Depth Strider

Depth Strider is the boots enchantment that takes the drag out of water. Each level removes a third of the slowdown water applies to your movement, and at Depth Strider III you cross water at the speed you walk on land — the difference between swimming being a detour and swimming being a route.

It only touches horizontal movement. Rising, sinking and climbing out are unchanged, and the moment your feet are dry it does nothing at all, so it is an enchantment for boots you put on for a trip rather than boots you live in.

Boots take one water enchantment or the other. Depth Strider and Frost Walker are mutually exclusive — either you move through water quickly or you freeze it and walk over the top — so the choice is made once, at the anvil. Soul Speed sits alongside it without conflict, since that one applies to soul sand and soul soil instead.

Dolphin's Grace, picked up by swimming near a dolphin, stacks on top of it for a further boost, and a conduit removes the mining and breathing penalties that remain. Together they are what make guardian farms, monument draining and long ocean crossings tolerable. It comes from an enchanting table as well as from librarian trades, fishing and loot chests.