Tutorials/Superflat survival

Most people will choose the Super Flat map style for creative building, but you are one of those special people who chose survival mode instead. You don't know what to do in order to survive, though! This guide will guide you through the steps of living comfortably on a super flat map.

Step 1: Find A Village and Get Settled
First, after the map renders, look around your spawn point for a village. If there is one, run toward it. If there is not, run in one direction until you see a village. This should take about 1~5 minutes.

Note that slimes spawn incredibly commonly, so do your best to dodge them as you run toward the village.

Your first priority in Minecraft is always getting Wood. The only source of Wood in a Super-Flat map is in the houses of the NPC Villages.

Once you get to the village, check all of the big houses. The ones with books in them typically have a crafting table. If you can't find a crafting table, break down part of a house to make a crafting table, and then a wooden pickaxe. Get some stone tools. Three Stone Swords, a pickaxe, and a shovel should be enough.

Actually, once you get to the village, raid all blacksmith shops for the chests (because of tools) and run around and kill mobs (unless there is an Iron Golem in the village.) Blacksmith shops also occasionally contain saplings in their chests, so you can use those as a renewable source of wood.

With the addition of Iron Golems in 12w08a, you can kill them in order to gain a renewable source of iron.

Take some of the wool off the lamps too, if you come across any, and make a Bed if possible. A Bed will come in handy later. You'll also get Torches from the wool, which will come in handy. If you want, harvest some Wheat for bread.

It should be nighttime, or becoming nighttime, by now. Go hunting for String and Arrows. A Bow will help later.

Step 2: Making a Portal
So, you've passed the night. Look in your village for a blacksmith shop. Blacksmiths have chests inside them containing Iron, Armor, Apples, Diamonds, Obsidian, things like that. If you find a blacksmith, raid the chest inside. Mark your current NPC village: this will be your main base for making the Portal. If you have any Obsidian, place it down. If you got a Bucket from the chest, or if you have enough Iron to make a Bucket, collect some Water and make Obsidian with the lava placed in the Blacksmith.

This part of Super Flat survival is incredibly boring, but neccessary. You'll need to:

- Find a new village.

- Raid all the blacksmiths there, and take the lava in the smelting areas.

- Run back to your marked village.

- Build your Nether portal more with the lava you collected and with the Obsidian you collected (if any).

- Repeat until portal is completed.

This usually takes a solid two hours to complete.

Now you'll need to light the Portal. If, somehow, lightning strikes your portal and lights it up, good for you. Otherwise, make a Flint'n'Steel to light it. (You should have at least an Iron Ingot, after all, you've raided several villages and killed many Iron Golems!)

Bring the bare minimums with you: some armor, a few swords and pickaxes, some torches, and a bow. Leave everything in a chest. Sleep in your bed to set your spawn, just in case.

Go into the Nether now.

Step 3: Endgame Things
It should be pretty obvious what you're doing in the Nether. Find a Nether Fortress, and get some Blaze Rods, as well as some Nether Wart. These will be of no use to you, as you cannot make potions: they are mostly for completion of survival, if you know what I mean. Get some Glowstone too.

That's really all there is to survival. You can make an enchanting table from your diamonds and obsidian, if you have some. You are relatively well settled within your Super-Flat world.

An inventory editor can be used to spawn in an end portal. In normal survival, Most of the challenge of the Ender Dragon is finding the Stronghold and collecting Ender Pearls. In Superflat, the challenge is amassing enough materials to make the weapons and armor necessary to fight the Ender Dragon.