6
[Caution: This is another lengthy one. You've been warned!]
One of my favorite things in Minecraft is starting a new world. Not only am I transported to a fresh, umolested landscape with (near) endless exploration possibilities; I'm also presented with the opportunity to survive my first night. Again.
Having created quite a few worlds already, some for mod testing, some for creative mode, and others to check out maps created by others, I'm no stranger to the mechanics of getting basic materials, tools, and shelter together. During my first few times playing Minecraft, I died quite enough times to last me well into my dotage. That part, I didn't enjoy quite so much.
There are tons of tutorials out there for new players who want to know how to make it through that perilous first night in "Survival" mode, but I thought I'd chime in anyway, partly because I enjoy writing about things that interest me, and partly because I haven't posted to this blog in a while.
One of the lessons I learned early on (the hard way) is that you have to start collecting supplies immediately. While it's tempting to start exploring your new environs upon arrival, it's not advisable. Casual looking around can seriously suck up your valuable time if you're not careful. The daylight in Minecraft lasts ten minutes. That's it. You have to get into high gear right from the get-go. There'll be plenty of time for exploration later on.
The strategy I usually use is to build a small cabin right off the bat. This isn't the only option, but it's the one I'll discuss here. So… if you can see trees, head for them. It doesn't matter if they seem far away. If you can see them, you're close enough. Don't waste time. Sprint if you have to. If you've spawned right beside or inside a forest, then bonus. You've just saved a bit of time.
Now, we all know that Minecraft is not realistic. There are certainly realistic elements (injury and death, for example; did I mention we're on the clock, here?), but when you can leave blocks suspended in mid-air and pull exact cube shapes out of the ground, you know you're in a fantasy world. One of the useful bits of fantasy, for which we're all thankful, is the ability to gather wood without any tools.
Yes, I'm talking about the time-honored practice of tree-punching. In the real world (the one in which I'm sitting at my laptop in a Starbucks looking out at a frosty day), punching a tree is going to get you nothing more than bruised and scraped knuckles. In the world of Minecraft, however, punching a tree reaps rewards in the form of logs. Just point your fist at a tree and hold down the "Attack/Destroy/Mine" button until a log springs forth. It will likely jump into your inventory. If not, just move closer it, and you will collect it.
[Side note: For those interested in the "Achievements" system in Minecraft, you'll need to open your inventory (even though it's empty) to get the "Taking Inventory" achievement before gathering a log will trigger the "Getting Wood" achievement. I always curse myself when I forget to do things in the right order. Those first few achievements are ridiculously easy to get.]
Okay, here's where I start getting really specific. To start with, you will need to punch out exactly three logs. You can punch more if you want, but using your fist takes a lot longer than chopping with an axe, and you'll have an axe in just a moment.
Another nice fantasy in Minecraft is the ability to make planks out of logs without using any tools. When you open your inventory, you'll see a small two-by-two crafting grid at the upper left. You can make some basic items using only that. More advanced items, like an axe, for instance, require a crafting table.
First things first, however: convert your logs into planks. Open your inventory, move your three logs to the crafting grid, and make twelve planks. Now take four of those planks and make a crafting table. Take two more planks and make a bundle of four sticks.
You should now have a crafting table, four sticks, and six planks. Place your crafting table in a convenient spot (I like to think ahead and envision it inside my soon-to-be-constructed cabin, but that's not essential; it just saves moving the crafting table later). Press the "Use/Place" button while pointing at the crafting table and use two of the sticks and three of remaining planks to craft a wooden axe. If the lay of the land makes it apparent that you're going to have clear away some dirt blocks sooner rather than later, you might as well take the other two sticks and one more plank to make a shovel as well.
Now for more specifics. When building any kind of shelter, be it cabin, house, mansion, or castle, keep in mind that your walls are always going to be a meter thick. Every building block in the game is a cubic meter in size, which means you have no choice as to the thickness of your walls. So… if you want a three-by-three usable floor area, you're going to have to build a cabin that's five-by-five. If you want a five-by-five floor area, you'll need to build a seven-by-seven cabin. Note that building a three-by-three cabin will give you exactly one square meter of usable floor space, which is good for nothing except standing around waiting for the night to pass. Of course, that's still better than dying a grisly death at the hands of a zombie.
When you're brand new to the game, it never pays to be ambitious. Until you get used to how things work and how fast (or slow) you are at performing certain tasks, take my advice and just build a five-by-five cabin. A three-by-three floor space doesn't sound like much, but there's room in there for a crafting table, a furnace, and a bed, with a little pacing room left over.
