For new players on Minecraft, fending off for your first night and harvesting materials can already be a very painful if not 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.
Landmarks
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.
- 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.
- 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 a water nearby, it's recommended to jump into a deeper water.
- 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.
- 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 two pillars of your desired height.
- Dig a 3x3x1 square in the ground. Ensure that the square is walled on all sides.
- Build a pillar in the center of the grid, as high as desired. If you're worried about fall damage, build a second pillar right outside the grid (two blocks away from your center pillar). This one should be made out of a weak and preferably collapsible material such as sand.
- If you built both pillars in step 2, jump to the outer one. If you did not build a pillar in step 2, Then jump off your current pillar, and build one.
- From the outer pillar, place your lava on top of the inner pillar. Then destroy the outer pillar.
- 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
Cobblestone Generator/Farmer
See Cobblestone Farming for a link to a good YouTube video for creating a cobblestone generator.
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:
- Find Sugar Canes in the wild and cut it down.
- Find or make a dirt block touching water.
- Plant it on the dirt block by right-clicking.
- 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.