There’s nothing more frustrating than running straight into a horde of creepers or a group of piglin brutes when you’re just trying to collect resources for your next base build. If you’ve ever wished you could slip past hostile mobs without a fight, or pull off a hilarious prank on your multiplayer server friends, the invisibility potion is exactly what you need. This guide will walk you through exactly how to make the invisibility potion in Minecraft, plus share all the little tricks most new players miss when brewing and using this handy item.
Prerequisites for Making the Invisibility Potion in Minecraft
Before you start brewing, you’ll need to gather a few key items and set up your workspace. First, you’ll need a brewing stand, which you can craft using one blaze rod and three cobblestone blocks in a crafting grid. You’ll also need blaze powder to power the brewing stand, which is crafted from blaze rods dropped by blazes in nether fortresses. One blaze powder can power 20 brewing operations, so you won’t need a ton for small batches of potions.
Next, gather your core ingredients. You’ll need nether wart, which grows on soul sand in nether fortresses. You can farm it easily at your overworld base once you bring a few samples back, as long as you plant it on soul sand blocks. You’ll also need a golden carrot, made by surrounding one regular carrot with 8 gold nuggets in a crafting grid. Carrots can be found in village farms or dropped rarely by zombies, and gold nuggets are easy to get from smelting gold ore or looting nether bastion chests. Finally, you’ll need a fermented spider eye, crafted by combining a spider eye, sugar, and a brown mushroom in any order in a crafting grid.
You’ll also need at least three glass bottles, made from three glass blocks arranged in a V shape in the crafting grid, plus access to a water source to fill them. You don’t need any fancy upgrades for your brewing stand to make the basic version of this potion, so you can start brewing as soon as you make your first trip to the nether.
Step-by-Step Brewing Process for Standard Invisibility Potion
Once you have all your ingredients gathered, the brewing process is straightforward, but it’s easy to skip a step and waste your materials if you’re not paying attention. Start by filling your glass bottles with water by right-clicking any water source with empty bottles in your hand. Place the three filled water bottles in the bottom three slots of your brewing stand interface.
Add blaze powder to the top left fuel slot of the brewing stand to activate it. You’ll see a small fuel bar fill up to confirm it’s working. Next, add nether wart to the top ingredient slot of the brewing stand. Wait 20 seconds for the brewing process to finish, and your water bottles will turn into awkward potions, the base for almost all useful potions in Minecraft.
Remove the nether wart from the ingredient slot and replace it with your golden carrot. Wait another 20 seconds, and your awkward potions will turn into 3-minute night vision potions. Don’t skip the night vision step – there’s no way to brew an invisibility potion directly from an awkward potion, so this intermediate step is non-negotiable, even if you don’t need night vision for your current mission.
Finally, replace the golden carrot in the ingredient slot with a fermented spider eye. Wait 20 more seconds, and you’ll have three standard 3-minute invisibility potions ready to use. Each potion will make you nearly undetectable to mobs and other players for the full duration, as long as you follow the usage tips we’ll cover later.
How to Upgrade Your Invisibility Potion for Longer Duration or Splash Effects
The standard 3-minute invisibility potion works great for quick trips near your base, but if you’re planning a longer exploration run or multiplayer prank, you’ll want to upgrade it to fit your needs. All upgrades are applied directly to finished invisibility potions in the brewing stand, and you can combine multiple upgrades to get the exact effect you want. Just remember to extend the duration first before changing the delivery method, to get the most out of your materials.
It’s worth noting that upgraded potions are slightly more expensive to make, but the payoff is almost always worth it. For example, an 8-minute splash invisibility potion is perfect for group raids on pillager outposts, where you and your friends can all get the effect with one throw, instead of each of you having to drink a separate potion. Just be careful not to throw splash potions by accident, as you’ll waste the entire batch if you hit a block instead of your target.
Pro Tips for Using Your Invisibility Potion Effectively
Even with a fully brewed invisibility potion, you won’t be completely undetectable if you don’t use it correctly. The biggest mistake new players make is forgetting that your armor and held items will remain visible even with the invisibility effect active. That means if you’re wearing full diamond armor and holding a netherite sword, mobs will spot you instantly, and other players will see exactly where you are. If you want to be completely undetectable, take off all your armor and keep your hand empty. You can still carry items in your inventory, just don’t hold them in your main or off-hand slot.
Another common misconception is that invisibility makes you completely undetectable to mobs. In reality, mobs can still detect you if you get within 4-5 blocks of them, even if you’re fully invisible. They can also hear you if you attack a mob, break a block, or open a chest or door nearby, so keep interactions to a minimum if you’re trying to sneak past a horde. The warden is completely immune to invisibility effects, since it uses vibration and smell to detect players, so don’t waste your potions trying to sneak through the deep dark.
If you’re using the invisibility potion for a multiplayer prank, make sure you’re playing on a server where lighthearted pranks are allowed, so you don’t get banned for griefing. Some servers also have mods that make invisible players slightly visible, so test the effect with a friend first before you try to sneak into someone’s base. You can also have fun throwing splash invisibility potions at hostile mobs to create invisible enemies for your friends to fight, for a silly surprise challenge.
Whether you’re gearing up for a dangerous nether fortress run, planning a sneaky end city raid, or just looking for a fun way to mess with your friends on your multiplayer server, the invisibility potion is one of the most versatile and underrated items in Minecraft. Now that you know how to make the invisibility potion in Minecraft, you can tweak the recipe to fit your exact needs, avoid common mistakes that waste your hard-earned nether wart and gold, and get the most out of every batch you brew. Start small by testing it out near your base first, and you’ll soon be slipping past hordes of hostile mobs like a pro.