Learn how to tame a Nautilus in Minecraft (2026), where to find one, how to ride it, use Breath of the Nautilus, and unlock ocean exploration.
If you’ve noticed players riding giant armored shells across Minecraft oceans lately, you’re not alone. The highly anticipated Mounts of Mayhem update has introduced one of the most useful mobs ever added to the game, and you might be eager to learn exactly how to tame one for yourself.
For years, the community has begged for an easier way to navigate the seas, and Mojang finally delivered!
As Minecraft’s first true underwater mount, the Nautilus completely changes how you explore deep-sea biomes. Instead of constantly worrying about your oxygen bar depleting or wasting resources brewing endless potions, you can now ride your new aquatic companion to travel faster, discover shipwrecks safely, and even equip specialized armor for intense underwater battles.
In this comprehensive minecraft nautilus guide, you’ll learn exactly how to find, tame, ride, and upgrade a Nautilus so you can master the ocean depths and take your survival world to the next level!
How to Tame a Nautilus in Minecraft (Your Quick-Start Guide)
How do you tame a Nautilus in Minecraft?
To tame a Nautilus in Minecraft, find one swimming in an ocean biome and feed it Pufferfish or a Bucket of Pufferfish until heart particles appear above its shell. Once tamed, equip it with a Saddle to ride it underwater, which automatically grants you the Breath of the Nautilus effect.
Quick Steps:
- Find a Nautilus in a Cold or Frozen Ocean. (These biomes have the highest spawn rates).
- Hold a Pufferfish in your hand so the mob notices you.
- Feed the Nautilus using your interact button (right-click or left trigger).
- Wait for heart particles to appear above its head. This signals a successful tame!
- Equip a Saddle from your inventory onto the mob.
- Mount your new underwater companion and ride off into the deep!
Tip: Bring at least 5–10 Pufferfish before searching for a Nautilus. Since taming only has a 33% success chance per feeding, carrying extra fish can save you a long, frustrating trip back to your home base to restock.
The Ocean Meta Shift: Why Is Everyone Talking About the Nautilus?
The Mounts of Mayhem Update
The Mounts of Mayhem update (version 1.21.11) completely revitalized underwater survival. First announced during the highly anticipated Minecraft LIVE event, this update immediately sparked massive community excitement.
Before this drop, ocean exploration in minecraft was a slow, tedious process heavily reliant on Water Breathing potions or tricky, stationary Conduit setups that restricted how far you could explore.
Now, players are scrambling for Nautilus guides because this single mob solves almost every deep-sea challenge in the game. The feature is currently trending across YouTube tutorials, Reddit megathreads, Discord communities, and gaming forums. Players are eagerly sharing their best speed-running tactics for ocean monuments and showing off their newly armored mounts. The sheer utility of having a reliable underwater transportation system has completely shifted the meta for survival players.
Why You Want a Nautilus
Taming one of these creatures turns you into an absolute powerhouse underwater, transforming a hazardous environment into your personal playground. You’ll enjoy:
- Faster underwater travel: Glide across the ocean floor much faster than swimming, cutting your travel time in half and allowing you to map large oceans in minutes.
- Easier treasure hunting: Safely loot Buried Treasure and Ocean Ruins without the constant anxiety of rushing to the surface for air.
- Ocean monument exploration: Navigate around hostile Guardians with incredible speed and agility, making sponge and prismarine farming incredibly easy.
- Breath of the Nautilus effect: Pause your oxygen bar entirely, which is the primary reason this mob is generating so much attention across the player base.
- Nautilus Armor: Equip powerful, unbreakable gear to protect your mount. The confusion surrounding how to obtain this armor has led to many players seeking help, as it fundamentally changes underwater combat!
Good to Know: The introduction of the hostile zombie nautilus minecraft variant has also fueled massive curiosity. Many players are actively hunting the oceans just to experience this rare new encounter, survive the Drowned riders, and claim the mob’s valuable drops.
Meet Your New Companion: What Is a Nautilus in Minecraft?
