Powder Snow

Powder snow is a block found in snowy slopes and grove biomes, or collected from snowfall using cauldrons. Players and most mobs fall through powder snow and take freezing damage within it, but leather boots can be worn to stand on and climb through it as well as gain freezing immunity. Powder snow can only be obtained using a bucket.

Obtaining[]

Natural generation[]

Powder snow naturally generates in groves and snowy slopes in strip formations.

Cauldrons[]

A cauldron in a snowy biome under open sky fills with powder snow when it is snowing. Powder snow can then be picked up from this cauldron with an empty bucket.

Bucket[]

Using a powder snow bucket places powder snow; placed powder snow can be picked up again with an empty bucket. These actions can be automated using a dispenser. When picked up, breaking particles appear.‌^{[Java Edition only][1]}

Breaking[]

Powder snow does not drop anything when mined, even with Silk Touch, and tools do not speed up mining.^[2][3]

Powder snow is broken by water or lava, or when shot with a Flame-enchanted bow.

Usage[]

Entities (except rabbits, endermites, silverfish, shulkers, vexes and foxes) fall through powder snow without taking fall damage and move much slower in it, similar to cobwebs. Powder snow does not cause suffocation damage.

Mobs, armor stands or players wearing leather boots do not fall through powder snow. In this case, the snow behaves as scaffolding when the player sneaks or crouches while on the block and jumps while inside of the block. It is impossible to climb out of powder snow without leather boots.

Most walking mobs (except for goats) treat powder snow as normal solid blocks while pathfinding, similar to trapdoors, allowing them to voluntarily walk into it, and fall through it if possible.^[4] Goats avoid powder snow, although they are not immune to falling through it and taking freezing damage.

If an entity that is on fire touches powder snow, powder snow cools it down as the powder snow melts.

Being fully inside a block causes a thick fog effect around the point of view. In Java Edition, players in Spectator mode can see through powder snow without any fogging effect.

When powder snow is on top of grass blocks, mycelium or podzol, the blocks below change to a snowy texture, similar to when snow layers are on top;^[5] they revert to their default textures when the powder snow is removed. This change can be detected by observers.

Freezing[]

When an entity is inside a powder snow block, they begin to freeze, taking damage.

A player submerged in powder snow sees a frosty vignette slowly fade in at the sides of the screen and the FOV slowly decreases. When the vignette is fully shown, the player begins shivering visibly. After seven seconds (140 game ticks), the player's hearts change to a cyan frosty texture (), and the player begins taking damage at a rate of 1 HP every two seconds (40 game ticks). When an entity dies of freezing damage, a message will appear, saying [entity] froze to death. If the player leaves the powder snow block, the vignette slowly fades away. A frozen player moves slower than usual until the vignette fully fades away. This is controlled by the "TicksFrozen" data tag, which increases by 1 every tick (to a maximum of 140) for an entity within the powder snow block. It decreases at a rate of 2 per tick after the entity leaves the powder snow block. This is currently not a separate effect when used with commands such as /effect give freezing, and does not have its own unique art, particles, or potion.

In Java Edition, players do not take freezing damage if the game rule freezeDamage is set to false.

Wearing any piece of leather armor stops the freezing effect and reverses the damage. This applies to entities that can wear armor, such as players, zombies and horses wearing leather horse armor. If the leather armor is put on while the entity already has the freezing effect, the effect fades away the same as if the entity exited the powder snow.

Snow golems, strays, polar bears, withers, and ender dragons^[verify] are immune to freezing damage. Fire-related mobs like striders, magma cubes, and blazes take 5 from freezing.

Skeletons turn into strays instead of taking freezing damage.

Preventing fall damage[]

Similar to water, powdered snow resets the fall distance of players and mobs falling into it, and can be used to prevent fall damage. It is beneficial to water in that it can be used in the Nether.

Piston interactivity[]

Despite not being a solid block, powder snow can be pushed and pulled by pistons like most solid blocks. This makes it the only block that can be placed and retrieved by dispensers, while also pushable by pistons.

