Unlock the Secret to Crafting the Best Minecraft Potions

Back in the earlier days of Minecraft, even before the official release of the game, potions existed to help players in their everyday Minecraft lives. It took on many changes, and at one point was set to have different ingredient combinations per world. It can be created using a cauldron filled with a water, then adding some ingredients, but due to how confusing and difficult it is, by Beta 1.9, Notch and Jeb decided to add the Brewing Stand system we now use and love.

Now, you might wonder, how on Earth do you acquire one without looking for Witch Huts or venturing inside generated structures? Could somebody like me really be brewing potions all by myself like some kind of alchemist? Boy, do I have some news for you: This is why this article exists!

A Little Introduction

The knowledge of how to brew potions is a valuable one in the world of Minecraft, from being able to see in the dark using a golden carrot, to boasting a fire resistance in even the hottest climates, taking advantage of this mechanic can set you a block above in your travels. If you haven't known or encountered a Witch yet, or you're just new to the game, chances are you still don't have an idea that Minecraft Potions exist. If you ‌know, then congrats! You can move to the next part now, and as for you who don't know, keep reading this.

There are many types of Potions in Minecraft that can be consumed to give you an array of effects. Some positive potions like Speed, fire resistance, slow falling, Regeneration, night vision potions, and so on; or negative potions like poison potions, or the Slowness effect. They can give you an edge on PvP or PvE, explorations, or even mining, depending on how you use them. You can even have multiple potions active at one time, making you some kind of god among men for a duration of time. There are also a number of uncraftable potion effects that are only available in Creative mode, or by using console commands.

You can acquire a potion by exploring the chest loot inside randomly generated structures such as Igloos and Witch Huts. Alternatively, you can acquire one by Bartering with Piglins or killing Witches while they're holding potions in their hand. There's also a chance of picking one up while fishing if you're lucky. Although, the overall preferred method of acquiring specific potions is by brewing it yourself on a Brewing Stand, and this is what we'll talk about next.

Preparation

Before that, in order to brew your potion, you must first need the following:

Brewing Stand – This is where we will brew our potions

Cauldron (OPTIONAL) – A fluid storage for brewing use. Completely optional since we can just fill our bottles directly from a water source.

Water Bucket – We'll use its water to fill the cauldron up or plop it down and directly use it as our water source for the bottles.

Glass Bottle – we will use these for potion bottles and to do that, we'll have to fill each with water first.

Nether wart – The base ingredient of all potions

Blaze Powder – Brewing stand fuel. This is needed for players using 1.9 and above or else, the brewing stand won't brew for you. If you're using below 1.9, you can completely disregard this. 

Once you've acquired these, you'll now have to place the Brewing Stand and Cauldron then fill the Cauldron with water, if you have one. If you don't, then just find a water source or use your Water Bucket to place the water somewhere to have a water source. You will then hold your bottles then right click on the Water Source… or if you have a Cauldron and it has water, the Cauldron. This will give you a Water Bottle which we will use on creating the base for the potion. On top of this, some items and mobs in the game can actually grant the player a potion effect, like the turtle shell helmet which grants a player 2 armor points and Water Breathing for 10 seconds, which resets each time the player comes up for air. Another, lesser known use for the turtle shell is brewing it into a Potion of the turtle master which grants the user 20 seconds of Slowness IV and Resistance III on a base level. Swimming near a dolphin will actually give you the Dolphin's Grace effect and greatly increase you swim speed when underwater! This mechanic can be utilized to create lots of faster ways to travel around your world. Most recently, the Warden brought with it the Darkness effect, which is like blindness but much more intense and dangerous!

Ingredients

These items are the equipment that we will need to create potions. The next thing we will need are, of course, the ingredients. Each ingredient will give a different potion effect and since there's a lot to cover, I'll put it on a table under “MODIFIERS” and “INGREDIENTS” categories to summarize.

MODIFIERS

Modifiers are ingredients that are used to modify your current potion. It can increase the potency or level of the potion or extend its duration. There's also this one that corrupts it and reverses its effect to a debuff when used. Below is a minecraft potion chart to assist you.

If you analyze the table, nearly all the items here at the modifiers result in a useless potion which does nothing when consumed or used, aside from the Fermented Spider Eye which creates a Weakness Potion. The Splash and Lingering Water Bottle may be used to put out fires and hurt Endermen though. Adding nether wart is paramount in most potions, so make sure you have plenty of nether wart on hand, a small garden will do. Note, nether wart will only grow on soul sand, but does not require any water like most crops, as it is a nether plant.

