A new friend with a familiar patina

Published: July 1, 2025 - View official source

Could your chests do with a bit less chaos? Do you crave more variety in your tools? Get ready, because the first features from our third game drop of 2025 are available to test now in Bedrock beta and preview* and coming soon to Java snapshot! Get a new companion in the form of the copper golem and its chest, then discover tools, weapons, and armor made from – of course – copper. Farther down, you can also watch our dev diary on how this happy helper came to be!

The copper golem

A screenshot of a copper golem standing next to an open copper chest inside a cherry blossom grove.

The copper golem is a mob that helps you sort your inventory and generally makes your base a livelier, clonkier cuter place to be as it builds a stunning patina. The copper golem doesn't spawn on its own but is instead summoned by players like yourself! To make a copper golem, all you have to do is place a carved pumpkin on a copper block. Once that’s done, the golem will spawn, together with a copper chest.

This reinvention of the copper golem might have you wondering whether we would bring back other mobs from previous mob votes. While we don’t have any plans for this at the moment, there’s always a possibility that we’ll revisit older ideas if they align with our vision for game drops, and the ever-evolving world of Minecraft!

The copper chest

Your first copper chest can only be obtained by making a copper golem, after which you can pick it up to learn the recipe. This chest is special because it acts as more than just storage. Copper golems will open these chests, pick up as many items as they can carry, then take them to the other chests in your base, even sorting your items neatly into stacks. Plus, it looks really pretty! Choose your patina level, wax it, and display it proudly.

Copper weapons, tools, and armor

A screenshot of four player characters inside a base. One of them is wearing full copper armor and holding a copper pickaxe.

Copper is officially becoming an equipment tier! Its durability sits somewhere between stone and iron, which reflects onto the equipment you craft from it, be it a weapon, tool, or piece of armor. For example, a copper pickaxe will help you mine a bit faster and for a bit longer than a stone pickaxe but won’t allow you to mine any additional materials – you'll still need to upgrade to iron for that. Its abundance makes copper the perfect early-game material, which means I won’t have to scour dark caves holding a stone sword in search of a morsel of iron. Yay!

Making the copper golem

Travel to the echoey depths of a Swedish copper mine, where our developers do a literal and figurative deep dive into the upcoming drop, including why they made an exception to bring back an old mob vote contestant, and how the copper golem has evolved from its first design.

An side-by-side image featuring a copper golem and copper armor, a copper pickaxe, and a copper sword.

How can I test these features? 

You can test these features by enabling previews/beta for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition. To enable preview/beta for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, follow these instructions.

Send us your feedback! 

These features are all still in development, which means that the details outlined above might change as we iterate on them. So then why have we released them into testing? Because we want your feedback! Send your thoughts here and report bugs at aka.ms/mcgamedropfeedback! 

*Preview is available for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Realms on Xbox, Windows 10/11, and iOS. Betas are available on Android (Google Play). New features will require Minecraft: Bedrock Edition (sold separately). Features may change based on community feedback during testing. Features coming to testing soon for Java snapshot.