Health Boost

Overview

Health Boost raises your maximum health rather than filling it, and that distinction is the whole of the effect. The extra hearts appear on the bar empty, so a player who gains Health Boost mid-fight has more room to heal and not a single point more health than they had a moment ago — you have to eat, drink or regenerate into the new space before it does anything. When the effect ends, the extra maximum vanishes and any health sitting in it goes with it, which can look alarmingly like taking damage. Java Edition gives no survival source at all: there is no potion, no beacon power and no food that grants it, so every legitimate encounter with it is a command, a custom map or a server plugin. That makes it the effect most worth understanding for map makers rather than players. On a datapack-driven adventure map it is the clean way to make a boss fight harder or a class tankier without touching armour, and because it stacks with Absorption you can build a character with a large real health pool and a temporary shield on top. On a vanilla survival world you will simply never see it.

Map making and server balance: raising a player's health ceiling for a boss arena or a class-based minigame, where changing the maximum is cleaner than handing out armour.

Adds 4 extra maximum health per level. The extra hearts disappear when the effect ends.

Health Boost is a beneficial status effect. Nothing brews it, so it runs for as long as whatever applied it keeps doing so.

The icon sits in the top-right of the inventory with its remaining time beneath it, and coloured particles follow you around, drawn faintly when a beacon or a conduit is the source. No beacon projects it, so every application ends on a timer.

How to get it

There is no survival source in Java Edition — no potion, no beacon, no food. Use /effect give @s minecraft:health_boost 60 1 for 60 seconds of level II, which adds 8 maximum health, or 4 hearts, to the bar.

Tips

• The new hearts arrive empty, so pair the command with an instant heal or the player gains nothing immediately.
• When it expires the extra maximum disappears, and health stored there disappears too — plan boss phases around that.
• It stacks with Absorption, which adds a separate temporary pool that does not regenerate.
• For a survival world, real defence comes from armour points and Protection rather than from any health effect.

What each level does

What the inventory calls level II is amplifier 1, because the amplifier counts from zero. Level by level:

Survival stops at IV; commands do not, and will accept an amplifier up to 255.

Properties

No potion produces Health Boost. Its sources are Command and Custom potions, and its duration is whatever they give it. Milk is the only cure, and it clears every effect you are carrying at once.

Where it comes from

Health Boost comes from Command and Custom potions.

• Command
• Custom potions

Command

Cheats on, this applies Health Boost I for half a minute. That final digit is the amplifier — 1 gives you level II.

Guides and tools that cover this

• GuidesHow to Brew Every Potion in Minecraft→
• ToolsPotion Brewing Planner→

Frequently asked questions

Related pages

AbsorptionConduit PowerDolphin's GraceFire ResistanceHasteHero of the VillageInvisibilityJump Boost