Poison

For the effect in Minecraft Dungeons, see MCD:Poison.

Poison

Sources	See § Causes
Particle	#87A363 (green)
Type	Negative

Poison is an effect that inflicts damage over time. It is similar to Wither, but it drains health faster, can be removed by drinking a honey bottle and it cannot kill. It can, however, reduce the entity's health all the way to 1HP.

Effect

The amount of damage inflicted to the affected entity is shown in the table below:

Level	Ticks per HP	HP per second
1	25	0.8HP × 0.4
2	12	1.66HP × 0.83
3[A]	6	3.32HP × 1.66
4[A]	3	6.66HP × 3.33
5+[B]	1	20HP × 10

The player's hearts turn dark yellow (HP or HP on Hardcore mode).

The damage stops when the affected entity is at 1HP health, but can resume if healing occurs and the affected entity is at more than 1HP health before the effect expires.

Amplifiers outside the range 0–31 (corresponding to levels 1–32) are treated modulo 32 (as though reduced by 32 until they are within the range, or alternatively as the remainder from the division by 32, i.e., 33 or 65 is treated as 1).

The effect can be removed by drinking milk or honey. In Minecraft Education and Bedrock Edition when education options are enabled, drinking antidote also removes poison.

Causes

Cause	Potency	Length	Lifetime damage	Notes
Potion of Poison	I	0:45	36HP × 18
Potion of Poison (extended)	I	1:30‌[JE only] 2:00‌[BE only]	72HP × 36‌[JE only] 96HP × 48‌[BE only]
Potion of Poison II	II	0:21‌[JE only] 0:22‌[BE only]	35HP × 17.5‌[JE only] 36HP × 18‌[BE only]
Splash Potion of Poison	I	0:45	36HP × 18	Witches throw this splash potion if their target has 8HP or more health.
Splash Potion of Poison (extended)	I	1:30‌[JE only] 2:00‌[BE only]	72HP × 36
Splash Potion of Poison II	II	0:21‌[JE only] 0:22‌[BE only]	35HP × 17.5‌[JE only] 36HP × 18‌[BE only]
Lingering Potion of Poison	I	0:11	8HP
Lingering Potion of Poison (extended)	I	0:22‌[JE only] 0:30‌[BE only]	17HP × 8.5‌[JE only] 24HP × 12‌[BE only]
Lingering Potion of Poison II	II	0:05	8HP
Arrow of Poison	I	0:05	4HP	50% chance of being dropped by Bogged.
Arrow of Poison (extended)	I	0:11‌[JE only] 0:15‌[BE only]	8HP‌[JE only] 12HP × 6‌[BE only]
Arrow of Poison II	II	0:02	3HP
Arrow from Ominous Item Spawner[1]	I	0:45	36HP × 18	Dispensed by ominous trial spawners.
Cookie‌[JE only]	I	0:45	36HP × 18	Affects only parrots. Has no effect other than the particles as the parrot is killed instantly.
Open Eyeblossom	I	0:01.25	1HP	Affects only bees. The effect is applied when a bee touches an open eyeblossom on any difficulty higher than Peaceful, or if a bee is fed an open eyeblossom.
Poisonous Potato	I	0:05	4HP	60% chance.
Pufferfish	II	1:00	48HP × 24
Suspicious Stew	I	0:11	8HP	Must be crafted from a Lily of the Valley.
Suspicious Stew	I	0:14	11HP × 5.5	Traded from expert farmer villagers.
Spider Eye	I	0:05	2HP	Dropped from spiders and apply poison when eaten.
Cave Spider	I	0:07 (normal difficulty) 0:15 (hard difficulty)	5HP (normal difficulty) 12HP × 6 (hard difficulty)	Given when it attacks an entity.
Pufferfish	I	0:03 (partially inflated) 0:06 (fully inflated)	2HP (partially inflated) 4HP (fully inflated)	Only when touched.
Bee	I	0:10 (normal difficulty) 0:18 (hard difficulty)	8HP (normal difficulty) 14HP × 7 (hard difficulty)	Given when it attacks an entity.
Bogged	II	0:04	3HP	Given when an Arrow of Poison shot by a bogged hits an entity.

