Shipwreck Finder

What to know about Shipwrecks

• Where they spawnShipwrecks generate in every ocean biome, from warm and lukewarm down to cold and frozen. They occasionally beach themselves on shorelines too, which makes them much easier to spot from land.
• OrientationShipwrecks generate in over twenty configurations — fully intact, tilted, upside-down, or broken in half. The broken variants are missing parts of the hull and lose one or two of their chests in the process, so a complete wreck is the better find.
• Three chest typesA complete shipwreck has up to three loot chests in different parts of the hull. The Supply chest (bow) carries food, leather armour, bamboo and TNT. The Treasure chest (upper stern) holds iron, gold, emeralds and occasionally a diamond. The Map chest (lower stern) is the prize — it usually contains the buried-treasure map. Nautilus Shells don't actually appear in any shipwreck chest, despite what some tutorials claim.
• Suspicious blocksSome Shipwrecks also contain suspicious sand patches you can brush for pottery sherds and other decorative items. Bring a brush if you want to walk away with the full archaeology haul.
• Minecraft versionShipwrecks were added in the 1.13 Update Aquatic. The chain they kick off — find a Shipwreck, loot the treasure map, dig up the buried treasure for a Heart of the Sea, then craft a Conduit — is genuinely one of the most rewarding quest lines in vanilla Minecraft.

The Three Chests Explained

How to chain a Shipwreck into a Conduit

1. Pick a Shipwreck pin and prefer the shallowest one if you have several to choose from. Shipwrecks generate at all sorts of depths, from beached on the shore to sat 30 blocks down in the deep ocean. Without enchanted swimming gear (Respiration on a helmet, Depth Strider on boots) you only get about 15 seconds of breath underwater, so beached or near-surface wrecks let you loot the chests in a single dive without drowning.
2. Open the Map chest first — it's the one you actually came for. Each Shipwreck has up to three chests in different parts of the hull (Map, Treasure, Supply). The Map chest sits in the lower stern — the back of the wreck, below deck — and contains the Buried Treasure Map along with navigation basics like a compass, clock and empty map. Grab it first in case the wreck is broken and a current has carried items away.
3. Loot the Supply and Treasure chests next. The Supply chest sits in the bow (front of the ship) and contains wheat, carrots, potatoes, suspicious stew, bamboo, TNT, gunpowder, coal and basic leather armour — useful early-game survival kit. The Treasure chest sits in the upper stern (back of the ship, above deck) and is the more valuable of the two, with iron and gold ingots, emeralds and the occasional diamond. Clear both into your inventory before you swim back up.
4. Follow the Treasure Map straight to the X. The map shows your position as a small white arrow and the buried treasure as a red X — usually within a few hundred blocks of the wreck, on or near the closest beach. When the arrow sits on top of the X, dig straight down with a shovel; the chest sits two to four blocks below the surface and contains a guaranteed Heart of the Sea.
5. Collect Nautilus Shells on the way home. A Conduit needs eight Nautilus Shells plus one Heart of the Sea, so you usually need to grab a few extras beyond what the wreck dropped. Drowned holding shells in their off-hand will drop them on death (target them at night near the coast), or you can fish in any open water — Nautilus Shells appear in the fishing treasure pool. Once you have all the parts, craft the Conduit and you've unlocked permanent Water Breathing inside its frame.

Plan a wider ocean route

Shipwrecks are the anchor of the ocean circuit. A coastal run with buried treasures, ocean ruins and an ocean monument all pinned on the map is one of the best weekend projects in the game. The shipwreck is usually what starts the whole chain — one treasure map is all you need.