A sandbox game like Minecraft is all about creativity. And that is most prominently noticeable in terms of potions. From turning invisible to being fire-resistant, potions offer a ton of variety to the players. Not to forget, most of the potions require rare items for brewing, and collecting them usually takes a lot of time. So, to help you only focus on the useful and must-have potions, we have compiled a list of the best potions in Minecraft. These are all the potions you need to master the survival gameplay in a Minecraft world. We have mentioned the key ingredient along with details about the potion’s effects for each of them. But if you want to make life a little easier, installing Forge to get mods in Minecraft might be the right choice. Easy or not, here are the 12 best Minecraft potions you can make in 2024.
We have included only the most essential potions from the game in this list. These are the potions that will give you a survival advantage and also make exploration safer. But before we list the best potions, let’s understand the brewing system first.
Brewing in Minecraft: Explained in Brief
Just like the world of Harry Potter, Minecraft potions are created by mixing substances in a brewing stand. Usually, only the key ingredient varies while creating new potions in-game. If you leave that aside, the basic items that every potion requires include a Brewing stand, glass bottles, and blaze powder. Fortunately, almost every potion recipe remains the same for the Minecraft Java and Bedrock editions.
To brew any potion, you first need to make a Brewing stand in Minecraft. Our linked guide can help you create one easily, and you can then use the Brewing stand to make Awkward Potion in Minecraft. It is the base ingredient for many potions in the list below. Additionally, you can visit the official Minecraft Wiki to get a detailed list of all the potions in the game. While you won’t require most of them immediately, some can be handy in certain situations. With that said, let’s move to our curated list of the best Minecraft potions.
1. Potion of Regeneration
- Effect – Regenerates health at a faster rate
- Ingredients – Ghast tear, awkward potion, and blaze powder
This is one of the most useful potions in the fight against the Ender Dragon. But not only there, whenever you get into a mob fight regeneration can turn out to be your best friend for survival. You can deal with unexpected mobs, accidental falls, and a general lack of food with a health regeneration potion. Like most potions, you can combine it with Redstone and blaze powder to improve its effectiveness.
The main ingredient of this potion is a Ghast Tear. They can be obtained by killing Ghasts in the Nether. After consuming this potion, your health will start to regenerate immediately after taking damage. Unlike regular regeneration in-game, it won’t be affected by your food bar and will be much faster.
2. Potion of Instant Healing
- Effect – Instantly heals the player
- Ingredients – Glistering Melon Slice, awkward potion, and blaze powder
Between this and regeneration, there is a constant debate among players about which potion is a better option. Instant health means that this potion can immediately add hearts to your health bar. It instantly regenerates your health rather than slowly regenerating it in regular gameplay. In most in-game situations, you get enough time to hide and regenerate your health. That’s why you would find more players using the potion of regeneration.
Additionally, if you have a limited amount of this potion, you should save it for very tight situations. Running away should be the first resort if you have other ways to regenerate your health. As for the main ingredient, you need a Glistering Melon Slice, created by combining 8 gold nuggets with a melon slice. You can follow our detailed guide to make a Potion of Healing easily.
3. Potion of Harming
- Effect – Reduces health of the user and the victim
- Ingredients – Fermented spider eye, potion of Poison or potion of Healing, and blaze powder
While your health regenerates, a good way to keep enemies at bay is by reducing their health. That’s where the Potion of Harming comes in handy. Unlike many potions, you can’t extend the duration of this potion but you can amplify its damage output. The best way to use it is as a throwable splash potion. The throwable version of the potion of Harming makes it easy to deal damage to other players and entities.
You can brew the Potion of Harming by adding a fermented spider eye to a Potion of Healing or the Potion of Poison. Among these, it is easier to make a Potion of Poison in Minecraft. For the Bedrock edition, this seems to only work with level 2 of these potions. You can level up or enhance the damage by adding glowstone dust to the potion using the Brewing stand.
