Mojang Studios has released Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 7, adding a Calcite block set, a new music disc and a batch of accessibility, UI and technical changes. The studio says these are the final gameplay features for the upcoming game drop.
The snapshot continues the 26.4 test cycle that has steadily filled out Minecraft’s frozen and mineral-themed blocks. Earlier snapshots added Snow Bricks, a new Cold Sulfur Cube archetype, Jukebox playlists, Brittle Ice, Packed Ice Bricks and an Ice Ball advancement.
Calcite gets pillars, slabs, stairs and walls
The main content addition is the Calcite Block Set. Calcite now has pillar, slab, stair and wall variants, and those pieces can also be crafted with a Stonecutter. Mojang has also added a Polished Calcite set, with polished calcite crafted from a 2×2 grid of Calcite Blocks.
Polished Calcite also has slab, stair and wall variants, and those can be made through the Stonecutter as well. A third set, Polished Calcite Bricks, rounds out the new building materials. Those bricks are crafted from a 2×2 arrangement of Polished Calcite Blocks, while the brick slabs, stairs and walls can also be produced in the Stonecutter.
Calcite, Polished Calcite and Polished Calcite Bricks all belong to the Slow Bouncy Sulfur Cube archetype. Mojang has been using that family label across the recent snapshot series to group related blocks and behaviors.
Flurry joins the music disc lineup
Snapshot 7 also adds a new music disc: Flurry by Hyper Potions. Mojang says the disc has a chance to appear in Igloo basement chests and gives a comparator output of 7 when played in a Jukebox.
Another decorative block has been added too, though the announcement only describes it as a new decorative block “somewhere.” Mojang does not give a name or placement for it in the patch notes.
The release also updates the main menu background panorama. On the asset side, the Resource Pack version has been raised to 102.0 and the Data Pack version to 126.0.
Keyboard navigation reaches gameplay screens
One of the biggest changes is a wider push toward keyboard support in gameplay screens. Mojang says screens such as the Crafting Table now support keyboard navigation and narration, and calls this the first step toward making gameplay screens more accessible.
The controls are detailed in the notes. Tab moves between groups of slots, while the arrow keys move within a group. Enter or Space behaves like a left-click; Control plus Enter or Space acts like a right-click; and Shift plus Enter or Space works like Shift-clicking. Double-pressing Enter or Space collects matching items, while moving with the arrow keys and holding Enter or Space spreads the carried stack across slots, similar to dragging with the mouse. The hotbar keys and the Drop item key also act on the focused slot.
Not every inventory-style screen is included yet. Mojang says the Creative Inventory and the Recipe Book are not supported at this stage.
The narrator now reads slots in gameplay screens too. It describes the contents of each slot, the item tooltip, and special slot names such as armor, fuel and potion slots. It also reads the slot’s position, either as a count within a group or as a row and column in a grid. Stonecutter recipes and Loom patterns are narrated with their row and column, while trades and Enchanting Table options are read by position in the list. When a group is focused, the narrator also says which arrow keys move within it.
Related UI changes include a gray outline on hovered list entries, a mouse cursor that hides during keyboard navigation and returns when the mouse moves, and different behavior for edit boxes depending on whether the player uses Tab or the arrow keys. With Tab, the edit box becomes focused and editable. With the arrow keys, it is highlighted but not editable until Enter or Space is pressed. Mojang also added a tooltip for the recipe book button and turned the Realms Play buttons purple.
Freezing, strays and the graphics backend
The gameplay tweaks also touch freezing. Being on fire now counters the Freezing Effect, in the same way that leather armor does. Wearing any piece of leather armor will also stop Zombies and Skeletons from converting into Frostbites or Strays.
Strays now spawn in six biomes: Deep Frozen Ocean, Frozen Ocean, Frozen Peaks, Frozen River, Jagged Peaks and Snowy Slopes.
