Overview
Powder snow looks like an ordinary thick snow layer and behaves like nothing else in the game. Walk into it and you fall straight through, and once inside you start freezing: the screen frosts over after a moment, and then you take 1 damage every 2 seconds, which ignores armour completely and does not stop until you get out and warm up. Leather boots, and only leather boots, let you walk on top of it instead of falling in. The reverse of the danger is the feature everyone eventually uses: landing in powder snow cancels all fall damage, so a bucket of it at the bottom of a shaft is the cheapest safe descent in Minecraft, better than water because it does not flow. It can only be collected and placed with a bucket, and it generates naturally in snowy slopes, groves and the hollows of snowy peaks, or accumulates in an open cauldron during snowfall. Mobs fall into it and freeze too, which makes it a serviceable trap, and a frozen skeleton converts into a stray. It is also one of the only blocks a boat cannot float on, so an ice road crossing a snowy slope needs the powder cleared first.
Cancelling all fall damage at the bottom of a drop, freezing mobs in a trap, and giving a snowy build a block that looks like deep snow but is not solid.
Powder Snow is a naturally generated block in Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4. It is available only in Creative mode or through commands. With a hardness of 0.25 it gives way immediately under almost any tool.
Any tool works, and so do bare hands. Because it is transparent it does not block light. A blast resistance of 0.25 means a single creeper will clear it away.
It is not used in any crafting recipe.
How to get it
Collect it with an empty bucket from snowy slopes, groves and peaks, or leave a cauldron out in a snowy biome and it will fill over time. It can only ever be placed from a bucket, and 1 block cancels any fall.
Tips
- Leather boots are the only footwear that lets you walk on top rather than falling through.
- Freezing deals 1 damage every 2 seconds and ignores armour entirely — get out and warm up quickly.
- A single block of powder snow at the base of a shaft removes all fall damage from any height.
- A cauldron left out in a snowy biome fills with powder snow on its own, which is a free renewable supply.
Properties
Powder Snow has a blast resistance of 0.25, so any explosion nearby destroys it. It lets light through and emits no light of its own.
- Hardness
- 0.25
- Blast resistance
- 0.25
- Light level
- 0
- Transparent
- Yes
- Required tool
- Any
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you get Powder Snow in Minecraft?
Powder Snow generates naturally in the world and does not drop anything without Silk Touch.
What tool do you need to break Powder Snow?
No specific tool is required — Powder Snow can be broken by hand.
Is Powder Snow blast resistant?
Powder Snow has a blast resistance of 0.25, so an explosion nearby will destroy it.
