Tutorials/Things not to do

The Minecraft community has developed some unofficial standards of gaming which will help any new Minecraft player to get a hang of the game. Below is a user collected list of things you shouldn't do in order to make your game experience as enjoyable as possible.These are just rules to keep you safe if you get bored following or doing any of these rules feel free to break them all and play the game your own way. Your choice leaves you responsible! Read these rules to keep safe in minecraft

While using a bow
Never ever shoot your bow (if you have one) straight up! It could kill you.

Don't venture around far away from your house without remembering its location
After the first few days of hard work, you will have some basic facilities for your survival. (Wheat farms, a small house, your first mine, etc.) In this situation, it can be tempting to venture farther around to find new resources and have more adventure. However, you should always keep in mind the location of your house. Even a brief moment of activity in an unfamiliar place can make you lose your sense of direction and where your house was making all your effort from the first few days lost and putting you in danger from mobs, especially at night. To prevent this, you can use the Debug screen by pressing F3 (if you are using Windows or Linux), or Function + F3 (on Mac), and remember the coordinates of your house - or look at your home and take a screenshot with the Debug information visible by pressing F2 on Windows/Linux or Function+F2 on Mac or write the coordinates in a notepad - when you start venturing around. Building a tall tower with some torches on the top can also help you spot your house, but only if your render distance is high enough. Keeping a running list of important coordinates is recommended, especially for slower computers.

Never sleeping in the nether or end
If you want to sleep in the nether or end don't. Instead of you sleeping you will actual blow yourself up like a creeper.

Don't dig straight down
By mining the block below you, you're likely to fall into a cave system and take significant falling damage, fall into lava and lose your inventory or fall into a dungeon and be killed or severely damaged by mobs. Notch has even added a splash text to this effect. It is always safer to mine in a staircase pattern or find an open-mouth cave on the surface. It is also safe to place ladders as you go so you don't fall off the block and get killed.

A 2×1 hole straight down is still not advisable, but is much safer, since you don't have to stand on the block that you're removing. If you want to dig straight down, another method consists of mining 4 blocks in a 2×2. Stand on one and break the one next to it, hop onto the block below, and repeat. Make sure you don't dig two down from the one you step onto; you have to be able to jump back up. This will consume more resources but constructs a staircase back to the mine entrance.

A safer method is to dig a 3×1 hole with a ladder down the middle. (Multiple ladders may also work.) It's worth re-adding some side blocks every 5 to 8 levels, in case you fall off the ladder. You can also pour water at the bottom to protect you from fall damage. The wider hole gives you room for both those side blocks and torches, and means you always have someplace safe to stand when digging. Such a shaft is also a good start for shaft mining the area. Another way is to dig down 3 blocks from the surface, place a ladder on the bottom block, stand on that ladder and mine the blocks below and repeat. This method isn't particularly fast, but can be useful if say you are in a small extreme hills biome and want to mine for emeralds without accidentally mining out of the biome, and can be quick when going in and out of your mine.

If you truly insist on digging narrow mineshafts downwards, try to listen for water, lava or mob sounds. They can give away the presence of a cavern where water, lava or mobs can spawn in and potentially harm you.


 * Note: If you happen to find a cave and aren't carrying the necessary equipment (sword, torches, armor, picks, etc.), go back to the surface and get better supplies before exploring too far.

Digging straight down can also get you stuck in the hole you've dug. In that case, pillar jumping or ladders should get you out.

Never dig straight down in the center of a desert temple. This will result in you falling down into a TNT trap, which will lead to an inevitable death by explosion (unless you are wearing high level Blast Protection armor) followed by your items and the contents of the treasure chests being destroyed. It is much safer to dig down in a staircase fashion and then mine away the pressure plate. Once this is done, you can safely harvest the TNT and take the treasure. Many players will end up learning the hard way and die, so if you're new to Minecraft, remember this bit of advice.

Don't dig straight up
This isn't quite so obvious. However, if you mine the block above you, all sorts of nasty things could fall onto you. Water, lava, or hostile mobs can kill you by drowning, burning, or attacking you to death. Gravel and sand can also suffocate you, although this has been nerfed to the point of near-impossibility. Placing torches underneath where you dig up can prevent suffocation, but you may still drown or burn, though the former is unlikely in most situations. In the case that you have Particles turned on, you will see drips of either water or lava from blocks with the respective liquid above them. Placing ladders, if you have any, will protect against everything but mobs (in a single-block-wide shaft, the ladder may slow the mobs down somewhat). Be extremely wary if you hear noises above you, as you may happen upon a dungeon. If there is a fluid one block above you, you will observe a dripping effect (assuming particles are turned on); blue means water, red means lava and green drips mean there's a slime above you. If you see this, be very careful! Remember that you will not see a drip if you're digging up next to the edge of a lava or water lake, but the fluid may still pour out over you. Always have somewhere safe to retreat to.

Don't dig underwater in survival mode
In survival mode, blocks take five times as long to break while the player is underwater. That's why there is a high risk of drowning while digging underwater, if you are not close to the surface. Placing signs, ladders, iron bars, glass panes, a door, a fence, or a sponge on nearby blocks can be used to produce air pockets where you can catch a breath and recover your air supply. Also, placing a torch at head height will replenish your air supply, and the torch will break and return to your inventory. Since all blocks displace a full block of water as long as there is something in the block space, placing a “partial” block (such as an iron bar or a sign) will create a full block air pocket. You can also create air pockets by digging out dirt or sand under an overhang (the block above must not be sand or gravel). You can also breathe under water with the aid of a bucket, a helmet enchanted with Respiration and (optional) Aqua Affinity, or a potion of water breathing.

This tip especially applies in the Ocean monuments, as you'll find that mining your way out of the structure (even if Aqua Affinity is used) is dangerous due to the Guardians that spawn inside being able to lock on to you as a target. This is a larger issue here, because the Elder Guardian, which spawns rarely inside the monument, gives you Mining Fatigue.

Don't run around with a bucket of lava in your hand
Lava is one of the worst ways to die since you lose everything you were carrying. It is easy to accidentally right click, laying the lava spring right in front of you leading to a horrible death. Even if it doesn't kill you, it may destroy whatever you were working on, or perhaps destroy your buildings. Do not keep lava in the hotbar unless you are immediately (or very shortly) going to use it, for exactly the same reason (perhaps unless you're playing PvP).

Don't use a bed in the Nether or the End
Using a bed in the Nether or End will cause it to explode, and will also set the ground on fire, so if the initial explosion doesn't kill you the fire will. So don't try to get your night's rest in these hellish dimensions. Beds don't have much use in the Nether or End anyway, even if they didn't explode. Having your spawn in the Nether is rather unsafe, and there is no day-night cycle for you to sleep through. Do not use beds for anything but decoration or player traps (only in multiplayer) in the Nether. Same thing applies to the End. It's best not to place any whatever the case, to prevent accidental explosions.

Don't mess around with TNT (unless you know what you're doing)
TNT explosions are very deadly from close by, especially chains of explosives set up. Whenever possible, use redstone wiring and detonate from a distance to ensure safety. If you decide to set off some TNT from a distance it is advised to use repeaters to give more time to get away from the explosion/explosions. This is recommended if you have a lot of redstone. If you happen to have a bow enchanted with the Flame enchantment, those will set them off as well, shown in the animated picture below. Running is a good suggestion as well.



Going around a corner will put said corner between you and the blast, and for underground mining this is the easiest method if you haven't found any redstone yet.

Don't place TNT on a block of redstone unless it's necessary. TNT can explode if placed on a redstone block since redstone blocks acts as a power source and can detonate upon placing it, blowing up you and other blocks. Unless you're doing this for mining or if necessary, find cover so you won't get hurt from the blast.

Even if you are experienced in the use of TNT, wear armor while using it. Armor significantly cuts damage from both creeper and TNT explosions. If you have Blast Protection on the armor, you will take even less damage.

Don't forget to carry a bucket of water at all times
If you are going to carry anything with you at all times, it should be a bucket of water. A bucket of water is more useful and more vital than any other item you could ever carry. Leaving it in your inventory simply is not sufficient as in a life or death situation you don't have time to find it in your inventory. Always leave your bucket of water on the hotbar. Water buckets rarely come into use, but are instrumental as life-saving devices when they do. If a player falls into lava, placing water will extinguish the fire and allow them to climb out. Water can also create obsidian walkways over pools of lava. Water buckets provide a fast method of safely descending cliffs: players may place water, wait, then reclaim the water and fall into the disappearing waterfall. If falling near a wall, players may even save their lives by placing water on that wall and holding the jump key. Pick up your water after using it, so it can keep saving your life.

You'll almost never need more than 2 or 3 buckets of water at any time—one full of water, one empty to pick up springs, and perhaps a spare to take home some lava. Remember that a 2×2 "infinite water" pool works both ways—you can bucket springs and empty the buckets into it.

Another use for a water bucket would be repelling Endermen. Endermen are hurt by water, and if they come into contact with it, they teleport away.

Don't forget to bring at least one full stack of common blocks if you're mining deep underground
Lava is the biggest problem when mining. Find yourself trying to mine through a large lava pit? Mine up until you're above it, then sneak to the edge and keep dropping gravel or sand into the pit to fill it. No need to reorder your mine plotting or mess around with obsidian and no worry about accidentally tunneling into a hot spot. Cobblestone is arguably more effective; it's more easily replenished, and you won't use as many blocks when you find lava.

Don't forget to isolate diamond ores before mining
If you see diamond ore, especially on the ground, mine away the blocks around it. If you see lava, take care to completely remove or replace it to ensure you won't come into danger while attempting to extract the diamond. The same principle can be applied to gold, redstone, obsidian, moss stone and to a lesser extent iron, coal, lapis lazuli, and emerald. Dirt, gravel, and stone should be gathered above ground, where it is safe, and lava should be collected from the Nether or from surface lava pools, as it is easier to use a bucket on source blocks in these places. Remember to place torches when the light from the lava disappears!

Don't break into the Void
Don't try breaking in the Void. It is both extremely difficult and fruitless. Once you fall in, you will quickly die, and you can't get your stuff back. Don't try to fly into the void in Creative, because even in creative you can and will die after going below Y:-64. Each time you receive void damage, you lose.

Don't surround your bed with blocks
If there is not a free space next to your bed, you're going to wake up standing on your bed. If there is only one block of free space over your bed, you're going to wake up inside a block. When you are inside of the block, you will begin suffocating and lose health. Redstone may kill you too. You can remove the block where you are, but must be quick. If you are too slow, you will die. After your death, you will respawn in your original spawn point. A notification comes up when you get there, reading “Your home bed was missing or obstructed”. Sometimes when that happens, you could be in some random spot in your world. So, again, be careful! It is dangerous!

Don't teleport to the Nether without fire resistance potions or enchanted golden apples
When you first enter the Nether you obviously won't have fire resistance potions. While exploring in the nether it is easy to spawn on a cliff or mountain side, it is also easy to get knocked back into an ocean of lava and never see your stuff again. If you haven't gotten blaze rods or started brewing yet, it is best to have some spare food and have a full set of Iron Armor on with a bow to kill blazes, because when they light you on fire, it's hard to extinguish yourself when you can't place water in the Nether. When you enter the Nether immediately go look for magma cubes to brew a potion. They are rare, so if you can fight blazes and have a slimeball, you can combine those two in the 2×2 crafting area to get magma cream like so:

Alternatively, if your overworld base is overflowing with gold, an enchanted golden apple will also confer fire resistance as well as life-saving regeneration.

Don't ride horses in the Nether
Horses are useful in the hilly over world, or flat plains, but the Nether is no horse paradise. There are many cliffs horses can fall off of, ghasts to shoot you into a sea of lava, and the place is one big cave. You wouldn't take a horse mining, would you? If you must use a horse/donkey in the Nether (i.e. large transport of materials), take several precautions:


 * Use a fire resistance potion.
 * Use horse armor if you're using a horse.
 * Avoid speed potions (May seem counter-intuitive, but higher speeds = Higher chance of falling off a cliff).

Alternatively if you are making a transport system in the Nether, you can create a pathway exclusively for the horse to effectively create a “horse subway” that will travel extremely fast with the combined speed of the horse and the distance reducing effect of the Nether.

