There are numerous reasons why anyone would want to raid an Ocean Monument in Minecraft. You get access to sponges, one of the most unique blocks in Minecraft, a variety of amazing building blocks from the prismarine family, and some gold blocks. So, if you are interested in raiding an Ocean Monument in Minecraft and getting your hands on those sweet rewards, but need some help to get started, you came to the right place. You will learn how to prepare, successfully defeat underwater mobs, and raid the Ocean Monument in Minecraft.
What is an Ocean Monument in Minecraft?
The Ocean Monument in Minecraft is a big underwater structure built using beautiful and unique prismarine blocks, including prismarine bricks and dark prismarine. These blocks are valuable as you can find them only here and in ocean ruins. You can also come across rooms containing wet sponge blocks. This is the only place you can obtain these blocks.
This building is also populated with special aquatic mobs in Minecraft, guardians. They look like ancient fish, with spikes sticking out of their bodies. When these spikes are extended, they inflict thorns damage when you attack them. That means you will take damage when you come across them in Ocean Monuments.
Guardians use a distinctive laser attack as well. After you defeat a guardian, it can drop prismarine shards, raw cod, prismarine crystals, and XP.
Besides the regular guardians, there are also three elder guardians in each Ocean Monument. These are bigger versions of guardians and much more dangerous. Elder guardians are special and give players the mining fatigue effect. It makes you unable to mine blocks until it wears off.
Similarly to guardians, elder guardians also have laser attack and thorns damage. After you manage to kill this giant, it drops a wet sponge, prismarine shards, raw cod, and prismarine crystals. It can also drop a Tide armor trim smithing template. If you’re interested in finding more armor trims in Minecraft, follow the linked guide.
How to Find an Ocean Monument in Minecraft
The ocean monuments generate in Minecraft’s deep ocean biomes, and there are a few different ways in which you can locate them. So, feel free to choose whichever one suits you most.
1. Cartographer Villagers
Cartographer villagers at the apprentice level have a chance to trade an ocean explorer map. You can follow this map in Minecraft to the ocean monument. It might not necessarily be the closest one, though. Also, this map is a little different from the buried treasure map, but it functions the same way.
2. Exploring Deep Oceans
You can also find this structure the old-fashioned way – by exploring. Ocean monuments are generated frequently in large deep oceans, so if you know where that Minecraft biome is, there’s a good chance you will find the underwater building.
3. Using Commands
Compared to other structures and biomes, you can use the locate command to find the ocean monument in Minecraft. Open the chat by pressing the “T” key on your keyboard and type in the locate command for the ocean monument.
/locate structure minecraft:monument
If you’re playing with cheats disabled, you can enable them temporarily. Pause the game and click the “Open to LAN” button. Then, select Allow Cheats: ON and click the “Start LAN World” button.
Online Search
You can also use websites like ChunkBase (visit) to locate biomes and structures, like ocean monuments in Minecraft. You will first need to copy your seed code by typing the /seed command in chat and clicking on the code.
/seed
Then, select the Apps tab on ChunkBase and click on the “Monument” button. After that, paste your seed code and the current location below. Then, follow the coordinates to the ocean monument shown on the map. You can teleport in Minecraft to the said coordinates.
How to Prepare for the Ocean Monument Raid
Since ocean monuments are underwater structures in Minecraft, it’s a bit more awkward to take them down. Some preparation is necessary to get yourself geared up for the battle.
Things You Should Bring on the Raid
These are the items we recommend you bring:
- Water Breathing Potion (at least 3): These potions allow you to breathe underwater. Therefore, you’ll have just enough time to find the Elder Guardians and the sponge rooms.
- Night Vision Potion (at least 3): This potion will make it much easier to see underwater.
- Depth Strider Boots: Thanks to this enchantment, you will be much more agile in water, avoiding the guardian attacks. Check out the linked guide on Minecraft enchantments to learn how to apply the depth strider enchantment.
- Aqua Affinity Helmet: This useful enchantment will allow you to mine blocks faster underwater.
Things You Can Carry for Emergencies (Optional)
There are also optional items you can bring along on your journey, as they will help you survive the Ocean Monument raid:
- Doors (as many as you want): Placing doors underwater will create breathable space for you to refill the oxygen bar. This works only on Java Edition.
