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The Big Book of Minecraft

Triumph Books

GETTING STARTED

So here you are, you've taken the plunge and bought Minecraft. You're staring at that menu screen, and you're ready to dive into this crazy world you've heard so much about.

Now, you could start up a new world and try and wing it, but trust us, that path leads to darkness (literally), frustration and, yes, death. Minecraft is a game that's at once very simple on the surface and incredibly complex underneath, and what you do when you first start out can make a huge difference in your success at crafting the world you want. That, plus it's really not much fun to die in the dark from your fourth Creeper attack in a row and lose all of your gear over and over.

To get the most out of Minecraft, you'll have a much better and less death-filled time if you know a few things about the game before jumping right in.

THE MENUS

It only takes the push of a few buttons to start up a new Minecraft world, but the good folks at Mojang packed the Minecraft menus full of options that can make a big difference in your overall experience. Of particular importance are the "Help & Options" area and, of course, the "Play Game" button.

HELP & OPTIONS

The title says it all — this is where you want to go to find everything from audio and visual settings to new skins for your avatar and mini-guides on how to deal with certain aspects of the game. Much of this can be accessed in-game, so it's not entirely necessary that you look through this or tweak it in any way until you've played a little, but it's good to know that it's there ahead of time.

PLAY GAME

This is where the magic happens. The "Play Game" button is what kicks off your Minecraft experience, whether it's starting a new world with "Create New World," trying out the "Tutorial" or getting back into one of the games you've already begun. As you'll see, when you open the "Play Game" menu for the first time, you only have the option to start a new world up or to give the built-in tutorial a try, but later any worlds you start and save will show up here.

HOW TO START A GAME

Ready to start a world?! Select "Create New World" from the "Play Game" menu, and take a gander at all the options you've got! Here's a big not-so-secret about Minecraft: there are just about an infinite number of possible worlds to try out, and not all are created equal. In fact, you'll find new environments that require different tactics in almost every world you start, which is one of the reasons Minecraft is such a popular game.

When preparing a world for play, you've got two sets of options to look at.

THE PRIMARY OPTIONS

These are the most important options for making your new world just how you want it, and they're the only ones you actually have to set. The first three, "Online Game," "Invite Only" and "Allow Friends of Friends" all have to do with playing single player or multiplayer. You can start a game by yourself no matter which of these are checked, but if you want other people to play with you, make sure "Online Game" is checked and then check the other two depending on who you want to be able to join.

"World Name" isn't too important, but it is what your world will be permanently saved as, so pick something memorable!

"Seed for the World Generator," however, is very important to how your world comes out. Seeds are numbers that the game uses to create your world, and they can either be set manually (if you want to play a seed you've heard about) or left blank for a random seed based on the time.

You'll now need to set the type of game you're playing. For the console version, this means choosing between "Creative" or "Survival" modes and the two are exactly what they sound like. "Creative" mode is all about making things, and you get access to every single item and material in the game without having to find them. Additionally, you can fly and manipulate the world however you want. "Survival" mode, on the other hand, forces you to find and/or create items and structures from what's in the world around you, and all the while you'll be fighting against hostile monsters and the elements. This guide is mostly centered on "Survival" mode, though "Creative" mode is absolutely worth checking out too.

Finally, you need to set a difficulty level, for which you have four options:

Peaceful: No hostile mobs exist. You don't need to eat.

Easy: Hostile mobs are fewer and do less damage. Not eating does less damage.

Normal: The standard number of mobs spawn and do standard damage. Not eating depletes your health.

Hard: There are more monsters and they will seriously mess you up if they catch you, and not eating can kill you.

For your first game, we suggest trying either "Normal" or "Easy."

MORE OPTIONS

The "More Options" button lets you tweak your world a little more, though you can leave it alone if you want. Here you'll find eight more options to turn on or off, and these fall into the following categories:

Online Game Options: "Player vs Player" lets you decide whether multiplayer participants can hurt each other or not, while "Trust Players" is an option you can turn off if you don't want newcomers to be able to build or destroy until you say so. "Host Privileges" turns on the option for you, the host of the game, to have special abilities if you want them, but it also negates any achievements you get from playing.

Fire and TnT: Turn these off if you want fire and TNT to do no damage.

World Options: If "Generate Structures" is turned off, you won't find any Villages, Nether Forts or Strongholds in your game, each of which is a structure you can find out more about in the "Navigating Villages and Structures" section of the guide. "Superflat World" makes everything flat, just like it sounds. "Bonus Chest" can make a big difference to how your first few days go. It spawns a chest near your starting point that contains quite a few usable items, meaning you don't have to make your own.

