Almost every potion starts the same way: three water bottles in a brewing stand, nether wart on top, producing three Awkward Potions. From there a single ingredient turns the Awkward Potion into whatever you need. Each brewing step takes 20 seconds and one blaze powder fuels 20 of them.
Brew in threes. The stand holds three bottles and one ingredient serves all three, so brewing one bottle at a time wastes two-thirds of your ingredients.
The equipment
- Brewing stand — 3 cobblestone and 1 blaze rod
- Glass bottles — 3 glass each, filled at any water source or a cauldron
- Blaze powder — fuel, one per 20 operations
- Nether wart — from Nether fortresses; plant it on soul sand to farm it
Nether wart is the gate. Find a fortress, take the wart from its stairwell gardens, and plant a permanent farm at home on soul sand. It needs no light and no water.
The base potions
| Ingredient added to a water bottle | Result |
|---|---|
| Nether wart | Awkward Potion — the base for nearly everything |
| Fermented spider eye | Potion of Weakness, 1:30 |
| Redstone, glowstone dust, sugar | Mundane or Thick potions — useless, do not bother |
The Potion of Weakness brewed directly from water is the exception worth remembering: it is the potion used, as a splash, to cure a zombie villager.
The full brewing table
All base durations are for a drinkable potion. Splash versions last 75% as long; lingering versions last 25% as long but leave a cloud.
| Potion | Ingredient (added to Awkward) | Base | With redstone | With glowstone dust |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fire Resistance | Magma cream | 3:00 | 8:00 | — |
| Water Breathing | Pufferfish | 3:00 | 8:00 | — |
| Night Vision | Golden carrot | 3:00 | 8:00 | — |
| Swiftness | Sugar | 3:00 | 8:00 | II, 1:30 |
| Strength | Blaze powder | 3:00 | 8:00 | II, 1:30 |
| Leaping | Rabbit's foot | 3:00 | 8:00 | II, 1:30 |
| Slow Falling | Phantom membrane | 1:30 | 4:00 | — |
| Regeneration | Ghast tear | 0:45 | 1:30 | II, 0:22 |
| Poison | Spider eye | 0:45 | 2:00 | II, 0:21 |
| Healing | Glistering melon slice | instant | — | II |
| Turtle Master | Turtle shell | 0:20 | 0:40 | II, 0:20 |
The fermented spider eye branch
Adding a fermented spider eye to a finished potion corrupts it into its opposite:
| Input potion | Result |
|---|---|
| Night Vision | Invisibility |
| Swiftness | Slowness |
| Leaping | Slowness |
| Healing | Harming |
| Poison | Harming |
| Water bottle | Weakness |
A fermented spider eye is one spider eye, one sugar and one brown mushroom.
The 1.21 potions
Four newer potions come from the Trial Chambers update and are brewed from an Awkward Potion like the rest: Wind Charged from a breeze rod, Weaving from cobweb, Oozing from a slime block, and Infested from stone. They exist mainly to be thrown at other mobs — Oozing spawns slimes when the affected mob dies, Weaving leaves cobwebs, Infested releases silverfish — so they are ominous-bottle territory rather than everyday brewing.
The three modifiers
- Redstone extends duration. It cannot be combined with glowstone on the same potion.
- Glowstone dust raises the potion to level II, at the cost of a much shorter duration.
- Gunpowder converts any potion into a splash potion, which can be thrown at yourself, allies or mobs.
- Dragon's breath converts a splash potion into a lingering potion, which leaves a cloud on the ground.
Order matters slightly: add redstone or glowstone first, then gunpowder, then dragon's breath. Adding gunpowder before extending works too, but you cannot extend after making it lingering.
Eight arrows surrounding one lingering potion in a crafting grid produce eight tipped arrows carrying that effect.
Which potions are actually worth brewing
Fire Resistance. The highest-value potion in the game. Eight minutes of complete immunity to lava, fire and blaze fireballs. Brew a stack before any Nether trip or any deep mining session. Magma cream is a slime ball plus blaze powder, or a drop from magma cubes.
Healing (Instant Health). Immediate healing, and it damages undead — useful against the Wither as a splash potion. Level II heals 4 hearts instantly.
Regeneration. The right answer during long fights, because it heals over time without cancelling your other effects the way milk does.
Night Vision. Eight minutes of perfect visibility, which makes underwater exploration and unlit caving dramatically easier. Combine with Water Breathing for ocean monuments.
Water Breathing. Essential for ocean monuments and drowned farms, and cheaper than a Respiration III helmet if you only need it occasionally.
Slow Falling. Four minutes of harmless landings. Carry two in the End and while flying an elytra.
Strength. 3 extra damage per level per hit, stacking with your weapon. Strength II for 1:30 is the standard boss-fight potion.
Swiftness. Faster movement for long overland trips. Less useful once you have a Nether tunnel or an elytra.
Potions most players never brew twice: Leaping, Turtle Master, Weakness (except for curing villagers), and Poison.
A brewing routine
- Fill three bottles at a water source.
- Brew all three into Awkward with one nether wart.
- Add the effect ingredient — three potions from one ingredient.
- Add redstone if you want duration, or glowstone if you want strength.
- Add gunpowder to a set of three if you want a throwable version.
Keep separate stacks of extended Fire Resistance, extended Night Vision, Healing II and Regeneration. That set covers almost every situation the game presents.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my potion say "Uncraftable" or produce nothing?
The ingredient does not combine with that base. Almost all effect ingredients need an Awkward Potion, not a plain water bottle. If you add magma cream to a water bottle you get a Mundane Potion, which is a dead end. Start over with nether wart.
Can I add both redstone and glowstone?
No. The two are mutually exclusive on a single potion: adding one replaces the other rather than stacking. You choose between a long level-I potion and a short level-II one. For Fire Resistance and Night Vision, duration always wins; for Strength and Healing, the level does.
How do I farm nether wart?
Plant it on soul sand anywhere, in any dimension, at any light level. It grows through four stages and drops 2–4 wart when fully grown. Bone meal does not work on it. A 9×9 bed of soul sand supplies more wart than you will ever brew.
What is the fastest way to get blaze powder?
Blazes spawn from spawners in Nether fortress corridors. Enclose a spawner in a small room with a one-block gap, kill from behind cover, and each blaze drops 0–1 blaze rods — 1 with Looting III far more often. One rod crafts into two powder, so a couple of stacks of rods will fuel a world's worth of brewing and still leave enough for eyes of ender.
Are splash potions worth the gunpowder?
For anything you use in combat, yes. A splash potion applies instantly instead of costing you a drinking animation, which matters when you are being hit, and it can be thrown at teammates or at mobs. Keep drinkable versions of long-duration utility potions like Fire Resistance and splash versions of Healing and Regeneration.
