Update Aquatic

The Update Aquatic is the name for a major update that was released for most versions of Minecraft in 2018, with the exception of the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and New Nintendo 3DS editions. The Update Aquatic focuses on revamping the oceans in Minecraft, adding many new aquatic mobs, blocks, items, and structures. It also caused The Flattening. The update marks the advent of the trend of major themed content updates being released across certain editions relatively simultaneously, rather than across differently-titled, unrelated-sounding updates per edition.

The official name for the update, the Update Aquatic, was revealed on November 18, 2017, during the MINECON Earth 2017 live stream, at which time the Java Edition Update Aquatic was to be released as 1.14. For Java Edition, this update was previously intended to succeed an update titled Technically Updated,^[1] until the decision was made to merge Update Aquatic into 1.13 due to the world generation rewrite taking longer than expected.

On July 10, 2018, Mojang Studios released a trailer for the update.^[2]

The update was released for Java Edition on July 18, 2018 as version Java Edition 1.13.^[3][4]

The update was released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Wii U editions, on September 11, 2018.^[5] The Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and New Nintendo 3DS editions were omitted from the update.

On Bedrock Edition, the Update Aquatic was split into two updates, with most of the features being released in Phase One as version 1.4.0 on May 16, 2018,^[6] and more features released in Phase Two as version 1.5.0 on July 10, 2018.^[7] Additional features were added in 1.6.0 on August 28, 2018.

Additionally, the Update Aquatic was released for Minecraft Education in the 1.4 update on June 12, 2018,^[8] and additional features released in the 1.7 update on November 12, 2018. The update was also released for the China Edition; it was released on mobile devices on July 6, 2018, and on Windows on July 10, 2018.^[9]

The first pre-release on Java Edition, 1.13-pre1, was released on June 4, 2018, the second pre-release was released on June 15, the third on June 21, the fourth on June 26, the fifth on June 28, the sixth on July 4, the seventh on July 10, the eighth on July 13, the ninth on July 16, and the tenth on July 17. This update had 10 pre-releases for Java Edition, the largest number of pre-releases for any update.

Blue ice

• Generates in icebergs.
• More slippery than ice and packed ice.
• Crafted using 9 packed ice.

Bubble column

• Created by magma blocks or soul sand in water.
• Magma block columns pull entities down and soul sand columns push entities up.

Conduit

• Crafted using a heart of the sea surrounded by 8 nautilus shells.
• Can be activated by building using prismarine related blocks.
  • Grants conduit power.
  • When active, affects nearby players in water with the Conduit Power effect.
    • When fully activated, it will attack nearby hostile mobs.
• Emits a strong glow, at light level 15.

Coral family of blocks:

• Generates in coral reefs.
• Alive ones must be broken using silk touch.
• Corals:
  • Tube coral
  • Brain coral
  • Bubble coral
  • Fire coral
  • Horn coral
• Coral fans:
  • Tube coral fan
  • Brain coral fan
  • Bubble coral fan
  • Fire coral fan
  • Horn coral fan
    • Can also be placed on walls.
• Coral blocks:
  • Tube coral block
  • Brain coral block
  • Bubble coral block
  • Fire coral block
  • Horn coral block
• Dead corals:
  • Obtained by breaking without silk touch or out of water.
  • Corals
    • Dead tube coral
    • Dead brain coral
    • Dead bubble coral
    • Dead fire coral
    • Dead horn coral
  • Coral fans
    • Dead tube coral fan
    • Dead brain coral fan
    • Dead bubble coral fan
    • Dead fire coral fan
    • Dead horn coral fan
      • Can also be placed on walls.
  • Coral Blocks
    • Dead tube coral block
    • Dead brain coral block
    • Dead bubble coral block
    • Dead fire coral block
    • Dead horn coral block

Dried kelp block

• Crafted from dried kelp, and can also be crafted back into dried kelp.
• Can be used as fuel, smelting 20 items per dried kelp block.

Kelp

• Generates in ocean biomes, except warm oceans.
• Can only be placed underwater, requiring at least one water block above it.
• Can grow multiple blocks high.