Using the above info, make your menu choices the way you'd like them to be, and then press "Create New World" to start up your very first world!

CONTROLLING YOUR MINER

Minecraft controls are pretty darn simple, and if you've ever played a First Person Shooter game, you're already familiar with the basic idea. For those that haven't, your RS (right stick) looks around the world, while the LS (left stick) moves you forward, backward and in any other direction in a straight line without changing which direction you're looking.

The lettered buttons on the right of your controller (X, Y, B and A) control Crafting, Inventory, Throw Item and Jump, respectively, while LB (left button) and RB (right button) cycle through items in your inventory tray at the bottom of your screen. Two of the most important buttons are LT (left trigger), which opens menus for Crafting Tables, Furnaces and other crafting mechanisms and eats food, and RT (right trigger), which uses the item in your hand to hit blocks and triggers mechanisms like buttons.

YOUR FIRST FEW MINUTES

Right, so you're in the world of Minecraft. You've got no items, no shelter and a whole wide world out there to explore. But what to do first? While you can really do whatever you want, if you want to survive your first day (and night!), you should do two things: look around, and gather resources.

LOOKING AROUND

When starting a new game, the first thing to do is put a marker down where you started. To do this, dig out some Dirt from the ground with your hand and stack it in a column. This will help a lot later. Now, simply look around a bit and see where you've started. Minecraft is split up into different environments called "Biomes," and each Biome contains specific plants, animals, resources and terrain-types. You can build and mine in any Biome, but some are much more convenient and safe when it comes to creating a shelter to live in. The number one priority is trees, because without trees, you aren't going to be able to craft important tools and items. After that, look for areas with Water, animals and easily defendable terrain such as mountaintops. One good trick is to find a spot where two Biomes meet and build there. Remember though: nighttime comes fast, so don't spend too much time traveling on your first day.

GATHERING RESOURCES

On your first day out, you want to make every second count, so while you're looking for a nice place to set up a shelter, you'll need to be gathering resources. At the beginning of the game, certain resources are more important than others. The smartest order for gathering goes Wood>Cobblestone>Food>Wool, but if something is very close to you (say a Pig wanders by), take the opportunity to pick it up.

To gather Wood, you need to punch some trees. The noble art of tree-punching is what starts just about every game of Minecraft, and to do this, point the crosshairs at the wood of the trunk and punch the blocks until they break. This is the slowest way of collecting Wood, however, and you'll want an Axe as soon as possible.

When you've collected at least 3 Wood, open your crafting menu and create a set of four Wood Planks, then create a Crafting Table. The recipe for the Crafting Table is one block of Wood Planks in each of the four squares of the menu. You can then place your crafting table anywhere in the environment. Now, to make an Axe, point at your Crafting Table after you place it and open the Crafting Table menu. You should then turn all of your remaining Wood into Wood Planks and turn at least 2 of your new Wood Planks into Sticks. Once you have at least 3 Wood Planks and 2 Sticks, you can create your first tool, an Axe!

BUILDING A SHELTER

With your Axe, you can now chop down trees much quicker. Continue doing this until you have about 30-40 Wood (you may need to create another Axe if yours breaks), then break up your Crafting Table by chopping it, pick it up and move to where you want to build a house.

Place your Crafting Table and turn about 2/3 of your Wood into Wood Planks (you need about 60-100). Put the Wood Planks in your inventory tray, and start building a house! The quickest way to do this is to create a rectangular shelter at least 4 blocks long, 2 blocks wide and 4 blocks tall. Build the bottom layer first, then jump on top and run around it putting up the second layer. Repeat for the third and fourth layers, and then jump in.

Before you fill in the hole with a ceiling, you need light, and light means Torches. Torches are created with one Stick and one Coal or Charcoal. To get Coal, you have to find a Coal deposit and mine it with a Pickaxe, and to get Charcoal, you need to burn Wood in a Furnace, which means you need to gather Cobblestone.

GATHERING MORE RESOURCES

At this point, you need to build your first Pickaxe, the most famous and useful tool in the game! To do this, open your Crafting Table menu up again and create the Wooden Pickaxe (you may need to make more Wood Planks and Sticks to do this).

With your trusty new Wooden Pickaxe, you are now able to mine your first Stone (a big moment!). Leave your house by chopping a hole 2 blocks high and 1 block wide in the wall, and look around where you are. Try to find a hill or mountainside with exposed Stone. If you can't see any, you can just pick a spot and dig down until you hit some. Remember to leave a few blocks that you can jump on to get out.

