How to play

How to play is a guide designed to help new and old players to Minecraft. It has many different parts and sections to it. It is located at the Settings menu, under General.

Nightfall
Before night fall, make sure you have obtained some wool by killing or shearing sheep, with three wool (of the same color) and three planks you can make a bed (Or you can steal a villager's bed). with a bed you can skip night because hostile mobs spawn in low light levels(Creepers, spiders, skeletons, zombies and endermen). In multiplayer mode, each player must have a bed and all players must sleep at the same time to prevent phantoms from spawning, which happens if any players fail to sleep for three nights in a row.

Furnace
The furnace is a workstation that can change specific items/blocks. Furnaces require an item to smelt and a fuel source. The fuel goes on the lower left section of the furnace interface and the item to smelt goes on the top left. The arrow that appears shows progress on the item being smelted/cooked and the fire icon shows how much more that fuel can be used (continuing to decrease without being in use). The most common fuel sources that are easily available are Coal and Charcoal with the best fuel source (individually) is a Lava Bucket. An ordinary bucket can be used as fuel, but only when a Sponge is in the input for being smelted.

Anvil
An Anvil is used to enchant, combine or rename items. The first slot is the item that you want to repair or rename. The second is the sacrifice slot, which enchants or repairs the first. For example, if you want to enchant your sword, you need the sword (obviously), an enchanted book or sword of the same type, and Experience. Place the sword in the first slot and the enchanted book in the second. The Experience needed can vary. Before you collect the enchanted item, you have the choice to rename it. You can do this by left-clicking the slot on the top, and type in whatever you want. This method can also be used with Name Tag, although you cannot enchant or repair them.

Enchanting Table
The Enchanting Table is used to enchant items, although in a different method than the Anvil. This is how it works : You place the item you want to enchant in the first slot, and 1 Lapis Lazuli in the second. You are shown 3 choices. The first has the lowest price (average Experience : 7 and always 1 Lapis Lazuli) and is usually the worst; The second has a slightly higher price (2 Lapis Lazuli and average Experience of 11), and usually offers a medium enchantment. The third has a very steep price of 3 Lapis Lazuli and most of the time around 20 Experience, but I recommend getting it as it's usually a great enchantment (sometimes not). WARNING : You can't re-enchant an enchanted item on an Enchanting Table. Do this on an anvil. Tip : PC and desktop users can know the enchantment on each option just by hovering on it with the mouse. However, this option isn't available for tablet/phone users.

Note: Enchanting an item on the enchanting table can give you multiple enchantments at once. For example, if the table shows Sharpness III, it may have Unbreaking I after enchanting.

Brewing Stand
Brewing potins requires a Brewing Stand. Every potion starts off with a bottle of water, which is made by filling a Glass Bottle with water from a Cauldron or water source.

Book & Quill
The Book & Quill lets you record your adventures. Tell your story by entering text into the pages. You can even change the title and the author! Sign the Book & Quill to finalize your work. The Book & Quill can be edited until it is signed.

Nether Portal
A Nether Portal allows you to travel to a different dimension called the Nether. Nether Portals consist of obsidian (crying obsidian isn't compatible) in a 4 block by 5 block frame (as shown below).

If constructed correctly, the Nether portal can be lit via flame (from either burning blocks or flint and steel/fire charge) and activated. The inside of the frame should turn purple and you can now enter the Nether. In the Nether itself, a ghast or blaze can be tricked to ignite a portal, and ruined portals sometimes have flint and steel or fire charge in the chest that generates with them.

Examples of portal construction are shown here:



Pets
Pets help you in the game by attacking mobs you hit (wolf). Tamed cats also scare creepers away.