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Created for players who do not know how to begin their Minecraft Minecraft Author(s) Mojang AB (Credits) Markus "Notch" Persson (Creator) Jens "Jeb" Bergensten (Lead Developer) Jon "jonkagstrom" Kågström (AI Programmer) Nathan "Dinnerbone" Adams Erik "Grum" Broes Michael "Searge" Stoyke Thomas "ProfMobius" Guimbretière Agnes "LadyAgnes" Larsson Maria journey, the Beginner`s Guide is a tutorial created to provide a list full of good ways to start! Here, players will learn how to survive their first night in two different formats: in an overview with goals or in a step-by-step instruction. The player can choose which one they want, but both will accomplish the same goal.
If the player has not done so already, they should take a look at the Controls Minecraft uses the standard control scheme of mouse and keyboard controls as input. The game cannot be played using only a mouse or only a keyboard using the default control scheme. The controls menu is page to learn how to move their character around. Once the player has grasped movement, they will be ready to forge on with the the Beginner`s Guide.
Videos
First day
As your first day begins, you will need to collect
wood. Collect at least four trees` worth of wood blocks by holding down the left mouse button while looking at the block. Open up your inventory (default key: E). You will see your character taking up most of the upper portion, and below is your inventory, which is where the 36 different items that your character can use or carry are stored (the bottom 9 are the usable slots). Four armor slots are to the left of your character (ignore those for now, they don`t become useful until much later on), and a 2x2 square to the right of your character. This is your personal crafting grid, which can be used to craft a few basic items. Place the wood you gathered into any space in the crafting grid, and
wooden planks will appear to the right of your wood. Left-clicking the planks will cause the wood to disappear and planks to appear as a newly crafted item. Once you have the planks in your hand, you can drag them down to your inventory, and place using the left click. Four wooden planks can in turn make a
crafting table (place 4 wooden planks in a 2x2 square) and place the crafting table to use it. Right click your crafting table to access it, this crafting grid is a 3x3 square, big enough for all of the craftable items in Minecraft. The first tools you should craft a
wooden pickaxe and a
wooden sword. Take a look around you, if you see any exposed
stone blocks close by mine them for 19 blocks of
cobblestone. This is the amount you need to create every basic tool you`ll need in Minecraft; a sword, a pickaxe (you`ll need the upgraded pickaxe for iron and other blocks), an
axe, a
shovel, a
hoe, and a
furnace. You`ll need the furnace to cook meat for food and smelt any ore you mine with your pickaxe.
If all goes well, you can obtain
coal quickly. With the
stick s Stick Type Raw materials Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 280 hex: 118 bin: 100011000 Name stick A stick is an item used for crafting many tools and items. Contents you make from your fresh cut wooden planks and some coal, you will be able to make
torch es Torch Transparency Yes Luminance 14 Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 50 hex: 32 bin: 110010 Name torch See the common light-emitting torch. (coal above a stick on the crafting grid). With torches in hand, you can make for the nearest cave, because iron ore is your next goal. Underground will actually be safer than the surface when night falls, so mining the first night away is not a bad idea at all. On the other hand, if night is falling and you haven`t found coal, get more wood (not planks) and smelt it to create
charcoal, a substitute. (Additionally, you can gather 3 blocks of wool from
sheep and combine it with three planks to make a
bed Bed Type Block Entity Physics No Transparency Yes Luminance No Blast resistance 1 Hardness 0.2 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable No Flammable PC: No, but catches fire from lava PE: No First appearances See . With this you can sleep through the night without the worry of monsters killing you. The downside of this is wasting sunlight the next day mining, or working indoors.)
Night time
For night time, the primary danger will be hostile mobs (monsters) that only spawn in the dark. These include
zombie s Stick Type Raw materials Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 280 hex: 118 bin: 100011000 Name stick A stick is an item used for crafting many tools and items. Contents ,
skeleton s Stick Type Raw materials Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 280 hex: 118 bin: 100011000 Name stick A stick is an item used for crafting many tools and items. Contents , and
spider s Stick Type Raw materials Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 280 hex: 118 bin: 100011000 Name stick A stick is an item used for crafting many tools and items. Contents . It is a good idea to stay in a lit shelter (as monsters do not spawn in the light). On the other hand, if you`re seeking adventure you could always arm yourself with a
stone sword and go beat some mobs; you will be able to get some materials for further crafting, not to mention a ton of experience, which can be used later on for enchanting tools.
