Potion of Weakness in Minecraft
You brew it straight from a water bottle, with no Nether Wart. It is also the key ingredient for curing zombie villagers, the best way to get cheap trades from villagers in Survival.
What the Potion of Weakness does
The Potion of Weakness gives its target the Weakness effect, which lowers melee damage by 4 points (2 hearts). It only affects melee attacks. Ranged weapons work as usual.
The base version lasts 1 minute 30 seconds. Adding redstone dust raises that to 4 minutes. This effect has no level II, and glowstone dust does not change it.
The damage reduction sounds like a typical PvP tool, but the main reason to brew a Potion of Weakness is curing zombie villagers. It is the only mechanic that needs this potion, and one of the most important strategies in Survival.
Ingredients and recipe
You do not need an Awkward Potion as the base for a Potion of Weakness. Add the fermented spider eye straight to the water bottles.
Basic ingredients:
- Water Bottle (x3): a glass bottle filled from a water source or a cauldron
- Fermented Spider Eye (x1)
- Blaze Powder (x1): fuel for the brewing stand
Crafting a fermented spider eye: combine a spider eye, sugar and a brown mushroom at a crafting table. You get spider eyes from spiders, sugar from sugar cane, and brown mushrooms grow in caves and dark forests.
Modifiers:
- Redstone Dust: extends the duration to 4:00
- Gunpowder: turns it into a Splash Potion (required for curing zombie villagers)
- Dragon's Breath: turns a splash potion into a Lingering Potion (an effect cloud)
Brewing step by step
- Place a brewing stand and put blaze powder in the fuel slot (the upper left corner of the interface).
- Put 3 water bottles in the bottom slots. You do not need Nether Wart.
- Put the fermented spider eye in the top slot. After 20 seconds you get 3 Potions of Weakness (1:30).
- Splash version: add gunpowder to the finished potions. Without the splash version you cannot cure a zombie villager.
- Extended duration (optional): add redstone dust before or after the gunpowder to get a duration of 4:00.
The whole process takes about a minute. While you are at it, brew 6 to 9 potions in one go, up to three sets of three bottles. On SMP servers, Splash Potions of Weakness are the standard tool for curing villagers.
Variants: splash, lingering, arrows
| Variant | Effect | Duration | How to get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weakness | -4 melee damage | 1:30 | Base recipe |
| Weakness (extended) | -4 melee damage | 4:00 | + redstone dust |
| Splash Weakness | -4 damage (in range) | up to 1:30 | + gunpowder |
| Splash Weakness (extended) | -4 damage (in range) | up to 4:00 | + redstone dust + gunpowder |
| Lingering Weakness | -4 damage (cloud) | ~22 s (cloud) | + dragon's breath |
| Arrow of Weakness | -4 damage | 11 s | Lingering potion + 8 arrows |
A direct hit with a splash potion gives the full duration of the effect. The farther you are from the point of impact, the shorter it gets. A lingering potion creates a cloud that applies the effect to anyone who walks through it, which is useful for traps and base defense.
Curing zombie villagers
This is the most important use of the Potion of Weakness and one of the key mechanics in Minecraft. A cured zombie villager turns back into a normal villager with permanent trade discounts.
Step by step:
- Find a zombie villager. There is a 5% chance one spawns naturally instead of a regular zombie. On Hard, a villager always turns into a zombie villager when a zombie kills it (50% on Normal, 0% on Easy).
- Lock it in a safe place. A dark room with iron doors works. The zombie villager must not be exposed to sunlight or other mobs.
- Throw a Splash Potion of Weakness. Aim directly at the zombie villager. You will see gray effect particles swirling around it.
- Use a golden apple. Right-click the zombie villager while holding a Golden Apple (the regular one, not the Enchanted Golden Apple). The zombie villager will start shaking and making sounds.
- Wait a few minutes. Do not attack it and do not open the door. When the process ends, you have a normal villager.
Why bother? A cured villager lowers prices drastically, often to 1 emerald for an item that normally costs 20 or more. On Hard difficulty you can infect and cure the same villager several times on purpose. After 5 cycles prices drop to the absolute minimum. A librarian selling Mending for 1 emerald plus a book is the standard result of this technique.
Placing a bed and iron bars next to the zombie villager speeds up the cure.
Other uses
PvP: weakening an opponent
A splash potion of Weakness thrown at an opponent lowers their sword damage by 4 points. A player with a netherite sword (8 damage) now deals only 4. Combined with a Potion of Slowness, it forms a set that neutralizes a dangerous opponent.
Arrows of Weakness
A Lingering Potion of Weakness plus 8 arrows at a crafting table gives 8 Arrows of Weakness. They apply the effect for 11 seconds, which is useful for opening a ranged fight before you switch to the sword.
Base defense
A Lingering Potion of Weakness in a dispenser at the entrance to your base lowers the damage of every attacker who walks through the cloud. It is a simple and effective safeguard in multiplayer.
Tips and trivia
- For a Potion of Weakness you need no Nether Wart: a fermented spider eye and a water bottle are enough.
- Witches throw Splash Potions of Weakness in combat.
- The effect has no level II. Glowstone dust changes nothing, and the only modifier is redstone (longer duration).
- Under Weakness you deal no damage with your bare hands (base damage 1 minus 4 is effectively 0).
- Weakness only reduces melee damage, so bows, crossbows and thrown tridents are not affected.
- Milk instantly removes the Weakness effect. Carry a bucket of it in PvP.
- On an SMP server, build a "clinic" near a village: a 3x3 room with dispensers loaded with Splash Potions of Weakness and a chest of golden apples. Infect and cure villagers on Hard until prices drop to the minimum.