The most common mob within the monument are guardians. They swim quickly, have 30HP👁 ❤️ × 15 health, and have two ways to damage the player:
A laser is their primary offensive attack. It takes several seconds to charge, emitting a distinctive sound and changing color from purple to yellow in the process, and does 4HP👁 ❤️ 👁 ❤️ points of damage when the charging completes.
This attack deals magic damage, meaning it ignores the target's Armor stat. However, the Protectionenchantment can still be used to reduce incoming damage. Its magic-based properties also allow the laser to bypass players blocking with a Shield, but the damage dealt to the target is cut in half.
There is no way to dodge the laser when it fires, but there are ways to prevent the laser from firing entirely. The laser requires constant line-of-sight with the target in order to charge. This means the guardian must cancel its attack if its target moves behind a wall or pillar, even for a split second. Circling narrow pillars can be used to circumvent multiple attacks from all sides.
The laser has a maximum range of about 15 blocks. If you can get far enough away before the charging completes, the attack is cancelled and deals no damage.
Guardians cannot move while charging their lasers. This can be used to your advantage if you are able to get within melee range of the guardian. If the guardian's target gets too close, then it attempts to create more distance between itself and the target by swimming away, but this also forces the guardian to stop charging.
Guardians also have a natural Thorns-like defense. If attacked while their orange spikes are extended, the attacker takes 2HP👁 ❤️ damage. This damaged is only applied if the guardian is attacked with melee damage. The spikes usually extend when attacking with a laser and retract when swimming to a new location.
Each monument also contains three elder guardians. They have 80HP👁 ❤️ × 40 health and a somewhat stronger laser attack which deals 8HP👁 ❤️ 👁 ❤️ 👁 ❤️ 👁 ❤️ points of damage, but move slowly and infrequently. They also inflict any player within 50 blocks with Mining Fatigue III for 5 minutes. In Java Edition, the elder guardians check for nearby players to afflict every 60 seconds, hence bringing a cow into or near the monument and several buckets is a viable strategy, giving you roughly 55 seconds of normal mining if you drink a milk bucket to remove the fatigue every time. In Bedrock Edition, they afflict players immediately without waiting, so if you try to defeat a monument in Bedrock Edition, you can count on being afflicted with Mining Fatigue 100% of the time until all three elder guardians are killed. If you do a "dry-run" of raiding the monument, aka without Water Breathing, this is a decent approach.
Under the Mining Fatigue effect, you take about 370 times longer to break blocks and your attack speed is reduced by 30%. When an elder guardian inflicts you with Mining Fatigue III, then you could drink a Milk Bucket. However, drinking milk also removes Water Breathing, and you just get Mining Fatigue soon afterward (immediately in Bedrock edition) anyway. Wait until you have defeated all 3 elder guardians before drinking milk. Until then, simply avoid breaking blocks, and travel only through pre-made passages. If you must place blocks, such as in the case where you need to run around a pillar to break line of sight with the guardians, use blocks of resin, decorated pots, slime blocks, honey blocks or TNT. These blocks are breakable instantaneously even under the effect of Mining Fatigue. There are still ways to brute-force your way into a monument, which is covered later.
Be sure to kill the elders in a manner that counts as a player kill so that they drop wet sponges, which can be smelted in a furnace or placed in the Nether to make dry sponges. A dry sponge, strategically placed, is a quick way to clear out a large volume of water.
Monuments are found only in deep ocean biomes, so you'll need to find an ocean and explore it. Being underwater, the monument may be difficult to see, but the sea lanterns are distinctive and are easily visible if you're looking for them, especially at night. The top of the monument is generally close to the surface, making it possible to search for it in the day, however may be easier to miss. You can also listen for the sound of guardian lasers as they attack squid.
The right seed
In Bedrock Edition, seed templates includes a world called "Ocean Monument Ahead", which has a monument reasonably close to (and visible from) the spawn point.
In Java Edition, three seeds spawn you close to an ocean monument in 1.17: 101 (the closest), 400, and 555555.
These seeds tend to be island survival worlds; it is possible to defeat the nearest monument, but see Tutorials/Island survival for survival tips.
Survival searching
Using a boat (or a Dolphin) is the easiest way of searching for a monument, especially looking for sea lanterns at night.
If you have enough, ender pearls can help travel large stretches of water quickly, but only when thrown above water. You can also use a Trident enchanted with Riptide.
Using a resource pack with clear water textures makes it easier to see the monument.
Using the command /locate monument. You can re-create the world from the same seed in creative mode for locating and map-making.
Online tools, such as Chunkbase or the map below can be used to locate monuments based on the world seed, if you have access to it. You can enter the seed and your edition into this map.
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Equipment that is particularly helpful when infiltrating a monument:
👁 BlockSprite conduit.png: Sprite image for conduit in Minecraft A conduit makes looting the monument much easier to do, as it reduces or eliminates the need for some potions and armor enchantments. Placed appropriately it grants permanent water breathing and better vision throughout the complex, as well as faster mining speeds. If a complete frame is established, this can also attack the guardians. However, the frame requires prismarine or sea lanterns, which are only otherwise found in ocean ruins; excavating them from the monument itself is impractical due to the Mining Fatigue effect.
