Updated for Java Edition 26.3 (October 2026).
The copper golem is a small helper mob added in Java Edition 1.21.9 (The Copper Age, September 2025). You build one by putting a carved pumpkin or jack o’lantern on a block of copper. It sorts items: it takes them out of copper chests and puts them into regular chests that already hold the same item. Like copper, it oxidizes over time, and if it fully oxidizes without wax, it freezes into a statue.
| How to make one | A carved pumpkin or jack o’lantern on top of a block of copper |
|---|---|
| What it does | Moves items from copper chests into matching chests |
| Carries | Up to 16 items of one kind per trip |
| Search range | 32 blocks horizontally, 8 vertically; up to 10 chests per search |
| Ages | Oxidizes like copper; turns into a copper golem statue when fully oxidized and not waxed |
| Added in | Java Edition 1.21.9 (The Copper Age, September 30, 2025) |
How to make a copper golem
Place a block of copper, then put a carved pumpkin or a jack o’lantern on top of it. The copper golem appears in its place, the same way you build an iron golem or a snow golem.
How copper golem sorting works
A copper golem runs a simple loop, and once you know the rules you can build a sorting system around it:
- With empty hands, it looks for a nearby copper chest (any oxidation stage, waxed or not) and takes items out of it, at most 16 of one kind at a time.
- Holding items, it looks for a regular chest or trapped chest to put them in. It only uses a chest that is empty or already contains the same item.
- It checks at most 10 chests in a row. If none fits, it waits 7 seconds and tries again.
Its search area reaches 32 blocks horizontally and 8 blocks vertically from where it stands. So the setup is: dump unsorted items into a copper chest, and place regular chests nearby, each “labeled” by putting one of the item it should collect inside. If you need the golem to drop what it is carrying, interact with it with an empty hand.
Copper chests themselves are new in the same update. One is crafted from a chest and 8 copper ingots, and like other copper blocks it oxidizes over time unless you wax it.
Oxidation and the copper golem statue
A copper golem oxidizes over time, the same way copper blocks do, and you can wax it to stop that. If it reaches full oxidation without wax, it turns into a copper golem statue, drops anything it was holding, and keeps its name.
The statue is a decorative block in its own right. It has four poses (standing, sitting, running and “star”), which you cycle by interacting with it, and each pose gives a different redstone comparator signal. Statues oxidize and can be waxed too. To bring a statue back to life, scrape all its oxidation off with an axe and then use the axe on it once more: a statue with no oxidation left turns back into a copper golem.
Copper golems and iron golems
Every now and then an iron golem will plant a decorative flower on a nearby copper golem’s head. You can remove it with shears, and the golem drops the flower if it turns into a statue.
What else came with the copper golem
The Copper Age added a whole copper set alongside the golem: copper tools and armor (the tools do the same damage as stone but last longer), copper horse armor, copper torches, copper bars, copper chains and copper lanterns, plus the shelf, a wooden block that holds three item stacks. Lightning rods also started oxidizing like other copper blocks.
What changed since it was added
Since The Copper Age, only small fixes have touched the copper golem; in 26.1, statues began respecting the pose property set in commands and data. Source: the official Java Edition 1.21.9 release notes.
