How to melt ice in Minecraft

The diverse world of Minecraft includes deep oceans with sunken ships and tall snow-capped mountains with mob outposts. This popular sandbox game's diversity extends beyond its biomes and is further enriched by the wide variety of blocks.

The game includes all manners of blocks, from copper ones with perforations to light-emitting sea lantern blocks. One of these unique yet simple variations is the ice block, which players can also melt. In this article, we delve into everything players need to know about melting ice in Minecraft and other details about it.

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Minecraft guide to melt ice

Light sources such as sea lanterns turn ice blocks into water sources (Image via Mojang)

Ice is a translucent block that, unlike most other blocks, has the dynamic feature of melting under certain circumstances. In the game, ice does not melt under sunlight; however, when a light source is placed next to it, it melts.

It is worth noting that the light source used should have a block light level of at least twelve. The most common light source used by players with sufficient light levels is the torch, which has a light level of 14. The time required to melt the block can vary, but in most attempts, around a minute is sufficient.

A Minecraft light source can affect an ice block within a radius of four blocks, causing it to turn into a water source, which can be picked up using an empty bucket.

Players should be aware that packed ice, a craftable variant of ice, also generates naturally in the same biomes. The main difference between the two is that packed ice is a solid opaque block, while regular ice is translucent, and packed ice remains resistant to melting.

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How to get and use ice

Steve mining ice (Image via Mojang)

Ice blocks, as one can guess, are generated as part of the terrains of snow biomes such as ice spikes, snowy slopes, and frozen peaks. Ice blocks are most commonly found in the ice spikes biome, where they are generated in frozen rivers and as part of the tall spikes.

Ice blocks can be mined quickly with any tool or even bare hands; however, only a tool with the Silk Touch enchantment allows the player to mine and acquire the item.

In Minecraft, ice blocks have limited practical use as they can only be used to craft one item: packed ice. With nine ice blocks in their inventory, players can craft a block of packed ice on the crafting table by placing an ice block in each crafting grid.

That said, since ice blocks do not melt on their own, Minecraft players often use them to create tracks of ice for rowing their boats. This method is significantly faster and arguably more fun than any other means of transportation in the game.