Copper Golem

This article describes content that is currently in development for Bedrock Edition.

 

This content has appeared in development versions for Fall Drop 2025, but the full update adding it has not been released yet.

This article describes a feature planned for Java Edition.^[1]

 

It has not appeared in any development versions yet, but is planned to be included in Fall Drop 2025.

Copper Golem

Health points	12HP × 6
Behavior	Passive
Mob type	Golem
Hitbox size	Height: 1.0 block Width: 0.875 blocks
Spawn	When built by the player When a player uses an axe on an unwaxed and unoxidized copper golem statue
Usable items	Axe Honeycomb Lead

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    "title": "Copper Golem",
    "rows": [
        {
            "field": "12<span class=\"hidden-alt-text\">HP</span><span class=\"nowrap mc-hearts\"><span class=\"iconbar pixel-image nowrap\" style=\"--icon-offset:-1px;\" title=\"1  heart\">(link to File:Heart (icon).png article, displayed as 9px|link=|alt=&#9829)</span> × 6</span>",
            "label": "(link to Health article, displayed as Health points)"
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            "field": "Passive",
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            "label": "(link to Hitbox article, displayed as Hitbox size)"
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            "label": "(link to Mob spawning article, displayed as Spawn)"
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            "label": "Usable items"
        }
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    "invimages": [
        "Copper Golem Spawn Egg"
    ],
    "images": [
        "Copper Golem.png",
        "Exposed Copper Golem.png",
        "Weathered Copper Golem.png",
        "Oxidized Copper Golem.png"
    ]
}

A copper golem is a buildable passive mob that takes items out of copper chests and attempts to store them in nearby wooden chests. A chest must either be empty, or contain the item type the copper golem is holding, for the golem to place anything inside of it. Similarly to copper blocks, copper golems oxidize over time. If given enough time after reaching full oxidation, it subsequently turns into a statue.

Spawning

Copper golem build configuration. The block of copper may be any oxidation stage or waxed state.

Copper golems are created by placing a block of copper of any oxidation stage, then placing a carved pumpkin or jack o’lantern on top. The pumpkin must be placed last, whether by the player, a dispenser, or an enderman. The building pattern also works horizontally or upside-down, as long as the pumpkin is the final block placed.

On creation, the block of copper is replaced by a copper chest, and a copper golem spawns at the location of the carved pumpkin or jack o'lantern. The oxidation stage of the copper golem and the copper chest matches that of the block of copper used to create it. A waxed block of copper can also be used, but the golem and the chest are not waxed.^[2] If a golem is built with the block of copper placed next to an existing copper chest (that is not already part of a large copper chest), the two chests combine into a large copper chest, just as they would if the new copper chest had been placed manually.

Using an axe on an unwaxed and unoxidized copper golem statue​ will cause it to reanimate into a copper golem.

When using a copper golem spawn egg, it spawns the golem on its own, without a copper chest. A copper golem spawned this way is unoxidized and unwaxed.

Drops

On death

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Copper Ingot	1–3	100.00%	2.00	1–3	100.00%	2.00	1–3	100.00%	2.00	1–3	100.00%	2.00

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Copper Ingot	1–3	1	2	1–3	1	2	1–3	1	2	1–3	1	2

Item		Amount	Probability
			Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Copper Ingot	1	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)
		2	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)
		3	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)
		Average	2 (2.00)	2 (2.00)	2 (2.00)	2 (2.00)

Killed		1
Item		Expected Drop
		Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Copper Ingot	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00

Behavior

When idle, copper golems wander aimlessly while avoiding water, obstacles, and environmental hazards. They occasionally spin their heads or stare at players. They are completely passive to players and other mobs, and run around in a panic if attacked.

When in a body of water, copper golems cannot swim and sink to the bottom. They can still move laterally and step up full blocks as if they were on land, similar to iron golems. Copper golems also cannot drown.

Item sorting

If a copper golem is not holding an item, it visits the nearest copper chest (regardless of its oxidation or waxed status) and tries to take out up to 16 of the first item it finds. It takes 3 seconds to stop and examine each copper chest it visits. If the copper chest is empty, the copper golem moves on to the nearest copper chest it hasn't visited. The copper golem can remember up to 10 copper chests that it has previously visited. If it has already visited 10 copper chests and still cannot find an item, it wanders around for 7 seconds, forgets which copper chests it has visited, and continues searching for a copper chest to take items from.

If a copper golem is holding an item or stack of items, it visits the nearest chest or trapped chest and attempt to put the items into it. It takes 3 seconds to stop and examine each chest it visits. If the chest is empty or if the chest contains the same type of item (regardless of durability) with the same name and enchantments, the copper golem attempts to add its items to the chest. If it cannot do so, the copper golem moves on to the nearest chest that it hasn't visited. The copper golem can remember up to 10 chests it has previously visited. If it has already visited 10 chests and still cannot place its items, it wanders around for 7 seconds, forgets which chests it has visited, and continues searching for a chest to put its items in.

When a copper golem deposits items in a chest, it attempts to add them to the frontmost available slot. If the deposited item is stackable, it avoids adding to existing stacks in any slot other than the frontmost one.

If the chest or copper chest a copper golem is walking toward can no longer be opened (e.g., a copper chest has a cat sitting on it) or is destroyed, the copper golem marks the position as visited and moves on.

Copper golems forget all the chests that they have previously visited when they successfully put an item in a chest.

Copper golems do not simultaneously open a chest that another non-player entity is already interacting with, such as another copper golem.

The search area for chests and copper chests from the copper golem's position is 16 blocks horizontally in each direction, and 8 blocks vertically.

If the copper golem deposits an item into a chest more than 16 blocks away from the nearest copper chest, it wanders aimlessly until it is within 16 blocks of any copper chest. The copper golem then continues to search the copper chest every 3 seconds until items are added.

Copper golems do not interact with ender chests, barrels, or shulker boxes.

Oxidation

Non-waxed copper golems have four stages of oxidation (including the initial normal state). Lightning strikes and axes can remove the oxidation from the copper golem. They can be waxed with a honeycomb to prevent the oxidation from progressing.

After around 7 hours (420–460 minutes), the mob begins to oxidize (exposed copper golem), becoming discolored and developing green spots. As the oxidation continues (weathered copper golem), the mob becomes a green color with brown spots. In the last stage (oxidized copper golem), the mob is teal with several green spots. Like copper bulbs, the texture of the eyes of the copper golem dims as it oxidizes. However, the golem itself does not emit any light, regardless of oxidation level.

Once fully oxidized, a copper golem has a 0.58% chance per tick to become a copper golem statue and take a random pose, provided it is not waxed and is standing on a full block.​ This process takes on average 8.62 seconds. During the transformation, any items held by the copper golem are dropped.

If a fully oxidized copper golem is waxed using honeycomb, it will prevent the golem from freezing into a statue.

Sounds

Regular and exposed sounds

Weathered sounds

Oxidized sounds

Data values

ID

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Copper Golem	copper_golem	148	entity.copper_golem.name

Videos

History

September 4, 2021							The copper golem is teased as the next mob vote candidate by Ulraf through the use of emojis.
October 13, 2021							The copper golem is announced as a candidate for the Minecraft Live 2021 mob vote. It was featured alongside the allay and glare.[3][4]
							During the mob vote, it was planned for the copper golem to press random copper buttons and have the oxidation removed with either an axe,[5] or by being struck by lightning.[6] It would also have turned into a statue at full oxidation.[7]
October 16, 2021							The copper golem lost the final round of vote with 45.7% of the votes.
July 1, 2025							The copper golem, now a mob that sorts items from copper chests, is announced for the Fall Drop 2025 with its functionality completely redone and design slightly tweaked.
Upcoming Bedrock Edition
1.21.100 Experiment Drop 3 2025			Preview 1.21.100.23				Added copper golems.
1.21.110			Preview 1.21.110.20				All features behind the "Drop 3 2025" experimental toggle have been fully implemented.
							Interacting with a copper golem that is holding an item makes the copper golem drop the item.
							Copper golems that fully oxidize turn into a copper golem statue and freeze into a random pose, dropping any items it was holding.

Issues

Issues relating to "Copper Golem" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• Spinning animation variants for the weathered and oxidized copper golem exist within the animation files, but as of now they share the same animation as the unoxidized spinning animation.
• Sprites of copper golems appeared as an easter egg in the 2022 Mob Vote Event, 2023 Mob Vote Event, and the Eerie Mojang Office Party server.
• The copper golem became the first mob vote loser mob to be later added to the game, having lost the 2021 mob vote to the allay; This does not include frogs (part of the swamp biome improvements), which lost the 2019 Biome chooser vote to goats (part of the mountain biome improvements).
• Although copper golems appear to have a lightning rod on their head, it is purely decorative and does not divert lightning strikes. Also, the copper golem and the rod on its head can oxidize, while the lightning rod block cannot.

Gallery

Renders

• 
  Copper golem holding an invisible item
• 
  Exposed copper golem holding an invisible item
• 
  Weathered copper golem holding an invisible item
• 
  Oxidized Copper golem holding an invisible item

Animations

Unoxidized

• 
  Spawn
• 
  Walking
• 
  Walking while holding an item
• 
  Walking while holding an item without the hold item animation attached to it (this state cannot be seen in-game)
• 
  Putting an item in a chest
• 
  Failing at putting an item in a chest
• 
  Taking an item from a chest
• 
  Failing at taking an item from a chest
• 
  Spinning

Exposed

• 
  Spawn
• 
  Walking
• 
  Walking while holding an item
• 
  Walking while holding an item without the hold item animation attached to it (this state cannot be seen in-game)
• 
  Putting an item in a chest
• 
  Failing at putting an item in a chest
• 
  Taking an item from a chest
• 
  Failing at taking an item from a chest
• 
  Spinning

Weathered

• 
  Spawn
• 
  Walking
• 
  Walking while holding an item
• 
  Walking while holding an item without the hold item animation attached to it (this state cannot be seen in-game)
• 
  Putting an item in a chest
• 
  Failing at putting an item in a chest
• 
  Taking an item from a chest
• 
  Failing at taking an item from a chest
• 
  Spinning

Oxidized

• 
  Spawn
• 
  Walking
• 
  Walking while holding an item
• 
  Walking while holding an item without the hold item animation attached to it (this state cannot be seen in-game)
• 
  Putting an item in a chest
• 
  Failing at putting an item in a chest
• 
  Taking an item from a chest
• 
  Failing at taking an item from a chest
• 
  Spinning

Mojang screenshots

• 
  A player-made workshop with several copper golems walking around.
• 
  A copper golem standing next to an open copper chest inside a cherry grove.
• 
  An oxidized copper golem.
• 
  A copper golem in front of an oxidized copper house.
• 
  The oxidation stages of copper golems.

Concept artwork

• 
  Copper golem concept art.

In other media

• 
  Recreation of the oxidized copper golem.
• 
  Hologram of a copper golem in the Eerie Mojang Office Party.
• 
  Thumbnail with a copper golem and copper equipment.

Mob vote artwork

• 
  The copper golem shown at Minecraft Live 2021.
• 
  The copper golem animation that could have played if the copper golem had won the mob vote.
• 
  Ditto.
• 
  The copper golem inside a room.
• 
  The copper golem as one of the three options for the mob vote.
• 
  Header for the copper golem article.

References

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