Snowball

Snowballs are throwable combat items that hit but do not damage most mobs on impact.

Obtaining[]

Mining[]

A shovel without the Silk Touch enchantment can get 4 snowballs by breaking a snow block, and 1–8 snowballs by breaking or blasting snow layers – one per layer. The Fortune enchantment does not affect these amounts.

In Bedrock Edition, snowballs are dropped from snow layers even when mined with a Silk Touch shovel.^[1]

Explosions[]

Creeper and TNT explosions leave snowballs in the resulting debris field if near snow.

Ravagers[]

In Bedrock Edition, Ravagers destroy snow layers, dropping snowballs.

Pistons[]

In Bedrock Edition, a block or piston head pushed into the position of snow layers destroys the snow layers, dropping snowballs. 1-3 layers drops 1 snowball, 4-5 layers drops 2 snowballs, 6-7 layers drops 3 snowballs and 8 layers drops 4 snowballs.

Mob loot[]

Snow golems drop 0–15 snowballs upon death, unaffected by Looting.

Chest loot[]

Usage[]

Crafting ingredient[]

Combat[]

Snowballs can be thrown by using them. There is no charging time or cooldown for firing them,‌^{[until JE Combat Tests]} meaning they can be thrown as fast as the player can click.

Like other projectiles, snowballs are affected by gravity: their range is the same as those of eggs and ender pearls, less than that of arrows fired from bows, and more than that of splash potions. In Bedrock Edition, players will receive damage and will be knockbacked.

Snowballs deal 3 each to blazes but they deal no damage to other mobs. Mobs still receive knockback and act the same as if they were being damaged (for example, zombified piglins who are hit by snowballs become aggressive). Players in Bedrock Edition receive knockback, while players in Java Edition are unaffected.^[2]‌^{[until JE Combat Tests]}

When fighting the ender dragon, end crystals are able to be destroyed by snowballs being thrown at them.

Snowball, like other projectiles, can be used to distract the warden. A warden walks towards the location where the snowball lands to inspect it, giving the player time to escape. However, if snowballs are fired too frequently (at least twice in 5 seconds), the warden walks straight to the player instead. In the new versions they can hit players but just only in bedrock

Dispenser[]

Snowballs can be fired from dispensers.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:
Thrown snowballs use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Entity Data[]

Snowballs have entity data that define various properties of the entity.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Bullseye	Hit the bullseye of a Target block from at least 30 meters away	Take Aim	Be at least 30 blocks away horizontally when the center of a target is shot with a projectile by the player.	adventure/bullseye

Video[]

History[]

Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.5					Added snowballs.
					Snowballs are used to craft snow blocks.
					Snowballs could stack up to 64.
v1.0.5_01					Snowballs now stack to 8.
					Added a new snowball sound effect.
					Harvesting snowballs now requires a shovel.
v1.0.6					Snowballs now stack up to 16.
					Thrown snowballs no longer disappear.
v1.1.1					It is no longer possible to obtain more than four snowballs from a solid snow block (the player was previously able to obtain 4-6 snowballs per snow block allowing an infinite number of snowballs to be made).
v1.2.0		preview			Fireballs use the same texture as the snowball.
Java Edition Beta
1.2					Snowballs can now be fired by dispensers.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease			Fireballs no longer use the snowball texture.
		RC1			Snowball throwing sound was changed.
1.9		15w32a			Snowballs no longer damage the ender dragon.
		15w36b			Snowballs now produce particles when thrown at an entity.
		15w49a			Snowballs, as well as all projectiles, now take the thrower's motion into account when fired.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID has been changed from Snowball to snowball.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 332.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of snowballs has been changed.
		18w49a			Snowballs can now be found in chests in snowy tundra village houses.
		19w08a			The texture of snowballs has been changed, once again.
1.16.2		Pre-Release 1			Snowballs are now affected by bubble columns.
1.19		Deep Dark Experimental Snapshot 1			Snowballs now generate in ancient city chests.
Upcoming Java Edition
Combat Tests		Combat Test 4			Snowballs now stack to 64, once again.
					Snowballs now have 4-tick cooldown and are not rendered for the first 2 ticks to prevent screen flickering.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.2.0					Added snowballs. They are currently unobtainable and serve no purpose.
v0.3.0					Snowballs now drop as an item when mining snow blocks and snow layers.
					Snowballs can be used to craft snow blocks.
v0.4.0					Snowballs can now be thrown.
v0.11.0		build 14			Snowballs are now available in the creative inventory.
v0.12.0					Snowballs now deal damage to blazes.
v0.12.1		build 1			Added snow golems, which drop snowballs.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0					Snowballs now deal knockback to players.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of snowballs has been changed.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Snowballs can now be found in some snowy tundra village house chests.
		beta 1.11.0.5			The texture of snowballs has been changed, once again.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added snowballs.
		1.90			The texture of snowballs has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added snowballs.

Issues[]

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

Trivia[]

• A thrown snowball faces the player in the first-person view, while it appears horizontally rotated in third-person view. This is the case for all throwable items (ender pearls, eggs, snowballs, and all throwable potions).

References[]

External Links[]

• Taking Inventory: Snowball – Minecraft.net on August 3, 2019