Minecraft has 19 brewable potion effects, from Healing and Fire Resistance to the newer Infestation and Oozing potions, and every one of them is available as a base (drinkable) potion, a splash potion, or a lingering potion, on top of the four non-effect base potions (Water, Awkward, Mundane, and Thick) you brew through on the way there.
Most “list of potions” pages either undercount this (skipping splash and lingering as separate entries, or skipping the base potions entirely) or leave out exact durations. This is the full checklist: every potion, its effect, its exact brewing recipe, and how long it actually lasts, cross-checked against the Minecraft Wiki for the current 2026 version (26.3).
Quick Answer
- 19 total brewable effects exist, covering healing, buffs, debuffs, and the newer Trial Chambers-era “trap” effects.
- Every effect potion can exist in three forms: a drinkable potion, a splash potion (thrown, area effect), and a lingering potion (thrown, leaves a lingering cloud).
- Four base potions (Water Bottle, Awkward, Mundane, Thick) have no effect of their own but are required steps toward brewing an effect potion.
- Nether wart turns a water bottle into an Awkward Potion, the base every effect potion (except Weakness) is brewed from.
- Redstone dust extends duration, glowstone dust boosts potency, and you generally can’t have both on the same potion.
- Two additional potions, Luck and Decay, exist in the game files but aren’t brewable (Luck is Java-only, Decay is Bedrock-only), so they’re not counted in the 19.
All Potions at a Glance
| Potion | Effect | Base Duration | Key Ingredient | Splash/Lingering |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Healing | Instant Health (heals 4 HP) | Instant | Glistering Melon Slice | Yes |
| Regeneration | Regenerates health over time | 0:45 | Ghast Tear | Yes |
| Strength | +3 melee damage | 3:00 | Blaze Powder | Yes |
| Swiftness | +20% movement speed | 3:00 | Sugar | Yes |
| Fire Resistance | Immune to fire/lava damage | 3:00 | Magma Cream | Yes |
| Night Vision | Full-brightness vision | 3:00 | Golden Carrot | Yes |
| Water Breathing | No oxygen loss underwater | 3:00 | Pufferfish | Yes |
| Leaping | +50% jump height | 3:00 | Rabbit’s Foot | Yes |
| Slow Falling | Negates fall damage | 1:30 | Phantom Membrane | Yes |
| Invisibility | Renders player invisible | 3:00 | Fermented Spider Eye + Night Vision potion | Yes |
| Turtle Master | Slowness IV + Resistance III | 0:20 | Turtle Shell | Yes |
| Poison | Damage over time | 0:45 | Spider Eye | Yes |
| Weakness | -4 melee damage | 1:30 | Fermented Spider Eye | Yes |
| Harming | Instant Damage (6 HP) | Instant | Fermented Spider Eye + Healing or Poison potion | Yes |
| Slowness | -15% movement speed | 1:30 | Fermented Spider Eye + Swiftness or Leaping potion | Yes |
| Oozing | Spawns slimes on death | 3:00 | Slime Block | Yes |
| Infestation | Chance to spawn silverfish when hit | 3:00 | Stone | Yes |
| Wind Charging | Emits a wind burst on death | 3:00 | Breeze Rod | Yes |
| Weaving | Spawns cobwebs on death | 3:00 | Cobweb | Yes |
For a shorter, ranked take on which of these are actually worth carrying, see our 10 Best Minecraft Potions, Ranked.
The Base Potions (Before You Brew an Effect)
Before you get an effect potion, you’re brewing through one of four bases. None of these do anything if you drink them, but skipping this step is the most common reason a beginner’s brewing stand “doesn’t work.”
Water Bottle
Just water, pulled from a water source, cauldron, or well with a glass bottle. Every other potion starts here.
Awkward Potion
Water bottle + Nether Wart. This is the base for every effect potion except Weakness, so if you’re setting up a brewing stand, Nether Wart (farmed from Nether Fortresses) is the one ingredient you cannot skip.
Mundane Potion
Water bottle + Redstone Dust (or, in Java Edition, any effect ingredient added directly to a water bottle without going through Nether Wart first). It has no effect and isn’t a useful base for anything, it mostly exists as a side effect of the brewing system rather than something you brew on purpose.
Thick Potion
Water bottle + Glowstone Dust. Same situation as Mundane: it’s a dead end, not a real ingredient to plan around, but it will show up if you experiment with adding modifiers before nether wart.
