Ready to explore ocean ruins, shipwrecks, monuments, and the rich aquatic life hidden beneath Minecraft’s seas? Just remember that your biggest threat underwater is often your oxygen bar, not the drowned mobs roaming the depths. That is why the respiration enchantment should be one of your first priorities before upgrading your weapons. In this guide, learn what respiration does in Minecraft and how to get it in the game.

How to Get Respiration Enchantment in Minecraft

The most common way to obtain the respiration enchantment in Minecraft is by using an enchanting table or finding the enchanted books in various in-game structures. Given that it is one of the Minecraft enchantments, here’s how to do it:

From Enchanting Table

One of the easiest beginner-friendly methods to get the respiration enchantment is by using an enchanting table in Minecraft. You can craft it using obsidian, diamond, and a book. Once done, place the table on the ground, right-click on it to open the UI. Then, place the helmet that you want to enchant in the left cell.

Now, all you need to do is place a Lapis Lazuli on the right cell and check the enchantment options given on the right-hand side. If you’re lucky enough, you might get a set with the respiration enchantment by spending the least amount of experience points.

From Enchanted Books and An Anvil

Another reliable method of obtaining the respiration enchantment in Minecraft is to use the respiration enchanted book on an anvil along with the helmet. Now, the real question is, how would you get one of these?

The best ways to obtain enchanted books with the respiration enchantment are by fishing, looting from chests found inside dungeons, shipwrecks, or even trading with the Librarian villagers.

Once you have obtained the enchanted books, you can place them on the middle cell after interacting with an anvil in Minecraft. Place the helmet on the leftmost cell to enchant it with the Respiration enchantment.

Respiration helps you stay longer underwater in Minecraft. The respiration enchantment may look simple at first glance. As the name suggests, it may seem like something related to improving breathing underwater. And that’s exactly what it does to help you with underwater survival by reducing the rate of oxygen depletion and drowning damage.

As you already know, an oxygen meter pops up when you step underwater. So, the oxygen lasts for 15 seconds in total, after which you start receiving damage on each tick. Here, if you have equipped a respiration-enchanted helmet, it will add an extra 15 seconds to your oxygen duration with each level.

Furthermore, even when the oxygen runs out, the respiration enchantment gives you a chance to not take damage on each tick. The chance of not taking damage is based on a simple formula: Level/(Level+1), where level is the respiration enchantment level. Here’s a brief table that sums up everything for you:

Respiration Level	Total Breath Time (in seconds)	Chance to Avoid Damage
No enchantment	15	0
Respiration I	30	50%
Respiration II	45	66.7%
Respiration III	60	75%

If you want to further make this build more powerful for exploring the oceans, consider using a Turtle Shell instead of a simple helmet of any tier. The Turtle Shell further adds +10 seconds of underwater breathing, and that would make a respiration III enchanted Turtle Shell grant you 70 seconds underwater without receiving any damage.

Minecraft Respiration Vs Water Breathing

In Minecraft, you can safeguard yourself from oxygen depletion damage underwater in two ways. Either you choose to get the permanent respiration enchantment in Minecraft or drink the temporary water breathing Minecraft potion to gain a status effect for some time. Well, if you have enough resources, you can always do both. But let’s understand what the differences between the two are:

Feature	Respiration Enchantment	Water Breathing Potion
Oxygen Consumption	Slower	None
Drowning Damage	Reduced chance	Prevent completely
Duration	Permanent (when helmet is equipped)	Temporary (3 or 8 minutes)
Best Use Case	Exploration and mining	Boss fights and long exploration

That completes the guide on what does respiration do in Minecraft. So, which one are you thinking of using in your next exploration? Tell us in the comments below.