Updated for Java Edition 26.3 (October 2026).
The deep ocean is the deeper, temperate version of the ocean biome, and the most common place to find an ocean monument. It covers a lot of the map: in our sample of 300 Java 26.3 seeds it was 3.65% of the surface, and over half of seeds had one within 1,000 blocks of spawn. Come for monuments, shipwrecks, dolphins and the nautilus.
| Dimension | Overworld |
|---|---|
| Where it generates | Offshore, almost always surrounded by regular ocean |
| How common | 3.65% of the surface in our sample (about 1 block in 27) |
| Distance from spawn | Median 888 blocks; within 1,000 blocks in 57% of seeds, within 2,000 in 90% (our sample) |
| Mobs | Squid, dolphins, cod, nautiluses; drowned among the hostile mobs |
| Structures | Ocean monuments, shipwrecks, cold ocean ruins |
| Climate | Temperature 0.5 |
| Biome ID | minecraft:deep_ocean |
Deep ocean and its variants
There are four deep ocean biomes, one for each ocean temperature except warm: the deep ocean on this page (temperate), the deep cold ocean, the deep lukewarm ocean and the deep frozen ocean. There is no deep warm ocean. All four count as “deep ocean” for structures, so ocean monuments can generate in any of them. In our sample the plain deep ocean bordered regular ocean 80% of the time, deep cold ocean 9% and deep lukewarm ocean 8%. It also touched mushroom fields 2% of the time, since mushroom islands sit out in deep water.
Finding an ocean monument
Monuments are the main reason to come out here, and they are not far. Across 300 Java 26.3 seeds, we listed every ocean monument within 5,000 blocks of spawn:
| Ocean monuments (our sample) | Result |
|---|---|
| Nearest monument to spawn | Median 1,058 blocks (a quarter of seeds under 733) |
| Seeds with a monument within 1,000 blocks | 48% |
| Seeds with a monument within 2,000 blocks | 92% |
| Monuments in each deep ocean | Deep ocean 39%, deep cold 26%, deep lukewarm 24%, deep frozen 11% |
For example, seed 7964566668965324215 has a monument in a deep ocean at X 48, Z 96, 226 blocks from spawn (open it on the map). In your own world, /locate structure minecraft:monument finds the nearest one, or turn on the Ocean Monument layer in our seed map.
How to find a deep ocean
Sail away from land. Deep oceans sit inside large stretches of regular ocean, so the water gets darker and the floor drops away the further out you go.
These three Java 26.3 seeds have deep ocean close to spawn. Each coordinate is inside the biome, checked at block level.
| Seed | Deep ocean at | From spawn | Map |
|---|---|---|---|
-3766444890507240356 |
X -314, Z -130 | 352 blocks | Open on the map |
6116438971656661126 |
X 562, Z 338 | 175 blocks | Open on the map |
-350128063086000970 |
X 174, Z 118 | 169 blocks | Open on the map |
In your own world, /locate biome minecraft:deep_ocean finds the nearest one (cheats on), or paste your seed into the biome finder. These are Java seeds; the same number on Bedrock gives a different world.
What you find in a deep ocean
Mobs
Squid, dolphins and cod spawn in the water, and since 1.21.11 so do nautiluses. Dolphins are worth finding: swim next to them for the Dolphin’s Grace speed boost, and feed them raw fish to have them lead you toward a nearby shipwreck or ruin. Drowned are among the hostile mobs, and they can carry tridents, so be careful diving at night.
Structures
Ocean monuments generate only in the deep oceans, guarded by guardians and elder guardians. Shipwrecks generate in every ocean, deep ones included, and the plain deep ocean also gets cold ocean ruins on its floor. Under the sea floor, trial chambers can generate too.
What changed in 2025-26
In Mounts of Mayhem (Java 1.21.11, December 2025), the nautilus was added: a neutral aquatic mob that spawns in all oceans, deep ones included, and that you can tame with pufferfish and ride. Source: the official 1.21.11 release notes.
How we measured
The numbers on this page come from our own seed map engine, running Java Edition 26.3 world generation. We generated 300 random seeds and sampled every 16th block across a 10,240 by 10,240 block square centered on each world’s spawn. “How common” is the biome’s share of those samples; “distance from spawn” is how far the nearest sample of the biome was. For the monument figures, we listed every ocean monument within 5,000 blocks of spawn on 300 seeds that passes the game’s biome check. Every coordinate above was re-checked with the same engine.