Key Features
The Nautilus is a neutral aquatic mob that functions similarly to a horse, but strictly designed for underwater travel minecraft experiences.
Once you track one down, you can tame it, breed it, and gear it up with special armor. When mounted, you can even command it to perform a rapid dash attack! This makes it a multi-purpose aquatic companion that aids in both travel and combat, serving as the ultimate deep-sea exploration tool.
What Makes It Different from Other Ocean Mobs?
While you can temporarily grab onto a Dolphin for a speed boost (Dolphin’s Grace), you cannot control where it goes, making them unreliable for precise exploration or building. Squids and Glow Squids are purely ambient mobs hunted for their ink sacs.
The Nautilus is entirely different—it is a permanent, controllable companion that you steer directly with a saddle, giving you total agency over your underwater adventure.
Nautilus vs Dolphins: Which is Better for Exploration?
To understand why the Nautilus is the superior ocean biome mob, look at how it compares to the classic Dolphin:
| Feature | The Nautilus | Dolphins |
| Control | Full directional control with a Saddle | Uncontrollable; swims erratically |
| Tameable? | Yes, permanent companion | No, only temporarily fed |
| Breathing Buff | Unlimited air via Breath of the Nautilus | Slight restoration only when sharing a block |
| Armor Capability | Yes, up to Netherite tier | No armor available |
As you can see, while Dolphins are fun ambient creatures, the Nautilus is the undisputed best underwater mount minecraft has to offer for serious survival gameplay.
Deep Sea Tracking: Where to Find a Nautilus in Minecraft
Before you can learn how to tame a nautilus in minecraft, you’ll first need to find one swimming in the wild. Fortunately, they are fairly easy to spot once you know exactly where to look, provided you search in the right environments.
Where do Nautiluses spawn?
Nautiluses spawn naturally in the middle depths (Y Levels 38–58) of all ocean biomes, including Deep, Cold, Frozen, Warm, and Lukewarm oceans. They typically spawn in small pods of 1 to 3.
Nautilus Spawn Locations
You can find them spawning naturally in any of the following Overworld biomes:
- Ocean
- Deep Ocean
- Cold Ocean
- Frozen Ocean
- Warm Ocean
- Lukewarm Ocean
Best Biomes for Finding Nautilus
If you’re trying to tame a Nautilus quickly, skip warm oceans altogether.
Cold Ocean and Frozen Ocean biomes offer the highest spawn rates, which means you’ll spend less time searching and more time riding your new underwater mount. These freezing waters boast a massive 50% spawn rate for the mob! (For comparison, Lukewarm Oceans only have a 14.29% spawn chance).
Because warm oceans are often cluttered with massive coral reefs, spotting the mob there is difficult. The barren, clear waters of colder biomes make spotting a Nautilus a breeze.
Spawn Conditions
Nautiluses travel in small pods of 1 to 3 and tend to stay near the middle depths of the water, specifically between Y Levels 38 and 58. Because they don’t swim right at the surface, you will need to actively look downward into the water column.
Pro Tip: Use a Boat to quickly glide across the surface while scanning the water below. Bringing a Night Vision potion will completely remove the dark blue water fog, making it incredibly easy to spot their large, iconic spiral shells from a great distance! If you are searching in a Frozen Ocean, be careful not to crash your boat into icebergs.
Packing for the Dive: Items Needed to Tame a Nautilus
You only need one specific type of food to win over this mob, but acquiring it takes a little bit of preparation and patience.
Required Items:
- Pufferfish (or a Bucket of Pufferfish)
How to Get Pufferfish
You can catch Pufferfish by using a standard Fishing Rod in any body of water, which is the safest method for beginners. To speed this up, enchant your fishing rod with Lure III and Luck of the Sea III.
However, the absolute fastest and most reliable method for pufferfish taming is to scoop up a live pufferfish swimming in a warm ocean using a Water Bucket. This instantly guarantees you the exact item you need without relying on fishing RNG.
