How to Brew and Use Splash Potions

This tutorial is an excerpt from one of our newest books - the Minecraft: Guide to Enchantments & Potions. It's jam-packed full of tips, tricks and step-by-step guides to mystical concoctions and otherworldly powers. It also looks rather pretty. You should check it out!

SPLASH POTIONS

Wouldn’t it be great if you could trick your opponents into drinking harmful potions to bring about their own demise? Realistically that’s not likely to happen, which is where splash potions come in useful—they can be thrown at mobs or other players so that they’re forced into contact with the effect. Cunning!

How to brew and use

1. You’ll need to combine a regular potion with gunpowder on your brewing stand to give it explosive properties. You can also combine water bottles with gunpowder to create splash water which put out fires.

2. Once brewed, throw a splash potion to use it. Splash potions don’t last as long as regular potions. When throwing them at mobs or players, aim for their head to ensure they last for the maximum duration.

3. When a splash potion hits its target (a player or block), it will explode, releasing its contents. Any mobs or players within an 8.25 x 8.25 x 4.25-block area centered on the impact spot will be affected. The splash potion bottle will break when used and you won’t be able to retrieve it.

When to use

1. Unlike regular mobs, undead mobs (zombies, zombie pigmen, skeletons, wither skeletons, the wither, spider jockeys and chicken jockeys) are harmed by splash potion of healing.

2. Splash water bottles will deal 1 point of damage to endermen and blazes. They will also put out fires when thrown at a block, and their flame-quenching effects will extend to the 4 blocks surrounding the impact block.

3. You can cure a zombie villager of its zombification by throwing a splash potion of weakness at it, then feeding it a golden apple.

4. Splash potions can also be launched from dispensers so that you can release large volumes.

The Minecraft: Guide to Enchantments & Potions is available to order right now - and it looks a lot nicer in print than it does on the site! Check it out here!