How to Make a Harming Potion in Minecraft

Ingredients

Item	Quantity	Source
Fermented Spider Eye	1	Crafted from Spider Eye + Brown Mushroom + Sugar
Potion of Healing or Potion of Poison	1-3	Brewed (see those guides)

Brewing Paths

There are two ways to brew Harming:

Path A: From Healing

1. Water Bottle + Nether Wart = Awkward Potion
2. Awkward Potion + Glistering Melon Slice = Potion of Healing
3. Potion of Healing + Fermented Spider Eye = Potion of Harming

Path B: From Poison

1. Water Bottle + Nether Wart = Awkward Potion
2. Awkward Potion + Spider Eye = Potion of Poison
3. Potion of Poison + Fermented Spider Eye = Potion of Harming

Variants

Variant	Modifier	Effect	Damage
Potion of Harming	-	Instant Damage	6 HP (3 hearts)
Potion of Harming II	Glowstone Dust	Instant Damage II	12 HP (6 hearts)
Splash Potion of Harming	Gunpowder	Instant Damage (throwable)	6 HP
Splash Potion of Harming II	Glowstone Dust + Gunpowder	Instant Damage II (throwable)	12 HP
Lingering Potion of Harming	Dragon's Breath on Splash	Instant Damage (area cloud)	6 HP per tick

Harming is instant, so Redstone Dust has no effect.

Splash and Lingering Harming

Add Gunpowder to a finished Harming potion to create a Splash Potion of Harming you can throw. A splash Harming affects every entity within a small radius on impact, and the Harming it applies is at full strength where the bottle lands, dropping away with distance until it is nothing four blocks out. Add Dragon's Breath to a Splash Potion of Harming to create a Lingering Potion of Harming, which leaves an area-of-effect cloud of Harming on the ground. A lingering Harming cloud applies a quarter of the drinkable duration each time it touches you, and it keeps applying that Harming for as long as the cloud sits there.

Best Uses

• PvP: Splash Harming II deals 6 hearts of instant, armour-bypassing damage. It ignores Protection enchantments entirely because the damage type is magic. This makes it one of the deadliest PvP tools in the game.
• Undead healing: Harming potions actually heal undead mobs. Splash Harming on your own tamed zombie horse or wither skeleton minions restores their health.
• Tipped Arrows: Arrows of Harming II are devastating in ranged PvP since the arrow damage stacks with the potion effect.

Harming in exact numbers

Instant Damage is stored the same way as Instant Health, with a single tick of duration and no timer, and it is reachable from two directions: a Fermented Spider Eye on either a Healing potion or a Poison potion. That double route matters when you are farming, because a batch of Poison you were not going to use converts into Harming without going back to the Awkward stage.

Harming: what was checked	Value in Java 26.2
What Harming applies	Instant damage, counted as a harmful effect
Harming base duration	instant, no timer at all
Harming particle colour	#A9656A, stored as 11101546
Harming II with Glowstone Dust	instant, at amplifier 1
Brewing Harming	a Fermented Spider Eye on the Healing potion
Brewing Harming	a Fermented Spider Eye on the Poison potion
Brewing Harming	a Fermented Spider Eye on the extended Poison potion

Harming, the potion you throw

Harming is instant damage and Harming is almost never drunk. Harming as a splash lands six damage at level one and twelve at level two, which one-shots a silverfish, a vex and a bat, and takes a sizeable bite out of a player who is already hurt. Harming heals the undead instead of hurting them, so a Harming splash in a stronghold corridor helps the zombies. Harming is reachable from Healing and from Poison, and Harming refuses Redstone Dust, because a single tick of duration has nothing to extend.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Harming bypass armour?

Yes. Instant Damage is classified as magic damage and bypasses all armour and Protection enchantments. Only the Resistance effect reduces it.

Which path is more efficient: Healing or Poison?

Both produce identical results. Use whichever ingredient you have more of. If you are mass-producing Harming II, the Healing path is slightly more common because Glistering Melon Slices are easier to farm than Spider Eyes in bulk.

Does Harming heal undead?

Yes. Instant Damage heals undead mobs the same way Instant Health damages them. This is due to the inverted potion mechanics for undead entities.

Can I reach Harming from two different potions?

Yes, and that is unusual. A Fermented Spider Eye on a Healing potion gives Harming, and the same eye on a Poison potion gives Harming too, with the enhanced versions of both leading to enhanced Harming. Glowstone Dust on a base Harming is the third route to the same place.

Why can a Harming potion not be extended?

Instant Damage is stored with a single tick of duration, the same as Instant Health, so there is no clock for Redstone Dust to lengthen. Everything the potion does happens at the moment it lands, which is also why distance matters less for a thrown Harming than for a timed potion.

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Questions about Make a Harming Potion

Make a Harming Potion: what is the short version?

Add Gunpowder to a finished Harming potion to create a Splash Potion of Harming you can throw.

Where do you start with Make a Harming Potion?

Water Bottle + Nether Wart = Awkward Potion Awkward Potion + Glistering Melon Slice = Potion of Healing.

What separates the options in Make a Harming Potion?

For Fermented Spider Eye, the table on this page lists Quantity: 1, Source: Crafted from Spider Eye + Brown Mushroom + Sugar.

What should you avoid while doing Make a Harming Potion?

Harming is instant damage and Harming is almost never drunk.