Ice - Minecraft Wiki - Fandom

This article is about the regular form of ice. For the variant that does not melt, see Packed Ice. For other uses, see Ice (disambiguation).

Ice

Renewable

Yes

Stackable

Yes (64)

Tool

Blast resistance

0.5

Hardness

0.5

Luminous

No

Transparent

JE: Partial (-1 to light)BE: Partial (-3 to light)

Flammable

No

Catches fire from lava

No

Ice is a translucent solid block. It can slide entities using all methods of transportation (excluding minecarts).

Contents

• 1 Obtaining
  • 1.1 Natural generation
  • 1.2 Post-generation
    • 1.2.1 Snowy biomes
    • 1.2.2 Ice bomb
• 2 Usage
  • 2.1 Crafting ingredient
  • 2.2 Speed
    • 2.2.1 Boat highway
  • 2.3 Creating water
• 3 Sounds
• 4 Data values
  • 4.1 ID
• 5 History
• 6 Issues
• 7 Trivia
• 8 Gallery
  • 8.1 Java Edition
  • 8.2 Bedrock Edition
• 9 See also
• 10 References
• 11 External Links

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. However, 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 if there is a block under the ice block.

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 rivers, and oceans. It can also be found in igloos‌[Java Edition only], ice spikes, icebergs, snowy slopes, also on landscape of frozen peaks biomes. They also generate in ancient cities.

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 inside the water block is less than 10, and there is at least one horizontally adjacent non-water (and non-waterlogged) block. This can happen at any time of day, and in any weather condition.

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

Ice formation occurs as part of chunk ticking, so it requires that a player is nearby similar to crop growth or grass spreading. The speed of ice formation is affected by the game rule randomTickSpeed.

Ice bomb[]

This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education. 

When an ice bomb is thrown into water, it transforms the water in a 3×3×3 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

Despite being created by a 3×3 recipe, packed ice is not a storage block, because it cannot be crafted back into ice. The same applies to the next tier of compression, blue ice.

Speed[]

Ice is slightly slippery, causing entities (excluding minecarts[1]) to slide, including items. This allows for increased speed of items in water currents, by placing ice blocks under the water current. Items already travel at high speeds in water currents because they float, so ice block water streams are less necessary for item transportation.

A player who sprints and jumps repeatedly on ice travels faster than on any other block type. The player can travel even faster if they sprint and spam jump in a 2-block-high corridor with ice on the floor, allowing the player to accelerate to extremely high speeds, although this will cost them a lot of hunger.

In Java Edition, when a non-full block is placed on top of ice, the block has the same "slipperiness" as the ice below it.[2]

Boat highway[]

Like other entities, boats travel extremely quickly on ice/blue ice, where it can reach a speed of 40-72 m/s, much faster than the 8 m/s speed on water.[3] More beneficially, unlike water, ice can be placed in the Nether, allowing players to construct boat highways made of ice/blue ice in the dimension, to make use of the 1:8 distance travel ratio, and travel at an equivalent speed up to 320-580 m/s (720-1300 mph) between locations in the Overworld.

Creating water[]

Ice can be used to create water either by its melting or being broken. If there is a non-air block directly underneath the ice block, the ice becomes a water source block when broken.

Ice also melts into water if the block light level immediately next to it on any side is higher than 11. Sky light level is ignored, therefore ice does not melt from sunlight. In Minecraft Education and Bedrock Edition, ice also melts when near a heat block, though heat blocks do not produce light.

Compared to water buckets, ice has the benefit of being able to stack in the inventory. Therefore, carrying ice instead of water buckets can be much more convenient, if the player wants to create a lot of water sources.

If ice melts or is broken in the Nether, no water is produced (it sublimates).

