Surviving in Adventure Mode can be extremely hard, as breaking blocks is not possible (without the proper tools). However, in snapshot 14w02a and above, breaking and placing blocks is impossible, thus, the outdated version is appropriate.
12w18a - 1.3.2 and 14w02a+
The easiest way to survive is choosing Superflat instead of a normal world. This is because there are two ways to gain resources: killing mobs and collecting resources from NPC villages (not true anymore).
Setting up an Adventure World
Set up a world with cheats, and do "/gamemode 2". It is recommended to take Superflat. If you happen to see no village, make a new world with the seed gimmeavillage or Minecraft. The seeds youshotadudemann, arnold and 366 also work very well. You can see a village in the distance and once you're there, you can see three more. Each village in that seed has 1 or 2 blacksmith shops. I've tried these, all spawn you next to a village. Also, since you need tools to break blocks, choose Bonus chest. There might be some stuff in the blacksmith's house, but I recommend you to take the bonus chest.
Surviving
- First of all, be sure to kill any mobs on your way (leave at least two passive mobs of each type for breeding later (see the sub-point below on creepers); sheep are kind of useless; you can't place anything at all in adventure, so don't even bother to craft a bed., though wool can be traded to villagers).
- Don't eat raw meat unless you're desperate; wait until you cook it in a furnace in an NPC village forge. You can also trade it for emeralds if you wish; however, this won't really achieve much in the long run, unless you save up for a diamond sword or armor. Villagers are known for being cheap; see the "trading" article for more information (leather for armor or for trading is also up to you to decide).
- Search for an NPC village, if the village does not have a forge or a library (a building with a crafting table and lots of bookshelves), search for another village. If it does, then lucky you (although NPC villages in superflat generally generate larger and with more houses, etc.); use the crafting table in the library for crafting and the two furnaces in the forge for cooking wood into charcoal (for raw meat).
- Empty the chest in the blacksmith (take the food, armor, and raw materials. Use the lava as a trash can for useless stuff you find in the chest or obtained from creeper explosions (see below). You can use it for your own storage purposes.
- If the village is big enough, there are enough villagers, and you have enough armor and preparation, you can kill the iron golem for its iron ingots (you would get 3-5 of them).
- One extremely useful tactic is to get creepers to blow up a house or farm in an NPC village; this way, you can get wood, wooden planks, wheat (which can be used to breed animals or crafted into bread, though seeds cannot be replanted; trampling is a more efficient way as you will not lose any of the wheat in the explosion), and cobblestone (dirt and other materials are useless, since you cannot place or destroy blocks in adventure; only blocks that are used in crafting or for trading can be useful).
- If you are lucky and have enough supplies, you can get creepers to blow up gravel and craft flint and steel, which can serve as a great weapon (or arrows, although this is probably unnecessary because they can be obtained by killing skeletons. Note: bone meal may be used on pre-mature wheat, since that counts as "interacting with a block or object," though the wheat cannot be harvested, except through creeper explosions, as well as simply trampling it).
- A Fishing Pole can also be useful (the well is exactly 4 blocks deep and can be used for an infinite supply of fish, which can be cooked or traded). You can also use it as an inefficient way to lure passive mobs that have wandered off (use wheat instead; trample the farms or get creepers to blow them up).
- Once you are done with a village, take as many useful items as you can from your chest and head off for the next village. Repeat above steps if necessary and see how long you can survive!
- It's also possible to find an Abandoned Mineshaft by exploring caves. Although there are extremely valuable items you can find in chests, it is also extremely dangerous.
Obtainable Items
You can hold a maximum of 40 items (27 in your storage inventory, 9 hotkey slots and 4 armor slots) File:2011-07-18 12.55.56.png
- Items that are completely useless (except for placing) are not bold.
- Crafting to get items is not listed here.
