How to Get Ice in Minecraft

Guide Java Bedrock

Quick answer: Mine it with Silk Touch: ice drops only when the tool has Silk Touch - without it the block just vanishes (or turns into water). Find it frozen on rivers, oceans and lakes in snowy biomes, or farm it by letting water freeze in a snowy biome. Craft 9 ice into packed ice, and 9 packed ice into blue ice.

What you need

A Silk Touch tool (pickaxe is fastest)
Snowy biome access (frozen ocean, frozen river...)
Water buckets if farming your own

Step by step

Get Silk Touch first: ice drops nothing without it - mined normally, the block disappears and becomes water if there's a block underneath. Our Silk Touch guide covers the fastest ways to get the enchantment.
Find natural ice: frozen oceans, frozen rivers and snowy beaches are covered in it; lakes in any snowy biome freeze over too. You'll also see it in frozen peaks, igloo windows (Java) and the ancient city ice box.
Mine with a pickaxe: any Silk Touch tool works, but a pickaxe is fastest.
Farm your own: in a snowy biome, place water source blocks exposed to the sky with a solid block beside them and block light under 10 - they freeze into ice over time via random ticks. No sunlight melts them, only block light above 11.
Upgrade to packed ice: 9 ice in a 3x3 grid make 1 packed ice - it never melts and drops with Silk Touch too. Find it naturally in ice spikes biomes, icebergs and snowy villages.
Then blue ice: 9 packed ice make 1 blue ice - the fastest, rarest tier, also found in icebergs in frozen oceans.
Put it to work: boats hit 40 m/s on ice (1.8x faster on blue ice) and ice works in the Nether, so an ice boat highway there multiplies your Overworld travel speed by 8.

Java vs Bedrock

Behavior is nearly identical across editions. The small differences: igloos use regular ice windows in Java but packed ice in Bedrock, packed ice generates as piles in snowy villages, and ice's light-filtering differs slightly between editions. Ice never melts from sunlight in either - only block light above 11.

Versions: Ice has existed since Java Alpha v1.0.4 (2010). Packed ice arrived in 1.7.2 and blue ice in 1.13, and Silk Touch has always been the only way to collect any of them.

Frequently asked questions

How do you pick up ice in Minecraft?

Only with a Silk Touch enchanted tool. Without Silk Touch the block drops nothing - it disappears, turning into water if there's a block below it.

Does ice melt in Minecraft?

Regular ice melts when block light next to it is above 11 (torches, glowstone...) - sunlight never melts it. Packed ice and blue ice never melt at all.

How do you make packed ice and blue ice?

Craft 9 ice into 1 packed ice, then 9 packed ice into 1 blue ice. Neither crafts back down. Packed ice also generates in ice spikes biomes, icebergs and snowy villages; blue ice appears in icebergs.

What is ice used for?

Speed. Boats reach 40 m/s on ice (blue ice is 1.8x faster), sprint-jumping in a 2-block corridor is the fastest way to run, water streams over ice move items quicker, and ice highways work in the Nether for 8x Overworld-equivalent travel.