How to find and use copper in Minecraft 1.20

Copper arrived in Minecraft's 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update and has seen its utility as a resource increase in recent months. This is especially true in the 1.20 Trails & Tales update, as copper has become a core crafting ingredient in creating brushes for archeology-based gameplay. However, it retains many other uses as well that are worth noting.

For Minecraft fans who haven't dabbled with copper before or those who are coming back to the sandbox game after a break, there's certainly a lot to learn about copper. It may be one of the game's more recent resource additions, but it is worth collecting and using all the same.

Since copper received new applications in Minecraft 1.20, it doesn't hurt to examine how to acquire it and use it in the current version of the game.

Ways to get copper as of Minecraft 1.20 Trails & Tales

Typically, those aiming to collect copper can do so in two direct ways: Either by mining copper ore to get raw copper or by collecting copper ingots and bypassing the need to smelt raw copper in the first place. Both methods are perfectly viable, so you will want to know how to do them.

How to mine raw copper in version 1.20:

Grab a pickaxe (or multiple pickaxes) of stone quality or higher, and travel to the height levels Y=47-48, where copper ore is in its highest concentration. Beach biomes and dripstone caves can also be helpful locations for copper mining if you have access to them.
Begin mining by creating 1x2 corridor branches, which provide the largest viewing gallery to spot copper ore blocks. Once you find them, simply break them with your pickaxe and collect the raw copper that drops. This copper can then be placed into a furnace block and converted into copper ingots.
For a little extra assistance, try enchanting your pickaxe(s) with enchantments like Efficiency and Fortune to clear excess blocks faster and collect more raw copper per broken ore block. Bringing along some TNT can be helpful as well, but you'll need to be careful when using it to avoid being harmed by the explosions.

How to collect copper ingots in version 1.20:

With weapon and armor in hand, head into biomes with plentiful water. This is where enemy drowned can spawn, and these mobs can drop copper ingots directly in Minecraft.
Keep your distance to avoid taking damage and take out as many drowned as you can. Each of these hostile mobs has an 11% chance of dropping a copper ingot. If you place the Looting enchantment on your weapon, you can increase your total drop chance up to 17% per defeated drowned.

What can copper ingots be used for in Minecraft 1.20?

Once you have your copper ingots stashed in your inventory or elsewhere, there are a ton of different crafting recipes that use them. Most of these are accessed via the crafting table, but there are additional applications as of the Trails & Tales update that you may want to consider.

Uses for copper ingots in Minecraft 1.20:

At the Crafting Table - Copper ingots can be used in a crafting table to create blocks of copper, archeology brushes, lightning rods, and spyglasses. You can also take an existing block of copper in a crafting table and break it back down into nine copper ingots.
At the Smithing Table - Copper ingots are one of the various resources that can be used in Minecraft 1.20 to color an armor trim pattern placed on a piece of armor. By combining a smithing template, a piece of armor, and a copper ingot, you can add an orange/brown coloration to the pattern applied to your protective gear.

As the game continues to evolve, Mojang may introduce even more uses for copper. There are also a large collection of Minecraft mods that can utilize copper ingots in various ways, so they may be worth checking out as well.