For the typical first cabin that I tend to build, you will need exactly seventy-seven wood planks. If this sounds like a lot, keep in mind that one log makes four planks. Round the number of planks up to eighty (which is evenly divisible by four) and it turns out that you'll need twenty logs. If this still sounds like a lot, consider that this is about four average-sized trees. Now that you have an axe, you'll have twenty logs in no time.
Seventy-seven planks builds a seven-by-seven cabin with a door. You can either leave space for the door as you're building, or, if the daylight is already waning, you can just build four solid walls around you and cut out space for the door later. A door can be crafted using six planks on the crafting table.
The number of planks I've recommended will allow you to have a ceiling that is three blocks above the ground. You can get by with a ceiling that's a block lower, but this will "feel" cramped. Your little character is just under two blocks tall, so two-block-tall walls are a bit uncomfortable. I much prefer having three-block-tall walls. I will even go for four-block-tall walls if I have time. Also, keep in mind that your ceiling/roof is going to be one block thick, so your cabin is going to be one block taller than the height of your inside walls.
One final thing I'm going to recommend before I finish off this installment: Leave a one-block hole in your ceiling/roof. If you're new to the game, it's unlikely that you have any torches yet, unless you generated your world with the "Bonus Chest" option. It's not much, but a little bit of starlight and moonlight will allow you to see a tiny bit. It's certainly better than a completely dark room. It will also allow you to see when the sky starts to get lighter again.
If you've already installed a door, then the hole in the roof is not such a big deal. Before version 1.8, there was only one type of door, and it had a window in it. With version 1.8, however, you only get a window in your door if you make it with oak planks. All the other wood types make their own style of door now, and none but oak have glass in them. So, the hole in the roof might still be a necessity.
The other advantage to having a hole in the roof is that you can stand beneath it and look straight up. This allows you to see when the moon is directly above you. Passing the night in a small room is deadly boring, and having the means to know when it's half over is a bit of a bonus.
And don't worry about the monsters. Spiders are the only mobs that can climb walls, and even if one does clamber up onto your roof, it won't be able to fit through a one-by-one hole. Also, once you have sword, you can jump up and whack it if any of its body parts become visible through the hole.
This post has turned out rather longer than I thought it would, so I'm going to end it here. I'll write a new installment soon, describing some other alternatives for surviving the night.
After all, you might not spawn near trees.
Which would suck.
Keep on craftin'…
--Cireer
One of my favorite things in Minecraft is starting a new world. Not only am I transported to a fresh, umolested landscape with (near) endless exploration possibilities; I'm also presented with the opportunity to survive my first night. Again.
Having created quite a few worlds already, some for mod testing, some for creative mode, and others to check out maps created by others, I'm no stranger to the mechanics of getting basic materials, tools, and shelter together. During my first few times playing Minecraft, I died quite enough times to last me well into my dotage. That part, I didn't enjoy quite so much.
There are tons of tutorials out there for new players who want to know how to make it through that perilous first night in "Survival" mode, but I thought I'd chime in anyway, partly because I enjoy writing about things that interest me, and partly because I haven't posted to this blog in a while.
One of the lessons I learned early on (the hard way) is that you have to start collecting supplies immediately. While it's tempting to start exploring your new environs upon arrival, it's not advisable. Casual looking around can seriously suck up your valuable time if you're not careful. The daylight in Minecraft lasts ten minutes. That's it. You have to get into high gear right from the get-go. There'll be plenty of time for exploration later on.
The strategy I usually use is to build a small cabin right off the bat. This isn't the only option, but it's the one I'll discuss here. So… if you can see trees, head for them. It doesn't matter if they seem far away. If you can see them, you're close enough. Don't waste time. Sprint if you have to. If you've spawned right beside or inside a forest, then bonus. You've just saved a bit of time.
Now, we all know that Minecraft is not realistic. There are certainly realistic elements (injury and death, for example; did I mention we're on the clock, here?), but when you can leave blocks suspended in mid-air and pull exact cube shapes out of the ground, you know you're in a fantasy world. One of the useful bits of fantasy, for which we're all thankful, is the ability to gather wood without any tools.
Yes, I'm talking about the time-honored practice of tree-punching. In the real world (the one in which I'm sitting at my laptop in a Starbucks looking out at a frosty day), punching a tree is going to get you nothing more than bruised and scraped knuckles. In the world of Minecraft, however, punching a tree reaps rewards in the form of logs. Just point your fist at a tree and hold down the "Attack/Destroy/Mine" button until a log springs forth. It will likely jump into your inventory. If not, just move closer it, and you will collect it.
