block

Snow in Minecraft | MinecraftBible

Snow is a block in Minecraft 1.21.4 that requires Wooden Shovel or better to mine, dropping Snowball.

What is Snow?

Snow is a Minecraft block classified under the mineable/shovel material group. It has a hardness of 0.1 and a blast resistance of 0.1. It stacks up to 64 per inventory slot. It is a solid, opaque block. Snow does not emit light. Snow filters 0 levels of light passing through it, which is why it blocks skylight below it.

Namespaced identifier: minecraft:snow. Command: /give @p minecraft:snow 1.

How to mine Snow

Snow requires one of the following tools to drop its item — mining with a lower tier or by hand destroys it:

Break times (unenchanted, no Haste or Mining Fatigue):

With the correct tool: approximately 0.15 seconds
By hand (no tool): approximately 0.5 seconds

Using an Efficiency-enchanted tool, Haste beacons, or a Diamond/Netherite tier drastically reduces these times. Water and being airborne slow mining by 5×.

Snow drops

When broken, Snow drops:

Silk Touch preserves the block itself; Fortune increases quantity of ore-style drops but has no effect on ordinary blocks.

Block tags & properties

Opaque
Requires Tool
Craftable

Snow technical properties

Flammable: No
Burns from lava: No
Renewable: Yes
Emits light: No (luminance 0)

Values sourced from Minecraft Wiki: Snow (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Verified for Java Edition 1.21.4.

Technical properties

Namespaced ID: minecraft:snow
Material family: mineable/shovel
Hardness: 0.1
Blast resistance: 0.1
Stack size: 64
Transparent: No
Blocks light: 0
Emits light: 0
Diggable: Yes
Craftable: Yes
/give command: /give @p minecraft:snow 1

Overview

Snow is a block in Minecraft 1.21.4. This page covers mining requirements, real drop data, and crafting relevance.

Prerequisites and materials

Bring the correct tool tier before mining - breaking Snow with the wrong tool will destroy it without dropping anything.
Expect to collect Snowball, Snow, Snow Block once it breaks.

Step-by-step walkthrough

Bring the correct tool tier before mining - breaking Snow with the wrong tool will destroy it without dropping anything.
Expect to collect Snowball, Snow, Snow Block once it breaks.
With the correct tool this takes about 0.15s to break (unenchanted); by hand it's roughly 0.5s.

Pro tips

Use /give @p minecraft:snow 1 in creative mode to prototype builds before committing resources.
Carry a spare tool of the correct tier - breaking with the wrong one wastes the drop.

Difficulty and time commitment

Difficulty: Easy
Estimated time per run: 1-5 min

Frequently Asked Questions

What tool do I need to mine Snow?

You need one of: Wooden Shovel, Stone Shovel, Golden Shovel, Iron Shovel, Diamond Shovel, Netherite Shovel. Mining with a lower tier tool (or by hand) will break the block without dropping its item.

What does Snow drop when mined?

Breaking Snow drops Snowball, Snow, Snow Block.

How hard is Snow to mine?

Snow has a hardness value of 0.1. That works out to roughly 0.15s with the correct tool or 0.5s by hand (unenchanted, no Haste/Mining Fatigue).