Despite Minecraft having a vested, titular interest in mining the land for its resources, there’s plenty of depth — if you’d pardon the pun — to exploring all that the game’s oceans have to offer. Whether it be surfcasting with a fishing rod, diving to explore the likes of sunken ships or ocean monuments, or simply sailing to distant lands, players can find lots of value in playing around the sea.
As Minecraft is a building game, however, players will also be quick to civilize and customize the land in which they live. It’s only a matter of time before the most sea-faring of the game’s players build themselves a jumping-off point in a simple dock.
The structure of a dock is rather simple, where a basic slab of wood lying out over the shore could constitute a dock. However, Mojang doesn’t slather the player in varied and complex building tools for them to settle for basic.
Option one: Standard wood
While very simplistic in its composition, this straightforward design is easy to build and highly adaptable to almost any setting. Two-block wide wooden slabs comprise this dock, seemingly held in place by pairs of stripped-wood pilings at every fourth slab. The length and width of this design can vary according to the player’s needs and the shape of the landscape around it.
Accounting for the darkness that follows nightfall, this dock features four-block tall, wooden-fence lampposts between every other piling on each side, complete with hanging lanterns overlooking the structure’s interior. Be sure to alternate the placement of each lamppost between each section of the dock.
The type of wood used for each component can change depending on the aesthetics of the dock’s location. For example, a dock based on the shore of a jungle can consist mostly of dark wood or jungle wood to fit the biome’s theming.
Related: Three Fun bed designs to make in Minecraft
Option two: A causeway with a cause
Using more complex materials, this dock design provides a bit more texture than the average floating piece of wood. Rather than utilize half slabs at its base, it features extinguished campfires along its length, which can be put out by right-clicking on them with a shovel.
Related: How to make a Campfire in Minecraft
The standard pilings of the previous design also find themselves replaced by a series of wooden-fence-built trusses along the dock’s undercarriage, crossing over between every two posts directly under the dock’s surface, and every four blocks down thereafter. Lanterns sit atop every post, lying just above the water’s surface.
