Ultimate Guide to Ocean Monuments in Minecraft: Finding, Raiding, and Farming the Deep

If you are someone who loves exploring Minecraft’s various structures, such as Strongholds and Woodland Mansions, you cannot miss out on Ocean Monuments. They generate only in Deep Ocean and Deep Frozen Ocean biomes, fully submerged and usually far from land.

Raiding this moment can be challenging since this isn’t your regular structure, like the villages; they require proper preparation, and also a few techniques to actually locate them. Furthermore, you will find a variety of different mobs guarding and living in the monument.

So, we have created this guide that will help you in locating the monument, preparing for the journey, and eventually raiding it. Here is everything you need to know.

What You Need To Bring

Before we can head on to finding the monument and get started with our quest, we need to first get all the necessary supplies and resources. The right gear and a bit of planning make a huge difference, especially if this is your first time.

Let’s check them out below:

1. Water Breathing: This is the most important item of all. You will need a lot of Water Breathing potions since the entire monument is submerged in water. A full 8-minute potion lets you explore without worrying about air pockets.
2. Night Vision: This is optional but very useful. The monument is dim, and guardians blend into the murky water; night vision makes everything stand out.
3. Depth Strider Boots: Ensure your boots have this specific enchantment. It makes walking in water as smooth as walking on land, which makes dodging guardian lasers and getting from room to room much easier.
4. Respiration Helmet with Aqua Affinity: Similarly, you will need a good-quality helmet with enhancements such as Respiration and Aqua Affinity. A Respiration III helmet extends the time you can stay underwater and slows the rate at which you lose air; handy if you need to wait for potions to wear off or if you simply forget to drink one. Pair it with Aqua Affinity so you can break blocks at normal speed.
5. Milk Bucket: The only way you can counter the effect of Mining Fatigue is by using a Milk Bucket. However, the only disadvantage of this is that it also nullifies the effect of all the other potions you might have consumed, such as Water Breathing.
6. Weapons and Armor: You will need at least a full set of diamond armor, or even iron armor might work as a beginner. Talking about weapons, you can go for a melee weapon and a long-ranged weapon, i.e., a sword and a bow & arrow.
7. Building Blocks and Door: Consider bringing dirt blocks or any other blocks that are not common in the Ocean monument, which will help you differentiate. Likewise, if you even run out of potions for breathing, you can use trap doors for emergency oxygen.

Overall, you do not specifically need a lot of these items; simply having good armor, basic weapons, and water-breathing potions might be enough. But having all of the above makes raiding the monument much easier.

How to Locate an Ocean Monument

Now, let’s see how you can find these Ocean Monuments. Unlike Woodland mansions, they are not that rare and can be easily located with the help of a few methods. Here are all of them:

1. Ocean Explorer Map

The easiest and most efficient way to find an Ocean Monument is by using an Ocean Explorer Map. This can be traded from a Cartographer villager. Here is how you can do it.

• Visit a village and look for a Cartographer villager. If you cannot find it, simply craft a Cartographer table and assign it to a villager without a job.
• Level the cartographer up to Journeyman by trading paper or glass panes. They will then have the option to buy the map.
• The map will have a blue monument icon and will show your position as a small white marker.
• Keep moving in the direction of the monument as seen on the map.
• As you approach this structure, the map begins to fill with a blue color, indicating a water body.

This approach costs some emeralds but saves hours of random sailing.

2. Explore Yourself

If you are more of an explorer and wish to embark on a journey to find the Ocean monument yourself, you can try that too. Simply grab a few night potions and breathing potions and start sailing through deep oceans. This process takes a lot of time and resources, too, but if you are up for the challenge, go for it.

3. Third-Party Seed Tools

Another way to find the Ocean Monument is by using third-party seed tools such as Chunkbase. Enter the world seed, and it shows everything there is in your world at the precise location.

They’re accurate because monument generation is fixed by the seed. Use these only if you’re okay with spoiling the natural discovery.

Understanding Guardians & Elder Guardians

Considering you have finally found the monument, let’s talk about the boss mob you will come across. Before we get down to raiding it, you need to know more about Guardians (of the sea) and the Elder Guardians.

Guardians

Guardians are orange-eyed creatures that spawn right outside the monument. They only have one eye and multiple thorn-like protrusions on their body. Every time you hit them, these thorns kind of act like a shield, and you take damage as well in return, especially when using melee weapons. This makes fighting them head-on with a sword less efficient than shooting with a bow, crossbow, or trident.

Similarly, their major attack is a charging laser beam. Once they lock onto you, there’s a short delay (about 2 seconds) before the beam finishes charging and deals damage. The damage is magic-based, so armor helps, but dodging or blocking their line of sight is even more effective.

One interesting fact about this mob is that the Guardians give you a short warning before it hits you with the charge beam attack. As soon as one locks onto you, you’ll see a thin beam extend between you and the mob. At first, the beam is a faint purple color. Over about two seconds, the beam intensifies, changing to a yellow color. This is where it is fully charged and is about to fire you.

Elder Guardian

They are kind of “mini-bosses” of the Ocean Monument. Every monument generates at least three of these: one in the top room above the central hall, one in the left wing, and one in the right wing.

If you have never seen them before, well, they are the larger versions of guardians with similar structures. It has one eye, and the spikes can hurt you as well when you hit them.

Although they have the same attack as the Guardians, the reason they are known to be the bosses is that they will inflict you with Mining Fatigue III. This effect slows your breaking or mining speed so much that even mining dirt feels like breaking obsidian with your fists. The only way to get rid of this is by killing them.