A water plant (e.g. kelp or sea grass), waterloggable block, or instantly-breaking block is needed to properly place the conduit while under the effect of Mining Fatigue.
At least one good weapon:
👁 ItemSprite trident.png: Sprite image for trident in Minecraft A trident makes the process tremendously easier, especially when it is enchanted with Impaling V and Mending; the Impaling enchantment gives the trident a damage bonus against aquatic mobs[Java Edition only] or any mob that is in water[Bedrock Edition only]. Loyalty is also a good enchantment for your trident as it allows you to recover your trident immediately after throwing it, and it also mitigates the risk of losing your trident. Throwing the trident also has the additional benefit of bypassing the thorns effect from guardians as well as ignoring the 30% reduced attack speed, as both penalties only affect melee combat.
👁 ItemSprite bow.png: Sprite image for bow in Minecraft A bow, especially when enchanted with Power, is effective underwater at close range, and can be used easily to kill the elder guardian at the apex of the monument after drying out the "gazebo" area and shooting through a hole in the floor. It also allows the user to bypass the guardians' Thorns effect. Bear in mind that arrows are slowed down significantly while underwater and lose a large portion of their damage when this happens, and as such cannot be fired from medium or long distances.
Respiration allows you to spend less time worrying about your air supply, which buys you significantly more time should you lack a conduit and run out of Water Breathing.
Aqua Affinity speeds up mining blocks underwater, which may help with a quick break-in before Mining Fatigue is applied.
Depth Strider increases your movement speed underwater.
Protection reduces damage from the guardians' lasers and thorns. Since the damage is magic and melee oriented, specialized defenses like Projectile Protection do not mitigate the guardians' attacks.
In Java Edition, doors and fence gates can make an air pocket, which can replenish air in an emergency.
Potions are optional but useful:
👁 Image Potions of Water Breathing allow you to ignore your air supply and concentrate on hunting the elder guardians and navigating the monument. Not needed if you've set up a conduit.
👁 Image Potions of Invisibility, while wearing only boots with Depth Strider III, let you sneak past the guardians to fight the elder guardians without interruption. Do not wear more than one piece of armor, or the Invisibility does nothing.
👁 Image Potions of Night Vision can help with seeing in dark areas of the monument. Not needed if you have activated a conduit.
👁 Image Soul sand is an option to restore air as they emit air bubbles that can be used to replenish air supplies. Their only downside is that they jam you to the ceiling while being used so the best strategy is to use them in safe rooms and make short excursions to clear ahead, then placing another when you feel another safe area has been cleared.
👁 Image Magma blocks also provide air bubbles to replenish air, but forcibly drag you downward to them as you stand in the column. You also take damage if you stand on them without sneaking. You can place a block diagonally above the magma block, and stand on the edge, over the magma to replenish air and not take damage. Magma blocks can also deal some damage to the guardians.
👁 ItemSprite milk-bucket.png: Sprite image for milk-bucket in Minecraft A milk bucket may be useful in Java Edition to remove the Mining Fatigue effect, allowing you to mine through the walls of the monument to reach your destination easier. However, this also negates your beneficial potion effects, and the elder guardians re-apply Mining Fatigue within 60 seconds. Milk is useless in Bedrock Edition because the elder guardians re-inflict you with Mining Fatigue immediately after you drink the milk.
TNT can also be lit right next to an elder guardian, dealing massive damage to it without the player taking thorns damage, while leaving the monument's structure unharmed.
After the elder guardians are dead and the Mining Fatigue has worn off, some additional equipment is helpful for looting the monument:
👁 BlockSprite sponge.png: Sprite image for sponge in Minecraft If you do decide to dry out the monument, sponges are extremely useful for that purpose. You can obtain one sponge from each elder guardian in the monument, and somewhere in the monument you can find a whole room full of sponges.
This section is missing information about: how to easily find sponge rooms
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The first step is to get inside the monument, which can sometimes be difficult as guardians spawn outside the monument and can attack you. There are several ways you can get in:
Go in the front door. You might throw an ender pearl to get there quickly, dive from above, or run along the seafloor with Depth Strider III-enchanted boots. Bear in mind that ender pearls are significantly slowed down by water, meaning they can only be used to teleport short distances.
Mine through the roof above the elder guardians' rooms. It helps to drop blocks of sand around the gazebo at the top to build a quick bunker around the site. Clear the water out using slime blocks or other instantly minable blocks, dig a hole in the roof and shoot the top elder guardian with a bow to kill it and get your first sponge, and work your way down. In Java Edition, use milk to counteract the Mining Fatigue. In Bedrock Edition, milk removes Mining Fatigue for no more than one second so milk isn't useful; instead, use the correct tool (shovel for sand, pickaxe for stone, hoe for sponges, etc.) for each block you mine (gold tools are most efficient but wear out quickly), preferably enchanted with Efficiency, and you can actually make progress under constant Mining Fatigue.
