Ice

This article is about the regular form of ice. For the variant that does not melt, see Packed Ice. For the variant generated from the Frost Walker enchantment, see Frosted Ice. For other uses, see Ice (disambiguation).

Ice

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	0.5
Hardness	0.5
Luminous	No
Transparent	JE: Partial (-1 to light) BE: Partial (diffuses sky light, -2 to light)
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No
Map color	5 ICE
Note block instrument	Default (Harp)

Ice is a transparent block formed from frozen water, which it can melt into if broken or exposed to bright light. Its top face is slippery for most entities and causes ridden boats to move at high speeds.

Obtaining

Breaking

Ice can be easily destroyed without tools, but the use of a pickaxe speeds up the process. However, the block drops only when using a tool enchanted with Silk Touch. If mined without Silk Touch, the block drops nothing and instead is replaced with water if there is a block under the ice block.

Block	Ice
Hardness	0.5
Tool
Breaking time (sec)[A]
Default	10.75 (JE) 0.75 (BE)
Wooden	10.4 (JE) 0.4 (BE)
Stone	10.2 (JE) 0.2 (BE)
Copper	10.15 (JE) 0.15 (BE)
Iron	10.15 (JE) 0.15 (BE)
Diamond	10.1 (JE) 0.1 (BE)
Netherite	10.1 (JE) 0.1 (BE)
Golden	10.1 (JE) 0.1 (BE)
Options
Efficiency	000
Haste	001 1JEBE

Legend

• incorrect tool, drops nothing
• correct tool, drops nothing or something other than the block itself
• correct tool, drops the block itself
• italicized can be instant mined

Natural generation

Ice is generated by the freeze top layer in blocks with a temperature below 0.15 – the biome's snowfall height. Here, it replaces the top water block if exposed to the surface. This is most common in frozen oceans, frozen rivers, snowy beaches, and less commonly in lakes in any snowy biome or even exposed aquifers in mountains.

Ice generates in small blobs on the surface in frozen peaks. It can also be found in igloos‌^{[Java Edition only][1][2]} as a window and in the ice box of ancient cities.

Post-generation

Snowy biomes

Water source blocks in a snowy biome eventually freeze into ice if exposed to the sky from directly above, the block light level inside the water block is less than 10, and there is at least one horizontally adjacent non-water block. This includes non-solid blocks, even air; however, waterlogged blocks do not count. This can happen at any time of day and in any weather condition.

Water also freezes into ice in cold biomes with a base temperature of ≤ 0.05​, as long as the altitude is high enough for snowfall. Ice does not form in Cold Ocean, Deep Cold Ocean, and Deep Frozen Ocean biomes.

Ice formation occurs as part of chunk ticking, so it requires a player to be nearby, similar to crop growth and grass spreading. The speed of ice formation is affected by the game rule randomTickSpeed.​

Ice bomb

This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education.

When an ice bomb is thrown into water, it transforms the water in a 3×3×3 cube centered around the projectile into ice. This affects source water and flowing water.

Usage

Crafting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Packed Ice	Ice

Despite being created by a 3×3 recipe, packed ice is not a storage block, because it cannot be crafted back into ice. The same applies to the next tier of compression, blue ice.

Speed

Ice is slightly slippery, causing entities (excluding minecarts^[3]) to slide, including items. This allows for increased speed of items in water currents, by placing ice blocks under the water current. Items already travel at high speeds in water currents because they float, so ice block water streams are less necessary for item transportation.

A player who sprints and jumps repeatedly on ice travels faster than on any other block type. The player can travel even faster if they sprint and spam jump in a 2-block-high corridor with ice on the floor, allowing the player to accelerate to extremely high speeds, although this costs a lot of hunger.

In Java Edition, when a non-full block is placed on top of ice, the block has the same "slipperiness" as the ice below it.^[4]

Boat highway

Like other entities, boats travel extremely quickly on ice and can reach a speed of 40 m/s, much faster than the 8 m/s speed on water.^[5] More beneficially, unlike water, ice can be placed in the Nether, allowing players to construct boat highways made of ice or blue ice, to make use of the 1:8 distance travel ratio and travel at an equivalent speed of up to 320 m/s (720 mph or 1152 kph) between locations in the Overworld. Furthermore, using blue ice will make the boat move 1.8 times faster than normal ice.

Creating water

Ice can be used to create water either by its melting or being broken. If there is a movement-blocking block or any fluid directly underneath the ice block, the ice becomes a water source block when broken.

