—but it helps you spot those sneaky Drowned with tridents before they turn you into a pincushion.
Variations and Advanced Alchemy
Sometimes you don't want to drink the potion yourself. Maybe you’re trying to move an Axolotl or a specific mob. That’s where Splash Potions and Lingering Potions come in.
- Splash Potion: Add Gunpowder. You throw it. It hits your friends. Everyone breathes.
- Lingering Potion: Add Dragon's Breath to a Splash Potion. It creates a cloud. Great for team raids.
- Arrow of Water Breathing: If you use a Lingering Potion on arrows, you can shoot your friends (or your pets) to give them the effect. It sounds mean, but it works.
There’s a weird misconception that you can use Fermented Spider Eyes to "corrupt" this potion into something else. In some versions of the game, people thought it might lead to a potion of drowning or something similar. Honestly? It doesn't. Adding a Fermented Spider Eye to this specific potion usually just results in a Potion of Weakness. It’s a waste of materials. Stick to the Pufferfish.
The Strategy for Deep Sea Survival
If you're serious about the potion of underwater breathing, you need to automate your supply. Pufferfish can be farmed through AFK fishing farms or by setting up a magma block trap in a warm ocean. It's much better than hunting them manually every time you want to go exploring.
Also, don't sleep on the Turtle Shell. If you wear a Turtle Shell on your head, you get an extra 10 seconds of water breathing. It stacks with the potion. Well, technically, the potion just pauses the "air bar," and the shell adds to it. It’s a nice safety net.
When you combine an 8-minute potion with Depth Strider III on your boots and Aqua Affinity on your helmet, you basically become Aquaman. You can move fast, mine at normal speeds, and never have to look at the surface.
Real-World Gameplay Application
Consider the "Conduit" setup. To build a Conduit, you need Nautilus Shells and a Heart of the Sea. Getting those items usually involves raiding buried treasure and killing Drowned. You'll be underwater for a long time. If you try to do this without a potion of underwater breathing, you’re going to spend 70% of your time swimming up for air and 30% actually working. It’s inefficient.
Professional speedrunners or "Hardcore" mode players never skip this step. In Hardcore, drowning is the most "embarrassing" way to lose a world you've spent 500 hours on. Don't be that person.
Actions to Take Now
To get started with your underwater empire, follow these specific steps to ensure you're prepared:
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- Secure a Nether Wart Farm: You can't brew anything without it. Grab soul sand from the Nether and plant wart in the overworld near your brewing station.
- Hunt Pufferfish in Bulk: Don't just get one. Get a stack. Use a Looting III sword on them in a warm ocean to maximize the drop rate.
- Prioritize Redstone: Always extend your potions to 8 minutes. The 3-minute version is a trap that leads to "one more block" syndrome, which usually leads to death.
- Pair with Night Vision: For the best results, brew Golden Carrots into Night Vision potions and drink them alongside your breathing potions. The ocean becomes as clear as day.
- Check Your Version: If you are playing on Bedrock Edition, the mechanics of how the potion interacts with the "Water Breathing" enchantment on armor might feel slightly different than Java, but the brewing recipe remains identical.
The ocean in Minecraft is full of treasure—gold blocks in monuments, enchanted books in ruins, and rare ores in underwater ravines. Stop staying on the surface and go get them.