Tutorials/Tips and tricks

Here are some tips and little hints for those who are new to Minecraft. You can also find tips under the "Trivia" section of some pages, and those are likely to be more in-depth.

Collecting sand or gravel without using a shovel
Instead of wasting a shovel's durability by digging piles of sand, gravel, or even concrete powder, you can use torches or various other blocks to break entire columns at once. This works with any "passable" block, including rails, redstone dust, or even slabs; but torches are almost always handy.

For this trick, the player should hold a torch, and use it to break bottom-most block if a stack then immediately place a torch on the floor of the newly-empty space. The column should collapse into a scattering of items. If you placed the torch too fast, the sand etc. might not have time to start falling, and the torch will just hold them up -- in this case just break the next block above the torch as well.

Breaking gravel using this trick will never drop flint, which should be considered by the player depending on the resources they desire.

How it works: The pillar of gravity affected blocks will turn into falling block entities, which can land on any full block, but pass through non-solid blocks (much as a player or mob would). If they land in an empty space, they will turn back into a proper block. However, if they land and find there is already a block in that space, they will instead break as an item.

Finding your directions
Within the Minecraft world, a compass is not how you tell which way is north! Rather, it always points to a fixed point, the "world spawn". Sometimes, though, you do need to tell north from south, and so on. There are a few ways:


 * You can find north by hitting a block and checking the directions of the cracks which occur on a block as it is mined.
 * This may not work if you are using a texture pack that changes the crack pattern.
 * First, learn the crack pattern. If a block is hit on its side, there should be one crack going almost straight up, one to the right, and one going almost straight down.
 * If you hit a block on the ground, the same crack pattern will appear. The crack which went almost straight up on the side of the block, will point north on the top of a block.
 * You can watch which direction the sun, moon, stars, or clouds are moving. Each of these always move from east to west.
 * In the Java Edition, the debug screen (activated by pressing ) gives information on which way you are facing.
 * If you have a map ($$, a locator map) covering where you are, the map will shows an arrow-like player icon. This points the same way that you are facing in the world.  The top of the map is north, the right edge is east, and so on.

Peaceful mode
If you are having too much difficulty with hostile mobs, such as a zombie or a creeper, or can't find any food to eat, you may be able to set the world difficulty to peaceful. In peaceful mode, hunger and health will quickly regenerate, the hunger bar will not harm the player's health, and all hostile mobs will instantly despawn.

This is a controversial move -- in a pure survival game, many players will consider it to be cheating, that takes away much of what they see as the challenge and fun of Minecraft, especially when used as a "panic button". That said, it's better than a ragequit, and Minecraft is meant to accommodate many different styles of play.

When the "point" of your own game is more about construction or artistic builds than about surviving the monsters, peaceful mode becomes very helpful. It can also be used as a "training" mode to learn the game controls and get used to the Minecraft world.

Single-player worlds have an option to lock world difficulties and eliminate this option, keeping you "honest" in the gameplay; for multi-player worlds, you will not be allowed to change the world's difficulty unless you are the world owner (or at least an "op").

Log collecting technique from trees
If you to get every block of wood on a tree but just can't reach the top block, try leaving the bottom block intact, then jump on it to get the rest. Once done, harvest the bottom. If you still can't reach the top you can "pillar jump" up: Jump and place a block beneath you (use a block that's easy to break, like dirt, wood, or stone). Once done, you can mine away your own blocks, and either break the "tree stump" or leave it to mark the tree's drops when you come back later.

Crafting tips
Recent versions of Minecraft feature a recipe book, which will supply most of the all recipes that can be made with all items you've ever picked up. It can also make it easier to craft as well as remember recipes. That said, it is possible to craft recipes that aren't in the book yet, by remembering their crafting pattern. (They will then be added to the book, along with any recipes using the new item.)