Important: Be extremely careful when approaching live pufferfish by hand, as they inflate and deal poison damage. Using a bucket from a safe distance prevents you from getting hurt and losing health before your deep-sea dive!
Recommended Amount
If you are wondering how many pufferfish to tame a nautilus, the answer varies based on luck. You should bring at least 5–10 Pufferfish before heading into the ocean.
Taming a Nautilus only has a 33% taming chance of success per feeding, so carrying extra fish will save you from having to swim all the way back to your base. Running out of food while managing your oxygen level is a common beginner mistake that can easily be avoided with proper preparation.
Step-by-Step: How to Tame a Nautilus in Minecraft
Once you have your fish and you’ve spotted a shell in the distance, here is exactly what you need to do to secure your new mount. Tame nautilus minecraft mechanics are simple once you understand the mob’s behavior.
- Hold a Pufferfish: Place your Pufferfish or Bucket of Pufferfish in your active hotbar slot. When you hold it, any wild Nautilus within 10 blocks will become interested and slowly swim toward you, making it much easier to interact with them in the open ocean.
- Swim Close to the Nautilus: Approach calmly. Wild Nautiluses are neutral, meaning they won’t attack you unless you hit them first. Avoid sprint-swimming erratically, as it can make it harder to right-click them accurately or accidentally cause you to punch them!
- Feed the Nautilus: Use your interact button (right-click on PC, left trigger on consoles). Remember, each fish gives you exactly a 1 in 3 chance of taming it.
- Wait for Heart Particles: Keep feeding it until red heart particles burst above its shell. Congratulations, you just tamed a Nautilus!
Pro Tip: Before you start feeding the Nautilus, take a quick look around for hostile Drowned mobs. Taming takes a few seconds, and you don’t want a trident thrown at your back while you’re distracted!
What Happens After Taming?
Your new companion is now fully passive. It will no longer flee from you or other mobs, and it will obediently stay within 32 blocks of where you tamed it. Most importantly, it is now ready to be saddled and armored, officially becoming your personal aquatic vehicle.
Saddling Up: How to Ride a Nautilus Like a Pro
If you are wondering how to ride a nautilus, it is almost identical to riding a horse on land, but with incredible deep ocean exploration benefits.
Equip a Saddle
To take control of your mount, hold a Saddle in your hand and interact with your tamed Nautilus. Alternatively, you can sneak-click to open its inventory and place the saddle in the designated slot. (If you don’t have a saddle, you can easily find one by trading with Leatherworker villagers, fishing, or looting dungeon chests).
Tip: Always keep a spare saddle in your ender chest or inventory. If your Nautilus accidentally perishes in a tough battle, having a backup saddle means you can tame and ride a new one immediately without halting your adventure.
Mount and Control the Nautilus
Once the saddle is on, simply interact with the Nautilus with an empty hand to mount it. You steer it exactly like a horse using your standard movement keys. When you are ready to get off to mine a block, harvest kelp, or explore a tight shipwreck space, press your sneak key (usually Shift).
Nautilus Speed
Riding a Nautilus is currently the fastest way to travel through water. At 6.5 blocks per second, your mount will easily outpace a player swimming with Depth Strider boots! This speed is critical for escaping hostile Drowned, avoiding Guardian lasers, and navigating massive ocean expanses quickly.
Nautilus vs Traditional Underwater Exploration
Here is a quick look at how your gameplay improves once you saddle up:
| Feature | Swimming Manually | Riding a Nautilus |
| Speed | Slow (even with Depth Strider) | Extremely fast (6.5 blocks per second) |
| Oxygen | Drains constantly | Paused indefinitely |
| Combat | Vulnerable, slow retreats | Fast escapes via Dash ability |
| Focus | Managing air and stamina | Focused on looting and building |
Infinite Air: What Does the Breath of the Nautilus Effect Do?
Unlimited Underwater Exploration
The moment you hop onto a saddled Nautilus underwater, you automatically receive the highly coveted Breath of the Nautilus status effect.
