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 | |
- ↑ 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
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
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
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Block broken | Blocks | Once the block has broken | block | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.8 | 16 | |
| Block placed | Blocks | When the block is placed | block | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.8 | 16 | |
| Block breaking | Blocks | While the block is in the process of being broken | block | subtitles | 0.25 | 0.5 | 16 | |
| None[sound 1] | Entity-Dependent | Falling on the block with fall damage | block | None[sound 1] | 0.5 | 0.75 | 16 | |
| Footsteps | Entity-Dependent | Walking on the block | block | subtitles | 0.15 | 1.0 | 16 |
| Sound | Source | Description | Resource location | Volume | Pitch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blocks | Once the block has broken | random | 1.0 | 0.8-1.0 | |
| Blocks | When the block is placed | dig | 1.0 | 0.8-1.0 | |
| Blocks | While the block is in the process of being broken | hit | 0.4 | 0.6 | |
| Players | Falling on the block with fall damage | fall | 0.4 | 1.0 | |
| Players | Walking on the block | step | 0.3 | 1.0 | |
| Players | Jumping from the block | jump | 0.12 | 1.0 | |
| Players | Falling on the block without fall damage | land | 0.22 | 1.0 |
Data values
ID
| Name | Identifier | Translation key |
|---|---|---|
| Ice | ice | block.minecraft.ice |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ice | ice | 79 | tile.ice.name |
History
| 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. | ||||
| alpha | |||||
| v1.0.4 | |||||
| Ice replaces surface water in Winter Mode worlds. | |||||
| v1.0.5 | The hardness of ice has been increased. | ||||
| 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 now be legitimately obtained in survival mode by harvesting them with a Silk Touch enchanted tool. | |||
| Ice no longer produces water in the Nether. | |||||
| 1.7.2 | 13w41a | Ice, water and portals are now visible through each other. | |||
| 13w42a | File:Ice JE1 BE3.png The texture of ice has been changed back to its previous texture.[3] | ||||
| 1.9 | 15w43a | Ice blocks now generate as a part of igloos. | |||
| 15w51a | Water produced by melting ice blocks now flows. | ||||
| 1.13 | 17w47a | Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 79. | |||
| 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 | ||||
| 19w13a | Ice is no longer fully transparent. | ||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.1.0 | File:Ice BE1.png Added ice. | ||||
| 0.2.0 | |||||
| 0.12.1 | 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 | ||||
| 1.4.0 | beta 1.2.14.2 | Ice blocks now generate naturally in the new icebergs and 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 | ||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | ||
| 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 | |||||
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | |||||
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
Another view of naturally generating at a frozen ocean.
Java Edition
Bedrock Edition
See also
References