At this point, you need at least 8 Cobblestone, but gathering around 20-30 won't hurt if you have time. Once you have some Cobblestone, head back to your shelter.

Before you build a Furnace, let's put a door on that home. Open your Crafting Table, and create the Wooden Door (this takes some Planks). Step outside your home again, select the door in your Inventory Tray and point your crosshairs at the hole in the side of your shelter. Use the Left Trigger to place the door, then open it and walk in.

Go to your Crafting Table again and move to the Chest icon. Push down on the D-Pad, and then create the Furnace when it shows up. Place the Furnace anywhere in your shelter, and then open it up with Left Trigger. Furnaces take fuel, which is something burnable like Wood or Coal. Put some of your remaining Wood in the top item slot, and then use Wood, Wood Planks or something else made of Wood in the bottom one. You'll see the Furnace come on as it starts to turn your Wood into Charcoal.

While this is happening, finish the roof to your home. Make sure it's fully enclosed, or else a Spider could fall on your head during the night!

Now, check your Furnace. Take the Charcoal from the Furnace, and open your Crafting Table back up. In the Tools section, you'll see Torches. Use all of your Charcoal up making Torches, and then start placing your Torches on the walls and ground around your home.

Once you've got a completed shelter, you can continue gathering resources until Nighttime. Soon enough, you'll start seeing the sun go down, which means Nighttime is about to arrive with all of its terrors. But no worries, because you've got a handy little shelter to protect you! Congrats on your first day in Minecraft.

NIGHTTIME

Here's the deal: when night falls on the world of Minecraft, things are going to try and kill you. A lot. All night long. This is because the monsters in Minecraft, known as "hostile mobs," can only survive when the level of light is low (except for Slimes, Spiders and the dreaded Creeper, which can survive in the day). Add that to the fact that hostile mobs spawn randomly at Nighttime and then attack you on sight, and you've got yourself a bit of a dangerous situation for your character.

To put it simply, when that sun goes down, you had better be prepared to deal with the perils of night until that blissful moment when you see the light start to peek back over the horizon. If you're not prepared, you can be sure that your character is not going to survive.

So, what can you do to protect yourself in the dark, dangerous Minecraft Nighttime? Luckily, you've got quite a few options, and you should have no problem keeping safe and snug with even the most basic preparation during the day.

THE NECESSITIES

You need two things for certain if you're going to live to see another day in Minecraft: Shelter and Lighting.

SHELTER

The Primary Number One Super Important Thing to have that will keep you safe from all of the Zombies, Skeletons, Endermen, Spiders and (shudder) Creepers at night is a nice shelter. You can read all the details on how to build a good basic shelter in the "Getting Started/Your First Day" section of this guide, but the basic idea is that you need an enclosed area with no open spaces to hide in. That's actually all you need to stay safe at night, but it'll be a dark, boring Nighttime without at least a little light.

LIGHTING

Torches are your best friend in Minecraft, and you definitely need some in your shelter. Again, check out the "Getting Started/Your First Day" section to see exactly how to make a few Torches. Another way Torches are super useful at night besides letting you see (which is pretty darn useful, we'd say) is to keep monsters from spawning. Light in Minecraft is measured on a scale of 1-15, and monsters cannot spawn in any light level above 7. By placing Torches in an area, you can keep monsters from spawning there, though they can still travel through it. To do this, you need to put torches so that there are no more than 11 blocks between them in a straight line and no more than 5 between them diagonally.

THE SECONDARY IDEAS

While you don't absolutely need these things, your Nighttime experience will be a heck of a lot safer and more fun if you have them.

A BED

This is the most useful tool to have at night, and it's one of the first things you should try and build in Minecraft. A Bed is a 2 block long item that can be placed in your world and slept in during the night, which instantly makes it day again. Not only that, but sleeping in a Bed sets your spawn point to that bed, meaning that when you die, you won't have to run back to your shelter!

To build a Bed takes 3 Wood Planks and 3 Wool of any color. Wool is relatively easy to come by, as it drops when you kill Sheep. Use your Crafting Table to combine the Wood Planks and Wool, and set your Bed someplace where the sides are unobstructed. Then, just sleep in it when it's Nighttime, and you'll skip right through the danger to daytime.

WEAPONS & ARMOR

When you start a game in Minecraft, you're basically an unprotected weakling. Sad to say, but it's true. That doesn't have to remain the case though, as you can beef up your character's power through crafting weapons and armor to use in combat.

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Excerpted from The Big Book of Minecraft by Trevor Talley, Joe Funk. Copyright © 2014 Triumph Books LLC. Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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