For several common wooden tools, there are routines to quickly craft them with an even number of logs:


 * For fences, you will want a multiple of 5 logs. Convert them to planks, then convert one-fifth (1/5) of the total to sticks.  With 20 logs, you can just turn the smaller stack of 16 planks into sticks, then craft that with the other stack of 64 planks, for 48 fences.
 * By comparison, fence gates are easy, and cost exactly 1 log each. Convert the logs to planks, then convert half of the planks to sticks.
 * For ladders, crafting 7 logs at a time into sticks will let you just drag the resulting pile into the ladder shape, for 24 ladders.
 * For slabs, doors, or trapdoors, multiples of 3 will come out even, (Likewise for stone slabs and walls.)

If you are struggling to remember crafting patterns, try taking a closer look at a pattern, like the fishing rod pattern. Take notice of how the sticks and string line up to look like a fishing rod. Many patterns follow this trait, such as doors, which use two columns of wood planks to make the rectangular shape of a door, and swords, which use two wooden planks, cobblestone, iron ingots, gold ingots, or diamonds for the blade and a stick for the handle.

In single-player, you can also pause the game and visit the wiki for that item for the recipe.

You can also save a bit of time by stacking some items to make two or more different items in a pass. The examples below show how to stack items to craft two or three items in quick succession.

Set the spawn
If the base is far from the spawn point, and if one has 3 wool and 3 planks, they can make a bed. If one sleeps once in a bed at night, it will set their spawn point to the bed. However, make sure to be careful, because if the bed is broken, that spawn point will be lost and that player will spawn at the original world spawn point. Therefore, it would be a smart idea to make a second bed, place it, and sleep in it before the player get rid of the first bed. That way the player would not die and spawn at the original spawn point whilst moving the first bed.

Be careful when decorating around the bed. Some block placements will allow the player to access the bed, but will prevent the bed from acting as a spawn point. Never completely surround the bed, even with half-height blocks, such as stone slabs. Also, if the player put glass beside the bed, they may not be able to spawn beside it, as players cannot naturally spawn on glass. If the bed is obstructed and the player died somewhere, they will end up at the original spawn point with a message saying that "Your bed is missing or obstructed".

Also note that the player needs to be able to stand on the bed if the player wants to set a new spawn point, meaning that the spawn point won't be reset if the player sleeps in the bed with a block above it.

On beds and bases
If the player has discovered a structure that could yield them many items, such as an abandoned mineshaft, a stronghold, or a swamp hut, they may be tempted by the riches. However, do not attempt to enter if it is far from home and they could be afraid that they will lose their valuable items when they die and not able to reach them in time. To deal with this, set up a new spawn point at the outskirts of the discovered structure by placing a bed and sleeping in it. Carry a bed at all times when exploring far away from home.

Consider that when the player dies, they will respawn without their items unless keepInventory is set to true. If the player died someplace deep underground, the player is likely to have monsters between them and the dropped items. If the player plans to create a spawn base nearby, that base had better have enough resources for the player to be properly equipped before charging back into the fray. The basic kit for a spawn base should be at least half a stack of iron (or the equipment it makes, see below), at least half a stack of planks and a quarter-stack of coal, plus bow and arrows, and food. Supplies of other equipment (torches, fences, ladders, etc.) are also helpful. Another technique is to use ender chests. This way, the player can access resources from their main base. However, for this to work, the player needs another one in their main base, and also remember to stock it with items. This technique is better for more advanced players who have the necessary resources.

If there is not enough to spare to stock the base, the player may be better off respawning at their distant base, well out of chunk loading range from the death. The player's items will not disappear in unloaded chunks, so they can re-equip at leisure, move to a few hundred blocks from the death site, and then zip back there as fast as possible before the five-minute timer runs out. As preparation for this, the player can thoroughly mark their route from the surface to the mine, especially the proper entrances.

If the player decides on a nearby spawn base, the first priority is safety—pick an area that is well lit and closed off from dangerous areas, and especially protected from creepers (stone/cobblestone walls, a door, and glassed or fenced windows to view the area in front of the entrance). A small room will do, but there needs to be enough space for a crafting table, a furnace and at least one double-chest to store supplies (these can be embedded in the floor if needed.) Of course, the player also needs space for the bed, and free space next to the head of the bed to respawn. There should also be room for an infinite water source, which can be tucked half under a wall.

