Mojang’s Minecraft has grown drastically over the course of a decade from a simple public alpha into one of the most critically acclaimed video games of all time. It has even expanded into schools, as Minecraft: Education Edition has been adopted as a popular teaching tool. Still ever-expanding with frequent updates, the number of items and recipes in the iconic sandbox-survival simulator can be daunting.
The Heart of the Sea is a rare item that was added to Minecraft in May 2018, as a part of Phase One of the Update Aquatic. However, this mysterious item had no real use in the game, other than looking pretty. It wasn’t until Phase Two of the Update Aquatic, which went live in July 2018, that the Heart of the Sea was given a purpose.
How To Find a Heart
Like any good piece of oceanic loot, the Heart of the Sea can be found in buried treasure chests. These chests are randomly generated structures that will be placed in any new world created by a player, as long as the “Generate structures” world creation option is enabled. The buried chests can be found on beaches or, sometimes, on the ocean floor.
To increase their odds of finding buried treasure, players can find and use a treasure map. Maps that lead to buried treasure can often be found in chests within Ocean Ruin structures or shipwrecks, both usually located on the ocean floor. The map can then be used to identify the coordinates of a buried treasure chest, which always contain a Heart of the Sea.
What To Do With the Heart
After existing for several months with no practical use, the Heart of the Sea was made part of a crafting recipe in the second part of the Update Aquatic. Using one of these rare treasures along with eight Nautilus Shells, players are able to craft a Conduit. This powerful item can then be used to provide constant underwater buffs to players, drastically increasing their ability to explore the game’s oceans.
Conduits act similarly to Minecraft’s Beacon blocks, which provide buffs such as increased speed or melee damage to all nearby players. The Conduit Power effect grants a number of buffs tailor-made for exploring and mining underwater. These include granting players unlimited breath so that they can’t drown, underwater night vision and increased mining speed while underwater. The Conduit will also damage all nearby enemy mobs, which provides a true safe haven while underwater, and even emits a fair bit of light.
Gathering the eight Nautilus Shells needed to craft a Conduit isn't too difficult. These shells are fairly common, able to be acquired as a treasure item while fishing or by killing a Drowned enemy who is carrying one. By placing eight Nautilus Shells around the perimeter of the menu in a Crafting Bench, and the Heart of the Sea in the middle, you'll craft a Conduit.
Unfortunately, it isn’t enough to simply craft the Conduit. In order to work, the item must be placed underwater, and within a frame made up of at least sixteen prismarine or sea lantern blocks. Prismarine is a type of stone block, which can be found in underwater structures such as Ocean Ruins and Monuments, while sea lanterns are light sources that can also be found in these underwater locations.
The size of the Conduit’s frame influences the size of the effects’ radius. If a frame is built out of the minimum sixteen blocks, the effects will reach up to thirty-two blocks around the structure. The effective range then continues to increase by sixteen blocks for every seven additional blocks in the frame.
Minecraft has come a long way since its early days of vast, vacant seas. The oceans of Minecraft are now full of structures to explore, unique enemies to fight and interesting items to collect. The Heart of the Sea is one such rare treasure, which also allows for more extensive exploration of the game’s underwater offerings.