Minecrafters love collecting the rarest materials and items in the game, as they tend to be extremely useful in their world. These can range from pieces of netherite to the dragon egg, but there’s one block mostly forgotten about in the community. These are sponges, water absorbing materials to help clear rivers and oceans or grief your friend’s underwater base. Regardless of your devious or pure intentions, obtaining a single block is a difficult task. This is due to their generation, as there is only one room for them to naturally spawn. Otherwise, slaying a particularly strong sea creature is another way to get sponges. The rarity of these blocks explains why some players only know about them from the Creative menu, leaving a few to believe they aren’t obtainable at all in Minecraft. Let’s clear up the confusion and begin learning about sponges!
What is a Sponge?
No, this isn’t Spongebob! These spongey blocks are like the materials you clean dirty dishes with, as they’re entirely made from sponge…if that wasn’t obvious enough. This block was added in Minecraft way back in 2009, getting tweaked over the years and even dismissed at one point. There are two types of them, dry and wet versions. Dried variants don’t have water in them, while its counterpart is full of liquid. The concept is pretty simple and straightforward, as the whole idea for sponges is to absorb. Wet versions of them are the most popular type to obtain, as they spawn naturally like that. There is a process to dry them out though, which even unlocks the Dry Spell advancement.
Collecting Sponges
As of Minecraft 1.19, the only way to obtain sponges are from Ocean Monuments. This structure can either randomly generate a room full of these blocks or dropped by an Elder Guardian upon dying to a player. The latter option is the most popular one to get sponge blocks, as locating the rare room is dangerous and difficult. Sadly, only one of these materials drops from the creature. This makes collecting a large amount of sponges even harder, but if you’re lucky enough to find the special room, then you’ll be rewarded with tons of them.
Using Sponges
There is one primary use for sponges, clearing water source blocks for building or anything else. This can be expanded upon if you want, but only if you have sheer determination to be creative with them. Another use is to dry them in a furnace with any fuel source, making them fresh for you again. We’ll discuss each usage in more detail down below!
Absorbing Water
Using a sponge to absorb water requires you to place the block directly on the source. In other words, make sure it’s adjacent to the liquid so it gets cleared. Having multiple sponges is suggested for the best results, as the water falls back quickly. Once all the sources have been drained, it’ll just be an empty river, ocean, or pond for you to use.
Drying Sponges
If you’re wanting to dry wet sponges, then smelt them in a Furnace with any fuel type. Alternatively, place them down in the Nether dimension to instantly drain all the liquid. Regardless of how you do this process, this is how you reuse sponge blocks in your Minecraft world. Otherwise, every wet type you have can’t be used at all.
Conclusion
Sponges in Minecraft aren’t completely useless, as you’re given the ability to build underwater in a unique way. Additionally, you can use them to easily raid Ocean Monuments due to the water being sucked away. Otherwise, try griefing player bases with sponges to keep liquid removed from their surroundings. Regardless of how you wish to use these blocks, they are unique materials that’ve been around for ages in the game. We hope this blog helped you understand more about sponges in Minecraft. Have a good one, gamers!
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