Sounds[]

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuationdistance
	Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.glass.break	subtitles.block.generic.break	1.0	0.8	16
	Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.glass.place	subtitles.block.generic.place	1.0	0.8	16
	Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.glass.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit	0.25	0.5	16
	None[sound 1]	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.glass.fall	None[sound 1]	0.5	0.75	16
	Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.glass.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps	0.15	1.0	16

1. ↑ a b MC-177082

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	Once the block has broken	random.glass	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	When the block is placed	dig.stone	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.stone	0.4	0.6
	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.stone	0.4	1.0
	Players	Walking on the block	step.stone	0.3	1.0
	Players	Jumping from the block	jump.stone	0.12	1.0
	Players	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.stone	0.22	1.0

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Block tags	Translation key
Ice	ice	Block & Item	ice mineable/pickaxe geode_invalid_blocks	block.minecraft.ice

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID[i 1]	Translation key
Ice	ice	79	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3]	tile.ice.name

1. ↑ ID of block's direct item form, which is used in savegame files and addons.
2. ↑ Available with /give command.
3. ↑ The block's direct item form has the same id as the block.

History[]

Java Edition 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.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.4					Added ice.
					The model of ice in item form is opaque.
					Ice replaces surface water in Winter Mode worlds.
v1.0.5					The hardness of ice has been increased from 0.1 to 0.5.
					Ice no longer turns into water when broken if the ice block has air beneath.
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		?			The model of ice in item form is now transparent.
		13w41a			Ice, water and portals are now visible through each other.
					The outwards appearance of ice has effectively changed due to translucent block handling changes. These internal faces of ice were indeed always rendered, but could not actually be seen from outside due to the closest translucent texture always occluding any further translucent planes, and as such could only be seen from inside.
		13w42a			The appearance of ice has been changed back to its previous form.[4]
1.8		14w05b			Mobs now suffocate inside of ice.
1.9		15w43a			Ice blocks now generate as a part of igloos.
		15w51a			Water produced by melting ice blocks now flows.
		16w05a			Boats now travel extremely fast on ice and packed ice.
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			The texture of ice has been changed.
		19w13a			Ice is no longer fully transparent.
1.19		22w13a			Ice now generates as part of ancient cities.
1.20.2		23w31a			The speed of ice formation is now controlled by the game rule randomTickSpeed.[5]
Pocket Edition Alpha
Pre-release					Added ice.
v0.1.0					Ice has an item form.
					Ice in inventory has an icon.
v0.2.0					The texture and model[verify] of ice have been changed.
v0.8.0		build 1			The texture of ice has been changed. The model of ice in item form is transparent.
		build 7			The texture of ice has been changed to before build 1.
v0.12.1		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			Ice blocks are now fully transparent.
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			The texture of ice has been changed.
1.16.220		beta 1.16.220.50			Ice now generate in snowy slopes, lofty peaks[verify], and snow capped peaks biomes.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	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	The texture of ice has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added ice.

• Melting ice was once a common way to form floating water sources.

Issues[]

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

Trivia[]

• 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.
• 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[]

• Naturally generated ice on a frozen ocean.
• Another view of naturally generating at a frozen ocean.
• Naturally generated ice on a deep-frozen ocean.
• Chunk borders as seen in a patch of ice.[6]
• The effect of a torch on ice exposed to the sky. Note that some blocks are at a light level that lets them alternately melt and freeze.
• The melting pattern of a torch to ice.
• The melting pattern of lava to ice.
• Ice melting because of the nearby torch animation.

Java Edition[]

• Naturally generated ice in an older revision of a frozen ocean.

Bedrock Edition[]

• Naturally generated ice in a legacy frozen ocean.

See also[]

• Packed Ice
• Frosted Ice
• Blue Ice

References[]

1. ↑ MC-8265
2. ↑ MC-1127 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
3. ↑ MC-97803 — "Boats going faster on ice than in water" — resolved as "Works As Intended".
4. ↑ MC-34649
5. ↑ MC-93320 — "Water freezes even if randomTickSpeed is 0" — resolved as "Fixed".
6. ↑ MC-38022 — Semi-transparent blocks render striped / like water from certain angles / elevations

External Links[]

• Block of the Week: Ice – Minecraft.net on March 17, 2017

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