Immune mobs

• Ender dragons, spiders, cave spiders, nautiluses, and all undead mobs are immune to Poison.
• Witches are 95% resistant to Poison in Bedrock Edition, but only 85% resistant in Java Edition.

Data values

ID

This section is about the effect IDs. For the IDs on potions, see Potion § Item data. For the IDs on tipped arrows, see Arrow § Metadata.

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Translation key
Poison	poison	effect.minecraft.poison

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Poison	poison	19	potion.poison

Achievements

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		Taste of Your Own Medicine	Poison a witch with a splash potion.	Throw a splash potion of poison at a witch (by facing the witch and pressing the use key).	20	Silver

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	A Furious Cocktail	Have every potion effect applied at the same time	Have all of these 17​[until: Fourth Drop 2026]/18​[upcoming] status effects applied to the player at the same time: Fire Resistance Freezing Infested Invisibility Jump Boost Night Vision Oozing Poison Regeneration Resistance Slow Falling Slowness Speed Strength Water Breathing Weakness Weaving Wind Charged The source of the effects is irrelevant for the purposes of this advancement. Other status effects may be applied to the player, but are ignored for this advancement.
	How Did We Get Here?	Have every effect applied at the same time	Have all of these 34​[until: Fourth Drop 2026]/35​[upcoming] status effects applied to the player at the same time: Absorption Bad Omen Blindness Breath of the Nautilus Conduit Power Darkness Dolphin's Grace Fire Resistance Freezing Glowing Haste Hero of the Village Hunger Infested Invisibility Jump Boost Levitation Mining Fatigue Nausea Night Vision Oozing Poison Raid Omen Regeneration Resistance Slow Falling Slowness Speed Strength Trial Omen Water Breathing Weakness Weaving Wind Charged Wither The source of the effects is irrelevant for the purposes of this advancement. Other status effects may be applied to the player, but are ignored for this advancement. This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed.

History

Java Edition

Java Edition Beta
1.8			Pre-release				Added Poison.
							Added cave spiders, which inflict Poison upon attacking.
Java Edition
1.0.0			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2				Now has an effect icon.
							Poison potions have been added, but are unobtainable without inventory editing.
							Added spider eyes, which give Poison when eaten.
			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3				Poison potions have been revamped and made obtainable in the inventory through brewing.
			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4				Splash potions have been added, including splash potions of Poison.
1.4.2			12w34a				Added poisonous potatoes, which have a chance to give Poison when eaten.
							Added witches, which may throw splash potions of Poison.
1.7.2			13w36a				Added pufferfish, which give Poison when eaten.
1.9			15w31a				Added tipped arrows, including arrows of Poison, which are currently unobtainable in survival.
			15w33a				Added lingering potions of Poison.
							Extended potions of Poison have had their effect duration reduced from 2:00 to 1:30.
							Strong potions of Poison have had their effect duration reduced from 0:22.5 to 0:21.6.
			15w44b				Arrows of Poison can now be obtained by firing an arrow into a Poison lingering potion cloud.
			16w06a				Arrows of Poison can now be crafted using lingering potions in the crafting table.
							Arrows of Poison can no longer be obtained by firing arrows into a Poison lingering potion cloud.
1.12			pre3				Cookies now give parrots the Poison effect, though this has no impact on gameplay as the parrot is immediately killed as well.
1.13			18w08b				Added pufferfish mobs, which inflict Poison to nearby mobs.
1.14			18w43a				The effect icon texture for Poison has been changed.
							Added suspicious stew, which can give the Poison effect when crafted with a lily of the valley or found in shipwrecks.
			18w43b				Fixed the icon.
1.15			19w34a				Added bees, which can give the player Poison.
			19w35a				Honey bottles now remove the Poison effect when consumed.
1.17			20w46a				The level of Poison given by pufferfish has been reduced from IV to II.[2]
1.19.4			Pre-release 3				The potion & effect color have been changed from  #4E9331 to  #87A363.
1.20.2			23w32a				The game no longer uses numeric values when storing mob effects to world. Prior to the removal of numeric IDs, this effect's numeral ID was 19.
1.20.5 Experiment Update 1.21			24w07a				Added bogged, which shoot arrows of Poison.
1.21.4			24w44a				Added eyeblossoms, which can poison bee upon interaction or when fed.
			24w45a				Bees can no longer be fed closed eyeblossoms.
							Decreased the duration of Poison obtained from suspicious stew made with a lily of the valley from 12 seconds to 11 seconds.
			24w46a				Bees no longer get poisoned when they touch a closed eyeblossom.

