Minecraft Aqua Affinity Enchantment Guide

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Erin Jamieson grew up playing with Minecraft with your cousins at family get-togethers, and her love for the game remains today. For the creative side of constructing new buildings, to searching for the best techniques for Survival Mode, Erin brings passion and first hand experience.

What is the Aqua Affinity Enchantment?

The Aqua Affinity Enchantment is just one of the many Minecraft enchantments that can provide a way, no cheat or Minecraft mods needed, to make certain things in your game easier– and in this case, it has all to do with underwater exploration.

What enchantment lets you see underwater and mine underwater?

In fact, Aqua Affinity has two purposes: allow you to see underwater and allow you to mine more efficiently. The Aqua Affinity Enchantment is popular, at least initially, for a good reason.

Navigating ocean biomes without any enchantments or cheat of any kind can be tumultuous in Survival mode and may very well discourage you from exploring at all.

Aqua Affinity makes mining in water the same as on land– that is, it greatly increases the normal rate of mining underwater.

At the same time, the enchantment also improves your visibility, making it possible to mine in the first place and also expanding your ability to truly see all that underwater biomes have to offer– from strongholds to Ocean Monuments to unique mobs, loot, and more.

Is Aqua Affinity any good?

While some players may be impressed– or even excited– about using the Aqua Affinity Enchantment to explore underwater biomes, others are skeptical or dismiss it entirely. In fact, whether or not Aqua Affinity is a ‘good’ enchantment, as many players wonder, depends on your gameplay.

If you never plan to mine underwater, it’s obviously going to be limited in its use. If you are mainly concerned about exploring underwater and breathing underwater for longer periods of time, a more suitable option would either be a breathing potion or the Respiration Enchantment.

But if you are planning on mining, it’s certainly worth using. Keep in mind that players that claim the Aqua Affinity enchantment is worthless may not be interested in its main purpose, and they may also be focused on its limitations.

What can’t the Aqua Affinity Enchantment do?

Aqua Affinity can’t allow you to breathe underwater for longer– you’ll need a mod, the Respiration Enchantment, and a breathing potion for that. It also isn’t useful while you’re floating. If you’re floating and using the enchantment, you’ll experience a speed decrease in mining, just as you normally would.

Is Aqua Affinity mutually exclusive?

One aspect of using enchantments that you need to be cautious of is that you can’t always use many enchantments at once. Some are mutually exclusive or incompatible, so understanding what enchantments you can use simultaneously is truly the only way you can get the most use out of the Aqua Affinity and other enchantments.

Incompatibility

While Aqua Affinity is compatible with many other enchantments, it is mutually exclusive with No Rest and Unrest. Using these will cause bugs and potential lag in your game.

Helpful Complements

That said, you can, in fact, use Aqua Affinity with Respiration– this allows you to mine more efficiently while increasing underwater visibility and breathing for longer. However, this is tricky to pull off, rare, and you may be better off using a breathing potion instead.

Aqua Affinity, No Rest, and Unrest are mutually exclusive. When added to the same item, Aqua Affinity will work as normal, and No Rest and Unrest may cause lag and issues.

How do I get the Aqua Affinity Enchantment?

To obtain the Aqua Affinity Enchantment, you have a few options: enchant a helmet, cap, or shell; find it in a chest or by fighting a mob; or trading. Of all these options, by far, the most straightforward is enchanting yourself.

Enchanting a Helmet or Cap

First, you’ll need an enchantment table.

Step One: Make or Acquire an Enchanting Table

An enchantment table can be made using a book (found in villages and strongholds), two diamonds, and four obsidian, arranged in the following pattern:

Top Row: Middle Column- Book
Second Row: Diamond, Obsidian, Diamond
Bottom Row: Three Obsidian

Once you’ve placed materials in this exact order, you’re now ready to enchant items using your newly constructed enchantment table. Keep in mind that you must follow this order exactly in order to have a table to use.

Step Two: Acquire a Helmet or Cap

The primary way the Aqua Affinity Enchantment is used is through enchanting a helmet or cap you’ll wear as you mine underwater. Helmet and caps can be crafted or acquired.

Crafting: To craft a helmet, you need five of one of the following: Leather, Diamonds, Gold, Iron, or Scute. In a three-by-three grid, arrange three of the materials of your choice across the second row, then one in the first column and last column of the bottom row. You can also make a wearable shell.
Finding: Helmets can be found in chests, most often in villages or strongholds. Another common way to acquire a helmet is through going up against mobs, but keep in mind that it’s not uncommon to acquire a broken helmet from these interactions.

Step Three: Enchanting

From there, all you need to do is place the helmet in the first slot of the enchantment table. You’ll get access to more powerful enchantments as you gain more experience orbs. Experience orbs, in turn, are acquired by defeating mobs.

By gaining up to a Level Three, you may have your newly enchanted helmet may be your best Minecraft recipe yet.

How do you use the Aqua Affinity Enchantment?

Now that you have your enchanted helmet, it’s time to put it to use. Start by placing the helmet on your avatar, then head to a body of water.

Since this enchantment doesn’t work well with floating, make sure you’re swimming– that makes more sense for mining efficiency, anyway. Of course, some preparation is in order to make the most of this enchantment.

Step One: Understanding the Ocean & Underwater Exploration

First, I want to discuss ocean biomes. If you’re a veteran player, feel free to skip this section. However, if you’re new to Minecraft or haven’t explored much underwater, it’s helpful to understand the obstacles you’re likely to encounter.

