Overview
Deep ocean is the temperate deep-water biome, and it is the ocean most players meet first because it generates directly beside the ordinary oceans that surround a temperate spawn. The floor sits roughly 30 blocks below sea level rather than 15, and that extra depth is what qualifies it to hold an ocean monument — the 58-block prismarine structure guarded by elder guardians, with a sponge room and a treasure chamber built around 8 blocks of gold. Underwater ravines cut through the floor here more often than in shallow water, and they expose ore in the walls, so a deep ocean with a Water Breathing potion is a surprisingly good place to prospect. The floor is gravel and dirt with clay patches, seagrass and kelp forests, and cold-variant ocean ruins scattered across it. Squid, cod and drowned spawn throughout, and dolphins appear at the warmer edges. Guardians spawn in and around a monument regardless of the biome underneath it, and they fire a beam that homes rather than aims, so a shield is useless against them. Deep ocean borders ordinary ocean, deep cold ocean and deep lukewarm ocean, and shipwrecks sink to its floor rather than beaching.
Ocean monuments for prismarine, dark prismarine, sea lanterns and sponges, plus clay in bulk from the floor and the drowned that supply nautilus shells for a conduit.
With a base temperature of 0.5, Deep Ocean is one of the Overworld's temperate biomes, and that single number decides its weather, its water and much of its wildlife.
Weather reaches Deep Ocean: it rains during storms, so crops grow and cauldrons fill on their own.
3 generated structures can appear here, among them Ocean Monument, Ocean Ruins, and Shipwreck.
5 mobs name Deep Ocean specifically among their spawn biomes: Cod, Dolphin, Drowned, Elder Guardian and 1 more.
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
Sail out from any coast; deep ocean usually begins within 200 to 400 blocks of shore. An ocean explorer map bought from a cartographer villager for roughly 13 emeralds points to the nearest monument.
Tips
- Take a Water Breathing potion and a Respiration III helmet before a monument raid; together they remove the air problem completely.
- Guardian beams need 2 seconds of charge — break line of sight behind a prismarine pillar and the shot is cancelled.
- Drain the sponge room with the sponges themselves: each dry sponge clears water in a 7-block radius, then smelt it to reuse.
- Underwater ravines in deep ocean expose diamond and lapis in the walls; see how to find diamonds for what to bring.
Climate and generation
Deep 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
- 3
Mobs in Deep Ocean
Cod, Dolphin, Drowned, Elder Guardian, and Guardian name Deep 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
3 structures can generate in Deep Ocean: Ocean Monument, Ocean Ruins, and Shipwreck.
- 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.
- Ocean Ruins — Scattered clusters of sunken buildings, in a sandstone warm-water variant and a stone cold-water variant.
- Shipwreck — A wrecked sailing ship, generated upright, capsized, or broken in two, on the sea floor or beached on the sand.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find Deep Ocean?
Deep 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 Ocean?
Cod, Dolphin, Drowned, Elder Guardian, and Guardian spawn here specifically, and the usual Overworld mobs can appear given the right light level.
Does it rain in Deep 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 Ocean.