Another technical change affects the Graphics API video setting. When set to Default, the game will now randomly choose either OpenGL or Vulkan on each startup. Mojang says it has been defaulting to Vulkan for this snapshot series, but recent rendering changes mean the team has had little testing on the OpenGL backend. The studio says it wants to temporarily test both backends and will revert the change in a future snapshot.
On the command side, the effect command now accepts mob effect tags, and time arguments now fail if the value in ticks is greater than 2147483647.
Debug worlds have also changed. They can now be modified normally with block placement, breaking and commands, although they will not update automatically. Mojang says a new debug world is needed to see new blocks. These worlds now include one of each entity type, put baby-capable entities in baby form above their adult versions, load tick-frozen, and start in Normal difficulty. Three game rules are set to false: advance_time, spawn_wandering_traders and tnt_explodes. advance_weather was already false, according to the notes.
The resource update also brings renamed and new textures. Mojang renamed the icicle_down_base, icicle_down_frustum, icicle_down_middle, icicle_down_tip and icicle_down_tip_merge textures to icicle_base, icicle_frustum, icicle_middle, icicle_tip and icicle_tip_merge. New block textures include calcite_pillar_side, calcite_pillar_top, polished_calcite, polished_calcite_bricks and polished_calcite_slab_side, and the new item texture is music_disc_flurry. A new sound event, entity.parrot.imitate.frostbite, was also added.
Bug fixes in Snapshot 7 cover a wide stretch of the interface and engine. Mojang fixed issues with drag-and-drop item stacks becoming invisible, stonecutter and loom scroll bars sitting in the wrong place, inaccurate enchanting table hitboxes, unfocused trade highlights, keyboard navigation in the stonecutter, loom and enchanting table, and the trading UI’s scroll position drifting out of sync. Other fixes address the game’s handling of overly large /time values, XWayland support for the OpenGL backend, a Vulkan memory leak on every render pass, and several mob, world generation and rendering bugs.
The snapshot also fixes parrots not imitating frostbites, snow golems and drowned tridents having altered attack behavior, ores in tuff blobs at heights 0-3 generating as the wrong variant, and several issues with abandoned camp structures failing to generate their trees. Mojang’s bug list also includes fixes for the narrator, sound previews, semi-transparent text, waxed copper golems, the world border, and entity and armor-stand rendering.
Snapshot 7 is the last gameplay-focused build in this cycle, but Mojang’s notes show the update still carrying a lot of work across blocks, controls, accessibility and rendering before the next game drop arrives.
Keyboard nav on crafting table is actually a proper accessibility win. Tab between groups and arrow keys inside the grid is way better than just mouse-only UI.
Still clunky for controller players
fair, but it is a first step not the full fix
yeah, better than nothing i guess
calcite slabs and stairs is nice, but the real win is polished calcite bricks. my kid keeps building frozen bases and now there is finally a cleaner white block set for it
The random OpenGL or Vulkan on Default worries me more than the shiny blocks. If they already admit Vulkan has been the main path for this snapshot cycle, flipping back and forth on startup sounds like a recipe for weird bug reports that people will blame on their own PC. I get why they want more testing, but that kind of change feels rough in a live test branch. At least they’re saying it will get reverted later, so this is probably just short-term pain.
yeah i can see that, but randomising it might catch stuff fast. i just hope it does not mess with mobile style players who already deal with enough weird device issues
being on fire cancelling Freezing Effect is kinda wild. feels like a cheesy counter in pvp if you can just carry fire around and ignore the whole frostbite pressure
not really an issue
Maybe not in every fight, but it changes the whole early freeze game. Leather armour already did that job, and now fire does too, so the counterplay is getting pretty easy if you prepare for it. I still think the bigger thing is strays spawning in more biomes, because that means more places where the cold mobs show up without much warning. It is less about one busted trick and more about the whole freeze system getting softened.
you can just avoid the cold biomes then
sure, but then the feature barely matters in survival. if the counter is that simple, the mechanic loses bite fast
my iron farm already has a lectern and note block, so this keyboard stuff will save me some tapping