Don't build a nether portal on bedrock in survival mode
If you build a nether portal at the bedrock layer you will have a very good chance of spawning on a small island near the lava ocean, meaning that shelter area may be limited to only a few blocks of space and since there is likely a lot of room around you. This type of area can also hide ghasts trying to snipe you from the lava and deactivate your portal. Also, glowstone and quartz may be very rare in this type of spawn, and ladders will easily be destroyed by ghasts. It is recommended that you build your portal above layer 20. You may even spawn on top of the lava, and your first steps into the Nether will be your death. Even more rarely, you will spawn in lava and as soon you spawn in the nether, lava will destroy the portal and you will die.

Don't drink poison potions
Poison is very deadly and spider eyes boot out 2 hearts, but potions of poison can boot out more until the time runs out or you die. It's a waste of spider eyes and you need them for food. (Even if it can boot out 2 hearts). It's also a waste of potions and you could have used them for splash potions. The poison itself will not kill you, but if you drink (or get splashed by) a potion, you will be reduced to, leaving you wide open for a single hit from a mob, fall damage, or really any damage at all.

For this reason, splash potions of poison are extremely useful in Player versus Player combat, so long as you don't inadvertently splash yourself with it. Given the fact that they can only be thrown a maximum of nine blocks, this is quite likely to happen even to experienced PvP'ers.

Don't eat a pufferfish
When fished, pufferfish may look good to eat, but these things are actually extremely deadly when eaten and should only ever be used for brewing a potion of water breathing. Pufferfish will impose three nasty and extremely potent status effects on you when eaten - poison, hunger and nausea. The poison is, in fact, Poison IV, the highest that any item can inflict (in vanilla Minecraft). The poison effect will last an entire minute and lower you to 0.5 hearts in just 12 seconds, forcing you to stay on half a heart for 48 seconds! During this time, you are extremely vulnerable, and as you get the hunger effect, you will need to eat again before you can start healing. Not only that, but for the first 15 seconds, you get nausea, which wobbles and warps the screen (it's exactly the same as when you're in a nether portal, except it's not purple and you can type in chat), highly impairing your vision, which could lead to you walking into lava or off a cliff or ravine accidentally, and making it significantly harder to fight monsters and dodge arrows or hit creepers, and you may also accidentally trigger an enderman attack. Like all status effects, these can be washed away with a milk bucket, but that would be a waste of a potential water breathing potion.

Pufferfish are sometimes used to troll new players, especially ones that are unfamiliar with the real-life pufferfish, which is also quite deadly to consume. This is generally not a malicious act; players that do this usually do it only to see the victim's reaction (which is generally quite funny). However, it can be used to trick a player that would otherwise be near-unkillable but is unfamiliar with game mechanics (most common on servers that reward donators).

Don't drill around with Efficiency V in netherrack
Yes, Efficiency is useful for breaking things quickly, but using it in the nether when mining netherrack can lead to death or other problems. Netherrack is a very soft block and high efficiency will mine it so fast that with just one click, multiple blocks will break. In other words, breaking faster than on creative. Especially don't dig straight down, as your super drill pickaxe could lead you into lava. Even without efficiency, try to mine it slower as it's a good habit to keep you safer. There is also hidden lava in the nether that could spill out and kill you any time, which can be randomly found by digging netherrack. This is worse than it might sound, because lava in the Nether flows as fast and far as water does in the Overworld. However, if you have potions of fire resistance, and want a ton of netherrack for whatever reason, then it may be a good choice to dig a tunnel. However, make it wide, as to ease up on space if you need to run. If you don't have fire resistance, then bring a lot of wooden pickaxes.

If you must dig a tunnel, make it two blocks wide. One side of the floor should be higher than the other, so that if you do hit lava, it will be channeled to the lower side. Always stand on the high side.

Don't drill around in sand with a shovel with Efficiency III or above
Like the previous, efficiency can cause problems. If you drill around in sand and move forward, the game may sort of glitch and suffocate you for either a split second or until you die. Keep your distance with sand, the same going for gravel too. This usually happens on laggy servers or single-player worlds played on a weak computer, so if you are confident in your computer or are playing on a server that you rarely have lag issues with, then this is probably safe.

Keep in mind that death is extremely rare from this sort of thing; an "Oh my gosh that scared me!" moment is far more likely.

Don't jump off a mountain even if there is water to land in
Jumping off the biggest mountain in Minecraft may seem fun, but you should not attempt it, even if you think the water below will save you. You are likely to miss the water entirely and receive extreme damage or die. It is much safer to just descend the mountain safely by climbing down normally. Even better, that bucket of water can be used to descend it, as even though you'll probably lose one water block, water is pretty common and you can easily scoop up more. If you are on AMPLIFIED, not even Feather Falling (which only reduces fall damage, not eliminate it) can save you from enormous falls. Usually it is safe if you can see the bottom, and it's wide. Lakes are good choices. Waterfalls are even safer, as you can slide down the water.

Don't forget to leave a trail of torches (or other blocks) underground
Especially in an abandoned mineshaft. If you don't leave a trail of at least something recognizable, you are extremely likely to get lost. Just imagine all those goods you have at your home, possibly lost forever. (If you really do this, just dig up and path your way to home, but dangerous in y=40 or smaller because of the chances encountering another mineshaft or cave which is deadly.) If you don't want to leave a trail, then a compass is what you need.

Don't use a water world superflat preset for survival
While it may seem fun, you WILL drown before you can get to the surface. Remember to only use this preset if you are making a Creative Mode world.

Don't look at endermen
If your crosshair touches any part of the upper body of an enderman, it will attack you. If you want to hunt endermen without fear of provoking them prematurely, wearing a pumpkin on your head will prevent them from becoming hostile when looking at them. While this is an effective way to approach an enderman safely, the pumpkin will also make it more difficult to see other monsters and fight them, unless one uses third person to fight the enderman, though this too has its disadvantages if one is not accustomed to it. If your armor is of high quality, such as enchanted iron or diamond armor, consider using a normal helmet instead of a pumpkin in order to fight more efficiently.


 * If you don't have a pumpkin or high quality armor with which to fight an enderman, a simple strategy is to build a small roof of cobblestone (or another cheap building material) up to three blocks high, and taking refuge under it while fighting the Enderman. You can enter a space that is two blocks high, but an Enderman cannot, so hiding under the roof and striking it with a sword is an easy way to dispatch the enemy without taking damage, although other mobs such as zombies can still hurt you. Alternatively, constructing a pillar four blocks high will produce roughly the same result, as an enderman cannot attack you from that height. Take care that a wandering skeleton or spider doesn't knock you off the pillar, though.

Don't get too close to a creeper
When it gets dark, or during the day if you see any, stay away from creepers as they can kill you in one explosion on hard (or normal, depending on your distance from it) if you do not have any armor. If you hear the sound of a creeper (which sort of sounds like primed TNT) proceed with caution. Your best bet is to run away in most situations, as even at walking speed the player moves faster than a creeper. For reference, this is a creeper:

If you are forced into a situation where you need to fight a creeper, keeping your distance is preferred. The best option is to use a bow, as you can kill a creeper at such a large distance it won't even be able to target you. If the creeper is close, you can build a 5 block high “pillar” by jumping and placing a block underneath your feet, which will allow you to shoot a creeper wandering around the base of the pillar, preventing it from getting close enough to explode.

If you do not have a bow and must fight it, your best bet is to use a sprint attack. If you hit a creeper (or almost any other mob) while sprinting, you will hit it farther away than if you just hit it normally. Usually this is enough to keep it far enough that it won't try to explode, but if it hits a block while being knocked back it may still try to explode, and if you miss while attempting a sprint attack the creeper will likely explode close enough to severely hurt or kill you.

If all else fails, try to get the creeper to explode as far away from you as possible. Ironically, this is the easiest to do on the “Hard” difficulty setting, since creepers can “count down” to detonation when they are further away from you than on other settings. It is even possible in some situations to persuade a creeper to explode without causing any damage to the player at all. Their explosion will cause damage to the environment unless they are partially in water, so if you need to make one explode, the ideal way to do this is to get it in water, and then get close enough to cause it to start detonating and then swim away, lowering your chances of getting hurt or killed.

If you begin to hear a creeper's hiss behind you, don't attempt to turn around and knock it away, don't try to block, don't do anything like that- just sprint away. At that point, it is completely impossible to kill it quickly enough to prevent the explosion, so surviving it is your highest priority.

Don't play on hard if you are a first time player
Trying hard for first players may sound fun, but it is a lot harder than easy mode (hence the name “hard mode”). Monsters can kill an unready player very quickly at night, and zombies can break down your wooden doors. Also, not eating will cause your food meter drop to zero, and that will make you lose hearts slowly. You can starve to death on hard, so watch out. One last thing, mobs deal more damage. This makes mobs a lot harder to kill and a lot easier for them to kill you! And villagers always turn into a zombie villager if killed by one.

Don't try to kill zombies or endermen with a bow
Until you build a mob farm or skeleton dungeon grinder or have an Infinity enchantment on your bow, use your arrows sparingly. They are best saved for more dangerous mobs, such as skeletons, creepers (look above), and spiders. Zombies are easier to kill with a sword, and safer as well, because the high attack speed will keep them away from you. The exception is when the zombie is burning or their sword is enchanted with Fire Aspect, in which case, you will be set on fire when hit. This also applies to passive mobs. Endermen almost always teleport away from arrows before they get hit, and you should avoid shooting them entirely. Alternatively, if you have a wolf or two, why bother wasting your sword's durability on a zombie? Just punch the zombie and the wolves will take care of the rest. Meanwhile, you can get on with killing creepers and skeletons.

Don't venture outside on your first night
Unless you are an experienced player or are on peaceful mode, venturing outside during the night is very dangerous. You will almost certainly be killed by mobs. Mushroom islands are the most safe, as mobs do not spawn there. However, they are very rare, so plains are the safest places to be outside at night, because you can see monsters coming from a distance. Forests and jungles can be dangerous, because you can easily be cornered, or surprised by a creeper coming around a tree. It would be far better if you stayed inside your first night, or stay away from any thing that can possibly kill you or can get you hurt. However, some people enjoy fighting mobs with little supplies, as it provides a challenge. The mobs that will most likely kill you are creepers, skeletons, and spiders.

Don't forget your sword when caving
A good sword is a player's best friend when in dangerous situations. One of the worst places to forget a sword is in a cave. In underground places, mobs spawn as fast as you can kill them, even with a sword. Even if you light up an area, if it is in a slime chunk, slimes can spawn. Plus, if you happen to find a dungeon, which are more common than you think, you can get killed fast if you do not have a good sword. Do not even think about caving until you have at least an iron sword and decent armour.

Don't build a wall that spiders can climb over
A wall is an excellent means of defending a certain area, either as a way to keep monsters out or for players to shoot enemies from afar without posing any danger to themselves. However, if a wall is designed incorrectly, spiders can easily scale the wall and make your wall far less effective. Spiders treat all vertical surfaces as ladders, allowing them to climb any wall with ease. However, they cannot pass through a block that is directly above them, so building an overhang on the outer side of a wall will deter spiders from climbing any further. Be careful, because spiders can jump over low walls!

Don't leave gaps in your shelter
The purpose of a shelter is to protect you from the outside world. Leaving any sort of opening in that shelter defeats the purpose of having one, as monsters will simply be able to walk right in and attack you. Make sure that your house or fort is secure from all monster attacks, and only has entrances that can be defended easily. If you wish to see what's going on outside of your shelter while standing within, always make windows out of glass or glass panes instead of just punching a hole in the wall. An uncovered hole will allow skeleton arrows to strike you from inside the house, and creepers can see you from outside and explode next to the wall. Using glass will prevent monsters from attacking you in this manner.

In case you don't have access to sand (to create glass), wooden gates can also do the trick, as hostile mobs cannot see through them.

If you must have a hole and not a window, for instance an arrow slit, use stairs. Two upside down stairs facing toward each other in the wall leaves a space almost impossible to shoot through unless very close, making it safe from skeletons.

