Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 4 adds Jukebox playlists and Brittle Ice

Mojang Studios has released Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 4, adding Jukebox Playlists and Brittle Ice. The update lets a Jukebox play music discs from a chest placed above it, and it introduces a new ice block that cracks under players and mobs in Ice Caves.

The snapshot follows the Ice Caves, Frostbite, and friends-list changes Mojang added in Snapshot 3. This time, the focus stays on ice mechanics, cave generation, and a new way to keep music going in builds and hangout spaces.

Jukeboxes can now cycle through chest contents

Jukebox Playlists work by placing a single Chest, Trapped Chest, or any Copper Chest variant directly above a Jukebox. Mojang says the Jukebox uses the Music Discs in that container as a playlist, playing them in slot order and skipping empty slots and items that are not music discs.

When one disc ends, the Jukebox swaps it out for the next disc in the chest. If the chest has no Music Discs, the disc already in the Jukebox plays again. Ejecting the current disc skips to the next available disc, which gives players a way to move through tracks without rebuilding the setup.

“Jukeboxes can now keep the music going with playlists by putting your music discs in a chest above them.”

Mojang’s setup also fits neatly with the new block tag #jukebox_containers, which covers the blocks a Jukebox can use as a source for playlists. The patch does not add a separate playlist interface; the chest itself becomes the control surface, and the disc order depends on the slot order inside it.

• Chest, Trapped Chest, and Copper Chest variants can sit above a Jukebox.
• Discs play from top to bottom in slot order.
• Empty slots and non-disc items are skipped.
• If no disc is available, the current disc repeats.
• Ejecting the current disc advances to the next disc in the chest.

Brittle Ice generates in Ice Caves

Brittle Ice is the other headline addition. Mojang says the block can be found in Ice Caves and only generates naturally there as part of the crevasse feature. Once a player or mob steps on it, Brittle Ice starts to crack and eventually breaks.

The new block has a couple of important exceptions. The Frostbite mob can walk on Brittle Ice without breaking it, and Mojang added the entity type tag #does_not_break_brittle_ice for mobs that do not trigger the block when they step on it. Brittle Ice is also obtainable with Silk Touch.

There is another way to make it. Mojang says Brittle Ice can be created when water flows onto a Blue Ice block, and any water block that borders Blue Ice horizontally will turn into Brittle Ice. That makes Blue Ice part of the new ice chain rather than just another cold block in the set.

Snapshot 4 also adds new block textures for Brittle Ice, with four sprites listed in the resource pack notes, and a Jukebox bottom texture. Mojang updated the Jukebox side and top textures as well.

“Just be careful not to dance on the Brittle Ice, as it’ll start cracking under your feet…”

Ice blocks and mobs get new rules

Mojang made several smaller changes around ice behavior. Frosted Ice now emits a vibration event when it changes state, and Ice, Frosted Ice, and Brittle Ice will no longer show their inside block faces when they are placed next to each other. That behavior is backed by the new block tag #face_occluding_ice_blocks.

The update also changes how some mobs interact with freezing. Zombies, Drowned, and Husks are now immune to freezing and will not take damage from the Freezing effect. Drowned also now turn into a Zombie before converting into a Frostbite when they are in Powder Snow.

Those changes line up with the bug fixes Mojang included in the snapshot. The list mentions Ice Caves not being part of the #is_cave biome tag, Frostbites converting to themselves in Powder Snow, Drowned dying in Powder Snow instead of converting to Frostbites, and Husks and Zombies taking damage from Powder Snow before converting.

Mojang also added new sound events for Blue Ice, Brittle Ice, Frosted Ice, Packed Ice, and Ice, plus entity.drowned.converted_to_zombie. The resource-pack notes also rename the minecraft:amethyst block sound set to minecraft:amethyst_block to better match sound event names.

Crevasse generation expands the cave system

Brittle Ice is tied to a new world-generation feature type called crevasse. Mojang describes it as carving a winding, tapered crevasse into exposed terrain. The feature follows the terrain surface, extends in opposite directions from its placement position, and needs a minimum connected footprint before it carves.

The new feature comes with a long list of configuration fields. Mojang says creators can define maximum width and length, minimum footprint, search ranges for finding surfaces, twistiness, tapering, turn factor, carve depth, fill depth, a surface block provider, a fill block provider, and predicates for carvable blocks and acceptable barriers. Brittle Ice can appear as part of that crevasse feature inside Ice Caves.

Snapshot 4 also updates the Data Pack version to 124.0 and the Resource Pack version to 100.1. On the data side, Mojang removed the minecraft:intentionally_empty sound event, made several sound fields optional for Sulfur Cube archetypes and Chicken, Cow, Cat, Pig, and Wolf sound variants, and removed flowing_water and flowing_lava fluid types.

Fluid types now use level and source properties, while block predicates gained a state field for matching fluid state properties. Mojang also changed the minecraft:explode enchantment effect so its small_particle, large_particle, and sound fields are optional.

On the network side, the server now more consistently disconnects clients when a packet they sent causes an error. Mojang also updated bug fixes across sound, GUI, placement, and display behavior, including issues with stonecutter clicks, armor stand placement audio, the taskbar icon, and several block-placement cases involving slime and honey blocks.