Ice also melts into water if the block light level immediately next to it on any side is higher than 11, even if there is no block below it. Sky light level is ignored, therefore ice does not melt from sunlight. In Minecraft Education and Bedrock Edition, ice also melts when near a heat block, though heat blocks do not produce light.

If ice melts or is broken in the Nether, no water is produced. However, unlike from using a water bucket, no smoke particles are produced either.

Sounds

​^{[until: JE 26.4]} ​^{[until: BE 26.60]} Java Edition:

glass sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.glass.break	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block placed​[until: JE 26.4]	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.glass.place	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.glass.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.25	0.5	16
	​Something falls on a block	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.glass.fall	subtitles.block.generic.fall​	0.5	0.75	16
	​Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.glass.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

glass sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	random.glass	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	0.8–1.0
	​Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	place.stone	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8–1.0
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.stone	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.4	0.6
	​Footsteps	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.4	1.0
	​Footsteps	Players	Walking on the block	step.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.3	1.0
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Jumping from the block	jump.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.12	1.0
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.22	1.0

This section 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.

Java Edition:

ice sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.ice.break	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.ice.place	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.ice.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.25	0.5	16
	​Something falls on a block	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.ice.fall	subtitles.block.generic.fall​	0.5	0.75	16
	​Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.ice.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

ice sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.ice.break	subtitles.block.generic.break​	0.8	1.0
	​Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.ice.place	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.ice.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.25	0.5
	​Something falls on a block	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.ice.fall	subtitles.block.generic.fall​	0.5	0.75
	​Footsteps	Players	Walking on the block	block.ice.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.15	1.0
	​Jumping	Blocks	Jumping from the block	block.ice.jump	subtitles.block.generic.jump​	0.15	1.0
	​Landing	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	block.ice.land	subtitles.block.generic.land​	0.15	1.0

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Block tags	Translation key
Ice	ice	Block & Item	ice mineable/pickaxe geode_invalid_blocks	block.minecraft.ice

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID[i 1]	Translation key
Ice	ice	79	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3]	tile.ice.name

History

Java Edition

Java Edition Classic
May 20, 2009							Notch briefly mentioned, "Winter is an awesome idea. I can see snow and tiles slowly getting covered in a layer of snow. Also, ice on lakes. :D"
May 21, 2009							Notch shows interest in adding ice as a slippery block.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.4							Added ice.
							The model of ice in item form is opaque.
							Ice replaces surface water in Winter Mode worlds.
v1.0.5							The hardness of ice has been increased from 0.1 to 0.5.
							Ice no longer turns into water when broken if the ice block has air beneath.
v1.0.5_01							Water exposed to snowfall now freezes to ice.
Java Edition
1.0.0			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4				Mining ice with a tool enchanted with Silk Touch now causes ice to drop, which can then be brought to the Nether as a source of water.
			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6				Ice blocks can no longer be collected with the Silk Touch enchantment because of the water loophole above.
1.3.1			12w17a				Ice blocks can once again be legitimately obtained in Survival mode by harvesting them with a Silk Touch enchanted tool.
							Ice no longer produces water in the Nether.
1.7.2			13w38a				Ice in item form is now transparent in the inventory.
			13w41a				Ice, water and portals are now visible through each other.
							The outwards appearance of ice has effectively changed due to translucent block handling changes. These internal faces of ice were indeed always rendered, but could not actually be seen from outside due to the closest translucent texture always occluding any further translucent planes, and as such could only be seen from inside.
			13w42a				The appearance of ice has been changed back to its previous form.[6]
			13w42b				Ice items are now translucent when dropped on the ground or placed in an item frame.
1.7.4			13w47b				Ice is now translucent when held in first person.
							Ice is now translucent when held in third person or by another mob.
1.8			14w05b				Mobs now suffocate inside of ice.
1.9			15w43a				Ice blocks now generate as a part of igloos.
			15w51a				Water produced by melting ice blocks now flows.
			16w05a				Boats now travel extremely fast on ice and packed ice.
1.13			18w15a				Mobs can now spawn on top of ice.
			18w19a				Only polar bears can now spawn on top of ice.
			pre2				Ice can now be used to craft packed ice.
1.14			18w43a				The texture of ice has been changed.
			19w13a				Ice is no longer fully transparent.
1.15			19w41a				Ice is now only slippery through non-full blocks that are 0.5 blocks tall or less. Previously it applied through any block that is less than 1 block tall such as grass path or farmland.[7]
1.19			22w13a				Ice now generates as part of ancient cities.
1.20.2			23w31a				The speed of ice formation is now controlled by the game rule randomTickSpeed.[8]
Upcoming Java Edition
26.4			snap3				Added unique sounds for ice.

