Minecraft Ice Caves: everything about the new biome
Ice caves are a new cave biome in Minecraft, announced by Mojang at Minecraft LIVE on 26 September 2026. They're part of 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. Inside you'll find ice, calcite, two new blocks (icicles and ice crystals) and a new frozen zombie variant. You can't play them yet: the first 26.4 snapshot, released on 22 September, doesn't include the ice caves.
One caveat up front: all of this has been announced, not released, and may still change before launch. Anything that comes only from the stream footage is flagged as such.
A new cave biome alongside dripstone, lush and sulfur caves
Mojang puts the ice caves in the same line-up as the dripstone caves, the lush caves and the sulfur caves that arrived with 26.2. So this isn't a new surface biome like the dappled forest from 26.3, but an underground one. According to Mojang, the caves are freezing cold and filled with ice, calcite and the new icicles and ice crystals.
Game Director Agnes Larsson named adventure as a core theme of the long-term vision for Minecraft. According to Mojang, this drop fits that vision, especially thanks to the new frozen zombie. In the Deep Dig aftershow, Vu Bui already headed into the ice caves together with Agnes Larsson, FalseSymmetry and others.
Where ice caves generate: most likely under snowy biomes
Mojang hasn't said exactly where the ice caves will appear. Based on the footage, players assume they sit beneath snowy biomes such as snowy plains and snowy taiga. In the world that was shown, they also bordered lush caves. That sounds plausible, but it's only certain once the biome lands in a snapshot.
What they look like inside we also know mainly from the stream: walls of packed ice with patches of calcite, snow and ice crystals on the floor, and icicles hanging from the ceiling. Chunks of stone and deepslate are mixed in with the ice, so by the looks of it you'll still find ores there as usual. The depth and size of the caves aren't known yet.
Which blocks you'll find: familiar ice and two new blocks
- Ice and calcite. Mojang names these two itself. You'll know calcite as the white layer in amethyst geodes and as streaks in stony peaks.
- Packed ice, blue ice and snow. They appear to be in the footage, but aren't in the official summary.
- Icicles. New. According to Mojang, they grow on the ceiling by themselves. In the gameplay they seem able to fall when there's light nearby, for example from lava or ice crystals, hitting mobs as they come down. Mojang's official summary doesn't mention this.
- Ice crystals. New. They grow on the ground and give off a soft light, so they act as a natural light source in the cave.
Mojang also presents both new blocks as building materials. How you collect them, whether you need Silk Touch and whether they can be crafted isn't known yet. So on a build server, don't count on recipes or block properties just yet.
Which mobs spawn: the frozen zombie and most likely strays
The new enemy is a frozen zombie variant, for now simply called the frozen zombie: Mojang hasn't given it a final name yet. When it hits you, it doesn't just deal damage but also gives you a freezing effect. Some of them throw ice balls, which according to Mojang hurt quite a bit. A frozen zombie already existed in Minecraft Dungeons, in the Creeping Winter and Howling Peaks DLCs; now the variant is coming to the main game.
An official image shows a few mobs in the distance; players recognise frozen zombies and a stray in it, the skeleton variant from snowy areas. The usual cave monsters are expected to spawn there as well. Mojang hasn't shared health, damage or spawn rates yet, so any numbers circulating online aren't official.
When they come out: the next game drop, not in snapshots yet
Mojang calls it the next game drop, but hasn't given a date yet. It's expected to be Java 26.4 (the first snapshot of that came out on 22 September, still without ice caves); the Minecraft Wiki lists Bedrock 26.70 and expects the fourth quarter of 2026. For comparison: 26.3 Wilderness Bound came out on 15 September 2026.
The first 26.4 snapshot came out on 22 September, four days before the show. It doesn't include ice caves yet, but it does bring technical changes: Vulkan becomes the default graphics API, server.properties gets three new settings (allowed-connection-ids, status-contact-details and enable-legacy-status), and worlds from before Caves & Cliffs now also get sulfur caves beneath the old chunks when they're upgraded. Like the rest of the 26.x series, the snapshot runs on Java 25.
What you can prepare now as a server admin
There's nothing to install yet, but you can already take care of the following:
- Make a backup before every update. Once a world has been opened in a newer version, you can't cleanly roll it back to an older one: the backup is your only way back. In the game panel you'll find this under Backups (how to make a backup). Download one as well, so you have a copy off the server. More on this in our backup strategy.
- Test first, never on your main world. With every snapshot, Mojang warns that test versions can damage your world and recommends running them separately from your regular worlds. If you want to try 26.4 once the ice caves are in a snapshot, put a copy of your world on a separate test server. Mojang ships a separate server jar with every snapshot; you put it on your test server as a custom server jar.
- Check your Java version. Still on 1.21.x? Then you need Java 25 for the 26.x series. In the panel you can switch the Java version in a few clicks.
- Don't pregenerate your world all the way to the edge. Mojang hasn't said whether ice caves will also appear under areas that have already been generated. If you pregenerate a large map up to the world border now, you lock all that terrain into the current version. If you want to be sure players can find ice caves later, leave some terrain unexplored or plan a larger world border after the update. The trade-offs are covered in pre-generating chunks.
- Wait for your server software and plugins. If you run Paper or other software with plugins, those need updating after every drop. Only update once your most important plugins are ready; you can see how that went with the previous drop in which plugins already work on 26.3.
On Bedrock, the server has to run the same version as your players, and after a release the two quickly fall out of step. So there you actually want to update promptly; read what went wrong with the previous drop in Bedrock 26.50 and your server.
When you don't need to do anything yet
If you play a modpack or stick to a fixed version, nothing changes for now: modpacks usually lag behind the latest drop, and your server simply keeps working. The same goes for a creative build server where nobody explores caves. A world reset "for the ice caves" makes no sense right now either: there's nothing to generate yet and details may change before release. Testing snapshots mainly pays off if you maintain your own datapacks or plugins; otherwise, waiting for the release and updated software is the smartest route.
Getting your server ready for 26.4
At MC-Node, your Minecraft server runs on our own hardware with NVMe storage in the Previder data centre in Hengelo, with DDoS protection included. In the game panel you make backups and choose the server version in the settings (how to switch versions). Plans start at €0.50 per month (Cobblestone) and are cancellable monthly, so you simply cancel a temporary test server once you're done testing. What the 26.x series has brought so far is covered in Minecraft versions in 2026.
Frequently asked questions
When are ice caves coming to Minecraft?
Ice caves are coming in the next game drop, but Mojang hasn't given a date yet. That's expected to be Java Edition 26.4; the Minecraft Wiki lists Bedrock Edition 26.70 and expects the fourth quarter of 2026. They're not in the first 26.4 snapshot from 22 September.
Where do you find ice caves in Minecraft?
Ice caves are an underground cave biome, just like lush caves and dripstone caves. Based on the Minecraft LIVE footage, they're expected to sit beneath snowy biomes such as snowy plains and snowy taiga. Mojang hasn't revealed exactly how they generate yet.
Which new mob lives in the ice caves?
A frozen zombie variant, for now called the frozen zombie; there's no final name yet. Its hit deals damage and gives a freezing effect, and some of them throw ice balls. Strays are expected to spawn there too.
Will existing Minecraft worlds get ice caves too?
Mojang hasn't said yet. What we do know is that 26.4 Snapshot 1 makes worlds from before Caves & Cliffs generate sulfur caves beneath the old chunks when they're upgraded. To be safe, leave some terrain unexplored and always make a backup before you update.