Water

**Water** is a liquid that naturally generates abundantly in the Overworld.

## Obtaining

Water can be collected by using a bucket on a water source block or a full cauldron, creating a water bucket.

It may be obtained as an item via inventory editing or add-ons.

### Natural generation

Water naturally generates in the Overworld to form oceans, rivers and springs. It also generates in villages, desert wells, strongholds, woodland mansions, and ocean monuments. Technically, water generates below layer 63 by replacing air blocks that are not part of a cave or other structure, although some caves and canyons in the ocean biomes are intentionally filled with water. Water also occasionally generates as small puddles on the floor next to dripstone clusters.

Water never generates in the Nether and instantly disappears or evaporates into steam if placed there with a water bucket. However, water can exist in the Nether in a cauldron. Water can also be placed in the Nether using commands such as `/setblock` and `/fill`. Although it does not naturally generate there, water can be placed and function normally in the End.

Water also generates as part of underwater ruins with loot chests, but only two water blocks generate:

* One water block generates inside the loot chest, making it a waterlogged loot chest.
* The other water block generates on top of the loot chest.

## Usage

### Appearance

Water uses an animated texture that is tinted differently in different biomes. Colored water in cauldrons uses a slightly different texture, resembling it's Pre-Caves and Cliffs appearance.‌

Unlike other translucent blocks such as ice, stained glass and tinted glass, water shows the opposite sides of its external planes when viewed from within and from outside. This inconsistency is intentional. However, it only applies to the top plane and four side planes; the bottom face is always unseen from above.

### Swimming

The button for swimming is the same as the button for jumping; non-swimming players and mobs sink slowly in water. Holding the swim button raises the player through the water, and when the surface is reached, the player bobs up and down. The crouch button can be used to sink faster. The sprint button can be used to put the player in "swim mode" when the player is completely submerged in water. When in swim mode, the player is horizontal and one block high. The player has an arm-waving animation when viewed in third person or by other players.

Most mobs that can stand can also swim any time they are in water, except for iron golems, piglins, hoglins, striders, piglin brutes and undead mobs. This can lead to drowning if the water is falling from above.

Water of any depth prevents any entity, including the player, from sustaining falling damage if they fall into it, regardless of the distance fallen.

Being inside of water also imparts a fog effect, tinted accordingly.

### Spreading

Water spreads horizontally and downward into nearby air blocks. Water can spread downward infinitely until stopped by a block, and 7 blocks horizontally from a source block on a flat surface. Water spreads at a rate of 1 block every 5 game ticks, or 4 blocks per second.

When spreading horizontally, a weight is assigned to every direction water can flow. For each direction, this weight is initially set to 999. Then, for every adjacent block it can flow into it tries to find a way down that is reachable in four or fewer blocks from the block it wants to flow to. When found, the flow weight for that direction is set to the shortest path distance to the way down. Finally, water spreads in the directions with the lowest flow weight.

Spreading water extinguishes fire and washes away certain types of items or placed blocks, causing them to drop as items and then carrying them along in the flow until the edge of the spread. Affected items include plants (except trees), snow, torches, carpets, redstone dust and some other redstone components, cobweb, end rods, heads, and flower pots.

### Source Blocks

A water source block is created from a flowing block that is horizontally adjacent to two or more other source blocks, and sitting on top of a solid block or another water source block. This allows infinite water sources to exist, in which a new source block immediately forms in the space left by removing a source block with a bucket. Pools of still water can be created by placing water source blocks in a confined area

Infinite water sources can be constructed by arranging for two source blocks to flow into a third block. Each of the examples below require two source blocks, each on opposite ends of the hole, to create a renewable water source block in between.

A dispenser loaded with a filled bucket places a water source block in an empty block in front of it when activated. A dispenser loaded with an empty bucket and a water source right in front of it sucks the source into the bucket when activated.

In snowy biomes, water source blocks have a chance to turn into ice if directly under the sky. Ice blocks under brighter light levels melt back into water source blocks (except in the Nether). Ice reverts to water when broken, but only if there is a solid block under it.

### Light

Every block of water reduces light by 1 extra level (in addition to the normal fading-out of light).

#### Color

Water has several colors, depending on the biome.

### Water and lava

Water and lava can produce stone, cobblestone, or obsidian based on how they interact. If water touches a lava source, the lava turns to obsidian. If both touch each other while flowing, cobblestone is made and no sources are removed, and if lava hits a water source, the water source turns to stone.

### Interactions with mobs

#### Direct contact

Water damages endermen, snow golems, striders and blazes, at a rate of 1 per half second. If water comes into contact with a shulker or an enderman, the mob will teleport away.

#### Suffocation

Players and mobs (except aquatic mobs, undead mobs and iron golems) have a breath meter that lasts 15 seconds. After they run out of breath, they take 2 suffocation damage every second until they die, surface, or enter bubble columns.

Dolphins are a special case in drowning: they take suffocation damage when underwater for about 4 minutes, but also take suffocation damage when in air for about 2 minutes.

Each level of the Respiration enchantment adds 15 seconds to the breath meter and grants an x/(x+1) chance (where x is the Respiration level) of not taking damage after that time: 30 seconds and an average 1/second with Respiration I, 45 seconds and an average of 2⁄3 damage/second with Respiration II, and 60 seconds and an average of 1⁄2 damage/second with Respiration III.

If a husk suffocates underwater, it starts to shake and eventually becomes a zombie. If a zombie suffocates underwater, it starts to shake and eventually transforms into a drowned.

### Slower mining speed

Players with their head underwater require 5 times the normal amount of time to mine blocks while standing on the ground, or 25 times while not on the ground. If a player wears a helmet with the Aqua Affinity enchantment, then underwater mining speed while standing on the ground is the same as on land, and 5 times slower if not standing on the ground.

### Hardening concrete powder

When water comes into contact with concrete powder, the powder hardens into solid concrete.

### Sponges

When a dry sponge comes into contact with a water source or flowing block, it becomes a wet sponge, absorbing all water within 3 to 5 blocks in all directions. Kelp and lily pads within the absorbed water blocks are destroyed and drop as items, and seagrass is destroyed without dropping anything. Mobs that take damage out of water are affected as a side-effect.

Sponges do not absorb water from waterlogged blocks, nor water that comes into contact by flowing back in from outside the area of absorption. For instance, placing a sponge 4 or more blocks from a single water source removes the flowing water in the area of effect, but as the flow from the source resumes it is not affected by the wet sponge.

A sponge instantly absorbs nearby water when it is placed next to water or when water comes into contact with it (by being placed next to the sponge, or by flowing toward it). A sponge absorbs water around itself (water source blocks or flowing water) out to a taxicab distance of 7 in all directions (including up and down), but won't absorb more than 65 blocks of water (water closest to the sponge is absorbed first). The absorption propagates only from water to water and does not "jump over" non-water blocks (including air).

## Trivia

* While underwater, the player's FOV (field of vision) is lowered by 10 to simulate light refraction. This can be disabled via FOV Effects.
* The texture overlaid on the screen when underwater is that of the original water texture from 0.0.12a. It is one of the oldest textures still currently in the game, arguably tied with the bedrock texture on end crystals.
* The outdated ness of this texture is not considered a bug or oversight, unlike many other outdated textures.
* Water does not prevent explosions from activating. This effect is due to water's high blast resistance, causing it to absorb any normal blasts, with the exception of explosions from underwater TNT.
* If a player with the levitation effect touches water, the levitation effect is completely negated.
* Due to water having collision detection even if the coordinates exceed 8,388,608 blocks, it can be used to travel to the Far Lands without falling through the world.
* Bubble columns are created by placing magma blocks or soul sand under water. These can be used to transport mobs or items quickly vertically.