You've finally finished that massive underwater glass dome or that sleek, modern obsidian tower, and torches just look... well, they look cheap. They're flickering sticks of charcoal that ruin the vibe. You want that clean, clinical, high-end glow that only comes from one place: the ocean floor. Learning how to make a sea lantern in Minecraft isn't just about opening a crafting table and clicking a recipe. It’s a rite of passage. It involves trekking into the deep, dark corners of the ocean, dodging laser-firing fish, and basically risking your digital life for a block that looks like a futuristic lightbulb.
Most players think they can just stumble upon these. You can’t. Unless you’re looting an Ocean Monument—which is a nightmare in its own right—you have to earn these blocks.
The Brutal Reality of Sea Lantern Ingredients
If you want to craft one of these, you’re looking for two specific items: Prismarine Shards and Prismarine Crystals.
Don't expect to find these in a chest in a village. You have to kill Guardians or Elder Guardians to get them. Every single sea lantern requires four Prismarine Shards and five Prismarine Crystals. Think about that for a second. If you want to light up a decent-sized room with, say, twenty lanterns, you’re going to need 100 crystals. Guardians don't just hand those over. They drop shards more frequently than crystals, which is the real bottleneck. It’s annoying. You'll find yourself with stacks of shards and almost no crystals, staring at your crafting table in frustration because you're one crystal short of a full block.
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Finding the Monument
First, find an Ocean Monument. You'll need a boat, maybe some night vision potions, and definitely some doors or fences to create air pockets if things go south. These structures only spawn in Deep Ocean biomes. If you’re lucky, you’ll see the faint, ghostly turquoise glow of the monument through the water. If you're unlucky, you'll just hear the terrifying whirring sound of a Guardian charging its laser before you even see the building.
Surviving the Farm
Getting the materials to how to make a sea lantern in Minecraft requires combat. Guardians are one of the most unique mobs in the game because they don't use melee. They track you with a purple laser beam. If you don't break their line of sight by hiding behind a pillar or a block within a few seconds, you take a hit. And it hurts.
Bring a sword with Looting III. This is non-negotiable. If you're out there killing Guardians with a standard iron sword, you're wasting your time. Looting increases the chances of getting those rare Prismarine Crystals.
- Prismarine Shards: These are the "common" drop. They look like little blue-green flint pieces.
- Prismarine Crystals: These look like glowing white dust or stars. These are the "rare" drop, and you need more of them (five) than the shards (four) to make one lantern.
It feels like the game is intentionally messing with you. Usually, recipes require more of the common item. Not here. Mojang decided to make the glowy bits the hard part.
The Crafting Recipe Breakdown
Once you've survived the lasers and filled your inventory, head back to dry land. Open your crafting table.
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The layout is specific. You place the five Prismarine Crystals in a "cross" or "plus" shape. One in the center, one on the top, one on the bottom, one on the left, and one on the right. Then, you tuck the four Prismarine Shards into the four corners.
It’s a beautiful symmetry. The result is a single Sea Lantern.
Why Not Just Use Glowstone or Froglights?
Honestly? You could. Glowstone is easier to get if you're comfortable in the Nether. Froglights are fun if you like breeding amphibians and dragging them to the basalt deltas. But sea lanterns have a specific aesthetic. They provide a light level of 15, which is the highest in the game. More importantly, they don't look "organic" or "dirty."
Glowstone has that yellowish, lumpy texture that looks like space-cheese. Sea lanterns are animated. If you look closely at the texture, it subtly shifts and pulses. It’s high-tech. If you’re building a laboratory, a spaceship, or a luxury underwater mansion, nothing else fits the palette.
The Silk Touch Shortcut
If you find a monument and you don't feel like farming mobs for hours, you can actually steal the lanterns. But wait. If you mine a sea lantern with a regular pickaxe, it shatters. You get a few crystals back, but you lose the shards and the block itself.
You must use a tool enchanted with Silk Touch.
This is the pro tip. Instead of killing 500 fish, just clear out an Ocean Monument with a Silk Touch diamond or netherite pickaxe. You can walk away with stacks of lanterns in minutes. Of course, you still have to deal with the Elder Guardians giving you Mining Fatigue III, which makes mining almost impossible. You'll need to kill the three Elder Guardians inside the monument first to clear the debuff. It’s a whole ordeal.
Automation: The End-Game Goal
For the players who need thousands of these blocks, manual hunting isn't an option. You'll want to build a Guardian Farm. This involves draining a massive area of the ocean—usually using sponges—and forcing the Guardians to spawn in a specific water stream that drops them into a killing chamber.
It is one of the most labor-intensive projects in Minecraft. Draining a monument takes hours of placing and breaking sand and using sponges. But once it's done? You'll have more Prismarine Crystals than you know what to do with. You'll be the person who uses sea lanterns for temporary scaffolding just because you can.
Practical Steps for Your Next Session
If you’re ready to brighten up your base, don’t just dive into the ocean naked. Preparation is everything in the deep sea.
- Enchant a Trident with Impaling: Since Guardians are aquatic mobs, Impaling deals massive extra damage. It makes the "grind" for shards and crystals much faster.
- Brew Water Breathing Potions: Staying underwater for 8 minutes at a time is better than constantly surfacing for air or fumbling with doors.
- Bring a Milk Bucket: If an Elder Guardian sees you, he’ll curse you with Mining Fatigue. Drinking milk clears this instantly, allowing you to mine your way out of a wall or grab a lantern with Silk Touch.
- Target the Crystals: Remember that you need a 5:4 ratio of crystals to shards. If you’re short on crystals, keep hunting.
The sea lantern is a status symbol. It says you've conquered the depths. It says you've stared down the lasers and won. When you finally place that crisp, white glowing square into your ceiling, you'll know it was worth the trek.
Start by crafting at least three Water Breathing potions and finding a nearby Deep Ocean biome on your map. Locate the monument, mark the coordinates, and focus on killing the Elder Guardians first to remove the Mining Fatigue. Once the "bosses" are dead, use a Silk Touch tool to harvest the existing lanterns before you even worry about the crafting recipe. It’s the most efficient way to jumpstart your collection.