What is Dolphin’s Grace?
Dolphin’s Grace is a status effect that makes you swim much faster in water. You can’t brew it, trade for it, or find it in a chest. The only way to get it in normal play is to swim near a dolphin, which passes the effect to any player moving through the water beside it.
While the effect is active, your swimming speed jumps well past what you can reach on your own, even with a maxed-out Depth Strider enchantment. It only works while you’re actually swimming, so the moment you climb onto land or stop moving through water, the speed boost does nothing.
Think of it as a free ride from a friendly mob. Stay in the water near a dolphin and you glide across the ocean. Leave the dolphin behind and the effect fades after a few seconds.
How to get Dolphin’s Grace
You get Dolphin’s Grace by swimming close to a dolphin. Find a pod, get in the water near them, and start swimming. Hold the swim pose by sprinting while submerged, and stay close. As long as a dolphin is nearby and you’re swimming, the effect stays on and keeps refreshing.
You don’t tame the dolphin, leash it, or feed it first. The dolphin grants the effect on its own as part of how it acts around players in the water. There’s no crafting step and no setup. Get near one, swim, and you have it.
Where dolphins spawn
Dolphins spawn in groups in non-frozen ocean biomes. You won’t find them in frozen oceans, and rivers don’t spawn them, though a dolphin can occasionally wander into a river from a nearby ocean. If you’re looking for a pod, head out into open water rather than searching the coastline.
How dolphins pass it to you
A dolphin gives Dolphin’s Grace to any player swimming near it, within a few blocks. Because pods travel together, being near one dolphin usually means being near several. That works in your favor, since any of them can keep the effect topped up while you swim. Keep pace with the group and you stay boosted.
What Dolphin’s Grace does
The effect raises your swimming speed. Underwater and on the surface, as long as you’re in the swim pose, you move noticeably faster than normal. It’s the quickest way to cover open water on foot, and it works best when you’re traveling with a dolphin that’s already heading somewhere.
The boost is large. With the effect on, you close distance across open ocean far quicker than swimming or even walking on land. It’s strong enough that players often seek out dolphins on purpose before a long swim, like a trip to an ocean monument or a distant shipwreck.
A few things to know about how it behaves:
- It only affects swimming. Walking, running on land, and standing still get nothing from it.
- It works both underwater and while swimming along the surface.
- You need to be sprint-swimming in the swim pose to feel the full benefit.
The effect shows up in your inventory screen as an active status effect with a timer, the same as any potion effect. When you’re near a dolphin, that timer keeps resetting. Once you swim away, it ticks down and ends.
Why dolphins are the fastest option
Nothing else in normal play moves you through water as quickly on foot. Depth Strider helps, and a Riptide trident covers ground in the rain, but for steady swimming across an ocean, a dolphin at your side is the top speed you’ll reach. That’s why experienced players treat a passing pod as a free travel upgrade and stay with them as long as the route lines up. If you spot dolphins headed the same way you are, fall in with the group and let them carry you along.
How long it lasts
Each time a dolphin grants the effect, it lasts only a short window, on the order of a few seconds. The catch is that dolphins refresh it constantly while you’re near them, so in practice it feels continuous. The countdown only starts once you leave the dolphin behind.
Dolphin’s Grace and Depth Strider
Depth Strider is a boot enchantment that cuts how much water slows you down. Dolphin’s Grace and Depth Strider stack, so wearing Depth Strider boots while the effect is active gives you the fastest possible swimming. On its own, Dolphin’s Grace already outruns Depth Strider III, so you don’t need the enchantment to feel a big difference.
If you spend a lot of time in oceans, Depth Strider boots are still worth having for the stretches when no dolphin is around. When a dolphin shows up, the two together make you fly through the water.
Using Dolphin’s Grace on ocean trips
The effect shines on any trip that keeps you in the water. Heading to an ocean monument to fight guardians and grab prismarine? Swim out with a pod and you’ll get there with air to spare. Hunting shipwrecks and ruins for enchanted books and treasure maps? A dolphin both speeds you up and points you at the next wreck.
Because the effect refreshes near dolphins, the trick is to travel with them rather than racing ahead. If you outswim the pod, the boost runs out. Match their pace, feed one now and then, and you keep both the speed and the treasure-hunting help.
Dolphins and treasure
Dolphins do one more thing worth knowing, separate from the effect. Feed a dolphin raw cod or raw salmon and it swims toward the nearest shipwreck, ocean ruin, or buried treasure, then circles back for more fish. Follow it and you often land on loot you’d never have found on your own.
You still get Dolphin’s Grace while doing this, so feeding dolphins and chasing treasure go hand in hand. Keep a stack of raw fish on you when you explore the ocean. One dolphin will lead you from wreck to wreck as long as you keep feeding it, so a single stack of raw cod can carry you across several finds in one trip.
Tips and common mistakes
Don’t hit dolphins. If you attack one, the whole pod turns hostile and stops helping. An angry dolphin won’t lead you to treasure, and you’ll have a harder time getting close for the effect. If a pod has turned on you, leave it alone and find a fresh one.
Keep dolphins in water. They need air, so they surface to breathe, but they take damage if they’re out of water too long. Don’t strand one on land trying to bring it home. If you want dolphins near your base, build near an ocean rather than hauling one inland.
Stay in the swim pose. If you’re bobbing at the surface or walking on the seabed, you won’t get the speed. Hold sprint and keep swimming to feel the boost.
You can’t bottle it. There’s no potion of Dolphin’s Grace on a brewing stand, so don’t waste ingredients looking for a recipe. Dolphins are the source.
Java and Bedrock differences
Dolphin’s Grace works the same way in both Java and Bedrock Edition. You get it by swimming near dolphins, it boosts swim speed, and it can’t be brewed in either version. In Java, you can also apply it with the /effect command using the ID minecraft:dolphins_grace. In Bedrock, dolphins in normal play are the way to get it.
Frequently asked questions
Can you get Dolphin’s Grace from a potion?
No. There’s no brewing recipe for it. Swimming near a dolphin is the only way to get it in survival.
Does Dolphin’s Grace work on land?
No. It only affects swimming. Once you leave the water it does nothing, and it wears off a few seconds later.
How close do you have to be to a dolphin?
Close enough to be swimming alongside it, within a few blocks. Keep pace with the pod and the effect stays active.
Do you have to feed dolphins to get the effect?
No. Just swim near one. Feeding raw cod or salmon is only for getting a dolphin to lead you to treasure.
Does Dolphin’s Grace stack with Depth Strider?
Yes. The two combine for the fastest swimming in the game. Dolphin’s Grace alone already beats Depth Strider III, and both together are faster still.
Why won’t the dolphins help me?
You probably hit one. Attacking a dolphin turns the pod hostile, and hostile dolphins stop granting the effect and leading to treasure. Leave them alone and find a fresh pod.
Can you keep Dolphin’s Grace the whole time you swim?
Yes, as long as a dolphin stays near you. The effect refreshes while you’re beside the pod, so a long ocean crossing can keep it active from start to finish if you travel with them.
What’s the fastest way to cross an ocean?
A boat is fastest on the surface. Under the water, Dolphin’s Grace with Depth Strider boots is the quickest way to swim. In a rainstorm or over open water, a Riptide trident also launches you long distances.
Worth the swim
Dolphin’s Grace turns a slow underwater slog into a fast glide, and it costs you nothing but the company of a dolphin. Next time you’re crossing an ocean, look for a pod and swim with them. You’ll get where you’re going faster, and a few raw fish might point you at a buried chest along the way.