One way to avoid being attacked by monsters is to put torches or a
jack o`lantern inside and around your shelter. This will prevent monster spawning, but monsters that spawn outside of the lit areas can still wander into the lit areas.
If you are repeatedly getting killed, one desperate response is to go into "peaceful difficulty" (see "changing the rules", below). Be that as it may, consider this: This being your first day, you aren`t actually losing much until the deaths (at least not after what stuff you`ve gathered is lost), so you can just tough it out until dawn and start again. Keep on practicing killing mobs until you get the hang of it.
Shelter
A shelter is something you might consider building before your first night because you won`t want to be killed. You can make a small hole to hide in or a small two by three house made out of wood and dirt. Place torches Torch Transparency Yes Luminance 14 Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 50 hex: 32 bin: 110010 Name torch See the common light-emitting torch. in your preferred shelter because in light level 7 or below zombies Zombie Health points 20 () Armor points 2 () Attack strength Easy: 2 () Normal: 3 () Hard: 4 () Size Adult: Height: 1.95 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks Baby: Height: 0.975 Blocks Width: 0.3 Blocks Spawn might spawn. Don`t forget to build a bed Bed Type Block Entity Physics No Transparency Yes Luminance No Blast resistance 1 Hardness 0.2 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable No Flammable PC: No, but catches fire from lava PE: No First appearances See to sleep until dawn (this will speed time in-game to dawn to avoid hostile mobs). If you do see a cave it could be a temporary home but remember to place torches⃢₀ₔ
creeper s Stick Type Raw materials Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 280 hex: 118 bin: 100011000 Name stick A stick is an item used for crafting many tools and items. Contents don`t really make good neighbors. They could explode if you go near them.
Food and hunger
Once you have tools and shelter, your next priority will be food Foods (or Foodstuffs as considered by the Creative inventory) are consumable items that when eaten restore hunger points and sometimes cause status effects. They are essential to the player s survival, as going without them will . Hunger will take a while to hit, so it shouldn`t be a problem on your first day, but you should try to pick up some food for when it does. Be that as it may, after you`ve been moving around for a while, your food bar See the gameplay mechanic. For the status effect, see Status effect#Hunger. The Food Bar is seen on the right, opposite the Health Bar. Hunger is an aspect of Minecraft that governs several will begin rippling and start to decrease. If your food bar drops below 90% (), you will not regenerate health, and if it gets to 30% (), you can`t sprint. If the hunger bar goes down to empty, you will begin losing health. Unless you`re in Hard mode Mobs in full armor are a common sight in higher difficulty levels. Difficulty is an option in Minecraft that has a direct impact on the ease of gameplay. Contents 1 World setting 1.1 Peaceful 1.2 (and a beginning player shouldn`t be), you can`t actually starve to death, but you will go down to 1 health point () in Normal mode or half your health () in Easy mode, and that leaves you quite vulnerable. You don`t lose hunger in Peaceful mode, so you don`t have to worry about that.
Walking, mining blocks, and even placing blocks all cost some hunger, but all of those are minimal compared to the items below. These are the things that cause the most hunger, in order of cost.
- Healing damage of any sort. Avoid taking falls of more than 3 blocks, drowning yourself, or otherwise taking damage, as healing damage costs a lot of hunger.
- Fighting: Both attacking mobs and receiving damage cost hunger, even before you start trying to heal damage. (10 blows either way matches healing , one health point.) You will need to slaughter a few animals but pick your fights carefully.
- Sprinting. If you double-tap the forward movement key (W by default), or press your sprint key (Left Ctrl by default), you will sprint. This moves somewhat faster, but it also uses a lot of food. (30 meters matches healing .) Be that as it may, if you happen to have a sufficient amount of food in your inventory, you can always do it your way.
- Jumping. Obviously, you`ll need to jump some just to get around, but don`t bounce around randomly or unnecessarily. (15 jumps matches healing ) Sprinting jumps are especially costly, 4 times as much as a regular jump, although they are the fastest mode of transportation early in the game.
Note that if you`re (staying) at full health, and not moving, fighting, mining or placing blocks, then you will use no food. Thus, if your character has a secure place to stay, you can just stay put to conserve food while waiting out the night, a storm, or crop/animal growth.