What they need for the base will be a bed, crafting table, furnace, and a chest. If there is no wool for the bed, players can use string (plentiful in abandoned mineshafts) to make some. The chest should contain at minimum a full set of iron armor, iron sword, a bucket, and either a second bucket, an iron pick, or shears and a flint-and-steel. (By an amazing coincidence, this is exactly what can be made with half a stack of iron.) The player should also have a stone pick, shovel, and axe, a bow and at least half a stack of arrows, preferably a full stack. Pre-craft some tools: Another chest, and at least half a stack of torches. Some fences, gates, and ladders, a door, or whatever, may come in handy too. The player will need a fair bit of food, at least a quarter-stack of steak or porkchops or more of lesser foods. Just to be careful, stick some spare blocks in there too—a half-stack to a stack apiece of cobblestone, dirt, and gravel, as well as extra wood. (Sand is less useful, but some glass might come in handy.) Having some extra raw materials handy: coal, string, redstone, etc., is always good. If possible, top off the selection with a spare copy of the map, and a clock—these can be in frames if desired.

Before delving into the depths, remember to sleep in that bed at least once. Just placing it is not enough, remember to sleep in the bed to reset the spawn point there. Now when the player dies, they will reappear not helpless in the midst of a dangerous cavern, but in a secure base with a full set of supplies to go back and seek revenge, or at least the items. Note that creeper attacks and other liabilities are not covered.

Open the world to LAN
If the player has a lot of valuable items like diamond armor, a diamond sword, diamonds, gold and iron, then they will be more afraid to have all their hard work come to nothing. Unfortunately, this means that if the player dug a hole into lava, all of the items that they carried with them will be lost forever. Many players delete the world when this happens; however, never delete any world. Just think about the effort of building the base. It took more time to build it than to find the stuff the player needed. If it is deleted, then that world is gone forever. There is an alternate way to get the items back. There is an "Open to LAN" option, which allows the player to enable cheats. When cheats are enabled, players can go into creative mode and replace lost items, as well as setting  to true. However, note that many players consider this as cheating. Many players believe that it's better to think about their mistakes and start over.

However, if a player is playing multiplayer and they are not the server owner, then LAN world is disabled. In that case, the player could ask the one that hosts the Multiplayer game to replace the items or create a new world in singleplayer.

Emergency Shelter
If the player is stuck outside in the middle of the night with many hostile mobs coming to attack them, they can make an emergency shelter. The player should dig three blocks down and place a block above them, making them safe. They should have a torch however; if they wish to avoid being in the dark without a light source. They may want to expand the boundaries to place a bed. The player can get out of the hole by pillar jumping if they do not have any ladders. This method is not recommended though, as the player is completely exposed to mobs as they leave. Pillar jumping, instead of digging down is another solution. The player simply makes a pillar directly under themselves: 10 or 12 blocks will put them out of reach of arrows from skeletons, and out of range from monsters in general, except phantoms. To get rid of spiders, however, they will have to build an overhang around the top block of the pillar. Pillar jumping rather than digging down also removes the possibility of digging into a pit of lava or a cave, although it is rare for one of these to generate 3 blocks from the surface. Also, as a last resort, the player can simply set the difficulty to peaceful mode. If the player is not the host and can't set the difficulty to peaceful, they can stay in the hole until it's daytime. (See Peaceful mode.)

Zombie-proof door
Zombies can break down doors, if the game difficulty is set to hard when night falls. Here's a solution that doesn't require the player to craft an iron door or compromise the base's security. Simply break down the door, then turn so that the player is perpendicular to where the door just was, and place the door. Get out of the hole the door is occupying, and open it by right-clicking. Now, if the door is placed it the right way, zombies will think that the door is open and avoid it. One can also place any regular block such as dirt or cobblestone in front of the door to prevent zombies from getting to it. If the block is placed on the outside side of the door, the zombie will not be able to damage the door. If the block is placed on the inside side of the door, the zombie can break down the door, but cannot proceed further inside.