- Bucket: Putting yourself against the corner and spamming the right click while holding the bucket will create breathable space and also allow you to refill the bubble bar.
- Trident: Trident enchanted with Impaling V enchantment deals more damage to the underwater mobs than the Netherite sword with Sharpness V and Sweeping Edge III. This will just speed up the raiding process.
- Bucket of Milk: Drinking milk will remove the mining fatigue effect, but it’ll also remove the potion effects. So, be sure to bring a few extra potions with you or just wait until the mining fatigue wears off.
- Bucket of Axolotl (as many as you want): After befriending an axolotl in Minecraft, it will attack underwater hostile mobs, such as guardians, so they can be your little helpers in the fight.
- Conduit: Setting up a conduit will greatly help you in taking down a monument, all thanks to the buffs it provides.
How to Raid an Ocean Monument in Minecraft
After you have located an ocean monument in Minecraft, geared up and prepared, it’s time to go in. The best way to enter this structure is obvious – through the front door.
Dealing with the Guardians
There will be many guardians all around and inside the monument, but you don’t have to fight them. There are so many of them, and they will continually spawn. Their laser attack is easily avoided by breaking their line of sight, which means they cannot see you anymore.
Swimming behind pillars helps you not get targeted by the guardians for too long, and therefore, stay safe from their attacks. Swimming directly towards them also stops the attack. Those are the reasons why being fast is important.
Fighting the Elder Guardians
The main target you should focus on defeating is the elder guardians, so the first step is to locate them. Not every ocean monument is the same. Therefore, there is no exact route to each of the elder guardian rooms. However, there are some clues we can follow.
Standing in front of the entrance, there are two parts of the monument jutted out on either side of you – wings of the ocean monument in Minecraft. Moreover, you will see the tall large part of the monument in the center, right above the entrance. Those are the elder guardian rooms.
When looking for the elder guardians in the wings of the monument, try to stay oriented. After entering the monument, if you turn left, keep in mind that you will need to turn left one more time before finding the elder guardian. The same goes for turning right. This path doesn’t have to be on one floor of the monument. Perhaps, you will need to move upwards or downwards as well.
When it comes to the elder guardian in the topmost part of the monument, it’s most difficult to find in most cases. You will need to traverse through the monument’s labyrinth to find the corridor and entrance to the third elder guardian’s room. If you find yourself in a dead-end, look up, as there is usually a way up in those cases.
While fighting the elder guardian, keep moving. Swimming behind the pillars will block its laser attack. You can then move out of hiding and attack it with your weapon. If their spikes are extended, they will deal thorns damage when hit, so make sure you eat constantly and keep your health high. Once it’s defeated, make sure to pick up the rare drops.
Enter Ocean Monument Using TNT (Alternate Method)
There has been an increasingly popular way of getting into the ocean monument in Minecraft, which is from above using TNT. Simply, put the TNT block where you want and surround it with blocks on all but one side. Place a redstone block on the exposed side of the TNT block and it will explode, breaking into the monument. Thanks to this simple method, you can bypass the tedious search for the elder guardians quickly. Still, don’t forget to keep moving and hiding behind blocks, so the guardians don’t deal too much damage.
Minecraft Ocean Monument Rewards
After you have defeated the Elder Guardians and the mining fatigue has worn off, you are free to explore the rest of the ocean monument and gather epic blocks in Minecraft. You may destroy the entire monument for its precious resources. However, guardians will still spawn there.
While exploring the monument, you may stumble upon a large open room with a dark prismarine core. If you start breaking the dark prismarine blocks, you will see that it’s not solid. There is a 2x2x2 block cube of gold blocks. They will come in handy for curing zombified villagers in Minecraft or bartering with piglins.
However, the most wanted blocks from this structure are sponges. They are simple blocks that can clear water up to 7 blocks away in all directions. When the sponge absorbs water, it becomes wet. You can dry them in the furnace using fuel or simply place them anywhere in the Nether. The number of sponge rooms a monument will have is random. Sometimes there are no sponge rooms in one monument but another could have two.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The rewards for taking down the monument are all the unique blocks found in the structure.
You can pretty much do whatever you want with the structure. You can turn it into a super cool underwater base or you can make a guardian farm for unlimited prismarine blocks and fish.
No. Elder Guardians are spawned in the world generation and will not despawn.
No. Elder Guardians cannot respawn and therefore are not farmable.
