In Minecraft, there are not only hot biomes like deserts or savannas, but also snow-covered areas where you can use snow as a valuable resource. Instead of laboriously working with a shovel, we show you how to produce infinite snowballs with an automatic snow farm. Ideal for construction projects, snowball fights, or battling opponents!
Minecraft Snow Fun Facts: Everything You Need to Know
Like in the real world, snow can mainly be found in cold areas. There, it is either already part of the terrain or forms when it snows. This depends on the temperature of the biome. Snow, therefore, does not fall everywhere and is a limited resource.
Minecraft Snow Biomes: Where to Naturally Find Snow
Snow was first introduced in the Alpha, but while back then you had a 1 in 4 chance of getting a so-called “Winter World”, there are now various and numerous biomes within a Minecraft world that contain snow. As you explore your world, you’ll stumble upon these sooner or later. Often, they are even close together, as biomes are now also determined by temperatures.
Biomes with Snow:
- Snowy Taiga
- Snowy Plains
- Ice Spikes Tundra
- Snowy Beach
- Mountain Grove
- Snowy Slopes
- Jagged Peaks
- Frozen Peaks
There are also some cold biomes where it snows above a certain height. These include shattered biomes, taiga, and pine forests. If you’re looking for snow, be sure to check out one of the biomes we’ve introduced!
Minecraft Snow Types: What Types of Snow Exist?
In these areas, you’ll mostly find snow as a thin layer over a grass block or other natural blocks. When you break these with a shovel or your fist, they become snowballs. Snowballs can only be stacked up to 16. If you craft 4 together, you get a snow block. You can also throw snowballs, but they don’t deal much damage.
You’re probably wondering how you can break normal snow. Well, either you use a shovel with Silk Touch or use three snow blocks to make 6 snow layers. These can now be stacked on top of each other. 8 snow layers make a full snow block, which can again be broken with Silk Touch. Sometimes you can also find whole snow blocks in some biomes.
With two snow blocks and a pumpkin, you can summon a great mob, which we need for the automatic snow farm.
Lastly, there is a fairly new snow block that you might have come across in some steep biomes. It is inconspicuous but very dangerous. We are talking about powder snow. It differs only slightly from normal snow blocks but causes you to sink into it and slowly freeze. Not a pleasant experience! Use leather boots so you can walk over it. Powder snow is not a solid block and can only be collected with a bucket.
Building a Minecraft Snow Farm: Guide for a Semi-Automatic Snow Farm
The behaviour of snow between Java and Bedrock is unfortunately somewhat different, because in Java, snow broken by a piston cannot turn into a snowball. In Bedrock, this is still possible. Therefore, a fully automatic farm in the normal Java edition is currently (as of October 2024) not possible.
There are still cool and practical designs! You just have to break the snow with a shovel. We make use of a snow golem. When it walks over a block, it leaves behind a snow layer. And these we can break, either for snowballs or snow layers.
Biomes and their Building Height: Y≈64 for Plains, Sunflower Plains, Swamp, and Beach Y≈124 for Mushroom Fields and Coasts Y≈154 for Jungle Y≈184 for Savanna Plateau Y≈244 for Shattered Savanna
Building Materials
- Chest
- Hopper
- Hopper Minecart
- Rail
- 4 Slabs
- Full Building Blocks
- Shovel (preferably with enchantments)
Minecraft Snow Farm Construction Guide: Step-by-Step Instructions
First, we need to take care of the collection mechanism. This works a bit differently with the snow farm, as snow golems cannot create snow on hoppers. Therefore, we need to use a different method that works similarly.
First, build a regular chest with a hopper. Place a rail on the hopper with a shift-click, and then place a hopper minecart on top. Above that, place a full block. This allows an item to pass through the hopper minecart into the hopper and then into the chest.
Then you can build a kind of platform to make the snow farm look a bit nicer, but you don’t have to. We’ve enclosed the chest and hopper mechanism with andesite.
It is only important that you now ensure that the snow golem stays in place and all snowballs are collected. Use slabs and blocks for this. This way, you can still break the snow yourself, but nothing falls beside it, and the golem cannot escape. Build the snow golem with two snow blocks and a carved pumpkin in the middle of the blocks. Also, place a block above the iron golem so that it doesn’t melt in the sun.
Now the farm is actually finished! The block under which the hopper mechanism was built should now be covered with a snow layer. Use a shovel and aim at the side of the snow so you don’t accidentally hit the golem. Just hold down the mouse button and off you go!
Even with a normal and unenchanted iron shovel, we were able to break many blocks. The hopper probably won’t be able to keep up with collecting all the snowballs. You only need to use the snow farm for a few minutes or expand the storage system with more chests and hoppers. Also, use the F3 and T trick we described in our automatic fish farm. This reloads your texture pack and allows you to let go of the mouse button.
Conclusion: How to Build an Effective Snow Farm in Minecraft
Snow is a cool resource that you can use not only for building but also for wild snowball fights. A farm is also easy to build and gives you hundreds of snowballs within minutes! Snow golems are very underrated and should definitely be built more often. Produce endless snowballs for building projects or snowball fights on your own server. Rent your Minecraft server and let it snow!
