The latest Minecraft beta basically gives us customizable loadouts, and turns Copper Golems into statues

Recently, the next major Minecraft update (and the third of 2025) was revealed with a new mob, new tools and armor, and other gameplay additions. Now, Mojang Studios is testing more features for that upcoming update.

The latest Minecraft Preview is rolling out to testers now, and it has made me even more excited for this as-yet unnamed Minecraft Game Drop. This beta includes a new decorative block with a powerful function, and makes Copper Golems even more unique.

Minecraft: Java Edition players will have to wait a while longer for the comparable snapshot, but in the meantime, you can learn all you need to know about these features.

New shelves and functional loadouts

The biggest addition in this preview is easily the shelf, a new decorative block crafted out of every variety of wood. Mounted on any wall, a single shelf block can store and display up to three items or stacks.

Interacting with any of these items will swap it with whatever is in your main hand (or remove it if you're not holding anything), but the shelves can become a lot more interesting — because they work with redstone.

Power a shelf, and interacting with it will swap the 3 rightmost items in your hotbar. String up to three shelves together, and you can instantly replace your entire hotbar with whatever you've stored on the shelves.

Mojang has effectively added loadouts to Minecraft, letting you switch between hotbars for different purposes, like farming, exploring, mining, or combat. There's no instant solution for swapping your armor or offhand items (at least not yet), but this is a big improvement.

The shelf is a simple addition that adds a lot of decorative possibilities and gameplay utility, and I imagine a lot of players are going to be very happy about it.

A new mechanic for our copper golem friends

The second new feature in this beta is awesome or creepy, depending on your perspective. As a quick recap, Copper Golems are the central focus of this Game Drop, and are helpful companions that can automatically sort items in chests for you.

Copper Golems are made of copper, obviously, so they oxidize over time and change in color. You can wax Copper Golems to preserve their current color (just like other copper blocks), but no amount of oxidation affected how Copper Golems worked... until now.

If you let a Copper Golem fully oxidize, it'll freeze in a random pose and become a decorative statue in your home. You can change the pose by interacting with the Copper Golem statue, and it'll even emit a redstone signal when connected to a comparator (the strength of which is dependent on the pose).

If you're concerned about the well-being of your copper-y friends, there's a way to save them. Like other copper items, the level of oxidation can be stripped down with an axe (and frozen with wax), and interacting with a fully cleaned Copper Golem statue with an axe will bring it back to life. Hooray!

I'm not sure I'll be wanting to trap any of my Copper Golems in an eternal slumber, but it does make this happy mob even more unique. With these new features, how are you feeling about the upcoming Minecraft update?

You can read more about Minecraft Preview 1.21.110.20 at Minecraft.net, and the beta is now rolling out across Xbox, PC, and mobile devices.