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.11.0			build 1				Added Poison.
							Poison can be obtained by eating rotten flesh, pufferfish or being attacked by a cave spider on normal and hard difficulty.
v0.12.1			build 1				Eating rotten flesh no longer inflicts Poison.
							Poison can be obtained from eating poisonous potatoes, spider eyes, potions of Poison, as well as splash potions of Poison.
v0.14.0			build 1				Added witches, which throw splash potions of Poison. However, the witch, itself, is immune to Poison.
v0.15.0			build 1				Added arrows of Poison, which inflict Poison effect.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0			alpha 0.17.0.1				Poison can now be obtained from lingering potions of Poison.
Bedrock Edition
1.4.0			beta 1.2.14.2				Added pufferfish mobs, which inflict Poison to nearby mobs.
			beta 1.2.20.1				Antidotes now remove the Poison effect when consumed.
1.11.0			beta 1.11.0.5				The effect icon texture for Poison has been changed.
1.13.0			beta 1.13.0.9				Poison can now be obtained from suspicious stew.
1.14.0			beta 1.14.0.1				Added bees, which can give the player Poison.
							Honey bottles now remove the Poison effect when consumed.
1.18.30			Preview 1.18.30.21				Poison damage is now reduced by the Protection enchantment to match Java Edition.[3]
1.19.10			Preview 1.19.10.23				The strength of the Poison effect given by pufferfish has been decreased.
1.20.70 Experiment Update 1.21			Preview 1.20.70.24				Added bogged, which shoot arrows of Poison.
1.21.50			Preview 1.21.50.25				Added eyeblossoms, which poison bee upon interaction.
			Preview 1.21.50.28				Closed eyeblossoms no longer poison bees.
							Bees can be fed open eyeblossoms, which apply the Poison effect.
							Reduced the duration of the Poison effect applied by open eyeblossoms.

Legacy Console Edition

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU5	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added Poison.
							Added cave spiders, which inflict Poison upon attacking.
TU7							Added potion of Poison and splash potion of Poison.
							Added spider eyes, which give Poison when eaten.
TU14		1.04					Added poisonous potatoes, which have a chance to give Poison when eaten.
TU19	CU7	1.12	1.12	1.12			Added witches, which may throw splash potions of Poison.
TU31	CU19	1.22	1.22	1.22	Patch 3		Added pufferfish, which give Poison when eaten.
TU46	CU36	1.38	1.38	1.38	Patch 15		Added tipped arrows of Poison.
							Added lingering potions of Poison.
							Extended potions of Poison have had their effect duration reduced from 2:00 to 1:30.
							Strong potions of Poison have had their effect duration reduced from 0:22.5 to 0:21.6.
TU54	CU44	1.52	1.52	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	Cookies now give parrots the Poison effect, though this isn't visible as the parrot is instantly killed apart from the particles.
TU57	CU49	1.57	1.56	1.56	Patch 27	1.0.7	Extended potions of Poison have had their effect duration increased from 1:30 back to 2:00.
							Strong potions of Poison have had their effect duration increased from 0:21.6 back to 0:22.5.
TU69		1.76	1.76	1.76	Patch 38		Added pufferfish mobs, which inflict Poison to nearby mobs.
			1.91				The effect icon texture for Poison has been changed.

Issues

Issues relating to "Poison" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• According to most medical and zoological terminology, "poison" specifically refers to a toxin that is delivered to an organism via contact or ingestion. As bees, cave spiders, and poison tipped arrows inject the player with toxins, they deliver venom, not poison.
• Pufferfish are both venomous and poisonous in-game, while real-life pufferfish are poisonous but not venomous, and their spines are used only for intimidation purposes.

References