Caves & Cliffs' Obligatory Ore(s)

Caves & Cliffs is getting nearer to becoming part of Minecraft's history, however, some of it already IS history. Comfortably in the rearview mirror is 1.18's younger brother, 1.17. With almost 5 months of hindsight for this particular release now, I feel enough time has passed that I can talk about how some of its features have oxidised. Let's talk about a certain feature of Caves & Cliffs that has sparked much discussion, and dare I say, controversy - Copper.

A Requested Feature... HEAVILY!

Copper. It's such an obvious thing to add to a game called MINEcraft. Why didn't Minecraft have copper from the very start? Why did a game where mining is half its title, for almost 10 years, only have two mineable metals?? On paper, it seems like a really obvious choice for a new feature to add to the game is a third metal ingot, and due to its distinct colour and widespread uses in real life, the standout no-brainer choice is Copper.

On Minecraft's suggestions subreddit, Twitter, Feedback website... and heck... the legacy Minecraft Forum (good times, good times...) there were almost as many threads suggesting Copper in some form as the number of words my Italian friend has said in Italian. (DING!!!!!!!!!!!) 

If you typed "Minecraft Copper" into google search, you saw 15 million and three different mods that added Copper. Almost all the biggest mods of Minecraft featured Copper. In fact, there were SO many mods that added their own version of Copper, modpack creators had to be VERY careful not to end up with 25 different copper ores and copper ingots in their pack! In fact, some people suggested Copper in Vanilla just to have a unified copper for all the modders!

So yes, absolutely every single living being in the world, including babies who had just been born 5 minutes ago, and people slipping away into the eternal void of death, wanted Copper in Minecraft.

And finally, after more than TEN years, Mojang are FINALLY doing a cave update. An update FINALLY addressing the underground! There's not been a new ore in the Overworld for over EIGHT years, we're overoveroveroveroveroveroverdue a new ore to the Overworld. Surely, SURELY, they have to add a new ore, it's now or never!

Uh yeah here's um copper

I think we can all agree a lot of fans probably would've gotten their knickers in a bit of a twist if we'd had the long-awaited and much-memed cave update and there WASN'T a new ore. There basically HAD to be a new ore. And as established above, no choice is more obvious than Copper. It's like Caves & Cliffs basically HAD to add Copper.

When Copper was revealed to us at MineCon 2020, I actually fangirled so hard. I was absolutely overjoyed and I jumped up and down with joy. And given I was in the middle of the absolute WORST month of my entire life at the time of MC 2020 (And I mean, the WORST, I had just suffered a really major and unexpected loss just 2 weeks prior), clearly I was extremely excited to FINALLY see Copper in Minecraft. And I believe this was a lot of people's reactions. It was basically what everyone had wanted to see for so long. Copper FINALLY coming to Minecraft. After a decade, Minecraft was FINALLY getting a third metal (fourth if you count Netherite).

They didn't really show much of what it would do in MineCon 2020 other than its building blocks and two other uses: lightning rods and spyglasses. Would we be able to make pipes out of it to transport water? Would we be able to make wires to allow us to make more compact redstone circuits, or even vertical redstone? Would it be used to make various redstone components? Could we make tools and armour out of it? Would we be able to electrify it somehow?? Although the main selling point of Copper in the event was its unique ability to oxidise, we imagined there would be quite a few different uses for Copper, particularly for electrical components.

In snapshot 20w45a, the first ever snapshot for Caves & Cliffs, Copper came to the game, with all its uses already there. The snapshot also added lightning rods, spyglasses, and all of the building blocks of Copper. Complete with their unique oxidising mechanic.

And then... that was it.

Was Copper Overhyped?

Short answer: No. What we saw at MineCon is what we got. But that didn't stop lots of people feeling it was. A lot of people felt a little disappointed that its use was essentially just as a building block, plus one or two other things. Technically, Mojang didn't lie to us or say anything that didn't come into fruition, but a lot of people hyped up the idea of Copper in their heads SO much over the years. Particularly as just about every mod ever added Copper in some form, and had a vast array of uses for it beyond use of a building block.

Several people on the Discord pointed out how they felt the ore was presented as this big new thing, but in actual fact it was merely "the obligatory ore of Caves & Cliffs". I can see why they felt this, but really, it wasn't presented as anything any more special than the other C&C features, they probably blew it up in their own head. As did I, to be honest. And I think this is because Copper was just such a damned ANTICIPATED feature in Minecraft.

As the snapshots for 1.17 played out, the overall tone towards Copper darkened increasingly, as many people started calling it "useless", as it is only a building block, and they thought or hoped it would be so much more. Many people have also said they don't even bother mining Copper anymore, as there are no good sinks (unless you're planning on building the statue of liberty), so it just becomes unnecessary clutter. It can't even be used to construct beacon pyramids!

Of course, we did have the chance to vote a Copper Golem into the game recently (oof, is it too soon to bring this up?) but still, as all it did was PUSH BUTTONS, this likely would not have been a good enough sink for copper. Really, how many Copper Golems would you have built once the novelty of them wore off? 

And It's Not Just Copper...

Copper wasn't the only new mineral added to Minecraft's undergrounds in 1.17. Although not technically an ore, there WAS another raw material added: Amethyst Shards. They fare even worse. They can't even say they're meant to be used as a building block! Amethyst Shards have TWO uses. TWO! The first is the Spyglass, which is awesome but consumes only one shard. The other is Tinted Glass. Also cool, especially for monster farms, but WAY too expensive for what it is to be really practical. And since there are no Amethyst stairs or slabs etc., this mineral can't even claim the title of building block! Come on, there are SO many things Amethyst can be used for in magic or healing or even combat!

Is There Hope For Copper (and Amethyst?)

Minecraft developers HAVE addressed these comments about Copper's uselessness in two ways: a) Building blocks do count as a use and are a perfectly valid use for a block, and b) It will likely get more uses in future updates. Point b) also applies to Amethyst, presumably. So okay, these two minerals WILL get expanded upon later. But how later is later? The Wild Update appears to have no sign of more uses or any decent sink for these two minerals. So I think really what we're looking at is some genuinely good uses for these two minerals... eventually.

We know almost for fact there could be another use for Copper in the form of the Archaeology Brush. The handle of this looks to be made of Copper, especially as it even appeared to oxidise in the first (any only ever) trailer for the system. Different brushes had different handle colours, tending towards the verdigris green colour.

But for now, and probably for quite a while, Copper and Amethyst will stay mostly as they are. Copper as a building block, and Amethyst as a twinkly crystal you'll find from time-to-time in your world. It is a bit of a shame these two new awesome minerals didn't have the best introduction and have already gained a reputation for being useless and skippable. Hopefully that will change someday, even if it's many moons down the line. I just don't think they could've fitted any more in to the already bloated C&C update.

There may be a follow-up rant where I give some of my own suggestions for some uses for Copper and Amethyst.