The Update Aquatic: Everything Minecraft 1.13 Added and Changed

As a passionate Minecraft gamer and content creator, I was overflowing with excitement when Mojang dropped the Update Aquatic in 2018. Alongside legions of players worldwide, I eagerly dived into a wave of phenomenal new additions transforming the very essence of water gameplay.

So what exactly did Minecraft 1.13 add? With this monumental update, oceans went from repetitive dead zones to vibrant underwater wonderlands brimming with life and adventure. Read on for a fully fleshed out breakdown of all the fresh aquatic features added in 1.13!

Overhauled Oceans: New Biomes, Structures & Treasure

The Update Aquatic added a Spectrum of vibrant new sea biomes, including:

• Coral Reefs – The vibrant coral forests biome is easily my favorite addition in 1.13! These colorful reefs formed from 5 new coral block types (brain, bubble, fire, horn and tube coral) now dot ocean floors with alien-like beauty. They support cute coral fish fans that come out when water is above the coral blocks.
• Kelp Forest – These "underwater jungles" feature towering 31 block high stalks of kelp that sway gently amid schools of fish. With bone meal you can cultivate lush protected kelp groves great for providing food and crafting materials.
• Underwater Ravines & Canyons – Oceans now split open to reveal awesome sea floor trenches coursing dozens of blocks downward. Lining the rocky walls, you‘ll discover glowstone, buried treasure chests, and mineral veins ripe for mining with your new Impaling V trident!

In terms of epic loot, 1.13 brought sunken ships loaded with goodies and something even more special – buried treasure guarded by an elaborate map & X marks the spot!

• Shipwrecks – Crumbled remains of ill-fated ships contain treasure chests brimming with iron, gold, emeralds, diamonds and more. You‘ll often find 1.13‘s enchanted fishing rods or buried treasure maps inside too!
• Buried Treasure – Find a special map leading to a chest buried on a beach containing 4-6 diamonds, 4-6 emeralds, 3-7 gold ingots, the ultra rare Heart of the Sea, and other epic gear. Just 8.5% of shipwrecks contain these maps, so getting one feels like winning the lottery!

With the Update Aquatic, oceans transformed from boring lifeless zones into an underwater frontier loaded with mystery and riches waiting to be unearthed.

Game-Changing Water Physics & Underwater Mechanics

Beyond the new biomes, blocks and mobs, 1.13 also overhauled core water physics and how players interact below the waves. The results made staying submerged way more exciting. Some standout water additions include:

• Swimming Gets Realistic – Players now swim smoothly through the water with diving animations instead of just bobbing. This allows for much more natural and engaging underwater movement.
• Depth-Based Visibility – Murky water gets darker and more obscured the deeper you go now, adding improved realism and atmospherics. Night vision potions feel more essential.
• Water Has Depth – Oceans feel more 3-dimensional, with distinct surface, midway, and seafloor zones to explore rather than just a solid wall of water. You can plunge over 30 blocks straight down now before hitting the bottom, revealing tons of new nooks and crannies shrouded in blue gloom.
• Better Water Flow – Improved fluid mechanics like new waterlogged blocks allowed Mojang to make water flow, pool, and spill more realistically around buildings. Water also passes right through fences, walls and signs now when it flows.

Beyond enchanting the world with visual splendor, all of these water enhancements massively upgraded gameplay variety under the sea.

Magic & Danger Beneath the Tides: Aquatic Mobs Galore

With new ocean biomes to populate, the Update Aquatic team filled the seas with almost a dozen new aquatic mobs. Players can now forge bonds with dolphins, harvest fish, breed sea turtles, fend off drowned sieges, and unlock epic tridents previously unavailable in vanilla Minecraft.

Dolphins – These gregarious marine mammals swim playfully through seas, jumping for fish and riding waves. Dolphins guide players to exciting shipwreck treasure and fend off lurking aquatic dangers. Always a joy to bump into their snouts in my journeys!

• Dolphin Facts:
  • 5% chance of spawning each new sea chunk
  • Come in light gray and darker blue varieties
  • Make cute squeaking noises when fed fish
  • Have 10 hearts of health

Sea Turtles – Peaceful sea turtles lay groups of 1-4 adorable spotted turtle eggs buried in the sand along warm coastlines ripe for harvesting. Baby turtles hatch out and make a perilous trip back to the crashing surf. Breed them up by scattering tons of seagrass to lead mature turtles into breeding mode!

