Tutorials/Beginner's guide

This guide is intended for those who are not familiar with Minecraft.

It describes how to play and survive the first night of Minecraft's Survival mode, assuming you are playing on the default 'Normal' difficulty setting and in single player.

Controls
If you are reading this while you are playing Minecraft, go to that tab right now and press esc, please. It will save you from plunging into the darkness of night without any tools that you need to survive your first days. Before you start, you should learn the controls for the game.

The default keys for movement are as follows:
 * moves forward (double-tap (hold) to sprint)
 * moves backward
 * moves left (strafe)
 * moves right (strafe)
 * to jump
 * to crouch/sneak (hold to prevent falling off blocks and sliding down ladders)

Note that these are just the default movement controls. They can be changed by going to the Options screen from the main menu or pause menu (press to access).

Use the mouse to look around the world. Click and hold the left mouse button to break down (or mine) blocks. Right click to place (or use) the currently highlighted item from your inventory hot bar. The mouse wheel cycles through the currently held item in your inventory hot bar, or you can use the number keys -. opens your inventory window and will drop a held item. These can also be changed in the options menu.


 * will toggle all HUD (Heads Up Display) and darkness effects
 * will take a screenshot, which saves in the directory “ ”. Since Beta 1.2, it is possible to make screenshots using without holding  at the same time. It will keep the HUD.
 * will toggle 3rd-person view

(previously ) will cycle through the levels of fog in the world. This sets the render distance and can reduce lag, however it prevents you from seeing as far as possible across the map. This will make it more difficult to see mobs and anything else.
 * There are four different view distances, which are represented by stages of fog:
 * 1) Far (No fog): You can see the maximum distance (around a 256 block diameter)
 * 2) Normal (Low fog): You can see about half of your maximum range. (around a 128 block diameter)
 * 3) Short (Medium fog): This prevents you from determining what time of day it is as it blocks the sun. You can only see about thirty-two blocks away from you. (around a 64 block diameter)
 * 4) Tiny (Heavy fog): Same as medium fog but you can only see sixteen blocks away. (around a 32 block diameter)


 * Note: As of Beta 1.8, the deeper underground you are, the heavier the fog will be, this increases immensely in, and slightly above, the void, where it is nearly pitch black.

Initial Priorities
As Minecraft is a sandbox game there is no defined or proper way and style to play the game. However, in Survival mode one common theme found for all players is the need to create ways to defend and fend off hostiles, or mobs that spawn either in dark places (e.g. caves) or when night falls.

A necessity for survival is to keep your food bar full. If it falls below 90%, you will not regenerate health, and if it goes down to 0%, you will begin losing health. The food bar depletes slowly though so it shouldn't be a problem on your first night. The primary danger for your first night will be mobs. It is a good idea to start gathering resources and construct a lit shelter immediately after you begin on the first day. It is advised that the player, when starting off, does not leave the shelter and dive straight into attacking hostiles, since the player will likely lack the resources to fend off large groups of mobs. It should be noted that the player has the option to play Minecraft on peaceful mode, where no hostile mobs will spawn at all. The difficulty settings are in the options menu, which can be changed even when a game is in session.

On the first day, it is a good idea to mark where the world's default spawn point is; by building a landmark such as a tall pillar, it is possible to orient yourself in the world, as well as locate your spawn point if you get lost. Since you are just starting off however, you should build a small pillar out of dirt or sand. Should the resources be available to craft a bed, a spawn marker is not necessary, as sleeping in the bed will move your spawn point. It is highly recommended to build your first shelter very close to the spawn point, so if you die, you can easily locate it again.

Note that when you die in Minecraft, all items you were carrying or wearing in your inventory are scattered around your point of death, and you will respawn at your original spawn point unless you have slept in a bed. Like any dropped items in Minecraft, your scattered inventory will disappear after 5 minutes if they are not recovered. If you are building far from your spawn point without a bed, it is generally a good idea to mark the spawn and make a marker over your home in case of death.

While you are making your preparations for nightfall, keep an eye on the sun. When you first start a new world in single player, it will be early morning. The sun always rises in the east and sets in the west; at midday, it will be directly above you. To better help you navigate, the Clouds in Minecraft always travel west.

