1.16.210.57 Beta released. Copper comes to Bedrock!

Copper and lightning rods are some of the most anticipated features of the upcoming Caves and Cliffs update for many technical players. With the latest release, 1.16.210.57 Beta for Bedrock edition, these new features have been added to the “Experimental Features” toggle.

Players have been clamoring for a new ore for years now, and Mojang delivered with something truly unique. As far as we know, it wont be easily farmable like iron and gold. So you will have good reason to actually go out and mine for it. The copper blocks can be used in building, and will change color over time as they oxidize.

Even more interesting is the lightning rod. Being able to easily attract lightning automatically could make some farms previously reliant on Channeling tridents, fully automated. This will open the doors for more advanced witch farms, as well as fully automatic mob head farms.

Java players have already started experimenting with the possibilities in the newest snapshots:

If you’re keen to test out these features ASAP, you’re in luck! Mojang just dropped the 1.16.210.57 Beta for Xbox and Windows 10 today. You will need to opt into the Beta program to do so, and wont be able to access online multiplayer until you revert. However if you can’t help yourself from designing some fun contraption with copper, you can follow this guide from Windows Central to get started.

1.16.210.57 Beta Changelog

Copper

Added copper ore to world generation
Added copper ingots, which can be obtained by smelting copper ore in a furnace
Added copper blocks
Copper blocks can be crafted from copper Ingots
Copper, cut copper, cut copper stairs, and cut copper slabs exist in the game and can be accessed from the creative items inventory
Cut copper blocks can be crafted from copper blocks
Copper blocks, slabs, and stairs can now oxidize to various degrees
Copper blocks have dedicated sounds when interacted with
Copper blocks, stairs, and slabs that are not fully oxidized can be waxed either by using a honeycomb item on them, by using the crafting grid, or by using a dispenser loaded with honeycombs
Drowned drop copper ingots instead of gold ingots

Lightning Rod

Added lightning rods!
Lightning rods can be crafted using copper ingots in a crafting table
The lightning rod now interacts with lightning strikes:
All lightning strikes that happen within a radius of 64 blocks from a lightning rod will strike the lightning rod
Throwing a channeling trident at a lightning rod during a thunderstorm will spawn a lightning strike in the rod
A lightning rod struck by lightning will emit a full redstone signal for 8 game ticks

Bug fixes

Accessibility

Keyboard inputs can now adjust slider settings when the cursor is outside the UI frame
Screen Reader now informs the player when the “Chat Settings” menu has been opened
Fixed a bug where UI screen reader did not read the permission toggles’ titles on the Permissions Screen
Screen Reader now reads Whisper and Announcement messages

Performance

Improved the smoothness of UI transition animations (MCPE-41772)
Improved performance for actors using TemptGoal

General

Fixed an issue that preventing player interaction after using the ‘/clone’ command on a double chest block (MCPE-109119)
Using the ‘/clone’ command to clone a block of the same type is no longer treated as a failed operation (MCPE-83352)
Fixed players taking fall damage when opening Shulker Boxes (MCPE-105490)
Nether Brick now gives XP from being smelted (MCPE-100030)
All mobs that use a melee attack have had their ability to hit targets above and below them restored
The target still must be within melee attack distance to be hit
This only affects world versions greater than or equal to 1.16.210
Redstone Dust is now displayed as “Redstone Dust” instead of “Redstone”

GUI

Tool and armor recipes now display the selected item background when selected in the recipe list
Wireframe of a structure block in the Overworld will no longer render in Nether and The End (MCPE-75231)
Audio sliders will now always highlight when hovered over with a mouse
Durability bar is now visible when holding items with decreased durability in a window (MCPE-105893)
Added more helpful Video Settings messages for ray tracing on supported and non-supported platforms

Structure Block

Structure blocks no longer auto-save the data when structure name text box is deselected (MCPE-101055)
The scoreboard data of an entity is no longer removed if the entity is being teleported to an unloaded area of the world
Teleporting away from a structure animation to unload it no longer causes the game to crash

Commands, Scripting, & Add-ons

A warning now appears when attempting to move a locked item in and from containers