Aqua Affinity is a helmet-only enchantment in Minecraft that eliminates the mining speed penalty when your head is underwater, making it essential for efficient underwater construction and resource gathering. This single-level enchantment removes the 5x mining slowdown that normally occurs when mining blocks while submerged.

Players can obtain Aqua Affinity through enchanting tables, trading with librarian villagers, fishing for enchanted books, or discovering it in structure loot from desert pyramids, strongholds, ocean ruins, ancient cities, trial chambers, woodland mansions, and various dungeon chests. The enchantment also drops from raid mobs in Bedrock Edition.

Aqua Affinity restores normal mining speed when underwater, allowing players to mine blocks at the same rate as on land when their head is submerged. However, it does not affect the separate floating penalty, which also reduces mining speed by 5x when not standing on solid ground underwater.

The enchantment pairs perfectly with Respiration for comprehensive underwater efficiency, making it indispensable for players building underwater bases, clearing ocean monuments, mining underwater resources, or conducting extensive oceanic construction projects.