Pocket Edition

Minecraft: Pocket Edition is the mobile version of Minecraft developed by Mojang AB. It was initially launched exclusively for the Xperia PLAY on Google Play for 8.78430 NZD/$7.49 AUS/$6.99/£4.28/5.49€ on August 16, 2011. It was later released for other Android devices on the 7th of October 2011. Minecraft Pocket Edition for iOS devices was released on Thursday, the 17th of November 2011 on the iOS App Store, one day before the launch of Minecraft 1.0 at MineCon 2011 and currently costs $9.99 NZD, $7.49 AUS, $6.99 US and €5.49 EU. On September 13, 2012, the Pocket Edition was made available for purchase on the Amazon Appstore. A demo/lite version of the game, which was essentially version 0.2.1 without world save functionality, was available until October 21, 2013. According to Johan at Minecon 2013, an updated demo/lite version might get released soon.

Gameplay


The objective of the game remains the same as its original PC, PS3, and Xbox Edition counterparts, where players can build virtual realities in a sandbox-like environment. However, Pocket Edition lacks some of the Survival elements present in other versions of the game, such as taming, redstone circuits and hunger. The multiplayer mode is cross-platform compatible between Android and iOS.

The Pocket Edition is behind in features compared to PC Edition and Console Editions.

The HUD and other elements are adapted to mobile standards of gameplay. Interactions are made via touchscreen and, on Android operating systems, soft keys (both the iOS and Android versions of Pocket Edition have the same gameplay, though ). To comply with the disadvantages of touchscreen gameplay, several features were revised. For instance, the crafting system uses the MATTIS system and items are disposed by long-tapping their icon on the hotbar. The game was released with graphics akin to that of Minecraft Alpha, but as of the 0.8.0 update, graphics have become equivalent, and arguably better, than the PC version with light tinting and shading affected by the Sun's position. Differences from the PC edition include:


 * Worlds are finite (256 by 256 blocks) as in Classic version, but there isn't infinite water at world corners. Because of this, an interesting new game mechanic called "animal spawn control" can be used. This includes removing or covering all dirt blocks on the surface of the world (and therefore the grass blocks) except in a small area to control where and how often animals spawn. This might be changed when worlds become expanded and optionally infinite in 0.9.0 Alpha.
 * The terrain generation is similar to that of Alpha's. It lacks many biomes and generated structures. More biomes and PC-like terrain are planned for 0.9.0 Alpha.
 * The farthest Render distance is higher than in PC.
 * Multiplayer allows for 3 ways of player connection:
 * Through a LAN, allowing for 10 players to be on a single server
 * Through Minecraft Realms (as of version 0.7.1)
 * Through a user-created external servers (as of version 0.7.4)

Diversity
Pocket Edition developers have tried to make the game diverse from PC, with the following features;


 * Crafting uses the MATTIS system.
 * Each mob has some sort of difference from their PC counter parts
 * The Nether is not present, but it is replaced by the Nether Reactor. When the Reactor is placed in a certain way with gold and cobblestone, it will trigger a giant "netherrack fortress", which takes up a lot of space, when the core is activated. Zombie Pigmen spawn and are hostile towards the player. Certain items randomly spawn scattered in the room.
 * Poppies are not present, but are replaced by Cyan Flowers, alias Blue Roses. However, in the hotbar, it is named "Rose". Also, red dye is obtained by smelting red mushrooms or crafting from beetroots. This flower will be replaced by the poppy in 0.9.0.
 * Beetroots, beetroot seeds and beetroot soup are exclusive to Pocket Edition. Beetroot can be crafted into rose red and heals you by 1 health point, however making it into soup recovers much more. Beetroot seeds can be found in the Nether Reactor. It also has a 1 out of 14 chance to pop out of grass blocks while harvesting.
 * The Stonecutter is present, which can craft all the types of stone, bricks, and quartz, freeing room for crafting table slots.
 * Shadows on entities move depending on the position of the sun.
 * Glowing obsidian is present, which can only be generated in the Nether Reactor and cannot be obtained in the inventory. It is red and emits dim light. It is also known as Gold Killer since it turns Gold Blocks from the reactor to itself.
 * Invisible bedrock can be found at the edges of the world, which makes worlds finite. It can, however, be walked on, due to the world height limit. However, blocks cannot be placed on it. Any mobs there are invisible and invulnerable to damage.
 * Zombie Pigmen are naturally hostile.
 * Sheeps' color around its face and patches when sheared correspond its wool color.
 * Sugar Cane can be grown with Bone Meal.
 * Cold-en Oak Trees are present, which are glitches and extremely rarely generated.
 * Ink sacs are unobtainable in Pocket Edition Survival mode despite there being crafting recipes that require it. Because of this, (light) gray dye and cocoa beans are unobtainable. All dyes can be found in creative mode however.

