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 and all hostile mobs will disappear.

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, or iron ingots 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. After that make a pickaxe and a shovel. 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 (preferably sandstone) 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
On your second day your main focus should be more charcoal.

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 16 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 you can hold.

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.

Coal Without Mining
You have made your shelter, already mined some Cobblestone and can't find and Coal to light your enviroment? 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). 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. 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. If you are particularly unlucky then don't build out of wood.

The Enemy of My Enemy
Getting beaten up good by lots of hostile mobs? Remember: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Skeletons become hostile to each other if their arrows hit each other, and you can use the blast radius of the Creeper's explosion to injure other mobs. Other MOBS, not yourself, of course. If you happen to encounter any wild wolves on your travels, you can use a bone to tame them. Tame wolves can let off some pressure in a battle by fighting other mobs for you.

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 another 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, while Cobblestone mines Iron. Iron mines all blocks, except for Obsidian in which Diamond has the honor of mining. Be careful when doing this - lava pits mean precious ores nearby and vice-versa.

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, and since you can't craft Rolexes in Minecraft, try bringing along a crafting table, or stock up on tools if you have to.

Tutoriels/Conseils et astuces