Wither effect in Minecraft, explained

Minecraft has various status effects that can be applied to any entity, including players. Some of them are positive effects that players use to survive, while others are inflicted by hostile creatures to kill players. One of the most dangerous negative status effects is called the wither. It is quite a unique effect that can easily kill players if they are not careful.

Here is everything to know about the wither effect in Minecraft.

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Everything to know wither effect in Minecraft

Which of the wither effects gets applied to an entity?

Wither, wither skeleton, and wither flowers can inflict this effect (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

As the name of the status effect clearly hints, players can get the wither effect from three different sources: wither skeletons' melee attacks, wither boss mobs' skulls, and by touching wither roses.

Wither skeletons are hostile creatures that spawn in Nether Fortresses. These are larger and darker variants of the regular skeleton that attack with a sword rather than a bow. When they attack the player with their swords, they inflict level one of the wither effect for 10 seconds.

Wither boss mob also has the ability to deal the wither effect through its wither skulls if the skull directly hits players or other entities. In normal difficulty, the effect remains for 10 seconds, but in hard mode, it remains for 40 seconds. Furthermore, the wither effect coming from the boss mob is Level 2, which inflicts double the damage.

Finally, if players or any other entity touches a wither rose, they will get the wither effect for two seconds. If they keep touching the wither rose, their effect will keep hurting them till they die. Suspicious stew made from wither rose can also apply the wither effect on a player for seven seconds.

There is also a Bedrock Edition-exclusive unused potion of decay that applies the wither effect. However, there is no way for players to brew it in survival mode.

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What does the wither effect do and how to fight it back?

Wither effect can blacken a player's heart bar and deal damage (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Simply put, when a player gets the wither effect in Minecraft, they will notice their heart bar turning black and them taking constant damage every tick. The main danger is that players can have a hard time knowing how many hearts they have while the effect is active. This will confuse them as to when they will die.

Level 1 wither effect does 0.25 hearts of damage per tick, while Level 2 does half a heart of damage.

Even though a player's heart bar is dark during the effect, they will be able to see the shine on each heart that goes away when they lose it. This way, they can know how many hearts they have lost even when it's blacked out.

Of course, another way to prevent the effect is to dodge wither skeleton and wither boss mob's attack, and to have ample milk buckets to remove the effect.

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