All about Minecraft ocean monuments

Hidden beneath the ocean's surface, Minecraft ocean monuments have intrigued many players who come across their presence. With ancient-looking architecture, these structures invite exploration and looting. However, thanks to the powerful hostile mob, the guardian, investigating the ocean monument can be a difficult task. In this article, we will go over everything you need to know about the Minecraft ocean monument structure, including how to explore it successfully while in survival mode. 

Table of Contents

• What is the ocean monument
• Does the Minecraft ocean monument have any loot
• What mob spawns in the ocean monument
• How to find an ocean monument in Minecraft
• How to conquer a Minecraft ocean monument

What is the Minecraft Ocean Monument?

Ocean monuments in Minecraft are large pyramid-like structures settled on the sea floor in deep ocean biomes. Being one of Minecraft's largest structures, you can find many rooms and passageways within an ocean monument. You can easily get lost and drowned if you do not know what you are doing! 

Does the Minecraft Ocean Monument have any loot?

Yes, ocean monuments in Minecraft have loot. Players seek out three main lootable items: sponges, gold blocks, and prismarine. 

Sponges in Minecraft are blocks that can be used to absorb water. They are uncraftable and, beyond ocean monuments, unattainable. For this reason, players often enter monuments just for the sponges. However, not all ocean monuments will contain sponges. Within each monument, there will be several randomly generated rooms. If one of the rooms contains sponges, about 30 blocks will be placed on the ceiling. Using the Fullbright mod is a good idea; it will illuminate the entire room and make it easier to see loot. You can download the Fullbright Minecraft mod by installing Badlion Client, a Minecraft mod pack containing hundreds of valuable mods. 

Towards the back of the ocean monument structure, there will be a large cast of dark prismarine. Inside this lies eight blocks of gold, another loot ocean monuments provide.

Finally, many players will seek out ocean monuments for the very block they are made out of, prismarine. Prismarine is another block in Minecraft that can only be found in a few locations. As you probably have already guessed, one of those locations is an ocean monument. However, you can also find them in other underwater ruins.

Each ocean monument is constructed of three types of prismarine, which you can find all throughout the structure. However, be aware that if you plan to mine prismarine, you must use a pickaxe for the block to drop anything.

What mob spawns in the Ocean Monument? 

The ocean monument contains two mobs that protect it from any players attempting to get near it. This includes the guardian and elder guardian mobs. Guardians will spawn randomly around and within ocean monuments. They are hostile, so if you are unfortunate enough to be attacked by one, they can easily do damage with a laser-like beam from a distance. In addition, if you hit a guardian with a sword, it will damage you, similar to the thorn's enchantment. 

In addition to guardians, you will find three elder guardians located in an ocean monument. One will be in the center, towards the top of the monument, and two will be in rooms that flank the monument on either side. An elder guardian is similar to a regular guardian but can give players near them mining fatigue. This makes escaping from them even more difficult. 

How do you find an Ocean Monument in Minecraft?

You can use an ocean explorer map to find an ocean monument in vanilla Minecraft. This map can be obtained from a cartographer's villager. In the Java edition, each unique cartographer villager will sell different map points to a unique structure. For this reason, you may need to go through multiple cartographers to find the map you are looking for.

Alternatively, you can use a website, like Chunk Base, to locate nearby structures. Chunk base is a Minecraft seed map that allows you to see the location of any nearby ocean monument or other desired structures. However, to use this map, you must know your Minecraft seed. You can find this by running the command /seed if you have permission to run commands. 

Finally, if you have cheats enabled, all you need to do is run the following command: /locate structure minecraft:monument

In the chat, you will then receive the coordinates for the nearest Minecraft ocean monument. 

How to loot a Minecraft Ocean Monument?

There are several methods to loot a Minecraft ocean monument, each depending on what type of loot you are going for. For example, you can break into the outside of a monument to loot the eight gold blocks held within without needing to search the interior. However, looting the sponges or prismarine blocks requires a much larger effort. Continue reading for a full tutorial on looting ocean monuments.

#1 Looting gold from an ocean monument. 

If you plan to only loot gold from a monument, then all you will need is a bucket of milk, a door, and a pickaxe. First, you will want to locate the back of the ocean monument. This is the opposite side of the entranceway of the monument. You will find several arches that line the back half of the monument. Place a door adjacent to the second-to-last arch at the end closest to the center of the monument. This block is depicted in the image below, with red wool. Note that the gold room can be on either side of the monument, so you may have to switch sides if you do not find any gold. 

Once you have placed the door, an air pocket will be created. Start digging straight down, and you will find yourself right on top of the gold. If you have received the mining fatigue effect, then you will want to drink one of the milk you brought with you. Make sure you replace the blocks you break after you enter the monument so that you have an air pocket to breathe. 

#2 Looting sponges from an ocean monument. 

Looting sponges from ocean monuments can be a more difficult task. This requires searching the ocean monument, which is made difficult, due to the mining fatigue effect that you inevitably receive, along with difficulties with breathing underwater. If you do plan to search monuments for sponges, here are our top tips.

• Take advantage of water-breathing mechanics. For more information, checkout our water-breathing article here.
• Bring a Minecraft hoe; this will allow you to quickly mine the sponge blocks when you find them.
• Bring milk. Again, you will receive the mining fatigue effect. Drinking milk will reset this, allowing you to mine.
• Use the Fullbright mod to make searching the interior easier. You can download the Fullbright Minecraft mod by installing Badlion Client here.

#3 Looting prismarine blocks and draining ocean monuments

While you don’t necessarily have to drain an ocean monument to loot the prismarine blocks, it does make it substantially more straightforward. To do this, you will not only need to remove all the water but will also have to kill the guardians and elder guardians. If you wish to use this method, follow the video below, which shows you how to drain an ocean monument in Minecraft.

Ready to conquer the seas? Make sure to download and install Badlion Client to gain access to hundreds of extremely useful mods for Minecraft survival. With the tools Badlion provides, you can conquer any large-scale project you participate in!