How to Counter Their Attacks

Guardians and Elder Guardians may look intimidating when you face them for the first time; however, they aren’t too difficult to defeat. You just need to take care of a few things:

1. Use Line of Sight to Your Advantage

This is the single most important line of defense that can save you from the unique attack of these mobs. Both guardians and elders need a clear, uninterrupted view of you to fire their laser. As soon as a block comes between you and them, their beam stops charging and cancels completely.

Here is how you can use this to your advantage:

• Placing solid blocks (like cobblestone or dirt blocks) in front of you when you see a beam lock on.
• Hiding behind monument walls or pillars instead of trying to tank hits works much better.
• Try throwing a trident in between the attacks to kill them efficiently.

This single tactic makes raiding far safer because you’re not trying to out-heal constant damage; you’re simply preventing it.

2. Watch the Beam Color

As we have talked about before, the beam attack changes color right before the Guardians and the Elder Guardians are about to attack. The moment they lock the target on you, they take about 2 seconds to attack you.

You can prevent this by moving away from them and breaking that locked target. The entire ocean monument is built with lots of blocks and pillars that give you an advantage to hide from their attack.

3. Milk vs. Mining Fatigue

The major reason you need to kill the Elder Guardians is that they are the reason you have the Mining Fatigue effect that prevents you from mining in the Ocean Monument.

To counter this effect, you can drink Milk from a bucket; however, it removes all the other enchantments as well, such as Water Breathing, something you need to be careful about. Furthermore, if you are out of milk, killing the Elder Guardians is the only permanent solution.

4. Fight Smarter

Don’t go on a killing spree the moment you enter the water. You need to make a wise decision, such as choosing the right weapon. Sword might be a good option if you are looking to go for a close fight; however, the best weapon for the Guardians is the Trident with Riptide and Loyalty.

Similarly, make sure to kill the Elder Guardians first to remove the Mining Fatigue. There are three in every Ocean Monument. Once they’re gone, the monument becomes dramatically easier to clear.

Loot and Rewards in Ocean Monuments

Let’s talk about what exactly you are here for. Unlike other structures, Ocean Monuments aren’t packed with loot chests like other structures, but the materials and drops you get here are unique and extremely valuable for both builders and advanced players.

1. Sponges

Sponges are one of the most valuable items in the entire game. They’re the only block that can absorb water, which makes them essential for draining ocean monuments, clearing out underwater bases, or terraforming large areas.

There are two ways to get the Sponges:

1. Elder Guardians Drops: Each Elder Guardian drops 1 wet sponge when killed, giving you at least three per monument.
2. Sponge Rooms: Each Monument has at least two of these rooms or even more, where you will find more than 20-30 wet sponges hanging from the ceiling. You can use your axe to collect them; however, the best tool for this block is a Diamond Hoe.

Once collected, you can dry them in a furnace or simply place them in the Nether, where they instantly dry out.

2. Gold Blocks

Every Ocean Monument has a treasure room where you will find the right Gold Blocks. The easiest way to find it is from the monument’s central hall; the gold blocks are directly behind the back wall.

You’ll need to break through dark prismarine to reach them, which means either using milk to clear Mining Fatigue or killing all three Elder Guardians first, and then you can look out for the loot.

There aren’t a lot of Gold, but for survival players, it’s a nice bonus and a great way to restock on golden apples or powered rails.

3. Prismarine Blocks

The entire Ocean monument is built with the Prismarine Blocks, and it comes in three types, each with its own look and use. Once you are done collecting the above-mentioned loot, you can mine these blocks and collect them.

Prismarine (Base Block)

This is the light blue-green block that makes up most of the monument’s structure. It’s known for its color-shifting texture; it subtly changes shades as time passes, cycling through different tones of blue and green. You can craft regular prismarine using four prismarine shards, which drop from guardians.

Prismarine Bricks

These are the lighter, patterned blocks that form the clean-looking walls and pillars in the monument.

They don’t shift color like regular prismarine, so they’re better when you want a consistent look. You can craft these prismarine bricks using nine prismarine shards in a crafting table.
Furthermore, they’re great for blending underwater builds with stone or quartz themes since they have a strong, tiled pattern.

Dark Prismarine

Lastly, we have the Dark Prismarine. This is the rarest of the three and is mostly found around the monument’s treasure chamber. It’s darker, with deep teal tones that stand out sharply against the lighter variants.

Dark prismarine can’t be made using shards alone; you need eight prismarine shards + one ink sac to craft it. Ink sacs drop from squids, so farming both guardians and squids together gives you everything you need to mass-produce it.

4. Sea Lanterns

You will also find the Sea Lanterns right next to the Prismarine Blocks. They are an excellent piece of decorative items that will only enhance your entire building structure. They’re one of the best-looking and brightest light sources in Minecraft.

The best way to collect them is by using Silk Touch on your tool. If you choose to instead break and collect them, they will drop as prismarine crystals instead.

5. Prismarine Shards and Crystals (Mob Drops)

We have not spoken yet about the different drops you will get after killing the Guardians and Elder Guardians. Each of these you kill drops prismarine shards, and sometimes prismarine crystals as well.

If you set up a guardian farm after clearing the monument, you’ll get an endless supply of shards, crystals, and raw fish automatically; it’s one of the most rewarding long-term farms in Minecraft.

6. Fish Drops

Both Guardians and Elder Guardians sometimes drop raw cod. It is not their main drops; however, it can be used as a food source when you are stuck in the monument without any. Furthermore, if you clear a monument without a farm, you’ll still leave with a decent stack of fish; helpful for trading with fishermen villagers or cooking up quick food while you’re still in the area.

Apart from this, killing these mobs also gives you 10 XP or even more when you kill the Elder Guardian. This isn’t a lot, but a good boost for your journey in the game.