Potions in Minecraft are extremely useful for many purposes. They can heal your character, make them stronger, add positive effects and cure negative ones. But that’s not all it can do. Some potions can affect creatures and mobs, helping you fight enemies and make it through the toughest challenges of Survival mode.
Creating potions in Minecraft takes some preparation, though.
You’ll need to travel far and wide throughout the Overworld and even venture into the Nether to gather all of the necessary ingredients for potion-crafting.
Luckily, we’ve gathered all of the essential recipes for your convenience. Find out how to craft everything from cauldrons to powerful potions that will allow you to walk through fire unharmed in the article below.
How to Make Potions in Minecraft
First, you’ll need to make a Brewing Stand, the crucial workstation for potion-crafting. The essential ingredients are three Cobblestones and one Blaze Rod, plus an additional Blaze Rod to fuel the contraption.
While Cobblestone is a basic material that’s easy to find, you’ll need to visit the Nether to obtain Blaze Rods. Since you can only enter the Nether through a Nether Portal, it’s necessary to cover how those are made.
You can build a Nether Portal from obsidian, which is created when water encounters lava. The portal needs to be rectangular, with a minimum height of five and a width of four obsidian bricks. Placing fire inside this frame will activate the nether portal.
Continuing with the search for Blaze Rods, once you’re in the Nether, look for a Nether Fortress. These are the only structures in the Nether, inhabited by many enemies and very dangerous. However, to get Blaze Rods, you must brave this hostile environment, locate the fortress, and kill Blazes because they drop the rods.
While you’re in the Nether, make sure to mine as much Nether Wart as you can since it’s also a vital ingredient for most potion-brewing recipes.
After you return from the Nether, you can finally start crafting the Brewing Stand. The process is relatively straightforward:
- Open the Crafting Table
- Fill the lower row with Cobblestone, placing one brick in each square.
- Place a Blaze Rod in the middle square.
Now you have a Brewing Stand.
The next thing to do is create a cauldron. This step isn’t necessary, but cauldrons are handy for holding various liquids, including water and potions.
To make a cauldron, open the Crafting Table and place Iron Ingots in every square except the central and the middle one in the top row. For added convenience, create several cauldrons, fill them with water, and place them near the Brewing Stand.
Once you have the necessary hardware, you can start crafting potions.
The first potion you’ll need to make is the Awkward Potion. It will serve as a base for every other concoction. To craft it, you’ll need:
- Glass bottles
- Blaze Powder
- Nether Wart
- The Brewing Stand
Here’s the full method of creating an Awkward Potion, from making glass bottles to producing the brew:
- In the Crafting Table, place a glass block in the middle square of the bottom row and both side columns. This produces three Glass Bottles.
- Equip a bottle and fill it with water.
- Return to the Crafting Table and place one Blaze Rod in any square to get two Blaze powders.
- Open the Brewing Stand.
- Fill the three squares marked with bottle icons with filled Glass Bottles.
- Put the Nether Wart in the top square.
- Place the Blaze Powder in the square on the top left, marked with a fire icon.
Congratulations!
You’ve successfully made three Awkward Potions. These potions have no effects but they serve as a base for almost every potion in the game.
Now that you know how to craft them, you can proceed to make different concoctions.
How to Make Potions of Strength in Minecraft
The Potion of Strength is one of the most basic potions in Minecraft. The necessary ingredients are Awkward Potions and Blaze Powder. You can place an Awkward Potion into each of the three slots, which will produce three Potions of Strength.
How to Make Potions of Weakness in Minecraft
Unlike other potions, Potion of Weakness doesn’t require an Awkward Potion as a base. Instead, it uses a filled Water Bottle. But the other ingredient is somewhat more complicated to acquire. It’s a Fermented Spider Eye, and to craft it, you’ll need:
- A Spider Eye
- A Brown Mushroom
- Sugar
To make the potion, simply open the Brewing Stand, place the Water Bottle in the bottle slot, and place the Fermented Spider Eye in the square above.
How to Make Potions of Healing in Minecraft
For a Potion of Healing, you’ll need an Awkward Potion and a Glistering Melon Slice. You can make a Glistering Melon Slice at a Crafting Table by placing a Melon Slice in the central square and surrounding it with Gold Nuggets.
Open the Brewing Stand, place the Awkward Potion in the lower, and the Glistering Melon Slice in the upper square.
How to Make Potions of Water Breathing in Minecraft
If you want to make a Potion of Water Breathing, you’ll need to head to the ocean to hunt down some Pufferfish, which is one of two ingredients for the potion. The other component is, of course, the Awkward Potion.
To make the potion in the Brewing Stand, place the Awkward Potion in the bottle slot and the Pufferfish in the upper square.
