Tips & Tricks

The first week can be very hard to survive, but don't give up! Even if your tree is blown up and you end up showered with arrows, which you almost certainly will at least once, don't let that stop you. That tree was probably old and weak anyway, so go find a new one to bless!

The first night, dirt is your most easily accessible means of construction, as you're unlikely to get enough logs to be able to build a shelter. A small dirt hut is a great way to keep both you and your heart-log safe when night falls. And make no mistake, as soon as night falls, you will need to hide! Keep a small hole open so you see when dawn comes, but be ready to plug it if skeletons spot you. When the sun rises, wait a while before you exit your hut. Creepers don't burn in sunlight, and they might be near enough to attack you when you go out. Give most of them the time to despawn!

The sun is your best friend! Avoid going out at night whenever possible. It will burn zombies and skeletons, and you can use this to your advantage. Try to lure them to you at night without pulling creepers along with them, and block them out from your shelter. They will roam around the walls outside and eventually die in the sunshine, leaving precious resources behind. Feathers for arrows and bones for bone meals are both incredibly useful. You can also leave a 1x1 hole in the roof of your hut open, and safely kill spiders through it. The strings they drop are needed for your bow, but if you're very unlucky with sheep it can also be used to make wool for your bed!

Try to build a wheat-farm (or grow reeds for paper bandages) as soon as possible, and remember to make sure friendly mobs won't trample the crops. It is your most reliable and easily accessible source of food for healing, as both pork and fish requires cooking first, and coal (and charcoal) are limited resources. Build it near water if you can, and if not, find iron for a bucket so you can irrigate it. The wheat will grow much faster! You can use paper bandages to heal yourself as well; get a piece of paper and right click on the sky. Within a few seconds you'll be healed!

You might discover new ways to use wood. Fences make good windows in place of glass, for example! Try to think of other clever uses, and post your ideas in our forum.

Be very wary of any kind of fire. When you're digging deep tunnels, expect and prepare for lava before you find it. Always bring a bucket of water with you, and consider making "water-locks" along your roots, where water will automatically flood a root-fire. A tunnel might be safe when you place it, but if lava is close enough it might catch fire later, even from through stone walls where you can't even see it.

A fishing rod is a surprisingly powerful tool. Not because you can use it to fish with, although that's certainly a good bonus too, but because you can use it to pull mobs you can't reach to you! Sheep, cows and pigs have a terrible habit of spawning just out of reach, but a quick pull with the fishing rod can haul them in range of your roots. The same goes for skeletons, when you're feeling brave enough to tackle them for their bones.