Brewing

Brewing "grid" (Ingredients are placed at the top. Bottles placed underneath)

Brewing (or Alchemy) is the process of creating potions and splash potions by adding various ingredients to water bottles in a brewing stand.

Brewing Potions

Potion brewing chart (excludes splash potions)

Brewing Guide

By placing bottles in the lower three slots of the brewing interface and an ingredient in the upper slot, you can distill the ingredient into the bottles and brew potions which may be consumed to grant an effect to the player.

Every potion starts with a water bottle, made by filling a glass bottle at a water source or filled cauldron. The next step is to add a primary ingredient to create a base potion, which is usually Nether Wart, which itself has no effect on the potion. By brewing a second ingredient into a base potion in the same manner, you can create a potion with a working effect. A third ingredient may be added to make the effect more intense or last longer, or turn the effect harmful. Finally, gunpowder can be added to a potion at any stage to convert it to a splash potion, which can be thrown to disperse its effect in a radius. Each brewing step takes 20 seconds.

Brewing can create very useful and lifesaving items. A good number of them are useful in combat by aiding the player or weakening enemies while others can save the player's life if used quickly, like Fire Resistance or Healing. Gathering the Blaze Rods and Nether Wart necessary for brewing can prove challenging, but once they are set up, most potion ingredients are fairly plentiful and brewing will be a rewarding task.

Tips

• Start by gathering Nether Wart. As seen in the chart above, Awkward Potions can be brewed into every possible potion, while all other base potions can only be used to make a Potion of Weakness. Thus you should always start with an Awkward Potion unless you intend to make a Potion of Weakness, in which case it's more efficient to brew Fermented Spider Eye into a water bottle right off the bat and save yourself some Nether Wart.
• As a rule of thumb, there are four modifier ingredients: Redstone Dust makes it last longer, Glowstone Dust makes it stronger (but shorter-lasting), Fermented Spider Eye reverses or "corrupts" the effect, and gunpowder converts it to a splash potion.
• Brewing stands have three slots for three bottles and can brew three potions at once. A single ingredient is enough to brew into all three bottles, so an efficient potion-maker should always brew in batches of three. For even more efficiency, keep in mind this works even if the potions are of different types; you can brew an ingredient into three different types of potions, and each will result just as if you had brewed them individually.
• Always use a water source for refilling your bottles, as the cauldron only has 3 uses while a water source block is infinite. You won't need to always refill the cauldron using buckets. Using a water source can save you 7 iron ingots (to make the cauldron) and even more iron if you decided to store water in buckets.

Video

Brewing/video

Brewing Equipment

Name	Icon	Use
Brewing Stand	Template:Grid	Used to add ingredients into water bottles.
Cauldron	Template:Grid	Each one can hold a bucket of water (after placement). Will fill 3 glass bottles.
Glass Bottle	Template:Grid	Container for all kinds of potions.
Water Bottle	Template:Grid	The starting base for all potions. Made by filling a glass bottle from a cauldron or water source.

Ingredients

Base Ingredients

Base ingredients are the starting point of all potions. Nether Wart is the primary ingredient added to water bottles at this stage, as it is required to make most of the potions. All other base ingredients will only allow the creation of variations of "Potion of Weakness".

Name	Icon	When added makes
Nether Wart	Template:Grid	Awkward Potion
Glowstone Dust	Template:Grid	Thick Potion
Redstone	Template:Grid	Mundane Potion (extended)
Fermented Spider Eye	Template:Grid	Potion of Weakness

Secondary Ingredients

Secondary ingredients imbue an Awkward Potion with a particular effect but do not alter potion duration or intensity. When added directly to a water bottle, any of these ingredients will produce a Mundane Potion (with the exception of fermented spider eye, which results in a potion of weakness and the golden carrot, which can't be brewed into a water bottle to make a potion).

