Overview
Ice spikes is a rare snowy plains variant where enormous columns of packed ice erupt out of the ground, some of them 50 blocks tall and a couple of blocks thick, along with wide flat plateaus of the same material. It is the only place on land where packed ice generates in quantity, which is the whole reason to seek it out: packed ice does not melt near light sources, it is the base for blue ice, and a boat placed on it is one of the fastest forms of travel in the game. Nothing grows here — no trees, no grass to speak of, no crops without a manual water source — and the only mobs are the snow-biome set: rabbits in their white coat, polar bears occasionally, and strays in place of ordinary skeletons, whose arrows apply Slowness. Snow falls constantly, so snow layers rebuild themselves over anything you clear, and a shovel keeps producing snowballs indefinitely. The spikes themselves are a navigation landmark visible from an enormous distance across flat snowy terrain. Ice spikes always generates inside or beside snowy plains, and frozen rivers usually run through it.
Packed ice in bulk for ice-boat highways, ice railways and building, plus snow blocks, and strays for arrows of Slowness that they drop already tipped.
Ice Spikes sits in the freezing band of Minecraft's biome table, generating in the Overworld at a base temperature of 0.
Weather reaches Ice Spikes: it snows rather than rains, and exposed water freezes into ice.
2 mobs name Ice Spikes specifically among their spawn biomes: Polar Bear 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
Ice spikes is one of the rarer Overworld biomes and always generates within a snowy plains region. The spikes are visible from 300 blocks away over flat ground, so survey from a high point rather than walking.
Tips
- Packed ice requires Silk Touch to collect; mined with anything else it disappears and gives you nothing at all.
- 9 packed ice crafts into 1 blue ice, so a single large spike is worth several stacks of the fastest travel surface in the game.
- Strays drop arrows of Slowness that work in a bow or a dispenser without any brewing, which is worth farming for.
- Place a boat on flat packed ice and ride it across the plateau — it is roughly 5 times faster than walking through snow.
Climate and generation
Ice Spikes 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 Ice Spikes
Polar Bear and Stray name Ice Spikes 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 Ice Spikes?
Ice Spikes 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 Ice Spikes?
Polar Bear and Stray spawn here specifically, and the usual Overworld mobs can appear given the right light level.
Does it rain in Ice Spikes?
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 Ice Spikes.