- Apples (Blacksmith Chests or trading with a farmer NPC)
- Arrow (Killing a Skeleton or trading with an Farmer NPC)
- Bones (Killing a Skeleton)
- Books (getting a Creeper to blow up Bookshelves)
- Bookshelf (trading with a Librarian NPC)
- Bottle o' Enchanting (trading with a Priest NPC)
- Bow (Killing a skeleton)
- Bread (Blacksmith Chests or trading with a farmer)
- Bucket (not completely useless, since you can collect milk from cows and then drink it to cure food poisoning or health poisoning from spider eyes or rotten flesh)
- Chainmail Boots (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Chainmail Chestplate (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Chainmail Helmet (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Chainmail Leggings (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Chests (getting a Creeper to blow up a chest
- Clock (trading with a Librarian NPC; pretty much useless because it should be obvious what time of the day it is)
- Cobblestone Stairs (getting a Creeper to blow up Cobblestone Stairs)
- Compass (trading with a Librarian NPC; useless since your spawn point changes in superflat)
- Cooked Chicken (cooking raw chicken or trading with a Farmer NPC)
- Cooked Porkchop (cooking raw porkchop or trading with a Butcher NPC)
- Cookie (trading with a farmer NPC)
- Crafting Tables (getting a Creeper to blow up a Crafting Table;
- Diamond Axe (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Diamond Hoe (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Diamond Pickaxe (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Diamond Shovel (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Diamond Sword (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Dirt (pretty much whenever a Creeper blows up)
- Eggs ( Chickens drop them every 5–10 minutes)
- Emerald (trading with a NPC)
- Eye of Ender (trading with a Priest NPC)
- Feathers (killing Chickens)
- Fences (getting a Creeper to blow up fences
- Flint (getting a Creeper to blow up gravel or trading with a farmer NPC)
- Flint and Steel (trading with a farmer NPC)
- Furnaces (getting a Creeper to blow up a furnace; )
- Glass (trading with a Librarian NPC)
- Glowstone (trading with a Priest NPC)
- Gold Helmet (killing Zombie Pigmen)
- Gold Ingots (Blacksmith Chests or killing Zombie Pigmen)
- Gold Nuggets (killing Zombie Pigmen)
- Gold Sword (killing Zombie Pigmen)
- Gravel (when a Creeper blows up gravel
- Gunpowder (killing Creepers)
- Ink Sac (killing squid)
- Iron Axe (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Iron Bars (getting a Creeper to blow up iron bars)
- Iron Boots (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Iron Chestplate (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Iron Helmet (killing Zombies or trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Iron Hoe (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Iron Ingots (Blacksmith Chests or killing an Iron Golem or Zombie)
- Iron Leggings (trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Iron Pickaxe (Blacksmith Chests or trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Iron Shovel (killing Zombies or trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Iron Sword (killing Zombies or trading with a Blacksmith NPC)
- Ladders (getting a Creeper to blow up ladders)
- Leather (killing Cows)
- Leather Boots (trading with a Butcher NPC)
- Leather Cap (trading with a Butcher NPC)
- Leather Pants (trading with a Butcher NPC)
- Leather Tunic (trading with a Butcher NPC)
- Melon (trading with a farmer NPC)
- Milk Bucket (using a bucket on a cow)
- Music Discs (if a Skeleton kills a Creeper)
- Obsidian (Blacksmith chests)
- Raw Beef (killing cows)
- Raw Chicken (killing chickens)
- Raw Porkchop (killing Pigs)
- Rotten Flesh (killing Zombie Pigmen or Zombies)
- Saddle (trading with a Butcher NPC)
- Saplings (Blacksmith chests
- Seeds (getting a Creeper to blow up wheat and pre-mature wheat; trampling also works)
- Shears (trading with a Farmer NPC)
- Slimeball (killing Slimes)
- Spider Eye (killing Spiders
- Steak (cooking Raw Beef or trading with a Butcher NPC)
- Stone Slabs (getting a Creeper to blow up Stone Slabs)
- String (killing Spiders)
- Torches (getting a Creeper to blow up torches)
- Trapdoors (getting a Creeper to blow up a trapdoor
- Wheat (getting a Creeper to blow up wheat or trampling it)
- Wood (getting a Creeper to blow up wood)
- Wooden Doors (getting a Creeper to blow up a Wooden Door)
- Wood Planks (getting a Creeper to blow up Wood Planks)
- Wooden Pressure Plates (getting a Creeper to blow up a Wooden Pressure Plate; not useless since it can be used as fuel in a furnace)
- Wooden Stairs (getting a Creeper to blow up Wooden Stairs
- Wool (shearing or killing sheep. Another way is to get a Creeper to blow up the black wool on top of fences)
From 12w32a - 1.7.10
Some things to keep in mind: you CAN place blocks, and you CAN break blocks with the appropriate tools.
Setting up an Adventure World
Set up a world with cheats, and do "/gamemode 2". If you want, choose "Bonus chests", but this will make much of the survival tutorial useless.
Survival
- Spend your first day collecting wheat seeds from tall grass and killing animals for food. It is helpful to move to a beach or lakeside.
- During the first night, stay alive. Remember, you have no armor. Now, find a creeper, make him follow you, and make him explode a tree. Collect its wood (optional: also collect its saplings). You need 3 blocks of wood to make an axe: one for the crafting table, one for the sticks, and one for the planks. You will have 3 planks and 2 sticks left over; you may use these to make a pickaxe.)
- If the first tree does not give you enough wood, you can either repeat the above with another creeper, or plant a few trees very close to each other and make a creeper explode those. This will give you a head start for your wood collection.
- Once you have an axe, collect some more wood. Maybe make a shovel and a pickaxe, collect stone, and make better tools. Now, it is just like normal Minecraft, but you just need to remember to always use the correct tools to break blocks. (Note: swords are needed to break leaves, shears to collect them.) Actually, it's not just like normal Minecraft: you have a head start on wheat seeds and food! If you want to, then go ahead and make a wheat farm on the beach. Do the normal Minecraft stuff: make a shelter, mine, find iron, smelt it, find diamond, make Nether portal, make Eyes of Ender, beat dragon. Enjoy!