So it happened – you have just decided to start your unusual journey in the world of Minecraft. This guide covers the basics of this game so you don’t have to waste your time trying to figure it out yourself.
Before we start
The guide is written for the Survival game mode. There is also a Creative mode, which allows you only to build, but with unlimited resources, and a Hardcore mode, which is like the Survival mode but with permanent death.
Creating the world
From the main menu of the game, after the single-player mode is selected, click on the button “Create New World” – which will generate a whole new world in which you reside.
Worth mentioning is the “More World Options” button – on there you can decide whether you want the world to generate the additional structures like the NPC villages, dungeons, and so on. You can also set their so-called “Seed” – verbal or numeric value on which the game will be based on during the creation of the universe. This is really useful when for any reason you will decide to generate the same universe again.
Welcome to Minecraft
Depending on what kind of world was generated, you’re now probably on the plains or the mountains (preferred option). Your first steps should be directed toward trees that are in sight. If you don’t see any just go further as you need to find them. If trees are low, you should be able to easily jump on their leaves and get to the top. With higher trees, you will need additional assistance in the form of the first block, in this case, the dirt. You will get it by holding down the left mouse button and looking at the ground.
After collecting several blocks (10 should be enough), use it as an elevator by standing in an open space near a tree, looking downward, jumping using the space bar, and right-clicking the mouse button in order to set a new dirt block under yourself.
Standing on top of the tree, look for its trunk, and starting from the top break through to it. Once reached, dig down trying not to waste a single block of wood. Congratulations! You just got your first material which will be used to create advanced things.
Seeking for a shelter
You should know that although during the day Minecraft world, seems a friendly place, during the night all monsters come out, starting from spiders, zombies, and skeletons armed with bow and arrows ending on the infamous and mysterious Endermans And Creepers. All of them want one thing – to end your life. That’s why you need to build a shelter. It will be your starting point and place of residence, so you should now ensure to build it in the right place.
The most popular choices are the peaks of hills. At this time, the only materials from which you can build are dirt or wood. The first one is most suitable for a beginner, in the later stages you will learn how to make more valuable materials. Your shelter should be cuboid with a minimum size: 5 blocks of length 5 blocks wide by three blocks up from the ceiling. The entrance to it should have a height of two blocks.
Crafting
After building your shelter now is the time for some “crafting”. Choose your equipment (“E” button), then move harvested wood to one of the crafting slots. As a result of a single wood block, you will receive 4 blocks of wooden planks.
Gather as many wooden planks as possible by placing all your wooden blocks inside the crafting area and left clicking on the results box. Now we will be creating something much more useful: a crafting table, with the help of which you can craft more advanced items.
Move it to your toolbar and then place it somewhere inside your shelter. By clicking the right mouse button, you will gain access to the crafting screen with 9 slots.
Your first complex structure should be wooden doors. Arrange the blocks in the structure of boards 2 slots wide and 3 height. Doors made this way are used for your shelter. Congratulations – from now on you have a safe place to survive the night.
Tools
Now you should prepare a few tools – the most important are pickaxes and hoe. First, one will be used for breaking through the rock and ore mining, while the second one will help you to sow the seeds of which you will prepare the bread. To create a pickaxe you need to craft some sticks – two blocks of boards should be placed upright to get 4 sticks. To not waste too many boards, get 12 sticks. Then on the crafting table place two slots of sticks – in the middle and lower middle block, then place boards on all of the top slots. This would give you a wooden pickaxe. Create at least two pickaxes. By removing the upper right block of boards, you will get a wooden hoe – also prepare two of them.
Bread
To sow grain, you need to find some seeds – which you can get by destroying the tall grasses using the left mouse button. Collect about 12 of them and prepare the somewhere flat surface using your hoe. Now select the seeds, sow them in peat and you’re done! Of course, you need to wait a couple of nights for it to grow. When it will be high and fully yellow, destroy them, so you can harvest the crop. Now to get your bread just go to the crafting table, place three units horizontally and you will get a bread. You can eat it by placing it on the toolbar and right-clicking. That will restore 2.5 units.
The rocks, coal and ore
Now you need a slightly harder material to create tools and other structures – it is stone. Stone can be extracted, using pickaxes. If you were lucky enough to be on hilly areas, you have probably seen it already in the form of vertical cliffs.
Quarrying of the stone itself is not complicated, but there are some things you should pay attention to. First: Do not go too far without light as you can find some monsters, just like at night, and secondly, look for advanced materials like ore. On the surface, and slightly below the ground should be some coal – mining it at this stage of the game is very important. With more luck, you will find the iron ore, but you can not get it without using tools made of stone. After getting the appropriate amount of stone you may want to rebuild your shelter – go ahead, but remember that creating tools should always have a bigger priority.
Torches
After playing for some time you have probably noticed that light is a very important resource in Minecraft. There are monsters in the darkness, and without light, it is difficult to explore underground caves. If you have collected enough coal using sticks you can create always-burning torches.
Additional tools
Above I have mentioned the absolute minimum necessary to begin your jurney in Minecraft. At this stage, It is still is possible to prepare a variety of other interesting things, including axes, shovels, swords, boxes or even oven. The last one deserves special attention, because with its help you can get much more complex materials such as iron bars, glass and brick. To build the oven, you need to set eight stone blocks around the center in crafting area, with an empty slot in the middle.
The oven is powered by burning resources – at this stage of the game you have to choose from: sticks (the worst, not worth wasting), boards (useful, but only for lack of better material) or coal (very good, economical choice). In later stages of the game, there will be two other, better resources – a fiery wand, and a bucket of lava. In the oven, you can smelt iron ore to iron bars, that are used to create even better tools and advanced structures.
At the end
And that’s basically all you need to know to start in the world of Minecraft. I recommend experimenting with different things because the only limitation in this game is your imagination.