In Java Edition, if the player creates a platform over the apex of the monument, TNT can be activated and dropped down and an elder guardian can be killed without any structural damage. If structural damage is preferred, sand or gravel can be dropped after the activated TNT, which causes the TNT to explode inside the sand block, dealing structural damage. This method can be repeated over the left and right wing of the monument, to kill the rest of the elder guardians. This can also be done underwater, by placing a sand/gravel block on top of the placed TNT before detonation.
Once inside, it can be advantageous to set up a base of operations. Doors or slime blocks can be used to seal any entrances to a chosen room, and sponge blocks can be used to quickly clear it of water. Then you might move in resources such as furnaces for drying sponges, chests to hold potions and other supplies, a bed in case you die, a nether portal for easier access via the Nether, and a cow for milk refills.
A conduit can be set up in a 3 block high undrained room for up to 31 blocks worth of Conduit Power merely by placing a slime block, honey block, block of TNT, decorated pot or block of resin on the floor one block diagonally in from the corner, placing the conduit on top and breaking the block. This removes any worries about air and helps speed up breaking through the prismarine if that is necessary.
Your goal inside the monument is to take out the elder guardians to eliminate the Mining Fatigue III that hinders your ability to obtain the resources from the monument. There are three per monument: one in the "penthouse" at the very top and one in each of the wings flanking the main entrance. The elders themselves aren't extremely difficult if you're prepared with strong armor and weapons, since they move and attack relatively slowly, but finding them within the maze can pose a challenge. It might help to wall off dead ends as soon as you investigate them, and note that the wings are connected by a long hallway around the back of the monument that bypasses the maze. Alternatively, you could simply mine through the ceiling of the elder guardians' rooms with a high-level Efficiency pickaxe, to counteract Mining Fatigue.
After that is done you can simply raid the monument of its sea lanterns, sponges, prismarine, and gold and leave. Alternatively, you can turn it into a base or a guardian farm. Now that Mining Fatigue is no longer an issue, you can use any method you'd like to accomplish this. If you were lucky enough to find a sponge room (or three), the sponges are particularly helpful in this task, as the sponges soak up a lot of the water. Even if you did not find a sponge room, you can use the sponges from the elder guardians, or previously-obtained sponges from other monuments.
Monument gold generation is somewhat predictable. Gold always spawns at the back of the ocean monument, where the 6 "rings" are. The outer ring will never contain gold; they are useless. There are 2 strategies to get the gold. It is recommended to turn your simulation distance down to 2 to decrease the chance of elder guardians cursing you with mining fatigue.
As stated earlier, ignore the outer ring. Find for the bottom v shape which is closer to the rest of the monument. In ring #2 and ring #5 go to the outer side of the ring and mine the block next to the air block. It is recommended to place doors before you do so as it will not only it serve as an air pocket [Java Edition only], but it will also make the mining faster. In ring #3 and ring #4 (the center rings), mine the inner side of the ring. Each ring except for ring #1 and ring #6 has a 1/4 chance to contain gold. In the showcase, the person had the worst possible luck, which was that they had to mine all of the rings before they found the gold. Then, by placing doors and digging down, the gold will show itself. Destroy it with a pickaxe and leave as fast as possible as the elder guardians can still curse you with mining fatigue.
This route is slightly faster as you don't have to mine as many blocks. However, it is slightly harder to do it efficiently. Essentially, you mine the blocks in ring #3 and ring #4 only. It can either turn out to be prismarine bricks, shallow water, deep water or dark prismarine. Deep water indicates that the gold is in the "side" and you have to swim to it. Shallow water and prismarine bricks both mean that there's no gold on that side. Dark prismarine indicates that the gold is underneath. Destroy the gold with a pickaxe and leave as fast as possible as even with the render distance set to 2, one of the guardians can still curse you with mining fatigue. In the showcase, it is shown how to correctly get the gold.
Once you are done raiding, you can do these things:
Leave. Elder guardians don't respawn but regular guardians do respawn.
Turn it into a guardian farm. Guardian farms produce tons of experience and prismarine. You also get fish and ink sacs as byproducts. If your guardian farm uses fire to kill the guardians, all the fish from one hour of AFKing can feed a player for a long time and possibly feed an entire server. You can write down the coordinates or lay a path to remember the location of the monument.
Turn it into a base. It is recommended to drain the ocean monument and all guardian spawning spaces. The building is very large and you can add a lot to it. Add all necessary items, such as a crafting table, furnaces, enchanting, anvil + grindstone, a blacksmith area with a smithing table, chests, and a villager trading hall. You can also build a guardian farm in your base, although it is smaller and less efficient. If your guardian farm doesn't use fire to kill the guardians, you get raw fish, which you can sell to fisherman villagers for a good source of emeralds.
Destroy the monument. Use a pickaxe and water breathing potions to mine all the prismarine blocks. Having Aqua Affinity and Respiration enchantments on your helmet can make this easier. This doesn't prevent guardians from spawning at the monument's locations, however.
