Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 3 is out with new features from the upcoming game drop (Image via Mojang)
Mojang has released Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 4, giving players their first hands-on look at the frosty new game drop teased at Minecraft Live. In the section below, we take a detailed look at everything new in Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 4. Icicles can naturally grow up to 5 blocks long when pointing downward, but only in areas without nearby light sources and never in the Nether.
Leather Armor offers protection from freezing, the same way it does against Powder Snow, though it won’t prevent the effect from being applied or remove it once active. The headline addition is the Ice Caves Biome, a new underground environment filled with icicles and glowing Ice Crystals, alongside the Frostbite – a chilling new zombie variant that can freeze players with its attacks. Beyond the frozen content, this snapshot also brings a significant overhaul to the Friends system, introducing a refreshed list design, new search and sorting tools, and a redesigned Other Players menu. Added the new Ice Caves Biome Added Ice Crystals Added Icicles Added the Frostbite mob Added the Freezing mob effect Added the Ice Ball The Ice Cave is a new cave biome that generates beneath colder Overworld biomes. It’s built mainly from Packed Ice and Calcite, with Icicles hanging from the ceiling and Large Icicles made of Packed Ice forming both on the ground and overhead. Patches of Snow occasionally appear on the floor, and ores generate embedded within pockets of Stone and Deepslate. Alongside typical cave mobs, Strays and Frostbites can also spawn in this biome, and Ice Crystals occasionally generate on the ground. Ice Crystal is a new crystal-like block similar to Amethyst Clusters. It breaks if its support block is removed, emits light, and can be placed in any direction. Icicle is a new block in the same family as Dripstone and Sulfur Spikes. The Frostbite is a new zombie variant capable of throwing Ice Balls. It spawns in cold and icy biomes and switches between melee and ranged combat depending on target distance and whether it’s currently holding Ice Balls. Melee attacks apply the Freezing effect, while ranged attacks throw Ice Balls directly. Frostbites transform into regular Zombies if left underwater long enough, and they drop Rotten Flesh and Ice Balls on death. They can stand on top of Powder Snow and are immune to freezing, so neither the Freezing effect nor Powder Snow slows them down. Interestingly, regular Zombies and Husks will transform into Frostbites if they stand inside Powder Snow. The Freezing effect causes affected players to shake and eventually take damage, gradually freezing them as though standing in Powder Snow for the duration. Mobs vulnerable to Freezing take a 5x damage multiplier while affected.
This was all you needed to know about Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 3 patch notes. Stay updated with the latest Asian Games 2026 news , check the Asian Games medal tally and complete Asian Games schedule .
Numerous world generation changes, including a reworked minecraft:speleothem_cluster feature with new placement options, a renamed minecraft:large_dripstone feature, new Ice Cave ore placements, a new minecraft:block_sound_set registry, several new block/item/biome tags for pathfinding and ore replacement, and a new minecraft:freezing particle type Numerous new block, item, UI, and entity textures and sounds added to support Ice Caves, Icicles, Ice Crystals, the Frostbite, and the Freezing effect Several UI textures renamed or removed as part of the Friends and Other Players redesign MC-212616 – The dye staining sound does not play when dyes are used on tamed wolves or cats MC-303468 – Pets can be teleported to incorrect coordinates when going through a nether portal MC-306017 – The main arm doesn’t swing when making a tamed wolf sit or stand while holding a matching dye MC-307830 – Framerate limited to 20 fps with the Vulkan rendering backend on some systems MC-308037 – Unselected tabs in the friends menu show white text instead of gray MC-308051 – Icons on several buttons don’t adhere to the UI pixel grid MC-308747 – The social interactions button is grayed out in LAN worlds with no players MC-308994 – The Chat Restrictions screen doesn’t display Xbox communication settings affecting chat MC-309896 – Missing periods on two tooltip strings MC-309906 – Inconsistent capitalization of “Friends List” across strings MC-310124 – Leaving a keyboard-opened menu doesn’t reselect its button on the previous screen MC-310237 – A friends error string uses an em dash inconsistently MC-310854 – Inconsistent button outlines in the friends screen MC-311932 – Caps Lock could no longer trigger sprint/sneak toggles set to “Hold” MC-311963 – A Poplar leaves subtitle string used incorrect grammar MC-312120 – Exclusive Fullscreen toggle button doesn’t update properly in windowed mode MC-312198 – Almost no small mushrooms generate on mushroom islands MC-312213 – Game crashes with custom Superflat presets containing air Snapshots are available for Minecraft: Java Edition. To install, open the Minecraft Launcher and enable snapshots in the “Installations” tab. Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.
Player Reporting
Clicking a player’s icon in the Friends list now opens their Player Options Removed the “Remove Friend” button; this is now handled through Player Options instead Redesigned the save/discard draft confirmation screen Saved report drafts no longer prompt you to discard them when exiting a world, if they can be continued later Chat reports can never be continued; Name and Skin reports can be continued if the reported player is still in your Friends list Pressing “Quit Game” in the main menu now warns you if an unsent draft report would be lost Added chunk_section_status, showing the rendering status of chunks around you (impacts performance at high view distances) Split the chunk load overlay off from visualize_chunks_on_server into a new chunk_load_status Data Pack version is now 123.0 Resource Pack version is now 100.0
They deal a small amount of damage along with knockback, dealing up to 4 damage on impact, scaling down based on velocity.
Minor tweaks to Blocks, Items and Entities Snow can now be placed on Packed Ice Snowballs now apply knockback to players Lightmap visualization is now configurable as lightmap_texture in debug options and appears in the Light group; its visibility is saved with the debug profile and can now be displayed alongside the FPS and network charts The Social Interactions screen has been replaced with the new Other Players screen The “Social Interactions” keybind has been renamed to “Other Players” The Friends button has received a new icon The “Visibility” option has moved from Online Options into the Friends list Icon buttons in the pause menu have been reordered to match the main menu Updated the design of the Friends list Added searching – the profile name text box in the Friends tab now doubles as a search box, and a search box appears in the requests tab once you have 15 or more pending requests Added sorting – a new sort button cycles between sorting by who’s online and alphabetical order Lingering Potions, Splash Potions, and a new Potion of Freezing can all be brewed using Ice Balls, and Arrows of Freezing can be crafted by placing a Lingering Potion of Freezing in the center of a crafting table surrounded by eight Arrows. Ice Balls are the new projectile thrown by Frostbites. They break apart on contact with blocks or entities, triggering a particle effect and sound.