Name	Icon	Effect
Magma Cream	Template:Grid	Fire Resistance
Sugar	Template:Grid	Speed
Glistering Melon	Template:Grid	Instant Health
Spider Eye	Template:Grid	Poison
Ghast Tear	Template:Grid	Regeneration
Blaze Powder	Template:Grid	Strength
Fermented Spider Eye	Template:Grid	Weakness
Golden Carrot	Template:Grid	Night Vision
Pufferfish	Template:Grid	Water Breathing

Modifiers

Modifiers change the potion's properties. The "longer duration" and "more potent" versions of a potion can be forever interchanged.

Name	Icon	When added
Redstone	Template:Grid	Increases duration
Glowstone Dust	Template:Grid	Increases potency
Gunpowder	Template:Grid	Turns into a splash
Fermented Spider Eye	Template:Grid	Corrupts effect (see below)

Corrupting Effect: Fermented Spider Eyes will change a potion's base effect, often reversing it or producing a negative potion.

• A "corrupted" potion usually does the opposite of the original potion.
• Potions of Invisibility are considered a "corrupted" version of the Potions of Night Vision.
  • Instead of seeing at maximum brightness, you turn invisible.

Potions

Main article: Potions

Primary

All primary potions are created by brewing a single ingredient with a water bottle. Mundane Potions and Potions of Weakness (along with their variants) can be combined with gunpowder to create their throwable (splash potion) counterparts.

Potion	Base	Reagent	Effect	Precursor to
Template:Grid Awkward Potion	Template:Grid Water Bottle	Template:Grid Nether Wart	None	Potion of Healing Potion of Fire Resistance Potion of Poison Potion of Regeneration Potion of Strength Potion of Swiftness
Template:Grid Mundane Potion (extended)	Template:Grid Water Bottle	Template:Grid Redstone	None	Potion of Weakness (extended)
Template:Grid Mundane Potion	Template:Grid Water Bottle	Template:Grid Ghast Tear, Template:Grid Glistering Melon, Template:Grid Blaze Powder, Template:Grid Magma Cream, Template:Grid Sugar, or Template:Grid Spider Eye	None	Potion of Weakness
Template:Grid Thick Potion	Template:Grid Water Bottle	Template:Grid Glowstone Dust	None	Potion of Weakness
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness	Template:Grid Water Bottle	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Reduces all melee attacks by damage. Note that this makes the player unable to do any damage without a weapon.	Potion of Weakness (extended)

Secondary

Secondary potions are created by brewing an ingredient with a primary potion and can be combined with gunpowder to create their throwable splash potion counterparts.

Positive

Potion	Base	Reagent	Effect	Duration (minutes)
Template:Grid Potion of Healing	Template:Grid Awkward Potion	Template:Grid Glistering Melon	Restores per potion.	Instant
Template:Grid Potion of Fire Resistance	Template:Grid Awkward Potion	Template:Grid Magma Cream	Gives immunity to damage from fire, lava, and ranged Blaze attacks.	3:00
Template:Grid Potion of Regeneration	Template:Grid Awkward Potion	Template:Grid Ghast Tear	Restores health over time by approximately every 2.4 seconds.	0:45
Template:Grid Potion of Strength	Template:Grid Awkward Potion	Template:Grid Blaze Powder	Adds 130% damage to all melee attacks, with or without weapons.	3:00
Template:Grid Potion of Swiftness	Template:Grid Awkward Potion	Template:Grid Sugar	Increases player's movement speed, sprinting speed, and jumping length by approximately 20%.	3:00
Template:Grid Potion of Night Vision	Template:Grid Awkward Potion	Template:Grid Golden Carrot	Makes everything appear to be at max light level, including underwater areas.	3:00
Template:Grid Potion of Water Breathing	Template:Grid Awkward Potion	Template:Grid Pufferfish	Does not deplete the oxygen bar when underwater.	3:00

Negative

Potion	Base	Reagent	Effect	Duration (minutes)
Template:Grid Potion of Poison	Template:Grid Awkward Potion	Template:Grid Spider Eye	Poisons the player for the given time, reducing the health to at most, at a rate of approximately every 1.5 seconds.	0:45
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness	Template:Grid Awkward Potion, Template:Grid Thick Potion, or Template:Grid Mundane Potion	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Reduces all melee attacks by damage.	1:30
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness (extended)	Template:Grid Mundane Potion (extended)	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Reduces all melee attacks by damage.	4:00

Tertiary

Tertiary potions are created by brewing an ingredient with a secondary potion or another tertiary potion and can be combined with gunpowder to create their throwable splash potion counterparts.