4. Potion of Night Vision
- Effect – Allows players to see clearly in dark areas
- Ingredients – Golden Carrot, awkward potion, and blaze powder
Stepping away from just combats for a while, we have the night vision potion. As the name suggests, it gives you the ability to see in the darkness. It is advantageous while tackling mobs during the night. Though, that is not the only reason players use this potion for. The best benefit it provides is the ability to see underground. That means you can go mining underground or in the Minecraft 1.18 dripstone caves without worrying about torches. Well, at least as long as the potion lasts. This potion doesn’t stop the hostile mobs from spawning though.
Coming to the creation, you can easily make a Potion of Night Vision using a golden carrot. It’s one of the rarest food items in the game, so finding it is a little harder than other Night Vision potion ingredients. The most common source of this item is the master-level farmer villagers. You can exchange 3 golden carrots for 3 emeralds in Minecraft. However, you can also create it by combining gold nuggets with a regular carrot.
5. Potion of Slow Falling
- Effect – Reduces falling speed of the player
- Ingredients – Phantom Membrane, awkward potion, and blaze powder
One of the most common ways that Minecraft beginner players die is through fall damage. This potion reduces the speed of your fall, ensuring you don’t get fall damage. If there’s something dangerous like lava down there, you can make arrangements like placing a block before you fall. The potion is useful while building tall structures and entering the Nether portal in Minecraft.
If you plan to explore the best Minecraft 1.20 seeds, you can use it to avoid falling from steep mountain peaks. You can make this potion using a Phantom Membrane. Don’t worry if you haven’t heard about this item before because it is easy to get. These skin-like membranes can be obtained by killing phantoms. Phantoms only spawn in Minecraft if you don’t sleep for multiple days in-game.
6. Potion of Strength
- Effect – Increases attack damage of the player
- Ingredients – Awkward potion and blaze powder
The next entry on our list of best Minecraft potions is a rather common one. You only need the ingredient you use to power your Brewing stand to create this potion. Yes, we are talking about Blazer Powder, which is used to make the potion of Strength. You can follow our guide on how to find and conquer the Nether fortress to get all the blaze rods you could need. For a limited time, this potion can be used to increase your attacking power. It means that each of your hits will give more damage to the opponent than usual.
Since it’s comparatively easier to create, players use them while creating builds or exploring woods at night without building a Minecraft bed. You will still need your swords and other tools to survive. But this potion is beneficial for low-level fights against creepers and spiders. If you have to combat with higher-level mobs, increase the potion’s strength with glowstone dust. Do keep in mind that using glowstone dust reduces the effects’ duration, so you will have to deal with the enemy faster.
7. Potion of Fire Resistance
- Effect – Makes player resistant from most fire-based damage
- Ingredients – Magma cream, awkward potion, and blaze powder
This potion is really useful in the nether realm, which is home to fire-based damage environments. Using it provides immunity from regular fire, lava, magma blocks, fire charges, and even blaze fireballs. You will still get damage from the ghast fireballs and blaze melee attacks. But you can manage to stay safe from them if you keep your distance or stay in cover. Additionally, you can even see better under lava while using this potion.
To create a Potion of Fire Resistance in Minecraft, you need to use Magma Cream. You can craft the Magma cream using a slimeball and a Blaze powder. The other easier way to get it is by killing magma cubes.
8. Potion of Invisibility
- Effect – Makes the player invisible
- Ingredients – Ghast tear, potion of Night Vision, and blaze powder
Even for a limited time, this potion can let you avoid fighting mobs and other players. Great for escaping and sneak attacks, this potion can turn you invisible in Minecraft. No other entity or players can see you for a few minutes. But keep in mind that if any attacks, including arrows, come your way, you will still be getting damaged. Furthermore, if you get too close to a mob, they’ll be able to see you. So, stay away from all the mobs while using this potion and you’ll be unnoticed.
You can make the Potion of Invisibility by brewing a potion of Night Vision with a Fermented Spider Eye. You can add Redstone dust to it to increase the duration of the potion. However, as you can’t get more invisible than what you already are, glowstone dust can’t improve its strength or level.
9. Potion of Water Breathing
- Effect – Allows player to breathe underwater
- Ingredients – Pufferfish, awkward potion, and blaze powder
Expanding the horizon of exploration, this potion enables you to explore ocean biomes freely. Players usually save up this potion to loot ocean monuments and temples. The way it works is by giving you the ability to breathe underwater. So, while using this potion, you don’t have to think about going to the surface or about drowning.