This incredible buff completely pauses your oxygen bar. You can stay submerged indefinitely without taking any drowning damage, fundamentally changing how you survive and build in the ocean.
Is It Better Than Water Breathing?
Yes! Water Breathing potions simply stop your bubbles from popping for a few minutes. Breath of the Nautilus actually freezes your oxygen state. This means when you eventually dismount to mine a block or open a chest, you will still have your full air supply intact, giving you a massive safety net.
Best Uses for this Effect:
- Shipwrecks: Excavating submerged ships without rushing to the surface to catch your breath.
- Ocean Monuments: Raiding monument gold rooms and sponge rooms safely.
- Underwater Caves: Navigating complex, flooded ravine systems without getting lost and drowning.
- Buried Treasure: Efficient buried treasure minecraft hunting right on the ocean floor without needing doors or torches to create air pockets.
The Ultimate Showdown: Nautilus vs. Water Breathing Potions
With the Mounts of Mayhem update, you might be wondering if you should toss out your brewing stand entirely. While the Nautilus is incredibly powerful, both methods of underwater survival have their place. Here is how they stack up against each other:
| Feature | Nautilus | Water Breathing Potion |
| Unlimited underwater use | ✓ | ✗ |
| Faster travel speed | ✓ | ✗ |
| Oxygen protection | ✓ | ✓ |
| Exploration efficiency | ✓ | ✗ |
| Requires crafting materials | ✗ | ✓ |
| Works while mounted | ✓ | ✗ |
When a Nautilus is the better choice:
If you are traveling long distances, consulting an ocean monument guide to raid temples, or mapping out deep-sea biomes, the Nautilus is the undisputed winner. It provides speed, infinite air while mounted, and doesn’t require you to endlessly farm Nether Wart or Pufferfish for continuous potion brewing.
When Water Breathing potions are still useful:
Potions are still highly valuable for intricate, tight-space underwater building (like constructing a complex glass dome base) where maneuvering a large mount would be clumsy and block your vision. They are also great as a backup safety measure just in case your Nautilus is defeated by a swarm of Guardians and you are left stranded in the deep ocean.
Speed Burst: How to Use the Nautilus Dash Ability
How the Dash Works
While riding your saddled Nautilus, press your jump key. Your mount will launch forward like a torpedo, covering up to 12 blocks in whichever direction you are facing. This built-in dash ability is what elevates the Nautilus from a simple mount to a true tactical companion.
Important: Keep an eye on your timing! There is a brief 2-second cooldown between dashes, so you cannot spam the button continuously. Also, be careful not to dash directly into a solid stone wall, as you might take kinetic damage!
Best Uses
- Escaping hostile mobs: Quickly dart away from Drowned holding tridents or break the line of sight of angry Guardians.
- Crossing large distances: Chain dashes together to cross massive ocean gaps in seconds.
- Surface breaching: Aim upward near the surface to watch your Nautilus spectacularly breach the water like a whale!
Aquatic First Aid: How to Heal a Nautilus
Ocean exploration can be dangerous, and your mount will inevitably take damage from hostile mobs, trident throws, or accidental beaching. Knowing what do nautilus eat in minecraft for healing is crucial.
Foods That Restore Health:
- Cod
- Salmon
- Tropical Fish
- Pufferfish
You can feed your companion any type of raw fish to restore its health points. Keeping a stack of basic Cod or Salmon in your inventory ensures your mount is always completely healed and ready for the next fight.
Good to Know: Can nautilus survive on land? Barely. Nautiluses can survive outside of the ocean, but they move at a sluggish 0.88 blocks per second and will slowly take suffocation damage. Never leave your mount beached on the shore—always keep it in deep water to ensure it stays healthy!
Growing Your Fleet: Can You Breed Nautiluses?
Yes, learning how to breed nautilus minecraft mechanics allows you to create an entire fleet of underwater mounts, ensuring you always have a backup at your home base!
Requirements
You will need two tamed adult Nautiluses. Both must be at full health before they will accept food for breeding. If they are missing even half a heart from a recent battle, feeding them will only heal them, not initiate breeding. Make sure to top off their health bars first.
