Tutorials/Tips and tricks

Here are some tips and little hinters for those who are new to Minecraft. Remember, however, that there are often tips under the 'Trivia' section of an item's page, and are likely to be more in-depth:

Peaceful Mode
Can't seem to figure out those zombies? Too slow for the spiders? Can't make a decent shelter without the worry of a creeper? Low on health and don't have any food? Set the difficulty to peaceful and, voila! Your health will quickly regenerate your food bar won't hurt you and all hostile mobs will disappear. This becomes very helpful when building large structures or pixel art.

Tree technique
If you want to get every block on a tree but just can't reach that top one, try leaving the bottom block intact and then jumping on it to get the rest. Once done, harvest the bottom. If you still can't reach after using this, you'll have to place a weak block below you to boost yourself up higher... or use an adjacent piece of land and leave more than one block.

Remember the Pattern
Struggling to remember crafting patterns? Trying to make a bucket but instead you make a minecart (and waste 5 Iron Ingots!)? Take a closer look at a pattern, like the fishing pole pattern. Take notice of how the sticks and string line up to look like a fishing pole. Many patterns follow this trait, such as doors which use two columns of wooden planks to make the rectangular shape of a door, and swords which use two wooden planks, cobblestone, iron ingots, or diamond for the blade and a stick as the handle.

Shelter Problem
Is it nearing nighttime and you haven't finished your shelter yet? In an emergency situation and need some shelter? Dig three blocks down and place a block above you, and now you're safe! You may want to expand the boundaries so you may place a bed. This method is not recommended though, as you're completely exposed to mobs as you leave. Pillar jumping is another solution. Simply make a pillar directly under you until you are out of reach from the skeleton's arrows. Or you can simply set your difficulty to peaceful mode and relax. (See first paragraph.)

First Day
Punch down trees until you're satisfied with the amount of wood you have. Turn one of the wood blocks into planks and turn those into a crafting table by making a two by two square in your inventory. After that make a pickaxe and a shovel in the crafting table. Decide whether you want your base to be a house (Option A), or cut into a mountain (Option B), make your base accordingly, and try to keep it as close to your spawn as possible.

Option A: Use any block to make a home. This should be large enough for your first night, and all of the above should be able to be finished in about 5 minutes. When you get enough stone to make a furnace, you can use two planks to smelt three wood into charcoal, the cheap version of coal. It functions exactly the same as coal, and you can craft 1 charcoal into 4 torches which can illuminate your house. Remember that wood is flammable so DO NOT use 'fireplaces' in a wooden house!

Option B: Just cut into a mountain and make a hole going in, or what-ever suits you best, then dig in the middle to make a 1x2x2 doorway and make a door, put the door in and start carving out your house. Be sure to check the mountainsides to see if there is any coal jutting out. Mine some stone to obtain cobblestone, make a furnace, get your piece of coal, put it in the furnace (1 coal can smelt up to 8 items) and smelt some wood into charcoal. Charcoal can be used like coal, make 12 torches and leave the last piece of charcoal in there for future 'charcoal smelting'. This is the most efficient way to build a house because you GAIN materials when you expand the house instead of LOSING them.

Second Day
Your second day should be spent making it possible for yourself to continue to be able to work at night, or to be able to skip the night completely by building a bed. Charcoal is yet again effective and easy, especially if you spawned on a large flat land area, lacking in easy to find coal deposits, or haven't spent much time underground yet. If you do have enough Coal to make 20-30 Torches, you can effectively protect yourself against mobs spawning in your secure areas and spawning right outside (Torches on outside walls are extremely important, as mobs will spawn farther away, keeping them from noticing you if you stay close, which is amplified by using a "Torch Fence," i.e. a Fence lined with, or comprised of, Torches, surrounding the perimeter of your plot of land). Getting your bearings, learning where different herds of animals are, and gathering resources from them is also important, Sheep drop Wool, required for Beds, Cows drop Raw Beef and Leather, used to make Armor, Chickens drop Raw Chicken and Feathers, used to make Arrows, and Pigs only drop Raw Pork, which can be cooked, like all the other meats, to become more effective. Make sure to leave at least two of what you find alive, as you'll want to lure them to your home eventually with Wheat for Breeding, Mobs don't spawn like they used to.

