How to Make a Poison Potion in Minecraft

Ingredients

Item	Quantity	Source
Spider Eye	1	Dropped by Spiders and Cave Spiders
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 with water to get the Water Bottles a batch of Poison starts from.
2. Add Nether Wart to brew the Awkward Potions that Poison needs as a base.
3. Add Spider Eye to produce Potion of Poison (0:45).

Variants

Variant	Modifier	Effect	Duration	Total damage
Potion of Poison	-	Poison (1 HP / 1.25s)	0:45	36 HP
Potion of Poison (Extended)	Redstone Dust	Poison (1 HP / 1.25s)	1:30	72 HP
Potion of Poison II	Glowstone Dust	Poison II (1 HP / 0.4s)	0:21	~52 HP
Splash Potion of Poison	Gunpowder	Poison (throwable)	0:33	~26 HP
Lingering Potion of Poison	Dragon's Breath on Splash	Poison (area cloud)	0:11	~8 HP

Poison cannot kill. It drains health down to 1 HP (half a heart) and then stops.

Splash and Lingering Poison

Add Gunpowder to a finished Poison potion to create a Splash Potion of Poison you can throw. A splash Poison affects every entity within a small radius on impact, and the Poison 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 Poison to create a Lingering Potion of Poison, which leaves an area-of-effect cloud of Poison on the ground. A lingering Poison cloud applies a quarter of the drinkable duration each time it touches you, and it keeps applying that Poison for as long as the cloud sits there.

Best Uses

• PvP: Splash Poison softens up opponents by draining their health over time, forcing them to use healing potions or golden apples. Follow up with a melee rush once their health is low.
• Mob weakening: Useful for weakening mobs without killing them, such as for name-tagging or transporting.
• Prerequisite for Harming: Poison can be corrupted with a Fermented Spider Eye to produce Potions of Harming.

Poison in exact numbers

Poison runs on the same forty five second clock as Regeneration, which is not a coincidence: they are mirror images built to the same length. The enhanced version is the strangest number in the whole brewing tree at four hundred and thirty two ticks, or twenty one and a half seconds, an odd figure that comes from halving the base twice rather than from any round time.

Poison: what was checked	Value in Java 26.2
What Poison applies	Poison, counted as a harmful effect
Poison base duration	900 ticks (0:45)
Poison particle colour	#87A363, stored as 8889187
Extended Poison with Redstone Dust	1800 ticks (1:30)
Poison II with Glowstone Dust	432 ticks (0:21.6) at amplifier 1
Splash Poison at the point of impact	900 ticks (0:45), the same as drinking it yourself
Splash Poison one block away	676 ticks (0:33.8); the share shrinks with every block and is nothing at four
Lingering Poison cloud	226 ticks (0:11.3) per application, a quarter of the bottle
Tipped arrow of Poison	113 ticks (0:05.7), an eighth, and eight arrows come out of one bottle
Brewing Poison	a Spider Eye on an Awkward Potion
Poison turns into	the Harming potion, with a Fermented Spider Eye

What Poison can and cannot finish

Poison never kills. Poison drains health down to a single point and stops there, which makes Poison a softener rather than a finisher, and it is why a splash Poison into a group is a setup for one sweep rather than a kill on its own. Poison runs 45 seconds at base, 90 extended and 21.6 seconds enhanced, and that last figure is the strangest number in the brewing tree. Poison does nothing to the undead, nothing to spiders and nothing to a witch, and Poison converts into Harming with a Fermented Spider Eye, which is the most common reason to brew Poison at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Poison kill me?

No. Poison drains HP down to half a heart (1 HP) but never delivers the killing blow. However, any additional damage source (a mob hit, fall damage, etc.) can finish you off while at 1 HP.

Does Poison affect undead mobs?

No. Undead mobs (Zombies, Skeletons, Wither Skeletons, Phantoms, etc.) are immune to Poison. Use Healing potions to damage undead instead.

Can I drink milk to remove Poison?

Yes. Drinking a Milk Bucket instantly removes all status effects, including Poison. A Honey Bottle also removes Poison specifically without clearing other effects.

Why is Poison II such an odd length?

It is 432 ticks, which is twenty one and a half seconds, and that number comes from halving the base twice rather than from any round figure a designer picked. The base Poison is 900 ticks and the extended one 1800, so the enhanced version is the strangest single duration in the whole brewing tree.

What else can I make out of a Poison potion?

All three versions convert with a Fermented Spider Eye: base and extended Poison both give Harming, and enhanced Poison gives enhanced Harming. That makes a batch of unused Poison worth keeping, because it turns into the instant damage potion without going back to the Awkward stage.

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Questions about Make a Poison Potion

Make a Poison Potion: what is the short version?

Fill Glass Bottles with water to get the Water Bottles a batch of Poison starts from.

What should Make a Poison Potion measure out at?

Poison runs 45 seconds at base, 90 extended and 21.6 seconds enhanced, and that last figure is the strangest number in the brewing tree.

How do the choices in Make a Poison Potion compare?

For Spider Eye, the table on this page lists Quantity: 1, Source: Dropped by Spiders and Cave Spiders.

What should you avoid while doing Make a Poison Potion?

Poison drains HP down to half a heart (1 HP) but never delivers the killing blow.