When it comes to game updates, Minecraft Java Edition usually receives features first in the form of snapshots. However, for the major features of 2025's third game drop, Bedrock players got to experience them earlier. That changes now, as Minecraft snapshot 25w31a brings the copper golem, copper chest, and more to Java Edition.The third game drop for Minecraft in 2025 is a long-overdue copper update, featuring new uses for copper ingots in the form of the copper golem, copper chests, and copper equipment. Along with the copper update, Mojang is also adding new features like shelves, oxidizable lightning rods, and more to come later.Let's go through the patch notes for the latest Minecraft snapshot 25w31a to find out what's new.Minecraft snapshot 25w31a patch notes: Everything you need to knowNew FeaturesAdded Copper ChestAdded Copper GolemAdded Copper Golem Statue BlockAdded Copper EquipmentAdded ShelfCopper ChestCopper Chests is a new type of chest that has waxed and oxidized variants.Copper Chests oxidizes over time and can be waxed like other Copper blocksCopper Chests can be crafted using a Chest and Copper IngotsCopper GolemCopper Golem is a new mob which can be spawned by placing a Jack o'Lantern or Carved Pumpkin on top of a Copper block.Copper Golem oxidize over time and can be waxed like Copper blocksIf the Copper Golem has fully oxidized and is not waxed it will turn into a Copper Golem Statue BlockWhen turned into a Copper Golem Statue the Copper Golem will drop any item it may be holdingA Copper Golem turned into a Copper Golem Statue will keep its name if named with a Name TagCopper Golem can help with sorting items into ChestsInteracting with the Copper Golem with an empty hand will make it drop its carried itemCopper Golem Item SortingIf the Copper Golem is not holding an item, it will look for nearby Copper Chests to try to pick up an itemThe Copper Golem will look in any oxidized and waxed Copper Chest variant to pick up itemsIt can pick up at most 16 items in a stack at a timeAny item in a Copper Chest can be picked upIf the Copper Golem is holding an item, it will look for nearby Chests to try to place the item inThe Copper Golem will look in Chests and Trapped Chests to try to place itemsIt can place an item in a Chest if it's empty, or if it contains the same type of item that it is holding in its handThe Copper Golem will visit at most 10 Chests or Copper Chests in sequence to try to pick up or place an itemIf no matching chest is found the Copper Golem will idle for 7 seconds before trying againThe search area for chests from the Copper Golem's position is horizontally 32 blocks and vertically 8 blocksCopper Golem Statue BlockThe Copper Golem Statue Block is a new type of decorative block which has waxed and oxidized variants.The Copper Golem Statue Block oxidizes over time and can be waxed like Copper blocksThe pose of the block can be changed by interacting with itIf the Copper Golem Statue Block has no oxidation when interacted with using an Axe the block will turn into a Copper GolemEach pose emits a Redstone comparator signalLightning RodLightning Rods now oxidize like other Copper Blocks and the Lightning Rod on the Copper GolemCopper EquipmentAdded Copper NuggetAdded Copper armorAdded Copper Helmet, Copper Chestplate, Copper Leggings and Copper BootsCopper armor has higher durability than leather and goldCopper armor has slightly less enchantability than ironAdded Copper tools and weaponsAdded Copper Axe, Copper Hoe, Copper Pickaxe, Copper Shovel and Copper SwordCopper tools and weapons do the same amount of damage as stone, but have higher durabilityCopper tools work faster and last longer than stoneCopper tools have higher enchantability than diamond, but slightly less than ironCopper equipment can be crafted using Copper IngotsCopper equipment can be repaired with Copper IngotsCopper equipment turns into a Copper Nugget when smeltedAdded Copper Horse ArmorHas the same loot table and chance of generating as Iron Horse ArmorArmor toughness: 4ShelfThe Shelf is a new type of decorative block which comes in the following variants:OakSpruceBirchJungleAcaciaDark OakMangroveCherryPale OakBambooCrimsonWarpedThe Shelf can be crafted from six matching blocks of any Stripped Log, Stripped Stem or Block of Stripped Bamboo, filling the top and bottom rowThis recipe produces 6 ShelvesThe Shelf can store up to 3 item stacks:Interacting with any of the 3 slots on its front swaps the player's main hand item with the content of that slotThe Shelf displays all items it contains in front of it, similar to an Item FrameWhile a Shelf is powered by Redstone, its front texture changes to reflect that it's powered; when placed next to each other, up to 3 powered Shelves will connectInteracting with a single powered Shelf swaps all its contents with the 3 rightmost items in the player's hotbarInteracting with two connected Shelves swaps their contents with the 6 rightmost items in the player's hotbarInteracting with three connected Shelves swaps their contents with all items in the player's hotbarIt does not matter which of the connected Shelves the player interacts withAccessibilityThe "Attack/Destroy" and "Use Item/Place Block" keybinds are now toggleable, meaning