Minecraft’s next game drop will add a new underground environment to the sandbox game, along with a new hostile mob, and items that bring frosty mechanics to exploration and combat.
Announced during Minecraft Live on September 26, the upcoming game drop is expected to follow the usual drop cadence of once per quarter, releasing in December 2026. Its biggest addition is ice caves–a rare underground extension of Minecraft’s existing cold biomes.
Ice caves will add more environmental variety to cold areas, giving you another reason to venture underground when exploring snowy regions. The caves will also contain ice crystals, which can be collected and used for decoration. Ice crystals can be placed vertically or horizontally, and they’ll also produce light, giving you another way to illuminate your creations.
However, ice caves aren’t entirely peaceful. A new hostile mob in the form of the Frozen Zombie will lurk underground, bringing new combat mechanics with it. Frozen Zombies can apply a stacking freezing effect with their melee attacks. If you take too many hits you’ll eventually freeze, making getting surrounded by Frozen Zombies especially dangerous. They can also throw ice balls, which deal damage and knock players back.
To create a Frozen Zombie, a regular Zombie will need to be exposed to powdered snow. Fortunately, when killed the Frozen Zombie will drop ice balls. Although if you’re not coming across any, you can also craft ice balls.
The ice balls can be used as weapons to deal damage and knock enemies back in the same way you would be if you were hit by one. They can also be used to brew a new potion that applies a freezing effect.
While Minecraft’s next update hasn’t yet got a name, you can expect it to be released around late December 2026. Following that, Mojang also announced that the first new Minecraft dimension in 15 years will be released in 2027.