One can also place sand or gravel above the door, that way, if the zombie does break the door, it will fall and close the entrance off; or can make a water or lava ditch after the door, also preventing zombies and other mobs from entering. Make sure that the house is not a flammable substance, or that anything is around the ditch.

The simplest solution is to use a fence gate instead of a door, as zombies do not recognize them as doors. One must, however, guard against creepers, which will treat fence gates as fences as per priming-time detection range mechanics (creepers will start the countdown even if blocked by fences, as they are in the same space as the fence). The laziest way to protect against undead intruders is to dig a 1&times;3 trench in front of the door—to break down doors, zombies must destroy the top half of the door. If zombies are on the door trench, they must jump to attempt to break the top half of the door, which resets the zombie door breaking mechanic. Note that this method only works if the door was installed flush to the outside wall of the dwelling. Also, putting a block underneath the door forces the zombies to jump, break, fall, fail, repeat, exact same mechanic, simply make a 3 high doorway and instead of a door and another block on top, put a block on the bottom and door on the top two block spaces, allowing villagers to still use these doors.

Another way is to build a door frame around the door. Then, add a trapdoor to the middle blocks. Zombies will not be able to break down the door.

Legitimate Motion Sensor
To detect mobs in their tracks, simply surround the house with a ton of planks. The mobs should walk on the planks and make plank sounds, therefore alerting the player of their presence. Then the player can dig down or prepare for battle. The preferable radius is 5 blocks out.

Note: The volume must be somewhat high for this to be effective.

Adding pressure plates with note blocks underneath it can increase the loudness and allow the player to detect invisible mobs/players by seeing which pressure plates are pressed down.

Minecart perimeter
A trick to defend the base that works best once the player is settled in, and have enough iron to make track and a minecart. (Powered rails are also helpful, so some gold and redstone is a must.) Ring the house with rails or powered rails, craft a few minecarts, and set them spinning around the perimeter. Any mobs that come close to the house will be scooped up by the minecart and taken for a ride. This trap can be modified with one-block-high tunnels to suffocate any mobs in the cart. The player can also ride the carts by the player - they will travel fast enough that most mobs can't attack him or her. This, however, takes much more skill to use, and can still trigger creeper explosions. Additionally, mobs will not walk across tracks.

Mining
Mining is most important as the player can tell from the game's name. The player needs to mine to get resources. Keep 32 torches and have 2-5 pickaxes all times for back up. Keep some shovels in the inventory since they are useful. The last rule is to be safe and have fun.

When trying to find ores, they can conserve valuables, including diamond, gold, or anything that the player is having trouble finding in a mine, by making a few pickaxes out of valuables and a lot out of stone. Use the stone pickaxes to expand the mine to search for veins, and use the valuable ones to mine the ores. If the player uses the valuable pickaxe for everything, it might break before the player finds another vein of the valuable—and worse, the ores might not re-replenish the valuable the player spent getting there if they used multiple pickaxes.

If a tunnel goes through lava, use glass to allow light in while blocking the lava.

Note: On Java Edition, the player can press to show the light level (BL, SL). If its 7 or under monsters will spawn.

Branch mining
This is perhaps the safest method of mining, with higher rewards. This method consists of digging a staircase down to level 11, blocking off any caves the player may find along the way. This is the ideal level to find diamonds. Diamond ore can be found between levels 5 and 17, but lava pools make a real hazard below level 11. Keep a water bucket in the hotbar, just in case. Press $$. When the player is at Y=11, start mining a 3 block tall, 1 block wide tunnel, or branch, in any direction. Continue for about 30 or 40 blocks, gathering all resources, placing torches intermittently, and blocking any caves along the way. If the player wants to explore the caves they may do so, although this no longer classifies as branch mining. Go back to the beginning of the branch, move 3 spaces over, and repeat the same process.

Here's an example:

X = Tunnel

|_|_|X|_|_|X|_|_|X|

The reason for leaving a 2 block wide space in between each branch is that if the player only left one, it would be seen as the right wall in one tunnel and the left wall in the other.

