Minecraft Survival Guide

Day 1

The first day is indeed one of the most important days in your survival. On this day you have almost nothing, no experience, items, blocks, or shelter. That, however, doesn’t mean that there is nothing you can do. You possess your hands which you can use to destroy blocks and obtain them for whatever purpose you desire, such as building, along with a small crafting grid in your inventory.


PLAYER SURVIVAL INVENTORY

One of the most recommended things to do when you start is to find the nearest tree and then proceed onto destroying it. This will get you a couple logs and is highly suggested that you break the leaves of the tree as well because they will occasionally drop a sapling. Even though it is good to destroy the entire tree, some trees are just too large and will take quite a while for you to destroy and you only have a limited time before the day ends.

After you have gotten some wooden logs you should change a portion of your stack into wooden planks, to create a crafting table, and is best if you don’t change the entire stack into wooden planks since the logs can later be used to create charcoal. Now that you have obtained your crafting table you should make some tools with it. The two most valuable tools to have on the first day, in my opinion, should probably be the sword and the pickaxe. It is best if you start off with only a wooden pickaxe and not construct any other wooden tools even if you have the materials.

CRAFTING RECIPES :
  
CRAFTING TABLE                                                                  PICKAXE

The reason you should only construct the wooden pickaxe at first is because you are going to mine a couple blocks down until you reach a stone block, you should do this with your hand instead of the pickaxe because it is a waste of the pickaxe’s durability. Once you reached a stone block you should equip your pickaxe and break quite a few of those stones. These stones can then be used to make stone tools and that is why you only need a wooden pickaxe at first.


MAKING STONE TOOLS

If you are lucky you might even encounter some coal ores and if you are really lucky you might even see some ores of iron. If you do see some iron ores you must not break it with your wooden pickaxe since its harvest level isn’t efficient enough to harvest an iron ore.

You should then make a house with the blocks you have in your inventory. It is quite recommended that you make a house that isn't too big because the blocks you have wouldn’t be enough. You should also make a furnace and possibly a chest along with some torches from either charcoal or coal. After you have made your house you should check if there is still time for you to explore some more.


SIMPLE HOUSE AT FIRST

If there is enough time then you should go and hunt some passive mobs that will drop useful items or food when killed. The mobs that are near you would be based upon the biome that you are currently in. I personally think that one of the best mobs to go hunting for at this time is the sheep.


SHEEP

The reason I have this opinion is because you will get food from them along with wool and wool is necessary to make a bed, which is extremely valuable to have on the first day because it will allow you to sleep through the night. A bed will also respawn you near it if you die but it will only do so if you have slept on it before and if it isn’t destroyed. Another important thing to remember is that the bed can only be used if hostile mobs aren’t near

  
BED CRAFTING RECIPE                                                         BED BLOCK

When it becomes night you are left with two options, either you can wait till its day (or sleep if you made a bed), or you could go out and battle some hostile mobs with your sword. The hostile mobs that I usually target during the first night are the zombies and the spiders. Zombies will give you rotten flesh which is actually a good substitute if you don’t have any regular food. Zombies can spawn in different forms. Spiders will give you strings and spider eyes, the strings are indeed really useful since they allow you to make fishing rods and bows. Spiders are immune to posion, can climb walls, and will often jump to attack the player.

  
ZOMBIE                                                                                    SPIDER

There are also some hostile mobs that you should be careful of and these mobs are the skeleton, enderman, and creeper. The skeleton can shoot at you with his bow from a distance and is almost impossible to beat by striking if both of you are in water. The enderman won’t attack you unless you look at its face or attack it. However, if you are wearing a pumpkin you can look at it without it becoming hostile. It is best if you don’t try to kill one on the first night. The creeper is a mob that will follow you and explode when it gets close enough along with a hiss before doing so.

  
CREEPER                                                                                 SKELETON


ENDERMAN

Day 2

You have now gone through your first night. In the morning you shouldn’t let your guard down too quickly since not all the mobs have despawned.  

If you have managed to make a fishing rod you will not have to worry about lacking food for quite a long time.


FISHING ROD CRAFTING RECIPE

But if you aren’t so found of fishing, you can always consider farming. Farming requires you to use a hoe. The hoe can be used on dirt, coarse dirt, and grass. If you use it on either dirt or grass the block will change into a farmland block. However, if you use it on coarse dirt then it will change into a dirt block. A farmland block requires a source of water beside it or extremely close to it. Seeds can be planted on these farmland blocks to grow food for you. You should, however, be careful not to disturb the farmland by jumping on it or by having other mobs jump on it.

