Blue Ice — Minecraft block

Overview

Blue ice is the fastest surface in Minecraft. A boat placed on it and pushed reaches roughly 72 blocks per second, which is faster than an elytra in level flight and vastly faster than a minecart on powered rails, and it costs no fuel, no rockets and no maintenance because blue ice never melts. That single property makes it the endgame transport of choice on large survival servers: a two-block-wide blue ice channel in the Nether, where distances are already divided by eight, moves a player across an entire world map in a couple of minutes. It generates naturally in the icebergs of frozen and deep frozen oceans and, in small amounts, at the bottom of icebergs, and it is crafted from nine packed ice — which is 81 ordinary ice blocks, so natural sources are worth the trip. Silk Touch is mandatory to collect it. It is also more slippery than any other block, which makes it hazardous as a floor and excellent as a slide, and it is the standard material under a soul sand elevator's outflow to keep items moving.

Boat highways at roughly 72 blocks per second, the fastest and cheapest long-distance travel in the game, plus a deep blue building material that never melts anywhere.

Minecraft classifies Blue Ice as a naturally generated block. A crafting table turns its ingredients into Blue Ice. Its hardness of 2.8 makes it a normal, unhurried block to mine.

It offers almost no protection from explosions (2.8 blast resistance). A full stack holds 64. It is crafted from Packed Ice.

Nothing on the crafting grid is made from it.

About the blue set

How to get it

Mine it with a Silk Touch pickaxe from icebergs in frozen and deep frozen oceans, or craft it from 9 packed ice — which is 81 ordinary ice blocks if you are making it from scratch.

Tips

Build the ice road in the Nether: 72 blocks per second across a dimension where 1 block equals 8 is unbeatable.
Silk Touch is required — every other tool destroys the block and gives nothing.
Line the channel with walls or fences; a boat leaving a blue ice track at that speed is fatal.
9 packed ice make 1 blue ice, so gather natural blue ice from icebergs rather than crafting it if you can.

How long it takes to break

Blue Ice has a hardness of 2.8. By hand that is 4.2 seconds per block; with the correct tool at netherite tier it is 0.5 seconds.

Iron takes 0.7 seconds against diamond's 0.55, so the upgrade worth making for this block is the one to iron.

Nothing here needs a minimum tier: whatever you swing, the block still drops, and the only difference is how long it takes.

Efficiency adds its level squared plus one to the tool speed, so Efficiency V is about 3.3 times faster than the same tool unenchanted.

Tool	No enchantment	Efficiency III	Efficiency V
Hand	4.2 s	4.2 s	4.2 s
Wooden	2.1 s	0.35 s	0.15 s
Stone	1.1 s	0.3 s	0.15 s
Iron	0.7 s	0.3 s	0.15 s
Diamond	0.55 s	0.25 s	0.15 s
Netherite	0.5 s	0.25 s	0.15 s
Golden	0.35 s	0.2 s	0.15 s

Properties

Blue Ice resists blasts at 2.8, which is not enough to survive anything explosive nearby. Light does not pass through it, and it emits none of its own. A single slot takes 64, the usual full stack. Being renewable, it can be produced indefinitely in one world. The block is tagged for pickaxes, and only that class gets the speed bonus; everything else mines at bare-hand rate.

Transparent: No
Required tool: Any
Renewable: Yes