Many enchantments in Minecraft help the player with combat or with collecting certain materials. However, there are some, like Depth Strider, that increase more abstract stats like speed and have a bigger utility function.
We will go over the effects of Depth Strider and where to get it in-game.
How to obtain the Depth Strider enchantment
There are no specifics on how to obtain Depth Strider. It can be found in the wild in chests, dropped as fishing loot, or it can appear in an enchantment table’s possible enchantments when the player uses it. However, keep in mind that Depth Strider can only be applied to boots in vanilla Minecraft. Using commands, you can apply it to any other type of armor and it will still work, even horse armor.
Depth Strider cannot be applied to an item that already has the Frost Walker enchantment. However, this can be bypassed using commands to make both enchantments function.
What does the Depth Strider enchantment do?
When the player wears boots that have the Depth Strider enchantment on them, the player can swim much faster underwater than usual. To be more specific, the enchantment reduces the amount that water slows the player by ½. This is capped at Level 3, where the player is able to move equally fast on water and on land. It is important to note that the enchantment only affects horizontal movements, like walking. Swimming upward is unaffected.
An interesting detail is that the enchantment can be combined with the Dolphin’s Grace status effect, allowing the player to move even faster underwater. Another miscellaneous usage for the enchantment is that it can be used to make armor stands move slower when being pushed by water.
Where can you use the Depth Strider enchantment?
Like all other underwater enchantments, Depth Strider is useful for underwater building. In combination with a pickaxe that has Aqua Affinity, it could make creating structures underwater a lot easier.
When exploring ocean monuments or in PVP, players can safely use Depth Strider to escape hostile mobs or other players.
Key Takeaways
To summarize everything we’ve said here, you can remember the following key points:
- Depth Strider can be obtained either through finding it in the wild as a book or pre-enchanted item, or enchanting an item yourself using an enchantment table.
- It only works on boots, and it reduces the slowness that water has by ½, but only when talking about horizontal movement.
- It can be stacked with Dolphin’s Grace for even better speeds.
- You can use the enchantment to move more freely when you build underwater, or when you’re exploring ocean monuments to run away.