Minecraft Java 26.4 Snapshot 5 released on 20 October 2026. After Snapshot 4 added brittle ice and jukebox playlists, this one is for builders: packed ice bricks, a full block family with slabs, stairs, walls and a chiseled block, all of which work in the stonecutter. It also adds an advancement for beating a frostbite with its own weapon, and quietly lets ice caves hold strongholds and ruined portals.
Image: Mojang Studios, from the official 26.4 Snapshot 5 announcement.
RateData pack 125.0, resource pack 100.2
XP levelJava 26.4 Snapshot 5
Build time20 October 2026
DifficultyIntermediate
Snapshot features can change before release. Test them in a copy of a world, never your main save. The Vulkan window-resize crash from Snapshot 4 is still listed as a known issue, so play fullscreen or switch the renderer if you hit it.
Everything new, at a glance
| Change |
What it does |
| Packed ice bricks |
New block, crafted from 2x2 packed ice |
| Slab, stairs, wall, chiseled |
The full family, also made in the stonecutter |
| What Goes Around Comes Around |
Adventure advancement: kill a frostbite with an ice ball |
| Ice ambient sounds |
Ice surrounded by ice, over water, sometimes makes a sound |
| Mob projectiles |
Can break decorated pots, chorus flowers and speleothems in adventure mode |
| Prefer DXGI Present |
Experimental Windows-only video setting |
| Ice caves |
Can now generate strongholds and ruined portals |
| Bug fixes |
30 issues fixed |
Packed ice bricks
The headline of this snapshot. The rules from the changelog:
- Recipe: four packed ice in a 2x2 square make packed ice bricks.
- Variants: a slab, stairs, a wall and chiseled packed ice.
- Stonecutter: the slab, stairs, wall and chiseled packed ice can all be cut in a stonecutter, so you do not lose material to crafting-table recipes.
- Sulfur cubes: packed ice bricks and chiseled packed ice belong to the Fast Sliding sulfur cube archetype, like other ice.
The Minecraft Wiki adds two details that matter for building: the bricks are not slippery, unlike packed ice itself, and they are mined with a pickaxe, no Silk Touch needed. That makes them the first ice block you can floor a room with and walk on normally.
Where does the packed ice come from? The new ice caves are built from it, and an ice farm turns water into ice that crafts into packed ice, nine at a time. Chiseled packed ice has a snowflake pattern carved in, a nice touch for winter builds.
The new advancement
What Goes Around Comes Around is a new Adventure advancement: kill a frostbite with an ice ball. Frostbites throw ice balls at you, so the trick is turning one back on them. Frostbites drop ice balls, which is how you get your own supply; the frostbite and ice ball farm guide covers that.
Ice caves get strongholds and ruined portals
Two bug fixes change world generation: ice caves were missing from the list of biomes strongholds prefer (MC-312631), and ruined portals did not generate in them (MC-312630). Both now work, so a stronghold or a ruined portal can turn up inside an ice cave. Our guide to finding ice caves and the stronghold guide cover the searching itself.
A related fix: frostbites were spawning in ordinary caves under cold biomes, which strays never did (MC-312404). That is fixed too, so frostbites keep to the places the drop intends.
Other changes
Ice sounds. A regular ice block now has ambient sounds. It needs a specific setup: ice on all four horizontal sides, one air block above and water below. Then it has a chance to make a sound, which should make frozen lakes feel less silent.
Mob projectiles in adventure mode. Skeletons and other shooting mobs can now break decorated pots, chorus flowers and speleothem blocks with their projectiles in adventure mode worlds, unless mob_griefing is set to false. Map makers who protect these blocks should check that gamerule.
Prefer DXGI Present. A new, experimental video setting that tries to present the game through DirectX. It exists only on Windows, is off by default, and Mojang says not all hardware supports it. With it on you may see better IME support, Variable Refresh Rate support and faster alt-tabbing in fullscreen. If something breaks, turn it back off.
Undead and potions. A Snapshot 4 bug had made zombies, husks, drowned, strays and frostbites affected by Poison and Regeneration (MC-312621). It is fixed, so undead mobs are immune again, as they always were.
Mushrooms. A 26.4 bug made red and brown mushrooms spread incorrectly (MC-312431). Fixed, so a mushroom farm built in the snapshot behaves like one in 26.3.
Jukebox playlists. Several fixes for Snapshot 4's playlists, including a crash when a playlist disc had a hidden tooltip and jukeboxes not reading single chests left over after breaking a double chest.
For data pack and resource pack authors
- Pack formats: data pack 125.0, resource pack 100.2. Minimum Java runtime is still Java 25.
- Components: the
sound field of minecraft:consumable and the equip_sound and shearing_sound fields of minecraft:equippable are now fully optional, with the old defaults.
- Density functions:
interpolated is renamed to upscale, with per-axis modes nearest_neighbor, interpolate_linear, interpolate_cosine, interpolate_cubic and b_spline_cubic, and a cell_size from 1 to 64. Packs that use the old name need updating.
- Ore features: in
ore and scattered_ore, blocks discarded because of air exposure no longer fall through to the next replacement rule.
- Tags:
#ignores_poison_and_regen is split into #immune_to_poison and #immune_to_regeneration; #freeze_immune_entity_types is renamed to #immune_to_freezing; new #immune_to_wither and #immune_to_weakness. The biome tag #spawns_strays_without_powder_snow is renamed to #spawns_cold_variants_underground.
- Servers and proxies: the login protocol now applies encryption and compression only after the client acknowledges them, through new packet pairs. Custom proxies and protocol libraries will need an update.
What this means for 26.4
Five snapshots in, the Ice Caves drop is filling out with building blocks and polish rather than new systems, the usual sign that pre-releases are getting closer. Mojang has still not announced a release date; our 26.4 release date page tracks the window and everything confirmed so far. Before you move a real world to 26.4, read how to update Minecraft safely.
Frequently asked questions
How do you craft packed ice bricks?
Put four packed ice in a 2x2 square on a crafting table. The slab, stairs, wall and chiseled packed ice can then be made in a stonecutter.
Are packed ice bricks slippery?
No. According to the Minecraft Wiki, packed ice bricks are not slippery, unlike packed ice, so you can walk on them like a normal floor.
How do you get the What Goes Around Comes Around advancement?
Kill a frostbite with an ice ball. Frostbites drop ice balls, so collect some first and throw one back at a frostbite.
Can strongholds generate in ice caves?
Yes, from Snapshot 5. Ice caves were added to the biomes strongholds prefer, and ruined portals can generate there too.
What is Prefer DXGI Present in Minecraft?
An experimental Windows-only video setting, off by default, that presents the game through DirectX. It may improve IME support, Variable Refresh Rate and alt-tabbing, but not all hardware supports it.
Data pack 125.0 and resource pack 100.2, with Java 25 as the minimum runtime.
Sources:
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