Don't start a sugar cane farm right outside or near your home
It's hard to identify a creeper hiding in sugar cane in the fraction of the second you have before he starts his timer, and by the time you've gotten your sword out, your house will have a hole in it. However, it is completely safe if you use double fences, light up your farm, close the gate(s), and remove any higher ground near the farm. However, if a creature is following you, you can walk into the middle of a 2-block tall sugar cane. The creature will not be able to find you in the reeds, and will most likely walk away - but it may still walk into the plant.

Don't attack iron golems (unless you made it)
Iron golems sound like a reliable source of iron, right? Think again. Iron golems only drop 3-6 iron ingots (perhaps a poppy too) when they're killed, have hearts (compared to your ), and have an attack strength of  to  hearts of damage per attack (which is the same as an enchanted diamond sword!). Worst of all, killing an iron golem lowers your popularity with a village by 5 points. If it is at -15, iron golems are indefinitely hostile towards you, until your village popularity is restored. However, you can safely construct an iron golem farm if you really want to harvest iron from them.

Don't use a wooden door on Hard mode unless it's protected
On hard difficulty, zombies can easily break down wooden doors and attack you in your base. The easiest way to protect a wooden door is to place a block of dirt in front of it anytime you are not using it. You can also use an alternative (fence gates, iron doors,) place fences and a gate around it, or place a door from inside the door-hole and open it. You can also put it in sideways, so when you open it it's closed, so the zombies don't even try to break it down. See Tutorials/Traps for advanced ways to protect your door.

Don't hit a skeleton with a sword enchanted with Knockback
This knocks it away and gives it more time to attack and knock you back so you can't kill the skeleton. This could kill you too so watch out when near a cliff, fire, or lava. Smite is good for this.


 * Exception: You can knock the skeleton(s) over a cliff. They would probably die from the fall, and if water broke their fall then they wouldn't be capable of attacking you (if the cliff was high enough).

Don't fight ranged mobs in water
If you try to fight a skeleton in water, it will shoot really fast and try to knock you away. Since your movement is hampered in water, you will not be able to reach the skeleton quickly enough before it shoots and knocks you back again (knockback is arguably the most annoying effect in Minecraft). It is even harder to fight a skeleton in flowing water, if the water is flowing against you. Your best bet is to leave the water and wait for the skeleton to follow you out of the water, where you will then have an even playing field to kill it.


 * Exception: in versions 1.8 and further, the Depth Strider enchantment on boots makes you walk and run faster in water. If you have this enchantment, press your forward (default W) key and then your sprint (default control) while fighting skeletons.

Don't fight bosses without the right equipment
If you find an End Portal, have the soul sand and skulls to make the wither, or find an ocean monument, you should come equipped with these:


 * High protection enchanted iron or diamond armor
 * A sword, preferably diamond or enchanted (for the wither, smite, for the dragon and guardians, sharpness)
 * A bow, also preferably enchanted (You'll want infinity and power for the dragon, just power for the wither (use infinity if you have it)
 * Golden apples or health potions
 * Dirt/gravel/sand blocks or ladders, to get out of a sticky situation
 * Milk, since it removes the Wither and Mining Fatigue effects
 * Friends: it's easier with more than one person, so if you're on multiplayer, fight as a group.
 * A helmet enchanted with Respiration and Aqua Affinity and boots enchanted with Depth Strider for fighting Guardians and maneuvering around ocean monuments
 * If you are fighting the wither, do it in a low-ceiling cave, so you will have “sword mode” all the way (you can't spam-click with bows).
 * Do not fight the wither with “sword mode” in the nether without making sure there is no lava lake below the “arena".

Don't attack a silverfish in a stronghold (unless you can kill it in one hit)
Once you attack a silverfish in a stronghold, it will awaken all other silverfish there, meaning you have a lot of silverfish to deal with. It is a better suggestion to just run away until it enters a new block. Getting into an inaccessible location for the silverfish is a good idea as well. If you have an enchanted diamond sword that can kill it in one hit, that's a different story. You can just hit the silverfish once and it will die, not awakening other silverfish. A failsafe is to enchant a diamond sword. No matter how low or high, it will always be a 1-hit kill. Another way to safely kill Silverfish is to use a Bucket of Lava or a Flint and Steel to burn them. This won't awaken more because you are only indirectly dealing damage to them. Be careful when using this method though, as it is very easy to accidentally burn yourself.

Don't let a snow golem run free near your bed
Since snow layer counts as a block, you will wake up standing on your bed, and you will wake up inside a block if your ceiling is only 2 blocks above, and that will make you take suffocation damage. You will also not spawn at your bed if you die, because it is "obstructed". To avoid this, cage up your snow golem.

Don't blow up your armor stands
Creepers explode when close to the player, and if armor stands are destroyed by explosions, they will not drop as an item, and you will lose not only the armor stand, but also the armor/headgear that was on it.

Don't forget to light every room in your house
When you think you are safe in your dark house, you are not. Mobs can easily spawn when you leave the house and when you come back, you might be killed because you are not ready to battle. Using torches is good enough, but for advanced players they may use glowstone or redstone lamps. Nobody wants to be surprised by uninvited guests in their home (Exception: If you want to have a mob spawn room to collect the drops and experience). Do not use redstone torches! Their lighting level starts at a low enough level (7) for monsters to spawn. This of course makes it a good lighting idea for a dungeon (monster spawner room) if you want it able to spawn mobs but still want to see.

Don't activate a nether reactor if you are not ready yet (unless it is peaceful)
In Pocket Edition, zombie pigmen are hostile but like in PC, it is better if you are ready, because you can be inflicted by great damage. Also do not try to grab loot before fighting, because you can be killed.

Don't venture into an ocean monument without the proper equipment
Ocean monuments were added in snapshot 14w25a, and are very dangerous unless prepared. Guardians spawn in them, which do 4.5 hearts of damage on hard, and 3 elder guardians, which will inflict mining fatigue III on you, which makes breaking blocks almost impossible without enchantments. The proper equipment is:


 * Potion of water breathing (essential, bring at least 4)
 * Potion of night vision (optional, but very useful bring at least 2)
 * Splash potion of healing (optional, but good for quick healing, bring at least 3)
 * Splash potion of regeneration (optional, but helps a lot while fighting guardians and elder guardians, bring at least 1)
 * Potion of strength (optional, but very helpful when fighting guardians and elder guardians, bring at least 2)
 * Enchanted diamond armor (good enchantments include Respiration, Aqua Affinity, Protection, and Depth Strider)
 * Fairly large amount of food
 * A diamond sword enchanted with at least Sharpness I
 * Bow (not really needed, because arrows will slow down when shot underwater)
 * Iron or diamond pickaxe (essential, if you want to get the blocks of gold in the monument, should be enchanted with at least efficiency II if you plan to mine with mining fatigue)
 * Milk (optional, but can get rid of the mining fatigue effect for a few seconds)
 * Sponge (optional, but can create an emergency air pocket)
 * 2 sugar cane and a block of dirt (or sand). Place 2 sugar canes on top of each other, on the dirt (or sand) to make a small room where you can breathe. (remember that the dirt (or sand) must be placed on a plain surface).

Don't fight a witch without good equipment
Witches are very dangerous. They throw negative potions at you like poison, harming, weakness and slowness. Players should never go unprepared when fighting a witch, because no matter how strong your armor is, it won't protect you from the potions. Only the protection enchantment counts. Thorns is useless due to the fact the potions are actually harming you, not the witch. Also, they drink positive potions, mostly healing, but they have other potions as well. They have speed, fire resistance and water breathing. Lava And Fire Aspect is almost useless due to the fact they drink a potion of Fire resistance. And since they are in lava, that makes it hard to kill and if you are using blocks to get to it, you can be knocked off to your death by a harming potion and they are impossible to drown since they drink potions of water breathing. Splash potions is completely useless due to the fact they are 85% resistant to splash potions. So thus, they take hearts of damage from instant damage II and  hearts of damage from instant damage I. Also, Poison is completely useless due to the fact they only take  hearts of damage every time from splash potion of poison. So get at least an iron sword to kill it easily. Take some good armor and protection is mandatory due to the fact protection is the best protection enchantment and unenchanted or enchanted armor with things other than protection cannot protect you from potions.

If you have no choice but to fight them, then sprint in as fast as possible and kill it with your sword. Witches are almost completely helpless in melee combat.

Don't get near a rabbit before checking its skin
Killer Bunnies, also known as Killer Rabbits of Caerbannog are extremely rare, but also extremely dangerous. If you see a rabbit with a white skin be careful. Both white rabbits and killer rabbits have red eyes, but the killer rabbits are sideways. If you get too close to a killer rabbit they will lunge at you and deal massive damage and will quickly kill an unarmored player. Since they have no ranged attack, a bow or splash potion is the best weapon to kill them.

Starting from 14w34a, Killer Bunnies no longer spawn naturally. So you probably don't need to worry if you are playing single player or on servers that are not deliberately configured to spawn them.

Don't attack villagers
Attacking a villager will cause you to lose 1 popularity. Killing one removes 2 and they drop nothing. Attacking a baby villager and you lose 3 popularity. If you kill the village's iron golem, you lose 5 popularity. If your popularity is -15 or lower, any naturally spawned iron golems will attack you. Also, the village popularity will not reset when you get killed and the only way you can get your popularity back up is to trade with villagers. So don't ever attack villagers or iron golems. If you must dispose of them, use natural damage, such as fire, lava, or dispensed TNT. Iron golems can be melted down into wonderful ingots just by adding some lava. You can also build an iron golem farm for this purpose. Remember, villagers are your good friends, not your foes!

Don't attack wolves
Remember that wolves can also be allied with the player. If you attack them, all the wolves around will get angry also, similar to zombie pigmen. Also, get this: Wolves do not despawn on Peaceful mode, but they will not damage you on Peaceful mode (except in Pocket Edition)

Don't attack an enderman with only a sword
In the Minecraft beginner's guide, the tactics on killing an enderman does not include attacking it with any high damage swords. The reason is that because, trying to attack it with a sword is most likely to get you killed (especially in the end). And what's worse, is that enderman teleport to you and sometimes before you kill it with your sword, it will kill you. So unless you are an experienced player,use a water bucket.

Don't throw a negative potion too close
If you throw an negative potion too close, you will be affected by the potion: poison is deadly as it brings you down to half an heart, and any damage can kill you. Weakness reduces the damage you deal to mobs, making it difficult to kill mobs. Slowness reduces your speed, making it difficult to escape hostile mobs. Instant damage can kill you if your health is low. Also, the knockback recieved from instant damage can send you off the edge of a cliff, if you are close to one. Note that undead mobs (zombies, skeletons, zombie pigmen, wither skeletons) will be healed if they are hit by one.

Don't look up in the sky while moving
If you're doing this, you might fall into a ravine, lava lake, or a patch of mobs, or fall down from a mountain. You'll be likely to die and lose your stuff if you do this. This would be stupid if you're playing on survival, especially hardcore. Nobody wants to be surprised by falling down to a ravine, lava lake or a patch of mobs. Looking around is the way to go while sprinting.

Don't stand right in front of the block you are mining
This isn't quite so obvious either, But if you mine the blocks in front (while being very close to the block) all sorts of things could happen - you could walk into a ravine, walk straight into a monster spawner, or even worse, have lava flow onto you. Use ambience to your advantage. If you hear a weird noise, lava, or water, proceed with caution.

Don't play hardcore mode unless you know what you are doing
Remember that it if you die once in hardcore, the world gets deleted! Also remember that monsters spawn anywhere it's dark enough; that includes outside at night (the moon doesn't help), and in caves anytime. Place torches everywhere! If you do not have a bow and a bunch of arrows, or a high-damage sword, do not go mining in deep dark caves. If you do, it won't end well. You should not be playing hardcore if you can't fight mobs properly. If you really want to dig, stay safe and build a quarry.

There is absolutely no point in safe-keeping important items (such as weapons and torches) far away from dangerous places because you won't be respawning to collect them if you die. And don't even try Hardcore until you're familiar with the game mechanics by playing a few games on lower difficulties first.

