Aqua Affinity in Minecraft: Mine Underwater at Full Speed

Aqua Affinity lets you mine at normal speed while your head is underwater. Normally being submerged makes every block take five times as long to break. Aqua Affinity cancels that penalty completely. It has one level and goes on helmets and turtle shells.

The catch: floating

There are two separate slowdowns underwater:

Situation	No Aqua Affinity	With Aqua Affinity
Head underwater, standing on the seabed	5× slower	Normal speed
Head underwater, floating	25× slower	5× slower
Out of water, floating (e.g. on a ladder or falling)	5× slower	5× slower

Mining while both underwater and floating is 25 times slower than normal. With Aqua Affinity you’re still at 5 times slower if you’re floating, which is why people sometimes think the enchantment isn’t working. Sink to the bottom and stand on something solid before you start digging. Depth Strider makes walking along the seabed quick enough that this isn’t a chore. When you’re clearing an ocean monument, build a small platform to stand on while you dig.

How to get Aqua Affinity

Aqua Affinity rolls on the enchanting table for helmets, comes from fishing and plenty of loot chests (desert and jungle temples, strongholds, ocean ruins, ancient cities, mansions, outposts, mineshafts, monster rooms and trial chamber vaults), and librarians sell it. Under the experimental Villager Trade Rebalance it’s sold by snowy librarians.

Its table weight is 2, the same as Respiration, so a helmet often comes off the table without it. Because it only has one level, a librarian book is cheap: 5 to 19 emeralds in default trading. That’s usually the easiest way to add it to a helmet you already like, with an anvil.

Java and Bedrock

In survival, both editions work the same: one level, full speed with your head underwater. The difference only shows with commands. On Java, Aqua Affinity II and higher keep adding underwater mining speed; on Bedrock every level does the same thing. Java 1.21 also made it work only in the head slot, so it won’t help if you put it on boots with commands.

Worth it?

Yes, on any helmet you plan to keep. It costs nothing: the helmet slot has few enchantments, and Aqua Affinity conflicts with none of them. The standard helmet is Protection IV, Respiration III, Aqua Affinity, Unbreaking III and Mending. You’ll be glad of it the first time you dig out a flooded cave or build an underwater base. The best armor enchantments page lists the rest of the set.

Aqua Affinity speeds up all tools equally, so your Efficiency V pickaxe still gets its full bonus underwater.

Mistakes people make

• Expecting it to help swimming. It only affects breaking blocks. Swim speed comes from Depth Strider, and air from Respiration.
• Putting it on a turtle shell and forgetting your main helmet. A turtle shell is for ocean trips; the diamond or netherite helmet you wear most of the time should have it too.