All features confirmed for Minecraft Winter Drop update

Minecraft's Winter Drop was first announced without an official name during the Live 2024 presentation, and it brings plenty of content along with it. Numerous aspects of Mojang's latest game drop were recently made available via Java Edition snapshots, so players can get their hands on the content first-hand if they so choose. But what features have been confirmed for the Winter Drop so far?

Quite a few features are set to arrive in this Minecraft game drop, but even more might be available in the coming days and weeks as Mojang adds content to the drop. Let's review what has been seen in snapshots so far.

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Confirmed features so far in Minecraft's Winter Drop

The Pale Garden biome

The Pale Garden is Minecraft's latest biome, and a creepy one at that (Image via Mojang)

Devoid of music and greying out the sky, the Pale Garden biome is found in the Overworld and is filled with pale oak trees and pale moss (in hanging, carpet, and block form). Additionally, this biome is the sole location where creaking heart blocks can naturally generate, making them the lone biome where the creaking mob will spawn naturally without moving the creaking heart to another location.

Ordinary hostile mobs can also be found in this biome when the light level dips to zero, and ambient mobs like bats can also spawn on occasion.

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New pale oak blocks

The Pale Garden provides new pale oak blocks in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

The arrival of the Pale Garden biome and its pale oak trees has given way to new pale oak blocks/entities that can be harvested and crafted as is the case with other tree types. The new pale oak blocks/entities are as follows:

• Pale oak logs
• Stripped pale oak logs
• Pale oak wood
• Stripped pale oak wood
• Pale oak planks
• Pale oak stairs
• Pale oak slabs
• Pale oak signs (both standing and hanging)
• Pale oak buttons
• Pale oak pressure plates
• Pale oak doors
• Pale oak fences
• Pale oak fence gates
• Pale oak trapdoors
• Pale oak saplings
• Pale oak leaves
• Pale moss (hanging, carpet, and block)
• Pale oak boats
• Pale oak boats w/ chests

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The creaking and creaking hearts

The creaking is a new and particularly creepy Minecraft mob (Image via Mojang)

The Pale Garden biome in Minecraft is capable of generating blocks known as creaking hearts. When these blocks are placed between pale oak logs/wood and all three blocks are aligned in the same direction, the creaking heart activates and will begin spawning mobs known as the creaking when night falls.

According to Minecraft Live 2024, the creaking is an extension of the creaking heart block, almost like its puppet. While the creaking can be harmed, it has exceptionally high damage resistance and can't be killed via conventional means. Instead, the only way to eliminate a creaking is to destroy the creaking heart that spawned it. Fortunately, hitting a creaking will create spores pointing to the heart.

Additionally, the creaking heart can be broken and picked up by using a Silk Touch-enchanted tool and placed elsewhere in Minecraft. As long as the creaking heart is sandwiched between two pale oak logs/wood blocks and all the blocks are oriented in the same direction, the creaking heart can spawn creaking in any biome.

Lastly, a spawn egg has been provided to spawn the creaking without the use of a creaking heart. However, this item can only be obtained through the use of command or the Creative Mode inventory. Creakings can also be spawned directly via commands, but they're at the risk of despawning during the day since they aren't connected to a creaking heart.