Powder snow is a trap block that can be obtained from cauldrons.
Obtaining
Natural generation
In 1.18.0[upcoming], powder snow naturally generates in mountain groves and snowy slopes.
Cauldrons
A cauldron in a snowy biome fills with powder snow when it is snowing. Powder snow can then be picked up from this cauldron with an empty bucket.
Bucket
Using a powder snow bucket places powder snow. Placed powder snow can be picked up again with an empty bucket.
Breaking
Powder snow does not drop anything when mined, even with Silk Touch, and tools do not speed up mining.[1]
| Block | Powder Snow | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 0.25 | |
| Breaking time (secs) | ||
| Default | 0.4 | |
Powder snow is broken by water or lava.
Usage
The frosty vignette when a player is within powder snow.
Entities (except rabbits, endermites, silverfish, shulkers, vexes and foxes) fall through powder snow without taking fall damage and move much slower in it, similar to cobwebs. Powder snow does not cause suffocation damage.
Mobs, armor stands or players wearing leather boots do not fall through powder snow. In this case, the snow behaves as scaffolding when the player sneaks or crouches while on the block and jumps while inside of the block. In addition, fall damage is taken when falling on powder snow from a large height.[2]
If an entity that is on fire touches powder snow, powder snow will cool them down due to the coldness, but the powder snow melts.
Being fully inside a block causes a thick fog effect around the point of view.
Freezing
Freezing hearts when the player is submerged in powder snow.
Freezing hearts when the player is in hardcore.
When an entity is inside a powder snow block, they begin to freeze, taking damage.
A player submerged in powder snow sees a frosty vignette slowly fade in at the sides of the screen and the FOV slowly decreases. When the vignette is fully shown, the player begins shaking as if they are shivering. After seven seconds (140 game ticks), the player's hearts change to a cyan frosty texture (
), and the player begins taking damage at a rate of 1
HP every two seconds (40 game ticks). If the player leaves the powder snow block, the vignette slowly fades away. A frozen player moves slower than usual until the vignette fully fades away. This is controlled by the "TicksFrozen" data tag, which increases by 1 every tick (to a maximum of 140) for an entity within the powder snow block. It decreases at a rate of 2 per tick after the entity leaves the powder snow block. This is currently not a separate effect when used with commands such as /effect give freezing, and does not have its own unique art, particles, or potion.
Wearing any piece of leather armor stops the freezing effect and damage. This applies to entities that can wear armor, such as zombies. Horses wearing leather horse armor are also immune to freezing.
Snow golems, strays, polar bears, and withers are immune to freezing damage. Fire-related mobs like striders, magma cubes, and blazes take 5![]()
![]()
from freezing.
Sounds
Generic
| 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 | 0.2075 | 0.65 | 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 | dig | 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 | 0.249 | 0.65 | |
| 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 | step | 0.12 | 1.0 | |
| Players | Falling on the block without fall damage | step | 0.22 | 1.0 |
Unique
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player freezes | Blocks | Getting damaged by freezing | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | ? | |
| Bucket empties | Blocks | Placing the block with a bucket | item | subtitles | ? | ? | ? | |
| Bucket fills | Players | Grabbing the block with a bucket | item | subtitles | ? | ? | ? |
| Sound | Source | Description | Resource location | Volume | Pitch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blocks | Getting damaged by freezing | ? | ? | ? | |
| Blocks | Placing the block with a bucket | ? | ? | ? | |
| Players | Grabbing the block with a bucket | ? | ? | ? |
Data values
ID
| Name | Identifier | Form | Block tags (JE) | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Powder Snow | powder_snow | Block | inside_step_sound_blocks snow | block.minecraft.powder_snow |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Form | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Powder Snow | powder_snow | 561 | Block & Giveable Item[i 1] | tile.powder_snow.name |
Advancements
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Light as a Rabbit | Walk on Powder Snow... without sinking in it | Sweet Dreams | Walk on powder snow while wearing leather boots. | adventure/walk_on_powder_snow_with_leather_boots
