What the Latest Minecraft Preview Quietly Changed for Winter Builds

Minecraft Preview 26.70.22 is now available for Bedrock testers, and it brings the winter side of Drop 4 of 2026 into sharper focus. The headline addition is a full set of Snow Bricks, joined by a new Cold archetype for the Sulfur Cube, fresh Frostbite conversions and snowy villagers in the Ice Caves. At gamemarket.gg, we went through the official changelog to pull out what this build changes for players and what it hints at for the next drop.

Snow Bricks Arrive for Winter Builds

The biggest addition is a new decorative block set: Snow Bricks. Mojang describes them as a full brick set made for building a winter wonderland, and two details make them useful right away:

• they do not melt, unlike regular snow
• the Shovel is the best tool for mining them

That makes Snow Bricks a sturdier option than regular snow blocks for anyone building in cold biomes or the new Ice Caves.

The existing Packed Ice Bricks set also gets polish. Its blocks now appear in the Creative inventory right after their Sulfur counterparts, make Note Blocks play the Chime sound, and their slabs and stairs now submerge correctly in water and lava. Their names were also adjusted to match other brick sets.

Sulfur Cube Gets a Cold Archetype

The Sulfur Cube gains a new Cold archetype. You create it by equipping the cube with a Blue Ice block.

A Cold Sulfur Cube turns Water source blocks into Frosted Ice, much like the Frost Walker enchantment, letting it carve a temporary path across water. Apart from that, it behaves like the Fast Sliding archetype.

For creators, this archetype also comes with a new item tag, minecraft:sulfur_cube_archetype_cold.

Frostbites, Powder Snow and Snowy Villagers

Several mob changes tie into the cold theme:

• Husks and Drowned submerged in Powder Snow now convert into Zombies first, then into Frostbites
• Zombies, Husks and Drowned no longer take freezing damage while in Powder Snow
• Villagers and Zombie Villagers now spawn as snowy variants inside the Ice Caves

The Ice Caves biome also gains the frozen tag on the technical side, which helps add-ons and data packs treat it like other frozen biomes.

On top of that, Wandering Traders now sell one Ice Crystal for two Emeralds, giving players another way to get the block without exploring the caves. Standing on Packed Ice now plays ambient sounds, and brittle ice shows the correct closed captions when it cracks.

The Ice Caves were first shown during this year's showcase. Our Minecraft Live 2026 recap covers how the biome was introduced, along with The Sift dimension, which does not appear in this build.

Gameplay Fixes Worth Knowing

Outside the winter content, the preview includes changes that affect everyday play:

• Ender Pearls now teleport you to your position from the tick before impact, matching Java Edition
• teleporting into the side of a block no longer triggers on-ground effects
• Frogs and adult Turtles in deep water now reliably swim up and climb onto nearby land
• the pocket jukebox no longer affects player movement

Android players with a physical keyboard also get better chat controls. Tab now autocompletes commands, and Ctrl+Backspace and Ctrl+Delete remove whole words.

Interface and Marketplace Updates

A batch of interface fixes rounds out the build:

• number keys can move hotbar items into Furnace, Blast Furnace and Smoker slots
• the Ore UI main menu no longer shows an extra "1." prefix in the version number
• achievement screen icons no longer flicker
• Marketplace Pass now shows the days remaining under Settings and Subscriptions
• Marketplace layouts get responsive hero rows and six-column grids by default

Accessibility also improves, with new tooltips for 14 items and updated tooltips for Smithing Templates, workstations, tools and enchantments.

What Creators Should Know

Add-on makers get several useful changes in this preview:

• minecraft:teleport gains new fields, including target_teleport_distance, target_teleport_offset, on_teleport_sound and can_teleport_into_liquid
• minecraft:collision_box now uses min and max from 1.26.70, with origin and size deprecated and up to 32 boxes per array
• BlockItemFrameComponent arrives as an experimental beta, letting scripts read, set and clear the item in an item frame and adjust its rotation in 45-degree steps
• the Linux dedicated server gains pack optimization support

How to Try the Preview

Minecraft Preview is a separate app for Bedrock players who want to test upcoming features early. Worlds created in Preview are meant for testing, so it is better to keep your main survival world in the regular game.

Everything in this build is still preview content. Mojang can change or remove features before Drop 4 reaches the full game, and the release date for the drop has not been announced yet. If Snow Bricks and the Cold Sulfur Cube are what you have been waiting for, Preview 26.70.22 is the best place to try them before winter arrives in the main game.

If you want an account that is ready for every new drop, you can explore trusted Minecraft Accounts, keep your builds and survival progress moving with reliable Minecraft Hourly Services, or reach your goals faster through dependable Minecraft Boosting.

GameMarket.gg is a trusted digital marketplace for everything gaming-related. We serve the gaming community by providing secure access that enhances every gaming journey.