Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 3: Ice Caves, the Frostbite and Freezing Arrows Kick Off the Winter Drop

Java snapshot 26.4 Snapshot 3 brings the first big look at Minecraft's winter drop: Ice Caves, icicles, a new zombie variant and a Freezing effect. Here's what's in it.

Winter is coming to Minecraft. On October 6, 2026, Mojang released 26.4 Snapshot 3 for Java Edition – the first snapshot to show off the headline features of the next game drop, which has a frosty theme. It adds a brand-new cave biome, a zombie variant that throws ice, a new status effect and a pair of new blocks that make cold caves feel very different from the dripstone and lush caves we already know.

Snapshots are test builds, so everything here can still change before the drop ships. But this is the clearest look yet at what's coming to Java Edition 26.4, which is planned for the fourth quarter of 2026.

TL;DR

• Ice Caves – a new cave biome under cold Overworld biomes, built from Packed Ice and Calcite.
• Icicles and Ice Crystals – two new blocks; icicles can fall on you, ice crystals give off light.
• Frostbite – a zombie variant that fights up close or throws Ice Balls.
• Freezing – a new effect, with potions and Arrows of Freezing.
• Snowballs now knock back players, and the Friends list gets a full redesign.

Ice Caves: a new place to explore

The Ice Caves biome generates underground beneath colder Overworld biomes. It's mostly made of Packed Ice and Calcite, with icicles hanging from the ceiling, huge packed-ice spikes on the floor and ceiling, occasional patches of snow and glowing Ice Crystals on the ground.

A few details matter for miners. Ores still appear here, but they generate inside pockets of Stone or Deepslate rather than directly in the ice. Glow Lichen doesn't spawn in this biome. And alongside the usual cave mobs, you'll run into Strays and the new Frostbite.

New blocks: Icicles and Ice Crystals

Icicles work a lot like Pointed Dripstone. They can grow up to five blocks long when hanging down, but only away from nearby light sources and never in the Nether. They damage anything they fall on, and landing on an upward-facing icicle adds extra fall damage – so watch your step in a dark ice cave. Bright light or the Nether will break them, and you can place them in any direction.

Ice Crystals are the cold cousin of Amethyst Clusters. They emit a small amount of light, can be placed on any side of a block and break if their supporting block is removed – a nice decorative option for builders.

The Frostbite

The Frostbite is a zombie variant that spawns in cold and icy biomes. It switches between melee and ranged combat depending on how far away you are and whether it's carrying Ice Balls. Its melee hits apply Freezing, while at range it hurls Ice Balls at you.

It's also built for the cold: it's immune to freezing, can stand on Powder Snow and isn't slowed by it. Leave one underwater long enough and it turns into a regular Zombie. Going the other way, Zombies and Husks that get stuck in Powder Snow turn into Frostbites. Frostbites drop Rotten Flesh and Ice Balls.

Freezing, Ice Balls and new potions

The new Freezing effect slowly freezes players for its duration, much like standing in Powder Snow – you'll shake and eventually take damage. Leather armor protects you from the freeze, though the effect itself stays on. Mobs under Freezing take extra damage, and mobs that are especially vulnerable to the cold take five times as much.

Ice Balls are thrown by Frostbites. They deal up to 4 damage, scaled by how fast they're travelling, and knock back whatever they hit. More importantly, they're a brewing ingredient: you can make regular, splash and lingering Potions of Freezing. Put a lingering potion in the middle of a crafting table and surround it with eight arrows to craft Arrows of Freezing.

Other changes

• Snow can now be placed on Packed Ice.
• Snowballs now knock back players – snowball fights just got more serious.
• The Friends list has been redesigned with search and sorting, and a new Player Options screen handles friend requests, muting and reporting.
• Social Interactions has been replaced by a new Other Players menu, available in LAN worlds, servers and Realms.
• New debug overlays for chunk and lightmap status, plus a batch of bug fixes – including pets teleporting to the wrong coordinates through Nether portals and a Vulkan issue that capped some systems at 20 FPS.

Data pack creators should note the jump to data pack format 123.0 and resource pack format 100.0, along with new world-generation options for speleothem clusters.

How to try it

Open the Minecraft Launcher, enable Snapshots in the Installations tab and launch 26.4 Snapshot 3. Snapshots can corrupt worlds, so back up your saves or use a separate game folder. Bedrock players got an early look at the Ice Caves and the Frostbite in a Preview build at the end of September.

What else is coming

The winter drop isn't the only Minecraft news this autumn. The previous Java drop, Wilderness Bound (26.3), only arrived on September 15 with the dappled forest biome, poplar wood and abandoned camps. And on October 27, Minecraft launches natively on Nintendo Switch 2, with Vibrant Visuals switched on by default and a digital upgrade path for existing Switch owners.

What it means for players

Ice Caves give cold-biome worlds a reason to dig, the Frostbite adds a genuinely new threat to snowy nights, and Arrows of Freezing hand archers a useful new tool. Expect more snapshots to fine-tune all of this before the full drop lands later this year.

This article was written by AI (Claude) and checked against the sources above. Games are updated regularly, so details may change.