Wither (effect)

For the diseases in Story Mode, see Story Mode:Wither and Story Mode:Mad Wither.

Wither

Sources	See § Causes
Particle	#736156 (bistre)
Type	Negative

Wither is a status effect that inflicts damage over time. It acts similarly to Poison, save for the fact that it acts slower, can do so against the undead, and can kill on any difficulty level. It also turns the player's health bar black, making their health harder to track.

Effect

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

Level	Ticks per HP	HP per second
1	40	0.5HP × 0.25
2	20	1HP
3	10	2HP
4[note 1]	5	4HP
5[note 1]	2	10HP
6+[note 1]	1	20HP × 10

The player's hearts turn black (HP on Survival mode or HP on Hardcore mode), making it sometimes more difficult, but still possible, for the player to see their health. Amplifiers outside the range 0–31 (corresponding to levels 1–32) use modulo 32.

The death message obtained by dying to the Wither effect is <player> withered away.

Causes

Cause	Potency	Length	Lifetime damage	Notes
Potion of Decay	II	0:40	40HP × 20	‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Splash Potion of Decay	II	0:40	40HP × 20	‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Lingering Potion of Decay	II	0:10	10HP	‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Arrow of Decay	II	0:05	5HP	‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Wither	II	0:10 (normal difficulty) 0:40 (hard difficulty)	10HP (Normal difficulty) 40HP × 20 (Hard difficulty)	When wither skulls make a direct hit on the target. Normal and Hard difficulty only.
Wither Skeleton	I	0:10	5HP	Melee attack only.
Wither Rose	I	0:02[note 1]	1HP	Only when in range (within the block) and if the difficulty is higher than Peaceful. The effect is also applied when a bee is fed a wither rose.
Suspicious Stew	I	0:07	3HP	Must be made with a wither rose.

Immune mobs

• Wither skeletons, withers, and ender dragons are immune to Wither.
• Witches are 95% resistant to damage dealt by the Wither effect in Bedrock Edition, and 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
Wither	wither	effect.minecraft.wither

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Wither	wither	20	potion.wither

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	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
1.4.2			12w34a				The Wither effect has been added, and it is inflicted by the wither's wither skulls and wither skeletons.
1.14			18w43a				Added wither roses, which inflict the Wither status effect.
							Suspicious stews have been added, which can inflict the Wither status effect if crafted with a wither rose.
							Changed effect icon texture.
1.20			23w12a				The Wither effect color has been adjusted from  #352A27 to  #736156 to make it more distinguishable.
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 20.
1.21.4			24w44a				Bees are inflicted with Wither when they are fed a wither rose.
			24w45a				Decreased the duration of Wither obtained from a suspicious stew made with a wither rose from 8 seconds to 7 seconds.

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.11.0			build 1				Added the Wither status effect, which is currently unobtainable.
v0.12.1			build 1				The Wither effect is now obtainable from wither skeleton attacks.
v0.16.0			build 4				The Wither effect is now obtainable from wither skull projectiles, and potions of decay as well as splash potion and tipped arrow variants.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0			alpha 0.17.0.1				The Wither effect can now be obtained from lingering potions of decay.
Bedrock Edition
1.11.0			beta 1.11.0.5				Changed effect icon texture.
1.13.0			beta 1.13.0.9				Added suspicious stew and wither roses, which can inflict the Wither effect.
1.18.30			Preview 1.18.30.21				The Wither effect is now mitigated by Protection to match Java Edition.[1]
1.21.50			Preview 1.21.50.28				Bees are inflicted with Wither when they are fed a wither rose.

Legacy Console Edition

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU19	CU7	1.12	1.12	1.12	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added Wither.
TU69		1.76	1.76	1.76	Patch 38		The Wither effect can now be obtained from potions, splash potions, lingering potions and arrows of decay.
			1.91				The texture for the Wither effect has changed.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added the Wither status effect.

Issues

Issues relating to "Wither (effect)" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• Wither is the only status effect that can harm both living and undead mobs.

References