When mining, always make sure to have at least a half to a full stack of wood, iron ingots (or cobblestone), and coal or charcoal. This ensures a large renewable supply of tools and torches that takes up very little inventory. Just craft more as needed.

For large sections of mining on many levels, move 4 spaces over. This might be a bit more dangerous, but it will save pickaxes.

X = Tunnel

|_|_|_|X|_|_|_|X|_|_|_| |_|X|_|_|_|X|_|_|_|X|_| |_|_|_|X|_|_|_|X|_|_|_|

Compact
This can be any size so for example, dig 1 block down 8×8. Then, mine all of the blocks down 1 more, but don't mine a block that was in one of the corners. Then, repeat this, but instead of not mining that one block, mine the block next to it. As it gets deeper, it starts to form stairs. This is possibly the best way to get lots of ores, and the safest, but by far the hardest to make, recover, and get blocks. Players will need about 1-2 stacks of torches, glowstone, etc., and a lot of pickaxes.

Above ground
Make a 1×2×2 doorway in the back of the base. After that easy step, make a huge room and have several different ways to mine. Low and high, left and right - the player are sure to hollow out a mountain soon, getting hefty supplies of coal and iron, however they will not encounter gold, redstone, lapis lazuli or diamond, and there is still a slight danger of lava.

Spelunking
Find a cave, and explore a branch of the cave. If the cave branches off while exploring the current branch, go down one of the paths at random. When the player reaches a dead end, they should go back and mine the coal, iron, etc. that the player have passed. Leave at least some of the torches that are placed, to keep the area lit and prevent monsters from spawning. After the player does that, go down another branch of the cave, and repeat the above process until the cave is done. Now, mark the cave in some way so that the player knows they have mined out this cave. This is best for peaceful mode or easy, as whilst the ores are more obvious, there is more danger of mobs attacking.

Mineshaft with a water drop
The player will need about 7 stacks of ladders, 1 water bucket, a few iron or diamond pickaxe and a sign. The sign is optional, though it is helpful in marking where to place the water.

First, dig a 1×2 hole down to bedrock level. Remember not to dig straight below themselves. If the player hit non-flowing lava, stop mining, or try and find a way around the lava.

Once the player has done that, or as they go down, place ladders along one side, so that they can climb back out of the hole. Place the sign 3 blocks above the bottom on the opposite side of the ladders. Place water just above the sign. Now, the player doesn't have to use the ladders to go down; instead, players can just fall down.

Much further into the game, once the player has access to the nether, a quick way to exit a mineshaft is to build a tunnel down, roughly 2 blocks from the side of the pit, and then upon reaching the bottom place a block of Soulsand, and then fill the tunnel just made with water. If done correctly, this should create a bubble column due to the Soulsand, and entering the column should shoot the player straight to the surface, both quickly and safely, if it doesn't reach, just add more water source blocks. Just watch out for lava during the initial mine down. Feel free to edit it as desired once working!

Grid mining
Similar to branch mining, except make 2×2 tunnels instead of 1×2, and dig a new tunnel every 16 blocks, creating a grid pattern. This method isolates chunks, if built on a chunk border, which can then be mined out for ores.

Ravine mining
Ravines are a structure in Minecraft that are deep cuts into the world, often exposing ores such as coal or iron, or even gold or redstone if the ravine goes low enough. Many players are tempted by this, and decide to jump right down into the ravine. However, if the player does this, it will be much harder to get back up, and the player will take fall damage. Instead, the player will need to make a safe way to get down to the bottom of the ravine. There are several ways to do this.

One way is to get plenty of sand or gravel. Place blocks in midair, next to the edge, and allow them to fall to the bottom of the ravine in a stack. When they reach the level of the player, jump on and dig down. (Note: This is the only time when digging straight down should be attempted.) When the player reaches the bottom, go get the ore, and re-stack the blocks to get back up. (See Pillar jumping.) The player can also use shears to get vines from trees, where jungle and swamp biomes have plenty of them and place some at the top of the ravine edge. They will grow down over time and can be used the same way as a ladder, allowing the player to return to an easier climb each time they come back.

