Minecraft ominous bottle guide: How to get, uses, and more

One of the most unexpected parts of Minecraft Tricky Trials will be a major revamp to how bad omen works, as suggested by this update's snapshots. This rework saw the inclusion of new items, known as ominous bottles, which applied that effect. The revamp replaced the old system, where bad omen would be automatically applied when defeating a raid captain. However, there's a lot more to ominous bottles than it might seem.

Below is everything players need to know about ominous bottles. This includes what they do, where to find them, and how they fit into the larger bad-omen rework.

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All about Minecraft's ominous bottles

What ominous bottles do

Ominous bottles apply the bad omen effect (Image via Mojang)

Ominous bottles are the new method of applying the bad omen status effect. They come in five levels, with each applying the matching level of the status effect when consumed. The bad omen effect lasts for 100 minutes, with its duration unchanged by its level.

When consumed, an ominous bottle leaves an empty glass bottle in the player's inventory, similar to how most of Minecraft's best potions work when consumed.

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How to get ominous bottles

Ominous bottles can drop from raid captains and vaults (Image via Mojang)

Raid captain hostile Minecraft mobs are guaranteed to drop ominous bottles when defeated, which can be consumed to get bad omen. This system of getting the effect is similar to the previous one since you're still acquiring it from the same source, just less directly. When obtained this way, the items can be at any level from one to five.

Ominous bottles can also be found within Minecraft trial chambers. Bottles from levels one to two are dropped from regular vaults, while those from levels three through five are ejected from ominous vaults.

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Part of a bad omen revamp

Trial omen is one of two new effects to go along with the bad omen revamp (Image via Mojang)

The addition of ominous bottles comes as part of a larger revamp to Minecraft's bad omen and how it works. In version 1.21, it will no longer be the status effect that starts raids, either. It has instead been changed to be a foundational effect, with a couple of new effects branching off of it.

The first of these is raid omen. This essentially replaces the old bad omen and is what actually starts a raid when entering a village. The other new status effect is trial omen. Bad omen automatically converts into this when a player with bad omen is detected by a trial spawner. This converts the entire trial chamber into a more difficult, optional variant with better loot.