The /effect Command in Minecraft: Give Effects, Make Them Infinite and Clear Them

Who can use it

/effect is an admin command (level 2): ops and the console can use it. If typing it gives you «Unknown or incomplete command», you're not op: make yourself op from the server console with op YourName.

In the game chat it takes a slash (/effect …). In the panel's «Console», no slash, and always with the player's name or a selector like @a, because the console isn't anyone and @s doesn't point to any player.

How to write it

The shape is /effect give <who> <effect> [seconds] [amplifier] [hide particles]. Only the first two are required; if you don't set seconds, it lasts 30.

The amplifier starts at 0: 0 is level I, 1 is level II, 4 is level V. It goes up to 255. Seconds go from 1 to 1000000, or the word infinite so it never ends.

The last one, true or false, removes the particles around the player. To avoid sparkling the whole time you build, true.

1. Speed II for a minute, to yourself

   effect give @s minecraft:speed 60 1

2. Strength to a friend

   effect give Ana minecraft:strength 120 0 gives Ana Strength I for two minutes. From the panel console it's written the same way, without the slash.

3. To everyone online

   effect give @a minecraft:regeneration 10 1 heals everyone at once: handy at the start of an event.

4. Only to those nearby

   effect give @a[distance=..10] minecraft:fire_resistance 300 0 gives it to anyone 10 blocks or less from you (or from the command block).

5. To mobs

   effect give @e[type=minecraft:zombie,distance=..30] minecraft:glowing 60 0 makes nearby zombies glow, so they're visible through walls.

Infinite night vision (and any effect without an end)

It's the most searched one: seeing in caves and underwater without torches while you build. With infinite instead of the seconds, it doesn't end until you clear it, die or drink milk:

effect give @s minecraft:night_vision infinite 0 true

infinite exists since 1.19.4 (and certainly in the version a new NapNodes server comes with). On an older server, use the maximum seconds, 1000000, which is more than eleven days in a row: effect give @s minecraft:night_vision 1000000 0 true.

Others often set this way: effect give @s minecraft:water_breathing infinite 0 true for building underwater and effect give @s minecraft:haste infinite 1 true (Haste II) for digging fast.

Clearing effects

effect clear @s removes all of yours. effect clear Ana minecraft:poison removes only Ana's poison. effect clear @a cleans everyone online, for example when an event ends.

If they had none, the game answers «Target has no effects to remove»; if they didn't have that particular one, «Target doesn't have the requested effect». It's not an error: there was nothing to remove.

Without commands: a bucket of milk removes all effects, infinite ones too, and dying removes them as well.

Every effect, with its name for the command

The command takes the effect ID, with minecraft: in front (you can leave it out, but with it there's no doubt) and an underscore between words. In brackets, the name you see in the game when it differs. These are the 41 of the current version.

The good ones: speed, haste, strength, instant_health, jump_boost, regeneration, resistance, fire_resistance, water_breathing, invisibility, night_vision, health_boost, absorption, saturation, luck, slow_falling, conduit_power, dolphins_grace (Dolphin's Grace) and hero_of_the_village.

The bad ones: slowness, mining_fatigue, instant_damage, nausea, blindness, hunger, weakness, poison, wither, levitation, unluck (Bad Luck), darkness, infested, oozing, weaving and wind_charged.

The omens and the rest: bad_omen, raid_omen, trial_omen, glowing, breath_of_the_nautilus and freezing, the last two from the newest versions: if your server is older, they don't exist and the command fails.

Pressing Tab while typing the command, the game shows you the ones in your version: no need to get the spelling right.

Ideas for your server

A spawn that heals: a command block set to «Repeat» and «Always Active» under spawn with effect give @a[distance=..15] minecraft:regeneration 3 1 true. Remember that since 1.21.9 command blocks are turned on with gamerule command_blocks_work true, not in server.properties; the command blocks guide (in Spanish) explains it all.

Hide and seek or manhunt: effect give @a minecraft:glowing 30 0 and for 30 seconds everyone is visible through walls, perfect for the end of a round. The hide and seek guide (in Spanish) uses it that way.

Races and events: effect give @a minecraft:speed 120 2 true (Speed III) or effect give @a minecraft:jump_boost 120 1 true for a parkour with higher jumps.

Invulnerable for a while: Resistance V, effect give Ana minecraft:resistance 60 4 true, prevents nearly all damage. Useful for whoever runs an event or to get someone out of a tight spot.

To give them when someone joins the server, without command blocks, Skript (its guide) can run the command every time a player joins.

Common errors

«Unknown or incomplete command»: you're not op, a part is missing or the effect is misspelled (it uses the ID with an underscore: night_vision, not nightvision or «night vision»).

«Unable to apply this effect (target is either immune to effects, or has something stronger)»: they already have that effect at a higher level or for longer, or the mob can't have it (for example, Poison or Regeneration on a zombie or a skeleton, which are undead). Clear it first with effect clear and give it again.

Getting «No entity was found» from the console: you used @s or @p in the console, or the player isn't online. Type their name or @a.

Commands from old videos, like /effect Ana 16 99999 or /effect Ana clear: they're from before 1.13, with numbers instead of names and no give. They don't work today: use the shape above.

Instant Health and Instant Damage work the other way round on undead mobs: instant_damage heals them and instant_health hurts them.

Try it on your own server

To play with these commands without fear of breaking anything, the easy way is your own server where you're op. At NapNodes the free Minecraft server is a Paper server on the latest version: start it, type op YourName in its «Console» and you can use /effect, /give and the rest of the admin commands with your friends.

Frequently asked questions