Ocean Monument in Minecraft: Raid It for Gold and Sponges

An ocean monument is a big prismarine temple on the floor of a deep ocean. It’s guarded by guardians and three elder guardians, who give you Mining Fatigue III while you’re anywhere nearby. There are no chests: you come for the eight gold blocks hidden in the core, the sponges, the prismarine and the chance of a Tide armor trim.

How to find an ocean monument

Monuments generate only in deep ocean biomes, and their glowing sea lanterns are visible from the surface at night. The easier way is an ocean monument map from a cartographer villager, which marks the nearest one. With cheats, /locate structure minecraft:monument.

What to bring

The monument is all about breathing and seeing:

• Water Breathing, 8-minute version, several bottles. Or a conduit, if you have one.
• Night Vision, since the inside is dark.
• Boots with Depth Strider so you can move at a normal speed.
• A helmet with Aqua Affinity, or you’ll mine at a crawl underwater.
• Milk buckets for Mining Fatigue, but drink potions after the milk, since it clears them too.
• Doors or signs to make air pockets, and lots of blocks.

Guardians and elder guardians

Guardians charge a laser that hits you after a couple of seconds of eye contact, and their spikes damage you when you hit them. Break line of sight behind a pillar or block. A trident or bow with Power works well.

Elder guardians are bigger and pale gray. There are three: one at the top of the monument and one in each wing. They apply Mining Fatigue III to every player within about 50 blocks, every minute. While you have it, mining is so slow you can’t dig your way to anything. Kill all three and the fatigue stops coming back. Each one drops a wet sponge, and sometimes a Tide armor trim template.

The gold

The core room sits in the middle of the monument, wrapped in dark prismarine. It holds eight gold blocks. That’s 72 gold ingots for one room.

Sponge rooms

Some monuments have sponge rooms with wet sponges on the ceiling. Dry them in a furnace and you have the best tool for draining water, which you’ll want if you plan to drain the monument for a guardian farm.

Prismarine and lanterns

Prismarine bricks, dark prismarine and sea lanterns are the building materials here. Mining them takes a lot of time with Mining Fatigue, so only take them after the elder guardians are dead.

Draining it

The monument’s real long-term value is a guardian farm: drained, rebuilt with spawning platforms, it produces prismarine shards, crystals and fish. Draining takes hours of sand and sponges. It’s a project, not a weekend.

See the structures hub for every other structure profile.