Consider making a basic crop farm immediately after you have settled in a place. Wheat is where you`ll begin:
- You can use harvested
wheat to make
bread. - You can obtain it easily using
seeds collected by breaking
grass. - When harvesting wheat, you can use the wheat/seeds to breed
cow s Stick Type Raw materials Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 280 hex: 118 bin: 100011000 Name stick A stick is an item used for crafting many tools and items. Contents and
chicken s Stick Type Raw materials Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 280 hex: 118 bin: 100011000 Name stick A stick is an item used for crafting many tools and items. Contents , thus having a better food source.
Play-by-play
Starting the game
When you begin the game, you will be standing in a landscape somewhere. Take a moment to look around. This is the general area (within 20 blocks) where you will reappear if you get killed. It`s a good idea to mark it immediately, by punching out an amount of
dirt and/or
sand, then using the dirt or sand to build a pillar in the middle of that. If you`re standing on a rock, look around for some dirt or sand to use, remember where you are, and go get it to build your pillar. You can also use the debug screen to save the coordinates of the spawn point for later use (see the page to learn how).
Tough and easy starts
A general note: Any time you`re “looking around” is a good time to turn your render distance to max; you can put it back afterward if it slows your game.
- If you are standing on and surrounded by sand, you are likely in a desert biome. After marking your spawn point, head for high ground and look around for green grass and/or trees (
cacti and
sugar cane don`t count.) Head that way to gather your wood. If you can`t see anything but desert, pick a random direction and head that way, occasionally going to high ground for a look around. - If you are on an island, completely surrounded by
water as far as you can see, you are in an
ocean biome. This is perhaps the toughest start possible, and as such is highly discouraged for play by beginners -- given an ocean start, it`s entirely reasonable to discard the world and make a new one. Assuming you don`t do that: If your island has no trees, you will need to swim to another island or mainland to find wood. (Remember that if you die before sleeping in a bed, you will respawn on the island.) When you swim you may see
squid. Squid are mobs but they are not hostile. Like cows, sheep, and chickens, they can`t attack you (or even defend themselves), but killing them gives only
ink sac s Stick Type Raw materials Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 280 hex: 118 bin: 100011000 Name stick A stick is an item used for crafting many tools and items. Contents (and some XP).
- If, looking around, you see dull, purplish land, your game just got a lot easier: you are on a
mushroom biome, where monsters will not spawn (if it`s connected to the mainland, congratulations, you found one of the rarest landscapes in the game). Monsters can still come in from other biomes, but if you head toward the middle, you can spend the night in safety outdoors. Also, with a
bowl, you can get free food from the
mooshroom s Stick Type Raw materials Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 280 hex: 118 bin: 100011000 Name stick A stick is an item used for crafting many tools and items. Contents which live there. Be that as it may, one thing the mushroom biome does not have, is wood—so before you go there, head for a grassy area to get some wood and stone first. - If, looking around, you see houses and/or farms, you are near a
village. This is a good place to live in general, if you can make a bed: the farms will solve your food worries for now, you can trade with the
villager s Stick Type Raw materials Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 280 hex: 118 bin: 100011000 Name stick A stick is an item used for crafting many tools and items. Contents , and if there`s a blacksmith (look for a house with a stone slab roof), it will contain a
chest with bonus items. You can also scavenge a fair bit of wood even without trashing the place (try replacing logs with planks). Be that as it may, at first, you`ll want to avoid hanging out near there after dark, because zombies can spawn and kill the villagers. You can avoid this fate by making a bed Bed Type Block Entity Physics No Transparency Yes Luminance No Blast resistance 1 Hardness 0.2 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable No Flammable PC: No, but catches fire from lava PE: No First appearances See (see below), and consistently sleeping through the night until you can properly fortify the town against monsters):- If there are no sheep around, look for “lamp posts” in the village — the black block on top is
wool (break it with your hand). - If you can`t get enough wool for a bed, your best bets are (first choice) either get far away (150 blocks or so) from the village before nightfall, or (second best) to spend your first night(s) atop a really tall pillar, 40 blocks high or more (64 is even better). By the second night, you will hopefully have managed to find a bit of wool.