Third Day
On the third, gather more wood/stone. After that, you can make a couple of houses to stay in (ensure it is near your spawn point). If you plan on moving across ocean, make a boat. If your destination is far away, it would be a good idea to try making a base on an island.

Mining
Option A: Make sure you have a lot of pickaxes and at least 64 torches in your inventory. Slowly mine a big stairway to bedrock, lighting your way with the torches as you go. If you plan to have 1x2x2 paths leading off the side of the stairway, bring as many torches as possible. When you get to bedrock go up 12 stairs (to get to the diamond layer) then mine a 1x2x infinite corridor.

Option B: Make a 1x2x2 doorway in the back of your home. After that easy step, make a huge room and have several different ways to mine. Low and high, left and right - you're sure to hollow out a mountain soon, getting hefty supplies of coal and iron.

Option C: Find a cave, make a trail of torches down it if you find any iron or coal mine it, when you reach a dead end go back collecting the torches back then go down another branch do this until you have done all the branches then go out and make a signal that you have dived the cave so you don't do it again.

Option D: You will need about 2 stacks of ladders, 1 bucket of water, a few iron(or one diamond pickaxe(s)) and a sign to make a mineshaft by mining down one block next to you until it's out of reach then directly below you because you know you're safe. Do this till bedrock, place down 12 blocks by holding jump and place block at the same time then make a ladder to the top (this part can be annoying). Go back down (using the ladder for safety) and place down the sign at eye level. After that, you put the water down (it will float) and now you can fall down safely without the ladder. Make a 1x2x2 infinite corridor collecting resources on your way, you now have a mineshaft.

Coal Without Mining
You have made your shelter, already mined some Cobblestone and can't find any Coal to light your environment? Just make a furnace, take some Wooden Planks as fuel and burn some Wood you didn't already craft to Wooden Planks. This will get you some Charcoal which has exactly the same functions of normal Coal that is mined with a pickaxe.

Places to Build
There are some recommendations where a beginner should build and where not: Use any material you want, excepting Sand or Gravel as they are influenced by gravity (which means that they fall down if no other block is under them) or dirt, because creepers can easily blow it up. Also remember not to build your shelter on Sand or Gravel, because if it comes to your mind to dig down or make a cellar, you'll have a problem because the Sand keeps falling down on you and it will take a long time to remove it from the base.

For beginners, you might want to hollow out the side of a hill or mountain. This can be done quickly and turn into a good shelter, but keep in mind it will be harder to find your home if you wander off, or you could place torches if you have any around the entrance. A second design is to collect a lot of wood and build a wooden house. These stand out easily, look good, and function well. The bad thing is they are flammable.

Darkness
Out of Coal/Charcoal? Your hands bleeding from punching too much wood? Remember that hostile mobs require a light level of less than 7 to spawn. Use this knowledge to save some torches in your shelter. On a related note, if you are still using hands to chop wood at this point, then you should seriously consider making an axe.

Second-Tier Ores
See some Redstone, Diamond, or some fancy ore? Don't use low-level Pickaxes to mine them! Remember, Wood pickaxes only mine Coal and Stone, while Cobblestone mines Iron and Lapis Lazuli. Iron mines all blocks, except for Obsidian in which only Diamond pickaxes can mine. Be careful - lava lakes often occur at the same level as precious ores.

Item Durability
Mining deep underground and suddenly, inexplicably, your Pickaxe turns into your hand? Is it a bug? Or is it the feared Herobrine? It's neither! It's Item Durability...or Uses! Take care to look at the 'health' of your item (the little coloured bar underneath the item) before departing on any long trips, be it exploring or mining, as the last thing you want to do is to take the long trip back home just for a Axe, or a Pickaxe. Time is precious, so try bringing along a crafting table, or stock up on tools if you have to.

To the bottom of the ravine!
Often, you will come across the top of a ravine, with all the precious ores beneath. Carry a stack of sand (some gravel will become flint, so you may not have enough to get back up), and drop it on a location repeatedly until you have a pillar to the bottom. Standing on the pillar and digging down until it's gone will get you to the bottom without fall damage! Another way is to dig a spiral staircase downwards till you want to stop. Then dig towards the wall of the ravine then if it is still too deep, keep on digging!

Nab's way - after collecting three iron (normally 1 node) you can craft a bucket and use water as an instant ladder. Remember to refill your bucket.

Tutoriels/Conseils et astuces