Overview
Frozen river is exactly what a river becomes when it crosses a cold biome: the surface freezes into a solid sheet of ice, salmon and squid keep swimming beneath it, and the banks carry sand, dirt and clay as any river would. It is a small, narrow biome that you almost always meet while travelling rather than seek out, and its main practical effect is on movement. Ice is slippery, so a boat placed on a frozen river slides along it at high speed, which makes the river a free road through a snowy landscape — considerably faster than trudging through snow layers, which slow you down. It is also the easiest way to gather ordinary ice early, since it needs only a Silk Touch pickaxe and no diving. Strays spawn along frozen rivers and in the snowy biomes around them, and their arrows apply Slowness for several seconds, which turns a fall through broken ice into a real problem. Clay generates under the ice in patches, and clay is the source of bricks and flower pots. Frozen rivers cut through snowy plains, snowy taiga, grove and ice spikes.
Fast boat travel across snowy country, ice for building and for a Silk Touch supply, clay from the riverbed, and salmon for food through a hole cut in the surface.
Frozen River sits in the freezing band of Minecraft's biome table, generating in the Overworld at a base temperature of 0.
Weather reaches Frozen River: it snows rather than rains, and exposed water freezes into ice.
2 mobs name Frozen River specifically among their spawn biomes: Salmon and Stray.
Frozen biomes are where water turns to ice on its own and precipitation falls as snow. Nothing grows, and the cold variants of the passive mobs — polar bears, strays — are what spawn instead.
How to get it
Frozen rivers generate wherever a river crosses a biome cold enough to freeze water, so follow any river into snowy terrain. A boat on the ice moves at roughly 40 blocks per second on a straight stretch.
Tips
- Place a boat on the ice and ride it — a boat on ice is several times faster than walking through snow layers.
- Mine ice with Silk Touch to keep the block; without it ice turns to water and the water then refreezes over you.
- Stray arrows apply Slowness for 30 seconds on Normal difficulty, so a shield is worth carrying on a frozen river route.
- Clay under the ice comes up 4 balls per block; smelt each ball into a brick for the brick block recipe.
Climate and generation
Frozen River has a base temperature of 0, which puts it in the freezing band. Temperature is not a thermometer reading — it is the single number that decides snow versus rain, whether water freezes over, and what colour the grass renders.
Below 0.15 water freezes into ice on its own and precipitation falls as snow, so a base here needs light on any exposed water.
| Property | Value | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature | 0 | Decides whether rain falls as snow, whether water freezes, and the grass and foliage tint. |
| Precipitation | Yes | Cauldrons fill on their own and farmland stays hydrated during a storm. |
| Dimension | Overworld | Sets which mobs, structures and ores can generate at all. |
| Grass and water tint | #7FA1FF | The colour the game applies to grass, leaves and water in this biome. |
Properties
- Grass and water tint
- #7FA1FF
- Structures generating here
- 0
Mobs in Frozen River
Salmon and Stray name Frozen River specifically as a spawn biome, so this is where you go to find them.
On top of those, the mobs that spawn in open terrain anywhere in the Overworld can appear here too, given the right light level. Mobs that only come from a structure or a spawner — breezes from trial chambers, blazes from fortresses, evokers from mansions — are deliberately not in this list.
Also spawns throughout Overworld
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find Frozen River?
Frozen River generates in the Overworld. A locate command finds the nearest one instantly; without cheats, exploring in one direction and watching the F3 screen's biome line is the reliable method.
What spawns in Frozen River?
Salmon and Stray spawn here specifically, and the usual Overworld mobs can appear given the right light level.
Does it rain in Frozen River?
Yes — as snow, because the temperature is below the freezing threshold. Cauldrons fill on their own during a storm and farmland stays hydrated.
Related pages
Biomes that generate in the same dimension and, where there are any, in the same climate family as Frozen River.