Don't venture outside during thunderstorms
Thunderstorms are a particularly dangerous form of weather, as the sky darkens enough for monsters to spawn, even during the daytime. An unprepared player with few supplies can be killed quite easily if a thunderstorm begins and monsters start to spawn. While thunderstorms do not occur often, it is always a good idea to make sure you have enough supplies and weapons to survive should one happen. Additionally, a biome with extensive vegetation, such as a swamp or jungle, is at additional risk during a thunderstorm, as a bolt of lightning can set trees ablaze and destroy large areas of forest. These bolts are also nearly lethal to the player if they are hit by one, so standing outside during a thunderstorm is always a risky prospect. And, if that wasn't bad enough, lightning bolts can transform pigs into zombie pigmen, villagers into witches, and creepers into charged creepers. Overall, thunderstorms are a dangerous situation.

Don't goof around in the Nether
If you're in the Nether, come well-prepared with a bow, a few stacks of arrows, (Or Infinity on that bow) lightly enchanted iron armor, and an iron or diamond sword, unless you're playing on Peaceful. However, unless you're on Hardcore, leave your really valuable equipment at home: an inventory-incinerating death in lava is far more likely in the Nether than it is in the Overworld.


 * Do not dig straight down — this is even more important in the Nether, where one-block thick overhangs above lava or high drops are the rule, rather than the exception. It is best not to dig anywhere close to your feet with a diamond pickaxe with any level of efficiency, as netherrack breaks instantly with said combination. Be careful on gravel as well—you may dig one block and discover you were standing on a gravel outcrop over a chasm or worse, the lava sea at the base of the Nether. However, the ladder trick in the overworld will still work.


 * Do not carry full stacks of diamonds or valuable diamond gear in the Nether, unless you've set up a secure nether base. And even if you are, a diamond or Efficiency-enchanted pickaxe can be more trouble than it's worth, as it will blast through netherrack floors and walls entirely too fast. (Think: Creative mode destruction time)


 * Do not build structures out of anything weaker than iron doors (25 blast resistance). Ghasts can and will blow up and possibly set fire to lesser materials.


 * Do not mine glowstone unless it can be collected safely constructing a cobblestone platform underneath it. Otherwise a ghast might blow both you and the cluster into your death, or the glowstone may fall into a lava pit or a magma cube party center. Also, do not go out of your way to find glowstone if you know where a witch hut is – you can nip in and cut the witch down every so often, and have a chance to get a little more glowstone. For those who have the patience, building a witch farm is worthwhile, and does not have anything to do with ghasts.




 * Do not venture into the Nether without flint and steel. Ghast fireballs can deactivate portals, and you'll need to relight them or die if you want to get back to the Overworld. Ghasts' fireballs can also relight them, but this is dangerous and very hard to do. This is now slightly less dangerous as fire charges can be obtained in the Nether, although wither skeletons are still dangerous.


 * Do not plan on using a water bucket as your defense against death in a lava pool, as water doesn't work in the Nether. Try to gain the necessary materials for Fire Resistance potions as soon as possible and use the potions as your defense instead.


 * Do not attack zombie pigmen without ample preparation for the consequences. Zombie pigmen work as a team; attack one, and all the zombie pigmen in the area will become aggressive, similar to untamed wolves. They're harder-hitting (dealing as much as 6½ hearts or 13 points of damage on Hard mode) and faster than regular Zombies, so it's better to kill single, isolated zombie pigmen unless you're well-equipped and experienced enough to take on large groups. A building of sorts to retreat in is advisable at all times, preferably with firing holes in the walls, even if you don't have a bow, you still can see through them. If you can't get away fast enough if you hit one, your best chance of survival is to hit them away with a sword with a knockback enchantment. You can knock them into lava as a defense method, because lava will slow them down and give you time to escape, but however, all Nether mobs take zero damage from fire and lava. Note: Killing zombie pigmen with a dispenser of TNT will not anger them as it counts as environmental damage.


 * Don't catch yourself on fire; as said before water does not work in the Nether unless you somehow have a cauldron with you, which you probably won't. Avoid fires, lava etc. unless you have sufficient protection against.


 * Do not try to sleep in the Nether. If you right-click a bed in the Nether, it will explode and possibly kill you. If you are on an overhang, you could even fall into lava. If you die in the Nether (other than Hardcore mode), you will wake up in the Overworld. This can be a good thing, however — in single-player or with no other players near where you were, the Nether chunk will unload, and you'll have plenty of time to re-equip yourself and maybe even go back to retrieve your stuff.

However, if you are not playing on Hardcore mode and want to preview the Nether, equip a stone pickaxe and sword. This is a good idea just in case the nether portal spawns in a lava ocean or in a quartz cave.

Don't get careless in a mineshaft
Abandoned mineshafts are some of the most dangerous places in Minecraft. If you get too careless, you could walk right into a cobweb, or cave spider spawner, and since cobwebs don't slow down cave spiders, you can quickly die in a situation like this. Always bring shears so you can mine out the cobwebs quickly and escape. Also, don't goof around near lava lakes in a mineshaft, because the wood around you could catch on fire (and you will too!) If you are standing on a bridge high over a ravine, be extra careful of skeletons and creepers, which might send you careening off the bridge, and cause you to take extreme (possibly fatal) fall damage or worse, plunge into lava below. You can also get lost in the vast labyrinthine mineshaft and never see the light of day again, in which case you will die of hunger (on hard difficulty) or will eventually be killed by a mob.

Don't smelt items with wood logs as a fuel source when you can craft it into 4 planks
Wood logs will burn for 15 seconds or 1.5 items, but wood planks will also burn for 15 seconds or 1.5 items! One wood log can craft 4 wood planks, so by crafting the wood log into 4 planks, you actually got 60 seconds or 6 items smelted from the four wooden planks. Another efficient way to get long-lasting fuel is to COOK one wood log from one plank, and then you will have one charcoal that can cook 8 items (80 seconds duration).

Try not to craft rabbit stew if you are not desperate
Rabbit Stew restores 5 shanks, but the 3 edible ingredients (the cooked rabbit, baked potato, and carrot) combined restores more than 5 shanks. The carrot restores 1.5 shanks + the cooked rabbit meat restores 2.5 shanks + and the baked potato restores 2.5 shanks. 1.5 + 2.5 + 2.5 = 6.5 shanks. Therefore, crafting rabbit stew results in a net loss of 1.5 shanks and the mushroom used to craft it.. Plus, rabbit stew does not stack, so it will hog up your inventory.

Don't drink base potions
These base potions (awkward, mundane, thick potions) have no effects on the player, so you have just wasted the nether wart used to brew awkward potions (luckily nether wart is renewable), or the glowstone dust (also renewable) used to brew the thick potions.

Don't turn all your bones into bone meal
When you turn your bones into bone meal, it now takes up 3x the space in your chest. The same thing applies to wooden logs and other multiplying blocks. You also want to keep some bones in case you come across some wolves. You can also make the contrary: saving space in your chests by turning your precious ores into blocks. Don't worry if you want to use the ores later because you can quickly "de-craft" the blocks (except quartz).

Don't mine valuable blocks with low-level equipment
If you don't have an iron pickaxe for gold ore, diamond ore, redstone ore, and other valuable ores, they won't drop their contents. Instead, they'll just break (eventually). Likewise you need a diamond pickaxe for obsidian. A good indication is the amount of time it takes for them to appear to be destroyed. If you have been mining a block for more than 4 seconds (with the exception of obsidian, for which it takes 9.4 seconds with a diamond pickaxe), then it is very unlikely to drop resources when destroyed and you will just lose the item you tried to mine.
 * Wood planks have better uses than tool crafting, and should only be used as such when there is no alternative or when you are just starting. When you start, you should make a wooden pickaxe, mine 19 stone blocks, and then you will never again need the wooden pickaxe, or any other wooden tool. 11 of the 19 can be used for a full set of stone tools, and the remaining 8 for a furnace. You can then burn the wooden pickaxe in the furnace.
 * You should use golden tools only if you need especially fast gathering of resources for a short period (for example, working underwater). Gold also enchants very well, so gold tools are useful if you want any enchantment which would otherwise be difficult to obtain, such as silk touch. However, note that gold pickaxes can't mine the advanced ores (Including gold ore itself!), regardless of enchantments.
 * Cobblestone tools are fairly slow, but they are so cheap as to be disposable, and two of them will last as long as an iron tool. (Longer, with item repair.) These are good for digging out lakes, harvesting jungle trees, and other bulk work.

Don't waste valuable equipment on low-value jobs
Diamonds are worth their weight in… well, diamond! Using your diamond pickaxe for bulk mining may be faster, but will damage the pickaxe a little more every time. Using it for digging dirt won't even be faster. Pretend that every diamond you have is the last one you will ever have - plan for the worst, be pleasantly surprised by everything non-bad that happens. Diamond items last long enough that they're as likely to be lost to a "bad death" as they are to wear out, so the other question is when and where you're willing to risk them. Never use iron, gold or diamond for hoes, as the only gain is durability (and for gold, not even that), unless you have more diamonds than you know what to do with (e.g. you have a collection of enchanted diamond tools and armor with almost every (or every) enchantment).
 * Iron is faster than stone and lasts twice as long. The sword and armor are also noticeably more powerful. Iron ore is fairly common, but not unlimited (unless you build an iron farm), so don't get careless about spending it. These should be your go-to tools “in the field”, that is when traveling or adventuring. Enchantments can make them much more useful, and getting “the wrong enchantment” is much less annoying when it's just iron at stake.
 * Diamond tools are for special missions—when you want stuff that will last a long time (but not forever), and work fast. However, the supply is strictly limited, so choose carefully how you use them and risk them! Given that you want to get the most out of your diamond items, you should enchant them as powerfully as you can.
 * Branch mining with a diamond pickaxe can easily use it up before you find enough diamonds to replace it. This goes double for using it for large excavations or building, or digging your way around the Nether.
 * Similarly, a diamond axe will be used up by a few jungle trees.
 * Shovels also get used up, but are much cheaper than other tools, only one diamond piece is consumed. If you have many diamonds, an "eterna-shovel" may be a decent time-saver.
 * Swords only cost two diamonds, and can give you a key edge in fights, so they are worthwhile, but remember they also increase the possible cost if you do die.
 * Diamond armor should pretty much be saved for the ender dragon, until you've got enough diamonds stockpiled that you can risk losing your investment. (24 for a full set of armor!)
 * A diamond hoe is completely useless. It does the same amount of damage as fists, and there are no enchantments for it. Hoes all work instantly. If there is a plus, it's that is has a very long durability. Think: you could have made a diamond sword. See "Don't make a hoe out of anything other than cobblestone or wood" below.

Of course, if a villager blacksmith sells diamond tools, that changes things! You can trade renewable resources for emeralds, and then those for store-bought iron and diamond tools, so use those to your heart's content.

Remember also that your most valuable resource is your time. As the saying goes, “The world is infinite, your time is not”. Someone could easily hollow out a 10×10×10 area with wooden picks and wooden shovels, but it is a waste of time when one has diamond tools to use on the same project. Using iron and stone tools to mine in order to conserve your diamond takes away the point of gathering the diamonds in the first place, and most people don't want to spend their entire minecraft experience digging. If you only have an hour to play minecraft every day, it would be better to spend 20 minutes of it digging out an area for a house foundation than 2 hours building it, even if you "waste" a few diamonds in the process. Take this advice with a pinch of salt; it's your time to use however you want.

Don't use non-weapon tools for damaging mobs
Carry a sword with you until you craft a bow. Other tools cause less damage to mobs, and they lose durability faster.

An axe has the added advantage of the ability to chop wood faster as well as being a decent weapon. At some point you WILL want to replace it with a stone or better sword though. While a diamond axe does more damage in the long run than an iron sword, axes are more expensive (3 material (wood, stone, iron, gold, diamond) and 2 sticks instead of 2 material and 1 stick) and take damage twice as fast as a sword, so they are really not worth it over a sword of the same type, however as of 15w34c axes can disable shields temporary and are stronger than swords but are also slower.

An axe is one tier worse than a sword. A pickaxe is two tiers worse, meaning a stone sword does as much damage per hit as a diamond pickaxe. Shovels are three tiers worse, meaning a wood sword deals as much damage per hit as a diamond shovel. Hoes are so pathetically weak that they give you no damage bonus over your fists, so don't use them unless you want to grow some food.

