How To Make a Splash Potion in Minecraft

In Minecraft, you can drink potions that give powerful buffs or apply negative effects. But why would anyone drink a brew to intentionally make their character weaker? They wouldn’t. Potions that apply debuffs to your character also work on mobs.

Sure, you won’t find any mob in Minecraft that can willingly pick up a potion and drink it. But you can splash some on them to induce weakening effects of all kinds. For that, you need a splash potion. And although these potions can offer significant advantages in combat, they’re not hard to make, theoretically. Here’s what you need to know.

Ingredients Needed for Splash Potions

You need three ingredients to make splash potions.

• Gunpowder
  
• A potion
  
• Blaze powder
  

Almost all potions can be brewed again into splash potions that apply an AoE debuff in a small radius. You can even create splash versions of uncraftable potions.

However, the potion’s effect (potency) gets reduced if you miss your target. Distance to the splash center can affect how much of the effect (healing or damage) an affected entity takes or how long the effect lasts. Splash potions in Bedrock edition last 25% shorter than their regular counterparts.

How to Brew a Splash Potion

If you know how to brew a potion, you can probably figure out how to cook a splash potion based on the list of ingredients. But let’s go over the process anyway:

1. Open the brewing station.
   
2. Add blaze powder in the fuel slot or the furthest upper left box.
   
3. Place your gunpowder in the upper middle slot of the brewing station UI.
   
4. Add a maximum of three potion bottles in the UI’s lower row.
   
5. Wait for the brewing to finish, and add the splash potions to your inventory.
   

Always aim the potion at a mob or player’s head to maximize the splash potion radius and duration. As a reference, the splash zone is an 8.25 x 8.25 x 4.25 block area expanding outwards from the point of impact.

How to Get Ingredients for Splash Potions

If you want to turn your potions into projectiles, you must do some mob farming. Gathering gunpowder is easy enough to get. You can obtain it from chests, Creepers, Witches, and Ghasts.

Then, each potion has its own list of ingredients, with farming methods ranging from easy to hard. But one of the most difficult components to farm for splash and regular potions is blaze powder.

Blaze powder is made from blaze rods at the crafting bench. However, blaze rods only drop from killing Blazes in the Nether. That’s one of the most challenging mobs in the game, especially for new or under-geared players.

Blaze mobs are agile, shoot high-damage fireballs, and only have a default 50% drop rate for blaze rods. Since one blaze rod only yields two blaze powder, players must farm Nether fortresses a lot to create multiple potions and eventually access the End.

How Splash Potions Work

It’s important to understand that each splash potion in Minecraft only applies one effect to its targets. And both positive and negative potion effects can interact with monsters.

For example, a splash healing potion can heal or deal damage to monsters. Mobs that spawn in the world, like spiders and other passive creatures, are healed by this potion. However, mobs of the undead variety, like zombies and skeleton archers or warriors, take damage.

The exact reverse happens with harming potions.

Due to the wide range of interactions available in the game, it’s worth studying some Minecraft lore and game mechanics before investing time and resources in the wrong potions.

As mentioned, not all potions can become splash potions. You can’t transform a regular potion into a splash potion after you have already altered it with redstone dust. Redstone brewing increases the duration of a potion and makes it a player-only consumable.

Note that this can differ between various game versions.

However, glowstone dust brewing strengthens the positive and negative effects of the point. Take the standard damage potion, the potion of harming. This brew comes with two tiers – Instant Damage and Instant Damage II. You can create the latter by adding glowstone dust to the potion in the brewing stand instead of gunpowder.

After brewing the Instant Damage II version of the potion of harming, you can add gunpowder to turn it into a throwable splash potion bottle that inflicts nine damage points on mobs.

Best Splash Potions to Brew

Minecraft has a long list of potions but not all make good splash potions. The following options are worth considering in PVE and PVP scenarios.

1. Splash potion of weakness – This explosive potion reduces the affected targets’ attack damage by four (two hearts) in the Java Edition and has a variable effect in Bedrock. It can have a significant impact on low-damage mobs.
   
