Minecraft Wiki

The Minecraft Wiki has moved from Fandom; see the linked discussion page for details.

READ MORE

Minecraft Wiki
Advertisement
For the variant that does not melt, see Packed Ice and other uses.

Ice is a translucent solid block.

Obtaining

Ice can be easily destroyed without tools, but the use of a pickaxe speeds up the process. It can be broken instantly with Efficiency III on a diamond pickaxe. 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.

Block Ice
Hardness 0.5
Tool
Breaking time[A]
Default 0.75
Wooden 0.4
Stone 0.2
Iron 0.15
Diamond 0.1
Netherite 0.1
Golden 0.1
  1. Times are for unenchanted tools as wielded by players with no status effects, measured in seconds. For more information, see Breaking § Speed.

Natural generation

Ice can be found naturally as part of the landscape in snowy biomes from frozen lakes, rivers, and oceans. It can also be found in igloos, Ice Spikes, and Icebergs.

Post-generation

Snowy biomes

See also: Ice farming

Water source blocks in a snowy biome eventually freeze into ice if exposed to the sky from directly above, the light level immediately adjacent to the water block on all sides is less than 13, and there is at least one horizontally adjacent non-water or waterlogged block. This can happen at any time of day, and in any weather condition. If the highest adjacent light level is 12, an ice block alternately melts and re-freezes when it receives a block tick.

Water also freezes into ice in cold biomes, as long as the altitude is high enough for snowfall.

Ice Bomb

Information icon
This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education. 

When an ice bomb is thrown into water, it transforms the water in a 3x3x3 cube centered around the projectile into ice. This works for source water or flowing water upon hit.

Usage

Crafting ingredient

Name Ingredients Crafting recipe
Packed Ice Ice

Speed

Ice is slightly slippery, causing entities (excluding minecarts[1]) to slide, including items [more info needed]. This also allows for increased speed in water currents by placing the ice block under the water current. A player who runs and jumps repeatedly on ice travels faster than on any other block type.

When a non-full block is placed on top of ice, the block has the same "slipperiness" as the ice below it. ‌[JE only] This feature is intentionally programmed into the game.[2]

Creating water

Ice can be used to create water either by its melting or being broken. If there is another block directly underneath the ice block, the ice reverts to water when broken. Ice also melts into water if the light level immediately next to it on any side is higher than 11, from light sources other than sunlight (and regardless of whether there's a block below). 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.

Sounds

Java Edition:

SoundSubtitlesSourceDescriptionResource locationTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
Block brokenBlocksOnce the block has brokenblock.glass.breaksubtitles.block.generic.break1.00.816
Block placedBlocksWhen the block is placedblock.glass.placesubtitles.block.generic.place1.00.816
Block breakingBlocksWhile the block is in the process of being brokenblock.glass.hitsubtitles.block.generic.hit0.250.516
None[sound 1]Entity-DependentFalling on the block with fall damageblock.glass.fallNone[sound 1]0.50.7516
FootstepsEntity-DependentWalking on the blockblock.glass.stepsubtitles.block.generic.footsteps0.151.016
  1. a b MC-177082

Bedrock Edition:

SoundSourceDescriptionResource locationVolumePitch
BlocksOnce the block has brokenrandom.glass1.00.8-1.0
BlocksWhen the block is placeddig.stone1.00.8-1.0
BlocksWhile the block is in the process of being brokenhit.stone0.40.6
PlayersFalling on the block with fall damagefall.stone0.41.0
PlayersWalking on the blockstep.stone0.31.0
PlayersJumping from the blockjump.stone0.121.0
PlayersFalling on the block without fall damageland.stone0.221.0


Data values

ID

Java Edition:

NameIdentifierTranslation key
Iceiceblock.minecraft.ice

Bedrock Edition:

NameIdentifierNumeric ID Translation key
Iceice79tile.ice.name

History

classic
May 20, 2009Notch 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, 2009Notch shows interest in adding ice as a slippery block.
alpha
v1.0.4Ice JE1 BE1 Added ice.
Ice replaces surface water in Winter Mode worlds.
v1.0.5The hardness of ice has been increased.
v1.0.5_01Water exposed to snowfall now freezes to ice.
Java Edition
1.0.0Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4Mining 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 6Ice blocks can no longer be collected with the Silk Touch enchantment because of the water loophole above.
1.3.112w17aIce blocks can now be legitimately obtained in survival mode by harvesting them with a Silk Touch enchanted tool.
Ice no longer produces water in the Nether.
1.7.213w41aIce, water and portals are now visible through each other.
Ice 13w41a The texture of ice has been changed.
13w42aFile:Ice JE1 BE3.png The texture of ice has been changed back to its previous texture.[3]
1.915w43aIce blocks now generate as a part of igloos.
15w51aWater produced by melting ice blocks now flows.
1.1317w47aPrior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 79.
18w15aMobs can now spawn on top of ice.
18w19aOnly polar bears can now spawn on top of ice.
pre2Ice can now be used to craft packed ice.
1.1418w43aIce The texture of ice has been changed.
19w13aIce is no longer fully transparent.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.1.0File:Ice BE1.png Added ice.
0.2.0Ice BE2 Ice blocks are now opaque.
0.12.1build 1Ice blocks can now be legitimately obtained in survival mode by harvesting them with a Silk Touch enchanted tool.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0beta 1.2.0.2Ice JE1 BE1 Ice blocks are now fully transparent.
1.4.0beta 1.2.14.2Ice blocks now generate naturally in the new icebergs and deep frozen oceans.
beta 1.2.20.1When a thrown ice bomb hits water, it now transforms water into ice in 3×3 area.
1.8.0beta 1.8.0.10Ice can now be used to craft packed ice.
1.10.0beta 1.10.0.3Ice The texture of ice has been changed.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.0 Patch 1Ice JE1 BE1 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.
1.90 Ice The texture of ice has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0Ice BE2 Added ice.

Issues

Issues relating to "Ice" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

  • When riding a pig on ice using a saddle, the pig moves incredibly fast, making journeys across long-frozen lakes easier.
  • 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.
  • Boats move extremely fast on ice; however, it is difficult to slow down or change direction.
  • Sugar cane can be generated next to the ice, though they drop as items if updated. This can be observed at random when running through a snowy biome.
  • Attempting to set ice on fire with a flint and steel causes no flames to appear, but the flint and steel's durability still decreases by 1.‌[Bedrock Edition only] The same thing happens with glass and the sides of non-flammable blocks.
  • Ice is classified as a transparent block and therefore does not conduct redstone.
  • Snow layers are the only transparent block that cannot be placed on ice.
  • When a player holds an ice block, the normals of the smaller model are flipped inside out, giving a strange effect.

Gallery

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

See also

References


Advertisement