How to Build a Conduit

A conduit is the ocean equivalent of a beacon: build it once and everything underwater near it becomes comfortable. If you are doing any serious ocean work, it is the first thing to set up.

What Conduit Power gives you

Standing in water within range of an active conduit grants Conduit Power, which is three effects at once:

• Water breathing — no drowning, no potion, indefinitely.
• Night vision underwater — you can actually see what you are doing.
• Haste — noticeably faster mining, which matters when you are clearing a monument.

A fully powered conduit also damages hostile mobs within 8 blocks every couple of seconds. That includes drowned and guardians, which is why conduits pair so well with guardian farms.

The effects only apply while you are in water or rain. Step onto dry land and they drop.

What you need

The conduit itself is crafted from:

• 1 Heart of the Sea
• 8 Nautilus Shells

The Heart of the Sea comes from buried treasure chests — find a buried treasure map in a shipwreck or ocean ruin chest, follow it, dig. Every buried treasure chest contains exactly one.

Nautilus shells come from two places:

• Fishing. They are an uncommon catch, and an AFK fish farm will produce them steadily while you do something else.
• Drowned. Some drowned spawn holding a nautilus shell and drop it when killed.

Eight shells is the slow part. Fishing is the reliable route.

The frame

A conduit does nothing on its own. It needs a frame built from one of these blocks:

• Prismarine
• Prismarine bricks
• Dark prismarine
• Sea lanterns

Any mix of the four works, so build it from whatever the monument gave you.

The frame blocks must sit in a specific pattern: think of a 5x5x5 cube centred on the conduit, with the frame blocks running along the middle of each edge. In practice most players build three intersecting rings around the conduit — one on each axis — which is the same thing and much easier to visualise.

Sizes and range

The frame needs a minimum of 16 blocks to activate at all. From there, more frame blocks means more range, up to a maximum at 42 blocks of frame.

• 16 blocks — activates, short range.
• 42 blocks — maximum. Range extends to 96 blocks in every direction, and the mob-damage effect switches on.

There is no benefit to going past 42, so build to exactly that and stop. Three complete rings around the conduit gets you there.

The conduit itself must be surrounded by water, and so must the space between it and the frame. An air pocket in the wrong place stops it activating.

Where to build one

At an ocean monument. The obvious choice — the monument gives you prismarine and sea lanterns for the frame, and Conduit Power makes clearing the guardians survivable. Set the conduit up outside first, then go in.

Over an underwater build. If you are building a base on the seabed, a conduit at the centre makes construction genuinely pleasant instead of a constant race against your air bar.

Near a drowned farm. The mob damage helps, and drowned drop the nautilus shells to build more conduits.

Conduit versus potions

Water Breathing potions work anywhere and need no setup, but they run out and need brewing — see the potion brewing guide. A conduit is permanent and free once built, but it is fixed in place.

Most players end up with both: a conduit at the monument or main underwater build, and a couple of potions in the bag for everywhere else.

Also worth having: Respiration and Aqua Affinity on your helmet, and Depth Strider on your boots. Best enchantments covers where they rank.