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
Demo							Added ice.
v0.1.0							Ice now has an item form.
							Ice in inventory now also has an icon.
v0.2.0							The texture and model[verify for Bedrock Edition] of ice have been changed.
v0.8.0			build 1				The texture of ice has been changed. The model of ice in item form is transparent.
			build 7				The texture of ice has been changed to before build 1.
v0.12.1			build 1				Ice blocks can now be legitimately obtained in Survival mode by harvesting them with a Silk Touch enchanted tool.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0			beta 1.2.0.2				Ice blocks are now fully transparent.
1.4.0			beta 1.2.14.2				Ice blocks now generate naturally in the new deep frozen oceans.
			beta 1.2.20.1				When a thrown ice bomb hits water, it now transforms water into ice in 3×3 area.
1.8.0			beta 1.8.0.10				Ice can now be used to craft packed ice.
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				The texture of ice has been changed.
1.16.220			beta 1.16.220.50				Ice now generate in snowy slopes, lofty peaks, and snow capped peaks biomes.
26.20 Experiment Drop 2 of 2026			Preview 26.20.23				Added sulfur cubes, which have the ability to absorb ice, providing the hockey puck/fast sliding effect to the mob.
26.30			Preview 26.30.20				Implemented all features from the "Drop 2 of 2026" experiment in vanilla gameplay.
			Preview 26.30.27				Ice can no longer be absorbed by sulfur cubes.
Upcoming Bedrock Edition
26.60 Experiment Drop 4 of 2026			Preview 26.60.29				Added unique sounds for ice.
26.70			Preview 26.70.20				Now it has subtitles for land and jump.

Legacy Console Edition

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU1	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added ice.
TU14		1.04					Ice blocks can now be obtained in Survival mode by harvesting them with a Silk Touch enchanted pickaxe.
							The ability for ice to create water in the Nether has been removed.
TU31	CU19	1.22	1.22	1.22	Patch 3		Ice is now more transparent.
							The ability for ice to create water in the Nether has been removed.
TU43	CU33	1.36	1.36	1.36	Patch 13		Ice blocks now generate as a part of igloos.
TU46	CU36	1.38	1.38	1.38	Patch 15		Boats now travel extremely fast on ice and packed ice.
			1.83				Ice can now be used to craft packed ice.
			1.90				The texture of ice has been changed.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added ice.

• 
  Melting ice was once a common way to form floating water sources.
• 
  A view of naturally generating at a frozen ocean.
• 
  Naturally generated ice in an older revision of a frozen ocean.
• 
  Naturally generated ice in a legacy frozen ocean.

Data history

Issues

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

Trivia

• By sprinting and jumping while on ice and inside a 2-block tall tunnel, it is possible to move 16 blocks a second, twice as fast as a full-speed minecart. By replacing the 2-block ceiling with trapdoors, it's possible to travel 1000 blocks in 54 seconds, or 18.518 blocks per second. However, this drains the player's hunger bar extremely quickly at roughly 1 unit per second.
• Sugar cane can be generated next to ice, though they drop as items if updated. This can be observed at random when traveling through a snowy biome.
• When a player holds an ice block, the normals of the smaller model are flipped inside out, giving a strange effect, as if the model was flipped upside-down.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 
  Naturally generated ice on a frozen ocean
• 
  Naturally generated ice on a deep-frozen ocean
• 
  Chunk borders as seen in a patch of ice^[9]
• 
  The effect of a torch on ice exposed to the sky. Note that some blocks are at a light level that lets them alternately melt and freeze.
• 
  The melting pattern of a torch to ice
• 
  The melting pattern of lava to ice
• 
  Ice melting because of the nearby torch animation

In other media

• 
  Ice as it appeared in Minecraft Earth
• 
  A block of ice as it appears in Minecraft Dungeons

See also

• Frosted ice
• Blue ice
• Ice Bomb
• Ice (disambiguation)
• Packed Ice

References

External links

• "Block of the Week: Ice" by Marsh Davies – Minecraft.net, March 17, 2017.