- If there are no sheep around, look for “lamp posts” in the village — the black block on top is
- If you find yourself surrounded by many very large trees, and leaf blocks on the ground, then you have found yourself in a
jungle biome. The jungle biome is a good place to start because there are large trees everywhere, be that as it may, these can cause you to easily become lost. Also, the cramped quarters can make it difficult to build there. Jungle biomes are the only place to find
ocelot s Stick Type Raw materials Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) First appearances See History Data value dec: 280 hex: 118 bin: 100011000 Name stick A stick is an item used for crafting many tools and items. Contents (you`ll need
fish to tame them) and
cocoa beans. The sheer amount of leaves here can cause trouble for particularly old computers, lagging or even crashing the game; if you have an old computer and you haven`t already switched to fast graphics, a jungle is good reason to do so. - If you find yourself surrounded by thick, short trees and dark grass, you are in a roofed forest biome. These biomes are especially dangerous because the canopy of leaves can sometimes become so thick that monsters will spawn, even during the day. Be that as it may, this biome does provide ample supplies of wood and naturally spawning giant mushrooms which can be used for
mushroom stew and shelter for the night. - There are many other biomes in Minecraft; to see a more in-depth look at all of them, check the Biomes page.
Punching wood
Look around for a few things in particular, in order of priority: trees, visible stone (and especially
coal ore), animals, and tall grass. As you move around, break any tall grass in your way, and collect any seeds that drop. For that matter, collect any loose item you see, as most of them will eventually be handy.
Your first priority is to find a small tree, bash through the leaves if needed, and "punch" the wood until each block drops as an item. Don`t rapidly click on the block, just hold left-click (or whatever you`ve set "attack" to) until the block breaks. Don`t bother with huge trees at this point, but also don`t be upset if you can`t reach the top blocks of wood ⃢₀ₔ you can always come back and collect them later. This first tree should give you at least 4 blocks of wood ("logs"). You`ll punch more wood in a moment! Wood is essential for tools and useful items such as torches Torch Transparency Yes Luminance 14 Blast resistance 0 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Itself Data value dec: 50 hex: 32 bin: 110010 Name torch See the common light-emitting torch. ,
doors,
fences, and chests.
Your first crafting
As the game`s name suggests, crafting is core to Minecraft. While there are a small number of items that can be crafted directly from the inventory, a crafting table is required to craft tools and most other items in the game. The crafting table will be your main asset throughout the game.
To make your crafting table, first, open the inventory and pick up the logs you collected. Place a log into the crafting area to obtain 4 wooden planks.
The planks will be different colors depending on what sort of wood you have. Different types of wood don`t stack together, but all work the same. With a couple of exceptions, you can mix and match different planks when crafting. In particular, sticks don`t "remember" what sort of wood they came from.
As you convert your first logs to planks you may want to consider saving some logs for later. Usually, 3-4 logs` worth of planks will be enough to get started. In particular, you want to save logs to make charcoal later on.
Then, take four of your newly crafted planks and arrange them like so to make a crafting table:
You should see this:
Return to the world view and walk to a spot you think appropriate. Select your newly crafted crafting table and place it. Now you can get to crafting some more complex blocks and items!
- Tip: Anything that you can craft in your inventory crafting space, you can also craft in the crafting table.
Creating tools
In order to collect stone and coal, the next staple resources, you will need a pickaxe. Your first pickaxe will be made of wood, which isn`t very durable or fast, but until you collect some cobblestone it`s all you have.
To make a pickaxe, you will need to craft some sticks. Do so as shown below to craft 4 sticks:
Now you`ll use some planks and the sticks you just made to create the final product. Arrange them like so:
You may have noticed that in order to craft a pickaxe, you more or less draw it with its components in your crafting square. Other items are crafted in a similar fashion. At this point, you can do one of two things: You can either make more wooden tools, or you can gather stone and use that to make better ones.
Stone age
Once you`ve crafted a pickaxe, you can successfully acquire cobblestone to make better tools. Start by finding stone in the world; it should be fairly easy as it`s extremely common. If you don`t see any on the surface, dig down in a staircase fashion and mine the stone with your pickaxe; it will drop as cobblestone items. Gather enough cobblestone to upgrade your pickaxe and make a stone shovel, axe, and sword, and a furnace (the exact number of cobblestone required to make these is 17.) You can also craft a stone hoe (or even a wooden one), but it won`t be useful until you start farms (explained on day two).
Swords can be used to more effectively slay mobs (animals and monsters).
A stone pickaxe is more durable and more efficient than a wooden pickaxe, and it can mine ores that a wooden pickaxe can`t.
Shovels are mainly used to break dirt, grass, sand, clay, and gravel blocks quicker than by hand. They also allow for the collection of snowballs when used on snow layers in snow biomes.