Overview
Packed ice is ice that does not melt. That is the whole difference and it is enough to make it the version builders actually use: torches, lanterns and campfires can sit right beside it, it survives in warm biomes, and it survives in the Nether, which ordinary ice does not. It is slipperier than ice and slightly slower than blue ice, so a boat on packed ice moves faster than on ice and slower than on the blue variant, and a packed ice track is a perfectly respectable transport system if you do not have enough blue. Nine ordinary ice blocks craft into one packed ice, and nine packed ice craft into one blue ice, so the material chain runs 81 ice blocks per blue ice block — which is why an ice spikes biome, where packed ice generates naturally in enormous columns, is worth a deliberate trip. It also generates in icebergs and in frozen ocean terrain. Silk Touch is required to collect it, and without the enchantment it drops nothing at all rather than turning into water. Mobs slide on it exactly as players do, which makes a packed ice floor a usable mob-mover in a farm.
Ice roads and boat tracks that never melt, cold-themed builds that need lighting next to them, and the crafting step between ordinary ice and blue ice.
Minecraft classifies Packed Ice as a naturally generated block. Packed Ice is made at a crafting table. A hardness of 0.5 means it is one of the quicker blocks to clear.
No specific tool is required to collect it. With a blast resistance of only 0.5 it will not survive an explosion. Sixty-four fit in one inventory slot.
The recipe calls for Ice. Its only crafting use is Blue Ice.
How to get it
Mine it with a Silk Touch pickaxe in an ice spikes biome, where it forms 50-block spires, or in the icebergs of a frozen ocean. It can also be crafted from 9 ordinary ice blocks.
Tips
- It never melts, so unlike ordinary ice it can sit beside torches, lanterns and campfires safely.
- 9 packed ice make 1 blue ice, so gather a whole spire rather than a few blocks if blue ice is the goal.
- Silk Touch is required; without it packed ice drops nothing at all, not even water.
- It works in the Nether, which makes it the standard material for a cooled ice-boat highway down there.
How long it takes to break
At a hardness of 0.5, Packed Ice takes 0.75 seconds to punch out and 0.1 seconds with a netherite-tier tool of the correct class.
Iron manages 0.15 seconds and diamond 0.1, which makes diamond the tier that changes how this block feels.
No particular tool tier is required: any tool, or none at all, still yields the drop, so the table below is about speed rather than about whether you get anything.
The Efficiency formula is level² + 1 added to tool speed — at V that is about 2 times the unenchanted rate.
| Tool | No enchantment | Efficiency III | Efficiency V |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hand | 0.75 s | 0.75 s | 0.75 s |
| Wooden | 0.4 s | 0.1 s | instant |
| Stone | 0.2 s | 0.1 s | instant |
| Iron | 0.15 s | instant | instant |
| Diamond | 0.1 s | instant | instant |
| Netherite | 0.1 s | instant | instant |
| Golden | 0.1 s | instant | instant |
Properties
Blast resistance on Packed Ice is 0.5, so any explosion nearby takes it out. It stops light entirely and gives off no light. Stack size is 64 — the standard full stack. It renews, so a single world will never run out. A pickaxe is fastest here; any other class mines it at bare-hand speed, because the bonus only applies to the class the block is tagged for.
- Transparent
- No
- Required tool
- Any
- Renewable
- Yes
Crafting recipe
Crafting Table
Shapeless recipe
Packed Ice
Used to craft
Packed Ice is an ingredient in 1 recipes, producing Blue Ice.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you get Packed Ice in Minecraft?
Packed Ice is crafted from Ice.
What tool do you need to break Packed Ice?
No specific tool is required — Packed Ice can be broken by hand.
Is Packed Ice blast resistant?
Packed Ice has a blast resistance of 0.5, so an explosion nearby will destroy it.
How many Packed Ice fit in one stack?
Packed Ice stacks to 64, so a single double chest holds 3,456 of them.
Is Packed Ice renewable?
It is. Packed Ice can be made again in the same world, so there is no need to ration it.
How long does Packed Ice take to break?
0.1 seconds with a netherite-tier tool of the right class, or 0.75 seconds bare-handed.
