What Can Copper Be Used For In Minecraft?
Copper is a new type of material introduced in the Minecraft 1.17 Caves & Cliffs Update. Fresh copper has an orange color, almost similar to rust. However, after time passes for a bit, copper exposed to the environment will eventually turn to a light blue-green color. This makes copper blocks and their derivatives the perfect, versatile candidate for a lot of Minecraft building projects.
Where Can I Get Raw Copper Ore?
Raw copper is obtained by mining copper ores found in caves. You can also find copper that is a deepslate variant instead of the usual stone variant. These can be found deeper underground. The ores usually drop 2-3 raw copper per block.
A minimum of a stone pickaxe or better is used so that you can mine copper from a copper ore vein. These copper are usually smelted to obtain copper ingots. However, you can also combine nine raw copper to get a block of raw copper. These blocks will help store loads of copper that you will eventually mine.
A block of raw copper is crafted using the crafting recipe below:
How To Obtain Copper Ingots
After gathering your desired amount of raw copper from copper ore veins, you can place them in a furnace to smelt each raw ore into a copper ingot. A blast furnace can also be used to smelt more ores in a short span of time.
Copper ingots can be used to craft for other stuff as well, aside from copper blocks. These include:
- Spyglass
- Lightning Rod
How To Craft A Spyglass
A spyglass is used to zoom on a location where you are currently looking. However, the view is limited to a square box while using it.
The following steps are used to craft a spyglass:
- Gather at least one amethyst shard from a budding amethyst block with a mature cluster.
- Obtain at least two copper ingots by smelting raw copper ores in a furnace.
- Place the amethyst shard in any of the top row slot on the crafting table grid.
- Place the two copper ingots on the two slots below the amethyst shard.
- You now have a spyglass.
How To Craft Lightning Rods
A lightning rod is used to absorb lightning strikes whenever there is a thunderstorm. It can also be used to deoxidize copper blocks and its derivatives back into their original fresh state. Lightning rods are crafted using these easy steps:
- Obtain at least three copper ingots by smelting them from copper ores.
- Place the ingots on a crafting table grid vertically.
- You now have a lightning rod.
What Can I Do With Copper Blocks?
Copper blocks are crafted using nine copper ingots. They are used mainly as a building material. It is a very versatile building block because it can have 4 different states of oxidation. Aside from that, it can be transformed into cut copper blocks. These cut copper blocks can then be crafted into stairs or slabs using a crafting table or a stonecutter block.
Oxidation of Copper Blocks
When exposed to the environment, copper blocks and its derivatives tend to change its state into a different-colored block. This is called oxidation, which is inspired in the real-life process of combining oxygen found in air and copper molecules. From having an orange color, it will change into a light blue-green color. The change in color is what most Minecraft builder want because they can use copper blocks for a lot of their projects.
States of Copper Blocks
As stated ealier, copper blocks have 4 different types of states. Random game ticks (in-game clock) determine when the copper blocks placed in the environment will change into the next state. Though, it usually takes around 20 minutes for copper to be oxidized.
Nevertheless, it can be the regular Block of Copper which is the fresh off the crafting table one that has an orange color. The next is the Exposed Copper Block, which has a brownish color with a little bit of green spots all around. The third state is the Weathered Copper Block, where the block itself changes into a greenish color with still a tinge of brown clusters. Finally, the last state of copper in Minecraft is the Oxidized Copper Block, which has the light blue-green color similar to the color of the Statue of Liberty in New York City.
Fortunately, Mojang added a feature where you can stop the oxidation process of copper blocks. You just need to add a honeycomb to the block that you do not want to change states. Adding a honeycomb or beeswax turns copper blocks into a waxed state, which will NOT oxidize into the other states. To apply the wax, right-click the honeycomb to your desired block, or simply follow the crafting recipe below:
Note: You can remove the wax from copper blocks simply by right-clicking on them using an axe.
Deoxidation of Copper Blocks
Deoxidation, on the other hand, is the process where you reverse the state of already oxidized copper blocks back into its original, fresh state. You can do this by simply equipping your axe and then right-clicking on the block you want to revert. The axe will deoxidize one state at a time. Therefore, you need to right-click at least 3 times to revert a fully Oxidized Copper Block into a regular Block of Copper.
Aside from that, you can use a lightning rod to redirect a lightning strike into an area where you have oxidized copper. The oxidized copper blocks will immediately turn into the fresh original copper state. However, this method will take some time because thunderstorms are uncommon, and lightning strikes are random.
That's everything you need to know about the utilization of copper in Minecraft.