Sounds[]

Generic[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Unique[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Light as a Rabbit	Walk on Powder Snow... without sinking in it	Sweet Dreams	Walk on powder snow while wearing leather boots.	adventure/walk_on_powder_snow_with_leather_boots

History[]

September 26, 2019					Powder snow was announced as “Snowier Snow” at MINECON Live 2019 as part of mountains in the biome vote, and was set to be added to the game due to mountains winning the vote.
October 3, 2020					Powder snow was mentioned at Minecraft Live 2020, but no images were shown.
Java Edition
1.17		20w46a			Added powder snow.
		20w48a			Wearing any piece of leather armor now stops the freezing effect.
					Added the freezeDamage gamerule, which stops entities from taking freezing damage if it is set to false.
					The snow_step_sound_blocks block tag was renamed to inside_step_sound_block.
		21w05a			Skeletons now turn into strays when they are in powder snow after 45 seconds (900 game ticks).
					Foxes no longer fall through powder snow.
					Powder snow now extinguishes any flaming arrows shot into it.
		21w10a			Freezing in powder snow while using the "Fast" graphics setting gradually turns the player's view to black, and the vignette also appears as black in third-person view. This is most likely due to the new rendering change added in this version.
		21w11a			Frozen hearts now have a different texture in Hardcore mode.
					Players in Spectator mode can now see through when inside powder snow.[6]
		21w13a			Slightly increased hardness and durability.
					Increased vertical movement speed in powder snow.
					Entities on fire now melt powder snow on colliding.
					Skeletons now convert into strays after 7 seconds (140 game ticks).
					Blazes, magma cubes, and striders now take extra damage from freezing.
					Strays, polar bears, and snow golems are now immune to freezing.
					Leather horse armor now grants horses immunity to freezing.
					Mobs now shake when they are fully frozen.
					Freeze time decreased to 7 seconds (140 game ticks) and hurt frequency to 2 seconds (40 game ticks).
					The model of powder snow has been tweaked so that the inner side textures are mirrored.
		21w17a			Withers are now immune to freezing.
1.17.1		Pre-release 1			Powder snow cauldrons are now filled twice as fast as before.
1.18		Experimental Snapshot 1			Powder snow now naturally generates in the new mountain biomes.
Bedrock Edition
Caves & Cliffs (experimental)		beta 1.16.200.52			Added powder snow under the Caves and Cliffs Experimental Gameplay toggle.
		beta 1.16.210.51			Powder snow now shows the block breaking animation when being mined.
					Powder snow is no longer transparent when looked at through clouds.
		beta 1.16.210.53			Entities in powder snow now begin freezing and eventually die.
					Powder snow can now be picked up and placed with a bucket.
					Powder snow no longer appears in the Creative inventory.
					Added new sound effects for powder snow.
					Powder snow now emits particles when an entity is landing or moving inside it.
					Endermites, rabbits, and silverfish no longer fall through powder snow.
		beta 1.16.210.57			Powder snow block was readded to the Creative inventory.
		beta 1.16.220.50			Powder snow now naturally generates in the new mountain biomes.
		beta 1.16.220.51			Powder snow block is once again unavailable through the Creative inventory.
1.17.0		beta 1.16.230.54			Slightly increased hardness and durability.
					Increased vertical movement speed in powder snow.
					Entities on fire now melt powder snow on colliding.
					Blazes, magma cubes, and striders now take extra damage from freezing.
					Strays, polar bears, and snow golems are now immune to freezing.
					Leather horse armor now grants horses immunity to freezing.
					Mobs now shake when they are fully frozen.
					Freeze time decreased to 7 seconds (140 game ticks) and hurt frequency to 2 seconds (40 game ticks).
					A fog effect is now applied while standing very close outside a powder snow block.
		beta 1.17.0.50			Powder snow now makes a different noise when players get hurt by it.
					Foxes no longer fall through powder snow.
					Powder snow blocks are now removed by flowing water and lava.
		beta 1.17.0.52			Cauldrons now fill with powder snow when it snows, making it renewable.
		beta 1.17.0.54			Powder snow's hardness has been changed to 0.25 to match Java Edition.
					Skeletons now convert into strays when they are inside of powder snow.
		beta 1.17.0.56			Withers are now immune to freezing.
1.18.0		beta 1.18.0.20			Powder snow now naturally generates without enabling experimental gameplay.

Powder Snow "items"[]

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Powder Snow" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Gallery[]

• 

  A patch of powder snow in a snowy slopes biome, barely standing out from regular snow surrounding it.

• 

  Annotated version of the previous screenshot. Thick blue line separates regular and powder snow; dashed line denotes the level of blocks the player has been standing on.

• 

  A pit full of powder snow.

• 

  A pit full of powder snow.

References[]

External Links[]

• Block of the Week: Powder Snow – Minecraft.net on October 21, 2021