Frostbite

"Frozen Zombie" redirects here. For the variant from Minecraft Dungeons, see Dungeons:Frozen Zombie.

For the variant from Minecraft Dungeons II, see Dungeons II:Frozen.

This article describes content that is currently in development.

This content has appeared in development versions for Fourth Drop 2026, but the full update adding it has not been released yet.

Frostbite

Adult

Baby

Health points	24HP × 12 48HP × 24 to 120HP × 60 (leaders)‌[JE only]
Armor points	2 ()
Behavior	Hostile
Mob type	Undead Monster
Attack strength	Melee: Java Edition: Easy: 2.5HP × 1.25 Normal: 3HP Hard: 4.5HP × 2.25 Bedrock Edition: Easy: 1HP Normal: 2HP Hard: 4.5HP × 2.25 Inflicts Freezing for 3 seconds Ranged: Ice Ball: Easy: 2HP to 2.5HP × 1.25 Normal: 2HP to 3HP Hard: 3HP to 4.5HP × 2.25
Fire rate	Easy: 3.5 s Normal: 1.5 s Hard: 1.0 s
Hitbox size	Adult In Java Edition: Height: 1.95 blocks Width: 0.6 blocks Adult In Bedrock Edition: Height: 1.9 blocks Width: 0.6 blocks Baby: Height: 0.98 blocks Width: 0.49 blocks
Speed	0.21 0.315 (baby in Java Edition) 0.35 (baby in Bedrock Edition)
Knockback resistance	0%–5%
Spawn	At night or during thunderstorms in the following surface biomes: Snowy Plains Ice Spikes Frozen River Frozen Ocean Deep Frozen Ocean Legacy Frozen Ocean‌[BE only] Snowy Slopes Jagged Peaks Frozen Peaks At light level 0 in the following biomes: Ice Caves When a zombie is submerged in powder snow. When another frostbite spawns a reinforcement.‌[JE only]

A frostbite is a variant of the zombie that spawns in cold biomes or when a zombie is submerged in powder snow. Its melee attacks apply the Freezing effect to their target, and it can sometimes spawn holding ice balls, which are thrown as a ranged attack. Additionally, they have slightly more health and are slightly slower than regular zombies.

Spawning

Natural spawning

Frostbites can spawn on the surface^{[note 1]} of many cold biomes during the nighttime, as well as in ice caves.

Frostbite spawns in:

Category: Monster	Java Edition			Bedrock Edition
Spawn area	Spawn weight	Spawn chance	Group size	Spawn weight	Group size
Ice Caves	50⁄520	9.62%	4	50	2–4
Frozen Peaks[spawn 1]	25⁄540	4.63%	4	45	2–4
Ice Spikes[spawn 1]	25⁄540	4.63%	4	45	2–4
Frozen River[spawn 1]	25⁄541	4.62%	4	45	2–4
Deep Frozen Ocean[spawn 1]	25⁄545	4.59%	4	45	2–4
Frozen Ocean[spawn 1]	25⁄545	4.59%	4	45	2–4
Snowy Slopes[spawn 1]	10⁄525	1.9%	4	25	2–4
Jagged Peaks[spawn 1]	10⁄525	1.9%	4	25	2–4
Snowy Plains[spawn 1]	10⁄530	1.89%	4	25	2–4

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} ​^{[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026]}

Conversion

Zombies transform into frostbites when submerged inside powder snow for 22 seconds and retain equipped tools and armor. They cannot transform if they wear any piece of leather armor.

Variants

Baby frostbites

Baby frostbites make up 5% of frostbite spawns. They behave similarly to adult frostbites, with the following differences:

• They are much smaller than adult frostbites, with a decreased hitbox size. This allows them to fit through 1x1 block gaps.
  • Worn armor shrinks to fit their body size.
• They are much faster than adult frostbites, yet they have the same amount of health.
• The noises they make are higher-pitched than adult frostbite sound effects.
• They give 12 experience points when killed by the player or a tamed wolf, instead of 5.
• Unlike most other baby mobs, they remain babies indefinitely and never become adult frostbites, therefore golden dandelions cannot be used on them.

