How To Remove Water in Minecraft

November 29, 2022

As useful as water is in Minecraft, sometimes it can get in the way.  There’s many ways to remove water in Minecraft, depending on the situation you’re in. I will go over some of the most common ways to remove water in  minecraft

Water From a Single Source Block

Usually a single source block of water is not a problem if it’s located in a hole in the dirt. Those can easily be picked up by a bucket or covered by a solid block to be removed.

The problem with single source blocks comes when this block is inside a cave or inside a wall. You can often come across the problem of flowing water making it difficult to exit or enter parts of caves.

If it’s early in the game and you don’t have a bucket, getting rid of a single source block of water is still easy. You can either place any block directly on the source block, which would completely get rid of it, or you can place a block in front of its hole.

Sometimes having flowing water will come in handy, so getting completely rid of water could hinder you later on. Remember that waterfalls can be used as a cheap alternative to getting in and out of caves, just like Vines you can grow in Minecraft, in case you don’t have Ladders or Scaffolding. In other cases, flowing water can keep Mobs like Creepers and Zombies from going after you in a cave. It can make it easier to kill the Mobs. I’d suggest making a bucket and collecting the water that way, rather than fully destroying the source block.

Minecraft     Remove Water From Multiple Sources   

Larger of bodies can hide all kinds of goods. From sunken ships that lead to buried treasure in ocean biomes, to ores and passages inside caves. Deep water can also be a good place to build a secret futuristic base, but to achieve this you need to somehow get rid of that water.

Filling the area

One way I’ve gone about this in the past has been using either sand, gravel or dirt. Placing them in the water in great numbers destroys the source blocks, disabling the water from filling them in once the blocks are broken. However, this takes quite a bit of time to do, and you’re surely to go through several shovels in the process. Not to mention, it can be a bit tricky too, depending on the size and depth of the water you’re removing. To do this try blocking out an area, preferably with Gravel or Sand as these drop to the bottom due to gravity.

Once you have your area blocked out, you can fill it in with gravel or sand and when all the water is gone, you can mine the blocks back out. This leaves a big empty area for you to use.

Using Sponge

The most efficient was of removing water is using sponges. Sponges are blocks that can be found only inside of ocean monuments, making them a very valuable resource. In ocean monuments sponges can be found in sponge rooms which are usually empty of water and contain wet Sponges along the ceiling and walls. They can be mined with any tool, but a regular hoe will break them the fastest.

Now, a wet sponge cannot be used to collect any more water. Consider a wet sponge to be a sponge at full capacity.

Now, a wet sponge cannot be used to collect any more water. Consider a wet sponge to be a sponge at full capacity.

In order to get a dry sponge you will need to, actually dry the already wet sponge. To dry a wet sponge you will have to put them in a furnace with a flammable item, like you were trying to cook it. This will give you back a dry sponge. Then, when a dry sponge is placed back in water it’ll absorb anywhere between 3 to 5 blocks of water around it. It will then become a wet sponge again.

This way you can clear out much larger areas and within a smaller timespan, without wasting tools your either. Do keep in mind that going into an ocean monument to get sponges can be dangerous. So when you do find one, remember to be well prepared.