5 best Minecraft enchantments for ocean exploration in 2022

There's a lot to explore in Minecraft's oceans. The aquatic biome is home to a variety of interesting structures. These include ocean monuments, where players can find the game's only sources of prismarine, underwater ruins, which are home to the Drowned, and shipwrecks, which are great sources of early-game loot.

However, with great potential for gear and loot comes great danger. There are a number of factors that make Minecraft oceans inhospitable for players, such as poor visibility, hostile mobs, and players’ inability to breathe.

Detailed below are five enchantments that Minecraft players can use on their gear when they decide to take the plunge into the deep.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the opinions of the writer

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Aqua Affinity, Depth Strider, and 3 other useful enchantments for ocean exploration in Minecraft 1.19

1) Protection

While Protection is not an ocean-related enchantment in Minecraft, it is almost vital when exploring the depths of the biome.

There are many threats in the ocean. The most prevalent are the Drowned, aquatic undead mobs that act very similar to zombies. Some of these floating corpses are equipped with tridents, which deal massive damage and can be thrown very quickly. This means players can easily get stuck in knockback loops.

The Protection enchantment will help mitigate this damage by up to 64% if all armor has Protection four, drastically increasing survivability.

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2) Aqua Affinity

Aqua Affinity is an enchantment that allows a player to increase their underwater mining speed. Normally, while the player’s head is underwater, their mining speed is five times slower than normal. This is increased by an additional five times if the player is floating, resulting in a total mining speed that is 25 times slower than normal.

The Aqua Affinity enchantment only has one level. When the player wears a helmet equipped with it, the penalty for being underwater is removed. Unfortunately, the player will still get the penalty for floating.

However, this turns the maximum penalty from 25 times to only five times, making the enchantment worth it.

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3) Respiration

One of the biggest problems that players face when exploring the oceans of Minecraft is their inability to breathe underwater. This means that players can only spend so much time under the waves before they start to drown and inevitably die.

The base amount of time that players can spend underwater is only 15 seconds. This is where the Respiration enchantment comes in. There are three levels of the enchantment, with each level adding 15 seconds to the total time players can breathe underwater. This means that at max level, players can spend a full minute exploring the depths of the ocean.

However, the Respiration enchantment also stacks with the increased water breathing that is offered by the turtle shell item. This brings the total time that players can be underwater up to a total of 75 seconds or one minute and 15 seconds.

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4) Depth Strider

One of the most annoying parts of exploring the ocean in Minecraft is just how slow everything can be. Players typically move at about four blocks per second while walking. However, they are reduced to just less than two blocks per second in neutral water and a whopping 0.3 blocks per second if they are swimming against an underwater current.

The Depth Strider enchantment has three different levels, and each level reduces the amount water slows the player by ⅓. This means that at Depth Strider three, the player will be able to move at full speed while underwater.

As a result, players can explore the ocean more efficiently and discover more ocean ruins and monuments.

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5) Riptide

A player using riptide and an elytra to fly over the ocean (Image via Minecraft/Mojang)

Riptide is the best enchantment that players can use when exploring the ocean in Minecraft. This enchantment can be placed on a trident.

Riptide doesn't allow a trident to be thrown as normal. Instead, if players are in the water, rain, or underwater, they will charge up before flinging themselves several blocks forward in a very short time. This means that players with Riptide can circumvent the slow travel time underwater and travel even faster than they can with maxed Depth Strider.

The formula for blocks traveled is six times the level of enchantment plus three. This means that players will move nine blocks at the first level and 15 blocks at the second. At the third level, players will move 21 blocks.