Positive

Potion	Base	Reagent	Effect	Duration (minutes)
Template:Grid Potion of Fire Resistance (extended)	Template:Grid Potion of Fire Resistance (base or reverted)	Template:Grid Redstone	Gives immunity to damage from fire, lava, and ranged Blaze attacks.	8:00
Template:Grid Potion of Healing II	Template:Grid Potion of Healing (base or reverted)	Template:Grid Glowstone Dust	Restores per potion.	Instant
Template:Grid Potion of Regeneration (extended)	Template:Grid Potion of Regeneration tier I or II	Template:Grid Redstone	Restores health over time by approximately every 2.4 seconds.	2:00
Template:Grid Potion of Regeneration II	Template:Grid Potion of Regeneration (base or extended)	Template:Grid Glowstone Dust	Restores health over time by approximately every 1.2 seconds.	0:16
Template:Grid Potion of Strength (extended)	Template:Grid Potion of Strength tier I or II	Template:Grid Redstone	Adds 130% damage to all melee attacks, with or without weapons.	8:00
Template:Grid Potion of Strength II	Template:Grid Potion of Strength (base or extended)	Template:Grid Glowstone Dust	Adds 260% damage to all melee attacks, with or without weapons.	1:30
Template:Grid Potion of Swiftness (extended)	Template:Grid Potion of Swiftness tier I or II	Template:Grid Redstone	Increases player's movement, sprinting speed, and jumping length by approximately 20%.	8:00
Template:Grid Potion of Swiftness II	Template:Grid Potion of Swiftness (base or extended)	Template:Grid Glowstone Dust	Increases player's movement, sprinting speed, and jumping length by approximately 40%.	1:30
Template:Grid Potion of Night Vision (extended)	Template:Grid Potion of Night Vision	Template:Grid Redstone	Makes everything appear to be at max light level, including underwater areas.	8:00
Template:Grid Potion of Invisibility	Template:Grid Potion of Night Vision	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Renders the player invisible. Equipped/wielded items are still visible.	3:00
Template:Grid Potion of Invisibility (extended)	Template:Grid Potion of Night Vision (extended)	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Renders the player invisible. Equipped/wielded items are still visible.	8:00
Template:Grid Potion of Invisibility (extended)	Template:Grid Potion of Invisibility	Template:Grid Redstone	Renders the player invisible. Equipped/wielded items are still visible.	8:00
Template:Grid Potion of Water Breathing (extended)	Template:Grid Potion of Water Breathing (base or reverted)	Template:Grid Redstone	Does not deplete the oxygen bar when underwater.	8:00

Negative

Potion	Base	Reagent	Effect	Duration (minutes)
Template:Grid Potion of Harming	Template:Grid Potion of Healing or Template:Grid Potion of Poison	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Inflicts of damage.	Instant
Template:Grid Potion of Harming II	Template:Grid Potion of Healing II or Template:Grid Potion of Poison II	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Inflicts of damage.	Instant
Template:Grid Potion of Harming II	Template:Grid Potion of Harming (base or reverted)	Template:Grid Glowstone Dust	Inflicts of damage.	Instant
Template:Grid Potion of Poison (extended)	Template:Grid Potion of Poison tier I or II	Template:Grid Redstone	Poisons the player for the given time, reducing the health to a minimum of , at a rate of approximately per two seconds.	2:00
Template:Grid Potion of Poison II	Template:Grid Potion of Poison (base or extended)	Template:Grid Glowstone Dust	Poisons the player for the given time, reducing the health to a minimum of , at a rate of approximately per second.	0:22
Template:Grid Potion of Slowness	Template:Grid Potion of Fire Resistance or Template:Grid Potion of Swiftness	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Player's movement is slowed to a crouch for the given time.	1:30
Template:Grid Potion of Slowness (extended)	Template:Grid Potion of Slowness (base or reverted)	Template:Grid Redstone	Player's movement is slowed to a crouch for the given time.	3:00
Template:Grid Potion of Slowness (extended)	Template:Grid Potion of Fire Resistance (extended) or Template:Grid Potion of Swiftness (extended)	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Player's movement is slowed to a crouch for the given time.	3:00
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness	Template:Grid Potion of Strength or Template:Grid Potion of Regeneration	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Reduces all melee attacks by damage.	1:30
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness (extended)	Template:Grid Potion of Strength (extended) or Template:Grid Potion of Regeneration (extended)	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Reduces all melee attacks by damage.	4:00
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness (extended)	Template:Grid Potion of Weakness (base or reverted)	Template:Grid Redstone	Reduces all melee attacks by damage.	4:00

