Minecraft Tips (Water Freezing, Breathe underwater)


The most commonly used resources in Minecraft are found in water, necessitating travels to the snowy biome for these materials or other tasks. Therefore, you need to keep water from freezing.

So, how do you keep water from freezing in Minecraft? You can prevent water from freezing in Minecraft by placing blocks above its source. The block height is insignificant as long as it is directly above the water. Alternatively, surround the water block with torches such as lanterns or combine these two methods more effectively.

Water freezing is common in snowy areas in Minecraft and may affect crop growth and fishing activities. Luckily, you can prevent your water from freezing and enjoy exploration, fishing, and farming.

Generally, you can use blocks or slabs and torches to prevent water from freezing in Minecraft. Blocks or slabs prevent this by blocking its exposure to the light above. All you will do is place the slab or block above the water. You should block the area above your water completely for this method to work. Thus, choosing a slab or block does not matter as long as it covers the water completely.

Alternatively, you can surround your water with a source of fire or light. Generally, torches will work best, but you can also use lanterns. All you will do is line up your torches along with your water source. Using torches is visually pleasing compared to using blocks and slabs.

Snowy and cold biomes characterize the Minecraft world, and water bodies will often turn into ice. This can be challenging if you are farming or rearing fish in these areas. The snowy mountains suffer more often from this issue, which worsens due to the height elevation.

Given that water freezing is a common occurrence in Minecraft, it is worth understanding what causes freezing, as this will enable you to make decisions on the methods to use to prevent it.

Freezing could result from exposing your water to the sky since the light level adjacent to the water blocks will be less than 13. This freezing can occur at any time of the day, regardless of the weather. Also, if you are in a location where the altitude is high enough to cause snowfall, the water will freeze into ice in the biomes.

How To Breathe Underwater in Minecraft Without Potions

Potions in Minecraft are one of the ways gamers can breathe underwater. However, it is also important to know other ways to breathe to survive.

If you do not have potions but you want to spend more time underwater in Minecraft, you can do this by building conduits. Conduits are effective, and you can breathe underwater for extended periods as long as you stick within the range. Other alternatives you can use include the turtle helmet or airlock.

To make and use a conduit, you will require a crafting table, the heart of the sea, and eight Nautilus shells. You will first track a shipwreck in the ocean biomes. Alternatively, feed the dolphins on raw fish, and they may escort you to a shipwreck. While you expect to find a treasure map on the shipwreck, not all of them have one, and you should continue swimming until you come across one.

When you open the map, it will show you an incomplete map of where you are. Take note of the X on your map and swim towards this spot, then stand next to it. While here, start digging to find the treasure chest containing a Heart of the Sea. Next, proceed to find the nautilus shells drowned in the sea.

With all the above in check, open the crafting table and craft the conduit. To build the conduit frame, you will require at least sixteen blocks. You will also need to power your conduit with sea lanterns or prismarine.

To do this, place your conduit at the center of a 3x3x3 water block. Next, build a + on the ground and set some prismarine around the edges of the plus. Proceed to put a prismarine ring around the top edges of the plus.

At this point, your conduit will be active but not fully functional. Thus, you should raise some more blocks of prismarine and complete the build. The small cage you construct should be forty-two blocks to maximize the conduit strength. You can arrange this cage in any way as long as it is within 5x5x5 of the conduit.

Also, the conduit should have 3x3x3 water surrounding it. With a complete conduit, you will not only enjoy breathing underwater but also kill mobs around you and play a heartbeat sound. A conduit also serves as a decorative piece at the center of an aquatic build.

The Turtle helmet is another alternative to breathing underwater. You can obtain this option at the initial stages of the game, but it will take time to accomplish. To get a turtle helmet, you will need to breed Minecraft turtles and feed them to get the five shells.

You should watch your turtles as they will wander and swim underwater. Like turtles in real life, they will swim to the land to lay their eggs. Since you cannot transport your turtles on lead, you will use seagrass to attract them.

When the turtles are of age, they will enter the breeding season, after which one will come out bigger than the other. After some seconds, the larger one will dig into the sand and lay eggs. You should wait until they lay five eggs. To retrieve the eggs, use a silk touch tool. Usually, the eggs will appear cracked, implying an advanced stage in hatching.

The turtle egg will most likely hatch at night, after which you can raise the baby turtles by feeding them with seagrass to get five adult turtles. The seagrass is available in the non-frozen ocean, and you can dive in and use shears to gather this grass for your turtles.

Securing your turtles in a fence will keep off mobs that will target the baby turtles and try to trample their eggs. Turtles will treat the blocks you set for them as their home and will remember them no matter how much they wander and will come back to them to lay their eggs.

