Minecraft 26.4 on Your Server: Ice Caves, the Frostbite and How to Get Ready Before It Lands

When 26.4 comes out

As of 5 November 2026, Mojang hasn't given a date. The Minecraft Wiki places it in the last quarter of 2026 under the provisional name «Fourth Drop 2026», and the December dates you'll read around are other websites' estimates, not an announcement.

So far there are 7 snapshots: the first came out on 22 September and number 7 on 3 November. Everything below comes from them, so some details may change before the final version.

What's new: Ice Caves, the Frostbite and Freezing

Ice Caves are a cave biome that generates underneath cold biomes: mostly packed ice and calcite, with Icicles, Ice Crystals (light level 4) and patches of snow. Strays and Frostbites spawn down there. And watch out for the Brittle Ice in the crevasses: it cracks under players and mobs.

The Frostbite is a zombie variant from snowy biomes, with a baby form too. It hits in melee applying Freezing or throws an Ice Ball if it has one, it burns in sunlight, and a zombie that ends up in powder snow turns into one. It drops ice balls and rotten flesh.

Freezing is the new effect: it slows you down like powder snow and ends up dealing damage. Leather armor stops you from freezing, but it doesn't remove the effect. There's a potion (awkward potion plus an ice ball), with splash and lingering versions, and arrows: a lingering potion in the middle of the crafting table surrounded by 8 arrows.

Blocks and items to build with

For building there are packed ice bricks and snow bricks, each with a stair, slab and wall, plus a whole calcite family: stairs, slabs, walls, pillars and bricks. There's also a new music disc, «flurry», with a 30% chance in igloo basement chests.

The sulfur cube from 26.2 gets a cold archetype: it floats and leaves frosted ice on the water, and you get it by making it absorb blue ice. If your server has a build area or a winter event, all of this can be handed out in creative on day one.

Your world doesn't fill up with new caves on its own

This is what surprises people most after updating. A new biome only shows up in terrain that hasn't been generated yet: whatever already exists in your world stays as it is, including anything you've pregenerated with Chunky. To see Ice Caves you have to travel to cold biomes nobody has set foot in.

If your world is small or you've set a border, widen it after updating so there's new terrain. Another way out is a second world with Multiverse just for exploring. And if the server is recent and nobody minds, starting the world again after the update is the simplest option.

One tip if you're about to launch a new season: don't pregenerate the new map right before 26.4. Whatever you generate with 26.3 won't have Ice Caves.

What changes for whoever runs the server

There are three new lines in server.properties. status-contact-details adds a contact detail to the information the server gives when queried. enable-legacy-status lets you switch off the old status query, the one from before 1.7; it defaults to true, so nothing changes if you leave it alone. allowed-connection-ids compares the identifiers you give it with the one the client sends when connecting: leave it empty unless you know what you want it for.

/fillbiome now changes the biome with block accuracy. And if you make data packs or resource packs, the format number changes with each snapshot (126 and 102 in number 7) and fluids change in the world data: redo them against the final version with the pack.mcmeta generator, which will be brought up to date when it's out.

On Java, nothing we've been able to read in the notes announces a change: 26.1 moved up to Java 25 (what changed then). It'll be confirmed with the final version.

Paper, plugins and mods: better not on day one

Paper doesn't have to land the same day as Mojang: 26.3 came out on 15 September and Paper's announcement on the 26th. As of 5 November it hasn't published any news about 26.4. After that, each plugin has to release its own version, and the ones that dig into the server's internals are the last.

What Paper did warn about, when publishing 26.3, is that it's preparing to bring together almost all the configuration currently split across the Bukkit, Spigot and Paper files, with 26.4 as the plan. It's a plan, not a done deal, but if you've tuned those files, keep them safe before updating. This guide will change as soon as Paper publishes it.

In the meantime, your players may update the game before the server does and get locked out. Tell them to stay on your version or install ViaVersion, which lets nearby versions join (it needs its own 26.4 version too).

What to get done now

1. List your plugins and mods

   Write down the ones you can't lose and check on their pages whether they mention 26.4 yet. Don't update without them.

2. Save your configuration

   Make a copy in «Backups» right before changing version (the free server has no backups: download the world from «Files»), and keep bukkit.yml, spigot.yml and the config folder on your computer if you've changed them.

3. Tell your people

   Let them know which game version to use until the server moves up. You pick a fixed version in the launcher's «Installations».

4. Try the real world first

   If you can, update a copy of the world on another server first and join to see that everything works. An updated world doesn't go back.

26.4 on NapNodes

New servers start on the latest version of Paper. One you already have moves up whenever you want: «Mods & plugins» → «Server type», pick the version once Paper has published it, and the panel stops the server, makes a backup if your plan has room and starts it, with the right Java. Step by step in how to update the server version.

The three new server.properties lines, if you need them, are edited from «Files» once the server is on 26.4.

If you want to try the Ice Caves in a new world with friends, at NapNodes you can create a free Minecraft server, no card needed, and have it ready for when it arrives.

Frequently asked questions