Minecraft’s third big update of 2025, The Copper Age, is dropping later this year, giving copper a major glow-up. Announced on August 28, 2025, this update makes copper way more useful with new tools, armor, blocks, and the copper golem. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s coming.

A New Role for Copper

Copper’s been piling up in chests since the 2021 Caves & Cliffs Update because it didn’t do much. The Copper Age fixes that, turning copper into a go-to material for tools, armor, and cool builds, as Mojang’s Agnes Larsson pointed out.

The Copper Golem: A Handy Helper

The copper golem is the star of the update. Craft it by sticking a carved pumpkin or jack o’lantern on a copper block. This little guy comes with a copper chest and sorts items into nearby chests, making storage a breeze. Over time, it oxidizes from shiny orange to green, turning into a statue with one of four poses that send unique redstone signals—great for puzzles or traps. You can stop oxidation with honeycomb or reverse it with an axe. Plus, copper golems might plant flowers on each other for some extra charm.

Copper Tools and Armor: Filling the Gap

The Copper Age adds copper tools (pickaxe, axe, hoe, shovel, sword) and armor (helmet, chestplate, leggings, boots, horse armor), sitting between stone and iron in strength. Tools can be waxed to stay shiny, but armor doesn’t oxidize, keeping it reliable. These are perfect for early-game players or anyone wanting a medieval look.

New Decorative Blocks and Oxidation Mechanics

New copper blocks like bars, chains, torches, and lanterns let you build awesome stuff, with oxidation adding color changes from orange to green. Wax them to lock the look or use an axe to revert. Copper trapdoors now craft one at a time, and copper nuggets make smaller items like chains.

Shelves: Smarter Storage

Shelves, made from six stripped logs, hold three item stacks for display, like item frames but better. With redstone, you can swap items to your hotbar, and linking shelves creates quick-access loadouts for up to nine items—super handy for switching tasks fast.

Gameplay Improvements and Accessibility

The update tweaks dye textures for better visuals and colorblind accessibility, lets you customize the debug screen, adds a warning for monster spawn eggs in Peaceful mode, and lowers chest sound volume for a smoother experience.

Community Engagement and Testing

You can try The Copper Age now in Java snapshots or Bedrock betas. Mojang’s also running the Copper Collection Community Challenge from August 29 to September 2, 2025, where players mine 50 million copper ore blocks to unlock a Copper Collector item in Bedrock Edition.

The Copper Age should hit before the 2025 holidays, likely late fall. It makes copper a game-changer, and some fans are already buzzing about a future “Bronze Age” with tin alloys. Get ready to dig in and craft some copper goodness!