Don't use gold as your tools or armor
Even though gold tools do work much faster than diamonds, they have very low durability. So rely on iron tools and armor. Iron tools and armor are important for survival mode until you find enough diamonds to craft diamond tools and armor. Other than that, you can rely on gold for golden apples, golden carrots for potions or food, powered rails, and a clock.


 * Exception: if you have a gold (zombie pigmen) farm in the Nether. If you do, then gold becomes an infinite resource. Zombie pigmen drop gold ingots and nuggets upon death, making gold nuggets, gold ingots, and gold blocks all renewable.


 * Gold is also better than leather armor in all cases (other than durability), so if you don't have enough iron to make a full set of armor, gold is good for your helmet or boots.


 * Gold tools could possibly replace diamonds if you cannot find them.

Don't use an axe on leaves
Using an axe on leaves is a bad idea, because it will drain the uses your axe has. If you use it on all of the leaves on a tree, not even an iron axe will last very long. It is just as fast to use your fists, or any non tool items, so never use an axe on a leaf. However, the tools that are made for leaves are shears, which can be used to collect placeable leaf blocks, and swords. However, these leaf blocks could potentially hog up your inventory, so you may not want to do this, unless you wish to make a structure out of leaves. If you'll be cutting through a lot of leaves, you may choose to make a few disposable stone swords to use as machetes; this also works on the cobwebs you find in abandoned mine shafts. However if you have extra fortune axes and want saplings you may want to use them on the leaves.

Don't try to place water in the nether (unless you are trying to place it in a cauldron)
When you place water in the nether, it evaporates and the water bucket will turn into an empty bucket. You just wasted some perfectly good water that you might have used for brewing potions (luckily unlike lava, water is renewable).

Don't use golden swords
There is a myth that golden swords do more damage than diamond ones, but that is not true. This is a misconception. Golden tools work faster than diamond ones. Golden swords actually do the same amount of damage as a wooden one, not to mention it has half the uses. Golden swords are a waste of 2 gold ingots that you could have used for powered rails, golden apples, or gold blocks (for enchanted golden apples). However, golden swords do get better enchants than diamond swords.

Don't make a hoe out of anything other than cobblestone or wood
Although it may be tempting to have a diamond (or gold) hoe, don't! Any hoe can till a dirt block at the blink of an eye. The only thing you can gain with making hoes out of minerals better than cobblestone is durability, but since wood and cobblestone are both renewable, making a hoe out of rare materials is a waste. In the early game, cobblestone is the optimum material for hoes. If you are like many players, you may find yourself with a surplus of iron after several hours of game play. If you intend to build a very large farm, making an iron hoe will save you a lot of time, running back and forth to make hoes. In this case, an iron hoe is a good idea. But if you are building a small or medium-sized farm, stick to cobblestone. Having a diamond hoe is considered being “high class” so if you have a lot of diamonds, it does have some bragging rights.

Don't use a Fortune tool on low-value blocks
Why would you use a Fortune-enchanted diamond pickaxe on stone? You will not get any extra cobble and you waste your pick's durability. A good idea is to bring an iron pick into a mine to get stone, iron and gold, which are not affected by Fortune.

Don't throw away valuable equipment that has lost most of its durability
None of us want tools that are about to lose durability. So, many of us just throw them out, even if they are valuable. It's a big mistake! For example, let's say a zombie attacked you while you were wearing diamond armor, and the armor lost most of its durability. Don't throw it out. Yes, just think about all your hard work and the diamonds you wasted. It still has some use! If you have a fishing rod with less durability, then you can still use them to find fish! It is better than no fishing rod! Shears with less durability has some use! You can get more wool! (But don't collect leaves!) Same goes for tools. You could also use them to repair other armor with powerful enchantments or low durability. And anyway, it's always good to have an extra pair of tools in a chest in case you die and lose your stuff.

The downside of using objects with a low durability is that they may break whilst being used. This is a problem especially for weapons and armour. This inconvenience can be mitigated without disposing of the equipment: if worn out equipment is stored while new items are being used, the pieces of equipment can be combined later.

Don't immediately throw away your items with lesser value
Admit it. We don't want our chests and inventory hogged up with less valuable items like rotten flesh or seeds, right? You think in your mind: “Just throw it into lava.” Don't make that mistake! Items made of materials with lesser values still have a use. For instance, a creeper blows a hole in your animal farm and you are left meatless, then think about all that rotten flesh you just threw away? Rotten flesh is not only efficient food for wolves, but it also makes a great emergency food as it's easy to kill zombies, and fills your food bar more than the hunger effect drains it. Also, all that cobblestone that filled 500 chests in your storage room still has a use. Cobblestone can fit great with mossy cobble when building a fake jungle temple, and can make great emergency tools. Even though it has a lesser value with not much durability, it still has some use in it. So you tried to mine a bookshelf and it dropped 3 books only, you think it is useless. Think again. If you throw them out, then you cannot craft a new bookshelf. Some more wood and you can craft it again! If you have leftover glowstone/gunpowder, then don't throw them away! You can use them for brewing and crafting! Think about what you are throwing away before you do.

Don't waste experience
As your experience level rises past a certain point, the experience orbs you collect count less towards the next level each time you level up. In other words, each level takes more and more experience to fill up. Since you'll never be able to enchant anything at a level higher than 30, make sure to enchant as soon as possible when you reach that level unless you are in a place where it is very inconvenient to leave. (Exception you need between 31 and 39 levels to improve or repair an item on an anvil.) Otherwise, you'll be wasting much of the experience that you gained after that point. Even worse, if you die, you lose all of your experience (or most of it if you manage to retrieve your gear).

Also, try to make a cow farm and sugar cane farm (for leather and paper) early in the game if you are on a multiplayer server with low amounts of these resources. (Exception: There is a public enchantment table or a player allowed you access to their table). If you are in singleplayer, or there are abundant resources on the server, you can hunt and gather for them. You will need these items in order to make bookshelves since they require paper and leather. Bookshelves are necessary in order to create high level enchantments unless you can find/trade for enchanted books. Without a high level enchantment table, you will eventually find yourself forced to either spread low level enchants across iron gear, put mediocre enchants on diamond and waste their potential, or waste it from going far past level 30 and possibly dying.

Diamond is by far the BEST candidate for enchantment in most circumstances, so if you have enough diamonds, it's always good to enchant diamond armor and tools first, and level 30 is usually the best since it usually outputs the highest levels of enchants. Diamond or iron pickaxes are a good start, because you have a chance of getting Fortune which will greatly increase your diamond output when you mine for them if it's the highest level (III). If you've ran out of diamonds to make into gear and enchant, and you don't want to waste your experience, a good candidate is a bow (or a fishing rod if this appeals to you). Since these items don't have tiers, you're still making sure that you make the most out of your experience. And then when you do get enough diamonds, you can use those. And lastly, if you have a very efficient mob grinder, you won't need to worry too much about this stuff. You'll have plenty of xp and will be able to enchant all of the tools and armor you use given enough patience. If you use them well, enchanted armor and tools can make collecting resources, excavating, fighting monsters, and exploring dangerous areas much easier, so make sure to make the most out of your experience.

Don't overload your enchantments
Speaking about tools and armor, over-enchanting them can risk being unable to repair them. The anvil has a limit of 39 levels. Even if you have enough levels, your anvil will still declare the repair work “too expensive”. You can get into this fix by not renaming your items early (the repair penalty adds up), or by adding on more enchantments from other items or books.

Don't use silk touch on all blocks
Silk touch is a very useful enchantment for mining some blocks, such as glass and glowstone. However, do not use it all the time. For example, iron or gold ores mined with a silk touch pickaxe will still have to be smelted to get the material. Using a silk touch tool on items that drop itself when mined (e.g. dirt, wood) will waste the tool's durability as using silk touch will not affect the item drops. On the other hand, using it to stockpile diamond or emerald ore, can let you later use a Fortune pick to get more drops from them. (This also works for redstone, lapis lazuli, and coal, but is less worthwhile.) On SMP, they are often used as decoration blocks, and are considered quite valuable. Only use silk touch for the items that you can only get with that enchantment, such as ice, huge mushrooms, mycelium etc., as it is a rare enchantment.

Don't throw away your tools
You might need extra tools as backups, if any of your tools break you may need an extra. If you had 1 pickaxe and it broke, you have to stop mining and go to your base/home and get the supplies you need.
 * Exceptions:
 * Wooden tools - they're slow, they break easily, and you usually still have a few from your first day lying around. It's not a bad idea to get rid of those; however, you could put them in an item frame as a trophy to remember you survived your first day.
 * Stone tools - they're also slow, can only mine coal and iron ore, and are usually only good for mining in bulk.

Don't use shears to collect too many leaves (or vines)
Shears are made for collecting plants like leaves, vines, and grass. But don't collect too many, as they will hog up your inventory. It is better to have a “leaf chest” where you hold all the leaves you collect with your shears. Another thing is that each time you collect a plant with the shears, it tweaks the shears a little more every time. If you collect several stacks of leaves and you don't know what to do with them, you will have just wasted 2 iron ingots. You could have used those ingots for something else.



Don't hog up your inventory
Don't do this or you can't get any more stuff. Lava is a good thing to destroy the annoying circling items on the ground, but a better alternative is cactus.(but remember the Don't immediately throw away your items with lesser value above) Cacti can destroy items more reliably than lava, as items in lava can bounce back and you might pick them up. If you mess up, cacti will have a much smaller chance of killing you than lava.

Don't forget a lot of wooden planks to make chests or you have to go back towards you home again to empty your inventory into the chests and you might lose your cave by griefers which blocks caves by covering them with soil/grass block, or you might forget to make a trail of torches, or you make multiple paths of torches and you will go to the wrong cave and then you have to make a new mineshaft to mine resources again. What a waste of time and resources.

Consider organizing your inventory for quick access and perhaps a "professional" feel, letting you keep track of what is necessary and what is not, and cutting down on the time it takes to find that item you just picked up.

Don't use all of your string just to make bows
String can be made into tripwire or fishing rods; fishing rods can be used to catch fish, which are a good food source and can be used to tame ocelots. String can also be used to make wool and leads. Note: you can make all your string to make bows, but as usual, think again.)

Don't get rid of a clownfish
Yes, clownfish are pretty much useless apart from restoring half a hunger point, but do not throw them away. Clownfish can make as a good emergency food source, as can be done with rotten flesh. Also, they can be used to tame ocelots if you cooked too many, or have not caught enough raw fish. And who knows; perhaps in the future they may have some other use!

Don't use fire charges to light fires (unless you can't craft a flint and steel)
If you have a flint and steel, don't use any fire charges you have to light casual fires (fireplace, burn down a tree, etc.). Think about all the time it took to kill all those blazes, creepers, and to mine the coal. Once you use a fire charge to light something, it is immediately consumed unlike flint and steel which can be used many times. There is an exception however, if you are trapped in the Nether without a flint and steel and iron ingots, and need to relight your portal, then fire charges are a great alternate source.(There are gravel so you can collect flint, but without a iron ingot it will be COMPLETELY useless) However, under normal circumstances, it is not worth wasting those hard earned fire charges when you could just use a flint and steel.

Don't use dyed wool to craft a bed or a painting
Any beds you make turn out red regardless of wool color. Paintings vary, regardless of the wool color. You end up wasting dye for no reason at all.

Exception: Naturally dyed sheep. If you get one of these, the above doesn't matter, you didn't/hardly put anything into it, so why would you worry? They can be sheared repeatedly for infinite orange/whatever color of wool.

Don't kill passive mobs that drop meat with a sword if you have flint and steel
If you're already carrying flint and steel while you're hunting, save yourself some time. When hunting a mob that yields meat (pork, chicken, steak, mutton), using a flint and steel cooks the meat for you. This is especially useful on chickens, since they are easy to kill, and raw chicken can inflict food poisoning. You'll save coal and time you would have spent cooking it, and a flint and steel costs less to make than your trusty iron or diamond sword. However, be careful not to set fire to yourself, or to try it on mobs near water. Try and set as many as you can on fire at a time to maximize efficiency, and watch out for wooden houses or trees.

