SURVIVAL
Now that you’re familiar with the Minecraft landscape
and its mobs, it’s time to start your first game. In this
section you’ll learn how to find food and materials to
keep yourself safe. You’ll discover how to build a shelter
and a farm, how to mine for materials and how to defend
yourself in combat as you explore.
YOUR FIRST DAY Gather another 20 blocks
of wood using your stone
axe instead of your hand.
When you first spawn it’s a race against time to gather resources before night
falls and the hostile mobs come looking for you. Every adventure is different but
this step-by-step guide is one option that will keep you safe until day two.
Find some trees and hit
FIRST DAY them with your hands to
collect 20 wood blocks.
Mark your spawn point
with a dirt pillar, and/or
note the coordinates.
Kill some animals with
4 your stone sword. Collect
the items they drop.
Drag the wood into your
crafting grid to turn it
into wood planks.
Make a crafting table
from 4 wood planks and
place it on the ground.
4
Craft stone tools and
weapons – these are more
Use your sticks and planks Interact with your crafting durable than wood.
to craft a wooden pickaxe, table, then craft sticks Find a hill, and use your
axe, sword and shovel. from wood planks. pickaxe to collect 20
blocks of cobblestone.
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DID YOU KNOW? MOJANG STUFF
Kill 3 sheep, then craft a Light up your hole using
bed. This allows you to Didn’t manage to build a shelter? Stand torches to prevent hostile mobs First day too easy for you? Try
sleep through the night. on a 3-block-high dirt tower until day spawning overnight. Shut something like The 404 Challenge,
comes so hostile mobs can’t reach you. the door and either sleep which became really popular in the
You could also dig 3 blocks straight in your bed or wait until early days of Minecraft. The name
down, jump in and place a block over morning. Hide round refers to the world seed number 404,
your head until morning. Put a torch on the corner, out of which spawns you on a large gravel
the wall so you’re not stuck in darkness. sight of the door. plane with a huge cave just beneath
the surface. You have a day to collect
resources above ground, then, survive
the night inside the cave!
DID YOU KNOW?
Craft a wooden door and If you don’t manage to make a bed
place it on your shelter before sunset, use the night to cook
Craft a furnace. This from the outside. any raw food and craft more equipment
allows you to smelt items (see the next page for ideas). You could
into more useful forms. also start mining beneath your shelter if
you’re feeling brave ...
Eat the cooked meat when
your food bar starts to go
down. (See pages 74-75.)
Use your wooden tools as
fuel to cook the raw meat 3
(you don’t need them now).
Expand the hole into an
L-shape shelter, so you
can hide round the corner.
Go back to the hill, and
dig farther in until you spot
some coal ore.
Now you can use coal in
your furnace – it’ll smelt
more items.
Mine as many blocks of
coal ore as you can – each
will drop 1 coal.
DID YOU KNOW?
No coal ore in sight? Charcoal can be
used instead of coal to make torches.
Craft torches. These can
Place wood in both furnace slots to
be placed on other blocks
create charcoal.
4 to provide light.
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YOUR SECOND DAY IRON ORE
Your next priority is to find iron ore, which can be smelted into iron ingots and used to make a
variety of tools and weapons. Iron ore can be found at sea level and below, in veins of up to 8
blocks. Look out for orange flecks amongst the cobblestone, then mine as many blocks as you
Congratulations – you’ve made it to day two! Now’s the time to fill your inventory can with your stone pickaxe. Once mined you’ll need to smelt iron ore in your furnace to make
with supplies, deal with any resilient hostile mobs that are still lurking and craft usable iron ingots, then use it in the crafting recipes below.
more items. Here are some useful crafting recipes to get you started.
