Potions are one of Minecraft's most complex, yet most useful features though, unlike crafting, the game offers little to no guidance for new potion brewers. Potions can be used to increase players' strength, speed, resistance, and jump height, can induce superpower-like effects, such as invisibility or water breathing, and can even be made into throwable area-of-effect weapons. In the endgame of Minecraft, these can be an absolute game changer.
Unlike most items in the game, potions are not truly crafted. They are brewed in a brewing stand, meaning players will have to attune to a new interface and new mechanics, though it's luckily not too hard once gotten the hang of. All kinds of potions are made using different ingredients, and modifiers can be used to make them either stronger or into splash potions.
How To Craft A Brewing Stand In Minecraft
Before players can brew, they will need to get themselves a brewing stand. Crafting one is rather simple, requiring three pieces of cobblestone and a single blaze rod. The blaze rod will be placed in the center of the crafting area, with the three cobblestones filling out the bottom row.
Blaze rods are obtained as mob loot from killing Blazes in the Nether. Blazes spawn in Nether Fortresses, both naturally, as well as due to Blaze spawn cages that appear throughout fortresses. When one is killed, there is a chance they will drop a blaze rod, though a few may have to be killed before a player manages to get one. Blazes are incredibly powerful, so you may want to have a recovery compass available in case you kick the bucket.
While only one is needed to make the brewing stand, additional blaze rods will be needed to create blaze powder, which is used as fuel for making all potions. Each blaze rod will yield two blaze powder when placed on a crafting table, and each blaze powder can be used to create up to 20 batches of potions.
How To Make Awkward Potions In Minecraft
The first step to making a potion is to make an awkward potion. This acts as the base for all potions. To create one, players will need to fill up three glass bottles (crafted using three glass blocks in a bowl shape) with water, and place them in the brewing stand. In the ingredient slot above, a nether wart will need to be placed, and in the top left slot, blaze powder will be added as fuel. This will yield three awkward potions.
Nether wart is a farmable ingredient that can be found in Bastian Remnants and Nether Fortresses in the Nether, growing on soul sand. Players can bring soul sand and nether warts up into the overworld and farm it themselves, simply by placing nether wart on the soul sand and allowing it to grow like normal, as they would with carrots or wheat.
How To Make More Complex Potions In Minecraft
Awkward potions have no effect when drank, however, they can have additional ingredients added to them to make more complex and useful potions. Three awkward potions can be placed into the bottle slots of the brewing stand, and a single ingredient can be added above to make three potions. After that, modifying ingredients can be added.
Here are all of the base ingredients, as well as the effects they induce:
| Ingredient | Potion Type |
|---|---|
| Sugar | Potion of Swiftness: Increases speed by 20% for three minutes |
| Rabbit's Foot | Potion of Leaping: Increases jump height by half a block for three minutes |
| Glistering Melon | Potion of Healing: Instantly heals two hearts of damage |
| Spider Eye | Potion of Poison: Depletes health by half a heart every 1.25 seconds for 45 seconds |
| Pufferfish | Potion of Water Breathing: Allows the player to breathe underwater for three minutes |
| Magma Cream | Potion of Fire Resistance: Makes players resistant to fire and lava damage for three minutes |
| Golden Carrot | Potion of Night Vision: Allows players to see clearly in the dark for three minutes |
| Blaze Powder | Potion of Strength: Increases damage dealt by a heart and a half for three minutes |
| Ghast Tear | Potion of Regeneration: Heals half a heart every 2.5 seconds for 45 seconds |
| Turtle Shell | Potion of the Turtle Master: Reduces damage taken and player speed by 60% for 20 seconds |
| Phantom Membrane | Potion of Slow Falling: Reduces fall speed and negates fall damage for 90 seconds |
Fermented spider eyes can also be used as potion ingredients, however, they behave a bit differently. They are the only ingredient that can be added directly to a water bottle to make a potion, and they can be added to other existing potions to make new types:
| Add fermented spider eye to... | To get... |
|---|---|
| Water Bottle | Potion of Weakness: Reduces damage dealt by two hearts for 90 seconds |
| Potion of Night Vision | Potion of Invisibility: Makes the player invisible for three minutes |
| Potion of Healing or Potion of Poison | Potion of Harming: Instantly deals three hearts of damage |
| Potion of Swiftness or Potion of Leaping | Potion of Slowness: Reduces speed by 15% for 90 seconds |
How To Modify Potions In Minecraft
Modifiers allow players to create stronger, longer-lasting potions, or to create splash or lingering potions, such that they can be used offensively. That's why players are able to make negative effect potions like poison or slowness, as these effects can be used against enemies if the potion is modified accordingly.
These modifiers are added into the ingredient slot with the potions beneath them and can be added to multiple different kinds of potions at once. The two main modifiers, redstone dust and glowstone dust will prove to be the most useful for players, so be sure to not leave any unmined when you hit the caves and Nether. The modifier ingredients are explained in the table below:
|
Modifier |
Effect |
|---|---|
|
Redstone Dust |
Increases the duration of the potion by 166%. |
|
Glowstone Dust |
Increases the strength of the effect, and decreases the duration (specifics vary by potion) |
|
Gunpowder |
Creates a throwable splash potion, and decreases the duration by 25% |
|
Dragon's Breath (Added to Splash Potions) |
Creates a lingering potion, which leaves an area of lingering effect on the ground that lasts 30 seconds |
When creating potions, only one redstone or glowstone can be added to a potion, not both. Potion effects that are more powerful and longer-lasting can be induced with commands, but unfortunately not in survival Minecraft. Also, players need to be careful with which modifier they for particular potions, as sometimes, they will have no effect. For example, increasing the duration of an Instant Health potion would logically make no difference, though increasing its strength would.
When gunpowder is added, the resulting splash potion's strength will depend on how direct of a hit the player makes with it. A perfect strike will induce its full effect, though if a creature is a few blocks away, the effect will be less powerful. Past four blocks, the potion will have no effect, though every creature within those four blocks will be affected.
Lingering potions have an area of effect of three blocks, which linearly decreases to zero blocks over the course of thirty seconds. It should also be noted that both splash and lingering potions can be fired out of dispensers, similar to arrows.
This may seem like a lot to take in at once, but with practice, players will come to memorize the recipes for potions they use most often. With appropriate farms set up in a player's brewing area, potions can be pumped out in massive numbers, and so long as they aren't made into splash or linger potions, the bottles can be reused indefinitely. Brewing is one of Minecraft's most interesting systems and will prove immeasurably useful for players looking to take on bigger challenges.