they can be set to either "Hold" or "Toggle" in the Controls screenAdded "Invert Mouse X" option to the Mouse Settings screen, which inverts the mouse x-axisAdded "Sprint Window" option to the Controls screen, which represents the time window in ticks where double-tapping the forward key activates sprintChangesMonster Spawn Eggs now have a tooltip warning when the difficulty is set to PeacefulThe mob no longer spawns for one tick when an attempt is made to use the Spawn EggThe debug screen was reworked to be less cluttered and more configurableChanges to world loading and the "Spawn Chunks"A dimension that has any player activity, forceloaded chunks, active portals, or Ender Pearls in flight will be considered "active" and will keep processing chunks and entitiesPreviously, this would only apply if a player was in the dimension or a chunk was forceloadedWorld Loading and Spawn ChunksThe concept of fixed "Spawn Chunks" has been removedThe game will ensure that the following chunks are fully loaded before the player joins or the server starts, in the same way as spawn chunks formerly were:Chunks loaded by the forceload commandChunks active due to portal activityEnder Pearls thrown in Singleplayer (Singleplayer only)The small area of chunks around the player (Singleplayer only)Chunks required to assign the global world spawn (World creation only)The world loading screen now shows the chunks that the player is about to be placed into, rather than chunks loaded around world spawnThe loading screen additionally now includes a progress barThis progress bar accounts for all kinds of chunk loading as mentioned aboveDeveloper’s Note: Spawn chunks incur a memory and performance cost for all players and have outlived their initial technical purpose of keeping the spawn area ready for players to quickly join into.However, we also want to recognise that spawn chunks have enabled a multitude of clever contraptions and farms throughout the years, so simply removing them without having other mechanics in the game enable these designs was never an option.We believe that the niche held by spawn chunks has now been filled by alternative methods of chunk loading, such as using portals or ender pearls, particularly with the changes in this snapshot to how the game loads these chunks before the world starts ticking.SoundsHappy ghast is now audible from 64 blocksSounds for chests now plays at a lower volumeThe volume at which a sound is played at now respects the sound source volume valueThe "Voice/Speech" sound source has been rephrased to "Narrator/Voice"UIDebug ScreenThe debug screen is accessible by pressing F3, as beforeIt can now be accessed from everywhere in the game, not only when in a game worldIt now displays less information by defaultAdded a new Debug Options screen which can be opened by pressing F3 + F5It can be used to configure which debug information should be displayedFor each item you can choose if it should be turned off, visible when the debug screen (F3) is open, or it should always be visible, even when the debug screen is closedSome debug features that were previously available, like chunk border rendering or entity hitbox rendering, can now be toggled through this debug options screenSome debug features that were not previously available to the community, like Octree visualization, are now accessible through the debug options screenThe state of the debug options screen is saved between the launches of the gameThe debug options screen has the following preset profiles:Default resets everything to the default statePerformance shows simple performance metrics, including the FPS meter always visible on screenDeveloper's Note:Previously the information gathering every frame to render the F3 screen had a significant performance cost. So opening the screen to check you FPS noticably dropped the FPS. Now checking your FPS in Performance profile should not affect game performance.AccessibilityA button leading to the Controls screen has been added to the Accessibility Settings screenThe "Auto-Jump" option, as well as the "Sneak" and "Sprint" toggles have been removed from the Accessibility Settings screenThe "Show Subtitles" option has been rephrased to "Closed Captions" to more accurately describe what it doesDye Colors now have updated iconsThe goal with these is to enhance visual cohesion across the dye set while maintaining distinct shapes to support colorblind accessibilityPerformance ImprovementsEntity rendering order was improved for significantly better performanceYou’ll notice much smoother gameplay in areas with lots of mobs, like mob farmsFPS won’t improve much if most of your lag comes from things other than entities, like playing with high render distance while not being near many mobsDeveloper's Note:This change is quite big, and we would not be surprised if we introduced some ordering issues with this. For example, some part of some mob rendering too early or too late and is not visible or is visually broken. Please play around with this and report the bugs you encounter!Aside from these, there are also some technical changes in Minecraft snapshot 25w31a. Interested players can read the official patch notes to learn more about the technical side of the new snapshot.