Reverted

There are two general methods to create reverted potions, one of which involve the addition of fermented spider eyes. Reversion, in general, references changing a longer, upgraded potion into a its original weaker potion (for example, changing from a potion of poison (extended) into a potion of harming (reverted) by adding fermented spider eye).

The first method involves adding glowstone (typically) to an already upgraded tertiary potion (seen in Section 5.3.1 or 5.3.2 above). Since these tertiary potions have already been modified with redstone (typically), they can change to their original (revert) unmodified states depending on which modifier was added previously. Not all potions will revert (or react, for that matter) when glowstone powder or redstone dust is added to an upgraded tertiary potion (for example, adding redstone to an already redstone-extended potion will not yield a new potion).

The second method involves the addition of fermented spider eyes, followed by glowstone (usually). Method two works by adding fermented spider eye to an extended positive potion (i.e. an extended tertiary potion). In almost all cases, this will corrupt the potion (corruption is described in Section 4.3 above) and produce a negative potion of equal strength (in this case, extended). Then, glowstone (depending on the recipe) is added to the extended negative potion. Since these negative tertiary potions (regardless of origin) have already been modified with redstone, the addition of glowstone will revert the potion to a potion of lesser duration.

A good example of this process at work is the reversion of the potion of weakness. A potion of weakness can be made two ways. The first method is by adding fermented spider eye to a mundane potion (water bottle + ghast tear/glistering melon/blaze powder/magma cream/sugar/spider eye), then adding redstone to produce potion of weakness (extended). The second method is by adding (again) fermented spider eye to either a potion of strength or a potion of regeneration. Potions of strength and regen, in their base or extended forms, will produce potions of weakness with equal magnitude (for the sake of this example, fermented spider eye is added to potion of strength (extended) to produce potion of weakness (extended)).

Now, there should be two Potions of Weakness (4:00). Glowstone dust is added to the Potion of Weakness (Ext) which reverts the potion into a normal duration (1:30) Potion of Weakness. The act of reducing the duration from 4:00 to 1:30 is reversion. In the inventory, reverted potions will look identical to their base potion, much like mundane and mundane (extended). Their usage is also identical to their base potions, with the exception of turning into reverted potions rather than base potions.

Glowstone

Potion	Base	Reagent	Effect	Duration (minutes)
Template:Grid Potion of Fire Resistance (reverted)	Template:Grid Potion of Fire Resistance (extended)	Template:Grid Glowstone Dust	Gives immunity to damage from fire, lava, and ranged Blaze attacks.	3:00
Template:Grid Potion of Slowness (reverted)	Template:Grid Potion of Slowness (extended)	Template:Grid Glowstone Dust	Player's movement is slowed to a crouch for the given time.	1:30
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness (reverted)	Template:Grid Potion of Weakness (extended)	Template:Grid Glowstone Dust	Reduces all melee attacks by damage.	1:30
Template:Grid Potion of Water Breathing (reverted)	Template:Grid Potion of Water Breathing (extended)	Template:Grid Glowstone Dust	Does not deplete the oxygen bar when underwater.	3:00

