Tutorials/Construction

For new players on Minecraft, fending off monsters and harvesting materials can already be a very painful and confusing job. This tutorial will help you construct some of the most useful as well as some of the most impressive buildings available to Minecraft. For advanced/expert building, go to Tutorials/Advanced Construction.

Basic House
A basic house is anything from a 3x3 cube to a castle. They can be made of any material, in any biome, anywhere.

The Cube
The Cube is the smallest house possible. it only uses about half a stack of material and is just a 3x3x4 cube. There is no space for a Bed, but Furnaces and a Crafting Table can be put into the ground/Wall.

Free-standing Structure
A basic house that is built on flat land and is completely open. These houses are easy to spot, and may be of multiple floors. On average, these houses use anywhere between 2 to about 10 stacks of material.

House-In-A-Cave
Instead of having to build a house, use what Minecraft provides you, and build your house in a cave or other naturally-generated structure. They use minimal resources, but may cost a significant number of Pickaxes. They are hard to see, and a landmark is recommended.

Lean-to
A house that is part-free-standing house, and part-cave. Ideal combination of both worlds. The Pickaxes are used here to gather materials for the main house, while making more room underground.

Space Needle
These houses are basically a large point leading up to a crazy height. They offer excellent views, and are quite Creeper-resistant, especially if the bottom few layers are made of Obsidian. However, they are very hard to expand, cost extremely high amounts of materials, and are rather monotonous to ascend. Building an elevator, preferably a two-way design, would solve the third problem.

Bunk Mates
If you find an NPC Village, you can make your house in a Villager's House! These are already-generated houses ready for you to use, and expansion can be done with the help of a few spare materials.

Mountain marking
A simple way to mark a spot, if it is next to mountains, is to put some torches on the top.

Statue
Statues, especially big ones, can be used to indicate a certain spot.

Things needed:
 * Cobblestone or stone. They are a preferred building material, but wool or blocks of gold can be used as well.
 * Optionally, Glass blocks or panes.
 * Signs. Again, it is optional, but it may be used to tell which statue is which, if you want to build many statues.


 * 1) Start by making the base of your statue. 10x10 should do.
 * 2) Place the blocks to make up the figure you want. It can be from Creepers to Slimes, from Busts to full sized, be creative in making your statues!
 * 3) Mark the statue with a sign. Again, it is optional.

Light Beacon
Beacons/Pillars can be used to mark where your house/favorite mine is.

Things needed:
 * 4 torches, a bucket of lava and 5 blocks of glowstone and 4 blocks of glass
 * Lots of sand/dirt etc.
 * 2 buckets of water
 * Some cooked pork (if you get damage, although this is optional, you can make it on peaceful)


 * 1) Start by making a pool of water that is 3 blocks deep (make sure it's 2 blocks away from your pillar).
 * 2) Use the dirt/sand etc. and use the "pillar jumping" method to continually make a pillar up to cloud level. You now have the pillar.
 * 3) Now for the light. Start by putting the four torches one block lower than the topmost block, then change the topmost block with glowstone, and put the four remaining ones around it. Put glass above the four blocks and put the lava in the middle.
 * 4) Then jump into the water (don't worry the water stops fall damage) and there you have it, your own light beacon.

You could also use a beacon block, but these are expensive to make and cannot be crafted early in the game.

Navigational Towers and Lighthouses
Navigational towers and lighthouses can be created to help you find your way home after a trip to say, the beach. You'll need at least enough of some kind of block to make a tower of your desired height, a light source, and enough ladders to climb that tower.


 * 1) Start by using the Pillar jumping method to create a tower, it is recommended that you use a more stable material, such as Cobblestone. This tower should be built to your desired tower height. Feel free to add a balcony around you, but make sure to leave a hole where you can climb up. If desired, you can add glowstone, a Torch, or a Redstone Torch to the top, otherwise this can be accomplished later.
 * 2) Fall off the side of your tower. As you fall, stick against the tower, and place ladders right below you. If you're not worried about the damage, you can choose to simply fall off, and then place ladders as you climb up to reach the top. If there is water nearby, it's recommended to jump into deeper water.
 * 3) You should now be able to access the tower with ease. If you didn't do so already, place some sort of light source (Glowstone is preferable if you have some) at the top.
 * 4) Other more complicated options are redstone torch blinkers, and even clocks that are attached to Note Blocks.

Lava Pillar
Another useful landmark tool is a lava pillar. Though slightly more costly than a lighthouse, it can be spotted much easier, during day or night. To build one, you need one bucket of lava, and enough materials to build one pillar of your desired height.


 * 1) Dig a 3x3x1 square in the ground. Ensure that the square is walled on all sides.
 * 2) Build a pillar right outside the grid (two blocks away from the center). This one should be made out of a weak and preferably collapsible material such as sand.
 * 3) Once you have reached the desired height, build a two block long walkway directly over the center of the pit.
 * 4) Go back to the pillar and destroy the single connecting block between the block over the center and the pillar.
 * 5) From the pillar, step as far back as you can and place your lava on top of the center block. Then destroy the outer pillar. Bear in mind, this could result in you being set on fire if you touch the lava.
 * 6) You now have a 3x3 column of lava that spans the height of your pillar. Because the lava falls into the 3x3x1 hole you dug in step one, it won't flow outwards, risking damage. If you still feel unsafe, feel free to build walls of glass around the pillar.

Farms
Farms are ways of getting Renewable Resources in a relatively time-efficient manner. Contrast this with blocks used to grow Wheat. If you want that kind of farm, see Farming. There are certain plants that can be farmed automatically. To see examples of this, look here

Cobblestone Generator/Farmer
See Cobblestone Farming.

Mob Farming
See Tutorials/Mob Farm for directions on making a mob farm.

Tree/Cacti Farming
See Tutorials/Tree farming or Tutorials/Cactus Farming for directions on making one.

Sugar Cane Farming
Sugar canes are good for making Sugar or for bookshelves. To farm it, you must:


 * 1) Find Sugar Canes in the wild and cut it down.
 * 2) Find or make a dirt block (as of 1.8.0 a sand block can be used too) touching water.
 * 3) Plant it on the block by right-clicking.
 * 4) Watch it grow.

NOTE: Sugar Cane will grow at any light level. This means you can have an indoor sugar cane farm without wasting so many torches. Just remember to have at least a 1x1x3 space for maximum growth.

Mines and Mining
Your first stop should be to visit the general Tutorials/Mining Techniques Page.

See Tutorials/Quarry for an explanation of quarrying – a time intensive, but potentially resource rich method of mining.

See Tutorials/Vertical Mine Shaft With Water Drop for a method to build a quick access shaft to the lower reaches of the earth.

Tutoriels/Bâtiment et construction

Simple Framed Building
A simple and good looking house can be made by making 4 to 3 block high pillars arranged in a square or rectangle. These pillars can be made of cobblestone. Join them at the tops with cobblestone beams. Then fill in the gaps with wooden planks. You can also add windows. To make a roof cover the top and place wooden stairs on it, arranged in a pitched fashion. Logs and white wool can be used instead to make a Tudor house. (Picture to come!)