Mojang released Minecraft Bedrock Edition 26.60 on Oct 27, 2026, across all platforms. The update puts the winter-themed Fourth Drop of 2026 behind an experimental toggle, so you can explore Ice Caves and fight Frostbites in a regular world before the full drop ships.
The official Bedrock 26.60 changelog lists more than 600 bug fixes, and 89 of them came from community reports. The same patch launches the native Nintendo Switch 2 version with Vibrant Visuals. On PS5, it shows up as update 1.061.
Ice Caves, Frostbites and Freezing: the experimental features
Everything from the upcoming drop sits behind the Drop 4 of 2026 experiment. Here’s what it adds:
| Feature | What it does | Key detail |
|---|---|---|
| Ice Caves | Cave biome under cold Overworld biomes, built from Packed Ice and Calcite | No Dirt, Granite or Glow Lichen; Strays and Frostbites spawn here |
| Ice Crystal | Light source that generates on Packed Ice | Breaks when its support block goes; currently smaller than intended |
| Icicle | Grows up to 5 blocks downward in dark areas | Hurts entities that fall on it; breaks near light and in the Nether |
| Frostbite | Zombie variant from cold biomes | Melee hits apply Freezing; immune to Freezing; turns into a Zombie underwater |
| Ice Ball | Frostbite’s thrown projectile | 4 damage, scaling down with velocity, plus knockback |
| Freezing effect | Shaking, lower jump height, then damage | Vulnerable mobs take 5x damage |
| Potion and Arrow of Freezing | Brewed with Ice Balls; arrows dipped in a Cauldron | Splash and lingering variants included |
Leather Armor stops you from freezing, but the effect itself stays on. Frostbites drop Rotten Flesh and Ice Balls, which you need for the Potion of Freezing.
Notably, Zombies and Husks stuck in Powder Snow now convert into Frostbites. That makes a Powder Snow trap a reliable way to farm Ice Balls without hunting through caves.
What the 26.60 experiment doesn’t include yet
Stable 26.60 runs behind the Preview channel. Brittle Ice and Ice Cave crevasses arrived in Bedrock Preview 26.70.20 on October 13, 2026, yet neither appears in the 26.60 changelog. Hence, if you want the full cave layout, you still need Minecraft Preview.
Java players test the same drop through snapshots, with Snapshot 6 adding Snow Bricks and the Cold Sulfur Cube. Mojang hasn’t announced a name or release date for the drop at the time of writing.
How to turn on the Drop 4 of 2026 experiment
- Open Minecraft, select Play, then Create New and Create New World.
- Open the Experiments section in the world settings.
- Toggle on Drop 4 of 2026.
- Create the world and travel under a snowy biome to find Ice Caves.
Ice Caves only generate in new chunks. Moreover, a world with experiments on can’t turn them off later and won’t earn achievements, so use a copy instead of your main survival world.
Minecraft on Nintendo Switch 2: the upgrade window
The native Switch 2 version arrived alongside 26.60 with Vibrant Visuals on by default. However, Vibrant Visuals doesn’t work in split-screen or with some Marketplace worlds.
- Digital Switch 1 owners: Free upgrade to the Standard Edition in most regions. Japan, Taiwan and Thailand charge 100 JPY, 30 NTD and 25 THB.
- Upgrade window: October 27, 2026, 9 AM PT (12 PM ET) to January 31, 2027, 9 AM PT (12 PM ET).
- Deluxe and Ultimate: Discounted upgrades, only through the Nintendo eShop.
- Physical Switch 1 owners: An in-game message offers a discounted Ultimate Collection upgrade.
- Your worlds: They carry over from Switch 1. Realms also gets a free trial on Switch.
Gameplay changes in Bedrock 26.60
- Mushrooms: Red and Brown Mushrooms now place on any block with a solid top face, in any light. They still spread only under specific conditions.
- Shulkers: Pistons now push Shulkers, matching Java, so Java-style Shulker farm designs should work on Bedrock.
- Trapdoors: Snappable placement locks their direction while you hold the place button.
- Fall damage: You now take damage when landing on a solid block at a water edge.
- Mace: Wind Burst no longer launches you when you hit non-living entities like armor stands.
- Large Fireballs: They no longer set targets on fire.
- Explorer Maps: Renamed to Jungle Pyramid, Ocean Monument, Swamp Hut, Buried Trial Chambers and Woodland Mansion maps.
- Biomes: Lush Caves now replace Dripstone and Sulfur Caves in very humid regions.
Notable bug fixes
- Bundles in Double Chests no longer lose their contents.
- Weaker, longer effects resume after a stronger, shorter one expires, and the HUD shows them.
- Axolotl Regeneration no longer stacks infinitely.
- Walking into a dropped stack with a full inventory no longer duplicates items.
/filland/setblockno longer break Redstone and piston behavior, and/kickno longer kicks players when a selector matches nobody.- Sounds stay in sync after you pause and resume.
- Crashes from too many HUD hearts and malformed resource archives are gone, along with a stall during dimension transfer.
- Silent Xbox Live sign-in now times out with an error instead of hanging.
What changes for add-on creators and server owners
This is the part most likely to break something. Entity JSON in 1.26.60+ now fails to load if it contains invalid data. Affected components include movement.*, rideable, tempt, panic, healable, trail and transformation, so check your content log before updating a live server.
- Collision boxes:
minecraft:collision_boxnow requires an array. /timecommand: Newof,pause,resumeandquerysubcommands, with no Creator World Clocks experiment needed. Our Minecraft commands list covers the basics.- Script API:
@minecraft/server2.11.0 and@minecraft/server-ui2.3.0 are out of beta. - Dedicated servers: RakNet is deprecated, so the NetherNet warning is now an error.
- Structures:
.mcstructurefiles now support zlib compression.
Signing off
Bedrock 26.60 is mostly a cleanup patch with a preview of winter attached. With Brittle Ice and crevasses already in Preview, the next stable Bedrock release will likely bring the experiment closer to the full drop. If you own Minecraft digitally on Switch 1, claim the Switch 2 upgrade before January 31, 2027.
Have you tried the Ice Caves yet? Let us know in the comments below.
Mojang released it on October 27, 2026, for all Bedrock platforms. On PS5, it appears as update 1.061.
The official changelog lists more than 600 fixes. Players reported 89 of them.
Not yet. In Bedrock 26.60, Ice Caves only appear with the Drop 4 of 2026 experiment turned on.
It’s free for digital Switch 1 owners in most regions until January 31, 2027. Japan, Taiwan and Thailand charge a small fee.
Not always. Stricter entity JSON validation makes packs with invalid data fail to load, so creators may need to update them.
