Minecraft Java 26.4 Snapshot 7 released on 3 November 2026, and Mojang calls it the final set of gameplay features for the winter drop. What is left before release is polish and bug fixing, normally through pre-releases. This last batch is for builders and collectors: three calcite block sets, a new music disc, Flurry by Hyper Potions, and one decorative block Mojang hid "somewhere". There is also a big accessibility change: inventories and other gameplay screens now work with the keyboard and the narrator.
Image: Mojang Studios, from the official 26.4 Snapshot 7 announcement.
RateData pack 126.0, resource pack 102.0
XP levelJava 26.4 Snapshot 7
Build time3 November 2026
DifficultyIntermediate
Snapshot features can change before release. Test them in a copy of a world, never your main save. The Vulkan crash when resizing the game window (MC-312444) is still listed as a known problem on the Minecraft Wiki, so play fullscreen if you hit it.
Everything new, at a glance
| Change |
What it does |
| Calcite set |
Pillar, slab, stairs and wall for plain calcite |
| Polished calcite |
2x2 calcite, with slab, stairs and wall |
| Polished calcite bricks |
2x2 polished calcite, with slab, stairs and wall |
| Music disc "Flurry" |
By Hyper Potions, found in igloo basement chests |
| Hidden decorative block |
Mojang only says it is "somewhere" |
| Freezing |
Being on fire now counters it, like leather armor |
| Leather armor on mobs |
Stops zombies and skeletons turning into frostbites and strays |
| Strays |
Now also spawn in six more cold biomes |
| Graphics API "Default" |
Picks OpenGL or Vulkan at random on each launch |
| Keyboard and narrator |
Gameplay screens like the crafting table work without a mouse |
| Bug fixes |
53 issues fixed |
Three calcite block sets
Calcite used to be a plain block you found around amethyst geodes. In 26.4 it is everywhere in ice caves, and Snapshot 7 turns it into a full white building palette:
- Calcite: now has a pillar, slab, stairs and wall.
- Polished calcite: four calcite in a 2x2 square. It has a slab, stairs and a wall.
- Polished calcite bricks: four polished calcite in a 2x2 square. They have a slab, stairs and a wall.
- Stonecutter: every variant of all three sets can also be made in a stonecutter, one block in, one block out. For stairs that beats the crafting table, which turns six blocks into four.
- Sulfur cubes: all three belong to the Slow Bouncy archetype.
With Snapshot 5's packed ice bricks and Snapshot 6's snow bricks, 26.4 now ships three winter building families. The ice caves are the obvious place to mine calcite in bulk; our guide to finding ice caves shows how to locate one fast.
The Flurry music disc
- Track: "Flurry" by Hyper Potions, who also made Lava Chicken.
- Where: it has a chance to appear in igloo basement chests. Not every igloo has a basement, so check under the carpet for the trapdoor.
- Redstone: a comparator reads 7 from a jukebox playing it.
Our music disc guide lists where every other disc comes from and the comparator signal for each.
The hidden block
Mojang's notes only say: "Added a new decorative block to the game... somewhere". According to the Minecraft Wiki, it is chiseled soulshale, a block showing a singer, found only in ancient city chests and not in the Creative inventory. The wiki marks that section as unfinished, so treat the details as provisional until Mojang confirms them. If you want to look for it, our ancient city guide covers finding one and getting to the chests alive.
Freezing, strays and frostbites
Three changes to the cold mobs from earlier snapshots:
- Fire counters Freezing. Being on fire now works against the Freezing effect the same way wearing leather armor does.
- Leather armor stops conversions. A zombie or skeleton wearing any piece of leather armor no longer turns into a frostbite or a stray. This matters if you build a frostbite ice ball farm: zombies that spawn in leather gear will not convert.
- More strays. Strays now spawn in Deep Frozen Ocean, Frozen Ocean, Frozen Peaks, Frozen River, Jagged Peaks and Snowy Slopes, as they already do on Bedrock.
Parrots can now imitate frostbites too.
Graphics API: OpenGL or Vulkan at random
If your Graphics API video setting is on Default, the game now randomly picks OpenGL or Vulkan each time it starts. Mojang's reason: the snapshots have defaulted to Vulkan for weeks, so OpenGL got little testing after big rendering changes, and they want reports from both. They say this will be reverted in a future snapshot.