Prismarine stairs and slabs

• Added stairs and slabs for prismarine, dark prismarine, and prismarine bricks.

Pumpkin

• Added the default variant of the pumpkin.

Seagrass

• Generates in oceans (including underwater caves), rivers, and swamplands.
• Drops from turtles when killed.
• Can be generated by using bone meal on any block underwater.

Sea pickle

• Generates in warm oceans, especially around coral reefs.
• Can be bonemealed when on top of coral blocks.
• Four can be placed in one block.
  • Each one adds 3 to the light level, but only when placed underwater.
• Can be smelted into lime dye.
• When placed out of water, it will lose its tendril.

Shulker box

• Added the default shulker box.

Stripped log

• A barkless variant of logs.
• Created by using an axe on a log block.
• Act as regular logs, and can still be used to craft planks.

New smooth blocks that were previously on /setblock command:‌^{[Java Edition only]}

• These blocks are currently creative exclusive.
• Smooth stone
• Smooth sandstone
• Smooth red sandstone
• Smooth quartz

Turtle egg

• Created by breeding turtles.
• Four can be placed on one block.
• Stepping on them breaks them.
• Zombies, zombie pigmen, and drowned intentionally step on turtle eggs.
• Baby turtles only hatch at night.

Wood and stripped wood‌^{[Java Edition only]}

• Previously available only using /setblock.
• Now have an item form and appear in the Creative inventory.
• They can now be crafted, 4 logs in a square yield 3 wood.

Wooden trapdoors, wooden buttons, and wooden pressure plates

• Added the additional 5 wood variants besides oak.

Bucket of fish

• Obtained by using a water bucket on a fish.
• Can be used to transport the fish to a new location and prevent it from despawning.

Buried treasure map

• Leads the player to buried treasure.

Dried kelp

• Obtained by smelting kelp.
• Can be eaten, restoring 1 () hunger point.
• It can be consumed faster than other food items.

Heart of the sea

• Found in all buried treasure chests.
• Used to craft the conduit.

Nautilus shell

• Obtained from fishing or killing drowneds that are holding it.
• Used to craft the conduit.

Phantom membrane

• Dropped by phantoms.
• Used to repair elytra.
• Used to brew potions of Slow Falling.

Scute

• Dropped when baby turtles grow up.
• Can be used to craft turtle shells.

Spawn eggs:

• Cod spawn egg
• Dolphin spawn egg
• Drowned spawn egg
• Phantom spawn egg
• Pufferfish spawn egg
• Salmon spawn egg
• Tropical fish spawn egg
• Turtle spawn egg

Trident

• Can be thrown by using it, or be used as a melee weapon by attacking, dealing 9HP damage.
• Obtained by killing a drowned

Turtle shell

• Crafted from 5 scutes.
• Can be used as a helmet, adding 2 armor points.
• Can be used to brew the potion of the Turtle Master.

Potions:

• Potion of the Turtle Master
  • Brewed by using turtle shell.
  • Gives Slowness IV and Resistance III.
• Potion of Slow Falling
  • Brewed by using phantom membrane.
  • Gives Slow Falling effect.

Tipped arrows:

• Arrow of the Turtle Master
• Arrow of Slow Falling

Conduit power

• Stops the breath meter from running out, gives underwater Night Vision, and increases mining speed.
• This is the first combined effect. It combines Water Breathing, Night Vision, and Haste.

Dolphin's Grace‌^{[Java Edition only]}

• Makes the player swim faster.
• Acquired by swimming near dolphins.

Slow Falling

• Prevents fall damage.
• Makes the player fall slower.
• Makes player unable to deal critical hits.

New enchantments for the trident:

• Loyalty
  • Causes a thrown trident to fly back to the player who threw it after it lands.
• Impaling
  • Substantially increases damage against aquatic mobs,‌^{[Java Edition only]} or increases damage against entities in water or rain.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}
• Riptide
  • Causes the trident to launch the user when used in water or rain, replacing the trident's ability to be thrown as a projectile.
• Channeling
  • Causes a lightning strike when thrown at an entity during a thunderstorm.