Redstone

Potion	Base	Reagent	Effect	Duration (minutes)
Template:Grid Potion of Healing (reverted)	Template:Grid Potion of Healing II	Template:Grid Redstone	Restores per potion.	Instant
Template:Grid Potion of Harming (reverted)	Template:Grid Potion of Harming II	Template:Grid Redstone	Inflicts of damage.	Instant

Fermented Spider Eye

Potion	Base	Reagent	Effect	Duration (minutes)
Template:Grid Potion of Harming (reverted)	Template:Grid Potion of Healing (reverted) or Template:Grid Potion of Poison (extended)	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Inflicts of damage.	Instant
Template:Grid Potion of Slowness (reverted)	Template:Grid Potion of Fire Resistance (reverted) or Template:Grid Potion of Swiftness II	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Player's movement is slowed to a crouch for the given time.	1:30
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness (reverted)	Template:Grid Potion of Strength II or Template:Grid Potion of Regeneration II	Template:Grid Fermented Spider Eye	Reduces all melee attacks by damage.	1:30

Recipes

The following are the most efficient recipes to brew each potion. If two ingredients may be brewed in any order relative to each other, they are separated by a double arrow (↔).

Weakness

Fermented Spider Eye

Weakness Ext

Fermented Spider Eye ↔ Redstone

Strength

Nether Wart → Blaze Powder

Strength Ext

Nether Wart → Blaze Powder → Redstone

Strength II

Nether Wart → Blaze Powder → Glowstone Dust

Regeneration

Nether Wart → Ghast Tear

Regeneration Ext

Nether Wart → Ghast Tear → Redstone

Regeneration II

Nether Wart → Ghast Tear → Glowstone Dust

Swiftness

Nether Wart → Sugar

Swiftness Ext

Nether Wart → Sugar → Redstone

Swiftness II

Nether Wart → Sugar → Glowstone Dust

Slowness

Nether Wart → Sugar → Fermented Spider Eye

Nether Wart → Magma Cream → Fermented Spider Eye

Slowness Ext

Nether Wart → Sugar → Fermented Spider Eye ↔ Redstone

Nether Wart → Magma Cream → Fermented Spider Eye ↔ Redstone

Healing

Nether Wart → Glistering Melon

Healing II

Nether Wart → Glistering Melon → Glowstone Dust

Harming

Nether Wart → Glistering Melon → Fermented Spider Eye

Nether Wart → Spider Eye → Fermented Spider Eye

Harming II

Nether Wart → Glistering Melon → Fermented Spider Eye ↔ Glowstone Dust

Nether Wart → Spider Eye → Fermented Spider Eye ↔ Glowstone Dust

Poison

Nether Wart → Spider Eye

Poison Ext

Nether Wart → Spider Eye → Redstone

Poison II

Nether Wart → Spider Eye → Glowstone Dust

Fire Resistance

Nether Wart → Magma Cream

Fire Resistance Ext

Nether Wart → Magma Cream → Redstone

Night Vision

Nether Wart → Golden Carrot

Night Vision ext

Nether Wart → Golden Carrot → Redstone

Invisibility

Nether Wart → Golden Carrot → Fermented Spider Eye

Invisibility ext

Nether Wart → Golden Carrot → Fermented Spider Eye ↔ Redstone

Water Breathing

Nether Wart → Pufferfish

Water Breathing ext

Nether Wart → Pufferfish → Redstone

History

Potions brewing in cauldrons (1.9 pre2).

Initially, the cauldron was where potions were brewed. Code in Beta 1.9 pre2 revealed that potions were brewed by adding water to the cauldron followed by certain ingredients. Correctly combined ingredients would confer purely beneficial potion effects, and incorrect combinations added negative effects. The system was complicated, lacked a GUI, and formed many duplicate potions (i.e. two potions that were exactly the same could be made in several different ways), so Notch and Jeb came up with a new brewing method using a brewing stand. Brewing was greatly streamlined and simplified when a brewing GUI was added and most duplicate potions were removed (the total possible potions went down from 150 combinations to only 25 different potions in 31 combinations). However, this new system made some potion effects available in earlier 1.9 pre-releases inaccessible (e.g. Nausea, Blindness and Invisibility).