In practice it means the game can look or perform differently from one launch to the next, and a crash may only happen on one of the two backends. If you want consistent results, set the Graphics API yourself instead of leaving it on Default. Our Vulkan renderer explainer covers the difference between the two.
Keyboard and narrator in gameplay screens
The crafting table, furnace, chests and other gameplay screens can now be used without a mouse:
- Tab moves between groups of slots; the arrow keys move between slots in a group.
- Enter or Space acts like a left click. Hold Control for a right click, or Shift for a shift-click.
- Pressing Enter or Space twice collects matching items, like a double click.
- Moving with the arrow keys while holding Enter or Space spreads the stack across slots, like dragging with the mouse.
- The hotbar keys and the Drop key act on the focused slot.
- Stonecutter recipes, loom patterns, enchanting options and villager trades are navigated as one group.
The narrator now reads slots aloud: their contents, the item tooltip, the slot's purpose (armor, fuel, potion) and its position, for example "3 out of 9". The Creative inventory and the recipe book are not supported yet.
Smaller UI changes: hovered list entries get a gray outline, the mouse cursor hides while you navigate with the keyboard, the recipe book button has a tooltip, and the Realms Play buttons are now purple. The main menu also has a new panorama for the drop.
Bug fixes worth knowing
Among the 53 fixes:
- Stutter fixed: the entity interpolation added in 26.3 caused visible stutters; that is fixed (MC-311974).
- Mob jitter: mobs no longer jitter and slide in crowds when they cannot reach you (MC-311883).
- Attack ranges restored: drowned with tridents and snow golems had a much shorter reach, and witches, withers and llamas attacked targets outside their radius. All fixed.
- Vulkan memory leak: the Vulkan backend leaked native memory on every render pass (MC-312962).
- Falling blocks: falling pointed blocks dealt more damage than before; fixed.
- Abandoned camps: several camp variants never generated their giant trees or tents, and one pale garden camp never generated at all. All fixed.
- Ores in tuff: ores inside tuff blobs at Y 0 to 3 generate as their deepslate variant again.
- Experience orbs: they no longer desync after bouncing on lava.
For data pack and resource pack authors
- Pack formats: data pack 126.0, resource pack 102.0.
- Commands:
/effect now accepts mob effect tags. Time arguments fail if the value is above 2147483647 ticks.
- Debug worlds: they can now be edited with placing, breaking and commands, contain one of every entity type (babies above adults), load tick-frozen on Normal difficulty, and have
advance_time, advance_weather, spawn_wandering_traders and tnt_explodes set to false. Blocks no longer update automatically, so create a new debug world to see new blocks.
- Tags: the
#swimming and #flying entity type tags added in Snapshot 6 are removed again. The unused twisting_vines block sound set is gone.
- Textures: the icicle textures drop the
_down part of their names (for example block/icicle_down_tip.png is now block/icicle_tip.png). New: calcite_pillar_side, calcite_pillar_top, polished_calcite, polished_calcite_bricks, polished_calcite_slab_side and item/music_disc_flurry.
- Sounds: new sound event
entity.parrot.imitate.frostbite.
What this means for 26.4
With the last features in, the next builds should be pre-releases, which usually means the release is a few weeks away. Mojang still has not announced a date; our 26.4 release date page tracks the window and the full feature list. The previous snapshot, with snow bricks and the cold sulfur cube, is Snapshot 6.
Frequently asked questions
How do you make polished calcite in Minecraft?
Put four calcite in a 2x2 square on a crafting table, or use a stonecutter. Four polished calcite in a 2x2 square make polished calcite bricks.
Where do you find the Flurry music disc?
In igloo basement chests. It was added in 26.4 Snapshot 7 and is by Hyper Potions.
What is the hidden block in 26.4 Snapshot 7?
Mojang did not name it. The Minecraft Wiki identifies it as chiseled soulshale, found in ancient city chests, but marks that information as unfinished.
Why does Minecraft switch between OpenGL and Vulkan?
In Snapshot 7, the Default Graphics API setting picks one at random each launch so Mojang can test both. Choose a backend manually to stop it. Mojang says this will be reverted later.
Is 26.4 Snapshot 7 the last snapshot?
It is the last one with new gameplay features, according to Mojang. Pre-releases with bug fixes usually follow before the full release.
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