It is best to work quickly, as a Minecraft day is only about ten minutes.

The Essentials
Multiplayer note: On most servers, only administrators and ops can destroy blocks that are near the spawn point.

However you approach your first night, you will need at least wood and ideally coal or charcoal to have a fighting chance.

To collect resources, aim the crosshair at the block representing the resource and press and hold the left mouse button. This will instruct the avatar to punch the block repeatedly. Cracks will gradually appear in the block. Keep holding the left mouse button until the block breaks and drops, releasing the button, or looking away from the block will cause the avatar to stop punching it, and you will have to start over. You can collect the dropped resource by moving near its spinning representation. It will then appear in the inventory. Note that some resources, such as stone, only drop if destroyed with the correct tool.

To place resources in the environment, press on your keyboard to bring up your inventory and drag and drop the desired item to the quick access bar at the bottom of your inventory. Select the item by pressing the number representative of the box order (1,2,3 etc.) on your keyboard or scrolling with the mousewheel. Lastly, click the right mouse button to place the resource.

To drop resources in the environment, press on the keyboard when the resource is selected in the quick access bar, and 1 quantity of the selected item will be dropped onto the ground. Alternatively, open the inventory window and move a stack of items outside the window to drop the entire stack.

Wood
Walk over to the closest tree (should there be no trees around, just roam a little and you'll surely find one) and start punching wood blocks (you do not need a tool for this). They are a very important ingredient of nearly everything, but one or two trees worth of wood blocks will be more than enough to get started. More is better, and allows you to make a larger house, more tools etc. Make sure to build your house near to the spawn point, or else craft a bed (requires 3 wool and 3 planks) to reset your spawn point.

Craft a Crafting table
Crafting is core to Minecraft. While there are a small amount of items that can be crafted directly from the inventory, a Crafting table is required to craft tools and most other items.

To craft a crafting table, first open the inventory and click on a stack of wood:



Then place that in the 2x2 crafting square above your inventory. This will produce planks:



Left clicking on the plank icon will craft four planks for every one piece of wood you have, but if you hold down the right mouse button it instantly crafts the maximum amount (or a full stack of 64) that you can with the given materials, and places them in your inventory. Click on the remaining wood in your 2x2 crafting square and return it to your inventory. Click on the planks you just crafted and instead of left clicking, right click once in each of your four crafting squares. This drops one item instead of all items each click.

You should see this (with the exception of the 3x3 grid of slots, you will only see a 2x2 grid for now):

Click on the result and place it in an empty square of your hotbar.

Press escape to return to the world view and walk to a spot you think appropriate, select your newly crafted crafting table with either the mouse wheel or number key, point at a flat square of ground (not directly where you are standing) and right click. This will place your crafting table on the ground ready for use. If you wish to pick it up again to move it, left click and hold to punch it to pieces and pick up its spinning icon.

Craft a Pickaxe
In order to collect stone and coal, the next staple resources, you will need a pickaxe. Your first pickaxe will be made of wood; not very durable, but until you collect some stone, which is why you need a pickaxe in the first place, it's all you have.

You will need at least five planks to make one wooden pickaxe. Use your crafting table by right clicking on where you placed it. Your crafting table view is similar to your inventory view, except you now have a more useful 3x3 crafting space. First we need to make a handle for your pickaxe. To do this, pick up a stack of planks and place one above another anywhere in your crafting square. Two planks produces four sticks:

To create your pickaxe, you'll have to make some new planks. Once you've done so, arrange them in positions shown on the picture below.

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.

Gathering Resources
Once you've crafted a pickaxe, you can successfully acquire cobblestone. 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 - it is highly recommended not to dig straight down. Mine 9 stone blocks (after mining it will become cobblestone) and approach your crafting table.

Using sticks and cobblestone, you can now make some stone tools:

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. You will use it to mine stone (and other "rocky" blocks).

Shovels are mainly used to destroy dirt, sand and gravel blocks.

Axes make the process of gathering wood (and most other wooden blocks) faster.

