Mojang finished feature work on Minecraft’s last game drop of 2026 with Java Edition 26.4 Snapshot 7 on November 3, 2026. Players call it the Winter Drop, and it is built around a frozen cave biome and a new zombie variant. Our Minecraft 26.4 Winter Update overview tracks its full timeline.
At the time of writing, Mojang hasn’t announced a release date or an official name. Previous winter drops shipped in December, so a similar window seems likely. You can test everything now: Java Edition through snapshots, Bedrock through Preview on Xbox, Windows and iOS, and Android through the Beta.
1. Ice Caves
Ice Caves are a new cave biome that generates under the Overworld’s colder biomes. They are built mostly from Packed Ice and Calcite, with snow patches and glowing Ice Crystals on the floor.
Icicles grow up to 5 blocks long from the ceiling, but only in darkness. Any nearby light source breaks a pointed icicle, so lighting up a cave also clears the overhead hazards. Glow Lichen doesn’t generate here, so bring your own torches.
The real danger sits on the surface. Crevasses are winding ravines capped with Brittle Ice, which cracks and gives way after you step on it. Frostbites cross it safely, but you won’t. Our Brittle Ice guide covers how to collect it with Silk Touch.
Ores still generate in stone and deepslate pockets inside the biome, so a trip down usually pays off. The Ice Caves guide explains how to locate one.
2. Frostbite and the Freezing effect
The Frostbite is a zombie variant that spawns in cold biomes and Ice Caves. Its melee hits apply the new Freezing effect. If it carries Ice Balls, it also attacks from range: each ball deals 4 damage, scaling down with velocity, plus knockback.
Zombies and Husks standing in Powder Snow convert into Frostbites, and Drowned turn into Zombies first. If a Frostbite stays underwater long enough, it reverts to a regular Zombie. It drops Rotten Flesh and Ice Balls.
Freezing makes you shake and then deals damage, just as Powder Snow does. Mojang added two counters during testing:
| Situation | What works |
|---|---|
| You’re freezing | Leather armor slows freezing damage but won’t remove the effect |
| You need the effect gone | Being on fire cancels Freezing (added in Snapshot 7) |
| Stopping conversions | A Zombie or Skeleton wearing any leather armor won’t convert into a Frostbite or Stray |
3. Potion and Arrows of Freezing
Ice Balls, the Frostbite’s drop, are the brewing ingredient for the Potion of Freezing. They also brew Splash and Lingering versions. For Arrows of Freezing, place a Lingering Potion of Freezing in the center of a crafting table and surround it with eight arrows.
The payoff: mobs vulnerable to freezing take 5x damage while affected. Mojang hasn’t listed which mobs count. However, in current vanilla, the extra-freeze-damage group covers Blazes, Magma Cubes and Striders, which makes these arrows a strong pick for Nether fortress runs.
One catch: Frostbites are immune, so the arrows won’t work on the mob that drops their main ingredient. See our Potion of Freezing guide for the full brewing chain.
4. Jukebox playlists
Placing a Chest, Trapped Chest or any Copper Chest directly above a Jukebox turns the chest’s discs into a playlist. Discs play in slot order and skip empty slots and non-disc items. When the playlist ends, it loops back to the first disc.
Ejecting the current disc skips to the next one. If the chest holds no discs, the current disc repeats. This replaces the hopper-and-redstone disc changers that players had to build before.
The drop also adds a new disc, “Flurry” by Hyper Potions. It has a chance to appear in Igloo basement chests and outputs a comparator signal of 7, as listed in the Snapshot 7 notes.
5. Snow, Packed Ice and Calcite brick sets
Builders get three block families:
- Snow Bricks: Crafted from 2×2 snow blocks, with slabs, stairs and walls. The stonecutter can’t make the variants, and the blocks drop themselves only when mined with a shovel.
- Packed Ice set: Bricks, slabs, stairs, walls and chiseled blocks.
- Calcite set: Calcite, Polished Calcite and Polished Calcite Bricks. All three support the stonecutter, and our Calcite guide covers where to mine the base block.
The new blocks also work with the Sulfur Cube from the previous drop. Snow Bricks give a Sulfur Cube fast sliding behavior, while Calcite makes it slow and bouncy. Feed one Blue Ice, and it freezes the water it touches, as detailed in our Snapshot 6 breakdown.
Signing off
Ice Caves and the Frostbite carry this drop, but Freezing arrows and jukebox playlists will likely see the most long-term use. Brittle Ice crevasses also add real risk to cold-biome exploration for the first time.
Snapshot 7 marks feature lock, so the remaining weeks should focus on bug fixes. Mojang could still tweak numbers such as Ice Ball damage before release.
It is the fourth and final game drop of 2026, tracked as Java Edition 26.4. It adds Ice Caves, the Frostbite, the Freezing effect, jukebox playlists and new building blocks.
As of writing, Mojang has released seven Java snapshots. Ice Caves arrived in Snapshot 3, and Snapshot 7 added the final gameplay features.
Mojang hasn’t confirmed a date yet. Previous winter drops launched in December.
No. Leather armor slows freezing damage but doesn’t remove the effect. Being on fire cancels it.
It has a chance to spawn in Igloo basement chests.
