How to oxidize copper faster in Minecraft

Copper in Minecraft has a special ability to undergo oxidation and change its color overtime. When this was first introduced back in 2020 during Mojang's live event, Minecraft players from all over the world were extremely delighted to see copper being added to the game with this feature. Since the 1.17 version, the material has been added, and players have used and oxidized it in several ways.

Oxidizing is essentially a process in which copper reacts with oxygen in the air and corrodes gradually. Over time, the material changes its state, finally turning completely green in color. Similar to real life, blocks of this material can take a long time to oxidize and change. However, there is a simple trick to speed up this process.

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How to quickly oxidize copper in Minecraft?

How the oxidizing process works in the game

To speed up the oxidizing process of any copper block, players must understand the mechanism of the process in the game. Essentially, an unwaxed copper block oxidizes to the next stage at a random tick (approximately every 20 minutes).

A separate block compared to a stack of blocks (Image via Minecraft)

However, before going into the next stage, it first checks its surroundings for any other unwaxed block that is lesser in age. If the oxidizing block finds another copper block in a 4-block radius that is less oxidized, the first block that was about to oxidize will stop the process and wait.

The separate block oxidizes quicker than stacked blocks (Image via Minecraft)

For example, if an exposed copper block (2nd stage of oxidization) finds a normal block of copper (1st stage of oxidization) within its 4-block radius, this exposed block will not turn into a weathered block (3rd stage of oxidization).

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How to make a grid of blocks to speed up oxidization

This concludes that if these blocks do not find any other copper block in a 4-block radius, they will not detect anything and oxidize quickly (approximately every 20 minutes).

Separately placed blocks will oxidize quicker (Image via Minecraft)

Hence, in order to speed up the oxidization process, players must first place their desired type of copper blocks in such a way that there is 4 blocks of space between each of them. They must create a grid-like structure where each block is 4 blocks away from the other. After this is done, players can go AFK and wait for all the blocks to quickly oxidize.

Once the desired types of blocks are oxidized to their desired stage, players can simply mine them and wax them with the help of honeycomb. This is a much more efficient way to get the desired color and texture of the block without having to wait too long. Before using these blocks in builds, players can first oxidize them with this trick, and then use them to build the structure.