How to make a copper golem in Minecraft and let it sort

How to make a copper golem in Minecraft: place a block of copper, then put a carved pumpkin or a jack o’lantern on top. The pumpkin has to go last. The copper block turns into a copper chest and the golem appears, ready to work. A copper golem takes items out of copper chests and puts them into normal chests that already hold the same item, or into empty ones. That’s item sorting without any redstone.

The copper golem came with Java 1.21.9, The Copper Age, on 30 September 2025, and it’s in Bedrock as well. Below you’ll learn how its sorting works, how to set up a simple sorting room and how to keep it from turning into a statue. Checked against Java 26.3 and Bedrock 26.52 (Bedrock 26.60 is planned for 27 October 2026).

How to make a copper golem

1. Craft a block of copper. Nine copper ingots on a crafting table. Every oxidation stage works, and a waxed block works too.
2. Carve a pumpkin. Use shears on a pumpkin. A jack o’lantern works as well.
3. Place the copper block, then the pumpkin on top. The pumpkin must be the last block. The build also works sideways or upside down, as long as the pumpkin comes last, and a dispenser can place the pumpkin for you.

The block of copper becomes a copper chest that faces the same way as the pumpkin. The golem and the chest get the oxidation stage of the block you used. A waxed block still works, but the golem and the chest come out unwaxed. If the new chest ends up next to another copper chest facing the same way, the two merge into a large copper chest.

Need more copper chests? Craft one from a normal chest surrounded by eight copper ingots. Combine an unwaxed copper chest with a honeycomb and you get a waxed copper chest that keeps its colour.

What does a copper golem do?

A copper golem is a walking item mover. When its hands are empty, it walks to the nearest copper chest and takes up to 16 of the first item it finds. Then it looks for a wooden chest or a trapped chest. If that chest is empty, or already holds the same type of item, the golem puts its items in. If not, it tries the next chest. It stops for 3 seconds at every chest it opens.

• Memory: it remembers up to 9 chests it has tried. After 10 chests without luck it wanders around for 7 seconds, forgets them all and starts again. A successful delivery also clears its memory.
• Reach: it searches 32 blocks around it and 8 blocks up or down, but it can only use a chest at most one block above it or two blocks below it.
• Only chests: it ignores barrels, ender chests, shulker boxes, chests in minecarts or boats and items lying on the ground.
• Rough sorting: it only looks at the item type and ignores enchantments, durability and custom names. In Java it can’t tell potions, tipped arrows or suspicious stews apart. In Bedrock it can.

In between it wanders, opens wooden doors (not iron ones) and stares at players. It takes no fall damage and doesn’t drown: in water it sinks and walks along the bottom. Attack it and it panics, but it never fights back. Now and then an iron golem hands it a poppy, which it wears on its head until you shear it off. If you run an iron farm, its iron golems can do the same.

Sort items with copper chests

1. One copper chest as the input. Everything that needs sorting goes in there.
2. Normal chests at the right height. Place them on the floor or one block up, so the golem can reach them.
3. Put one sample in every chest. One cobblestone in the stone chest, one wheat in the farm chest. The golem only checks what’s inside; it can’t read signs or labels.
4. Watch out with empty chests. An empty chest accepts anything, and after that it’s the chest for that item. Only keep an empty chest where you want new item types to end up.
5. Add golems for speed. Golems don’t open a chest that another golem is already using, so two or three can share one room.

Keep the room compact. Every chest a golem opens costs 3 seconds, so a golem in a huge hall with dozens of chests is slow. In Java you can place two copper chests side by side without merging them by sneaking while you place the second one, and copper chests there can’t be moved by pistons. Hoppers and redstone sorters still work for bulk sorting; the golem’s charm is that it needs no redstone at all.

Oxidation and statues

An unwaxed copper golem oxidizes, just like copper blocks. It goes through four stages: unoxidized, exposed, weathered and oxidized. Each step takes between 7 hours and 7 hours 40 minutes of game time, which is 21 to 23 Minecraft days. So from brand new to fully oxidized takes 21 to 23 hours of game time. The timer runs on game time, which means it keeps going even when the golem is in a chunk that isn’t loaded.

Once fully oxidized, the golem turns into a copper golem statue, on average after about 9 seconds, in a random pose. It drops whatever it was carrying. That only happens when it stands fully in air: not under water and not on a slab. A named golem keeps its name.

• Prevent it: use a honeycomb on the golem to wax it. A waxed golem stops oxidizing and never turns into a statue.
• Undo it: an axe scrapes off one stage at a time, and so does a lightning bolt. The axe removes wax first.
• Wake a statue: scrape the statue with an axe until it’s back to unoxidized copper, then scrape it once more. The golem comes back to life, unoxidized and unwaxed.
• Keep it as decoration: use a statue to change its pose: standing, sitting, running or star. In Bedrock your hand has to be empty for that.

Since Java 26.3, abandoned camps can contain an oxidized copper golem statue and oxidized copper chests, so you may find a golem to restore on your travels. More about the camps in what’s new in Minecraft 26.3.

Copper golems on a server

• A shared storage room. Put one input chest near spawn and nobody has to sort the group’s loot by hand any more.
• Wax every golem. A golem in a quiet corner of the base keeps ageing while you play elsewhere. Wax it once and you never have to think about it again.
• Any copper chest works. Golems use copper chests in every oxidation stage, waxed or not, so a green chest doesn’t stop the sorting. Wax the chests if you like the shiny look.
• Name your golems. A name tag helps friends see which golem belongs to which room, and the name stays on the statue too.
• Take items back politely. Use an empty hand on a golem that carries something and it drops the item, handy when it grabbed the wrong stack.