In this guide, you will find 13 things you didn’t know about boats in Minecraft.
Special Interaction
Boats have special interactions with bubble columns. That are the ones formed by soul sand and magma blocks.
Encounter
When a boat first encounters the top of a bubble column, it’ll shake violently with water splashing everywhere. Then you can either sink or jump, depending on the column. If it’s a magma bubble column, it’ll sink.
Soul and Sand Bubble
If it’s a soul sand bubble column, it’ll jump.
Travelling
Boats are not only fast on water but also a very efficient way of traveling. Riding boats will not deplete hunger, contrary to running.
Recipe
The crafting recipes for boats are the only recipe you can unlock in the recipe book without items. The recipe will unlock as soon as you touch the water. The crafting recipe for the boat is not the same everywhere. It depends on the version of the game you are playing.
On the java edition, it looks like this. While on bedrock and legacy console editions, it looks like this, with a shovel in the middle.
The original boat was made of oak. It was because oak was the only type of wood at the time. The other types of boats were added later.
Types
So now you can make a boat of any wood type. In 1.9, the boats were overhauled and made larger, featuring wooden oars. Before this, the boat was more like a wood minecart. As part of this overhaul, boat controls were also reworked.
Boat Characteristics
Originally, turning your head would turn the boat. As part of the boat overhaul, boats were made big enough to hold two passengers. It was not limited to players but also included mobs.
Mobs
Mobs can’t exit, though, and are therefore trapped. Until the boat is destroyed or until a lead is used to remove them.
Used for Travel
Boats can be used to travel through the water safely. Boats will not be damaged from collisions or from falling. However, this has not always been the case.
Earlier Versions
Back in earlier versions, boats would break very easily. Colliding with shores or lily pads would reduce it to sticks. Now, you’ll crush the lily pads. The fragility of boats made them an annoyance to use. Players were generally happy with the change.
Damage
Have you noticed some things are better at breaking boats? Any tool or weapon dealing above 4 damage will instantly destroy a boat in one hit.
It includes bows and crossbows.
Move on Ice
Boats move extremely fast while on the ice and packed ice. It is often exploited to create transportation highways. You can travel even faster on blue ice.
With blue ice, you can reach speeds of 72 blocks per second. That’s roughly 159 km/h or 161mi/h. You can create these highways in the nether as well. This method will get you extremely far in the overworld.
Nether
It is due to the way the nether and overworld are scaled. Each block traveled the nether. Equates to 8 blocks traveled in the overworld once back. You shall practically go 2072km/h or 1288mi/h.