Jockeys

In Java Edition, most baby frostbites (except ones spawned from a baby zombie converting when submerged in powder snow) have a chance to spawn as a chicken jockey. In a chicken-free environment, each baby has a 4.75% chance of spawning as a chicken jockey, for a total 0.2375% chance for each spawned frostbite to spawn as a chicken jockey; if chickens are present, the chance increases to 0.4875%.

In Bedrock Edition, 15% of naturally spawned baby frostbites can mount a mob and become a jockey after they spawn. A jockey mob ridden by a baby frostbite adapts to the speed of its rider. A baby frostbite can ride:

Drops

On death

Java Edition:

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Rotten Flesh	0–2	66.67%	1.00	0–3	83.33%	1.50	0–4	91.67%	2.00	0–5	94.44%	2.50
	Ice Ball	0–3	75.00%	1.50	0–4	87.50%	2.00	0–5	93.75%	2.50	0–6	95.83%	3.00

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Rotten Flesh	0–2	2⁄3	1	0–3	5⁄6	3⁄2	0–4	11⁄12	2	0–5	17⁄18	5⁄2
	Ice Ball	0–3	3⁄4	3⁄2	0–4	7⁄8	2	0–5	15⁄16	5⁄2	0–6	23⁄24	3

Item		Amount	Probability
			Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Rotten Flesh	0	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄12 (8.33%)	1⁄18 (5.56%)
		1	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		2	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	5⁄18 (27.78%)
		3	0	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	5⁄18 (27.78%)
		4	0	0	1⁄12 (8.33%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		5	0	0	0	1⁄18 (5.56%)
		Average	1 (1.00)	3⁄2 (1.50)	2 (2.00)	5⁄2 (2.50)
	Ice Ball	0	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄8 (12.50%)	1⁄16 (6.25%)	1⁄24 (4.17%)
		1	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	3⁄16 (18.75%)	1⁄8 (12.50%)
		2	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	5⁄24 (20.83%)
		3	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)
		4	0	1⁄8 (12.50%)	3⁄16 (18.75%)	5⁄24 (20.83%)
		5	0	0	1⁄16 (6.25%)	1⁄8 (12.50%)
		6	0	0	0	1⁄24 (4.17%)
		Average	3⁄2 (1.50)	2 (2.00)	5⁄2 (2.50)	3 (3.00)

Killed		1
Item		Expected Drops
		Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Rotten Flesh	1.00	1.50	2.00	2.50
	Ice Ball	1.50	2.00	2.50	3.00

Bedrock Edition:

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Rotten Flesh	0–2	66.67%	1.00	0–3	66.67%	1.33	0–4	66.67%	1.67	0–5	66.67%	2.00
	Ice Ball	0–3	75.00%	1.50	0–4	75.00%	1.88	0–5	75.00%	2.25	0–6	75.00%	2.62

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Rotten Flesh	0–2	2⁄3	1	0–3	2⁄3	4⁄3	0–4	2⁄3	5⁄3	0–5	2⁄3	2
	Ice Ball	0–3	3⁄4	3⁄2	0–4	3⁄4	15⁄8	0–5	3⁄4	9⁄4	0–6	3⁄4	21⁄8

Item		Amount	Probability
			Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Rotten Flesh	0	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)
		1	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄12 (8.33%)	1⁄18 (5.56%)
		2	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		3	0	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	2⁄9 (22.22%)
		4	0	0	1⁄12 (8.33%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		5	0	0	0	1⁄18 (5.56%)
		Average	1 (1.00)	4⁄3 (1.33)	5⁄3 (1.67)	2 (2.00)
	Ice Ball	0	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)
		1	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄8 (12.50%)	1⁄16 (6.25%)	1⁄24 (4.17%)
		2	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	3⁄16 (18.75%)	1⁄8 (12.50%)
		3	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	5⁄24 (20.83%)
		4	0	1⁄8 (12.50%)	3⁄16 (18.75%)	5⁄24 (20.83%)
		5	0	0	1⁄16 (6.25%)	1⁄8 (12.50%)
		6	0	0	0	1⁄24 (4.17%)
		Average	3⁄2 (1.50)	15⁄8 (1.88)	9⁄4 (2.25)	21⁄8 (2.62)

Killed		1
Item		Expected Drops
		Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Rotten Flesh	1.00	1.33	1.67	2.00
	Ice Ball	1.50	1.88	2.25	2.62

Behavior

Attacking

A frostbite primarily uses its melee attack, which will apply the Freezing effect for 3 seconds to their target. Unlike husks, they can apply this effect while holding a weapon.

25%^{[verify for Bedrock Edition]} of frostbites spawn holding ice balls and can throw them as a ranged attack. They throw ice balls at range within 16 blocks while moving toward their target, and switch to melee attacks when they get within 2 blocks of the target. The speed at which they throw ice balls is dependent on the difficulty. Frostbites also throw ice balls if they pick up an ice ball item off the ground.

Frostbites attack players, villagers, wandering traders, iron golems, snow golems‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}, and baby turtles.

Mob type

Being an undead mob, they are:

• damaged by the status effect Instant Health and healed by the status effect Instant Damage.
• unaffected by the status effects Regeneration and Poison.
• ignored by the wither.
• affected by the Smite enchantment.
• unable to drown when submerged in water.
• immune to the Freezing status effect and do not take damage from powder snow.​^{[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026]}
• threatening to armadillos, causing them to hide in their shell.

Picking up items

Like zombies, some frostbites spawn with the ability to pick up dropped items from the ground in Normal and Hard difficulty, with the chance being higher in the latter. In Java Edition, frostbites pick up items that they happen to walk near. In Bedrock Edition, they actively search for and walk toward dropped items.

In Java Edition, standard frostbites can pick up any item except for glow ink sacs. In Bedrock Edition, they can only pick up ice balls, swords, spears, armor, and carved pumpkins. Chicken jockey riders also cannot pick up any variant of an egg.

If the picked up item is armor, the frostbite equips the armor into its respective armor slot. Carved pumpkins and heads are worn on their heads, and elytra are worn in the their chestplate slot. If the picked up item is a shield, the frostbite equips it to their offhand. It cannot use the shield to block incoming attacks, however.

If a frostbite encounters another similar item, it may drop the previous item in favor of the new one if:

• Both items are armor/weapons and the new item is better damage-wise (reduces higher damage for armor, or inflicts more damage for weapons) without considering enchantments,
• Both items are armor/weapons with the same damage reduction/infliction, the new item has NBT tags while the old does not‌^{[JE only]} or the new item is less damaged than the old item

Items dropped by mobs in exchange for another cannot be picked up by players or mobs for 10 game ticks (0.5 seconds, barring lag), but can be picked up by hoppers.

A frostbite equipped with a picked-up item becomes persistent and does not despawn, similar to being named.

Picked-up items do not cause the frostbite to drop more experience when killed.

Powder snow

Frostbites do not sink in or take damage from powder snow, and their jump height and speed is unimpeded by it. They can ascend through multiple layers of powdered snow like scaffolding.

Conversion

Like husks, frostbites transform into zombies when submerged inside water for 30 seconds. If the resulting zombie remains submerged in water, it can subsequently transform into a drowned.

Jockey

This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition.

15% of nearby baby zombies, baby husks, gurgles, or baby frostbites may ride an adult frostbite to form a jockey.

Sounds

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags	Translation key
Frostbite	frostbite	burn_in_daylight immune_to_freezing no_anger_from_wind_charge powder_snow_walkable_mobs zombies	entity.minecraft.frostbite

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Family	Translation key
Frostbite	frostbite	155	baby_undead frostbite mob monster undead zombie	entity.frostbite.name

Entity data

Frostbites have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		Monster Hunter	Attack and destroy a monster.	Kill one of these 41 monsters: Blaze Bogged Breeze Camel Husk Cave Spider Creaking (by destroying its creaking heart) Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Parched Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Horse Zombie Nautilus Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this achievement.	15	Bronze
		It Spreads	Kill a mob next to a catalyst	Kill any mob that drops experience near a sculk catalyst, with the sole exception of the ender dragon. Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this achievement.	10	Bronze

Achievements that apply to all mobs:

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		Overkill	Deal nine hearts of damage in a single hit.	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have nine hearts of health overall.	30	Bronze
		Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have 50 hearts of health overall.	20	Silver
		Mob Kabob	Hit five mobs in the same Charge attack using the Spear.	Armor stands and players also count for this achievement as they are technically mobs.	10	Bronze

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Not Today, Thank You	Deflect a projectile with a Shield	Block any projectile with a shield.
	Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Kill one of these 41​[until: Fourth Drop 2026]/42​[upcoming] monsters: Blaze Bogged Breeze Camel Husk Cave Spider Creaking (by destroying its creaking heart) Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Frostbite​[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026] Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Parched Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Horse Zombie Nautilus Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Kill any mob that drops experience near a sculk catalyst, with the sole exception of the ender dragon. Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.
	Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Kill each of these 41​[until: Fourth Drop 2026]/42​[upcoming] monsters: Blaze Bogged Breeze Camel Husk Cave Spider Creaking (by destroying its creaking heart) Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Frostbite​[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026] Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Parched Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Horse Zombie Nautilus Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.
	What Goes Around Comes Around​[upcoming: JE 26.4]	Kill a Frostbite using an Ice Ball	Receive kill credit for a frostbite that is killed by an ice ball.

Advancements that apply to all mobs:

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Adventure	Adventure, exploration and combat	Kill any mob, or be killed by any living entity.
	A Throwaway Joke	Throw a Trident at something. Note: Throwing away your only weapon is not a good idea.	Hit a mob with a thrown trident.
	Take Aim	Shoot something with an Arrow	Using a bow or a crossbow, shoot a mob with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow.
	Mob Kabob	Hit five mobs in the same Charge attack using the Spear	Armor Stand and Mannequin also count for this advancement.
	Arbalistic	Kill five unique mobs with one crossbow shot	Armor Stand and Mannequin also count for this advancement. This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed.
	Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have 50 hearts of health overall.

History

Announcement

Java Edition

Upcoming Java Edition
26.4			snap3				Added frostbites.
			snap4				Frostbites throwing ice balls now uses the sound for when an arrow is fired from a bow, instead of using the sound for a drowned throwing a trident.

Bedrock Edition

Bedrock Edition
26.60 Experiment Drop 4 of 2026			Preview 26.60.29				Added frostbites.
Upcoming Bedrock Edition
26.70			Preview 26.70.20				All features from the "Drop 4 of 2026" experiment have been implemented in vanilla.
							Frostbites can now pick up spears, but cannot charge with it.
			Preview 26.70.21				Frostbite now hold shields in the same position as zombies.
							Frostbite can no longer spawn naturally underground outside the ice caves.
							Added closed captions for when frostbites convert to zombies and vice versa.

Issues

Issues relating to "Frostbite" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• The frostbite could be considered a successor to the frozen zombie from Minecraft Dungeons, another ice-covered zombie variant which notably also attacks with thrown ice projectiles in addition to the standard melee attacks. Both are very similar in appearance as well, with the only significant difference being that the frostbite uses an original clothing design, whereas the frozen zombie simply reuses the clothes of the normal zombie.
  • The frostbite's texture even includes the palette, positioned identically to the palette in the frozen zombie's texture from Minecraft Dungeons.

Gallery

Mojang images

• 
  Efe running from frostbites
• 
  Kai beside a frostbite
• 
  A baby and an adult frostbite
• 
  Frostbites with a stray
• 
  Frostbite trying to attack the player
• 
  Frostbite in the mineshaft

Development images

• 
  A screenshot of a frostbite
• 
  A baby frostbite holding an ice ball

Renders

With an Ice Ball

• 
  Adult
• 
  Baby

Targeting

• 
  Adult
• 
  Baby

Textures

• 
  Frostbite texture on Java Edition
• 
  Frostbite overlay texture on Java Edition
• 
  Frostbite texture on Bedrock Edition
• 
  Baby frostbite texture

In other media

• 
  Frozen Zombie from Minecraft Dungeons
• 
  Frozen from Minecraft Dungeons II
• 
  Ice Zombie concept art from Minecraft Earth

See also

• Zombie
• Stray
• Husk
• Drowned