How to Make an Infested Potion in Minecraft

Ingredients

Item	Quantity	Source
Stone	1	Any smelted Cobblestone, or Silk Touch mining
Nether Wart	1	Nether Fortress stairwells
Blaze Powder	fuel	Crafted from Blaze Rods
Glass Bottle	1-3	Crafted from Glass

Brewing Chain

1. Fill Glass Bottles at any water source to get the Water Bottles every Infestation brew starts from.
2. Add Nether Wart to brew the Awkward Potions that Infestation needs as a base.
3. Add a block of Stone to produce the Potion of Infestation.

It has to be Stone and not Cobblestone, which is the one place people get this recipe wrong. Smelt the cobble first, or mine stone with Silk Touch.

What the effect actually does

Infestation is the only one of the four that fires while the carrier is still alive. Every time the carrier takes damage there is a one in ten chance that the hit throws out silverfish: one or two of them, launched sideways at up to ninety degrees off the direction the carrier is facing, at the height of its own body.

That means the effect scales with how long a fight lasts rather than with how much damage is dealt. A carrier that dies in two hits usually produces nothing; a carrier that survives twenty hits will be standing in a small nest by the end. Silverfish have eight health and hit for one, so the danger is the count, not the mob.

Best Uses

• Against slow fights: the longer the target survives, the worse the effect gets for whoever is fighting it.
• Not on yourself: drinking this before a hard fight adds silverfish to a fight you were already losing.
• Tipped arrows: an eighth of the duration still covers a long ranged exchange, and every arrow that lands keeps the roll going.

Infestation in exact numbers

Infestation is the only potion in the game whose payload is a probability per hit rather than a timer or a flat number. One hit in ten produces one or two silverfish, thrown out sideways from the carrier, and that keeps happening for as long as the effect runs and the carrier keeps getting hit.

Infestation: what was checked	Value in Java 26.2
What Infestation applies	Infested, counted as a harmful effect
Infestation base duration	3600 ticks (3:00)
Infestation particle colour	#8C9B8C, stored as 9214860
Splash Infestation at the point of impact	3600 ticks (3:00), the whole drinkable clock
Splash Infestation one block away	2701 ticks (2:15.1); distance eats the rest, down to nothing at four blocks
Lingering Infestation cloud	901 ticks (0:45.1), one quarter, re-applied while the cloud sits there
Tipped arrow of Infestation	451 ticks (0:22.6), one eighth, spread across the eight arrows you craft
Brewing Infestation	Stone on an Awkward Potion

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the chance of silverfish spawning?

Ten percent per hit taken. It is rolled on every instance of damage the carrier suffers, so the number of silverfish you see depends entirely on how many times the carrier is hit, not on how hard.

How many silverfish appear at once?

One or two, chosen at random, launched sideways at up to ninety degrees off the way the carrier is facing. They arrive with a push rather than standing still, which is why they end up scattered around the fight.

How long does the Infestation potion last?

3600 ticks, three minutes, with no extended or enhanced version. Across three minutes of sustained combat that is a lot of rolls, which is what makes the effect worth its ingredient.

Why does my recipe not work with Cobblestone?

Because the recipe takes Stone specifically. Cobblestone is a different item to the game, so it produces nothing at all in the stand. Smelt it in a furnace first.

Are the silverfish dangerous?

Individually, no: eight health each and one damage a bite, the smallest attack of any hostile mob. In numbers they are a real problem, and unlike a stronghold nest these keep arriving while the effect runs.

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Questions about Make an Infested Potion

What exactly is Make an Infested Potion doing here?

Fill Glass Bottles at any water source to get the Water Bottles every Infestation brew starts from.

What should Make an Infested Potion measure out at?

3600 ticks, three minutes, with no extended or enhanced version.

What separates the options in Make an Infested Potion?

For Stone, the table on this page lists Quantity: 1, Source: Any smelted Cobblestone, or Silk Touch mining.

Make an Infested Potion: what does brewing chain mean here?

Add Nether Wart to brew the Awkward Potions that Infestation needs as a base.