Coral was added to Minecraft back in July 2018 as a way to add more color and function to the survival game's oceans. While coral has limited uses, if you don't know how to correctly harvest and use it, it could quickly turn dull, lifeless, and boring.
There are five types of coral--tube, fire, horn, bubble, and brain, as well as fanned variants of all of those. They naturally generate in warm ocean biomes in coral reefs, but they need water to survive. Otherwise, they'll turn into dead coral. Where once they were bright blues, oranges, pinks, and yellows, dead coral turns gray and lifeless.
Coral is found in warm oceans
To collect coral, you'll need a tool with the Silk Touch Minecraft enchantment. It does mine instantly, so unlike Obsidian you won't need to spend ages harvesting it. That's especially helpful since it's underwater. You don't want to drown, after all.
Occasionally, the Wandering Trader will offer coral blocks for three emeralds. Once you've collected Coral, you'll find it can't be used to craft anything. It only has one purpose in the game--looking pretty.
Coral needs to be in water to survive
Now that you've got your coral safely from the bottom of the ocean, you can plant it inside lakes, rivers, and aquariums on your base for decoration or to give a nice colorful home to your fish. However, what happens if you want to use it outside of the water?
You can plant coral outside of water itself, but it have access to a water source on at least one side. That means that, technically, you could use coral as a building material as long as you have a hidden (or not so hidden) irrigation system keeping it wet.
If you want to use coral as a decoration, you can place a block of sand and pour a bucket of water on it, waterlogging the block. Then, plant the coral fans on top of the waterlogged block, and they won't turn into dead coral. You can do this anywhere in the game, with any block that can be waterlogged.
For more helpful Minecraft tips, check out our Minecraft guides hub, where we go over everything from all of the Minecraft mobs, to the most useful Minecraft tools to wield.
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There are five types of coral--tube, fire, horn, bubble, and brain, as well as fanned variants of all of those. They naturally generate in warm ocean biomes in coral reefs, but they need water to survive. Otherwise, they'll turn into dead coral. Where once they were bright blues, oranges, pinks, and yellows, dead coral turns gray and lifeless.
Coral is found in warm oceans
How to collect Coral in Minecraft
To collect coral, you'll need a tool with the Silk Touch Minecraft enchantment. It does mine instantly, so unlike Obsidian you won't need to spend ages harvesting it. That's especially helpful since it's underwater. You don't want to drown, after all.
Occasionally, the Wandering Trader will offer coral blocks for three emeralds. Once you've collected Coral, you'll find it can't be used to craft anything. It only has one purpose in the game--looking pretty.
Coral needs to be in water to survive
How to use Coral in Minecraft
Now that you've got your coral safely from the bottom of the ocean, you can plant it inside lakes, rivers, and aquariums on your base for decoration or to give a nice colorful home to your fish. However, what happens if you want to use it outside of the water?
You can plant coral outside of water itself, but it have access to a water source on at least one side. That means that, technically, you could use coral as a building material as long as you have a hidden (or not so hidden) irrigation system keeping it wet.
If you want to use coral as a decoration, you can place a block of sand and pour a bucket of water on it, waterlogging the block. Then, plant the coral fans on top of the waterlogged block, and they won't turn into dead coral. You can do this anywhere in the game, with any block that can be waterlogged.
For more helpful Minecraft tips, check out our Minecraft guides hub, where we go over everything from all of the Minecraft mobs, to the most useful Minecraft tools to wield.
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