The winter game drop features for Minecraft are now playable in testing on both platforms. Java players get them in 26.4 Snapshot 3, released October 6, 2026, while Bedrock players get the same content in Preview 26.60.29. The headline additions are the Ice Caves, a new underground biome, and the Frostbite, a zombie variant that can freeze you from range. Both are experimental and tied to the fourth drop of 2026, which is scheduled to release in December 2026.
Quick answer: On Java, open the Minecraft Launcher, enable snapshots in the Installations tab, and run 26.4 Snapshot 3. On Bedrock, enable Preview, turn on the experimental toggle, and create a new world. Then explore caves under a snowy biome.
Where Ice Caves generate and what they contain
Ice Caves form underground beneath the colder parts of the Overworld, sitting alongside dripstone and lush caves in the cave biome lineup. They appear below frozen biomes such as snowy plains, snowy taigas, and frozen oceans, and more rarely under cold biomes like taigas. In very rare cases they can leak onto the surface. Where humidity or continentalness rises, the game swaps them out for lush or dripstone caves instead.
The terrain is built mainly from Packed Ice and Calcite, with patches of snow scattered across the floor. Blobs of stone and deepslate run through the ice, and that is where ores generate, surrounded by ice that breaks quickly. A few blocks you would expect in other caves are missing here. Glow Lichen, Dirt, and Granite do not generate, so there is no ambient plant light to rely on.
Spiders, skeletons, and zombies remain ordinary cave spawns at these depths. Strays and Frostbites also appear, while aquifers may contain glow squid and drowned.
Icicles and Ice Crystals: the two new blocks
Icicles are a speleothem block in the same family as Dripstone and Sulfur Spikes. They hang from the ceiling and grow up to five blocks long when packed ice sits above them, and you can also place them on the floor as upward spikes with base, middle, and tip variants. They only grow in dark areas and never in the Nether.
Icicles melt and break when a strong light source is nearby. Carry a torch or place a heat-emitting block under a ceiling icicle and it can dislodge and fall, dealing damage to anything beneath it. Falling onto a floor spike multiplies fall damage. Light from lava lakes and ice crystals can trigger drops on its own.
Ice Crystals resemble Amethyst Clusters and grow on the ground. They emit a light level of 4, which makes them the only natural light source inside Ice Caves. You can stand on them, harvest them, and place them on any side of a block, but they break if their support block is removed. Because they give off a faint glow without the heat of a torch, they double as a safe light source that will not knock icicles loose.
The Frostbite mob and how it fights
The Frostbite is a zombie variant adapted to the cold, and it is more dangerous than a normal zombie because it switches between two attack styles based on how far away you are and whether it spawned carrying ice balls. Up close, it punches, and those hits apply the Freezing effect. At range, it throws Ice Balls that knock you backward and hit harder the closer you stand when they land.
It spawns in cold and icy biomes and burns in sunlight like other zombies. It is immune to Freezing and does not sink in Powder Snow, so it can stand on top of snow that would trap you. Kill one and it drops Rotten Flesh and Ice Balls, whether or not it was holding any. Put a Frostbite underwater long enough and it converts back into an ordinary zombie.
Turning zombies into Frostbites
Frostbites are not limited to natural spawns. A Zombie that stays inside Powder Snow long enough transforms into a Frostbite, mirroring the way zombies turn into drowned in water. A Husk goes through an extra step on Java, converting into a Zombie first before becoming a Frostbite.
The Freezing effect and leather armor
The Freezing effect makes your character shake, lowers your jump height, and slowly freezes you as if you were standing in Powder Snow, then starts dealing damage over time. It stacks extra pressure onto cave movement, where vertical drops are already a risk.
A single leather armor item shields you from freezing damage and Powder Snow. The effect can still trigger, appearing on you and slowing you down despite the protection. While it is active, mobs susceptible to Freezing take five times its damage.
Ice Balls, Freezing potions, and Freezing arrows
Ice Balls are a throwable projectile that you can pick up from Frostbites and use yourself. They deal 4 damage with knockback and decelerate sharply like snowballs, so they do less damage the slower they are moving when they hit. They break on impact with a particle effect and sound, and they are the ingredient that feeds the rest of the cold-themed crafting.
| Item | How to obtain | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Ice Ball | Dropped by Frostbites when killed | 4 damage, knockback, scales with speed |
| Potion of Freezing | Brew an Awkward Potion with an Ice Ball | Applies Freezing on use |
| Arrow of Freezing | Surround a Lingering Potion of Freezing with 8 arrows on a crafting table | Tipped arrow that applies Freezing |
The Potion of Freezing comes in regular, splash, and lingering forms, all brewed from Ice Balls. The lingering version is what you need for the arrow recipe, placed in the center of the crafting grid with eight ordinary arrows around it.
Other changes in the update
Beyond the frozen content, the snapshot and preview make a handful of smaller tweaks worth knowing before you test.
- Snow can now be placed on Packed Ice.
- Snowballs now apply knockback to players.
- The Friends list has a redesigned layout with search and sorting by online status or alphabetical order.
- A new Player Options screen gathers per-player actions like sending requests, muting, and reporting.
- The Social Interactions screen is replaced by a new Other Players screen, opened with the P key by default.
How to test the features now
Everything here is experimental and may change before the fourth drop of 2026 finalizes in December. If you want to shape how these features land, Mojang is collecting feedback for the winter drop at its dedicated feedback site, and bugs can be filed at bugs.mojang.com.
