Tutorials/Beating a challenge map

A compilation of multiple LPer's strategies on beating a challenge map.

Terms
Some general terms used in challenge maps.

Dungeon - A structure in which there are spawners. In challenge maps, they usually contain a wool chest or other valuable materials.

Funbox - A 3x3 (or more) box of spawners. Usually covered in stone.

Spawner - A Monster Spawner.

Victory Monument - A monument where you place your Wool(below definition).

Wool - A generalized term for what is needed to "beat" the challenge map. This could be records, actual wool, plants, etc.

Wool chest - A chest that will contain Wool(above definition).

Silverfish traps
These usually take the form of innocent-looking stone bricks, but placed in really annoying places (curse you, Vechs and placing them at your precious rules!) Usually they are grouped together, meaning that if you build your house around one pesky little stone brick, then destroy it, the ones that you built into the side of your house will also attack you. All the bricks within an area will spawn as soon as you hurt the silverfish, unless you can kill it with a "silk touch" weapon.

Ghasts
''nyeh... eueueuhhhh... mmeeeehhhh...''

Ugh. That sound. It means there's a Ghast about. Ghasts are extremely annoying, especially when it fires while you're dealing a horde of creepers, skeletons, and zombies.

You want to dispatch of the Ghast as soon as possible, otherwise it'll get too annoying. To kill a Ghast, aim for the tentacles. This is the ghast's hitbox.

Ghasts cannot break Cobblestone, so use that to your advantage. Always build with Cobblestone, if you have some.

For destroying the much-too-common Ghast spawners found in maps, use the tricks in the Funboxes section below.

Funboxes
These malevolent boxes cause nothing but trouble, especially in groups of two (!!!). Here's some ways to dispatch of them.

Lava
Get within the range of the funbox, and pour lava on it. Pretty simple. If you cannot reach the area of the funbox, build up so that you are a little higher than the spawner, and pour lava down on the spawner. This will disable the funbox, and kill any monsters that may still be around it.

Cannons
Using a TNT Cannon is a fun way to dispatch of funboxes. However, using these could mean blowing up a wool chest. Be careful with this method.

Tunneling
The easiest way of tunneling toward a funbox is to go from below, as most funboxes are placed out in the open. Make sure to light up your tunnel very well while you tunnel towards it: you don't want your tunnel to be too dark.

If in a dungeon, always break the funbox before moving on. Creepers are known to blow up your lighting around the funbox and start it up again.

Big Rooms
Rooms that are generally, very big. They are difficult to light up because you have monsters attacking you from all directions.

Charge and Retreat
Charge in, light up the area, and retreat. Effective, but snail-slow, and rather dangerous.

Tunneling
Tunnel around the room, lighting up the walls at regular intervals. This will disable most of the spawners (even more if you use lava!) and will make the Charge and Retreat method much easier.

Tunneling to the top of the dungeon and pouring lava from above is a much safer way of doing this.

Landscapes
Even bigger than a big room, they are vast areas with several little dungeons for you to conquer. As well, there are usually areas on the other side of these landscapes, making these areas much more annoying to beat.

Traversing
Using Minecart Tracks is a very effective way of moving around the landscape. You could also make a tunnel under the landscape for safe travel at night, but this takes a lot of time, and is not worth it.

Mazes
Bedrock mazes are found occasionally in maps. They're frustrating to solve and hard to get out of. Here's some tips of finding the right path:

Dead End Mark-off
Whenever you hit a split road, put down a torch, and then go left, or whichever direction is closest to left. Always go left. It's much easier to find dead ends if you stick to one direction.

If you find a wall, good. Traceback to where you started, and mark off that path as a dead end (either with stone blocking the way, or a torch on the beginning of the path). If you find a split road, do the same thing: mark off the split road with a torch, and go to the left choice.

Fighting in Mazes
A common trick for mappers to do is to put spawners within the mazes, making it harder to move around. Use corners to your advantage when fighting in a maze. Don't use lava: it'll gum up the corridor too much.

Sand and Gravel
I've seen several sand traps. The simplest one is one that collapses when you place a block or a torch on it, revealing either lava or a pit of monsters. Sand and gravel ceilings can also surprise the unsuspecting player. Be cautious in sandy areas.

As well, sand is an effective tool in setting off block update traps, which are rather common in Super Hostile maps (curse you again, Vechs!).

TNT
If it's too good to be true, it probably is. Look out for innocent houses built on the landscape: it could be a deadly trap! TNT also makes a great big hole, making it rather difficult to fight.

Pits
Although easy to dodge within corridors, fighting can distract you, and you can walk off the of a pit! Cover up, or barricade every pit you see that might be a threat.

Redstone-related Items
This includes Pressure Plates, Dispensers, and Pistons. Redstone circuits can be made to do virtually anything, so if you see an "innocent" Pressure Plate lying about, block it off, or avoid stepping on it.

Your Inventory
It should contain: At least Two Swords A bow -> two stacks of Arrows At least Two Pickaxes A shovel or two An axe or two A stack or two of Torches Buckets (if you have some) -> Two buckets of water is usually good Armor (very important!) A stack or two of Blocks Some Coal (or Charcoal) for Torches

In Case of Emergency
Oh snap! You died in an area with a high monster concentration and you had your best items! What will you do?

Be prepared for this scenario. Always have an emergency chest stocked with pre-made resources, just in case. It should have minimal inventory: two swords, some torches, and some armor. Note that you are not trying to conquer the dungeon with this, you are simply trying to get your items back.

The Base
A main base should have two characteristics: - It is based around the Victory Monument. - It is completely safe from monsters. - A Crafting Table, Furnace, and Chest is situated there.

Some more things I recommend you have in your main base:

Food Farm
The best type of food farm is an Automatic Wheat Farm (Tutorial), as wheat is a very easy resource to obtain, and bread is effective and easy to make. Bread is also stackable, making it easy to carry around.

The next best thing is a Mushroom Farm, which produces very fulfulling Mushroom Stew (Tutorial). Using Bone Meal on regular Mushrooms will produce a big Mushroom, giving you 4~16 mushrooms! However, Mushroom Stew does not stack, taking up lots of needed space in your inventory.

A Melon farm, unless very big, is not recommended, as melons only feed one part, and melons grow rather slowly.

Monster Farm
(link) Although the B1.8 patch made monster spawning platforms obsolete, a funbox does exactly the same thing, and much quicker too. Setting up a monster farm doesn't take more than a half-hour, if done correctly.

The best kind of trap is a lava blade trap, which kills monsters and leaves their drops unharmed.

A gravity trap takes more time, but is also more effective, as there is absolutely no light near the spawners, giving full spawn rates.

Tree Farm
Wood is undeniably the most important resource in Minecraft. You'll need a lot of it too, in the case of challenge maps.

Cobblestone Farm
This is only needed in extreme cases, where you have a great lack of Stone to use. The easiest farm to make is XL.OWX XXX.XX L-lava W-water X-block (non-flammable) .-nothing O-output (cobblestone)