Ocean Biomes: Ocean biome, which makes up approximately a quarter of the average, or even custom content Minecraft worlds , includes frozen ocean, cold ocean, lukewarm ocean, and warm ocean, with deep and shallow levels to all. In all, you’ll be encountering the seafloor, which consists of varying levels of elevation, and normally, a mix of gravel, clay, dirt, and sand, as well as kelp and seaweed.
Mobs: Mobs in oceanic biomes include fish, commonly cod, squid, dolphins, and salmon, as well as ruins or shipwrecks. Though most are passive mobs, Pufferfish can poison you upon impact, and Dolphins are neutral, meaning if you attack them, an entire pod may attack you back. In all, mobs truly are not a great worry when swimming underwater, but it’s good to be aware of them.
Breathing Underwater: That said, breathing underwater will be your greatest challenge. You’ll see a breath meter indicating the time you can stay underwater before you drown. If you cut it too close, you can risk drowning and undermining your entire mission. For that reason, you’ll need to be careful with how you time your expedition and be more careful than you think you need to be. By doing this, you can really save yourself a lot of trouble.

Step Two: Preparing

To prepare for underwater danger and more, of course, you should start by making sure you’re wearing your enchanted helmet. Next, I recommend taking a test swim or two to scout out the general location you’re interested in.

You may even want to test how long, for instance, that it takes you to get to the seafloor so that you know how much time you need to resurface. I also recommend bringing a light source with you. Even though the Aqua Affinity Enchantment improves vision, something like a sea lantern can come in handy.

Finally, make sure that your health is at full stats, and you’re prepared to pay close attention. Your best bet is to steer away from mobs, even though many are largely passive. By doing so, you don’t risk getting poisoned or attacked by a neutral mob, and you aren’t wasting precious time underwater.

Step Three: Mining Underwater

Mining underwater is not so different from mining on ground – it just painstakingly slow if you don’t have the Aqua Affinity Enchantment. In fact, mining underwater is five times slower normally– a penalty that’s eliminated with the Aqua Affinity Enchantment.

To begin mining, you’ll need a pickaxe, shovel, or sword. Just as is the case on land, tools wear over time. You can check the status of your tool with its complementary bar– when green, it’s suitable for full use, but when red, it’s on the verge of breaking.

Do note that it’s possible to salvage these tools by repairing them or combining two worn tools. You can use helpful additions, such as TNT, underwater as well.

Keep an eye out as your breath meter declines and work systematically. Common mining methods, like the branch method, are helpful. It’s especially important to be decisive as possible when mining underwater.

While far from simple, though, you’ll find that the Minecraft Aqua Affinity Enchantment, especially at Level 3,

Are there any alternatives to the Aqua Affinity Enchantment?

While there is no one direct alternative or replacement for the Aqua Affinity Enchantment in Minecraft, there are a few other options if you either don’t want to use this enchantment or even want to enhance its use. Mods and a few helpful tips and tricks can really make a difference in your underwater exploration.

Download Mods

Your first option is to download a mod for mining underwater in Minecraft. Before you download any mods, make sure you’re downloading from a secure site and/or have anti-virus protection.

Place all mods in your mods Minecraft folder and test one at a time to avoid any issues (if you need help, read this guide to common Minecraft error fixes ).

Underwater Mining Mod

This seemingly simple mod may only add two features, but it just so happens to be the perfect complement for the Aqua Affinity mod.

With this mod, you’ll now be able to drill, as well as dif blocks more quickly with this new tool, for as long as you’d like– this tool does not fall into disrepair. Download Here .

Mining Goggles

These mining goggles at first appear to be most useful for regular mining, allowing you to see through walls and locate ores quickly.

But it is also a great solution for underwater mining: the goggles provide damage resistance if you run into mods, boost speed, and allow you to breathe underwater – no enchantment is required. Download Here .

Miner’s Helmet

If you’re set on an alternative to using an enchantment and don’t mind mining more slowly, there’s this versatile mod. The helmet is useful for both land and underwater mining, providing illumination no matter where you’re mining and essentially acting as a sea lantern.

Download Here .

Other Tips

You don’t, of course, have to use the Aqua Affinity Enchantment to mine underwater– the enchantment makes mining more efficient. Mining underwater takes concentration and has its pros and cons: you’ll run into fewer mods, but you’ll be faced with other obstacles. Work quickly, efficiently, but strategically if you’re playing in Survival Mode. Having a good sense of direction and taking steps to prepare ahead of time can save you time and trouble.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Is depth Strider faster than a boat?

Answer: Traveling across water is an important ability, no matter what Minecraft worlds you’re playing in, and, aside from swimming, two go-to’s are depth Strider and boats.

With Depth Strider, you can travel as quickly in water as you can on land, but it simply can’t compete with boats. Depending on the version you have, Boats can go as much as double the speed that Depth Strider allows.

Question: Do you swim faster with a depth Strider?

Answer: Yes. At Level 3, Depth Strider allows you to swim as quickly as you can travel on land– which is especially helpful for players hoping to mine underwater using the Aqua Affinity Enchantment.

Swimming faster, of course, is especially helpful to travel from place to place more quickly and make the most of your time spent underwater.

Question: Do Minecraft underwater ruins have chests?

Answer: Exploring underwater ruins may be one of the best things to do in Minecraft because of the loot-filled chests you can find.

While relatively rare, ruins can be found in cold ocean biomes, frozen biomes, and of course, deep ocean. Occasionally ocean ruins can be located on land, though that is far less common. You can find that in the form of both large and, more commonly, small ruins.

Loot in chests can be found in both the Bedrock and Java editions for Minecraft. Common loot includes coal, wheat, gold, enchanted books, fishing rods, helmets, gems, buried treasure maps, axes, and more.

Final Thoughts

Mining underwater can be both rewarding and challenging, but using the Aqua Affinity Enchantment can allow you to be more efficient, making mining just as quick as on land and increasing visibility. It’s an underrated enchantment that, for some, really can make an impact.

Interested in more enchantments? Read my guide to all enchantments in Minecraft here.