Most Useful Potions
Some potions are especially helpful for everyday survival, combat, and exploration. Here are the ones most players rely on the most:
- Potion of Healing: Instantly restores health when you are low during a fight or after taking damage.
- Potion of Regeneration: Slowly heals you over time, great for recovering after battles.
- Potion of Strength: Increases your melee damage, making fights against mobs much easier.
- Potion of Swiftness: Lets you run faster and jump higher, perfect for escaping danger or traveling quickly.
- Potion of Fire Resistance: Protects you from lava and fire, essential when exploring the Nether.
- Potion of Water Breathing: Allows you to stay underwater longer without drowning.
- Potion of Night Vision: Makes dark caves and nights much brighter so you can see clearly.
Getting Started: Setting Up Your Brewing Stand
You need a brewing stand to make potions. Craft one using one blaze rod and three cobblestone blocks. Place it in a convenient spot near your base.
Fuel the brewing stand with blaze powder. One piece of blaze powder powers up to 20 brewing operations. Each brew takes about 20 seconds.
Fill glass bottles with water from a source block or cauldron to create water bottles. Place up to three water bottles in the bottom slots of the brewing stand interface.
Add ingredients to the top slot. The brewing process works in stages. Start with water bottles, then add nether wart for most potions, followed by effect ingredients and modifiers.
Essential Ingredients and How to Get Them
Gather these items before you begin brewing:
- Glass bottles: Crafted from three glass blocks.
- Nether wart: Grows in nether fortresses or bastion remnants. Essential for the awkward potion base.
- Blaze powder: Dropped by blazes in nether fortresses. Used for fuel and the strength potion.
- Sugar: Crafted from sugar cane.
- Rabbit's foot: Dropped by rabbits (rare).
- Glistering melon slice: Crafted from one melon slice and eight gold nuggets.
- Spider eye: Dropped by spiders.
- Fermented spider eye: Crafted from one spider eye, one brown mushroom, and one sugar. Used to corrupt potions.
- Golden carrot: Crafted from one carrot and eight gold nuggets.
- Ghast tear: Dropped by ghasts in the nether.
- Pufferfish: Caught while fishing or found in ocean biomes.
- Magma cream: Dropped by magma cubes.
- Turtle shell: Dropped by baby turtles when they grow up.
- Phantom membrane: Dropped by phantoms.
- Breeze rod: Dropped by breezes in trial chambers.
- Stone: Common block found everywhere.
- Cobweb: Found in mineshafts or crafted from string.
- Slime block: Crafted from slimeballs dropped by slimes.
- Gunpowder: Dropped by creepers or ghasts. Turns potions into splash versions.
- Dragon's breath: Collected by using a glass bottle on the purple cloud left after an ender dragon attack. Turns splash potions into lingering ones.
- Redstone dust: Mined underground. Extends potion duration.
- Glowstone dust: Mined in the nether. Increases potion potency to level two.
Step by Step Brewing Process
Follow these steps for most potions:
- Place blaze powder in the fuel slot.
- Add three water bottles in the bottom slots.
- Add nether wart to create awkward potions. This base works for nearly every effect potion.
- Add the primary effect ingredient to the awkward potions.
- Modify the potion if desired:
- Add redstone dust to extend the duration.
- Add glowstone dust to make a level two version (stronger but shorter).
- Add fermented spider eye to corrupt the effect into its opposite.
Note that some potions like weakness skip the nether wart step and brew directly from water bottles using fermented spider eye.
Enhancement with glowstone and extension with redstone usually cannot both apply to the same potion. Instant effect potions like healing or harming have no duration to extend.
Complete List of Potions and Recipes
Here is every potion with its effect, brewing recipe, and durations. All start from water bottles unless noted.
Positive Effect Potions
Potion of Regeneration
Restores health over time.
Recipe: Awkward potion plus ghast tear.
Normal: 45 seconds (1 health every 2.5 seconds).
Extended: 1 minute 30 seconds (Java) or 2 minutes (Bedrock).
Level two: 22.5 seconds (faster healing).
Potion of Swiftness
Increases speed and jump height by 20 percent.
Recipe: Awkward potion plus sugar.
Normal: 3 minutes.
Extended: 8 minutes.
Level two: 1 minute 30 seconds (40 percent boost).
Corruption: Becomes slowness.
Potion of Fire Resistance
Grants immunity to fire, lava, and heat damage.
Recipe: Awkward potion plus magma cream.
Normal: 3 minutes.
Extended: 8 minutes.
No level two version.
Potion of Healing
Instantly restores 4 health.
Recipe: Awkward potion plus glistering melon slice.
Normal: Instant (4 health).
Level two: Instant (8 health).
No extended version. Damages undead mobs.
Potion of Night Vision
Brightens the world to light level 15.
