Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 4 patch notes: Ice Caves Biome, Frostbite Mob, and more

Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 3 is out with new features from the upcoming game drop (Image via Mojang)

Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 4 patch notes

New Features

Added the new Ice Caves Biome

Added Ice Crystals

Added Icicles

Added the Frostbite mob

Added the Freezing mob effect

Added the Ice Ball

Ice Caves

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. 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.

Frostbite

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.

Freezing Mob Effect

The Freezing effect causes affected players to shake and eventually take damage, gradually freezing them as though standing in Powder Snow for the duration.

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.

Mobs vulnerable to Freezing take a 5x damage multiplier while affected.

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 Ball

Ice Balls are the new projectile thrown by Frostbites. They deal a small amount of damage along with knockback, dealing up to 4 damage on impact, scaling down based on velocity. They break apart on contact with blocks or entities, triggering a particle effect and sound.

Changes

Minor tweaks to Blocks, Items and Entities

Snow can now be placed on Packed Ice

Snowballs now apply knockback to players

UI

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

Friends

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

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

Player Reporting

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

Debug Overlay

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

Technical Changes

Data Pack version is now 123.0

Resource Pack version is now 100.0

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

Fixed Bugs in 26.4 Snapshot 3

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

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. 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. In the section below, we take a detailed look at everything new in Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 4.Snapshots are available for Minecraft: Java Edition. To install, open the Minecraft Launcher and enable snapshots in the "Installations" tab.This was all you needed to know about Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 3 patch notes.