Improved Copper Equipment

Making copper the true middleground between stone and iron!

Improved Copper Equipment is a data pack that uses identifier and block tag modifications to rebalance most copper equipment with slightly improved stats over their default ones, placing them perfectly between their stone and iron counterparts. Whether you just want an easier early game or simply aren't in a hurry to upgrade to iron, any new copper equipment you make will be stronger than before!

Tool changes: - Copper Sword Attack Damage: 5 -> 5.5 - Copper Pickaxe Attack Damage: 3 -> 3.5 - Copper Shovel Attack Damage: 3.5 -> 4 - Copper Spear Attack Damage: 2 -> 2.5 - Copper Spear Damage Multiplier: 0.82x -> 0.885x - Copper Axe Attack Speed: 0.8 -> 0.85 - Copper Hoe Attack Speed: 2 -> 2.5

Copper Pickaxe is also now capable of mining the following blocks: - Gold Ore (including Deepslate variant) - Block of Gold - Block of Raw Gold - Redstone Ore (including Deepslate variant)

Have an easier time fighting mobs and gathering resources!

Armour changes: - Copper Leggings Armour Points: 3 -> 4 - Copper Boots Armour Points: 1 -> 2

Total protection of full copper armour set: 10 -> 12

A full set gives the same protection as chainmail. Mix in some gold armour for even more!

Important Notices!

Stat changes only apply to new copper equipment that gets crafted after loading this data pack. They don't retroactively apply to existing equipment or anything obtained from the creative menu or with the /give command. This is because the data pack only overrides crafting recipes to result in the same items but with their modified identifiers. The copper pickaxe mining enhancement does apply retroactively.

Update as of 21st Jan 2026: Due to the way the crafting system works, the modified equipment stats are ignored and reset to default when repairing by combining in the crafting menu. There's currently no easy workaround for this. Repairing via anvil or grindstone does however retain the stats even when combining with unmodified equipment. This at least gives you a way to recycle existing equipment if you have any and (especially in the early game) obtaining a grindstone is quite easy, but you still need to have the modified equipment to combine them with.

Credits

Improved Copper Equipment was created by BenSkylake (me) but the block tag changes used to expand the mining capabilities of the copper pickaxe were created by Kitteh6660 on Reddit who graciously gave me permission to include them in it. They must be credited alongside me in any derivative works!

Special thanks to Misode for their data pack generator and to the Minecraft Wiki for their excellent documentation, both of which made creating this data pack a lot easier!

I've done extensive testing to ensure all modified equipment behave as normal but if you do notice any issues, send me a message on Reddit and I'll try to get it sorted out (your account must be older than 30 days).