Here is how to survive minecraft in a simple guide!

1) When you start the game make sure you spawn in a place with tree's nearby, otherwise you wont be able to make tools or start your house. If at first you don't get a place with tree's just keep on making worlds until you do :) As you can see I spawned in a jungle :)
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2) Start chopping wood! You can't start a house or get tools without it! You should get about 15 then make a axe. You should check the minecraft wiki for crafting recipes the link is here http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Minecraft_Wiki :) I have started off making a little shack. We should probably make a pick, so we can start our hunt for diamonds! But first we need to obtain lots more things;
Such as: Stone, iron, cobble, and lots lots more wood!
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3) So now we've got our little shack our pickaxe and axe we should go mining! You should start by looking around for ravines, here is one! While mining I would recommend mining all the cobble you can get! You should keep a sharp eye for coal. If your struggling to see in the darkness try putting your brightness to full, this can be done by pressing esc then options, video settings. You should see a little bar saying brightness. Drag that to the very right.
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4) Now we have a stack of cobble and some coal it's time we make something new! A furnace! We will need this for smelting various things in the minecraft world, such as: iron, cobble, sand, and logs. We also need to make torches, we will need these for when we are mining in the ravine we have found. We can now also make stone tools, the difference between each set of tools is efficiency and durability. A wooden pick will only last for about 100 blocks as a stone lasts for 200. And stone is considerable faster than wood. You should probably start mining for iron now!
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5) Now we have obtained iron we should start by smelting it. We will need 3 iron for a iron pick and more for tools. But the main one we need is going to be the pick! We need to put the iron into the furnace and burn it using coal. Tada! Now we have an iron pick axe we are set for mining diamonds! But first... We need to expand our house! You can make it into what ever you want, it's completely up to your imagination! :)
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Thank you for reading my tutorial! And remember! Don't let the creeper creep behind you, creepers be creepin!