STATUS EFFECT HARMFUL NO POTION Present since 1.14 or earlier

Mining Fatigue effect in Minecraft

Mining Fatigue makes breaking blocks extremely slow and slows your attacks. In Survival it comes from Elder Guardians, which keep cursing every player near an Ocean Monument until they are dead.

At a glance

Type: Harmful
Sources: Elder Guardian
Removed by: Milk, dying

How to get Mining Fatigue

Applied byElder Guardian

How to get rid of Mining Fatigue

Removed byMilk Bucket

Drink a Milk Bucket: it clears every effect. Dying also removes it.

Command

Give Mining Fatigue for 60 seconds/effect →

/effect give @s minecraft:mining_fatigue 60 0

Remove Mining Fatigue/effect →

/effect clear @s minecraft:mining_fatigue

Why the monument makes you so slow

Every Ocean Monument has three Elder Guardians. They regularly curse players nearby with a strong Mining Fatigue, announced by a ghostly face on your screen and a loud groan. At that level you can barely break a block, so you cannot dig your way into the monument, or out of a dead end.

How to get rid of it

A Milk Bucket clears it, but the next curse is never far behind. The lasting fix is to kill all three Elder Guardians: one waits in the top room, the other two in the side wings. Once they are dead, the curse stops for good.

Preparing a monument raid

A Potion of Water Breathing or a helmet with Respiration for air.
Depth Strider boots to move fast, and Aqua Affinity to mine at normal speed underwater once the curse is gone.
A Potion of Night Vision to see the corridors.
Plenty of milk and food, since Guardians will be shooting at you the whole time.

The reward: each Elder Guardian drops a Wet Sponge, the rooms hold more sponges, and eight Blocks of Gold sit hidden in the core.

✓ Checked in Java Edition 26.3 · updated 1 November 2026