Copper used to be only a building block, but now can be used to craft gear that is better than stone but weaker than iron. This guide covers all of the uses of copper in the game, current as of Minecraft 26.2.
How to Get Copper in Minecraft
Copper ore randomly generates throughout the overworld between Y levels -16 and 112, and it is one of the most common ores in the game. You’ll need at least a stone pickaxe to mine it. Each ore block drops 2 to 5 pieces of raw copper, which can be smelted into copper ingots using a furnace. Mining copper ore using a fortune pickaxe will increase the amount of raw copper that is dropped.
If you are looking specifically for copper ore, look in the same places that you would find iron ore: caves, mountains, and nearly anywhere underground.
Can You Make Copper Tools, Weapons, and Armor?
Since the Copper Age update, copper is an equipment tier that fits between stone and iron. You craft copper tools, weapons, and armor with the exact same recipes as iron gear, just with copper ingots instead of iron ingots.
Here is how copper equipment compares:
| Gear | Comparison |
|---|---|
| Tools (pickaxe, axe, shovel, hoe) | Mines faster and lasts longer than stone, but slower than iron |
| Weapons (sword, axe, spear) | Hits like stone but with better durability |
| Armor (all four pieces) | Protects better than leather, wears out slower than gold |
A few things to know before you craft a full set:
- A copper pickaxe cannot mine diamonds, emeralds, gold, or redstone. You still need iron for those.
- Copper gear does not oxidize.
- You repair copper gear with copper ingots in an anvil, and you can apply all the typical enchantments. Check our guide to the best enchantments for every item.
- The spear comes in a copper tier too. You can see how copper weapons compare damage-wise in our guide to the strongest weapons in Minecraft.
- Copper horse armor exists, but it cannot be crafted. You find it in the same chests where iron horse armor appears.
So is copper gear worth making? For your first few days in a world, probably. Copper is everywhere, and a copper pickaxe gets you to iron much faster than a stone one. Once you have iron, upgrade and keep your copper for building and golems.
Minecraft Copper Oxidization
Just like in real life, copper oxidizes over time when placed in the world and is exposed to the elements. Copper blocks, stairs, and slabs will start with a polished brown appearance and slowly change to a teal color over time. Remember that copper gear is the exception: tools, weapons, and armor never oxidize, but the copper golem does.
When copper blocks are placed near each other, the speed of oxidization is greatly slowed down. Spacing out copper blocks by at least four blocks between each other will dramatically speed up the oxidization process. Things like water, rain, and sunlight do not affect the speed of oxidization. Also note that copper blocks only oxidize when a chunk is loaded and a player is somewhat close to the blocks.
The oxidization process has four stages, including the first (non-oxidized) and final (fully oxidized) stages. Each stage has a progressively different appearance. At any stage, oxidization can be paused by “waxing” the copper block, stair, or slab. Waxing a block is simple: it must be picked up, combined with a honeycomb in the crafting grid, and then placed back into the world. There is no point to waxing a fully oxidized block as it cannot oxidize any further anyways.
Right clicking a copper block with an axe in your hand will remove any layers of wax and turn it back into the unwaxed block. Using an axe also removes one stage of oxidization for each right click. For example, if you right click a fully oxidized copper block with an axe three times you will have a normal, unoxidized block again.
Regular Copper vs Cut Copper
There are two different types of copper blocks in the game: regular copper blocks and cut copper blocks. Here is a quick rundown of how to get the two different copper blocks and their differences.
- Copper ingots are crafted by smelting raw copper in a furnace.
- Combining 9 copper ingots in a crafting table produces one “regular” copper block. This is similar to crafting iron blocks.
- Combining 4 “regular” copper blocks in a crafting table produces four “cut” copper blocks.
- Cut copper blocks have a different appearance than regular copper blocks and can be nicer for building. Only cut copper blocks can be used for crafting stairs and slabs. Once a regular block is turned into a cut block, you cannot turn it back into a regular block.
- Only regular blocks can be changed back into ingots.
- All types of copper will oxidize when placed into the world (stairs, slabs, regular blocks, cut blocks).
Copper remains a flexible building block. It provides brown (regular color) or teal (oxidized color) tones, and its oxidization can give an “abandoned” appearance to any structure. It is a particularly nice material for statues and roofs.
What Is the Copper Golem?
The copper golem is a small helper mob added in the Copper Age update. To make one, place a carved pumpkin (or a jack o’lantern) on top of a copper block. The golem spawns, and a copper chest appears with it.
This helper mob takes items out of nearby copper chests and sorts them into regular chests around your base, matching items to chests that already contain the same item type. Dump your whole inventory into a copper chest after a mining trip, walk away, and the golem puts everything where it belongs. It carries up to 16 items per trip.
Like copper blocks, the golem oxidizes through four stages. If it fully oxidizes, it freezes into a copper golem statue. Use an axe on the statue to bring the golem back, or use a honeycomb on the golem early to wax it and stop the oxidization completely. You can also interact with a statue to change its pose, which makes it a fun decoration on purpose.
How Do You Make a Copper Chest?
A copper chest is crafted by surrounding a regular chest with 8 copper ingots in a crafting table. There is a catch though: the recipe stays locked until you pick up your first copper chest, and you get that first one by spawning a copper golem.
Copper chests hold 27 slots and work just like wooden chests, including with hoppers. The differences are that copper golems use them as their sorting inbox, and they oxidize over time like other copper blocks. Wax one with a honeycomb if you like its current color. Together with the golem, copper chests can automate the most boring part of the game. We use them as the dump-off point in our storage room designs.
More Copper Items
- Copper bars: crafted from 6 copper ingots, just like iron bars but they oxidize.
- Copper chains: crafted from 1 copper ingot and 2 copper nuggets.
- Copper torches: crafted from a stick, coal, and a copper nugget. They burn with a green flame.
- Copper lanterns: a copper take on the lantern for lighting builds.
- Copper nuggets: smelt any piece of copper gear to get a nugget back, and 9 nuggets make an ingot.
All of the decorative pieces oxidize and can be waxed, so you can match them to whatever stage of green your build is going for.
Spyglasses
A spyglass can be crafted by combining two copper ingots and an amethyst. Spyglasses can be used to look at far away distances more easily, just like a pirate!
Lightning Rods
Lightning rods can be placed in the world to absorb nearby lightning strikes. The effective radius for lightning rods is 128 blocks (java edition) or 64 blocks (bedrock edition). This is useful to protect wooden structures from lightning strikes and the resulting fires.
It also stops nearby mobs from being hit by lightning, preventing them from turning into stronger enemies (like creepers, which turn into charged creepers when struck by lightning). Since the Copper Age update, lightning rods oxidize too and can be waxed like other copper blocks.
A lightning rod can be crafted by combining 3 copper ingots in a crafting table vertically.
You can read more about the Copper Age update on Minecraft’s website here.
