Minecraft’s Copper Golem is the Best Kind of Broken Promise

Minecraft‘s Copper Age is here, and there’s no question that it does what it says on the tin. For years now, Minecraft players have had stacks and stacks of copper in their chests that they can do little with, and now there are quite a few more options, especially in the early game. Copper tools, weapons, and armor make it a totally serviceable alternative in times when copper is scarce. That said, by far the most noteworthy new use of copper in this update is the Copper Golem mob.

It’s been quite a while since Minecraft got a new golem, having sat on the iron golem and snow golem for several years, so this is certainly a special occasion. That’s doubly true given the elaborate use-case for the copper golem, which is all about sorting player items. That said, it isn’t what we were led to expect the first time Mojang floated the idea of the copper golem, back in the 2021 Mob Vote. Since then, Mojang has overhauled the core purpose of this helpful mob, and while that’s certainly a loss in some respects, the end result is still a fantastic addition to the game.

Minecraft: The Copper Golem Has Undergone a Total Transformation

Back in 2021, the copper golem competed with the glare and allay for that year’s Mob Vote. Mojang pitched it as a sort of redstone automation tool; it would independently push nearby copper buttons, essentially operating machinery for the player. That idea allowed it to outperform the glare, but ultimately it only earned 45.7% of the vote, leading Minecraft to add the allay mob instead.

After four years in obscurity, the copper golem is finally official, but its job description has changed a lot:

• The copper golem seeks out copper chests and looks for items inside, grabbing up to 16 at a time.
• Once it has an item in hand, the golem looks for a regular chest or trapped chest containing the same type of items, and stores its cargo there.
• It ignores items on the ground or other types of chests, only interacting with copper, trapped, or regular chests.

Inventory organization is a common chore in Minecraft, so this golem is a great way to cut down on that. Players can set up copper golems in their bases to automatically organize the spoils of adventure, rather than painstakingly putting things in chests by hand.

Mojang Has Made the Copper Golem Far More Essential

On the one hand, it’s strange to see Mojang deliver the copper golem in such a different format than before. There’s a clear loss here; Minecraft players do miraculous things with redstone, and an automatic assistant that regularly pushes buttons could’ve been used for all kinds of innovations. It’s a shame that that might never come to pass.

On the other hand, the finalized copper golem is way more useful for the Minecraft playerbase as a whole. Redstone in Minecraft is complicated enough that many players never touch the stuff, so the new purpose is both more practical and more approachable for everyone. This mob is something that can prove useful in every single sitting of Minecraft, rather than requiring some carefully planned redstone machine to do its job.

The Copper Golem Blazes a Trail for Minecraft's Other Mob Vote Competitors

It’s worth noting that many of Minecraft‘s past Mob Vote entrants were also pretty niche. The aforementioned glare was meant to assess light levels and notify the player if it was dark enough for mobs to spawn in a given area — a little handy, but far from essential. The copper golem proves Mojang can refine its past mob ideas into brilliant features for Minecraft, even if it means largely giving up on their previous purpose. It’d be in the game’s best interest for Mojang to keep killing its former darlings for innovation’s sake.