[Side note: For those interested in the "Achievements" system in Minecraft, you'll need to open your inventory (even though it's empty) to get the "Taking Inventory" achievement before gathering a log will trigger the "Getting Wood" achievement. I always curse myself when I forget to do things in the right order. Those first few achievements are ridiculously easy to get.]
Okay, here's where I start getting really specific. To start with, you will need to punch out exactly three logs. You can punch more if you want, but using your fist takes a lot longer than chopping with an axe, and you'll have an axe in just a moment.
Another nice fantasy in Minecraft is the ability to make planks out of logs without using any tools. When you open your inventory, you'll see a small two-by-two crafting grid at the upper left. You can make some basic items using only that. More advanced items, like an axe, for instance, require a crafting table.
First things first, however: convert your logs into planks. Open your inventory, move your three logs to the crafting grid, and make twelve planks. Now take four of those planks and make a crafting table. Take two more planks and make a bundle of four sticks.
You should now have a crafting table, four sticks, and six planks. Place your crafting table in a convenient spot (I like to think ahead and envision it inside my soon-to-be-constructed cabin, but that's not essential; it just saves moving the crafting table later). Press the "Use/Place" button while pointing at the crafting table and use two of the sticks and three of remaining planks to craft a wooden axe. If the lay of the land makes it apparent that you're going to have clear away some dirt blocks sooner rather than later, you might as well take the other two sticks and one more plank to make a shovel as well.
Now for more specifics. When building any kind of shelter, be it cabin, house, mansion, or castle, keep in mind that your walls are always going to be a meter thick. Every building block in the game is a cubic meter in size, which means you have no choice as to the thickness of your walls. So… if you want a three-by-three usable floor area, you're going to have to build a cabin that's five-by-five. If you want a five-by-five floor area, you'll need to build a seven-by-seven cabin. Note that building a three-by-three cabin will give you exactly one square meter of usable floor space, which is good for nothing except standing around waiting for the night to pass. Of course, that's still better than dying a grisly death at the hands of a zombie.
When you're brand new to the game, it never pays to be ambitious. Until you get used to how things work and how fast (or slow) you are at performing certain tasks, take my advice and just build a five-by-five cabin. A three-by-three floor space doesn't sound like much, but there's room in there for a crafting table, a furnace, and a bed, with a little pacing room left over.
For the typical first cabin that I tend to build, you will need exactly seventy-seven wood planks. If this sounds like a lot, keep in mind that one log makes four planks. Round the number of planks up to eighty (which is evenly divisible by four) and it turns out that you'll need twenty logs. If this still sounds like a lot, consider that this is about four average-sized trees. Now that you have an axe, you'll have twenty logs in no time.
Seventy-seven planks builds a seven-by-seven cabin with a door. You can either leave space for the door as you're building, or, if the daylight is already waning, you can just build four solid walls around you and cut out space for the door later. A door can be crafted using six planks on the crafting table.
The number of planks I've recommended will allow you to have a ceiling that is three blocks above the ground. You can get by with a ceiling that's a block lower, but this will "feel" cramped. Your little character is just under two blocks tall, so two-block-tall walls are a bit uncomfortable. I much prefer having three-block-tall walls. I will even go for four-block-tall walls if I have time. Also, keep in mind that your ceiling/roof is going to be one block thick, so your cabin is going to be one block taller than the height of your inside walls.
One final thing I'm going to recommend before I finish off this installment: Leave a one-block hole in your ceiling/roof. If you're new to the game, it's unlikely that you have any torches yet, unless you generated your world with the "Bonus Chest" option. It's not much, but a little bit of starlight and moonlight will allow you to see a tiny bit. It's certainly better than a completely dark room. It will also allow you to see when the sky starts to get lighter again.
If you've already installed a door, then the hole in the roof is not such a big deal. Before version 1.8, there was only one type of door, and it had a window in it. With version 1.8, however, you only get a window in your door if you make it with oak planks. All the other wood types make their own style of door now, and none but oak have glass in them. So, the hole in the roof might still be a necessity.
The other advantage to having a hole in the roof is that you can stand beneath it and look straight up. This allows you to see when the moon is directly above you. Passing the night in a small room is deadly boring, and having the means to know when it's half over is a bit of a bonus.
And don't worry about the monsters. Spiders are the only mobs that can climb walls, and even if one does clamber up onto your roof, it won't be able to fit through a one-by-one hole. Also, once you have sword, you can jump up and whack it if any of its body parts become visible through the hole.
This post has turned out rather longer than I thought it would, so I'm going to end it here. I'll write a new installment soon, describing some other alternatives for surviving the night.
After all, you might not spawn near trees.
Which would suck.
Keep on craftin'…
--Cireer
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