|
History
| October 3, 2020 | Powder snow was mentioned at Minecraft Live 2020, but no images were shown. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.17 | 20w46a | ||||
| 20w48a | Wearing any piece of leather armor now stops the freezing effect. | ||||
Added the freezeDamage gamerule, which stops entities from taking freezing damage if it is set to false. | |||||
The snow_step_sound_blocks block tag was renamed to inside_step_sound_block. | |||||
| 21w05a | Skeletons now turn into strays when they are in powder snow after 45 seconds (900 game ticks). | ||||
| Foxes no longer fall through powder snow. | |||||
| Powder Snow now extinguishes any flaming arrows shot into it. | |||||
| 21w10a | Freezing in powder snow while using the "Fast" graphics setting gradually turns the player's view to black, and the vignette also appears as black in third-person view. This is most likely due to the new rendering change added in this version. | ||||
| 21w11a | Frozen hearts now have a different texture in Hardcore mode. | ||||
| 21w13a | Slightly increased hardness and durability. | ||||
| Increased vertical movement speed in powder snow. | |||||
| Entities on fire now melt powder snow on colliding. | |||||
| Skeletons now convert into strays after 7 seconds (140 game ticks). | |||||
| Blazes, magma cubes and striders now take extra damage from freezing. | |||||
| Strays, polar bears and snow golems are now immune to freezing. | |||||
| Leather horse armor now grants horses immunity to freezing. | |||||
| Mobs now shake when they are fully frozen. | |||||
| Freeze time decreased to 7 seconds (140 game ticks) and hurt frequency to 2 seconds (40 game ticks). | |||||
| The model of the powder snow has been tweaked that the inner side textures are mirrored. | |||||
| 21w17a | Withers are now immune to freezing. | ||||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.16.200 | beta 1.16.200.52 | ||||
| release | Powder Snow have been made inaccessible in the full release. | ||||
| 1.16.210 | beta 1.16.210.51 | Now show the block breaking animation when being mined. | |||
| No longer transparent when looked at through clouds. | |||||
| beta 1.16.210.53 | Entities in powder snow now begin freezing and eventually die. | ||||
| Powder snow can now be picked up and placed with a bucket. | |||||
| Powder snow no longer appears in the creative inventory. | |||||
| Added new sound effects for powder snow. | |||||
| Powder snow now emits particles when an entity is landing or moving inside it. | |||||
| Endermites, rabbits and silverfish no longer fall through powder snow. | |||||
| beta 1.16.210.57 | Powder snow was readded to the creative inventory. | ||||
| release | Powder Snow has been made inaccessible in the full release. | ||||
| 1.16.220 | beta 1.16.220.50 | Powder snow now naturally generates in new mountain biomes. | |||
| beta 1.16.220.51 | Powder snow is once again unavailable through the creative inventory. | ||||
| release | Powder Snow has been made inaccessible in the full release once again. | ||||
| 1.17.0 | beta 1.16.230.54 | Slightly increased hardness and durability. | |||
| Increased vertical movement speed in powder snow. | |||||
| Entities on fire now melt powder snow on colliding. | |||||
| Blazes, magma cubes and striders now take extra damage from freezing. | |||||
| Strays, polar bears and snow golems are now immune to freezing. | |||||
| Leather horse armor now grants horses immunity to freezing. | |||||
| Mobs now shake when they are fully frozen. | |||||
| Freeze time decreased to 7 seconds (140 game ticks) and hurt frequency to 2 seconds (40 game ticks). | |||||
| Applied fog effect while standing very close outside a Powder Snow. | |||||
| beta 1.17.0.50 | Powder snow no longer available only through Experimental Gameplay. | ||||
| Powder snow now makes a different noise when players get hurt by it. | |||||
| Foxes no longer fall through powder snow. | |||||
| Powder Snow blocks are now removed by flowing water and lava. | |||||
| beta 1.17.0.52 | Powder snow is no longer only available behind the Caves and Cliffs experimental gameplay toggle. | ||||
| Cauldrons now fills Powder snow when it snows, making it renewable. | |||||
| beta 1.17.0.54 | Powder Snow's hardness has been changed to 0.25 to match Java Edition. | ||||
| Skeletons now converts into Stray when they are inside of the Powder Snow. | |||||
| beta 1.17.0.56 | Withers are now immune to freezing. | ||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Powder Snow" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- The block was announced as “Snowier Snow” at MINECON Live 2019, and is still often called that by Mojang.