Breeding Process
- Secure both mounts in a safe underwater pen so they don’t wander off.
- Feed any type of fish (Cod, Salmon, etc.) to both adults.
- Watch for heart particles.
- The two adults will swim toward each other, and an adorable Baby Nautilus will spawn!
Raising a Baby Nautilus
Babies take 20 minutes to grow into adults. You cannot saddle or ride them while they are small. If you’re in a hurry, you can speed up their growth by feeding them extra fish.
Pro Tip: The growth mechanics differ slightly between game versions. In Java Edition, each fish reduces the remaining growth time by 10%. In Bedrock Edition, feeding a baby exactly 10 fish will cause it to mature instantly!
The Complete Nautilus Armor Guide: Gear Up Your Mount
Can You Craft Nautilus Armor?
No. Nautilus Armor cannot be crafted.
This is a major point of confusion for many players! You will not find a crafting recipe for this gear using ingots or diamonds on a crafting table. You must explore the world and find it strictly as loot, which encourages players to actively engage with ocean exploration.
Where to Find Nautilus Armor
If you are searching for minecraft nautilus armor locations, you can find the armor hiding in chests within these structures:
- Shipwrecks (Check supply, treasure, and map chests)
- Buried Treasure (10.8% chance for Copper tier in Java)
- Ocean Ruins (Found safely hidden beneath the gravel or sand)
Tip: Use your newly tamed Nautilus to quickly swim from shipwreck to shipwreck. Because you don’t have to worry about drowning, you can easily loot multiple structures in a single in-game day until you find the armor you need!
Nautilus Armor Tiers
Just like horse armor, it comes in varying strengths and has unlimited durability (it never breaks!).
| Armor Type | Protection | Special Features |
| Copper | Basic (4 points) | Standard early-game protection |
| Iron | Improved (5 points) | Better defense against Drowned |
| Gold | Moderate (7 points) | Warning: Attracts Piglins if dropped near portals! |
| Diamond | High (11 points) | Adds +2 Toughness |
| Netherite | Best (19 points) | Adds +3 Toughness & +1 Knockback Resist |
Upgrading to Netherite Nautilus Armor
If you are lucky enough to find Diamond Nautilus Armor, you can upgrade it to the highest tier! Take it to a Smithing Table, add a Netherite Ingot and a Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template (which you must loot from Bastion Remnants in the Nether), and you will craft the ultimate, fire-proof Netherite Nautilus Armor.
Deep Sea Danger: What Is a Zombie Nautilus?
While exploring the darker corners of the sea, you might encounter a terrifying hostile variant: the zombie nautilus minecraft mob.
How It Spawns
These rare undead mounts spawn naturally in the ocean, always carrying a hostile Drowned rider armed with a Trident or the new Spear weapon. They pose a significant threat to early-game players and can deal massive damage if you are caught off guard.
Why Players Are Searching for It
This encounter is highly dangerous, but incredibly rewarding. If you manage to defeat the Drowned rider without killing the mount, you can actually claim the Zombie Nautilus for yourself! They are highly prized for their unique undead aesthetics, faster base swimming speed, and occasionally drop rare loot.
Important: To safely steal a Zombie Nautilus, use a Bow with the Loyalty or Punch enchantment from a distance. Alternatively, carefully aim your melee strikes at the Drowned rider’s upper body so you don’t accidentally slay the rare mount beneath it!
The Final Verdict: Is a Nautilus Worth Taming?
Pros
- Unmatched speed: The absolute fastest underwater travel in the game.
- Breath of the Nautilus: Infinite underwater breathing while mounted.
- Armor support: High-tier defense for dangerous monument raids.
- Utility: Makes clearing Shipwrecks and Ocean Ruins completely stress-free.
Cons
- Requires Pufferfish: Can be tedious to farm early in your survival world.
- Vulnerable on land: Completely useless outside of water.
- Armor must be looted: You have to rely on RNG chest loot to protect them, which can be frustrating.
