POTION HARMFUL Present since 1.14 or earlier

Potion of Slowness how to brew it in Minecraft

A Potion of Slowness cuts movement speed by 15% per level. Nobody drinks it on purpose: it is a weapon, meant to be thrown as a splash or lingering potion, or fired on Tipped Arrows to keep enemies at a distance.

Brew it step by step

Put Blaze Powder in the fuel slot and up to 3 bottles at the bottom, then add each ingredient at the top.

01 + → Awkward PotionNether Wart + Water Bottle
02 + → Potion of SwiftnessSugar + Awkward Potion
03 + → Potion of SlownessFermented Spider Eye + Potion of Swiftness
+ + → OptionalPotion of Slowness (+)Redstone Dust · Extends the duration · 4:00
+ + → OptionalPotion of Slowness IIGlowstone Dust · Level II, shorter · 0:20
+ + → OptionalSplash PotionGunpowder · Throwable
+ + → OptionalLingering PotionDragon's Breath · Leaves a cloud, base for Tipped Arrows

// Fuel: Blaze Powder

At a glance

Effect: Slowness
Duration: 1:30
With Redstone: 4:00
Level II: 0:20
Key ingredient: Fermented Spider Eye

All variants and durations

Variant	Normal	With Redstone	Level II
Potion	1:30	4:00	0:20
Splash Potion	1:30	4:00	0:20
Lingering Potion	0:23	1:00	0:05
Tipped Arrow	0:11	0:30	0:03

■ Normal · ■ With Redstone · Lingering = ¼ of the duration, Tipped Arrow = ⅛

What Slowness does

HarmfulSlowness

Reduces walking speed by 15% per level and narrows your field of view.

Other ways to get Slowness

Applied byStray

Commands

Potion/give →

/give @s minecraft:potion[potion_contents={potion:"minecraft:long_slowness"}]

Splash Potion/give →

/give @s minecraft:splash_potion[potion_contents={potion:"minecraft:long_slowness"}]

Lingering Potion/give →

/give @s minecraft:lingering_potion[potion_contents={potion:"minecraft:long_slowness"}]

How to use Slowness

Splash it on a fast enemy. A slowed mob or player cannot close the distance, which gives you time to shoot, heal or run. It works on undead and arthropods alike.
Lingering cloud on a chokepoint. Drop a Lingering Potion in a corridor or a village entrance during a raid: everything that walks through comes out slowed.
Tipped Arrows. Eight arrows around one lingering Slowness potion give eight Arrows of Slowness. With a Bow or a Crossbow, you slow targets from afar and keep them under fire longer.

Level IV or long?

The Glowstone version is brutal but short: it cuts a target's speed by more than half for a few seconds, ideal to land a finishing blow. The Redstone version slows less but for much longer, which suits arrows and lingering clouds better, since their duration is already cut.

Pitfalls

A splash potion thrown at your feet affects you too. Throw it at the target, not between you.
Walking into your own lingering cloud is easy in a hectic fight. Mark it, or place it ahead of the enemy's path.
Witches throw Slowness at you, and Strays shoot Arrows of Slowness. A Milk Bucket clears it, along with every other effect.

Free Arrows of Slowness

Strays, the skeletons of snowy biomes, sometimes drop their Arrows of Slowness when you kill them. If you fight them anyway, it saves you from brewing. To brew the potion, add a Fermented Spider Eye to a Potion of Swiftness or a Potion of Leaping. It is also one half of the Potion of the Turtle Master, which trades your speed for heavy damage reduction.

✓ Checked in Java Edition 26.3 · updated 1 November 2026