Minecraft Brewing Guide: All Potions [1.21]

Brewing in Minecraft 1.21 gives you access to powerful buffs, damaging splash potions, and lingering area effects. This guide covers every potion recipe, how to set up your brewing station, and which potions are actually worth making for different situations.

For a quick visual reference while brewing, use our interactive brewing chart that shows every ingredient path.

Setting Up Your Brewing Station

Required Items

• Brewing Stand - Crafted with 1 blaze rod and 3 cobblestone. You must kill Blazes in the Nether to obtain blaze rods, making brewing a mid-game activity.
• Blaze Powder - Fuels the brewing stand. One blaze powder provides 20 brewing operations. Craft from blaze rods (1 rod = 2 powder).
• Glass Bottles - Crafted from glass (3 glass = 3 bottles). Fill with water at any water source block.
• Water Source - A cauldron or water source block near your station for filling bottles quickly.
• Nether Wart - The base ingredient for almost every useful potion. Found in Nether fortresses growing on soul sand. Bring some soul sand home to start a farm.

Station Layout

Place your brewing stand on a table or at comfortable height. Arrange chests on either side: one for ingredients sorted by type, one for finished potions. Keep a water source (cauldron or infinite source) within reach. A Nether wart farm nearby ensures you never run out of the most-used ingredient.

How Brewing Works

1. Place up to 3 water bottles in the bottom slots of the brewing stand
2. Add blaze powder to the fuel slot (top left)
3. Add an ingredient to the top ingredient slot
4. Wait about 20 seconds for brewing to complete
5. The ingredient is consumed and all 3 bottles are modified

Brewing processes all 3 bottles simultaneously, so always brew in batches of 3 for efficiency.

The Brewing Chain

Almost every potion follows this chain:

Water Bottle —> add Nether Wart —> Awkward Potion —> add Effect Ingredient —> Effect Potion

The Awkward Potion is the base for nearly everything. A few exceptions exist (Potion of Weakness uses a water bottle directly), but Nether Wart is your default first step.

Modifiers (Applied After the Effect)

Modifier	Ingredient	Effect
Extended Duration	Redstone Dust	Doubles the timer (cannot combine with enhanced)
Enhanced Potency	Glowstone Dust	Upgrades to level II (cannot combine with extended)
Splash Potion	Gunpowder	Throwable, affects area
Lingering Potion	Dragon’s Breath	Creates a cloud on impact

Extended and Enhanced are mutually exclusive. You choose longer duration or stronger effect, not both.

All Potion Recipes

Combat Potions

Potion of Strength

• Ingredients: Awkward Potion + Blaze Powder
• Effect: +3 attack damage (130% melee damage increase)
• Duration: 3 minutes (8 minutes extended)
• Enhanced: Strength II, +6 damage, 1:30 duration
• Best for: Boss fights, PvP, clearing dungeons

One of the strongest combat buffs. Strength II makes even iron swords hit like Netherite. Pair with Sharpness V from our enchantment guide for devastating melee damage.

Potion of Healing

• Ingredients: Awkward Potion + Glistering Melon Slice
• Effect: Restores 4 hearts instantly
• Enhanced: Healing II, restores 8 hearts
• Best for: Emergency health recovery, undead damage

Glistering Melon is crafted from 8 gold nuggets surrounding a melon slice. Healing potions are instant, making them critical for combat. As splash potions, they also damage undead mobs.

Potion of Regeneration

• Ingredients: Awkward Potion + Ghast Tear
• Effect: Restores 1 heart every 2.5 seconds
• Duration: 45 seconds (1:30 extended)
• Enhanced: Regen II, 1 heart every 1.2 seconds, 22 seconds
• Best for: Sustained fights, Wither battle

The extended version heals 18 hearts total over 90 seconds. Keep these stocked for the Wither fight and Ender Dragon battle.

Potion of Harming

• Ingredients: Potion of Healing OR Potion of Poison + Fermented Spider Eye
• Effect: Deals 6 hearts of instant damage
• Enhanced: Harming II, 12 hearts of damage
• Best for: Splash potions against mobs, PvP

Brewed by corrupting a Healing or Poison potion. Only useful as splash or lingering versions since drinking it damages yourself.

