Skip to main content
← All Guides
Potions & Brewing · 4 min read

How to Make a Water Breathing Potion in Minecraft

Full recipe for the Potion of Water Breathing in Minecraft 1.21+. Covers Pufferfish sourcing, brewing steps, duration variants, and tips for Ocean Monument raids.

Ingredients

ItemQuantitySource
Pufferfish1Fishing (uncommon catch), or Pufferfish mob bucket
Nether Wart1Nether Fortress stairwells
Blaze PowderfuelCrafted from Blaze Rods
Glass Bottle1-3Crafted from Glass

Brewing Chain

  1. Fill Glass Bottles with water to get Water Bottles.
  2. Add Nether Wart to brew Awkward Potions.
  3. Add Pufferfish to produce Potion of Water Breathing (3:00).

Variants

VariantModifierEffectDuration
Potion of Water Breathing-Breathe underwater, no drowning3:00
Potion of Water Breathing (Extended)Redstone DustBreathe underwater8:00
Splash Potion of Water BreathingGunpowderUnderwater breathing (throwable)2:15
Lingering Potion of Water BreathingDragon's Breath on SplashUnderwater breathing (area cloud)0:45

Water Breathing has no enhanced (level II) variant.

Splash and Lingering Variants

Add Gunpowder to any finished potion to create a Splash Potion you can throw. Splash potions affect all entities within a small radius on impact. Durations for splash variants are reduced to 75 % of the drinkable version. Add Dragon's Breath to a Splash Potion to create a Lingering Potion that leaves an area-of-effect cloud on the ground. Lingering potion durations are 25 % of the drinkable version.

Best Uses

  • Ocean Monuments: Essential for raiding Ocean Monuments and fighting Elder Guardians. Combine with Night Vision for full underwater clarity and Depth Strider boots for faster swimming.
  • Underwater building: The extended 8-minute version gives you plenty of time for construction work beneath the surface.
  • Shipwreck and ruin exploration: Useful for looting underwater structures without rushing back to the surface.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Water Breathing prevent Mining Fatigue from Elder Guardians?

No. Mining Fatigue is a separate debuff inflicted by Elder Guardians. Water Breathing only prevents drowning. You need to kill the Elder Guardians or drink milk to remove Mining Fatigue.

Can I combine Water Breathing with Respiration enchantment?

Water Breathing makes the Respiration enchantment redundant while active, since you do not consume air at all. However, Respiration is useful as a backup when your potion expires.

How do I get Pufferfish reliably?

Fishing with a Luck of the Sea III rod increases your chance of catching Pufferfish as a treasure item. Alternatively, you can find them as a mob in warm ocean biomes and pick them up with a water bucket.

Need a server that handles all this? Astroworld Hosting, NVMe SSDs, Pterodactyl panel, DDoS protection on every plan.

Related Tools & Resources

🔧

Minecraft Tools

Calculators, generators & server tools

🧱

Item Database

Browse all Minecraft items, stats & recipes

⚒️

Crafting Recipes

Visual crafting guides for every recipe