Once you have all the basic tools it's time to gather some wood supplies. Despite some trees looking different and not stacking together, they all are equal in terms of what can be done with them. You might also notice that saplings will drop from leaf blocks. Plant these to regrow trees later. Start chopping down more wood until you gather around 64 blocks (a full stack) or your axe breaks.

Animal Resources
You should gather wool during the first day. Try to get at least 3 pieces in order to craft a bed. You can get one wool from killing a sheep. To find a sheep, just walk a little in one direction. It is also recommended that your shelter be built near grass since animals (pigs, cows, chickens and sheep) spawn on grass (it is for this reason that you should replace the floor of your shelter with sand, cobblestone or whatever your heart desires.)

You will probably encounter other animals, such as cows, pigs and chickens. You can kill them to get some food; it is not a priority yet, though. In the 1.8 update, eating was made essential, and if you forget to feed yourself every now and again you will eventually lose health. You should always keep in mind, that, as of Minecraft 1.0.0, animals do not spawn in the same area again if you kill them, and you would have to venture a long way to find some more animals. Instead, look at the article called breeding.

A Word about Digging
One of the immutable rules of Minecraft is:
 * Do not dig straight down.

It is possible to stand on a block while destroying it. Once it's destroyed you will fall down one block to whatever is beneath it. The problem is, this might be thin air. You could fall into a deep dark cavern, not only suffering fall damage, and being in the dark, but be beset upon by all kinds of hostile mobs who reside underground. You could even fall into a pool of lava, which is near-certain death not just for you, but for any items you might be carrying!

Another one of the immutable rules of Minecraft is:
 * Do not dig straight up.

Again, it's perfectly possible to do, but if you don't know what's above you, you might find yourself drop-kicked by a mob, or buried under sand or gravel which unlike other blocks, obey gravity and suffocate whoever they fall on. This would kill you and you would need to start again. If you can find your start of a house or just the workbench that you placed, then you can continue, but you will not have any of the items that you had before. As of the 1.9 pre-release, fluids such as water or lava drip from the ceiling if they are above it, so you will be able to tell what's above then. Still, it doesn't tend to be a good idea considering that you might drown in the water or be killed in the lavafall.

A third important rule of digging is:
 * Stand back

Still, it is possible to dig into the wall right in front of you, but who knows what is on the other side? The wall might be the only thing separating you from a lava pit. By standing back, you have time to turn around and make a run for it if there is something behind the wall other than more wall, a cave, or ore. If there are monsters, creepers especially, you will have time to get out your bow and attack or get away to protect yourself from harm.

A fourth rule when digging down to find a mine is: Dig stairs This way, if you dig into lava or a dungeon, you are more prepared than if you dug a tunnel into them and you can quickly run up the stairs.

Strike a Light
Initially, your sole light source at night will be torches. These are made from coal or charcoal and sticks. You don't need a crafting table to make torches, as they can be made in your 2x2 inventory grid.

Make some sticks from planks as required and place coal above sticks in your crafting squares as follows:

One piece of coal or charcoal and one stick make four torches. You can place multiple quantities on your crafting squares and each left click of the result will use one set of ingredients.

If you cannot find coal on your first night use wooden planks to heat wood, and create charcoal. In order to create charcoal from wooden planks and wood you need a furnace. To create a furnace, arrange eight cobblestone blocks in a ring on your crafting table.

After you have placed your furnace, right-click on it and add a fuel (anything flammable, including wood, sticks, and even saplings, but wood is the most efficient fuel.) in the bottom slot and the wood in the top slot:

If your coal was in a cliff face, make a door, add some light, and start crafting away for the night. If you had to make charcoal however, you may need to make yourself a home.

Build a Shelter
There are several ways to construct a shelter. You can either build one in the open from materials you collect (dirt, wood, stone, sandstone (although this is hard to make), you can enclose the mouth of a cave, hole or other naturally occurring hollow, or you can dig a hollow in the side of a hill or make a hole in the ground. Be careful around cave entrances, as hostiles often lurk in those even during the day.