Release
A video of an early prototype was released on Twitter, showing the game on the Xperia PLAY. The alpha version was recently released, and became no longer exclusive to the Xperia PLAY on the 7th of October 2011. The non-exclusive version was going to be released on September 29th for Android but there were several severe bugs that needed to be fixed; the release was delayed until the 7th of October.

A version for iOS devices was confirmed to be released before 2012 in an interview with Mojang and was subsequently released on the 17th of November 2011.

Alpha
After the initial releases for iOS and Android, updates were released in parallel, with the same features being added for both platforms. During the Alpha stage, various aspects of gameplay were introduced into Pocket Edition including: crafting, smelting, more blocks, items, mobs and more game modes to bring it closer to the PC version. As of the 0.6.0 update, players are given the option of diamond, iron, gold, and leather armor. There are also new features never seen before in the computer version such as the Stonecutter (a crafting table specifically for stone blocks). They also have fancy clouds which made the "Fancy Graphics" more important to the players. In 0.7.0 a toggle switch for the sky was added.

MCPE Beta has been discussed among the development team, and based on information in Johan Bernhardsson's twitch.tv livestream of 0.6.2, he plans to add in-game music. He has mentioned but does not know if he can implement enchanting, the End, and sprinting.

Snapshots
On November 21, 2013, Johan and Tommaso announced that they will be giving out snapshots for people to test the version before releasing it.They stated that it will be called beta test and will only be available for Android. Unlike expected, it was downloaded by over 8000 testers. The download is available from Google Plus, from a secret group. The first version to encounter snapshots was 0.8.0 for large amounts of testing. The snapshot name appears to be build. During the first version of snapshots, there were 8 snapshots and no pre-release.

Success
As of December 2013, Pocket Edition had sold 16.5 million copies, while in the same time, PC had sold 13 million. These calculations came out after the 0.8.0 update. This is considered a huge success, having Pocket Edition be more popular than any edition, though considered to be the least developed.

It is also usually in the top 10 in the App Store's and Google Play's Paid Apps Section in the Top Charts.

Android & iOS
The Android and iOS versions feature a D-pad at the bottom-left corner of the screen, which controls movement. The jump button is located in the center of the d-pad. As of 0.6.0 the d-pad is more blocky, and when moving forward, two strafing buttons will appear. Note that when moving towards an adjacent block that is one level higher than the Player, the player will automatically jump up the block. One can place blocks by tapping the screen in a desired location. Destroying blocks is similar to the PC version's way, but rather than clicking the mouse, the player taps and holds. The search button used to be able to change the camera to and from third person view, but now this has to be done via the pause screen, and the menu and back buttons will open the pause screen. To open the inventory screen, tap the triple dotted button on the right of the hot bar. You can touch and hold an item in the hot bar to throw it, and if the hot bar contains a stack of items, it will throw the entire stack. You cannot divide it unless interfacing with a container (chest, furnace).

Xperia PLAY
* Controlled with slide out PlayStation keyboard:

- Open inventory

- Scroll right in hotbar

- Jump (press twice to toggle flying mode in Creative*)

- Scroll left in hotbar

D-Pad: Move

Left Touchpad: Sneak

Right Touchpad: Look/Turn

Select: Open crafting menu (Survival only)

L1: Break Blocks

R1: Place Blocks

Menu: Pause


 * * To fly: Press jump twice in a row. To ascend, hold the jump button and press up on the directional pad. To descend, hold jump and press down. (Creative Only)

Tablet features
All devices have an option to enable Split Touch Controls, which may be more suitable for bigger screens. There is a cross hair and the right half of the screen lets the player rotate the camera.

Other than the screen size difference allowing 6 slots in the hotbar (which as of 0.7.0 if the D-pad on other devices is small, you get an extra slot), the tablet version of the game is the same as other versions, hence the ability to play multiplayer cross-platform with other devices.

System requirements
Some devices below these specifications have been known to work fine either with or without custom ROM images, kernels, and overclocking of the CPU. However, the CPU "MSM7227" is not supported due to its lack of the floating-point unit.

Helpful Hints & Tips

 * Make sure your battery is charged, and/or plugged in (3D gaming drains the battery quickly).
 * Get used to the controls before playing on servers (it is easy to mine the block under a torch by mistake).
 * Tap and hold an item in the hotbar to drop it.
 * Know the difference between Hostile and non-hostile mobs. If you are entirely new to Minecraft, a simple trick can be used to differentiate: Hostiles will approach and follow you, passives will ignore you.
 * Know how to apply armor and manage your health. Armor is next to the Crafting tab in the inventory screen.
 * Peer-to-peer networking requires UDP port 19132
 * If you're having trouble with block placement/mining accuracy - turn on split touch controls. This brings up the crosshair from the PC and Xbox versions to allow more precise placement.
 * If you are feeling overwhelmed by hostile mobs, turn on Peaceful mode in the options menu by moving the difficulty slider to the left.
 * If you are looking for diamonds, they spawn deep underground, near bedrock, roughly on the 10-16th layers.