Do keep in mind that it’s a temporary potion. But you can always increase its duration by adding a Redstone to it. The main ingredient to make a Potion of Water Breathing is Pufferfish. You can find them easily in warm ocean biomes, but attacking them might lead them to release poison. Though you don’t need to worry, as the damaging effects are temporary. You can kill the fish before it attacks again, even with a wooden sword. Moreover, you can go fishing anywhere in your world and you’ll have a chance to catch pufferfish. On Bedrock edition though, you cannot fish up the pufferfish in the variants of jungle biomes.
10. Potion of the Turtle Master
- Effect – Makes player immune to most attacks but also reduces movement speed
- Ingredients – Turtle Shell, awkward potion, and blaze powder
This is one of the most powerful potions on our list of the best Minecraft potions you can brew. Only experienced players use it because of the side effects. The way it works is that it gives you resistance III and slowness IV. For a limited amount of time, you are immune to all attacks. But you are also very slow thanks to its side effects. It can cause problems while fighting short-range enemies as you won’t be able to run away from them. It can also trouble you while fighting long-range enemies as you are immune from their attacks, but you will not be able to attack them without a long-range weapon and good aim.
The potion is useful only in certain situations, so most players avoid using it. And as you may expect, you will need a turtle shell to make this best Minecraft potion. Do keep in mind that turtle shells are useful on their own as well. You can use them to breathe underwater for 10+ seconds by making a helmet out of them. It increases the total time you can stay underwater to 25 seconds without getting any damage.
11. Potion of Weakness
- Effect – Reduces attack damage of the affected entity
- Ingredients – Fermented Spider eye, water bottles, and blaze powder
Another great way to tackle harmful mobs is by reducing the attack damage they deal to players. This potion does exactly that. It reduces mobs’ attack damage by some amount for a limited period. So, you can get enough time to attack and kill them while taking minimum damage in that fight. You can also use it on other players in multiplayer mode, but their weapons will still do the same damage.
To make a Potion of Weakness in Minecraft, you need a fermented spider eye. You can brew it by combining a regular spider eye with a brown mushroom and some sugar. Also, this is the only potion in Minecraft that doesn’t require awkward potion as the base potion, but just some water bottles. Creating this potion is easy if you spawn in the right Minecraft biome. And just like other potions, you can improve its quality by adding Redstone and glowstone dust to it. But not both at the same time.
12. Potion of Swiftness
- Effect – Increases movement speed of the player
- Ingredients – Sugar, awkward potion, and blaze powder
If fighting other mobs doesn’t seem like the best option, fleeing might be the right thing to do. That’s why we have Potion of Swiftness in our list of best Minecraft potions. It allows players and even other mobs to move at a much faster speed. You can then use that speed to avoid tricky situations and travel faster in the game. But do keep in mind that it doesn’t affect flying in any way.
To make a Potion of Swiftness, you only require sugar, which you can obtain by breaking sugar cane. And since sugar canes are easy to find in almost every in-game biome, this is one of the easiest and most used potions in Minecraft. Players also add glowstone dust to it for additional speed. But that isn’t required in most cases.
These are all the best Minecraft potions you need to level up your game experience. If you need something even more powerful, you can try out the best Minecraft mods. Combined with the best Minecraft 1.20 Bedrock seeds, you can easily take over the game and create a unique world of your own. As for the potions, you now have a variety of recipes at your disposal, so you now have endless possibilities to enjoy Minecraft. Don’t waste another moment and start brewing the best Minecraft potions right away.
Probably the most useful and important potion in Minecraft is the fire resistance potion. It negates all fire-based damage and makes scary environments, like the Nether dimension not so frightening anymore. This status effect is also only acquirable through the potion, unlike the speed effect, jump boost effect, or regeneration effect which can all be applied via a beacon.
Yes. If you splash a mob with a certain potion, it’ll get the status effect provided by the potion.
Effects of splash potions work oppositely on undead mobs, such as zombies or skeletons. That means, if you splash them with a potion of harming, they will get their health back, and if you use the healing potion, they will take damage.