In a surprising move that breaks tradition, Mojang has brought back the Copper Golem — a mob that originally lost the 2021 Mob Vote to the Allay. This marks the first time a losing mob has been reintroduced to Minecraft, and it arrives as part of the latest Bedrock Preview update.
However, the Copper Golem hasn’t returned in its original form proposed during the 2021 Mob Vote. Instead of pressing copper buttons, it’s been completely reimagined as a helpful companion designed to sort your storage.
Players can summon a Copper Golem by placing a carved pumpkin on top of a copper block. Doing so creates not only the golem itself, but also a Copper Chest, another brand-new feature added in this update. Both work together right out of the gate, giving players an adorable, functional way to manage their storage without needing Redstone contraptions or complex setups.
Copper Chests: More than just storage
The Copper Golem works by taking items from any nearby Copper Chest and then searching for the closest standard chest that already contains a matching item or the closest empty chest. If it finds one within range, it will deposit the item there automatically.
This means you can pretty much dump your inventory into a Copper Chest and let the Golem handle the sorting, if the destination chest already holds that item. It works with double chests and is unaffected by the Copper Chests or Copper Golems' oxidation levels, being purely visual.
That said, there are a few quirks and limitations worth knowing. Each golem can only carry up to 16 of the same items at a time, and they’re relatively slow, often getting in each other’s way a lot, taking their time to scan and move between chests. Their max range seems to cap at 15 blocks, and they won’t return to their own chest if they’ve wandered too far away.
Copper Golems can also be led with a lead, and they’ll happily work with Copper Chests that aren’t their own, which does help speed up sorting. Just be aware that they don’t deposit into barrels, shulker boxes, hoppers, dispensers, or any other container types yet, only regular chests. They also won’t deposit unstackable enchanted gears unless the enchantments match exactly.
Copper tools & armor — actually useful?
In perhaps an even more unexpected move from Mojang, a full set of copper tools and armor has been introduced, adding ten new items into the game (if you count the copper chest). It’s a move that could quietly reshape early-game progression.
Copper gear sits between stone and iron, sharing the same damage values as stone, but with higher durability and better enchantability. This makes it a solid upgrade from stone gear, especially now iron is a little trickier to find since the Caves and Cliffs update, while copper has become much more common.
Crafting copper tools works exactly like any other tool or armor set – just swap out the material with copper ingots. The new Copper Tools include:
- Copper Axe
- Copper Hoe
- Copper Pickaxe
- Copper Shovel
- Copper Sword
And for Copper Armor:
- Copper Helmet
- Copper Chestplate
- Copper Leggings
- Copper Boots
Copper armor sits between leather and iron in terms of protection, offering more durability and defence than leather, but not quite matching up to iron. It’s a clear step up for early survival and finally gives players a middle-ground option instead of jumping from leather (to nothing) to full iron.
Copper tools vs. stone and iron: What’s the difference?
While the concept of copper gear feels like a simple upgrade path, the reality is a bit more nuanced. On paper, copper tools deal the exact same damage as their stone counterparts and share the same mining abilities, meaning they can’t mine redstone, gold, emeralds, or diamond ore.
You’ll still need an iron pickaxe for that. So, if you’re expecting copper to function like a lite version of iron, it doesn’t quite hit that mark. Where copper does pull ahead is in durability and mining speed compared to stone.
It lasts noticeably longer than stone and mines faster too, and if you couldn’t guess the common theme here, it’s not as good as iron. In one community test, a copper shovel cleared gravel around 15-20% faster than a stone shovel. That speed boost, paired with improved durability, makes copper tools feel much more practical.
Copper also stands out for how easy it is to obtain. Unlike leather, which requires hunting cows or horses, copper can be found in large quantities at higher elevations or can even easily be obtained from Drowned. For most players, crafting copper armor is going to be far easier and faster than farming leather, and the protection it offers is clearly better.
It’s also worth noting I have not included gold armor and tools or chainmail armor in these comparisons, as they’re significantly harder to obtain and not quite comparable to the gap I believe Mojang is attempting to fill with copper armor and tools.
One of the things that feels like a missed opportunity, though, is oxidization. Unlike copper blocks and golems, copper tools and armor do not oxidize at all.
Likely done for clarity and simplicity, but it does feel like it’s missing out on what would otherwise be a fun idea of seeing your gear slowly turning green over time, maybe even as a visual indicator of durability. It would have served as a unique mechanic that could’ve made copper gear stand out even more.
Despite that, copper gear feels like a natural fit. For me, it doesn’t feel like it takes away from anything that already exists in the game. It fills a gap that’s been there for years – a tier of gear that bridges the leap from stone to iron.
It’ll never be an endgame piece of gear, but for players just starting out on their adventure in Minecraft, it gives a welcome boost to the sandbox. Not revolutionary, but it’s practical, well-balanced, and does make the stone age feel a bit more polished.
What this means for Xbox and other Bedrock players
This preview is already available to test through the Minecraft Preview app on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows 10/11, and other compatible Bedrock platforms. Unlike older beta systems, there’s no need to opt in via the Xbox Insider Hub; instead, the Preview is now its own separate game on Xbox, making access far simpler.
To try it out, you’ll need to own a copy of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition (also available through Game Pass). Once the Preview is installed, you can start by creating a new world, then navigate to the Experiments section in the world creation menu on the left-hand side. From there, enable the toggle for the Copper Golem Update to get access to the latest features.
This shift to prioritize Bedrock Previews feels like part of a broader move to align Minecraft more closely with Xbox, especially since Microsoft acquired Mojang back in 2014 for $2.5 billion. It marks a significant contrast to how updates used to be handled on legacy consoles like the Xbox 360 and PS3, where players often had to wait months after Java Edition received new content.
Despite being in Preview, these features are available to test in multiplayer through Realms and cross-play, meaning Xbox players can explore the Copper Golem and copper gear together with friends.
Just be cautious, as with any preview build, bugs are expected, and existing worlds won’t carry over unless manually imported. Doing so could cause issues or even corrupt your save, so make backups if you’re planning to test this preview with your main world.
When is this actually releasing?
Minecraft has shifted how it rolls out new content over the past few years, now introducing features through Bedrock Previews first, rather than developing and announcing them in tandem with Java. This new structure means Java snapshots typically arrive a few weeks later, trailing behind the Bedrock testing cycle.
Looking back at recent update timelines, this pattern holds up. The Armadillo and Wolf Armor update first appeared in Previews back in December 2023, before being added to the main game in April 2024. Trial Chambers and the Breeze showed up in May 2024 and launched fully by June.
More recently, the Happy Ghast and Ghastling content previewed in April 2025 and was released in the full game just two months later. If Mojang sticks to this rhythm, we can potentially see Java snapshots for the Copper Golem and gear within the next few weeks, with a full release potentially landing in the next three to five months.
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