Potion of Poison

• Ingredients: Awkward Potion + Spider Eye
• Effect: Deals 1 heart damage every 1.25 seconds (cannot kill, stops at half heart)
• Duration: 45 seconds (1:30 extended)
• Best for: Splash potions in PvP, weakening mobs for capture

Exploration Potions

Potion of Night Vision

• Ingredients: Awkward Potion + Golden Carrot
• Effect: Full brightness vision, improved underwater visibility
• Duration: 3 minutes (8 minutes extended)
• Best for: Cave exploration, ocean monuments, building at night

Golden Carrots are crafted from 8 gold nuggets around a carrot. Night Vision is one of the most practically useful potions for everyday gameplay. Everything becomes fully lit as if the brightness setting were maxed.

Potion of Invisibility

• Ingredients: Potion of Night Vision + Fermented Spider Eye
• Effect: Player becomes invisible, mobs have reduced detection range
• Duration: 3 minutes (8 minutes extended)
• Best for: Sneaking past mobs, PvP ambushes

Armor is still visible when invisible. For full stealth, remove all armor. Mobs can still detect you if you bump into them or get very close.

Potion of Water Breathing

• Ingredients: Awkward Potion + Pufferfish
• Effect: Breathe underwater indefinitely
• Duration: 3 minutes (8 minutes extended)
• Best for: Ocean monuments, underwater builds, treasure hunting

Essential for raiding ocean monuments. Combine with a Depth Strider enchantment and Aqua Affinity helmet for full underwater capability.

Potion of Fire Resistance

• Ingredients: Awkward Potion + Magma Cream
• Effect: Immune to fire, lava, and blaze fireballs
• Duration: 3 minutes (8 minutes extended)
• Best for: Nether exploration, fighting Blazes, lava diving

Magma Cream is crafted from slime balls and blaze powder, or drops from Magma Cubes in the Nether. This potion lets you swim in lava, making it one of the most powerful survival tools in the game. Carry several extended versions whenever entering the Nether.

Potion of Slow Falling

• Ingredients: Awkward Potion + Phantom Membrane
• Effect: Fall slowly, take no fall damage
• Duration: 1:30 (4 minutes extended)
• Best for: End city exploration, building at heights, Ender Dragon fight

Phantom Membranes drop from Phantoms that spawn when you skip sleeping. Slow Falling is critical for the Ender Dragon fight since the dragon can knock you off the obsidian towers.

Utility Potions

Potion of Swiftness

• Ingredients: Awkward Potion + Sugar
• Effect: +20% movement speed
• Duration: 3 minutes (8 minutes extended)
• Enhanced: Speed II, +40% speed, 1:30 duration
• Best for: Travel, escaping mobs, speedrunning

Potion of Leaping

• Ingredients: Awkward Potion + Rabbit’s Foot
• Effect: +50% jump height (about 1.25 blocks)
• Duration: 3 minutes (8 minutes extended)
• Enhanced: Jump Boost II, 2.5 block jump height, 1:30 duration
• Best for: Parkour, reaching high places, terrain navigation

Potion of Weakness

• Ingredients: Water Bottle + Fermented Spider Eye (no Awkward Potion needed)
• Effect: -4 attack damage dealt by affected entity
• Duration: 1:30 (4 minutes extended)
• Best for: Curing zombie villagers

This is one of the few potions brewed directly from water bottles. Its primary use is curing zombie villagers: throw a Splash Potion of Weakness on a zombie villager, then feed it a golden apple. The cured villager offers significant trade discounts.

Potion of Slowness

• Ingredients: Potion of Swiftness OR Potion of Leaping + Fermented Spider Eye
• Effect: -15% movement speed
• Duration: 1:30 (4 minutes extended)
• Enhanced: Slowness IV, -60% speed, 20 seconds
• Best for: Splash potions to slow pursuing mobs

Potion of Turtle Master

• Ingredients: Awkward Potion + Turtle Scute
• Effect: Slowness IV (-60% speed) + Resistance III (60% damage reduction)
• Duration: 20 seconds (40 seconds extended)
• Enhanced: Slowness VI + Resistance IV (80% damage reduction), 20 seconds
• Best for: Tanking massive damage, Wither fight survival

The enhanced version makes you nearly indestructible for 20 seconds. The extreme slowness is the trade-off.