When choosing a method, you should consider your surroundings, what you have managed to collect, how much time you have until nightfall and your personal preference; however, it must have these key features:
 * Light. Mostly so you can see what you're doing. If you are in a sufficiently small area (less than 25 square radius) hostiles cannot spawn next to you. So even if you fail to find coal (or make charcoal) on your first day, you can make a small rudimentary shelter to see out the night.
 * Walls. Hostiles cannot deal you damage or shoot arrows at you through walls. Make these out of dirt, wood, or whatever block you have an abundant amount of. However, it is recommended you change weaker blocks for stronger blocks like cobblestone, stone, bricks, or even obsidian in the future.
 * A door. If you have six planks, you can make a door for your shelter. When placing it make sure you place the door from the outside of your house as doors have direction. Skeletons can shoot at you from an inward facing door. Prior to patch 1.6, you could attack mobs from behind a door while remaining unharmed.


 * No big holes. It's sometimes a good idea to leave a small hole high up in a wall so you can see light come through when the morning breaks if you couldn't build a door. However, be aware that you can be shot at through a hole, some hostiles can drop through holes in roofs if they can get up there, and spiders can crawl up walls and through holes as small as one-block-high by two-blocks-wide, if they can gain access. So choose the position with care. An alternative is a one block high outer wall, with an over hanging roof, and a one block high "window" so you can see outside. Then a full height internal wall that you can duck behind in case of skeletons who can shoot at you through your window.
 * A safe area to place your workbench. To pass the time waiting for morning, you might want to craft a few more tools for the next day. Initially consider making a few stone pickaxes if you were able to collect any cobblestone during the day, more torches, and definitely a sword. If you have encounters with hostiles during the night, you can deal much more damage with a sword. Swords are crafted from one stick and two blocks for the blade.

You can use planks(shown) or cobblestone, later you can use iron or diamond as well.

So, depending on how much time you have left, what your surroundings provide, and what you have managed to collect, choose to either dig into the side of a hill, dig a small hole, live in the hollow your coal mining created, or build a shelter from materials you have collected. Remember not to dig straight down. EVER. PERIOD.

Be aware that building a hut is usually the most time-consuming and resource-consuming method. For example, to build a simple 5x5x3 hut you'll need 55 blocks of dirt, wood, stone or a combination of those materials (a few more/less for doors/windows). Digging a hole in the side of a cliff is usually a good plan, as you can collect cobblestone and dirt while simultaneously hollowing out a shelter. Watch out that you don't accidentally connect to a cave system while knocking out a wall. If you do, it's probably best to block it with dirt or cobblestone until you're prepared to explore it, but be sure to remember it is there, because it may contain valuble resources.

Once your work on your structure is complete, you can light it by right clicking on a wall or floor while holding a torch.

Also think a bit about the structure of your house as this will really be your only chance to change it, without having to destroy most of it and rebuild.

Waiting Until Morning
Enjoy your first night. If you have made a cave, you can extend it with a pickaxe if you have to go through stone, or your bare hands if dirt or a shovel, but be sure to keep any additions well lit. You can either spend the night in your hole/house/cave, or, if you're feeling brave, you can venture out with your sword and take your chances with the mobs. If you do, stay away from the walls of your shelter in case a Creeper follows you and decides to explode, in which case your shelter could be destroyed. Also, if you have your house/cave dug into the side of a cliff of mountain, be wary when leaving as hostile mobs could easily drop down on you from the high elevations. Another alternative is to begin digging into the earth a bit. Creating a mine in your house isn't a bad idea, but as was said before, never dig straight down. Dig in front of you, and if you want to descend, dig through a block a step or two away from your character. If you break through into a cave system, it's probably a good idea to block it off for now and come back to it when you're prepared. Mining in this manner should give you a significant amount of cobblestone and some more coal, should you find any. If you're really lucky, you might stumble upon some iron, which is valuable in making tools. This option will probably pass the time the fastest; so fast, in fact, you may find yourself mining well into the day, and perhaps into another night if you get carried away.

Creating an underground farm is a good way to obtain new resources for food, but not for waiting out the night. This is mainly because of the long time that is needed to grow the crops; so it will feel as if you are just waiting out the night; which in fact you are. Underground farms have advantages such as constant light and not being trampled by friendly mobs, unlike the above ground version, unless the farm has a fence with a fence gate (so you can enter the fenced of area) which mobs can not jump/climb over.

