I remember it well. Four years ago my friends and I were gearing up for the annual Live broadcast, excited to see what the big update theme would be this year, but primarily concerned with one thing: The Minecraft mob vote.
This funky little dude would be the best base helper a Minecraft player could ask for. Being something of a redstone wizz, it would press buttons when and where it was needed meaning you could place it on a production line and it would help keep work chugging on, it was just an all-around good guy.
But despite our best efforts (four votes) the copper golem didn't make it out of that year's mob vote, losing to the fairy-like allay who would pick items up for players and ferry them back to their bases: very helpful, but not the little guy I was hoping for.
Fast forward four years and as a Minecraft spokesperson explained: "We understand players’ frustrations with having to choose among multiple fun options. After last year we began thinking about new ways to set the game up for success while giving the community more of what they want. We ultimately reached the decision to go in a new direction." But that doesn't mean we have to wave goodbye to past contenders.
Welcome back to the copper golem. As part of Minecraft's third update drop of the year Mojang is bringing back a revamped version of the littlest guy. Instead of pushing buttons the copper golem will act as a base organiser.
The copper golem will sort every item that you place in a special copper chest into designated chests around your base. It'll put books, tools, weapons, food, and more all together in one place to make finding what you need easier. Kind of like a miniature automated sorting system.
But these guys can't be found wandering around in the wild or down in dark caves: you have to make them. "To make a copper golem, all you have to do is place a carved pumpkin on a copper block," a "Once that’s done, the golem will spawn, together with a copper chest."
The worst part of the mob vote was always watching creative mob designs get buried in the , resigned to only live on in players' memories. The most famous resident here is probably, a cousin of the cow and closer relative of the Mooshroom. It's adorable and exactly what I've always wanted for my flower farm. So if Minecraft can bring the copper golem back, it can bring the Moobloom back, please I beg you Mojang.
But the next update doesn't just stop there. In honour of the copper golem's arrival, copper is also officially becoming an equipment tier, meaning you can make tools, weapons, and armour out of it.
"Its durability sits somewhere between stone and iron, which reflects onto the equipment [[link]] you craft from it, be it a weapon, tool, or piece of armour," the blog post says. "For example, a copper pickaxe will help you mine a bit faster and for a bit [[link]] longer than a stone pickaxe but won’t allow you to mine any additional materials—you'll still need to upgrade to iron for that."
Copper is abundant in Minecraft so it'll be a useful early-game resource for players who don't want to search creepy dark caves or just want to get the essentials under their belt quickly.
You can test all of these new features right now by enabling previews/beta for the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition. All of this is still under development so we can probably expect a few tweaks before the copper golem is released to the rest of [[link]] us, but I certainly can't wait to welcome it into my base. You've been a long time coming, little buddy.