Trivia

 * Players can have skins on the iOS version and Android by replacing char.png in the app file. However, the chosen skin will appear as another player's skin if playing over local Wi-Fi.
 * In the demo video, before the game was released, smooth lighting was available. It was taken out due to bugs being produced on a wide range of devices. As of 0.7.0, it is on by default, and since 0.8.0, it cannot be turned off.
 * Worlds played before 0.3.0 update had the other wool and sugar cane blocks.
 * The terrain.png file in the APK file found on Android devices is nearly identical to that in the PC version, containing textures for items unimplemented in the Pocket Edition (e.g., cauldron, End Portal).
 * It is possible to play multiplayer over Bluetooth even though it is not coded into the game. Tutorial here. (not available since iOS 6)
 * The Indev wall is also cut by the height limit allowing players to go over it.
 * By placing ladders on the TOP of blocks at the edge of a map (stacking ladders on the top of ladders also works) it is possible to place ladders on the Indev wall as if it were a solid block.
 * Blocks that "snap to" other blocks such as torches, glass panes, and fences will "snap to" the indev wall as if it were an existing block. Torches only do this if an attempt is made to place them on a block they can't be placed on such as ladders.
 * The rose is textured to a cyan color. Even though its considered a rose, it cannot be crafted into dye; rose red dye is obtained by smelting red mushrooms instead.
 * If a modifier or command is used to obtain an item from the Minecraft entity folder (e.g. iron door) the background of the non-existing entity will appear red meaning it does not exist or was never meant to. Selecting such an item crashes the game.
 * The average placing/destroying block range is 4-6 on the PC version but for the iOS/Android is 6-9.
 * Skeletons are significantly less accurate and fast in Pocket Edition than PC or Xbox, making them easier to fight.
 * Zombie Pigmen are missing the hat layer of their texture on their heads.
 * Zombie Pigmen are NOT neutral in Pocket Edition. They will attack you on sight, and inflict heavy damage in groups. (Only from a shorter distance, compared to regular distance. [Bug?] ) Considering they only spawn from the Nether Reactor, this means they can be very difficult to fight: You must collect the items as well as deal with the Zombie Pigmen, while in a relatively small space. They also do not burn when touching lava.
 * In Creative mode, there are spawn eggs for passive mobs, but not hostile mobs. This is because hostile mobs are still aggressive in creative mode, and this is probably going to be changed.
 * Before 0.7.0, players on fire would see 2 transparent orange panels in front of their face that resembled the water texture from iPhone versions, or the old water in Minecraft.
 * On Kindle Fire, updates won't appear until a long time after the update is released, however, due to the Kindle Fire being based off a modified Android OS, if you hold the current MCPE in your menu, and press "Remove from Device", then you can afterwards download any android MCPE update .apk file, tap on it in a file manager that you can download from the appstore, and install it normally, allowing you to play an update before any other Kindle Fire user, provided you find a .apk of an MCPE update download link on the internet or by transferring it from an Android device to a Kindle Fire, using a computer. (Not really the case anymore. The Amazon App Store skipped the version 0.7.3 update.)
 * Due to the auto-jump feature, if one opens the inventory or pause menu at the same time as jumping or swimming, one can go on auto-pilot and the player would jump, walk and/or swim without any commands. Auto-pilot ends once the pause menu or inventory is closed.
 * In 0.7.3, the moving title screen in the background is copied from the PC Edition of Minecraft.
 * In version 0.7.3, a bug known as duplication was a major glitch for players. The glitch occurs if you put items in a chest and exit out of the game, get your items back from the chest, then walk far away, delete the history of minecraft, then come back to the chest, the items are there even though you have them in your inventory.
 * There is a bug where zombies, skeleton and spiders have incorrect health. Skeletons and zombies have 40 hearts while spiders have 14, making them easier to fight.
 * In the lite version, there was a hack where you obtain any kind of block and it will be in the menu with the amount of infinity. You can also change gamemodes and TNT could be ignited by hand.
 * As of 0.8.0, clouds are always 3D, even on non-Fancy graphics, but the only difference is that Fancy graphics make clouds transparent.
 * Most players during 0.1.1 - 0.5.0 have low graphics with short render distance, due to Fancy graphics still being tested and lagging the game.