Positive Effect Potions
Healing
Glistering Melon Slice + Awkward Potion. Instantly restores 4 HP (8 HP enhanced with glowstone).
Works in reverse on undead mobs, damaging them instead. See our how to make a Potion of Healing guide for the full brewing walkthrough.
Regeneration
Ghast Tear + Awkward Potion. Lasts 0:45 base, extends to 1:30 (Java) or 2:00 (Bedrock) with redstone, or drops to a stronger 0:22 with glowstone.
Strength
Blaze Powder + Awkward Potion. Lasts 3:00 base, 8:00 extended, or a stronger 1:30 enhanced version that doubles the melee damage bonus. Full recipe in our how to make a Potion of Strength guide.
Swiftness
Sugar + Awkward Potion. Lasts 3:00 base, 8:00 extended, 1:30 enhanced. Corrupting this with a fermented spider eye is one of two ways to brew Slowness.
Fire Resistance
Magma Cream + Awkward Potion. Lasts 3:00 base, 8:00 extended. No enhanced version exists since fire resistance doesn’t have levels.
Night Vision
Golden Carrot + Awkward Potion. Lasts 3:00 base, 8:00 extended. Corrupting this with a fermented spider eye is how you brew Invisibility, not the other way around.
Water Breathing
Pufferfish + Awkward Potion. Lasts 3:00 base, 8:00 extended. No enhanced version.
Leaping
Rabbit’s Foot + Awkward Potion. Lasts 3:00 base, 8:00 extended, or 1:30 enhanced for a much bigger jump boost. This is the second potion that can be corrupted into Slowness.
Slow Falling
Phantom Membrane + Awkward Potion. Lasts 1:30 base, 4:00 extended. No enhanced version, since it either negates fall damage or it doesn’t.
Invisibility
Fermented Spider Eye added to a Potion of Night Vision (this is a corruption, not a normal Awkward Potion brew). Lasts 3:00 base, 8:00 extended. Our how to make an Invisibility Potion guide covers the two-step brew.
Turtle Master
Turtle Shell + Awkward Potion. Grants Slowness IV and Resistance III together for 0:20 base, 0:40 extended, or a stronger Slowness VI and Resistance IV at the same 0:20 duration when enhanced. It’s the only potion that pairs a positive and negative effect together, used mostly for tanking hits during a fight you can’t outrun.
Negative / Offensive Potions
Poison
Spider Eye + Awkward Potion. Lasts 0:45 base, 1:30 (Java) or 2:00 (Bedrock) extended, or a faster-ticking 0:21/0:22 enhanced version. Poison stops at 1 HP and can’t finish off a target, which is why it pairs poorly against low-health enemies you actually need to kill.
Weakness
Fermented Spider Eye added directly to a Water Bottle, no Nether Wart required.
Lasts 1:30 base, 4:00 extended. This is the potion you splash on a zombie villager, alongside a golden apple, to start curing it. Full recipe in our how to make a Potion of Weakness guide.
Harming
Fermented Spider Eye added to a Potion of Healing or a Potion of Poison.
Instantly deals 6 HP of damage (12 HP enhanced). It’s the only potion in the game with no duration and no extended version, only a stronger enhanced version. See our how to make a Harming Potion guide.
Slowness
Fermented Spider Eye added to a Potion of Swiftness or a Potion of Leaping. Lasts 1:30 base, 4:00 extended, or a much stronger Slowness IV at 0:20 when enhanced. Recipe details in our how to make a Potion of Slowness guide.
The Newest “Trap” Potions (Trial Chambers Additions)
These four were added alongside Trial Chambers content and behave differently from every other potion: none of them have extended or enhanced versions, and their effects trigger on death or on being hit rather than working like a normal buff or debuff.
Oozing
Slime Block + Awkward Potion. For 3:00, anything killed while affected spawns two medium slimes nearby. See our how to make an Oozing Potion guide.
Infestation
Stone + Awkward Potion. For 3:00, being hit has a 10% chance to spawn 1-2 silverfish next to whoever got hit. Full brew in our how to make an Infestation Potion guide.
Wind Charging
Breeze Rod + Awkward Potion. For 3:00, dying while affected releases a wind burst, the same knockback effect a Breeze mob uses.
Weaving
Cobweb + Awkward Potion. For 3:00, dying while affected spawns 2-3 cobwebs nearby, and walking speed through cobwebs doubles from 25% to 50% while the effect is active.
Splash vs. Lingering Potions Explained
Every potion on this list, base ingredients aside, can exist in three forms, and the wiki’s own disambiguation page treats them as genuinely separate items.