Once the sun rises, your troubles aren't completely over. Zombies and skeletons will eventually catch fire in the sunlight and burn to death; but be aware however that if you come out when the sun has just about risen and the zombies and skeletons are burning, this will not stop their natural instinct to chase you. Be careful! Spiders and creepers still wander about in the morning. Spiders will become passive in the daylight, just so long as they remain in the light and you don't attack them, but creepers remain aggressive and dangerous, so keep your sword at hand when you venture out.

Since Beta 1.3 Beds have been added. You can make them by putting a row of Wool on top of a row of Wooden Planks, like so:

You can just right-click it after being sure that it is in a safe, well-lit location that is at least one block away from a wall that mobs can't enter. Since Beta 1.9 pre6 if there are aggressive mobs near you, you can't go to sleep and a message "You may not rest now, there are monsters nearby" will appear. If all of the above requirements are met,your avatar will lie down in the bed and in a few seconds it will be morning again. Since Beta 1.4 sleeping in a bed will change your spawn point to the location of that bed. A way to collect loot dropped from mobs during the day is to wait until the sun is completely down, to assure that mobs spawn. By morning, zombies and skeletons will catch fire and drop loot. You must still, however, beware of Creepers and make sure not to attack spiders. (Note: Sleeping in a bed does not actually speed up time but instead set the minecraft clock to the "Day" setting, so unless proper time is given to let hostile mobs spawn, sleeping in a bed will prevent this technique from working.

As of Beta 1.8, nights now last longer. Beds are considered much more essential, since long nights are very hindering to progress and can be hazardous to survival.

If All Else Fails
Sometimes, you won't have the luck to spawn in a forest or near coal. Maybe you fall into a hole and it takes you 5 minutes to get out. If this happens, you can still survive, but if this is your first day and you have not done anything important, you make a new world. To survive, dig a hole in the side of a cliff or hill. Make it at least 3 blocks deep. Then go inside the hole. You can keep digging as far as you can, if you want. But when you see the sun start to set, fill in your entrance. If it is at least 3 blocks high and you are a good distance off the ground (8+ blocks) then you can leave a one-block window. Otherwise, it is safer to wait until night is over. If you don't have a window, mine one of your blocks every now and then, and check if it is still night. If it is, fill it back in and repeat. To pass time, you could try extend your makeshift shelter but make sure you don't hit a cave or make any openings. If it is daytime, then congratulations: You have survived your first night. If there are no hills nearby, you can dig into the ground and make a small underground shelter. However, it's harder to tell when it's day again, as making a hole in the roof risks letting mobs fall in. If you don't like the makeshift shelter option you can swim out to sea (effective but very cowardly) and just wait for dawn. Hostile mobs will only spawn on solid blocks (besides ice) so you don't have to worry about them. Just make sure you are sufficiently far from land that they can't spot you. Another alternative is to find a large single tree; and use dirt to pillar up to the top and stay up there till day arrives. Mobs will not spot you if it is a large enough tree and if they do, just take evasive action and move to the other side of the tree. Spiders could give you a problem, but hopefully, they won't see you. A word of advice if you do this, trees obviously contain wood, so you can use it to your advantage. Or if you dig some soil, you can build a tall 1x1 structure by pillar jumping: jump up while looking straight down, and place one of your soil blocks in the space you've jumped up from. By doing this repeatedly, you can get high enough above the ground that the mobs will be unable to detect you. You will then need to wait until morning. Once it is light enough, and the mobs have burned, simply dig out the blocks you're perched upon until you're back on the ground.

Home Safety
By the end of the first day the shelter will likely be primitive and small, in the days after it's easier to build a 'home', in whatever shape or form you can imagine. In the first shelter it's likely you only have 1 entrance, therefore it may be wise to add a crude 'defense' or trap to stop monsters from 'grouping up' at the door. For example, when you do not use a bed to skip the night and get disturbed while you are building, it would be best to have an alternative to fighting off the mobs. A simple and effective defense is to dig a small 3 block deep trench on both sides next to the door. The monster will have a hard time not falling down when it's following you to the shelter.