CHEST LADDER BOAT IRON TOOLS IRON DOOR FLINT AND STEEL
AND WEAPONS
A chest has 27 slots and is used to Ladders help you ascend and descend Boats allow you to travel across Unlike a wooden door, zombies will Flint and steel creates fire when used
store blocks and items. Place two quickly and safely. They come in handy water more quickly – they’re a great Upgrade your tools and weapons – use never be able to break down an iron on top of a solid block. You’ll need it
single chests next to each other in your when you encounter steep cliffs and investment if you live near an ocean the recipes on page 69 but replace the door. They’re more complicated than to light TNT and Nether portals. It’s
shelter to create a double chest, and when you start mining deeper into the and will be essential when the time stone with iron ingots. wooden doors, though, so you’ll need crafted from an iron ingot and flint
transfer materials from your inventory ground. Just place them on the side of comes for you to explore new biomes to place buttons on the inside and (sometimes dropped by gravel). See
to free up some valuable space. the blocks you wish to climb. further from home. outside to activate them. page 55 for the TNT recipe.
RE
NO
IRO
3 3
TRAPDOOR BOWL BUCKET SHEARS
MOJANG STUFF
If you start a mine underneath your You’ll need a bowl if you want to Buckets are tools that allow you to Shears can be used to remove wool
base it’s a good idea to place a cook rabbit stew, mushroom stew pick up and carry water and lava. You from sheep without killing them – and
Pick up a chest and its contents
trapdoor on the entrance to prevent or beetroot soup. See pages 76-77 can then place the contents in a new there’ll be more of it if you shear rather
will spill out onto the ground. If you
hostile mobs from coming up. You’ll for more information. Bowls can also location. Buckets can also be used to than kill them. Shears also come in
want to carry your stuff around
need to attach the trapdoor to the block be used on mooshrooms for instant milk cows and mooshrooms. handy when exploring jungle biomes as
with you, craft a shulker box from
to the side of your entrance. mushroom stew. they quickly destroy leaves.
shulker shells and a chest.
DID YOU KNOW?
You can make gold and diamond
tools and weapons – replace the
iron ingots with gold ingots or
diamonds. Gold equipment wears
out quickly but is the easiest to
enchant, and diamond equipment
is the most durable. See pages
86-87 for tips on how to find gold
2 4 and diamond.
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HEALTH AND FOOD RAW
BEEF
3 food points
STEAK
8 food points
In Survival mode you’ll need to keep an eye on your health and food bars, which RAW COOKED
sit just above your hotbar. It’s important to eat frequently and heal when you take PORK CHOP PORK CHOP
damage, otherwise your health bar will reach zero and you’ll die. 3 food points 8 food points
RAW ROAST
CHICKEN CHICKEN
HEALTH POINTS 2 food points 6 food points
When you first spawn in Survival mode you’ll have a full 20 health points (10 hearts) and a full 20
food points (10 shanks). As you play, you’ll take damage, use energy and lose points. To restore RAW COOKED MEAT
your health points you’ll need to eat and avoid taking damage for a while. Your food bar shows you MUTTON MUTTON Most animals drop raw meat when they
how hungry you are – when it’s full you won’t be able to eat any more. 2 food points 6 food points die. This meat will be cooked if they were
killed by fire. Meat is an excellent food
RAW COOKED source as it restores more food points than
RABBIT RABBIT fruit and vegetables. Cooked meat restores
3 food points 5 food points more food points than raw meat.
You lose health points through:
FISH
If you have a fishing rod and access to water, raw
fish are an unlimited resource and an excellent
FALL food source. Raw fish can also be obtained by
STARVING
DAMAGE defeating polar bears and guardians (see pages
EXPLOSIONS
49 and 58-59). Cooking fish in a furnace will
increase its food points. Use your fishing rod to
cast it into the water. When the bobber dips, reel
it back in to see what you’ve caught.
MOB/PLAYER FALLING INTO
ATTACK THE VOID
TIP
Fishing doesn’t just catch you fish –
FIRE BEING SHOT there’s a probability that you’ll get junk
WITH AN ARROW items and, occasionally, really valuable
items like enchanted books. You can
put enchantments on your fishing rod, CLOWNFISH COOKED
too – that’ll increase your chance of 1 food point COD
snagging the good stuff.
5 food points
SUFFOCATING
DROWNING
RAW COOKED
COD SALMON
LAVA CACTUS 2 food points 6 food points
CONTACT
RAW
You lose health points rapidly during combat so it’s a good idea to keep food in a hotbar slot. Different SALMON
types of food restore different amounts of food points – read on for details. FISHING ROD RECIPE 2 food points
74 75
