Taking Inventory: Snowball

Let’s be honest though, the main reason to collect snowballs in Minecraft isn’t to craft snow blocks – it’s to hurl them at friends and foes alike. Right-clicking with a snowball in your hand will fling it in the direction that you’re pointing, just like an egg. Snowballs deal no damage, with one exception. Against blazes, which are creatures literally made of fire, snowballs deal one and a half hearts of damage. I highly recommend shouting “ICE TO SEE YOU!” when you begin your assault.

Other uses for snowballs? Well, you can put them in a dispenser and hook up a tripwire to make a festive trap, or hurl them at end crystals to break them while fighting the Ender Dragon, which saves arrows. In some versions of the game, there are also a collection of six snowball-related achievements to earn. Did you snowtice them?

In the real world, snowballs are a little bit more complicated than those in Minecraft (and they hurt more, too). Prime snowball-making conditions are when the temperature is hovering around zero, because there’s a little liquid water in the ice that helps it stick together. When it’s too cold, the snow becomes powdery and won’t stick together. A pro tip, for those of you who don’t carry around a thermometer wherever you go, is that if the snow squeaks when you walk on it, it’s probably too cold for snowballs. Appreciate all my great advice? It’s snow problem!

Very occasionally, when the circumstances are jusssst right, snowballs can form naturally without human intervention. The wind needs to be strong enough to blow them, but not so strong that they blow away (or it needs to be on a slope so gravity can do the work). The temperature needs to be warm enough for the snow to stick together. But there also needs to be a thin layer of ice on the ground to stop the snowball freezing to the ground. If all these conditions are in place, they can get quite large! Snow some appreciation for nature.

The best thing you can do with a snowball isn’t to throw it at someone, but to roll it much larger and make it into a snowman. Everyone gets cheered up by seeing a jolly snowman on their way to work. But winter is fading – so get out there and get building. There’s snow time to lose!