2. Splash potion of harm – A splash potion of harm damages regular mobs but does not affect undead mobs like skeletons, zombies, and all of their variations.
   
3. Splash potion of poison – Poison damage is a great way to engage tough mobs that you’re not well prepared for. The poison effect is also a nice way of reducing a target’s ability to heal.
   
4. Splash potion of healing – Splash potions of healing can damage undead mobs found throughout all Minecraft realms, similar to how potions of harm damage regular mobs.
   
5. Splash potion of swiftness – The splash potion of swiftness applies a speed buff of up to 40% to targets. In PVP, you can throw it at yourself and your allies to escape from sketchy situations. You can also throw it at opposing players and force them to make mistakes like falling off a cliff or going into lava.
   
6. Splash potion of invisibility – Throwing a splash potion of invisibility at yourself and other players can make you invisible for up to three minutes, depending on the brew’s potency. It’s great for navigating high mob density areas or sneaking into other players’ bases.
   Note that the Wither and Ender Dragon can still see players even when affected by the invisibility buff if they make aggressive steps. You can use it to build fortifications before starting a fight but not to attack endgame Minecraft bosses while undetected.
   
7. Splash potion of decay – The splash potion of decay applies a wither debuff, which is a more dangerous version of poison. It turns the hearts black and damages the affected target every two seconds. Unlike poison, wither can kill mobs and players.
   
8. Splash potion of slowness – This potion makes other players and mobs slower by up to 15%. It’s a great tool to have when fighting agile or large packs of mobs.
   

Other Ways to Find Splash Potions

Players who can’t survive Nether Blaze fights or don’t want to trade for blaze powder with others can still get splash potions.

For instance, splash potions of weakness may generate in brewing stands located in igloo basements. You can also get them from End cities and Ancient cities.

Additionally, players can barter with Piglins for splash potions of fire resistance. However, giving a Piglin a gold ingot only has a 1.74% chance of getting you a splash potion of fire resistance.

Another way you can get splash potions without brewing is to steal them from a cauldron. Witches cauldrons may contain splash potions of all kinds. Adding one of your bottles to the cauldron will make a bottle of splash potion of the same variety. You also remove a third of the cauldron’s content with this method. Killing wandering traders and witches has a chance of dropping potions as loot.

FAQ

Can I use a splash potion on myself in Minecraft?

Although splash potions are throwable versions of regular potions, you can still apply their effects to your character. To do this, aim the potion one or two blocks in front of you and throw it at the ground. It should be close enough that you’ll get engulfed by the colored swirls animation and receive the buff or debuff associated with the potion.

How many types of potions are there in Minecraft?

Minecraft lets players create three types of potions. Regular potions are categorized as edible items and can be consumed by players from their toolbar. Splash potions are throwable weapons while lingering potions create an area of effect cloud on the ground that can apply their effects to players and mobs.

How can you stop the effect of a potion?

Drinking a bucket of milk removes positive and negative potion effects in Minecraft.

What modifiers can you apply to potions in Minecraft?

Players can modify potions in four ways. They can make them splash using gunpowder, last longer with redstone dust, stronger with glowstone dust, or give them a lingering AoE effect by adding dragon’s breath.

Midgame Crafting for Endgame Readiness

Many Minecraft players can start gathering ingredients and brewing potions during the midgame. Using potions or splash potions of fire resistance is a great way to make yourself tankier in the Nether to farm blaze rods more consistently.

But potions are by no means mandatory to kill the Ender Dragon and beat the game. Many YouTube videos will show you that finishing Minecraft in Survival Mode is possible with minimal gear investment if you have solid game mechanics.

That said, potions can make your life easier in PVP and PVE content and allow you to explore the deepest, darkest, and most dangerous game biomes.

Do you believe they’re worth the investment? If so, what are your favorite brews to use? Tell us in the comments section below. Feel free to share some tips on using splash potions for maximum efficiency in Minecraft Survival and Hardcore.