Brrrr! There’s a chill in the air, a sparkle in the ceiling, and an ominous groan in the distance. That can only mean one thing! The final game drop of 2026 is upon us, and before you descend into the ice caves we have to check that everything is ready for you! It’s time to test out the new features! For this frosty game drop, we’re going to collect all the moments right here, for new things to test! Cool, right? You can expect a lot of incredible wordplay in that icy vein but don’t let that discourage you!  

Go forth, test, and give us your feedback at feedback.minecraft.net and report any bugs you find at bugs.mojang.com. 

Click on the link to jump to each testing moment:

• September 30: Mobs and more! [Preview/beta]
• October 6: Mobs and more! [Java snapshot]
• October 13: Jukeboxes, brittle ice, and crevasses! [Preview/beta 26U7-1, Snapshot 26.4] 
• October 20: Ambient sounds and decorative blocks! [Preview/beta 26U7-2, Snapshot 26.4]
• October 27: Freeze water and build with snow bricks! [Snapshot 26.4]
• November 3: Build with calcite and jam out to a new music disc [Preview/beta]

Mobs, caves, and more!

Explore the ice caves, battle the frozen zombie, fight with ice balls, and build with ice crystals and icicles. 

If you watched Minecraft Live you’ll know that this drop is so cool it’s positively frozen. Pull on your warmest, wooliest sweater because you’ve got new ice caves to explore! The caves are so shiny and pretty thanks to the new ice crystals and icicles decorating them. But be careful, they’re pretty sharp so try not to knock them over! Or do, if you woke up and chose chaos.  But while we’re on the topic of being careful, I would watch out for ice balls. *Wooosh* See! They’re fast! That one almost hit me, and I do not have time to get frozen right now.

Wait a minute… who threw that? Uh-oh. There must  be a frostbite around here.  You might know the frozen zombie variant. It was just too cool, so we had to name it. See for yourself, here it comes! 

Well, that’s my cue! Don’t worry, I’m sure you can use a Freezing potion if you get in trouble. But I’m not going to chill out and find out!

Jukeboxes, brittle ice, and crevasses!

Stack your discs, mind the cracks, and drop into the ice caves.

Oh, good, you’re back! And you don’t look as frozen as I thought. Great job evading the frostbite! But there’s no time to rest, because there are three more features to test in the Java snapshot and Bedrock beta & preview and that are out today.  

Before we get started, let’s get some music going. There’s a lot to try out, so we’re going to need some continuous tunes. Maybe, a list. A list that keeps playing the music. To achieve this, all you need to do is put a chest over a jukebox block, fill it with music discs, and voila! You’ve got a mixtape á la Minecraft! Or a jukebox playlist, if you prefer the less millennial, more official name.  

Now that we’ve got a soundtrack, we can take a closer look at the new brittle ice blocks. The name implies that they’re fragile, which is appropriate as they will break if you stand on them. Not immediately, ice is still pretty sturdy. But once the cracks go CRACK, they’re going to keep cracking until they break. To craft them, add water to blue ice blocks. But if you find them in the wild, chances are that they’re covering a crevasse. These frosty ravines wind down into the ice caves, so hopefully you were looking for a freezing adventure! Come on. The ice should have been a clue.  

How to test the new features

Get the Snapshot

Snapshots are available for Minecraft: Java Edition. To install the Snapshot, open up the Minecraft Launcher and enable snapshots in the "Installations" tab.

Testing versions can corrupt your world, so please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds.

Report bugs here: