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Snow golems won't survive in the Nether (neither spawned in nor built ones). Is there a way to make a snow golem survive in the Nether and other hot biomes in vanilla Minecraft (i.e., without using mods)?

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Snow golems are hardcoded to catch on fire in biomes where the temperature is above a certain value. The relevant snippet from MCP is:

if (this.worldObj.getBiomeGenForCoords(i, j).getFloatTemperature() > 1.0F)
{
    this.attackEntityFrom(DamageSource.onFire, 1.0F);
}

This finds the biome of the snow golem's current location, checks if the biome's temperature setting is higher than 1.0, then if so deals damage to the golem as if it were on fire. The location of this code means it takes damage every mob update tick (which is not the same as a world tick or a growing tick), which means it takes damage very quickly.

Taken from the declarations in BiomeGenBase, the temperature of the Nether is a scorching 2.0. The other vanilla biomes that have a temperature >1.0 are Desert (2.0), DesertHills (2.0), Jungle (1.2), and JungleHills (1.2).

Therefore, a costly way you can make a snow golem survive in the Nether is by bathing it in a constant supply of Fire Resistance potions. This will keep it from taking damage from the fire effect that being in warm biomes causes it.

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    My testing shows that they don't show up as being on fire, but it turns out, fire resist works, as confirmed in-game
    – Unionhawk ♦
    Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 15:35
  • They melt, they don't catch on fire.
    – Shoe
    Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 15:36
  • @Unionhawk You are correct! I was misreading the code there. It clearly says it takes direct damage of the fire type, it doesn't actually get set on fire. And yeah, fire resistance would still work on that.
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 15:43
  • Although impractical, would a Splash Potion of Healing also keep Snow Golem's alive?
    – IQAndreas
    Commented Aug 3, 2013 at 12:58
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I'll solve this with my favorite method of answering Minecraft questions: science. For this experiment, I'll need 1 snow golem, and 1 nether. Let's go.

That's a no.

No. Snow golems die very quickly in the nether. This guy lasted about 1 second.

However, turns out Fire Resist potions will keep him alive. Not forever, but for about 6 minutes.

Potions are your friend.

Another thing to consider: if there are pigmen anywhere around, passive or otherwise, they will try to attack. And get murdered very quickly.

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    So does a combination of fire resist and regeneration keep it alive indefinitely? (That's an expensive upkeep for a snow golem! Also +1 for SCIENCE.)
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 15:51
  • @SevenSidedDie With constant fire resist potions, and maybe occasional health potions of some form, yes, you can keep him alive forever. Just don't forget to splash the fire resist, because they go quick without it.
    – Unionhawk ♦
    Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 16:00
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One way to counteract the "melting" problem of snow golems is to provide them with the regeneration effect. You can get that on them with splash potions or editing the nbt data in mcedit.

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  • Not sure why this is downvoted?
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 15:45
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Sorry, it's written in the code that id the biome is desert, desertedge, jungle, jungleriver or hell, all snow golems will have an effect similar to that of poison.

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    Can you back that up somehow?
    – Zommuter
    Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 13:40
  • @Zommuter They said "written in the code" what more do you want?
    – Batophobia
    Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 15:08
  • @Batophobia Well, it could be expanded a bit more e.g. by the respective part in MCP (not that I seriously doubt this answer)
    – Zommuter
    Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 15:10
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    I checked the code, and this is close but not quite accurate! I've posted an answer with an explanation of the relevant MCP code snippet.
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 15:33
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No sorry they melt or die. But here is a theory if you build a home out of snow (even the floor) it will survive in it. I believe my friend did that once.

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  • incorrect theory, a biome's temperature, as stated in answers above, is hardcoded coded so making a house out of snow/ice wont work change the game's code, you first may have just been in a colder biome
    – Memor-X
    Commented Jul 23, 2014 at 0:06

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