How much faster does the Potion of Swiftness make you?

The base potion adds 20 percent movement speed. Upgrading it with glowstone dust creates Speed II, which adds 40 percent, but the duration drops to one minute and thirty seconds.

Can I make Swiftness last longer and be stronger at the same time?

No. Redstone extends the duration to eight minutes and glowstone raises the level, but the two modifiers cannot be applied to the same bottle. Brew separate batches for each job.

Where does sugar come from in Minecraft?

Craft sugar cane into sugar, one for one. Sugar cane grows naturally on blocks next to water and is easy to farm in rows along a river or pond.

Does the Potion of Swiftness work on mobs?

The splash version speeds up most land mobs and other players. It does not affect bosses or flying mobs, and it will not make horses or boats faster.

How to Make a Potion of Swiftness in Minecraft

Walking everywhere in Minecraft gets old fast, especially when your base, your mine and your farms are hundreds of blocks apart. The Potion of Swiftness is the early answer to that problem. It is cheap, it brews from one of the most common crops in the game, and a single batch can carry you through a long exploration session or get you out of trouble when a creeper drops off a ledge behind you.

What the Potion of Swiftness does

The standard potion increases your movement speed by 20 percent for three minutes. That covers sprinting and walking alike, and your field of view widens slightly while it is active, which makes the speed feel even snappier. It does not make you swim or ride faster, and it will not help a horse, but on foot it turns long supply runs into something far more bearable. Splash versions work on other players and most land mobs too, though bosses and flying mobs ignore it.

What you need

Awkward Potion, up to three bottles
Sugar, the ingredient that adds the speed
Brewing stand with blaze powder for fuel
Optional: redstone, glowstone dust and gunpowder for upgrades

Getting the sugar

Sugar comes from sugar cane, the tall green reeds that grow on grass, dirt and sand right beside water in most Overworld biomes. Break the middle or top of a stalk and the pieces above it drop too. One cane placed anywhere in a crafting grid becomes one sugar. Plant a row of cane along a riverbank near your base early on, because sugar also feeds into cake, books and fermented spider eyes, and you will go through more of it than you expect. Wandering traders occasionally sell it, but farming is faster and free.

How to brew it

Fuel the brewing stand with blaze powder in the left slot.
Set up to three Awkward Potions in the bottom slots.
Add sugar in the top slot and wait for the brewing to finish. You now have three minutes of Swiftness per bottle.

Upgrading your Swiftness potions

Modifier	Result
Redstone dust	Same 20 percent speed, but lasts 8 minutes instead of 3
Glowstone dust	Speed II: 40 percent faster, but only 1 minute 30 seconds
Gunpowder	Splash version you can throw at yourself, friends or mobs
Dragon's breath (after gunpowder)	Lingering version that leaves a speed cloud on the ground

You cannot combine the redstone and glowstone routes. A potion is either long or strong, never both, so brew a stack of each: the eight-minute version for travelling and building, and Speed II for boss fights, escapes and races back to your dropped items after a death. One warning from experience: Speed II in the Nether is a great way to sprint straight off a gravel ledge into lava, so keep fire resistance handy when you run there.

Tips for using it well

Drink before you set off, not after you are already halfway there, and carry the splash version when travelling with friends so one throw covers the whole group at a doorway or portal. Swiftness also stacks with the Soul Speed enchantment on soul sand and soul soil, which makes Nether highways feel absurdly fast, and it shortens the walk back after a respawn more than any other early-game item. Keep a couple of bottles in your ender chest and you will wonder how you ever crossed your own world without them.