How to Make Potions of Harming in Minecraft
If you’re looking for an offensive edge, the Potion of Harming inflicts a certain amount of damage. To craft it, you’ll need a Fermented Spider Eye, a Potion of Healing, and a Potion of Poison. You can easily create a Potion of Poison by combining an Awkward Potion and a regular Spider Eye.
Once you have the necessary ingredients, it’s time to use the Brewing Stand. Place both potions of Healing and Poison in the bottle squares. Then, put the Fermented Spider Eye in the top square.
How to Make Potions of Luck in Minecraft
Unfortunately, you can’t brew Potions of Luck in Minecraft. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t obtain them. You can use console commands to add Potions of Luck to your inventory if you’re using Minecraft Java Edition.
- For Editions 1.9 to 1.12, the command is:
/give @p potion 1 0 {Potion:"minecraft:luck"}
- For Editions 1.13 to 1.17, the command you need to type is:
/give @p potion{Potion:"minecraft:luck"} 1
Enter the command and press Enter, and you’ll have a new Potion of Luck in your inventory.
How to Make Fire Resistance Potions in Minecraft
Crafting a Potion of Fire Resistance will likely require another visit to the Nether since the other ingredient for it, besides the Awkward Potion, is Magma Cream.
To get Magma Cream, you’ll need to return to the Nether and kill some Magma Cubes. They are a mob that commonly spawns in fortresses and basalt deltas. They come in large, small, and tiny varieties. Large and small Magma Cubes drop a maximum of four Magma Cream, depending on your Looting level.
Alternatively, you can craft Magma Cream by combining one Blaze Powder and one Slimeball. Naturally, Slimes drop Slimeballs, and you can get a maximum of five Slimeballs if your looting is maxed-out.
Once you get the ingredients, open the Brewing stand. Put the Awkward Potion in the bottle square and the Magma Cream in the top slot.
How to Make Potions Last Longer in Minecraft
To make a potion last longer, you’ll need to open the Brewing Stand and combine the potion with Redstone. Simply place the prepared potion in the square marked with a bottle icon and the Redstone in the square at the top.
Redstone is relatively easy to find in caves with lava pools as an ore or in jungle pyramids and woodland mansions as Redstone dust.
How to Make Potions Stronger in Minecraft
You can make most potions stronger by adding Glowstone to them the same way you would add Redstone to increase longevity. Glowstone ore only appears in the Nether, but there’s a small chance for Witches to drop it in the Overworld.
Other modifiers that can alter a prepared potion include:
- Fermented Spider Eye – corrupts the primary effect
- Gunpowder – creates a Splash Potion from a regular one
- Dragon’s Breath – turns Splash Potions into the Lingering variant
How to Make Potions in a Cauldron in Minecraft
There’s no way to make potions in a cauldron in vanilla versions of any Minecraft Edition. However, some mods, like Witchery mod, make it possible. It’s also possible to use command blocks to create an automated mechanism that crafts potions when the right ingredients are added. Still, it’s rather complex to build and unavailable in Survival mode without cheats.
Additional FAQs
1. What Ingredients Make Which Potions in Minecraft?
Besides those we’ve already mentioned, check out other ingredients that provide different effects:
• Sugar provides additional speed.
• A Rabbit’s Foot boosts jumping.
• A Golden Carrot provides night vision.
• Ghast Tears give regeneration.
• A Turtle Shell has two effects – slowness and resistance.
• A Phantom Membrane slows the player down when falling.
Of the listed ingredients, sugar, Rabbit’s Foot, and Ghast Tear can be mixed with a Water Bottle to create a corresponding potion, while other ingredients must be combined with an Awkward potion.
2. What Mixed Effects Come From Potions?
The only potion that provides mixed effects is the Potion of the Turtle Master. It’s crafted with a Turtle Shell and an Awkward Potion and simultaneously slows down players and mobs while reducing incoming damage.
3. What Can You Brew in Minecraft?
You can brew the following types of potions:
• Base potions
• Positive effect potions
• Negative effect potions
• Mixed effect potions
• Cures
• Splash Potions
• Lingering Potions
4. How Do You Brew in Minecraft?
Brewing in Minecraft is always done in the Brewing Stand and requires a combination of either Water Bottles or Awkward Potions with an ingredient that provides a particular effect.
5. How Do You Make Poison in Minecraft?
To make a Potion of Poison in Minecraft, combine an Awkward Potion with a Spider Eye as previously described.
Brewing Your Way to Victory
Potions can be quite helpful in various situations, from exploring the expansive oceans to surviving against the most challenging mobs. The right arsenal of potions could even give you an edge against the Ender Dragon. Now that you know how to craft potions, you can become a force to be reckoned with in Minecraft.
Did you find brewing potions in Minecraft easy? Which ingredient was the most challenging to find? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.