Recipe: Awkward potion plus golden carrot.
Normal: 3 minutes.
Extended: 8 minutes.
Corruption: Becomes invisibility.
Potion of Strength
Boosts melee damage.
Recipe: Awkward potion plus blaze powder.
Normal: 3 minutes (Java: plus 3 damage; Bedrock: plus 30 percent plus 1 damage).
Extended: 8 minutes.
Level two: 1 minute 30 seconds (Java: plus 6 damage; Bedrock: plus 69 percent plus 2.3 damage).
Potion of Leaping
Increases jump height.
Recipe: Awkward potion plus rabbit's foot.
Normal: 3 minutes (jump 1.83 blocks higher).
Extended: 8 minutes.
Level two: 1 minute 30 seconds (jump 2.51 blocks higher).
Corruption: Becomes slowness.
Potion of Water Breathing
Prevents oxygen loss underwater.
Recipe: Awkward potion plus pufferfish.
Normal: 3 minutes.
Extended: 8 minutes.
Potion of Slow Falling
Reduces fall speed and eliminates fall damage.
Recipe: Awkward potion plus phantom membrane.
Normal: 1 minute 30 seconds.
Extended: 4 minutes.
Potion of the Turtle Master
Slows movement by 60 percent but grants 60 percent damage resistance.
Recipe: Awkward potion plus turtle shell.
Normal: 20 seconds.
Extended: 40 seconds.
Level two: 20 seconds (90 percent slow, 80 percent resistance).
Negative Effect Potions
Potion of Poison
Damages health over time.
Recipe: Awkward potion plus spider eye.
Normal: 45 seconds (1 damage every 2.5 seconds).
Extended: 1 minute 30 seconds (Java) or 2 minutes (Bedrock).
Level two: About 22 seconds (faster damage).
Corruption: Becomes harming.
Potion of Weakness
Reduces melee damage.
Recipe: Water bottle plus fermented spider eye (or mundane/thick potion in Bedrock).
Normal: 1 minute 30 seconds (Java: minus 4 damage; Bedrock: minus 20 percent plus 0.5 damage).
Extended: 4 minutes.
Potion of Slowness
Slows movement by 15 percent.
Recipe: Fermented spider eye added to swiftness or leaping potion.
Normal: 1 minute 30 seconds.
Extended: 4 minutes.
Level four (enhanced from level two base): 20 seconds (60 percent slow).
Potion of Harming
Instantly damages 6 health.
Recipe: Fermented spider eye added to healing or poison potion.
Normal: Instant (6 damage).
Level two: Instant (12 damage).
Heals undead mobs.
Special and New Potions (Added in Recent Updates)
Potion of Invisibility
Makes you invisible (armor and held items still show).
Recipe: Fermented spider eye added to night vision potion.
Normal: 3 minutes.
Extended: 8 minutes.
Potion of Wind Charging
Applies the wind charging effect (details vary by version but involves wind bursts on impact).
Recipe: Awkward potion plus breeze rod.
Duration: 3 minutes (no extended or level two noted).
Potion of Infestation
Gives a 10 percent chance to spawn silverfish when you take damage.
Recipe: Awkward potion plus stone.
Duration: 3 minutes.
Potion of Oozing
Spawns two medium slimes when you die.
Recipe: Awkward potion plus slime block.
Duration: 3 minutes.
Potion of Weaving
Applies the weaving effect (spawns cobwebs on movement or death in some cases).
Recipe: Awkward potion plus cobweb.
Duration: 3 minutes.
Java Edition also has a potion of luck (5 minutes, increases loot chance) available only via commands or creative mode. Bedrock Edition has a potion of decay (wither effect) available the same way.
Creating Splash, Lingering, and Tipped Arrows
- Splash potions: Add gunpowder to any finished potion. These throw and affect an area on impact. Durations match the drinkable version.
- Lingering potions: Add dragon's breath to a splash potion. They create a cloud that applies the effect to anyone who walks through it. Duration is one fourth of the base potion.
- Tipped arrows: Craft one lingering potion with eight arrows in a crafting grid. The arrows apply the potion effect on hit.
Tips and Tricks for Better Brewing
- Brew in batches of three to save time and ingredients.
- Always keep extra fermented spider eyes on hand for quick corruption.
- Test potions in a safe area since some effects like poison or harming can hurt you.
- Undead mobs (zombies, skeletons) react opposite to healing and harming potions.
- Store potions in a chest near your brewing stand for quick access during raids or boss fights.
- Combine potions strategically. For example, fire resistance plus water breathing makes nether or ocean exploration much safer.
- In creative mode or with commands you can obtain uncraftable potions like luck or decay for testing.
Mastering potions takes practice but pays off hugely in tough situations.
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