Throwable splash potions were introduced in Beta 1.9 Pre4 and brewed by placing gunpowder and any potion together in a brewing stand. This pre-release also introduced Glistering Melon as an ingredient to replace the instant health effect conferred by the Ghast Tear, which then added the effect of regeneration instead. This version also converted certain ingredients into base-secondary ingredients (the Spider Eye, Glistering Melon and Blaze Powder made Mundane Potion when brewed into a water bottle in addition to their previous functions), bringing the potion total to 28 different potions in 35 combinations.

In Minecraft 1.1, the time to brew potions was decreased to 20 seconds.

Potion type history

Based on information found in minecraft.jar/lang/en_US.lang, the current potion types are listed below:

• Potion of Swiftness
• Potion of Slowness
• Potion of Strength
• Potion of Weakness
• Potion of Healing
• Potion of Harming
• Potion of Regeneration
• Potion of Fire Resistance
• Potion of Water Breathing
• Potion of Poison
• Potion of Night Vision
• Potion of Invisibility
• Potion of Resistance

Due to changes in the brewing system, the following potions are currently not accessible:

• Potion of Haste
• Potion of Dullness
• Potion of Leaping
• Potion of Nausea
• Potion of Blindness
• Potion of Hunger
• Potion of Decay

Some potions also do not have a real name in minecraft (i.e. Potion of potion.healthBoost.postFix) and are currently not accessible

• Potion of potion.healthBoost.postFix
• Potion of potion.absorption.postFix
• Potion of potion.saturation.postFix

Trivia

Splash potion brewed using gunpowder.

• As long as at least one of the three bottom spaces is filled, the brewing will continue, and additional bottles of water or potion can be added. However, if the ingredient is removed, or the bottom 3 slots are emptied at any time during the process, the process will stop and nothing will have been brewed.
• The three potions do not necessarily have to be the same.
• Upgrading effect of potion that has no time parameter (i.e. Instant Health, Harming) with redstone dust has no downsides.
• Upgrading one of the above's level II effect using redstone will seemingly revert it to the original (metadata-wise, this is not the case).
• Upgrading a potion that has no level II effect (i.e. Fire Resistance, Slowness, Weakness) with glowstone has no downsides.
• Upgrading one of the above's extended potion using glowstone will seemingly revert it to the original (metadata-wise, this is not the case).
• Although Jeb said that in the 1.9 pre-release 3 there were 161 possible different potion combinations with 2,653 in the future, in the actual third pre-release only 22 different potions could be made without the use of external programs. Of those, 19 potions had one of 8 different effects.
• The Mundane Potion made from redstone has a different metadata (64) than the mundane potion made from any other ingredient (8192). Unlike Mundane 64, Mundane 8192 can be made into a Splash Mundane Potion by adding gunpowder that is, like its base potion, without any effect.
• There are many Potions that were left behind from 1.9 pre-releases that fill up different metadatas that otherwise cannot be brewed or obtained without a SMP server command or inventory editor. These potions include but are not limited to: Bungling Potion, Buttering Potion, Debonair Potion, Refined Potion.
• Splash potions can be fired by dispensers.
• More water can be taken to the Nether in one trip by filling water buckets, carrying a stack of glass bottles, and using a cauldron. This is because stackable glass bottles do not stack once they have been filled with water.
• Undead mobs (zombies, skeletons, zombie pigmen, and Withers) are unaffected by splash potions of poison and regeneration, take damage from instant health splash potions, and gain health from instant damage.

Gallery

• Potion flow chart.png

  Flow chart for potion making.

• Potion Flow.png

  The same chart, but with images.

• Potion Build.png

  Basic potion combinations.

• Potion Recipes.png

  Potion recipes

• 

See also

• Crafting
• Enchanting
• Smelting

External links

• Minecraft Forum: All About Potions And Brewing - 1.9 Reference Guide
• Minecraft Potions - A Visual Guide

Gameplay 

View at: Template:Gameplay/content [edit]