Minecraft Heart of the Sea: The Ultimate Guide

In the vast world of Minecraft, the game offers several locations of adventure and treasures to uncover. While you’ll mostly explore the game’s universe on land, you should know how the ocean also offers buried treasure for you to dig up. This includes the Minecraft Heart of the Sea, which its usage is crucial if you plan to venture into further waters.

The Heart of the Sea allows you to freely dive down and breathe underwater upon using it when you’ve crafted a Conduit. Unlike mined materials and resources, getting this rare item is more difficult as you can only find it within buried treasure chests.

Finding this hidden treasure shouldn’t be too challenging though as we’ll help you with our guide below. You’ll learn how you can get the elusive Heart of the Sea, how you can use it, and other secrets this item holds.

What is the Heart of the Sea in Minecraft?

An item that can’t be crafted with a crafting table or a furnace, the Heart of the Sea is a found and gathered type of item in Minecraft. With its unique namesake, the Heart of the Sea allows you literally near control of the ocean.

The Heart of the Sea is recognized for its brightly blue sea color and its spherical shape. If you’ve encountered this item before and it was just stuck in one of your chests, now’s the time to learn more about it and put it to good use.

While this seems like a very powerful item, its hiding spot makes it both a rare and thrilling discovery for explorers. Only found within buried treasure chests, it will take a lot of time, effort, and exploring to find this item. The only way to also find these treasure chests is through a buried treasure map.

Moreover, take note that the Heart of the Sea can’t also be obtained from trading, making it a non-renewable resource. This adds another layer of mystery for the item, so be sure to save it up if you chance upon it.

How to Get the Heart of the Sea?

If you haven’t encountered the Heart of the Sea but you’re now interested in looking for one, we can help you learn how to get this item in both Survival and Creative modes.

In Survival mode

Mainly, Survival mode entails that you have to exert more effort to find the Heart of the Sea. There are a couple of steps you need to do to find one.

Step #1: Look for a Shipwreck

Shipwrecks in Minecraft are often found as ruins of a wooden sunken ship. Usually, these are found in the Ocean, River, and Beach biomes. But your best chance is finding this near Ocean Ruins.

These are characterized by broken-up wooden debris in which major parts are still intact. Additionally, Shipwrecks have small openings wherein you can swim through.

Be cautious as well though because there may be some Drowned mobs that may attack you when searching for the Shipwreck. It’s best to look for one during the day.

Step #2: Swim around to find Map Chests

When swimming through Shipwrecks, be sure to have doors ready or equip yourself with armor that provides the Aqua Affinity and/or Respiration enchantments. These can help you mine blocks more efficiently and can grant you the ability of water breathing.

In a Shipwreck, you’ll find at least one Map Chest. However, some Shipwrecks can spawn up to three chests, depending on the Shipwreck’s size.

Step #3: Use the Buried Treasure Map.

Once you’ve added your Buried Treasure Map to your inventory, you can then use it to find the location of the buried treasure. The white pointer on the map shows your current location and the direction you’re facing. While for the red X, this marks the spot of the location of the treasure.

You’ll have to move towards the red X mark so that more of your map’s details will become clearer, allowing you to get a better grasp of your surroundings. It’s best if your white pointer mark rests on the same position as the red X so it’s easier for you to dig around and find the marked treasure chest location.

Step #4: Dig for the Hidden Treasure Chest

If you’re satisfied with the position of your white pointer and your player character, you can then start digging around to look for the treasure chest. Use a shovel to efficiently dig. It might take a while for you to find the chest.

Step #5: Get the Heart of the Sea

The chest is usually just a single chest surrounded by sand and stone blocks. Once you open it, you can then find the Heart of the Sea inside.

You may also discover that the chest also sometimes includes other items such as Iron Ingots, Diamonds, Weapons, Food, and other similar loot.

In Creative mode

If you’re planning on getting a Heart of the Sea in Creative mode, you won’t have to dive down underwater to look for a Shipwreck structure or travel far and wide to look for a chest. You can simply get one in your Creative Inventory.

Simply open your Creative Inventory and navigate through the tab slots to look for the Ingredients tab. This is signified by a symbol of the Iron Ingot for Java Edition 1.19.3 to 1.21.1 versions of Minecraft. While the Lava Bucket is the icon to look for it in versions 1.13 to 1.19.

If you’re on Bedrock Edition, however, you can find the Heart of the Sea under the Items tab. This is signified by the Red Bed icon in-game.

Another way to look for the Heart of the Sea in the Creative Inventories of your game is just to simply type “Heart of the Sea” in the Search Bar of your Creative Inventory. This will easily filter out the items and find the Heart of the Sea.

Talking to Cartographer Villagers

Consider talking to Cartographer Villagers since they can give you maps that can potentially lead you to hidden treasures such as the Heart of the Sea. Often, you’d have to trade a Compass and some Emeralds to buy maps.

How do you use the Heart of the Sea?

Mainly, the Heart of the Sea is used in crafting a Conduit. This grants a Conduit Power effect that is a game-changer in survival Minecraft. It grants water breathing, haste, and night vision, allowing players to mine and fight more efficiently when underwater. You wouldn’t need to stack your armor enchantments further if you have conduit power.

Crafting a Conduit

To attain your conduit power, you first need to craft a Conduit. You will need eight Nautilus Shells and one Heart of the Sea. Nautilus Shells are usually found by Fishing, killing Drowned mobs, and buying them from Wandering Traders through Emeralds.

You must lay out all your Nautilus Shells on the borders of your crafting interface and place the sea heart in the middle of the interface.

Once you’ve crafted a Conduit, you can then make a Conduit Power Structure.

Crafting a Conduit Power Structure

This special structure is usually made out of Prismarine blocks, Prismarine Bricks, or Dark Prismarine. It’s really up to you how you want to build your Conduit Power Structure but ideally, you have to make a frame out of Prismarine to “activate” the structure.

You can check out this tutorial guide by JC Playz on YouTube on how to activate a conduit through a Conduit Power Structure they built.

Other information and tips about the Heart of the Sea

Now, for a bit of trivia. Before the Heart of the Sea was added to Minecraft’s Bedrock Edition, there was an entry found in the buried treasure chest loot table named “nautilus_core.” It was later revealed that the name entry would become the Heart of the Sea.

Despite that change, however, the item is still referred to as “nautilus_core” in most game files. This makes sense when creating a Conduit since the Heart of the Sea acts as the “core” around the surrounding Nautilus Shells.

Consider also feeding Raw Cod or Raw Salmon to a dolphin to make it swim toward the nearest Buried treasure, Shipwreck, or Ocean Ruins.

Take your time in finding a Heart of the Sea. It takes time to both look for the Map Chests and search for the actual treasure chest to get the elusive sea heart.