Frozen zombie in Minecraft: ice balls, Freezing effect and protection
The frozen zombie is a new, ice-cold variant of the zombie that Mojang announced at Minecraft LIVE on 26 September 2026. It belongs to the ice caves, the new cave biome in the next game drop. Mojang hasn't given a date; it's expected to be Java 26.4, and the Minecraft Wiki lists Bedrock 26.70 and expects the fourth quarter of 2026. Its hit deals damage and gives you the new Freezing effect, and some of them throw ice balls. It doesn't have a final name yet and isn't in any snapshot so far. So everything below has been announced, not released, and may still change.
A zombie from Minecraft Dungeons, with a working name
In the official recap of the show it's simply called the "new frozen zombie variant". It doesn't have a proper name yet; the writer of that recap jokingly suggested "Brrrombie". So expect the in-game name to possibly turn out differently. Here we'll just call it the frozen zombie.
It isn't completely new, though. Minecraft Dungeons already had a frozen zombie, in the Creeping Winter and Howling Peaks expansions, and there too it froze you with its attacks. According to the Minecraft Wiki, it's only the second mob, after the glow squid (from Minecraft Earth), to move from a spin-off to the main game.
You'll run into it in the ice caves: a cave biome like the dripstone, lush and sulfur caves, full of ice, calcite and the new icicles and ice crystals. In the footage those caves seem to lie beneath snowy areas, and according to the wiki strays can spawn there too. Mojang hasn't said how often it spawns.
It hits with Freezing, and sometimes throws an ice ball
Mojang keeps it brief: when it hits you, it doesn't just deal damage but also gives you a freezing effect. On top of that, some frozen zombies throw ice balls, which according to the recap hurt quite a bit. The wiki fills in what could be seen in the stream:
- Mostly melee. Its normal attack is a hit that gives you Freezing.
- Sometimes a thrower. Some spawn holding an ice ball and throw it while walking towards you. Compare it to the drowned: every drowned hits you, but a drowned with a trident throws it too.
- Drops. Rotten flesh, and sometimes an ice ball if it was holding one.
Health and damage per difficulty are still listed as "TBA" on the wiki, and the spawn table there hasn't been confirmed by Mojang. Anyone quoting numbers now is guessing; we deliberately don't.
Freezing slows you down and costs you health while it lasts
Freezing is a new status effect. According to the wiki it slows you down and deals damage while it's active, a bit like having Slowness and Poison on you at the same time. You get it from a frozen zombie's hit, but also from the new potions and arrows covered further down. Whether it stacks with similar effects is still unknown.
Don't confuse it with the freezing that's already in the game. If you stand in powder snow, after seven seconds you get frozen, light-blue hearts and then lose 1 HP, half a heart, every two seconds. That's an environmental mechanic: step out of the snow and it stops. The new Freezing is a status effect, and you take it with you, even when you run out of the cave.
Ice balls do more damage the faster they hit
The ice ball is a new throwable item. According to the wiki, its damage depends on how fast it's travelling when it hits, similar to an arrow: one thrown from close range hits harder than one thrown from far away. You get them from frozen zombies that were holding one; according to the wiki there will also be a crafting recipe, but that isn't known yet. Exactly how much damage an ice ball does, and whether a hit also gives you Freezing, can't be worked out from the sources yet.
Potion of Freezing: awkward potion plus ice ball
An ice ball is also a brewing ingredient. Brew it into an awkward potion (a water bottle with nether wart) and you get a Potion of Freezing. According to the wiki there will also be splash and lingering variants and an Arrow of Freezing. The wiki pages don't agree with each other on the duration yet, so we're not quoting one. This gets interesting for PvP servers: a single splash potion that slows your opponent down and damages them at the same time.
How to protect yourself, as far as we know now
- Wear leather. According to the wiki, a single piece of leather armour prevents the Freezing effect. That fits how things already work: in powder snow, any piece of leather armour stops the freezing. Mojang hasn't confirmed this itself yet, so treat it as provisional information. Leather boots are handy in cold regions anyway: with them you don't sink into powder snow, unless you fall onto it from a height.
- Keep your distance. The Freezing comes from the hit. With a bow or crossbow you can keep most frozen zombies out of melee range; watch out especially for the ones holding something in their hand.
- Keep strays in mind. Strays shoot arrows of Slowness, good for 30 seconds of slowdown: exactly what you don't want when a group of zombies is chasing you.
Nothing changes on your server until you move to 26.4
For now, nothing at all: the frozen zombie isn't in 26.3, and it isn't in 26.4 Snapshot 1 from 22 September either. Only once it shows up in a snapshot can you really test it. There are a few things you can already sort out, though:
- Test separately. Never put a snapshot on your main world. Make a backup first and test on a separate server; how to switch versions is explained in changing your version.
- Choose your difficulty deliberately. On Peaceful no hostile mobs spawn, so you can expect no frozen zombies either. For existing mobs on Java, they deal half the Normal damage plus 1 HP on Easy and roughly one and a half times as much on Hard. Whether the frozen zombie follows that scale isn't known yet. You switch with
difficulty hardin the console (see changing the difficulty). - Don't count on
freeze_damage. Java 26.x has the gamerulefreeze_damage(defaulttrue; on Bedrockfreezedamage). It controls damage in powder snow. Mojang hasn't said whether it also switches off the new Freezing effect; test it as soon as you can. You'll find more rules in our gamerule overview. - Existing world or a new one? It hasn't been announced whether ice caves will also appear in areas that have already been explored. If you're planning a new season around the ice caves, a fresh world is the safe choice.
For a hardcore season or an SMP, the ice caves make a great goal: leather suddenly becomes valuable and a trip down takes preparation. Don't have your own server yet? A Minecraft server at MC-Node starts from €0.50 per month, on our own hardware with NVMe in Hengelo and with DDoS protection included. In the game panel you make backups and switch versions, and because everything can be cancelled monthly, you can also run a separate test server for the snapshots alongside it.
When you don't need to do anything yet
If your server stays on 26.3, the frozen zombie won't turn up: new mobs only appear once you update. If you run Paper, Purpur or a modpack, you'll be waiting until that software supports 26.4 anyway. A building or creative server on Peaceful won't notice a thing. And the ice caves seem to belong to cold, snowy areas; if you never go there, you won't run into it either.
Frequently asked questions
When is the frozen zombie coming to Minecraft?
In the next game drop, Mojang says, but it hasn't given a date yet. That's expected to be Java 26.4 (the first snapshot came out on 22 September, still without ice caves); the Minecraft Wiki lists Bedrock 26.70 and expects the fourth quarter of 2026.
What is the frozen zombie called in Minecraft?
It doesn't have a final name yet. For now Mojang talks about a frozen zombie variant; Minecraft Dungeons already had a mob with that name. So the name may still change before release.
What does the Freezing effect do in Minecraft?
According to the Minecraft Wiki, Freezing slows you down and deals damage for as long as the effect lasts. You get it from a frozen zombie's hit or from a Potion of Freezing. It's something different from freezing in powder snow, which is already in the game.
Does leather armour protect against Freezing?
According to the Minecraft Wiki, a single piece of leather armour prevents the Freezing effect, just as leather already protects you against freezing in powder snow. Mojang hasn't confirmed this itself yet and the effect isn't in any snapshot, so it may still change.