Want to breathe underwater in Minecraft to explore the ocean, well, a little deeper? There’s more than one way to increase your breathing time underwater: wearing a turtle shell on your head adds a few extra seconds; if you want an even longer length of time, then the Respiration enchantment or brew Water Breathing Potions are just what you need for a record 8 minutes. If you want to stay underwater for an indefinite period, then you need to build a conduit. This guide will walk you through how to breathe underwater in Minecraft 1.21 with all the tools, enchantments, and strategies needed to conquer Minecraft’s oceans.

Understanding Breathing Mechanics

In Minecraft, players can breathe underwater for 15 seconds before starting to drown. Once your oxygen runs out, you take two damage per second until you resurface or replenish your air. The following methods will help extend your underwater breathing time.

1. Respiration Enchantment

The Respiration enchantment increases the amount of time you can breathe underwater in Minecraft 1.21+ and older versions. It is available for helmets and turtle shells.

• Effect: Increases breathing time by 15 seconds per level.
• Max Level: Respiration III provides an additional 45 seconds.

Combining this enchantment with other breathing methods can further extend your time underwater

2. Turtle Shell Helmet

The turtle shell is a unique helmet crafted from turtle scutes, which are dropped when baby turtles grow into adults.

• Crafting Recipe: 5 scutes create 1 turtle shell.
• Effect: Wearing the turtle helmet provides an additional 10 seconds of water breathing.

When paired with the Respiration III enchantment, a turtle shell helmet offers up to 70 seconds of breathing underwater, while this isn’t an infinite solution, it’s useful for short underwater tasks.

3. Bubble Columns

Bubble columns are vertical streams of bubbles created by placing magma blocks or soul sand at the bottom of a water column.

• Magma Blocks: Create a downward bubble column that drags you down.
• Soul Sand: Creates an upward bubble column that pushes you up.

How to Create a Bubble Column:

• All water blocks in the column must be source blocks.
• Use kelp to convert flowing water into source blocks by placing it in the column and then breaking it.

When you enter a bubble column, it replenishes your air as though you were out of water. However, bubble columns are best suited for item or mob transportation rather than prolonged air replenishment since they pull or push you in a specific direction.

4. Water Breathing Potions

Water-breathing potions provide a temporary solution to breathe underwater.

How to Craft Water Breathing Potions:

1. Place water bottles in the three bottom slots of a brewing stand.
2. Add blaze powder as fuel to the left slot.
3. Distill nether wart into the water bottles to create an Awkward Potion.
4. Add a pufferfish to the top slot to create a Potion of Water Breathing.

Duration:

• Standard: 3 minutes.
• Extended: Add redstone dust to increase the duration to 8 minutes.

Obtaining Puffer Fish:

• Fishing with an unenchanted rod (11% chance).
• Killing puffer fish mobs (drops 1 puffer fish).
• Guardians and elder guardians have a small chance to drop puffer fish.

Water breathing potions are a great option for prolonged underwater tasks or exploration.

5. Conduits

Conduits are the best solution for breathing underwater within a defined ocean area. They also provide additional benefits like night vision and increased mining speed.

How to Craft a Conduit:

• Materials Needed: 1 Heart of the Sea + 8 Nautilus Shells.
  • Heart of the Sea: Found in buried treasure chests. Buried treasure maps are found in shipwrecks.
  • Nautilus Shells: Acquired through fishing, killing drowned mobs, or trading with wandering traders. Fishing with Luck of the Sea III provides a 1.9% chance of getting nautilus shells. Drowned mobs have a 3% chance of spawning with a nautilus shell and drop it upon death.

How to Activate a Conduit:

1. Place the conduit in a 3x3x3 area of water.
2. Surround the conduit with frames made of prismarine, dark prismarine, prismarine bricks, or sea lanterns.
3. Build up to three 5×5 frames around the conduit for maximum range.

Conduit Benefits:

• Pauses your oxygen depletion.
• Provides underwater night vision.
• Emits light (level 15).
• Increases underwater mining speed.
• Damages hostile mobs like drowned within 8 blocks.

Conduit Range:

• Starts at 32 blocks.
• Maximum range is 96 blocks with 42 frame blocks.

Conduits power are ideal for underwater bases, farms, or long-term underwater exploration.