  
HOE CRAFTING RECIPE                                                        SEED BEING GROWN ON A FARMLAND BLOCK

You should now try to find a naturally generated ravine, cave, etc. in your world and start exploring it once you do. In it you will probably find iron ores and if you are lucky it will end up going quite deep. You should spend a couple days exploring it. It is best if you bring a bucket of water along with you while you explore it because there might be some lava.


EXAMPLE

Day 13

By now, if you are quite lucky, you would have found some diamond ores from a ravine or cave that you explored deeply. The best diamond tool to craft first, in my idea, is the pickaxe since it is the only tool that can be used to break obsidian which is necessary to advance further.

You can make obsidian by pouring water on a lava source block. I often just visit a lava pool and pour water over it. If you do decide to do it like me then you should be aware that not all the lava has been changed into obsidian so they might flow in when you break an obsidian block. It would be safe if you kept a chest nearby and stored the obsidians and other items you have in that chest in case you accidentally get killed by the lava.


MAKING OBSIDIAN

Once you have obtained some obsidian you will be able to make a Nether portal or an enchanting table. You need to set fire to a frame of obsidian to create the portal while you will require a few other materials to craft an enchanting table. It would be wise to have a couple items enchanted before visiting the Nether because the mobs and the environment there are quite hostile.

  
BUDGET VERSION                                                                  REGULAR VERSION

There are some things that you should know about the Nether before you go there. First, water buckets won’t be able to spawn water and will evaporate instead when poured. Second, trees will have brownish leaves. Third, maps and compasses will not work so you should be really careful when exploring because you might end up getting lost in the Nether for a long time or maybe even forever. Clocks will also not work in the Nether. Next thing, that you should know, is that beds will create an explosion when you try to use them. You should also be aware that your snow golems will, obviously, melt in the Nether.


THE NETHER

You should also know about the mobs that you will encounter in the Nether. An important thing to remember is that all the mobs in the Nether are immune to fire.

The first mob is the Pigman, it is a neutral mob, that swarms the Nether, and wields a golden sword. You should probably not consider attacking them because when you attack one all of them come to attack you and that can be quite impossible to handle without some enchantments.


PIGMAN

There is also the magma cube which will spawn quite rarely and can drop a magma cream when it is killed, it will also divide when killed.


MAGMA CUBE

There are also the ghasts, they are flying ghost like mobs that fly around the Nether and will shoot exploding fireballs at the player. These fireballs can be knocked back by hitting them. The ghasts can easily be defeated if you have a bow in your possession.


GHAST

There are two mobs left and these two will spawn in the Nether Fortress. They are the Wither Skeleton and the Blaze, the Blaze will shoot regular fireballs at you but are weak to snowballs and rain. The Wither Skeleton holds a sword and will give you the Wither Effect when it hits you, the best way to fight against it is to use range weapons because a close range hit can be lethal.

  
BLAZE                                                                                       WITHER SKELETON

There is one mob left but this mob will not be spawned naturally. It is the Wither Boss which can only be spawned when a player creates a structure. The Wither Boss will shoot Wither Skulls at the player and when it hits the player a Wither Effect will be added to the player, once the Wither's health reaches a certain a level it will get the Withe Armour Effect which will make it immune to arrows. While it is in this state it won’t be able to fly as high as it used to.

  
THE WITHER                                                                            WITHER ARMOUR EFFECT


STRUCTURE

Day 26

By now you would have killed so many blazes that you have a lot of Blaze Rods, you can use them to create many things such as a brewing stand or you can use them to make Blaze Powder, which can be used to make an Eye of Ender.

Once you have obtained enough Eyes of Ender you can go and search for a stronghold. This can be easily done with an Eye of Ender. Once you are in the portal room in the stronghold you can create an End Portal.


PORTAL IN PORTAL ROOM

Entering the portal will take you to an Endermen filled dimension called as the End where you have to fight the Ender Dragon. The best way to fight the Ender Dragon is with a pumpkin, a Bow with the infinite enchantment, and with a lot of ladders. In the End you will find many towers and End Crystals will be on these towers. You should destroy these crystals because they regenerate the Ender Dragon’s health. Once destroyed it will create a small explosion.


ENDER DRAGON

Once you have defeated the Ender Dragon it will spawn a small portal with a dragon egg on top. The egg can be removed with a piston but be careful to not let it fall into the portal, because it will be gone forever.

  
ENDER DRAGON WHEN DEFEATED                                     DRAGON EGG ON A PORTAL

Once you have returned to your world you would have reached a point where almost nothing can be a danger to you. But remember to always be careful and never let your guard down.