Minecraft 1.21.9 pre-release 1 patch notes: Copper golem improvements, mannequin changes, and more

After nearly three months of snapshots, Minecraft's massive copper expansion game drop is almost ready for release. Mojang has now released the first pre-release for the 1.21.9 update, titled The Copper Age. Version 1.21.9 is now out of the regular snapshot phase and has entered the pre-release stage, where developers will fix the final few issues and occasionally make small tweaks before announcing the release candidate and, finally, the official release version.

Minecraft 1.21.9 pre-release brings the final few improvements to copper golems, such as fixing their pathfinding and other issues related to collecting items from chests. Apart from copper golems, new NPCs called mannequins have also received some changes, including configurable descriptions, different poses, and more.

Read the complete patch notes to find out about Minecraft 1.21.9 pre-release 1.

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Minecraft 1.21.9 pre-release 1 patch notes

Changes

Minor Tweaks to Blocks, Items and Entities

• Copper Golem now only tries to open Chests that are neighboring blocks when it's a passenger

Minecraft Server Management Protocol

• Notifications now use minecraft:notification/ prefix instead of notification:

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Technical changes in Minecraft 1.21.9 pre-release 1

• The Data Pack version is now 87.1

Data Pack Version 87.1

Mannequins

• Mannequins description text can now be configured
• Mannequins now accept minecraft:profile component from spawner items

Modified Data Fields

• profile - now has the same format as a minecraft:profile component (which has been extended to allow overrides), defaults to {} (i.e. static profile with both id and name missing)

New Data Fields

• pose - The pose of the Mannequin
• Valid entries: standing, crouching, swimming, fall_flying, sleeping
• immovable - Optional boolean specifying that the Mannequin cannot be moved (defaults to false)
• description - Optional Text Component shown where a Player's below_score score would show
• The default "NPC" (entity.minecraft.mannequin.label) text is shown if omitted
• hide_description - Optional boolean specifying that no description should be shown at all
• A Mannequin with the description hidden displays as if a Player had no below_score display

Commands

• The spawnpoint command now optionally takes in a pitch argument
• The setworldspawn command is no longer limited to the overworld
• This means players can respawn e.g. in the Nether when they have no bed or respawn anchor
• It now also takes in an optional pitch argument
• Server commands now run from the respawn dimension by default instead of always the overworld
• The fetchprofile command now also prints a clickable text to summon a Mannequin with the resolved profile

Data Components

Modified minecraft:profile

• Profiles can now also have additional fields that can replace various values used for rendering
• If any of the fields are omitted, the value from the resolved profile is used, even if the profile resolved to the default skin
• New fields
• texture - Optional namespaced ID of the skin texture to use for rendering
• The skin is specified relative to the textures folder and with a .png suffix
• e.g. entity/player/wide/steve will use the default wide Steve skin
• cape - Optional namespaced ID of the cape texture to use for rendering
• When specified, uses the same format as the texture field
• elytra - Optional namespaced ID of the elytra texture to use for rendering
• When specified, uses the same format as the texture field
• If this value is not present either as override or in player profile, Mannequins using this profile will use the cape texture, or if that is also not present, the default Elytra texture when wearing Elytra
• model - Optional model type, one of wide and slim

Entity Data

Modified minecraft:player

• Changes to the respawn object
• angle has been renamed to yaw and is now a required field
• pitch has been added as a required field
• dimension is now a required field

Loot Functions

minecraft:copy_name

• The source field now accepts new context values:
• direct_attacker
• target_entity
• interacting_entity

minecraft:copy_components

• The source field now accepts new context values:
• this
• attacker
• direct_attacker
• attacking_player
• target_entity
• interacting_entity
• tool

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Fixed bugs in 1.21.9 Minecraft pre-release 1

• MC-160528 - End portals do not negate fall damage
• MC-243759 - Explosions won't damage an entity if the distance to its eyes is 0
• MC-300257 - Lightning does not reset copper golem oxidation
• MC-300294 - Copper golems pathfind to chests incorrectly
• MC-300687 - The copper chains and bars aren't organized correctly in the Creative inventory
• MC-300881 - The skin preview in the skin reporting screen is no longer interactive
• MC-301409 - Acceleration power of fireballs and wind charges gets halved when they are redirected by explosions
• MC-301414 - Scraping oxidation off double chests doesn't produce particles on the half of the chest that wasn’t directly interacted with
• MC-301424 - entity_data item component detection is broken in resource packs
• MC-301541 - Copper golems no longer sort items when in minecarts
• MC-301569 - Sounds of copper chests and all variants are too quiet and sound low-quality compared to before
• MC-301573 - Relative teleportation across dimensions is inconsistent
• MC-301798 - Copper golems do not open chests with specific transparent/non-full blocks above them
• MC-301814 - CustomNameVisible does not work for mannequins (for the name, not the NPC annotation)
• MC-301815 - Mannequin data is sometimes lost when using spawn eggs
• MC-301819 - Mannequins' name tags are visible when on a team and ridden
• MC-301862 - When clicking a command suggestion in chat, it occasionally selects half of the new word
• MC-301883 - Entities going through portals with their Motion set to more than 10 on an axis have their Motion tag reset
• MC-301893 - When a copper golem is leashed by a player and then oxidizes into a statue, it will not drop the lead
• MC-301951 - Misleading description for operator_user_permission_level in server management protocol documentation
• MC-301979 - Copper golems no longer properly check chests
• MC-301984 - Teleporting a player to their own position is now jittery/frozen
• MC-301991 - deprecated.json has some renamed keys pointing to text values instead of the new keys
• MC-302032 - Static profiles no longer resolve texture data unless an id or name is provided
• MC-302089 - Game crashes when flying mobs start pathfinding in debug mode
• MC-302092 - Crash when placing iron bars next to stairs, when stairs are added to #bars tag
• MC-302094 - Crash when adding blocks to #copper_chests then placing it next to actual copper chests
• MC-302095 - Crash when adding blocks to #lightning_rods and summoning a lightning over it
• MC-302096 - Crash when adding blocks to #wooden_shelves, placing it next to wooden shelf, then powering the shelf

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As expected, the first pre-release for Minecraft The Copper Age isn't a big one. This is because pre-releases are only for the final minor changes, tweaks, and bug fixes, mostly related to the new features coming in the third game drop of 2025.