Potions

A Potion (ポーション) is one of the types of recovery items in Sword Art Online (SAO) and ALfheim Online (ALO).

In Sword Art Online
The only known potions existing in SAO are healing and antidote potions, the latter being used to either gain temporary immunity to negative status effects, like paralysis, or to negate already inflicted status effects. Unlike Crystals, all potions within the game take time to manifest the desired effect and, moreover, also have a cool-down period after use, indicated by a «Cooling» icon at the bottom of the player's view, which renders drinking another potion useless until the cool-down period expires.

However, Potions can not be inhibited by anti-crystal fields and are much cheaper than Crystals, therefore they are the main type of recovery item used in a non-critical situation. Potions are usually carried in belt pouches for easy access, as taking them out of the inventory is too time consuming in the middle of a battle.

High level healing potions are described as being sweet, like a combination of lemon juice and green tea. Such a potion could fully heal Kirito's HP on the 74th Floor within five minutes, but it has no effect on the player's fatigue.

In ALfheim Online
Potions are also used in ALfheim Online, however, unlike SAO, the game also has blue mana potions, which spell casters use to regain their mana points to be able to cast their spells. Even though the game has magic and most parties have at least 1 healer, players still use healing potions, in case a healer is not present or is not capable of keeping up with healing the player.