Minecraft's 1.21 update, also known as Tricky Trials, dropped a bunch of weird stuff into our brewing stands. Some of it, like the Oozing potion, is just pure chaos. But the Infested effect? That's a whole different level of strange. If you've ever wanted to turn a bad situation into a silverfish explosion, you've come to the right place. Honestly, figuring out how to make infested potion minecraft isn't just about following a recipe; it's about understanding why on earth you’d want a room full of twitchy, stone-eating bugs in the first place.
Most players see silverfish and run the other way. They're small. They're annoying. They have a hitbox that’s way too hard to hit when you’re panicking in a Stronghold. But Mojang decided to give us the power to spawn them on command. It's weirdly brilliant for farm designs and absolutely devastating for griefing friends who have stone-based bases.
The Raw Ingredients You’ll Need
Before you even touch a brewing stand, you need to go hunting. You can't just find these items in a village chest (usually). You need a Stone Block. Yeah, just a regular old block of stone. It’s one of the most common things in the game, yet here it is, acting as a brewing ingredient. It feels wrong, doesn't it? Putting a literal rock into a glass bottle.
But Minecraft logic doesn't care about your kitchen rules.
You also need the standard brewing kit. If you don’t have a Brewing Stand, go kill a Blaze. You’ll need the Blaze Powder anyway to fuel the stand. You’ll also need Glass Bottles filled with water to start the process. And don't forget the Nether Wart. You can't make anything useful in brewing without starting with an Awkward Potion. It’s the foundational liquid for almost every effect in the game.
Step-by-Step: How to Make Infested Potion Minecraft Style
First, get that Brewing Stand bubbling. Pop your Blaze Powder into the fuel slot on the top left. Place your three Water Bottles in the bottom slots.
The Awkward Phase
Drop a piece of Nether Wart into the top slot. Wait for the progress bar to fill up. You now have Awkward Potions. They don't do anything yet. If you drink one, you've just wasted your time and a perfectly good wart. But this is the "base" you need.
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Adding the Infestation
Now, take that Stone Block and put it where the Nether Wart was. This is the part that answers the big question of how to make infested potion minecraft. As the stone "dissolves" into the liquid, the bottles will turn a murky, dull green-grey color.
Boom. You have a Potion of Infestation.
Modifying the Chaos
If you want this to be actually useful in a fight, you shouldn't drink it yourself. Why would you want silverfish spawning out of you when you get hit? You want them spawning out of your enemies.
- Add Glowstone Dust if you want to increase the potency (though for Infested, duration is usually better).
- Add Redstone Dust to make the effect last longer. Usually, the base potion lasts 3 minutes, but Redstone bumps it to 8.
- Add Gunpowder to turn it into a Splash Potion. This is the gold standard. You throw it at a mob, and now they are the ones infested.
- Add Dragon's Breath if you want a Lingering Potion, perfect for area denial.
What Does the Infested Effect Actually Do?
It’s not a poison. It’s not a debuff that slows people down.
When a creature is "Infested," it has a 10% chance to spawn 1-2 silverfish every single time it takes damage. Think about that for a second. If you hit a zombie with a weak sword or a flurry of snowballs, you aren't just hurting the zombie. You are creating an army.
In the Trial Chambers, where this effect was first introduced via Ominous Bottles and Trial Spawners, this can get out of hand fast. If you’re fighting a Breeze and a bunch of Infested zombies, the floor will quickly be covered in silverfish. They are small, they are fast, and they call their friends.
Why This Potion is a Game Changer for Farms
Let’s talk meta. Minecraft players love a good farm. Silverfish are usually a byproduct of a ruined portal or a stronghold, but with the Infested potion, you can essentially create a silverfish spawner anywhere.
Imagine a setup where you have a trapped Ravager or a high-health mob. You splash them with an 8-minute Infested Potion. Then, you set up a mechanism to deal tiny amounts of damage—maybe a berry bush or a very slow clock with a dispenser. Every time that mob takes a tick of damage, there is a 10% chance a silverfish pops out.
If you funnel those silverfish into a kill chamber, you’ve got a unique XP farm or a way to farm silverfish drops if Mojang ever gives them a better loot table. Right now, it’s mostly about the XP and the sheer chaos of it.
The PvP Nightmare
If you’re on a faction server or just playing with friends, throwing a Splash Potion of Infestation is a top-tier move. It’s psychological warfare. Most players know how to fight a guy with a sword. Most players do not know how to handle it when every time they take a hit, two silverfish spawn at their feet and start pushing them around.
Silverfish have a tiny hitbox. They are incredibly annoying to hit with a sword, especially if you have "Sweep Attack" on and you keep missing the main target because of the bugs. They also break the rhythm of a fight. You get knocked back. Your aim gets thrown off.
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It's rude. It's messy. It's perfect.
Common Mistakes When Making the Potion
People often forget that you can't use Cobblestone. It has to be Stone. You need to smelt your cobblestone in a furnace or use a Silk Touch pickaxe to get the smooth stuff. If you try to put Cobblestone in the brewing stand, absolutely nothing will happen. You'll just be staring at a silent stand wondering why the magic isn't happening.
Another mistake? Drinking it yourself. Seriously. Unless you have a very specific "Thorns" build where you want to surprise an attacker with bugs, drinking an Infested potion is basically a self-inflicted prank.
Technical Details for the Nerds
If you’re looking at the data values, the Infested effect is technically a "mob-based" trigger. Unlike Poison or Wither, which check for a timer to deal damage, Infested checks for the damage_taken event.
Because of this, the potion is exponentially more dangerous when used against mobs that take frequent, small hits.
- Wither Roses: Great for triggering silverfish spawns.
- Cacti: Hilarious if you can lure an infested mob into a corner.
- Sweet Berry Bushes: The ultimate low-effort trigger.
Interestingly, the silverfish spawned by this potion don't act exactly like stronghold silverfish. They won't immediately try to burrow into nearby stone blocks unless they are "idle" for a while. In the heat of combat, they are purely aggressive.
Final Practical Steps
Go get some stone. Smelt it. Head to the Nether and grab your warts.
- Craft your bottles and fill them at a water source.
- Brew the Awkward Potion using Nether Wart.
- Add the Stone Block to create the Infested Potion.
- Upgrade to Splash using Gunpowder—this is non-negotiable for practical use.
- Test it out on a group of cows. It’s cruel, sure, but it’s the best way to see the spawn rate in action before you take it into a Trial Chamber or a base raid.
The Infested effect is one of those additions that makes Minecraft feel "weird" again. It's a return to the sandbox roots where items interact in unexpected ways. Now that you know the secret of the stone block, go forth and cause some buggy mayhem.
The next time someone asks how to make infested potion minecraft, you can show them. Or better yet, just splash them and let the silverfish do the talking.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Smelt at least half a stack of Cobblestone immediately so you have a steady supply of Stone for brewing.
- Locate a Trial Chamber to find Ominous Bottles, which can sometimes grant the Infested effect for free without the brewing process.
- Set up a simple "Bug Box"—a 3x3 glass room where you can splash a zombie and observe the silverfish spawn rates to get a feel for the 10% trigger chance.