• Sea Turtle Facts:
  • Drop 1-2 scutes when butchered – craft into turtle shells for breathing boosts
  • Eggs hatch after 3-5 real hours into placeable cute baby variants
  • Have stronger 30 hearts of health
  • Attracted to seagrass placed above beaches

The Drowned – These ghoulish blue-eyed zombies spawn hiding within deep oceans or appearing alongside slime cubes under a full moon. Drowned relentlessly batter players and prove lethal in groups, especially when armed with tridents. But best them in battle, and you might extract a magic power that‘s an utter game-changer…

The Trident – Handle with care, as these formidable mythic 3-pronged spears represent the fiercest weapons introduced in the Update Aquatic. Tridents crackle with lightning effects and can be hurled long distances before teleporting back via loyalty enchantments. Though they have a measly 1.6% chance of spawning in Drowned mob hands, their mighty Riptide power that propels you through water with burst speed make them oh so worth the hunt!

Beyond enchanting the world with visual splendor, all of these water enhancements massively upgraded gameplay variety under the sea. Minecraft would never be quite the same again thanks to these phenomenal oceanic additions and transformations.

Blocks, Items & Gear to Craft

With new biomes, mobs, and structures covered, let‘s dive into some of the amazing blocks, items and gear players unlocked through 1.13 crafting:

• Conduit – This epic underwater structure available after defeating a monument unleashes a constant Water Breathing + Night Vision buff to players within a 96 block radius! The buff renews itself automatically too. Zero hassle underwater exploration.
• Scutes – Turtles drop these special plates you can use to craft turtle shells. Wearing one gives you extra breathing time, which stacks to over 30 minutes with a full set! Great for early game deep diving as they don‘t need enchanting.
• Trident – Covered earlier, but this legendary spear with Impaling V deals insane melee + ranged damage to underwater mobs. Get ready for superhero sea battles!
• Blue Ice -Crafted from packed ice, blue ice lets players and items travel over 30% faster horizontally on ice roads and tracks. Revolutionizes transportation.
• Coral Blocks – Bonemeal reef corals to get vibrant colored coral plants in brain, bubble, fire, horn and tube varieties. Makes for dazzling underwater crops!

Between powerful weapons and tools empowering you as the ultimate underwater warrior to ice tracks darting you across the sea in a flash, the Update Aquatic enabled all sorts of new transport and gear progression systems that felt incredibly refreshing even for a veteran player like myself.

Optimizations & Changes Supporting Our Underwater Future

Mojang‘s developers didn‘t just craft a torrent of new features with 1.13. They laid the foundation for all future ocean content updates by refining world generation, data architecture, and functionality.

• Biome heights got altered allowing richer cave systems beneath seas
• Light engine improved for prettier water ambiance
• New /data command helps developers modify game tags
• Migration to data-driven models speeds ability to program changes
• Fish got categorized into cod, salmon, puffer and tropical fish types
• Dolphins spawn 200x less than they did in first 1.13 snapshots
• Over 300 bugs exterminated! No more levitating shrimp or teleporting fish catastrophes

Like diligent builders laying reinforced concrete foundations before raising towering skyscrapers, Mojang dedicated huge efforts towards improving stability and tools to enable more ocean content down the road past 1.13. We‘re already seeing dividends with follow-up Update Aquatic releases like 1.13.1 which added fun new coral structures.

And even now in 2024, we continue benefiting from faster development cycles and richer sea biomes made possible by all the core enhancements packaged alongside Update Aquatic‘s shiny new features back in 2018. Hats off to Mojang‘s engineering foresight!

Final Thoughts: Breathing New Life into Minecraft

As a passionate Minecraft gamer and content creator, the Update Aquatic represented a dream come true. After years spent scuba diving Minecraft coastlines and building aquatic megastructures, I‘d run out of things to do across flat and repetitive sea biomes.

1.13 utterly revitalized my passion for the game by unfurling vibrant reef vistas swarming with sea turtles and dolphins. It made plunging into ravines dotted with shipwrecks filled with illicit loot irresistibly exciting again. Battling crowds of trident-wielding drowned unleashed pulse-pounding action previously unattainable.

And most of all, it transformed oceans from monotonous dead zones into wondrous frontiers of adventure brimming with beauty and mystery. Like stumbling into a living aquarium, there‘s magic around every corner.

Nearly 5 years later on from its launch, the Update Aquatic‘s legacy lives on as one of Minecraft‘s most ambitious and praiseworthy updates of all time. Few other updates reimagined so much of the game‘s possibilities in one epic 7+ GB tidal wave of game-changing features. While follow-up updates brought welcome new dimensions like the Nether Update, at its core Minecraft remains thoroughly soaked with the Update Aquatic‘s sensational seascapes and waterlogged wonders.

So if you ever start feeling bored with vanilla Minecraft, why not take another dive below the waves? Who knows what spectacular oceanic realms the Update Aquatic added that you‘ve yet to uncover! Adventure awaits!