minecraft-java-edition
I see cool looking structures underwater sometimes but I never find it worthwhile to try and investigate them – it's dark and I can barely get to the bottom before I need oxygen.
Is it even worth exploring underwater? If it is, what are some effective strategies for doing so?
As it has been stated, days are actually longer than nights. Here, have a diagram — yet you're not entirely wrong! There is a logical reason why days do feel shorter.
Day and night only matter on the surface, where it regulates mob spawning. At sunset, there's no mob on the surface. At sunrise, there is however. By the time the night's mob spawn is burned away by sunlight and it's safe to go out again, a sizable chunk of precious day time will have gone wasted.
If we mark with red the dangerous period of the day, with green the productive period of the day and with orange the risk transitions between, we get this:
So yes. While day is longer than night, the productive period is actually shorter than the risky period. In a way, yes: night and its practical effects are longer than day's.
This is connected to why properly lit mines are much safer and much more productive environments than surface is.
I think the underwater tunnel concept is pretty cool but I never gave it a try until this post reminded me about it. After spending too much time dropping sand and picking it up again, I think I came up with a decent method to make underwater walkways in the least amount of time.
So, find a way down to the level you want to work at and make one tiny section of your walkway. You can use sand or dig some nice stairs since you'll probably want to start above the water level. When you have your first section, place two doors and then block off the top two blocks:
The water won't flow through the doors, so you can peek out to the other side and place two ground blocks, then build around with glass and duck back into the doors for a breath. I generally do this for four blocks at a time before placing another set of doors. Here's an artificially brightened shot of a half-built section of tunnel. You can see the doors and the air behind them, and two slices of tunnel with floor and glass placed already.
After you finish a section and place your new doors, removing the water blocks from this section with sand is easy as it's only 4x3x2 and you only have to place two sand blocks per column (n-1 of the walkway height) to clear out all the water. At this point, you can remove the old double doors (and glass padding on top) behind you and repeat from the set in front of you.
And the best part about this method? No currents if you make your top glass layer at least 1 block below the surface!
To conclude; build using this method for the following benefits:
Best Answer
I have found a few entrances to mineshafts and caverns at the ocean bottom, so I'd say it is certainly worth exploring any interesting features you come across, like weak sources of light (from lava or torches) or areas of oddly sunken sand. With the Update Aquatic update there are even more interesting things to find there, like Shipwrecks and Ocean ruins.
Here's a list of things you'll want for effective underwater exploration:
Potions of Water Breathing: Added in Java Edition 1.7.2, Potions of Water Breathing can give you either 3 or 8 minutes during which your oxygen bar won't decrease. It also slightly increases visibility under water. To brew them, you'll need to catch some Pufferfish.
A good helmet: First and foremost, you should get yourself a helmet enchanted with Respiration, ideally the max level of III. This lets your air last for much longer underwater. It also helps to have Aqua Affinity on the helmet too, which allows you to mine faster when underwater. If you don't get both of these when enchanting a single helmet, remember that the new anvil tool let's you combine two enchanted items so that you can consolidate and improve enchantments without having to keep rolling the dice at the enchantment table.
Waterproof lighting: You need to be able to see deep under water, so you have to bring waterproof sources of light. Torches are out, as water will knock them off, but jack-o-lanterns and glowstone blocks work great.
Making air pockets: Respiration-enchanted helmets can only do so much, especially if you want to reach really deep depths under water. You'll want to bring items that you can place on the ocean floor which will displace the water source blocks and give you an air pocket where you can catch your breath. With recent updates, objects that previously displaced water may not anymore, instead becoming Waterlogged. For example, ladders and signs used to work, but don't appear to anymore in Java Edition 1.13 onward. Doors still displace water as of Java Edition 1.15.2.