When the eggs hatch, you can use the seagrass to speed up your baby turtle’s growth by about 10 percent. When mature, these turtles will drop scutes. You will need five scutes to get the turtle shell that you will use to breathe underwater. With all the above set, you can now craft a turtle shell and use it for breathing underwater.

To craft a turtle shell, gather five scutes and open the crafting table with nine-by-nine grids. Put the five scutes in an n-shape arrangement. This arrangement should comprise three shells on the top row and two on the middle.

You should leave the central grid blank. Next, get a turtle helmet and add it to your inventory. With the turtle helmet, you can breathe underwater for at least ten seconds. However, if you enchant the turtle helmet and get an enchanted helmet, you will be able to breathe up to 70 seconds underwater.

You can also use a standard helmet with respiration enchantment. In this case, you will need an enchantment book with a spell and add it to your helmet. The enchantment increases the breathing time by up to fifteen seconds on each level and has a maximum of three levels.

The airlock is the third alternative to breathing underwater without potions. The airlock, which is a trapdoor, prevents water from flowing onto the room. To breathe underwater using the door airlocks, construct a room underwater. Next, prepare the materials you will use to build the airlock. These materials include sand, torches, and water.

During construction, ensure the hallway ceiling equals the highest water level or higher by one block. Next, put the torch on the wall where it can contact the water and ensure you also leave adequate room above so that you can bring in enough sand to seal the chamber.

Finally, put the sand above the torch up to the ceiling and repeat the process to waterproof the hall. When using the airlock, you should ensure you have enough torches. The number of torches should be equivalent to the width of the corridor. Also, you should have enough sand, equal to the width times height of the corridor.

Minecraft features many unique biomes underwater that a player may want to explore. However, to enjoy the exploration, you will have to stay underwater for longer periods, which is why breathing underwater is important.

Generally, you can breathe underwater for 15minutes in Minecraft, after which you will start drowning. Drowning takes 2 damage per second until you are out of the water. Thus, breathing underwater is the only way to save yourself from damage and drowning as you collect and explore the marine species, chests, and materials, among others. You can also stay underwater and build submarines and houses, which is why you should be able to breathe.

Besides exploration, staying underwater for more than two minutes will enable you to unlock the Free Diver achievement. This, you can achieve through any of the above methods. The conduit gives you a higher chance of unlocking it. Unfortunately, you will not have enough time to clear this achievement with the turtle shell.

How To Keep Chunks Loaded in Minecraft

Minecraft processes the world in chunks, which are a column of blocks comprising sub-chunks. Read on as I explain how you can keep these chunks loaded in Minecraft.

To keep chunks loaded in Minecraft, you can combine an entity through the Nether portal with a hopper in the chunk border. This hopper could be between spawn and any other chunk usually loaded. The hopper should face the chunk requiring loading, and the hopper chain should be long enough and start in the spawn chunks to keep a chunk loaded. You can also use a chain of hoppers to extend the area of chunks loaded at spawn.

Facing the hopper to the chunk ensures the game can see the hopper and other chunks for a container. If it notices the chunk is not loaded, it will load it. While this method of chunk loading works, it can be tedious to link up spawn chunks with every chunk on the way, as this could be many blocks away. Also, where a wood farm and Iron Golem farm are inexistent in the server or in a world where chunks have to be loaded, it will be difficult to gather resources for this operation.

The chunk loading concept comprises spawn chunks special for their loading, which happens in memory compared to regular chunks, which are loaded only when the player is nearby. When you log out or travel to a different dimension, all your loaded chunks will keep being loaded for sixty seconds before 1.9 or ten seconds for 1.9 and above.

Afterward, all the chunks, including game mechanics entities and red stones, will stop working until you log back on. If an entity passes through the Nether portal during the first sixty seconds, the loaded chunks will continue to be loaded for an extra sixty seconds.

Wrap Up

Minecraft characterizes pools of water for adventure, most of which have treasures that you need as a gamer. You also need the water to farm and fish, but sadly, this water can freeze from time to time, affecting these activities. Blocks or slabs prevent the water from freezing by preventing exposure to the light. Surrounding your water with torches will also prevent freezing and provide a visual appeal.

When exploring underwater, most players use potions for breathing underwater. If you do not have potions, you can also use conduits, turtle helmets, and airlocks. Knowing where to find the materials for each option is vital to breathing underwater.

Finally, to keep chunks loaded in Minecraft, combine an entity through the Nether portal with a hopper in the chunk border. The hopper should face the chunk requiring loading, and its chain should be long enough and start in the spawn chunks to keep a chunk loaded.

Bal Kang

Bal Kang is a technology expert based in the UK, with experience across a number of technology areas from phones, tablets, computers to gaming.

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