Final Verdict
The Nautilus is undeniably one of the most useful additions from the Mounts of Mayhem update. It completely eliminates the tedious, punishing mechanics of underwater survival and turns the ocean into a fast, accessible playground. Taking the time to tame one is an absolute must for any survival playthrough, whether you are a casual builder or an endgame explorer.
Frequently Asked Questions: Mastering the Ocean Mount
How do you tame a Nautilus in Minecraft?
You can tame a wild Nautilus by approaching it carefully underwater and feeding it Pufferfish or a Bucket of Pufferfish until heart particles appear above its head. This indicates it is ready to be saddled.
What do Nautiluses eat in Minecraft?
To tame them, they will strictly only eat Pufferfish. However, to heal or breed a Nautilus that is already tamed, you can feed them any type of raw fish (Cod, Salmon, Tropical Fish, or Pufferfish).
How many Pufferfish do you need to tame a Nautilus?
Each feeding has exactly a 33% chance to successfully tame the mob. It is highly recommended to bring between 5 and 10 Pufferfish to ensure you have enough food to secure the tame without returning home.
Can you ride a Nautilus in Minecraft?
Yes! Once tamed, you can equip a saddle on the Nautilus and mount it to control its movements underwater, transforming it into your primary method of ocean travel.
What does Breath of the Nautilus do?
When riding a saddled Nautilus, this powerful effect completely pauses your oxygen bar, meaning you cannot drown and your air supply remains untouched while mounted.
Can Nautiluses survive on land?
Barely. They will not flop around like normal fish, but they move incredibly slowly (0.88 blocks per second) and will eventually take suffocation damage until they die. Always keep them in water!
Where do Nautiluses spawn?
They spawn in all ocean biomes between Y levels 38 and 58, but you will have the absolute best luck searching in Frozen and Cold Oceans where they have a massive 50% spawn rate.
How do you get Nautilus Armor?
Nautilus armor cannot be crafted. You must find it as loot inside chests located in Shipwrecks, Buried Treasure spots, and underwater Ocean Ruins.
Can you breed Nautiluses?
Yes. You can breed two tamed adult Nautiluses by making sure they are both at full health and feeding them any type of raw fish, which will result in a Baby Nautilus spawning.
What is a Zombie Nautilus?
A Zombie Nautilus is a rare, hostile variant that spawns carrying a Drowned rider. If you defeat the rider carefully, you can take the undead mount for yourself!
Conclusion: Ready to Conquer the Minecraft Oceans?
Recap the taming process.
To quickly recap, taming your very own aquatic companion is as simple as tracking down a Nautilus in an ocean biome and feeding it Pufferfish until those satisfying heart particles appear. With just a little bit of preparation and a fishing rod, you can secure this companion early in your survival journey.
Highlight the benefits of owning a Nautilus.
Once tamed, this incredible mob offers unmatched underwater speed, the invaluable Breath of the Nautilus effect, and the ability to equip highly protective Nautilus Armor. It completely eliminates the constant fear of drowning, saves you from brewing complex potions, and transforms the way you approach long-term ocean exploration.
Mention that Nautilus Armor and the Breath of the Nautilus effect make it one of the best mounts introduced in the Mounts of Mayhem update.
The powerful combination of uncraftable, high-tier Nautilus Armor and the game-changing Breath of the Nautilus effect easily makes it one of the absolute best mounts introduced in the Mounts of Mayhem update. The community excitement surrounding this mob is entirely justified!
Encourage players to start exploring oceans and hunting for armor upgrades.
Now that you know how to tame a Nautilus in Minecraft, your next step is finding one in a Cold or Frozen Ocean biome and collecting enough Pufferfish to begin taming. Once you saddle your new underwater mount, exploring Shipwrecks, hunting Buried Treasure locations, and conquering ocean monuments becomes an absolute breeze compared to traditional swimming. We encourage you to dive right in, gear up your new companion, and start discovering all the amazing secrets hidden beneath the waves!
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