Other methods are to make a waterfall. Build a simple pool on the edge of the ravine, leaving the side that borders the ravine open. Make a bucket, fill it with water, and fill the pool so that it overflows into the ravine, or the player can also just dump a water bucket a block or two away from the edge. The water will leak out of the pool and fall to the bottom of the ravine. This can be used as an easy way to get down and back up. If the player is really impatient, they can actually jump down the ravine into the water at the bottom, which will protect them from fall damage. Be careful, however, as most ravines found underground have lava pouring from the sides or in lakes at the bottom. Don't miss it. Doing this over lava is dangerous: The water will quench lava directly under it, but if the lava extends more than 7 blocks away, the player will have a water current trying to carry the player into the remaining lava. Be prepared to swim back up or deal with the situation: Fences or blocks might contain the original waterfall, or the player can bring a second water bucket to dump and then retrieve closer to the edge of the lava. Either way, the idea is to get some water-free obsidian to stand on.

Obtaining coal without mining
If the player has made the shelter and mined some cobblestone, but cannot find any coal to fuel or light the environment, just make a furnace, and smelt some logs (not already crafted to planks). Use the planks for fuel—2 planks for every three logs the player want to smelt. This will smelt into charcoal, which equates to coal, except that it cannot be used to make coal blocks.

Building a house
There are some recommendations for early building:

For beginners, the player might want to hollow out the side of a hill or mountain. This can be done quickly and turn into a good shelter, but keep in mind it will be harder to find the home if the player wanders off, or the player could place torches if they have any around the entrance. Good thing is that the mobs can't track any players down by light sources, except zombies. A second design is to collect a lot of logs and build a house of planks. These stand out easily, look good, and function well. The bad thing is they and their slab counterparts are flammable and may be set on fire by lightning.

A more durable shelter can be made of cobblestone, stone or stone bricks, but don't use dirt for anything but strictly temporary shelters (dirt is easily demolished by creepers). Don't build with or on sand or gravel, since they are affected by gravity, which will make things very difficult when a player decides to expand the shelter or dig a basement. The best material to make a house with is obsidian, since it is impossible for creepers to blow it up, although obsidian is quite difficult to obtain.

These are some recommendations for later building:

Take the time to make a dedicated storage area with a good amount of chests. Reorganizing every 30 minutes is a pain.

Make some farms that are modular and therefore can be easily expanded.

If the shelter was made out of wood at first, then players may want to change it to something more blast-resistant, like Cobblestone, or even obsidian, if supplies allow.

Darkness
If a player runs out of coal or charcoal, remember that hostile mobs require a light level of 7 or less to spawn. Use this knowledge to save some torches in the shelter: even if things are a little dim, any space within 6 blocks of a torch is spawn proof. Also, monsters won't randomly spawn near the player (24 blocks): The player may want to light up a perimeter just to see what's coming, and light the base so the player does not need to come back to find a new tenant, but monsters won't be appearing in front of them.

Light Tip
To avoid vision problems, such as trying to see ores in dark places is very hard for the eyes, they get tired and degrades vision, change the brightness by going into settings. By default, the game has "Moody" brightness setting. Set it up ("Bright" recommended). This will save a player's vision. Moreover, the player will not need as many torches. Especially in the Nether, where everything is somewhat lit without torches on "bright" setting, and mob spawning never depends on light level. In order to save torches while mining, they can be placed along the floor every 13 blocks, since a torch has a light level of 14, and that spacing will ensure the light level never drops to 7, where mobs will be able to spawn. If F3 is enabled, place the torch when the light level of the block the player is standing on is 2.