Lava also works, and it doesn't have durability, but it kills mobs quickly, so be sure to remove it. Plus, remember that lava will destroy any items that fall into it, so be careful if you decide to use lava to hunt mobs.

Be careful using these methods if it concerns your animal farm, since you might kill your entire brood/herd/drift and you need at least 2 of each for reproduction. Beware of the durability level, too. If it goes down, you'll need to waste another iron ingot on it, not to mention a flint, too.

Solution: Fire Aspect.

Another alternative is to use the Looting enchantment, as it provides a higher drop rate than regular weapons. Some may deem this far more useful due to the massive amounts of fuel they may possess. Coal is easily obtained anywhere, and blaze rods are easily obtained through a blaze farm. Exception: You may need raw meat to trade with butchers or you struggle to get enough experience but have lots of coal, wood, lava etc. The time required to cook it could be bypassed by farming, mining, etc.

Don't kill sheep if you have shears
Sheep drop only 1 block of wool when you kill them. If you have shears, you can right-click on a sheep with shears which will give you 1-3 blocks of wool. Not only that, if you right-click a sheep with a dye in your hand, the color of the sheep will change to that color. Sheep eat grass to re-grow their wool, and will have the same color they had before. This makes wool of all different colors renewable. Note that baby sheep cannot be sheared.

Exception: If you need food(raw mutton) or xp.

Don't dye a sheep many times(unless you have few sheep)
If you dye a sheep many times with diffrent dyes, you just wasted the previous dye. You may think it cheap, but blue wool requires Lapis Lazuli, and you may do not want to waste them.

Don't attack tiny slimes with a sword
Tiny slimes have the lowest health in the game (only 1 HP or half of a heart) – so low that they can be taken down with a single punch. They also deal no damage. Knowing this, you shouldn't waste your sword on them because it's unnecessary, and will waste your sword's durability. This doesn't apply if you need slimeballs and you have a Looting sword, then you should use it for maximum drops. Tiny magma cubes, however, have an armor value (meaning that they are somewhat resistant to damage), so you can't kill them with one punch. And since they can damage you, a low tier sword could be handy.

Don't craft white wool
The player can put normal wool and bone meal in the crafting grid and make “white wool”, which is basically your normal wool you started with- except you just wasted some perfectly good bone meal. It is also a waste of time finding the skeletons for the bones.

Don't use torches to break anvils
Yes people use torches to break gravel when mining to prevent suffocation, but anvils cannot suffocate you. Unlike gravel, sand, and the dragon egg, if anvils fall on torches, the torch will be destroyed without dropping itself as an item, and the anvil will deal damage to you, and then land on the ground. Use stronger non-solid blocks like pressure plates, slabs, signs, cakes, and lily pads to break anvils, making the anvil drop as an item.

Don't mine any ore with Silk Touch
If you mine coal, diamond, redstone, lapis lazuli, or emerald ore without Silk Touch, they will drop their respective items. Mine them with, and they drop themselves, and you'll have to spend a long time smelting them. It's much more worth it to just mine them with a normal, non-enchanted (except for, possibly, Fortune for diamond and emerald ore) pickaxe.

Exceptions: You may want an overground mine. You may like the slowness of smelting. It could be used to pass time if you don't have a bed or are a bit of a night owl. If you have a Fortune pick, you can keep it safe by mining valuable ores like diamond with silk touch, going back to a safe place where you keep the Fortune pick, and re-mining it there for increased drops.

Don't make too many planks
Think of your stack of logs as a “compressed” version of a stack of planks. As soon as you make planks, your wood takes up four times the room. You could also need to make charcoal if there is a coal shortage and a low supply of logs, however this is pointless if there is a forest nearby.

Similarly, don't make too many sticks. If you have a lot of extra planks, turning them into sticks will double the amount of space they consume and lower their usefulness (if your planks have been turned into sticks, then you can't craft a new chest for your ridiculous amount of sticks).

Don't destroy bookshelves without Silk Touch
Bookshelves will only drop 3 books when destroyed, meaning that your 6 wood planks are gone forever (luckily, both items are renewable).

Exception: bookshelves in villages and strongholds, you didn't make the bookcases! Take the books. You should still, if one is available, use a Silk Touch tool so you can spend less time crafting and more time doing other things.

Don't destroy ender chests without Silk Touch
Ender chests will drop 8 obsidian blocks, meaning that your eye of ender is gone forever (luckily both obsidian and eyes of ender are renewable).

Don't use glass carelessly
Glass doesn't drop itself when broken, so if you change your mind on creating a window, you just lost glass forever. (This is not the case if you have a pickaxe with the silk touch enchantment.) If a village or desert biome is not nearby, lost glass can become an issue. Before you place glass, make sure to use a block substitute such as iron bars or leaves instead of glass. It's also important to not hold glass in the hotbar unless you plan to use it soon, since, if you accidentally place glass, a Silk Touch tool would be needed to retrieve it. This is the same with glass panes.

Don't shoot paintings, boats, minecarts, item frames, or armor stands
Don't shoot these items. They count as entities, and as such the arrow will disappear if you shoot it. In fact, if an armor stand is shot it will not drop as an item and you will lose the arrow, the stand, and the armor/headgear (I learned this the hard way). Also be careful with fishing rods, as they will destroy paintings.

Don't cure a zombie villager if there are other zombies around
If you cure a zombie villager when other zombies are around, when the villager goes back to normal, all of the zombies will gang up on that one villager, and kill it, reversing what you just did. This does, however, buy you time to escape, as the zombies will be distracted by the villager. That would be a good splash potion of weakness and a precious golden apple gone down the drain pipe, not to mention the 5 minutes or so it takes the villager to cure.

Don't smelt all of your cobblestone
Unlike cobblestone, stone and stone bricks cannot be used to make tools, should the need arise. In addition, having to mine stone out again after having smelted it will again leave you with cobblestone, and you'll have wasted the fuel you used to smelt the Stone (unless you mine it with a Silk Touch tool). It's always a good idea to keep a decent stock of Cobblestone to hand, in case you require it for various reasons.

Don't get careless with the dragon egg
So many players want to show off that they killed the ender dragon, but many have lost the dragon egg. If you get too careless, you may blow it up or send it back to the overworld by accident. To obtain it, you should cover up the portal with end stone and use a piston to push the egg or just teleport the egg by right-clicking (careful not to let it fall into the Void), mining below the egg, putting a torch, and breaking the block below the egg. Here are some of the things you shouldn't do:


 * Blow it up with TNT, this might not drop the egg, but will blow it up
 * Try to mine it with a weak pickaxe
 * Forget to cover the portal and send it to the Overworld

Also, never leave it where players can obtain it in a SMP server. Lots of players play servers, and someone might see it and steal it from you.

Don't mess up with redstone elevators in the nether
Don't do this, as you may have to start again. There is hidden lava in the netherrack and it can spill out and ruin your lift, especially if it's made out of wool or wood. Plus, ghasts can blow up parts of your lift if you build it out of weak materials.

Do not build wooden houses in the nether even if it is away from lava oceans
Wood is flammable, and ghasts and blazes shoot fireballs that can burn it. Even if it misses by 3-5 blocks away, the netherrack fire will spread to the wood planks in your house.

Do not build a house in the end out of anything except end stone
End stone is perfect because it is easy to mine and it has 1.5x higher blast resistance than stone (stone = 30, end stone = 45). Also endermen cannot pick it up, nor can the ender dragon destroy it. Don't use obsidian, it is harder to break.

Do not delete your world if you lost everything
So you have done well in survival mode. You have diamond armor, diamond tools, diamonds, gold and iron. All it takes is one careless mistake for it all to be naught; for instance, you fell into a lava lake, or you were swarmed by zombies who stole all your treasures. If you experienced this (and most people have), then you might be feeling hopeless and want to delete your world. Do not do this. If you do, then not only is your hard work gone forever, but you will lose your precious buildings, gorgeous landscape, farms, and all else. The only way to solve this is to open up your world and continue playing. You may have lost a number of items, but if you have been storing resources at your base, you should be able to bounce back quickly.

Minecraft is a game of exploration and discovery. Take the opportunity to discover new sources of diamonds, gold and iron. Iron in particular is very plentiful, and if you already have a base and some mines started, it should be easy to gather enough materials for a full suit of armor and a sword.

…and if you really want all that lovely loot back, you close Minecraft, go to the world save folder, open properties and go to the previous versions tab. You can usually restore it to the previous save. But if that doesn't work, then use LAN world to enable cheats, go into creative and get everything that's diamond and enchant your tools, armor and weapons to the maximum!(I would not personally suggest this though!)

Don't use fire aspect on an enderman
Yes, this might be a dumb thing, but it is important for people who are hunting for ender pearls. If you use a fire aspect sword (or item) on an enderman, it will teleport away and you might never see that one ever again. Worse, it turns them back to their neutral state, which means they will not teleport back to you. Endermen are very rare except in the end and fire makes them teleport like crazy. Also, don't fight them near water, lava, fire, or rain. This makes it easier for them to get distracted and teleport away. On the flip side, if you don't want to fight one and you accidentally looked at it, try to go into water or rain. This will make them neutral again.

Don't get rid of emeralds
Emeralds are not the most useful mineral, but it is not a good idea to throw them away. They are very rare, much rarer than diamond, and throwing them away would waste the time spent finding them. Also, they are very useful in villages for purchasing powerful items. If your beacon only has a few blocks missing from its pyramid, and you have enough emeralds, you can craft them into blocks and use those to complete your beacon. As with villager trading, emeralds are valuable items on 'legit' multiplayer servers, and sometimes are worth more than diamonds.

Do not cure a zombie villager with an enchanted golden apple
Sure, you can use enchanted golden apples to cure zombie villagers, but it will be just the same as curing it with a normal golden apple. As such, you will end up have wasted your 72 gold ingots for no reason at all, since curing zombie villagers with enchanted golden apples isn't any faster than with normal golden apples.

Do not breed or heal horses with enchanted golden apples either!
Similar to above, you just wasted 72 gold ingots by doing this! Both regular golden apples and enchanted golden apples will heal the horse 10 HP or 5 hearts, and both can breed horses at exactly the same rate. It isn't any faster with enchanted golden apples!

Do not smelt ores that drop minerals
You can smelt ores, yes, but it is very inefficient as it gives you less experience than when mining it. In particular, smelting lapis lazuli or redstone ore is much more inefficient than when mining it since smelting them only gives you 1 lapis lazuli or redstone. Smelting coal ore is inefficient too since it requires fuel like the other smeltable items and that is the main purpose for coal. Obviously, this does not apply for iron and gold ores.

Don't play with fire
This is a no-brainer. Fire combined with wood and leaves result in even more fire! Fire can destroy chunks of forests, as well as accidentally burning down part of your house. Follow what Smokey Bear says: “Only you can prevent wildfires.”

You should also avoid carrying flint and steel (or a fire charge) in the hotbar, at least when you're in a forest or other flammable area. If you are making use of a flint and steel or fire charge, have a water bucket handy. Then, if you make a mistake (we all do), you can quickly put out the flames. You can also try to punch the fire when it's created, and it will be immediately extinguished (hopefully it hasn't spread already).

Don't use 9 pieces of coal when you can craft them into a block of coal
Nine pieces of coal burns for 720 seconds while a block of coal, which can be crafted with 9 coal, burns for 800 seconds. Effectively, this gives you eight items' worth of free fuel.

Besides, blocks of coal are efficient for maximizing storage, anyway.

Fair warning: Do not use blocks to smelt only a few items. Whole blocks are consumed at a time and you will be unpleasantly surprised when your block of coal smelts three pork chops and then burns away. For example, you could load a stack of iron ore in your furnace and then add in 16 more to make full use of the block of coal.

Don't heal a horse with 9 wheat when you can craft them into a hay bale
Similar to the above involving the 9 coal and the block of coal, each wheat crop can heal a horse 2 HP, which equals 1 heart of health. However, an entire bale of hay can heal a horse 20 HP, which equals 10 hearts of health, and hay bales are crafted with only 9 wheat. Effectively, this will heal your horse 2 extra health points.

Plus, just like how blocks of coal store 9 coal, hay bales act as a storage unit for wheat (9 wheat can be crafted FROM a hay bale).