However, when these items are used as a modifier for potions (on the next category) as said earlier, the potions can be changed into various other variations and effects, take, for example, the Redstone Dust. If you use it on a Water Bottle, it just produces a Mundane Potion with no uses or effects, but once you use it after creating a potion, it will extend the duration of the effect on whoever uses that potion. Splash potions can be extremely useful during gameplay, transforming a base potion into a splash potion will allow you to turn it into a sort of throwable potion, and lob it at your friends or enemies, depending on the potion effect affiliated with it. potion of weakness, harming, poison, and slowness are all perfect candidates to be turned into a splash potion, as drinking these effects won't do you any good, but throwing them onto enemies will give you a sizable advantage during combat. lingering potions act a lot like your run of the mill splash potion, but the effect will hang out in the area of impact for a few seconds, multiplying it for any creatures lucky or unlucky enough to find themselves trapped in its fumes. potion of fire resistance, healing II, potion of swiftness, and strength are all excellent candidates for the lingering potions treatment, as you can have them tucked away behind you in combat, to retreat to in times of peril. creating potions of this kind is layed out for you in the guide above.

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients are the items that decide what your potion will be. They provide effects which can be modified with modifiers to increase its potency, extend its duration, corrupts the potion to make it give debuffs instead of buffs, and allow you to throw it or make it stay in an area for a while.

As you can see, these items are the ingredients to make the actual potions. You can see a vague road map on how to get a potion just by visiting the two tables, but to further help you with understanding on how to get the potion, I ‌present you the roadmap image of the Brewing System! Make sure to save these potion recipes below so you can refer back to it when making potions! 

As you can see, these items are the ingredients to make the actual potions. You can see a vague road map on how to get a potion just by visiting the two tables, but to further help you with understanding on how to get the potion, I ‌present you the roadmap image of the Brewing System!

This roadmap, or Brewing Chart, is from the Minecraft Wiki and the latest one available. If you follow this roadmap, you're sure to create the potion you need for your next task. May it be for fighting, mining, or exploration. Just be sure to remember the notes on the upper left corner of the image.

Step-by-Step Example (Splash Potion of Harming (Instant Damage II))

To help you visualize and understand the process more, I've decided to put a step-by-step example as well on how to make the Splash Potion of Harming (Instant Damage II). This potion can be thrown and, when used on all living mobs, can cause damages of up to 6 full hearts. When used on the undead, such as Skeletons and Zombies, it will heal them for up to 4 full hearts.

Before starting, here are our ingredients that we will need:

1 to 3 Water Bottles (I'll be using three to maximize the efficiency)

1 Netherwart

1 Spider eye

1 Fermented Spider Eye

1 Glowstone Dust

1 Gunpowder

STEPS

First, you’ll put in the water bottles inside your Brewing Stand. They should be placed on the three bottom slots like in the image below. Add in the Netherwart so it can start brewing, and we can get our Awkward Potion. Make sure that it has fuel (Blaze Powder on the upper left slot) so that we can brew our potions.

Once you’ve heard a bubbling sound, you can see that the Water Bottles are now “Awkward Potions.” This Awkward Potion is the base of all the potions you can make. Moving on, you can now put your Spider eye on the top slot where your Netherwart was. This would then brew and create the “Potion of Poison.”

Once again, after the bubbling sound, you can see that the Awkward Potion turned into a Potion of Poison, with another line in red saying “Poison (0:45)”. This means that the Poison debuff lasts for 45 seconds. We’re close now, but not done yet. Throw in the Fermented Spider Eye to corrupt the potion.

After it’s done, you can now see your Poison turned into a “Potion of Harming” with a word inscribed in red as “Instant Damage”. This can now instantaneously damage the entity that will drink it… but we don’t want to drink it, and it still isn’t Instant Damage II. So, we’ll toss in the Glowstone to modify its potency.

After the brewing is done, you can now see that the red text says, “Instant Damage II” and yes, that’s what we definitely want! But we don’t want to use it on ourselves by drinking it. We want to use it on other mobs or players, so we’ll be adding in the Gunpowder and modify this potion to be throwable.

Finally! The potion is done, and you can see that it now has something like a clip. This potion can now be thrown and deal AoE damage to multiple enemies! You can also put it inside a Dispenser for a trap, or just save it for later use.