Upper-tier ores
If the player sees some redstone, diamond, or some other upper-tier ore, don't use low-level pickaxes to mine them. When the ore mines as slowly as breaking stone with bare hands, that is a hint that it will not drop anything. Indeed, if any ores or stone except obsidian takes more than two seconds to mine, the player is using the wrong pickaxe (assuming the wrong pickaxe is not enchanted with the Efficiency). The rules are that wooden or gold pickaxes only mine coal and stone, while stone mines iron, coal and lapis lazuli ore. Iron mines all blocks except obsidian, (and bedrock) and diamond/netherite pickaxes can mine every block except bedrock, even obsidian. Though, if visiting the stronghold looking to get an end portal frame, don't waste time, it is unbreakable. Be careful, upper-tier ores are deep enough that players are likely to run into lava lakes. Remember the water bucket.

Item durability
If the player is new to Minecraft, they may not know what happens if they are mining with a tool, and suddenly it turns into the hand and the tool is gone. This is because the durability of the tool has run out. Take care to look at the durability of items (the little colored bar underneath the item) before departing on any long trips, be it exploring or mining, as the last thing players will want to do is to take the long trip back home just for an axe, or a pickaxe. Time is precious, so try bringing along a crafting table, or stock up on tools if needed. Try not to use tools up completely—instead, hang onto the almost-dead tool and switch to a new one. Then, when the new tool is itself mostly used up, the player can combine the two. This pools their remaining durability, with a "repair bonus" for good measure. Also, F3+H shows the durability of weapons/armor, and this setting is retained through restarts of the client.

Farming techniques
Passive mobs will spawn very seldom after they have been killed, which means that meat will eventually short of demand if the player keeps killing animals without breeding them. The same is true for plants. A solution to this is to make farms.

Wheat farms
Most players like starting a wheat farm first because wheat seeds are one of the first items one can acquire. Note that all methods for wheat will work identically for potatoes and carrots, except that those don't have separate seeds, re-plant the crop.

Besides seeds, players will need dirt/grass, a hoe, light, and water. One source block of water will hydrate farmland four blocks in every direction, including diagonally. Therefore, the most effective (using a small area) wheat farm is 9&times;9 with a source block in the middle. Again, that one source block extends to all tilled soil in the 9&times;9 areas. That area yields 80 wheat after fully grown. This not only saves water sources, but also gives more room to grow crops for less water. However, wheat grows faster when planted in individual rows, so for maximizing growth speed and return over time, other setups are more efficient.

If players want to farm more efficiently with only having to use a single bucket of water/Water source, it's best to make a multi-level greenhouse. Here is one plan:

Make the floors 12 long by 13 wide. It will allow for a walkway to put torches on. The plots go as follows: 8 rows by 4 columns, a trench 8 blocks long, then another 8 rows by 4 columns. Make each level 5 blocks high minus the foundation layer. Place an extra layer of cobblestone or wood beneath each new level to prevent water drops from leaking. Place a hole in the ceiling where the water will enter from the top levels and on the ceiling of each floor, torches or glowstone can be placed to accelerate crop growth. Repeat for as many levels as desired. When flooding the trench at the top, remember this, it is necessary to have the holes in a zigzag pattern to allow the water to flow from level to level. This will net 64 Wheat per floor and will allow faster crop growth since the crops will all be in the same confined area. To clarify the trench system: If the ceiling of one level has a hole on one side of the water trench, make the hole of the floor above or below on the other side of the water trench. This allows for only one bucket of water to be used for optimal farming. Water flows 8 blocks in a trench and will spread the same for each level it goes to, the last block is purposely made to be a hole to capitalize on this.

Villagers can be used to automate breaking and replacing of the crops. Just make sure the villager's profession is Farmer (Farmers have straw hats) and is holding 8 stacks of seeds.

Pumpkin/Melon farms
Players will likely find pumpkins first, and these are far more useful—melons provide small-change food (similar to cookies) and are used for brewing, but pumpkins provide jack o'lanterns, which are valuable for marking a path and the direction home. They can even provide light underwater! They can be used to create golems and make pumpkin pie as well. They can also be worn on the player's head to prevent being seen by endermen. However, the two crops grow almost identically. They do use farmland, so that 9&times;9 plot with a water block works well, but instead of planting the whole field, plant half the squares, in strips. These will grow into stalks, each of which needs dirt or farmland next to it to place a fruit. Harvest the pumpkins or melons, but leave the stalk to grow another fruit. See the appropriate tutorial for advice on how to arrange the fields. Observers and pistons can automate this!