Exception: If your horse lost only about 2-4 health points, DON'T feed it hay bales, feed it wheat instead, you'll end up wasting more wheat for no reason at all.

Try not to sprint in your first days of game
Sprinting depletes the hunger bar at a rate of 1/2 a food unit every 40 meters, or 7 seconds, and at the beginning of the game, food is essential. Sprinting with no food can be deadly.

If you feel up to it, you could hunt zombies during the night, or wait at dawn until all the zombies and skeletons have died and collect the rotten flesh and bones. The rotten flesh may poison you, but it will still heal more than you will lose by poisoning (on Easy and Normal, if you have been poisoned), and the bones can be crafted and used to create your first little wheat patch.

Once you have a steady food supply it's safer to sprint.

Avoid building a weak or flammable house
Dirt, sand, snow, and netherrack are weak materials with a low blast resistance, so they are quite easily destroyed by creepers or TNT. Avoid building your main base out of dirt. Instead, use cobblestone, which is a cheap, abundant, and tough alternative.

Later on in the game you may wish to make your main base out of bricks, stone bricks, stone, and possibly, obsidian. You could also use end stone if you make an ender chest, or go to the End, and kill the ender dragon and mine some End Stone.

A list of low blast-resistance materials can be found here. Also, if you use an inventory editor, be extremely careful not to use stone, stone bricks, or cobblestone with silverfish in them (also known as monster eggs, silverfish blocks, or “Block 97”).



Also, do not build houses mainly out of wood, especially, in multiplayer.



Yes, wood may look pretty, and everyone loves the texture. It also, however, has a great number of practical disadvantages, compared with other materials.


 * Wood has about half the blast resistance (15) of cobblestone and most stone-based blocks (30). This means that explosions will do more damage to a wooden structure.
 * Wood is flammable, and other than wool, is the only building material where this is the case.
 * Because wood is flammable, netherrack can't be used as light sources in a wooden building, and building fireplaces is dangerous as well.
 * Aside from the fires you provide, lightning can set a wooden roof afire. While walls might be set afire by an adjacent strike, this is rare, and can be made more so by an overhang on the roof. lighting can still happen in a desert biome since there is no rain to put the fire out a wooden structure can burn down to nothing.
 * Wood is however, efficient to collect in large quantities. A stack of wood blocks can be harvested in the same time as a stack of cobble: but yields four times as many wooden planks. For large constructions, such as mob traps, wood planks are a good choice. And stronger blocks like obsidian are no good due to the rarity. (Be careful around fire and lava!)

Wooden roofing may be easy and look nice, but it is vulnerable to being set afire by lightning. Either do the roof in a fireproof material (brick is classic), or have a fireproof layer beneath to limit the spread of fire. If you do use wood walls, consider buttressing or trim with either smooth stone, cobblestone, sandstone, or obsidian. It will not only look better, but will have better blast resistance against explosions.

Don't build houses mainly out of obsidian
Yes, as said above, obsidian is blast proof and extremely protective for bases. It also has some disadvantages too.


 * Obsidian can be only obtained (slowly) with a diamond pickaxe. Thus, if you can't find diamonds, then too bad. You could also pour lava source blocks and convert them to obsidian with a water bucket, but that's equally time-consuming.
 * Also, it is not suitable for building large bases due to its rarity.
 * Despite the fact that it is blast proof, it can still be destroyed by blue wither skeleton skulls from the wither.
 * An obsidian structure feels darker when lit with a torch, making it harder to see in said structure.

Don't build TNT traps out of dirt if you plan on reusing them
It is time consuming to rebuild dirt traps. Instead, try a more explosion-resistant material, such as obsidian. Cobblestone also works, but some blocks will be destroyed. Or you can use water to avoid terrain damage.

Water has the ability to absorb the destructive aspect of an explosion, but generally not the physics or health damage, which means that your target will probably get launched. (Or killed, if it was a mob or a non-creative-mode player.)

Don't make a fireplace in a wood house
Fireplaces look very nice, especially in homes made of logs or wood planks. However, you are discouraged to do so, because of the chance of the fire spreading. You can, however, build a fireplace and make sure no flammable blocks are around (at least six blocks away). However, be aware this is not foolproof and your house may still catch on fire. Fires don't spread forever, but fire can still destroy a good chunk of your home.

Hint: Make a fireplace only with non-flammable blocks, like stone or clay. Or just use a furnace or a torch if you don't want to risk.

Avoid eating poisonous foods without milk on hand
When eating rotten flesh, it is wise to drink milk after eating it or you have chances of losing some of your hunger. Likewise, use spider eyes to make splash potions instead of eating them. However, if you stay completely still after eating, you can eat rotten flesh with a complete benefit and only half a hunger point taken away from what you gained on normal difficulties.

Exception: spider eyes have a great nourishment value. They will quickly reduce two hearts upon consumption, but the hearts will be quickly restored and your food bar will not deplete as quickly. In non-threatening situations (daylight, at home, well lit mine) eating a spider eye will do more good in the long run. It's not advisable to eat a spider eye while battling mobs. Another alternative is to eat a lot of rotten flesh at once, because it just resets the timer to 30 seconds, so the hunger effect doesn't stack.

Don't grief up your spawn point
If you want to play with TNT, don't use your spawn place for this. If you die and have not slept in a bed, you will spawn at this place; so if you dug where you spawn, you will spawn at the bottom of the hole, and may not be able to get out as you have no pick or materials. And always remember to mark the spawn point when spawning into a new world! You can always create a new world in creative mode to prevent this.

Try not to live in certain biomes
Some biomes are better to live in than others. Oceans are, of course, not advisable to build a beginner house in, due to the lack of trees, materials, or caves. However, for advanced builders, the flat aspect and monochrome surroundings might fit into their design. This also goes for the desert and mesa biomes; while both are devoid of trees and generally flat biomes, they are the perfect setting for pyramids and other exotic builds. The swamp and extreme hills biomes are not recommended as build sites due to witch and slime spawns in the former and long drops and few trees in the latter. However, an extreme hills biome makes a great spot for building an epic house in creative. The snow biome will periodically develop a layer of snow over dwellings, which can be annoying for some, or desirable for others. The jungle biome and roofed forest biome, while full of trees, are hard to build in because of the dense foliage, and can be very dangerous to navigate at night. The plains, birch, flower, and standard forests, savannas, deep forests, mega taigas, and taigas biomes are typically recommended for beginner players due to the availability of resources and spawn rates of friendly mobs. Many biome variants and technical biomes are suitable too. See biomes for more. Mushroom biomes are deceptive. No monsters can spawn, and mooshrooms make infinite food sources with bowls, but you can't grow trees easily, and mobs can still cross over from other biomes.

Don't venture out at night in certain biomes
Some biomes are better when venturing out at night and the forest and jungle biomes and roofed forest biomes are the worst. They're crowded and a creeper can corner you against a tree. These biomes can also let hostile mobs spawn as it's often very dark. The extreme hills are not recommended due to long drops, although it is very easy to stay on top of a mountain, and punch mobs off of the cliff. The swampland is also not recommended, but for advanced gamers it's the second best, because of its abundance of slimes (slimeballs are used to create leads, sticky pistons, and slime blocks). Also there are a fair amount of trees in swamplands. That also goes for the taiga biome. Snow hills biomes are the second worst due to multiple hills and the increased risk of getting lost. The desert biome is also not advised because of the sheer number of mobs that seem to spawn in it and the open sight lines in every direction, which makes it easy for these mobs to pursue you. There may be plenty of areas to run, but skeletons can keep shooting you from quite a distance, and you may get surrounded. Not to mention the cacti all over the place that you may stumble backwards into when fighting several mobs in front of you. If you're up for a challenge, however, go right ahead and take the night by storm. Plains are one of the best due to no obstruction, and the lower mob count; however, there are many caves and hostile mobs can come out and attack you. Mushroom biomes are the best biomes to live in, as no hostile mobs will spawn, and you have unlimited food with the giant mushrooms dropping tiny mushrooms which can be crafted in to mushroom stew. Mooshrooms drop raw beef and leather, and can be sheared to get 5 red mushrooms. Right clicking them with an bucket will give you milk, and right clicking with a bowl gives mushroom soup. They drop steak when killed by fire.

Don't spawn the Wither in the Nether or the End
If you spawn the Wither in the Nether, and you are on a one-block thick overhang above lava, the wither can destroy the overhang, and you can fall in the lava, or take fall damage. If you spawn the Wither in the End, you have to deal with TWO bosses (namely the ender dragon and the wither you just spawned). Plus, withers can destroy obsidian, preventing you from climbing the obsidian pillars to destroy the ender crystals that heal the ender dragon, so always spawn the wither in the Overworld. However....

Don't fight the Wither near important buildings
Spawning the wither is a very easy way to grief your beautiful world or diamond castle. If you are planning to fight the wither, move very far away from important land or buildings. Withers make huge explosions when spawned and shoot out wither skulls that explode. Even your protection IV diamond armor or sharpness/smite V diamond sword won't stop the wither from destroying the world. The wither still takes a number of hits to be defeated from the most powerful of your weapon supply. The safest area to fight the wither is underground, in a cave. That way you can easily hit the wither without it going too far. When planning to fight the wither, pick the area carefully!

Don't be careless with your new pet wolf
A tamed wolf can be very useful. It can give you a hand when fighting mobs, create guards, or just keep you company when lonely. It can be easy to forget to make your wolf sit down when not using it since it will kill any mob you punch possibly resulting in your farm that was once teeming with animals to end up empty. Also when you are attacked by a mob or player, the wolf will stand up and come to you. That can be annoying when you are miles away from your house. After you spend enough time with your wolves, you are less likely to make those mistakes but still don't get too careless! Try to befriend two wolves and then start breeding them to ensure you can easily replace a wolf who didn't have the same survival instinct that you do. Beware walking on ice though, because if you get too far away the wolf will teleport to you, and end up trapped under the ice, and will drown.

Don't adventure from your home without a few essential items
It's important to be prepared if you want to go adventuring. There are a few things that you will always need to carry with you after you leave your base.

General

 * Substantial armor
 * A good sword
 * Pickaxe
 * Optional bow and arrows, but recommended for killing skeletons
 * Stack of dirt or cobblestone
 * Water bucket
 * Food
 * Torches
 * Compass and/or map (if you plan to just explore)
 * Bed
 * Crafting table(this will come in handy, especially at night)
 * Fishing rod (in case you run out of food).
 * Wood (useful for crafting while you're away from home)

Stronghold

 * Substantial armor, diamond with feather falling boots recommended
 * A great sword, diamond recommended
 * Bow, Infinity bow recommended
 * Food
 * At least a stack of torches.
 * 12 eyes of ender

Mining

 * A shovel (For underground dirt and gravel patches.)
 * A substantial set of armor
 * A pickaxe to mine the goods
 * A sword
 * A stack of torches
 * A few wood planks or blocks (for crafting more tools or torches if needed)
 * A furnace 
 * A few pieces of coal (about 10-15, for furnace)
 * A chest (in which to place the goods)
 * Food
 * A stack or so of cobblestone/dirt in case you need to build up
 * A bucket of water
 * A bed (It's a good idea to set up a small room to sleep in if you plan to mine for a long period of time)
 * Dirt. This common resource may seem useless, but it can be used to mark a point or to scale walls. It is cheaper than both signs and ladders.

Abandoned mine shafts

 * Milk (to get rid of poison effects)
 * A bow and/or sword, preferably iron or above.
 * Iron or better pickaxes, at least two.
 * A stack of some kind of blocks.
 * Buckets
 * Shears to cut cobwebs.
 * Iron armor, diamond armor is recommended though.

Don't be careless with a horse
Horses, donkeys, and mules are quick and donkeys and mules give you a place to keep your stuff! So, if you see a horse or donkey, tame it. Just remember, if you want to tame a horse, always keep a lead and a fence on hand to tie them up. Make a pen to keep them safe, and give it a sturdy cobble roof. Make sure you have a two fence gate door to make sure you can leash up your pet and take it for a ride. If you are taking a survival journey, take a mule or donkey! They'll carry food and resources while providing a ride. Keep your horse healthy and never dangle it from a high place with a lead. And if you have other pets, pen them up in another area of your home; if you accidentally hit a horse, your pet wolves will kill it. You can name your similarly-colored horses so you can tell them apart.

