Minecraft's Frozen Fourth Drop Begins Testing

What an Ice Cave Looks Like

Forget stone and dirt. Ice Caves generate under cold Overworld biomes and swap the usual terrain for packed ice and calcite, with granite and dirt removed from generation entirely. There's no glow lichen lighting the place up either, which makes the biome noticeably darker than other cave types unless you bring your own light or find natural ice crystals. Ore pockets still spawn normally in stone and deepslate, so there's a real reason to mine here beyond just sightseeing. Strays and the new Frostbite mob join the usual cave spawn list.

Two New Crystal Blocks

Ice Crystals are the biome's only natural light source, growing on top of packed ice in a style close to amethyst clusters. They can face any direction and break if their support block is removed. A known bug has them generating undersized for now.

Icicles hang from ceilings and behave like a frozen cousin of pointed dripstone, growing up to 5 blocks long but only in dark areas outside the Nether. Bring a light source near one and it breaks. Leave it alone under enough brightness, though, and it can detach and fall, dealing damage and extra damage to whatever it lands on.

Getting Frozen

The new Freezing effect slowly builds up on anyone affected, causing shaking, reduced jump height, and eventually damage, playing out much like standing in powder snow. Leather armor only delays it rather than stopping it outright. Mobs with a vulnerability to freezing take five times normal damage while under the effect. Brewing ice balls produces Potions of Freezing in splash and lingering forms, and dipping arrows in a cauldron of that potion creates Arrows of Freezing.

Meet the Frostbite

This new zombie variant spawns in cold and icy biomes and fights differently depending on range: melee attacks apply Freezing directly, while at a distance it switches to throwing ice balls, each dealing up to 4 damage that scales down with travel distance. It has unique animations for both attack styles across adult and baby forms. The Frostbite itself can't be frozen and ignores powder snow slowdown entirely, but spend too long underwater and it reverts to a regular zombie. On the flip side, normal zombies and husks now turn into Frostbites if they stand in powder snow. Kill one and it drops rotten flesh plus ice balls.

Testing and Feedback

Everything here sits behind the Drop 4 experimental toggle for now. Mojang is actively collecting player feedback at aka.ms/mc-gamedrop_winter26 as the biome moves through further testing.