What can you do with copper in Minecraft?

Copper is one of the most recent introductions to Minecraft in terms of ores found in the Overworld, so it doesn't have as much utility as many of its tried-and-true counterparts. However, it still has some craftable items and decorative options to its name.

Copper is found in veins underground similar to other ores and is notably a mixed tan and green color, making it stand out easily to a player's vision.

Mining copper ore will produce raw copper, which can be smelted into copper ingots, increasing crafting options. The main uses of copper ingots include:

• Creating blocks of copper
• Crafting lightning rods
• Combining with a shard of amethyst to make a spyglass item.

This is in line with how many ores were changed in Minecraft's Caves & Cliffs update.

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Minecraft: What can be made with copper ingots?

Copper blocks in various stages of corrosion due to being oxidized by the air (Image via Mojang).

Block of Copper

Copper blocks are formed with nine copper ingots and can be placed as a building or decoration block. It should be noted that copper blocks will oxidize over time if they are exposed to the open air in Minecraft.

This can be addressed by waxing the block directly with the honeycomb item from bee hives and nests.

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Lightning Rod

To create a lightning rod, Minecraft players can open their crafting grid and place three copper ingots vertically in the middle column atop each other. The lightning rod is a block that attracts nearby lightning strikes during thunderstorms.

Though this might not seem helpful at first, harnessing lightning can be used in redstone machinery and protects flammable blocks from being lit on fire by a lightning strike. Also, multiple lightning strikes hitting a single location can also be a cool decorative addition.

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Spyglass

Spyglasses in Minecraft can be created in a very similar crafting blueprint to a lightning rod. However, players need to place an Amethyst shard instead of a copper ingot on the top of the grid. The spyglass is used as a sighting tool, limiting the player's field of vision but increasing the zoom of their sightline several times over.

It won't reveal things rendered too far away, but the spyglass will zoom in and clarify anything that the player can already see.