Don't pass a chance to settle down in a village
Villages are a brilliant place to live. They have farms if you're hungry. Large villages have guards against hostile mobs (iron golems). They have a population of non-hostile villagers, who you can trade with. Villages are very good for players. They give shelter to the people without it, and a town. They also give you something to build on! Make a pool, a garden. Turn it into a city, while you have no effort building a home first. And don't forget, if there is a blacksmith's, there is a chest with something of use inside it! But first, before you settle down, try these things:


 * If you have pets, especially young pups and kittens, board up the blacksmith's lava with cobblestone or iron bars. That way, they can't be hurt in the lava.
 * All villages have wells. Board them up, pets can get stuck or drown.
 * Villagers will go into your house. Craft an iron door. It keeps villagers and zombies out (though you will want to make a new home because that one will no longer count).
 * Look at your house. A villager won't settle down if you don't make it sustainable to them. Look here for a guide on that: village

Don't smash monster spawners
When you are in a dungeon, mineshaft, stronghold, or nether fortress, don't break the spawner even if you need more experience points. The spawner will only drop 50 experience points when broken and you can use them later in the game for mob drop traps and infinite experience farms. Simply put, a one-time drop of 50 experience points isn't worth losing a potential source of infinite mob drops and experience.

By the way, using a silk touch pickaxe will not cause the spawner to drop. There is no way to obtain one in your inventory outside of commands.

Don't be afraid to take a little damage
If your hunger bar is full, you regenerate lost hearts quickly, but at the cost of hunger points. Perhaps jumping down that mountain is a safer option than taking ages to build your way down when night is about to fall. If you have lots of useful stuff with you, such as diamonds, it might be better to put them in a chest and come back for it later, as jumping off something higher than 24 blocks will kill you (except when you have the Feather Falling enchantment). Letting a creeper blow up can be useful when mining. Just like before, spider eyes are useful as food, even though they cause poison that take out only 2 hearts. If you have very heavy armor, you can use a creeper to “Creeper Jump” if you have good armor and block with your sword. You'll take a little to a lot of damage, but sometimes it's worth it. What's better: an explosion in the ground, losing 2~3 hearts, and jumping on top of your house and be safe from the mob ambush, or fighting a mob army and losing around 8, or worse, die?

Never try to mine bedrock in survival, even with a diamond pickaxe, even with efficiency enchantments or the haste effect
Bedrock is unbreakable in survival, and as such attempting to break it will just waste your time. (Mining does not take up hunger, however, until the block actually breaks. In the case of bedrock, it simply won't.)

Don't PvP without the right equipment
It is dangerous to fight players without armor or weapons. If they win, they can take any hard-earned valuables in your inventory such as diamond, gold, or iron.

In a PvP battle, players normally take the best equipment to fight other players. Most use enchanted diamond armor or diamond swords and a few may even have cheats on. (They may switch to creative and kill you easily or they may give themselves Strength 99) Don't take anything made out of leather, wood, or gold as those are too weak. However, you can take a lava bucket and burn the opponent if s/he doesn't have a Fire Resistance potion.

Don't punch a griefer
Don't do this, as the griefer may pay attention to your attack and he might kill you, so always hide when you attack him. And if he finds out where your base is, being a griefer, he will grief it. If you have good armor and sword, and you think you can beat him, then kill it.

Don't stand in the open in a PvP server with bows
This is very dangerous, especially when towering. One hit could send you falling to your death, into lava, or into a group of enemies. A good idea is to tower up high and make an enclosed room.

Don't attack players wearing armor with the Thorns enchantment
Don't do this as the armor can deal damage to you. Worst of all, you can die from it. It can even pierce through armor you are wearing, so always attack a player not wearing armor with the thorns enchantment.

Don't show new faction/clan members your base
Do not trust players looking for factions/clans. If they teleport to your house/base they could steal your stuff and grief your base/house/land or kill you every time you come home. They may invite other people to do the same. Keep a close eye on new recruits, and only invite people who you know in real life or trust deeply. If you do they may grief and you don't want that to happen (and or they may tell other factions).

Don't accept random teleport requests
Under no circumstances should you ever teleport to a random person or allow a random person to teleport to your base. Many experienced server players will send random teleport requests, hoping that someone like you will accept and follow them into a trap. On the other hand, if you allow the random player to teleport to you, they could arrive with dangerous potions, diamond gear, and very quickly slaughter you and destroy your base. Even if you think you can beat them, the odds are always against you. Your Protection IV diamond armor and Sharpness V diamond sword are useless if the other player is waiting to punch you off a 200-block tall pillar.

Do not step on a pressure plate(in multiplayer, anyway)
You will never know what the pressure plate will trigger! It could trigger a trap with a hole filled with lava and you will lose all the items in your inventory, since we all know lava destroys items. Worse, it could trigger a trap with a player on the bottom of a really deep hole, and when you die because of the fall damage, the player will steal all your valuable items. To foolproof this, get rid of the pressure plate and dig the ground below it, while standing at a safe distance, as it might trigger a trap, but it won't always happen also if the pressure plate is wooden try shooting it with an arrow.

Do not destroy tripwires without shears
It will be part of a player trap tripwire circuit. Destroying tripwire without shears will trigger it for half of a second. It will damage your shears by one use, but it is worth it!(Think: would you rather use a shear, or would you punch it and risk setting the traps?)

Stay away from any body of water in a PvP survival mode server (e.g. lakes, rivers, especially oceans and deep oceans)
We all know that your movement is hampered in water. Other players will knock you FURTHER into the water, and you cannot get out. So it is extremely advisable to stay away from bodies of water.

Try not to be the last player to join a PvP survival mode server
Who knows what will happen, other people might grief the spawn point (with lava, TNT, tripwires, etc.). Try to be the first player on a new PvP survival mode server. Then you can have your sword ready when they join in, and you can keep repeatedly hitting them before they even collect some wood.

Don't try killing people with better gear
Killing people with better gear is a great risk. You could get killed just with a single hit. So make sure before you attack a player check if you have better gear than them. Who knows you could be the next victim in PVP servers.

Do not enable on hardcore multiplayer!
This was proven by a player. Basically, if you die, then you drop your items. However, in hardcore mode, once you die, it is Game Over. If you kept your inventory, then it actually CONSUMES your items rather than saving them. Worst of all, in multiplayer, if you die with the, then your friends cannot retrieve the items you lost and when they pardon you, since you start again, you won't get them back. So don't always use cheats to get you through!

Don't move beds without telling fellow server members
Beds can be helpful but tricky. Helpful by letting you sleep peacefully through the night with no disturbance. But, they can also kill you. If you pick them up, your spawn is back to where you entered the game. Remember, they are used to set your spawn in case you die. Don't underestimate the power of the bed. You can use it for safety or to be a troll.

Don't live near the spawn in multiplayer
If you are in multiplayer, live away from the spawn in a hidden area. It is easy for a newcomer to come in and see your house and just grief it or come into your house, kill you and steal your stuff or maybe kill your animals (if you have any). Try to remember the way to the spawn and the way to your house. Ideally, you should always build your home underground or underwater on a multiplayer server (when you can't protect your home from griefing using a plugin), especially if you're playing on a server where griefing is allowed.


 * Exception: Servers with Factions/Clans where you can claim land to protect it.

Don't let miners accidentally find your base
So you have a hidden piston door in a cliff with lots of diamonds. All it takes is a miner to dig into your base. Once they did it, they could grief it (obviously, not everybody is a griefer). That means your base is ruined. Just by a miner! It is important to surround your base with lava to kill people, but that means it would kill YOU if you are extending your base.

Don't hack into the servers console
Hacking into the servers console is actually illegal. So don't do it, it will make lots of people hate you, and you could be arrested in real life.

Don't use X-ray mods
Administrators and other players do not appreciate the use of X-ray mods on their servers, it gives you an unfair advantage and most likely will lead to penalization and ultimately banning from the server! It is never a good thing to X-ray, no matter how far away you think admins are, because you never know when they could be using an invisibility potion to spy on and ban you!

Don't make your PvP soldiers overdone (e.g. juggernaut and nether exotic.)
You may think a juggernaut together with a lot of nether exotics and noobs and melee infantries are useful. They are not. Since the group is overdone, it can lead to banning by the admin floating above you with invisibility for 1000000 seconds! So don't make your group overdone in PvP servers.


 * Exception: You can do this in some PvP servers (like capture the flag.)

Don't build houses out of bedrock or obsidian
Speaking of bedrock and obsidian, don't build your base out of these blocks (or at least, in multiplayer anyway). Administrators and other players hate bases that are built out of bedrock due to the ugliness of it. If you are building a house out of obsidian or bedrock, then players that see your base will likely find your base ugly. You may also be banned for using bedrock on a SMP server, as the only way to obtain it is to go into creative, use console commands, spawn in command blocks or hack it in. This ban message will say if you are banned:

''You are banned from this server! Reason: built house out of bedrock.''

So if you are building a house out of bedrock/obsidian, do it in single player mode. In multiplayer mode, try to build houses that impress players or don't attract as much attention(like a nice looking sandstone and wool mansion). However, they can still be destroyed by creepers or TNT (or griefers). A good way to make your base protective and visually pleasing is to have bedrock/obsidian inside and the beautiful house outside! Or if you'd like the inside to look nice as well, you can build three layers, the outside and the inside being decorative, while using bedrock in the middle layer.


 * Exception: Some players that liked protective houses will like your base.
 * Another exception: You can do this when you're the server owner or a mod.
 * Third exception: You're on a factions server. In that case it is highly recommended to build an obsidian base to deter enemy factions.

Never ever create a house on a superflat of snow alone
If you try to build a house on snow alone, watch out. You will crash the game. Although you can still build your house there, be careful. Chances are, you will place the block on snow and you will crash the game, if your computer is extremely laggy.

Don't try to teleport carelessly on a laggy computer
Don't do this as you might crash or freeze the game, or worse, make it extremely laggy. If it is, then it is impossible to move the mouse cursor outside of minecraft window because the cursor will be stuck. That means it is impossible to close minecraft without task manager.

Don't trigger lots of TNT on a laggy computer
If you do this, you will crash the game if your computer is extremely laggy also, it will crash 2 times or more if you're careless. And you have to open the Task Manager to close the window. So next time, don't do this again.

Don't enchant a sword with a very high level Looting enchantment
Looting increases the amount of items that mobs drop and increases the chance of rare drops. If you use commands you can get a sword with a very high level looting enchantment like Looting IX, but don't use it to kill many mobs at the same time. It will drop so many items that the game will become extremely laggy. The game may also crash as it probably won't be able to handle so many entities simultaneously.

Don't play carelessly with dispensers
If you place a lot of dispensers and you activate them, then a lot of items will come out. The game will get laggy, and if it goes longer then Minecraft will not able to hold that much items and will crash or freeze. Then you have to open the task manager to close it. On multiplayer you could get kicked.

Don't go past the edge of the world
Don't do this, as you may be kicked from the game and sometimes not by another player. Please note that it happens at X Z 32,000,000. If you do get kicked, then it is worse than being stuck at 30,000,032 X Z since you are kicked from the game and MCedit cannot solve it. It is impossible to go over 32,000,000 X Z without a use of a disable kick command mods. This ban message will say when a player is kicked.

''Disconnected by server. You are kicked by: Null.''

And also

''You are kicked from this server! Reason: Went to illegal point.''

Note: Also, in MCedit, the selection box distorts after 12,500,000.

Exception: Since 1.7 there is invisible wall blocking past the edge of the world, and /tp don't work past X/Z 30000000. Meaning you're safe!

Always carry a pickaxe and a sword
If you are going to venture far away from your house, Always carry wood, a crafting table, a furnace, a pick, and a sword to mine goods and to protect yourself from Mobs (and you may get a lot of drops). A towel will also come in handy as well.

Don't get crazy about always following any most of these rules
The people who made this sometimes forget that Minecraft is just a game designed to be fun. If you find some of these rules boring, break them! Always keep in mind that having as much fun as possible is the ultimate goal in Minecraft. As said by Vareide, “With no rules to follow, this adventure, it's up to you.”

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