- Drinkable potion: you drink it, the effect applies to you only.
- Splash potion: add Gunpowder to any drinkable potion. You throw the bottle, and it applies the effect to anyone caught in the splash radius, including mobs (useful for Harming on enemies or Healing on allies).
- Lingering potion: add Dragon’s Breath (collected from the Ender Dragon’s breath attack with a glass bottle) to a splash potion. It creates a lingering gas cloud that keeps applying the effect to anything that walks through it.
One detail most lists skip: a lingering potion only keeps one-fourth of the drinkable version’s duration. An 8:00 extended potion becomes a 2:00 cloud once it’s turned into a lingering potion, which matters if you’re building an automatic potion trap and the timing comes up short.
How to Brew Any Potion
The short version, if you’re setting up a brewing stand for the first time:
- Craft a Brewing Stand (1 Blaze Rod + 3 Cobblestone) and place it down.
- Fill up to three Glass Bottles with water and load them into the bottom slots.
- Add Nether Wart to the top slot to brew three Awkward Potions at once.
- Swap in an effect ingredient (Blaze Powder for Strength, Spider Eye for Poison, and so on) to turn the Awkward Potions into effect potions.
- Add Redstone Dust for extended duration or Glowstone Dust for enhanced potency, as a separate brew, not at the same time.
- Add Gunpowder for splash, then Dragon’s Breath for lingering, each as its own brewing step.
Each brewing step consumes the modifier ingredient once and affects all three bottles in the stand simultaneously, which is why almost everyone brews potions three at a time rather than one at a time.
Potion Tricks That Aren’t in the Brewing Menu
A few potion interactions don’t show up anywhere in the brewing stand UI, but they change how you’d actually use this list in survival.
Milk clears every potion effect you’re carrying, good or bad, which is why it’s worth keeping a cow nearby before fighting anything that inflicts Poison or Weakness. A honey bottle is more selective: it only clears Poison, leaving every other active effect alone, so it’s the better choice if you’re also running a Strength or Regeneration potion you don’t want to lose.
Harming and Healing potions swap roles against undead mobs (zombies, skeletons, zombified piglins, husks, and withers): a Splash Potion of Healing damages them instead of healing them, and a Splash Potion of Harming heals them instead. This matters for a zombie-villager cure specifically because it’s the reason you use a Splash Potion of Weakness, not Harming, in that recipe. You want the zombie villager weakened, not accidentally topped off.
You can skip brewing Fire Resistance entirely by trading gold ingots or gold blocks to a Piglin in the Nether. Piglins occasionally barter back a Fire Resistance potion along with other loot, which is a faster source than farming Magma Cream if you’re already running Nether trades.
Similarly, a Golden Apple gives a burst of Regeneration on top of its other effects, so it’s a reasonable substitute when you don’t have Ghast Tears on hand.
Last one: if a mob affected by a status effect is holding that effect when it dies to an explosion (a Creeper blowing up, for example), the explosion leaves behind a lingering cloud of that same effect for a few seconds, the same way a thrown lingering potion would. It’s a minor detail, but it explains some otherwise-confusing status effects that show up after a Creeper fight for no obvious reason.
There are 19 brewable potion effects, plus 4 non-effect base potions (Water Bottle, Awkward, Mundane, Thick). Two additional potions, Luck and Decay, exist in the game but cannot be brewed in Survival.
Potion of Harming II deals 12 HP of instant damage, enough to kill most players and mobs outright, making it the single most damaging potion in the game.
Yes. Adding gunpowder converts any drinkable potion into a splash potion, and adding dragon’s breath to a splash potion converts it into a lingering potion, though lingering potions only keep one-fourth of the original duration.
Nether Wart is needed to brew an Awkward Potion, which is the base for every effect potion except Weakness, which is brewed by adding a fermented spider eye straight to a water bottle.
This usually means you skipped the Nether Wart step and brewed an effect ingredient directly into a plain water bottle, which produces a useless Mundane Potion in Java Edition instead of an actual effect.
They’re mostly PvP and trap tools rather than buffs for yourself, since their effects trigger when the affected creature is hit or killed rather than helping the drinker directly.
Bookmark the table at the top of this page. Between the base potions, the 19 effects, and the splash/lingering variants, that’s every potion in the game, and there’s no reason to keep searching for the ones this list left out.
Sources
Recipes and durations in this guide were checked against the Minecraft Wiki (version 26.3) and cross-referenced against these videos:
