How to Make a Sea Lantern in Minecraft

Guide Java Bedrock

Quick answer: Craft a sea lantern with 4 prismarine shards and 5 prismarine crystals: crystals in the center and the four edge-midpoints, shards in the corners. It gives light level 15, the maximum in the game, and works underwater.

What you need

4 prismarine shards
5 prismarine crystals (from guardians or mined sea lanterns)

Step by step

Find an ocean monument (deep ocean, use a boat and night vision or a dolphin).
Kill guardians and elder guardians for prismarine shards and prismarine crystals; mining the monument's sea lanterns also drops crystals with a normal pickaxe.
Open a crafting table.
Place prismarine crystals in the center slot and the middle slots of each edge.
Place prismarine shards in the 4 corners.
Take the sea lantern; it lights 15, never melts ice, and looks clean in modern builds.

Java vs Bedrock

The sea lantern recipe is the same in Java and Bedrock. Sea lanterns generate inside ocean monuments and underwater ruins, but mining one without Silk Touch only returns prismarine crystals, so crafting is the reliable way to get actual lanterns. At light level 15 they match glowstone and lanterns as the strongest light sources, they are fully waterproof by design, and their animated texture pulses slowly. A conduit-style guardian farm turns them into a fully renewable light source.

Versions: javabedrock

Frequently asked questions

How do you get prismarine crystals in Minecraft?

Guardians and elder guardians drop them, and breaking a sea lantern with any non-Silk Touch tool drops 2-3 crystals (up to 5 with Fortune). Fishing cannot give them; a guardian farm is the fastest source.

Can you mine sea lanterns?

Only with Silk Touch: without it the block shatters into prismarine crystals and the lantern is lost. For monument raiding, bring Silk Touch or plan to recraft them from shards and crystals.

Is a sea lantern better than glowstone?

Same light level (15), but sea lanterns are a clean solid block with no dust particles, work perfectly underwater, and suit modern and aquatic builds. Glowstone is easier to get in bulk early; sea lanterns win on looks.