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This article is about the throwable item. For the enchantment in Minecraft Dungeons, see MCD:Snowball.

Snowballs are throwable combat items.

Obtaining

Mining

A shovel without the Silk Touch enchantment can get 4 snowballs by breaking a snow block, and 1–8 snowballs by breaking or blasting snow layers – one per layer. The Fortune enchantment does not affect these amounts.

Creepers / TNT

Creeper and TNT explosions leave snowballs in the resulting debris field if near snow.

Ravagers

On Bedrock Edition, Ravagers destroy snow layers, dropping snowballs.

Pistons

On Bedrock Edition, a block or piston head pushed into the position of snow layers destroys the snow layers, dropping snowballs. 1-3 layers drops 1 snowball, 4-5 layers drops 2 snowballs, 6-7 layers drops 3 snowballs and 8 layers drops 4 snowballs.

Mob loot

Snow golems drop 0–15 snowballs upon death.

Chest loot

Item Structure Container Quantity Chance
Java Edition
Snowball Ancient City Ice box chest 2–6 97%
Village Snowy house chest 1–7 66.3%
Bedrock Edition
Snowball Ancient City Ice box chest 2–6 97%
Village Snowy house chest 1–7 66.3%

Usage

Crafting ingredient

Name Ingredients Crafting recipe
Snow Block Snowball

Combat

Throwing a snowball on a pig

Throwing a snowball on a pig animation.

Snowballs can be thrown by using them, similar to an egg. They are affected by gravity.

They deal 3♥♥ to blazes but they deal no damage to other mobs. Mobs still have knockback and give the same effect as if they were being damaged (for example, zombified piglins who are hit by snowballs become aggressive toward the attacker), but players are unaffected.[1][until JE Combat Tests]

When fighting the ender dragon, end crystals are able to be destroyed by snowballs being thrown at them.

Dispenser

Snowballs can be fired from dispensers.

Sounds

SoundSubtitlesSourceDescriptionResource locationTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
Snowball flies??entity.snowball.throwsubtitles.entity.snowball.throw?(0.4)16
Snowball flies??entity.snow_golem.shootsubtitles.entity.snowball.throw??16
Dispensed itemBlocksDispenser shootsblock.dispenser.launchsubtitles.block.dispenser.dispense1.01.216

Advancements

Icon Advancement In-game description Parent Actual requirements (if different) Resource location
Advancement-fancy-rawBullseye
Hit the bullseye of a Target block from at least 30 meters away Take AimBe at least 30 blocks away horizontally when the center of a target is shot with a projectile by the player.adventure/bullseye

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

ItemIdentifierFormTranslation key
SnowballsnowballItemitem.minecraft.snowball
EntityIdentifierEntity tags (JE)Translation key
Snowballsnowballimpact_projectilesentity.minecraft.snowball

Bedrock Edition:

ItemIdentifierNumeric ID FormTranslation key
Snowballsnowball332Itemitem.snowball.name
EntityIdentifierNumeric ID Translation key
Snowballsnowball81entity.snowball.name

Entity Data

Snowballs have entity data that define various properties of the entity.

Java Edition:

Main article: Entity format
  • Entity data
    • Tags common to all entities
    • Tags common to all projectiles
    •  Item: The item to render as, may be absent.
      • Tags common to all items

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Video

History

Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.5Snowball JE1 BE1 Added snowballs.
Snowballs are used to craft snow blocks.
Snowballs could stack up to 64.
v1.0.5_01Snowballs now stack to 8.
Added a new snowball sound effect.
Harvesting snowballs now requires a shovel.
v1.0.6Snowballs now stack up to 16.
Thrown snowballs no longer disappear.
v1.1.1It is no longer possible to obtain more than four snowballs from a solid snow block (the player was previously able to obtain 4-6 snowballs per snow block allowing an infinite number of snowballs to be made).
Java Edition Beta
Sound UpdateThe throw sound of snowballs has now been changed.
Java Edition
1.0.0Beta 1.9 PrereleaseGhasts no longer shoot flaming snowballs.
RC1Snowball throwing sound was changed.
1.915w32aSnowballs no longer damage the ender dragon.
15w36bSnowballs now produce particles when thrown at an entity.
15w49aSnowballs, as well as all projectiles, now take the thrower's motion into account when fired.
1.1116w32aThe entity ID has now been changed from Snowball to snowball.
1.1317w47aPrior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 332.
1.1418w43aSnowball JE2 BE2 The texture of snowballs has now been changed.
18w49aSnowballs can now be found in chests in snowy tundra village houses.
19w08aSnowball JE3 BE3 The texture of snowballs has now been changed, once again.
1.16.2Pre-Release 1Snowballs are now affected by bubble columns.
Upcoming Java Edition
Combat TestsCombat Test 4Snowballs now stack to 64, once again.
Snowballs now have 4-tick cooldown and are not rendered for the first 2 ticks to prevent screen flickering.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.2.0Snowball JE1 BE1 Added snowballs. They are currently unobtainable and serve no purpose.
v0.3.0Snowballs now drop as an item when mining snow blocks and snow layers.
Snowballs can be used to craft snow blocks.
v0.4.0Snowballs can now be thrown.
v0.11.0build 14Snowballs are now available in the creative inventory.
v0.12.0Snowballs now deal damage to blazes.
v0.12.1build 1Added snow golems, which drop snowballs.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0beta 1.10.0.3Snowball JE2 BE2 The texture of snowballs has now been changed.
1.11.0beta 1.11.0.1Snowballs can now be found in some snowy tundra village house chests.
beta 1.11.0.5Snowball JE3 BE3 The texture of snowballs has now been changed, once again.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.0 Patch 11.0.1Snowball JE1 BE1 Added snowballs.
1.90 Snowball JE3 BE3 The texture of snowballs has now been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0Snowball JE1 BE1 Added snowballs.

Issues

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

Trivia

  • A thrown snowball faces the player in the first-person view and appears horizontally rotated in third-person view. This is the case for all throwable items (ender pearls, eggs, snowballs, and all throwable potions).

References

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