How To Make Traps and a Secret Base with Powder Snow

An interesting new block called Powder Snow has been introduced in the most recent Minecraft snapshot 20W46A and we’re going to explore some of the practical applications of this new snow based block. As well as covering the basic mechanics we’ll also take a look at how to make traps and how to make secret bases with powder snow.

What can you do with powder snow?

Powder snow has some unique properties and I believe there will be some cool creative uses for this new block. From my early testing I would say the main applications would be:

• Secret bases
• Secret rooms
• Traps
• Elevators
• Decoration

How do you get powder snow?

To collect powder snow you need to leave cauldrons outside in the falling snow. It’ll be collected in the cauldron and you can pick it up with a bucket. It can then be placed wherever you wish from the bucket. The bucket creates a new item called Powder Snow Bucket – which you can then use to place powder snow.

How does powder snow work?

Any entity that steps on the powder snow will sink into and after a few seconds will start to freeze. The freeze effect will start to do damage every couple of seconds until you have left the snow. Leather armor can reduce the effects of the freeze. Each piece of leather armour will reduce the effects of freezing and a full leather set will entirely counteract the freeze damage.

Additionally, leather boots will allow you to walk on top of and climb out of the powder snow block. They make you like Legolas in the snow 😀 !

How to make a trap with powder snow

The freeze effect from the powder snow really isn’t enough to kill someone unless they get well and truly stuck. The powder snow breaks very fast so it’s easy to stop death by freezing. So you’ll have to be slightly more creative. 

Make a pit in a snow biome and fill it with lava. Cover the entrance in powder snow and voila, you have a basic snow/ lava trap. Seems like an odd combination…  odd, yet effective!

How to make a secret base with powder snow

Powder snow has some cool applications in base design. The obvious one being that you can use this block to create secret entrances in snowy biomes. There’s a few other cool features too.

When creating your secret entrance with powder snow you’ll want to use a lot of snow around the entrance to disguise it better as it has a slightly different texture to regular snow blocks.

You’ll need some leather boots so that you can climb through the snow and get out of this base. Items will sink through powder snow when dropped onto it. You can use this mechanic to easily create a hidden spot to drop your leather boots when you leave. Simply have a chain of hoppers under a powder snow block leading to a chest in your base and drop the boots in there whenever you leave!

Other than the obvious functionality of creating a secret entrance you can also use it for cosmetic purposes. Powder snow blocks allow light to pass through meaning you can use them to hide light sources behind in your builds.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what the Minecraft community creates using this new block. I hope to see some very cool secret bases and traps along the way. We welcome the sharing of photos and builds in the NoobForce community Discord. Join us and share your creations!