Minecraft Hacks Master Builder

What could be cooler than an underwater base? On top of being pretty impressive, an underwater home gives you more protection from mobs and explosions than land-based homes. You can be sure a creeper isn’t sneaking around outside! On the other hand, building underwater is harder than above ground, especially in Survival mode. Once your underwater home is built, you also have to be careful not to accidentally break an exterior wall block and flood your home. (If you do break a block, you can usually fill it pretty quickly with any other block for a temporary stopgap.)

There are a couple of good techniques for building an underwater home. In one, you build up walls from the ocean bottom, and in the other, you drop a sand mold onto the ocean floor. The first works better for shallower depths.

If you are building in Survival mode, there are several ways to help you breathe underwater.

• Create air bubbles with blocks. Several block types (fences, signs, doors, glass panes, iron bars, trapdoors, ladders) create an air bubble next to them. If you place these and stand next to them, you can breathe and replenish your air. If you are building very deep, you can create a pillar of sand and attach ladders to it.

• Emergency breathe with a bucket. You can click an empty bucket in front of you. This will fill up your air meter but also fill up the bucket with water, so it can only be used once underwater.

• Enchantments and potions. Use a helmet with Respiration or Aqua Affinity or a Potion of Water Breathing.

It can be very dark underwater, which makes it difficult to build. You can place glowstone blocks to add light or use a Potion of Night Vision. You can also create a small “hut” of fences to enclose a torch on at least two sides and above. (The torch has to be placed last.)

In this underwater building method, you create a blueprint or layout in dirt, above water, to show where your exterior walls will go. You can include walls that will form a tunnel from the land to your house.

Here is a blueprint for the exterior walls of an underwater home, built on the ocean surface. The walls extend to the land, to help in building an underwater tunnel to the home.

You then build these walls down to the level where you want your floor to be. Use dirt blocks as you go down until you reach the ceiling. For example, if you want to have your ceiling 5 or so blocks below the surface, start with 5 dirt blocks. Then use the block you want for the ceiling. Then place wall or window blocks as far as your floor, and then the floor block. The floor block doesn’t need to be on the ocean floor.

Here, you can see the walls built down, first with dirt to reach the ceiling level. Then glass blocks are used here for the walls and finally stone for the floor.

You then build in your floor, so you’ve essentially created a large tub, filled with water.

The floor is built in here with stone and glass to see through, because the floor is not on the sea floor.

If you don’t want your home to look like it is floating, you can build pillars down to the ocean floor.

Back on the surface, drop sand or gravel blocks to fill up the interior of your house, all the way to the ocean surface. This clears the water from your home.

Here the interior is filled with sand. This removes air from the interior, and when you destroy the sand, the interior will be cleared of water.

Next, you break the sand or gravel, leaving air in its place. To quickly get rid of the sand, first dig down to the floor. Then break a floor-level sand block next to you and quickly fill the floor of that space with a torch. The torch will burn the sand falling above it.

Once the sand is removed, fill in the ceiling layer, including the ceiling of the entrance tunnel, if you have one. Back at land, make sure to build up steps to the surface.

Filling in the ceiling, 4 blocks below surface level. Glass blocks will allow a little more light from the surface to get in.

Finally, you can break the temporary dirt walls, letting the water flow in above the house. Now you can enter your house from your tunnel and make any final changes. It is pretty easy to break a block and quickly fill it with another if you decide you want to change the look or you see a mistake.

In this technique, first level the sea floor where you are placing the home. Above the water, build a temporary platform that is the width and length of your home. One way to start building right over the ocean, without a beam extending from the land, is to first place a lily pad block on the water.

Then you can place a dirt block over the lily pad as the start of your platform.

Build a mold of your home in sand or gravel on a platform. Here, the gravel shows what will eventually be the floor and roof.

When your platform is finished, build the shape of your home in gravel or sand. Make sure the home shape is all filled in. When you are satisfied, destroy the platform blocks so that the columns of sand or gravel drop down in place to land in position on the ocean floor.

The sand or gravel mold will drop to the ocean floor when you destroy the platform it’s on.

When you destroy the dirt platform, the sand and gravel mold drops to the sea floor. Then you need to swim underwater and place the exterior wall and roof blocks over the mold.

Here is the mold covered with walls and ceilings of sandstone and glass blocks for windows. The windows extend onto the ceiling as well for an overhead view.

You can use glass blocks for windows. Once the mold is sealed over, break in on one wall. Use a ladder to make an air space on the inside of the broken wall.

Place ladder blocks when you break into your house to create an air space and prevent water from flooding in.

Then you can start destroying the sand or gravel blocks inside your walls and roof. Once that is done, fill in your floor.

One way to make an exit is to place solid blocks, with ladder blocks attached, all the way to the ocean surface. At the top, you can make a landing with a dock or cove for a boat.

Here is a landing spot for the ladder entrance, with a sand cove (built on a dirt foundation) to hold a boat. You can use dirt blocks to seal off the cove to keep your boat safe.