Sugar cane farms
Once past the initial stage when players eat any food they can without bothering with extra preparations, and are ready to craft some more complex items, players may want to start sugar cane farming in order to craft sugar and paper, sugar being a key component of cake, pumpkin pie, and some potions; and paper being required to craft maps, books, bookshelves, cartography tables, enchantment tables, and firework rockets. Find a patch of sugar cane (it grows near water), break it down and take it to the base. One more tip is to place sugar cane underwater (doesn't matter how deep) on sand or dirt that is adjacent to water. Doing this should create an air bubble, allowing the player to breathe underwater. This trick can be used to aid in the creation of underwater structures. Observers and pistons can be used to automate sugar cane farms.

This bug has been patched, and in turn, may not work with some exceptions.

Fishing
With string, fishing becomes an extremely viable source of food, especially as fish are infinite but passive mobs do not respawn. Catching 7 or 8 fish will easily earn players a couple of levels per day, depending on what level the player is on, to begin with. Fishing can be used to gain the needed levels for the desired enchantment. (Although, a better option is to kill mobs at a spawner). Fish, while they do not replenish a lot of hunger, can be much easier to obtain compared to other foods. Try building a small island in the middle of a lake, as this will prevent mobs from attacking from behind at night. If playing PC release Java Edition 1.7.2 or higher, there is also a chance to fish up treasure such as saddles and enchanted bows and fishing rods. See fishing for more information.

Animal farming
Ranching, or animal farming, usually refers to breeding animals so that there can be an infinite supply of meat and other passive mob drops. Simply right-click an animal with their "desired" food to breed, and then right-click the same animal with that same food (see "Breeding" for more) To make an animal farm, simply make an enclosure with fences and one fence gate to access the farm.[jumping on a carpet on a fence can also be used to get in.] Then, lead at least 2 of the animal to the enclosure. It is recommended to have plant farms nearby and harvest the crops to breed the animals quickly.

Stuck in the Nether
It is common knowledge that the player should always have a flint and steel or a fire charge in the inventory in the Nether, just in case. Though, if the player is stuck in the Nether because of a ghast blowing up the portal, (this can be avoided by building a cobblestone house around the nether portal because a ghast's fireball can't destroy cobblestone) and the player is stuck without a flint and steel or a fire source, there is still a way to relight the Nether portal. The player must kill a ghast for gunpowder, kill a blaze for a blaze rod, and kill a wither skeleton for coal. The player then can craft the blaze rod into blaze powder, and craft gunpowder, blaze powder and coal to make 3 fire charges. The player can then use these to light the portal.

Also, flint and steel can be found in Nether fortress chests, which can then be used to relight the portal.

Another option is to take advantage of the fact that ghast fireballs cause fires. The player can make ghast shoot fireballs near the portal and hope that one of the fires hits the portal and lights it. Fortunately, ghast fireballs do not destroy obsidian.

If the player is lost in the nether often or go adventuring, a good thing is to always remember the coordinates of the portal, so the player can come back home.

Item Storage
Consider crafting shulker boxes to store extra items later on in the game. These shulker boxes can then be stored inside an ender chest. Color code chests to create an organized inventory. A silk touch pickaxe can be used to transport the ender chest. This is basically an extremely large backpack that keeps the items after death.

Bucket jumping
To ascend a cliff, an alternative to ladders or pillar jumping is to use a bucket of water to place water as high as possible, then swim to the top of the waterfall, put the water back into the bucket and quickly place a new waterfall at an even higher point. By repeating this process, a player can reach the top of the cliff. If the waterfall is left there, it can be used to travel back and forth.

Video
If you still want more tips into survival, check out these videos. These are basically chunks of information to get you started.

Tutoriels/Conseils et astuces Tutoriais/Dicas e truques simples チュートリアル/ヒントとテクニック