This design can be spiced up with a Trapdoor or you can make one of countless other possible Traps, though on the first day it's often suggested to keep it simple. Over time you will acquire other resources to assist in myriad different traps and defenses. You can find many examples of them, including but not limited to: TNT based traps, Mob Grinders, Lava Pits, etc.

TNT is an example of something that requires resources that are difficult to gather on your first day, not to mention they are a one-time use option. Another way to protect your home is to 'plant' cacti around it. Simply find at least one cactus block, gather some sand, and place them in defensive positions around your home. The cactus will grow and the extra blocks can be used to make additional cacti. You won't be able to make straight 'wall' of them, since cacti self-destruct with something adjacent to it, but you can stagger them diagonally, creating a checkerboard pattern. Alternatively a straight wall can still be achieved when you place a block one level above the adjacent block,however when the cactus grows a block this new block which would be adjacent to another block and gets destroyed immediately. Remember to leave yourself a way in no matter what device you scheme to ensure home safety. One strategy is to make a yard and build fences all around it except for one block where you can put a Fence Gate.

Emergency Shelter
Redirect to.

If everything else is unsuccessful, or you somehow die and spawn in your default spawn point, (which hopefully is near your shelter), and night has already fallen...fear not! Dig three blocks down, cover your head with another block. Then wait out the night. Sure, you'll survive the night, but due to the lack of resources you have now, you'll survive the night in a cramped, dark, 1x1x2 hole. At least you're safe. Another option is just to collect some dirt and then build a tower up to a tree and stay there for the night. If you have the time to mine enough dirt or have extra resources, a good strategy is to us the "pillar" strategy which is to look directly down and keep placing blocks while jumping, which will create a pillar. If the pillar is high enough, monsters will not be able to spot you and you can wait out the night. (Note: This skill is highly useful in this game, whether cave exploring, building, or for the technique above). A final strategy is if you have a bed with you. Build a three block high pillar, then make two blocks to the side to put a bed, making the bed rest on the two blocks which are 2 blocks high from the ground. Since monsters cannot get to you, you will wake up the next night with no bad dreams. (Very useful if you want to constantly build a structure without waiting a night indoors in your shelter).

Next Day
Here's a tutorial for the Second Day.

The Shopping List
This is a quick reference for what you will need to survive your first night.


 * Bearings
 * Mark spawn and observe where north and east are.


 * Gather and craft
 * Get 10 logs: See note below
 * Get 3 wool blocks
 * Make a crafting table
 * Make a wooden pickaxe
 * Get 11 cobblestone*
 * Make a stone pickaxe
 * Get about 4 saplings (these are found when you chop leaves in a tree)


 * Shelter
 * Make a bed
 * Start on shelter (materials depend, not counted)
 * Create a door for your shelter
 * Create a storage chest and place it in the shelter
 * Create a furnace
 * Smelt 1 log to make charcoal unless you found coal
 * Create some torches and place them

9 logs equal 32 planks and a leftover log (logs do not have much use, so you might as well make 36 planks.)
 * Resource usage
 * 4 planks for crafting table
 * 4 planks for sticks for pickaxe's and some torches
 * 3 planks for head of pickaxe
 * 8 planks for storage chest
 * 6 planks for door
 * 3 planks for bed
 * 1 log + 1 plank for furnace (plank as fuel, log for charcoal)


 * Multiplayer
 * a few Wooden Pressure Plates. You never know when they may come in handy, perhaps saving you from a devious Iron Door trap!


 * Tip: Gather 3 stone first, then make a stone pickaxe; use it to gather 8 stone for a furnace.

Tutorial Videos

 * The First Day in Minecraft 1.0.0 (SecretRevelation)
 * The First Day (Beginners' Essentials) (Minecraft Tutorial)
 * Minecraft The First 10 Minutes (Minecraft Tutorial)
 * Your First Shelter in Minecraft (Tutorial Machinima)
 * Minecraft: Building a Starting House (Minecraft Tutorial)
 * Minecraft Efficient Farm (Minecraft Tutorial)

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