Overview
Deep frozen ocean is the coldest and least hospitable ocean in the game: a permanent sheet of ice over water deep enough for an ocean monument, with icebergs of packed ice and blue ice rising out of the surface. The ice cover changes how you play in it — you cannot simply surface to breathe, because there may be 3 metres of ice between you and the air, so every dive needs either a hole cut behind you or a potion of Water Breathing. Blue ice, which generates in the icebergs, is the fastest travel surface in Minecraft when a boat is placed on it, and this is one of very few places it occurs naturally rather than being bought from a villager. Polar bears wander the ice and turn hostile if you approach a cub; drowned spawn below and can break through nothing but will follow you to any hole you cut. There is no kelp, no coral and very little to eat except the salmon and cod that spawn under the ice. It borders frozen ocean and deep cold ocean, with snowy beaches at the coast.
Blue ice and packed ice for ice-boat highways and for cooling nether travel routes, an ocean monument for prismarine and sponges, and polar bears if you want them for a display.
Deep Frozen Ocean sits in the temperate band of Minecraft's biome table, generating in the Overworld at a base temperature of 0.5.
Weather reaches Deep Frozen Ocean: it rains during storms, so crops grow and cauldrons fill on their own.
One generated structure can appear here, among them Ocean Monument.
3 mobs name Deep Frozen Ocean specifically among their spawn biomes: Elder Guardian, Polar Bear, and Salmon.
Ocean biomes vary by temperature: warm oceans carry coral and tropical fish, cold and frozen ones do not. Every ocean can hold a shipwreck, a ruin or buried treasure, and the deep variants are where ocean monuments generate.
How to get it
Deep frozen ocean generates at the coldest end of the ocean temperature bands, often more than 2,000 blocks from a temperate spawn. Look for icebergs on the horizon, which are visible from 200 blocks away.
Tips
- Blue ice needs a Silk Touch pickaxe to collect — without it the block simply vanishes and drops nothing.
- Cut a 1-block hole in the ice above you before diving so you have a guaranteed air source on the way back.
- Never approach a polar bear cub: the adult attacks immediately and deals 6 damage a hit on Normal difficulty.
- A boat placed on blue ice travels at roughly 72 blocks per second, which is faster than an elytra in level flight.
Climate and generation
Deep Frozen Ocean has a base temperature of 0.5, which puts it in the temperate band. Temperature is not a thermometer reading — it is the single number that decides snow versus rain, whether water freezes over, and what colour the grass renders.
Above 0.15 water stays liquid and any precipitation falls as rain.
| Property | Value | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature | 0.5 | Decides whether rain falls as snow, whether water freezes, and the grass and foliage tint. |
| Precipitation | Yes | Cauldrons fill on their own and farmland stays hydrated during a storm. |
| Dimension | Overworld | Sets which mobs, structures and ores can generate at all. |
| Grass and water tint | #7BA4FF | The colour the game applies to grass, leaves and water in this biome. |
Properties
- Grass and water tint
- #7BA4FF
- Structures generating here
- 1
Mobs in Deep Frozen Ocean
Elder Guardian, Polar Bear, and Salmon name Deep Frozen Ocean specifically as a spawn biome, so this is where you go to find them.
On top of those, the mobs that spawn in open terrain anywhere in the Overworld can appear here too, given the right light level. Mobs that only come from a structure or a spawner — breezes from trial chambers, blazes from fortresses, evokers from mansions — are deliberately not in this list.
Also spawns throughout Overworld
Structures found here
One structure can generate in Deep Frozen Ocean: Ocean Monument.
- Ocean Monument — A prismarine fortress on the deep ocean floor, guarded by three elder guardians that inflict Mining Fatigue III across a fifty-block radius so you cannot simply mine in.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find Deep Frozen Ocean?
Deep Frozen Ocean generates in the Overworld. A locate command finds the nearest one instantly; without cheats, exploring in one direction and watching the F3 screen's biome line is the reliable method.
What spawns in Deep Frozen Ocean?
Elder Guardian, Polar Bear, and Salmon spawn here specifically, and the usual Overworld mobs can appear given the right light level.
Does it rain in Deep Frozen Ocean?
Yes — as rain. Cauldrons fill on their own during a storm and farmland stays hydrated.
Related pages
Biomes that generate in the same dimension and, where there are any, in the same climate family as Deep Frozen Ocean.