Splash and Lingering Potions

Splash Potions

Add gunpowder to any finished potion to make it throwable. Splash potions affect all entities within a small radius on impact. The effect strength decreases with distance from the impact point.

Key uses for splash potions:

• Splash Healing on yourself during combat (faster than drinking)
• Splash Weakness on zombie villagers for curing
• Splash Harming on groups of mobs
• Splash Poison in PvP situations

Lingering Potions

Add Dragon’s Breath to a splash potion to create a lingering version. Dragon’s Breath is collected by using empty glass bottles on the Ender Dragon’s breath attack or fireball explosions.

Lingering potions create a cloud that persists for about 30 seconds. Any entity entering the cloud receives the effect. The cloud shrinks over time and the effect duration scales with how long the entity stood in it.

Tipped Arrows

Combine 8 arrows with 1 lingering potion in a crafting table to make 8 tipped arrows. Each arrow applies the potion effect on hit. This lets ranged players deliver potion effects at a distance.

The most useful tipped arrows:

• Arrow of Harming II - Massive instant damage per arrow
• Arrow of Poison - Sustained damage over time
• Arrow of Slowness - Kite enemies effectively
• Arrow of Weakness - Reduce enemy damage output

Tipped arrows are also available through villager trading with Fletcher villagers, often cheaper than brewing them yourself.

Best Potions by Situation

Ender Dragon Fight

1. Slow Falling (extended) - Survives knockback off towers
2. Healing II (splash) - Instant emergency healing
3. Strength II - Kill the dragon faster during perching
4. Fire Resistance (extended) - Protects from dragon fireball AoE

Wither Fight

1. Strength II - Maximum damage during the short fight window
2. Regeneration II - Counters Wither effect damage
3. Healing II (splash) - Emergency healing when Wither effect prevents natural regen
4. Turtle Master II - Tank phase two dash attacks

Nether Exploration

1. Fire Resistance (extended) - Non-negotiable for lava safety
2. Healing II (splash) - Quick healing for Blaze encounters
3. Swiftness (extended) - Cover ground faster on Netherrack terrain

Ocean Monument

1. Water Breathing (extended) - 8 minutes of underwater air
2. Night Vision (extended) - See clearly in dark water
3. Healing II (splash) - Quick healing for Guardian fights

Mining Session

Night Vision (extended) is the only potion that meaningfully helps mining. Use it when strip mining for diamonds at Y -59 to see ores more clearly in dark tunnels.

Ingredient Farming Guide

Blaze Rods and Powder

Blaze spawners in Nether fortresses are the only source. Build a small platform around the spawner and kill Blazes as they spawn. Each rod yields 2 powder, and powder is both fuel and a Strength potion ingredient.

Nether Wart

Harvest from Nether fortress staircase rooms (grows on soul sand). Bring soul sand and wart home to plant a farm. Nether wart grows in 4 stages and needs no light or water. Plant in soul sand anywhere in the Overworld.

Ghast Tears

Kill Ghasts in the Nether with a bow. Tears often fall into lava, so fight Ghasts over solid ground when possible. Looting III helps.

Phantom Membranes

Skip sleeping for 3 or more in-game days. Phantoms spawn at night above players who have not slept. Kill them for membranes.

Dragon’s Breath

During the Ender Dragon fight, when the dragon perches on the fountain and breathes purple particles or when dragon fireballs hit the ground, use empty glass bottles on the particle effects to collect Dragon’s Breath. Bring at least 20 bottles.

Fermented Spider Eye

Crafted from 1 spider eye + 1 sugar + 1 brown mushroom. This is the corruption ingredient that turns positive potions negative (Healing to Harming, Night Vision to Invisibility, Swiftness to Slowness).

Automatic Brewing

For large-scale potion production, use hoppers to automate the brewing stand:

1. Hopper on top feeds ingredients into the ingredient slot
2. Hopper on the side feeds blaze powder into the fuel slot
3. Hopper underneath extracts finished potions

Chain multiple brewing stands together with hoppers to create an assembly line: the first stand adds Nether Wart, the second adds the effect ingredient, the third adds the modifier (redstone, glowstone, or gunpowder).

This setup is essential if you use a lot of tipped arrows or supply a group of players on a multiplayer server.