Dolphin

• An aquatic neutral mob that spawns in any ocean that isn't frozen.
• Jumps to a height of 2 blocks.
• Can drown if it spends too long underwater.
• Can live out of water for 2 minutes.
• When fed raw cod or salmon, they swim to the nearest shipwreck, treasure chest or underwater ruins.
• Gives Dolphin's Grace when near the player.
• Follows when the player is swimming or on boat.
• Drops raw cod or salmon when killed.
• Plays with items.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Drowned

• An underwater undead hostile mob that spawns in all oceans and rivers, as well as in swamps and underwater ruins.
• Zombies convert into drowned if submerged in water for a while.
• Trident wielding drowned will throw them.

Fish mobs:

• Aquatic passive mobs that live in water.
• When on land, they will flop around until they became dehydrated.
• Can be picked up with a bucket.
• Can form schools.
• Drops their respective fish item, bone,‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} or bonemeal‌^{[Java Edition only]} when killed.
• Cod
  • Spawns in all ocean biomes.
• Salmon
  • Spawns in all ocean and river biomes.
  • Can swim through 4-5 waterfalls.
• Pufferfish
  • Spawns in warm oceans.
  • Does not form schools.
  • Will inflate depending on the entity's distance.
    • Inflicts Poison.
• Tropical fish
  • Spawns in warm oceans.
  • Tends to have random color and size combinations:
    • Has 2 possible sizes.
    • Each size had 5 possible patterns.
    • There are 16 possible base and pattern colors.
      • In total there are 2,880 combinations.
    • Because of this, each tropical fish had a disinct name depending on the pattern and color.
      • Only 22 of the tropical fishes are uniquely-named based on real fishes:
        • Anemone
        • Black tang
        • Blue tang‌^{[Java Edition only]}
        • Blue dory‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}
        • Butterflyfish
        • Cichlid
        • Clownfish
        • Cotton candy betta
        • Dottyback
        • Emperor red snapper
        • Goatfish
        • Moorish idol
        • Ornate butterflyfish
        • Parrotfish
        • Queen angelfish
        • Red cichlid
        • Red lipped blenny
        • Red snapper
        • Threadfin
        • Tomato clownfish
        • Triggerfish
        • Yellowtail parrotfish
        • Yellow tang

Phantom

• A flying undead hostile mob that spawns in the Overworld when players have not slept for 2 days.
• Burns in sunlight.
• Drops phantom membrane when killed.

Turtle

• A semi-aquatic passive mob that spawns on warm beaches in small groups.
• Moves slowly on land, but swims gracefully underwater.
• Can be bred using seagrass, and will later lay turtle eggs.
  • Baby turtles are attacked by zombies and their variants, skeletons and their variants, wolves, and ocelots.
    • When grown up, they will drop their scute.
• Drops seagrass when killed.
  • Drops a bowl when killed by a lightning strike.

Deep ocean

• A deeper variant of ocean.

Deep frozen ocean

• A deeper variant of frozen ocean.

Warm ocean

• An ocean that generate next to warm biomes, its seafloor is mostly sand and generate coral reefs.

Lukewarm ocean

• Similar to warm ocean except without coral reefs.
• Deep lukewarm ocean

Cold ocean

• Similar to regular ocean except generate next to cold biomes.
• Deep cold ocean

Divided the End up into separate biomes: the End, End midlands, End highlands, End barrens, and small End islands.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Iceberg

• Generates in frozen ocean biomes.

Underwater cave

• Generates in ocean biomes.

Ravine

• Forms in terrestrial biomes.

Coral reef

• Naturally generates in warm ocean biomes.
• Are composed of coral, coral blocks, and coral fans.

Shipwreck

• Can be found in oceans and beaches.
• Contains 1–3 loot chests containing different types of loot depending on the ship.
• Can generate upright, sideways, or upside down.

Underwater ruins

• Structures that usually generate on beaches and oceans.
• Cold underwater ruins generate in normal, cold, and frozen oceans.
• Warm underwater ruins generate in warm oceans.

Buried treasure

• Found buried in either beachs or ocean biomes.
• Can be located using a buried treasure map.

• Item forms for mushroom blocks.‌^{[Java Edition only]}
• Added many new sounds and 3 new underwater music pieces by C418.

Magma block

• Now generate in ocean biomes, causing downward bubble columns.

Mushroom

• Renamed both mushrooms to "Red Mushroom" and "Brown Mushroom" to distinguish it one another.

Carved pumpkin

• Renamed from "Pumpkin" to "Carved Pumpkin" to distinguish it from the default pumpkin.

Cut sandstone and cut red sandstone

• Renamed from "Smooth Sandstone" to "Cut Sandstone" to distinguish it from the smooth sandstone.

Purple shulker box

• Changed color since the addition of the default shulker box.

Soul sand

• Now generates in ocean biomes, causing upward bubble columns.

Water

• Changed texture.
• Now has biome tinted coloration.
• Majority of the non-full blocks can now be waterlogged.

Dropped items in water now float toward the surface.

Elytra

• Now require phantom membranes to be repaired in an anvil instead of leather.

Fish items

• Changed texture.
• Renaming the original "Fish" item to "Cod".
• Renaming the "Clownfish" to "Tropical Fish".

Horse armor

• Changed model to accumulate better with the new horse model.

Map in Java Edition

• Can now be marked using banners.
  • Named banners show their names under that marker on the map.

Saddle

• Changed horse's saddle model to accumulate better with the new horse model.

Undead mobs can now sink and no longer drown.

Donkey, horse, mule, skeleton horse, and zombie horse

• Changed model.
• Skeleton horses can now be ridden underwater.

Husk

• Now become a zombie instead of dying from drowning.

Squid in Java Edition

• Now shoot ink when attacked to match.
• Previously exclusive to Bedrock Edition.

Zombie

• Now become a drowned instead of dying from drowning.
• Baby zombies now burn in sunlight.^[10]

Item frame in Java Edition

• Can be placed on the floor and the ceiling.

• The player's oxygen no longer regenerates instantly when out of water.
• Changed underwater visibility.

Players can now swim and had a swimming animation.

• 1.13.1 added a search bar to select world screens, re-added the punch-detonate TNT ability, allowed fish to drop bone meal, added dead coral, added a new /forceload command, significantly changed the spawning conditions of squid, and fixed bugs.
• 1.13.2 fixed several bugs.

• 1.4.1 was released exclusively on Android and Fire OS to fix a bug involving players losing previously purchased items.
• 1.4.2 fixed several crash-related bugs.
• 1.4.3 was released exclusively on iOS devices to fix some bugs and added a new map by Blockception.
• 1.4.4 was released exclusively on Android and Fire OS to fix a bug that had issues with telemetry.

• 1.5.1 fixed several bugs present in the official release of 1.5.0.
• 1.5.2 fixed a lone bug regarding bitmap on low-end devices.
• 1.5.3 fixed the lost inventory bug along with several other bugs.

A trailer documenting some of the Update Aquatic's features was released on Mojang Studios' official YouTube channel on July 10, 2018.

Videos made by slicedlime:

What's New in Minecraft Java Edition 1.13 - The Update Aquatic? (view on YouTube)

Advanced Commands Tutorial - Command News in Minecraft 1.13 (view on YouTube)

What's New in Minecraft Bedrock Edition 1.4? (view on YouTube)

What's New in Minecraft Bedrock Edition 1.5? (view on YouTube)

Update Aquatic: Ten Things You Probably Didn't Know About Minecraft (view on YouTube)

• Jeb previously stated in a 2011 interview that he wanted to implement more sea life into the game.^[11]
• The poster for this update can be seen in the Minecraft Dungeons: Cross-platform Play Trailer in the PS4 user's room.

• 
  Update Aquatic logo
• 
  Update Aquatic (Phase 1) artwork
• 
  Update Aquatic final artwork
• 
  Update Aquatic final artwork
• 
  Update Aquatic artwork
• 
  Technically Updated artwork, prior to being merged into Update Aquatic

• Minecraft Aquatic Update | Minecraft (Archive)