Welcome to minecraft! A cube world to create your own masterpiece ranging from pixel art to the immersive full scale cities and game of your childhood! Here I will be showing you some little tidbits of help, information that may prove useful such as basic tool functions, redstone support and some suggestions on mods or mod loaders!

Alright so, Your first day in the world of Minecraft hm? Well the first thing you'll want to do in any game involving survival is get some protection. A simple dirt house will suffice you for the first couple nights. Explore the map, find a suitable location to build and settle down because this game is limited only by your patience and imaginative ability.

When you enter the game you are spawned in a random biome, or region in which the weather and ground coincide one another. (For instance a swamp biome will never see snow and will rain far more often than say, a plain biome.)

Some of the biomes most commonly found:

Forest: A dense region of trees which can be in snowy, rainy or dry regions, these regions can be rather abundant and visible by the darker grass compared to plains biome grass. They also will be where you find a much wider variation in tree type. So keep an eye out for these regions when possible if you're looking for a particular wood.

Jungle: DENSE tree zones, with lush green grass which tends to be completely covered by leaves from other trees. The trees also tend to have 2x2 size trunks and covered in vines which can be climbed to reach the canopy. The trees grow to become massive, sometimes having well into the hundreds when it comes to wood. It rains often but due to the tree canopy, the rain hardly ever reaches beyond it... This also means mob will have a less likely chance of being killed by the light when  protected by this canopy.

Plains: A wide open region with little blemishes (such as hills and caverns) to be found. This tends to be the best biome for gardens and farms if that is the way you play the game. But be warned that Creepers are more abundant in these areas.

Desert: Wide, empty regions without much in the way of water, these regions are great for individuals wanting to test out red stone designs and rail way contraptions.

Mountain:  Rocky and difficult to trek through, these regions are great for building natural cave homes or hidden rooms, mine-shafts and other pleasantries.

Swamp: Now, this one is interesting, as this is the only location above world that you actually can find slime above ground abundantly. These regions are great for sticky piston production and useful for finding water easily.

Ocean: great location for fishing, spans much of the minecraft realm for the most part. You tend to find more ocean biomes than you do simple rivers, which seems relatively unusual compared to what one may think for a world.

Beyond these biomes, there are several variations (sub-biomes) such as Taiga, Mesa, Tundra, Dark Forest, mushroom, and very unusual combinations such as edge and mega(extreme) variations of these biome which interlink like puzzle pieces.  You might have a desert biome connected to a swamp for instance! There are also rare variations such as Ice Plains (like tundras only involving compact ice in large spikes with relatively no trees)

FURTHER HELP: Now then, there's an easy way to find out what biome your in. press F3, and it will show you a diagnostic screen with all the information you need. XYZ location, height, biome, what direction you're facing (cardinal directions, N W S E) ping, frame rate, memory use and so forth.


Monsters are bad m'kay?:

Beware these:

Zombie:  The generic zombie of the night, these are impact based. Groaning and moaning as if they want you to know they're coming up behind you with every squelch of their feet. They spawn at night and in caves with lacking sources of light. They burn in the sunlight. use it to your advantage! they have a tendency to spawn in groups of 4 or greater unless the location is too thin to allow it.

Skeleton archer: Same as the zombies as far as weakness to sunlight and spawning in the night. However unlike them, they are long range based. They have a tendency to spawn in groups of two or greater.

Spider: This annoying little bug has two variations, the Cave spider, which spawns in abandoned mine shafts, are always aggressive and can poison you. (Use milk to cure poison!) and the Spider. The spider that spawns on the surface and in normal cave systems are non-venomous and have a slightly longer view range than skeletons but shorter range compared to the zombie. The Spider and Skeleton have a 1% chance every-time a spider spawns to create a Spider Jockie, a rare mob where a skeleton rides a spider... These individuals have the view range of a spider but have the advantage of having the attack range of the skeleton archer... However the skeleton is still susceptible to light and will burn when in daylight, either burning the spider or leaving the spider upon death. Spiders do not die in daylight but they DO become docile until night. Do not attack them during the day and you'll be fine until nightfall. It's better to attack spiders at range because they will jump at you when in range to attack.

Creeper: This is the ultimate troll of the monsters on the over-world/surface world. A silent assassin with a belly full of gunpowder. They get up right behind you and will not hesitate to destroy anything and everything you create. Creepers tend to spawn in the plains biome more readily, having a much longer view range compared to the other monsters and only making sound when they either drop from a large fall OR just before they blow you up like an old bottle rocket. These monsters will not die in daylight unlike zombies or skeletons and tend to spawn individually more than groups, but when their view range is so wide it's common to get the attention of multiple.

(NOTE: Nether monsters will be explained later in the thread.)


Feeling more confident in surviving against the enemy? Now comes the real part!

Building basics:

So, you've chosen a location to build your first home or "hut" as it would be... This would more than likely be due to it getting dark. Monsters are much more aggressive and spawn closer to your location based upon difficulty so beware if it's your first time and you spawned on hard so take a little time and wait for daylight by blocking the way into the building by using the dirt you picked up. Punch a single block out of the wall at eye level. This will keep mobs from getting in but let you see into the darkness so you can know when daylight comes around.

Firstly you'll need at the very least a stack of 64 wood blocks (the stuff directly off the trees). Be wary however, it's much more efficient to remove the ENTIRE trunk of the tree, the leaves will vanish upon losing the trunk and open up more room to build. Also stick around the breaking down trees! As the leaves vanish they will have a chance to drop saplings to plant more trees.


The first thing to build is wood planks. Remember all those wood blocks you got? Place them (one stack per change) into one of the slots next to your character's picture in the inventory screen. Then, hold shift and click on the outcome box (showing wood planks). This will put all of your wood planks into your inventory.

Now, use four of those wood planks, place one in each of those same four slots you had to change the wood into wood planks. This will create you a crafting table, and give you your first major achievement aside from getting wood and checking your inventory.

Awesome! This is your first legitimately helpful 'tool'! Congratulations are in order. But before that, we got something else to do. Let's open up your inventory and make some sticks! pick up an entire stack of wood planks (you should have 4 full stacks or around that much if you had the full stack of wood. If not, try to guess on how much you'll need.

Now, place at LEAST 1 wood plank on a bottom slot of the input slot for making your items. and put another above. This will make 4 sticks.

Make at least 32 sticks for ease of use and so you have extras.

Place this workbench into your little dirt shack and then prepare to make some tools and a little something extra!

Beginner tools:

For ease of explanation here is how to build simplistic tools using the workbench's input>output.

O = wood plank (or equivalent ore such as gold ingots, iron ingots or diamond. More on these later)
U = empty slot
T = stick

Wooden axe:
OOU
OTU
UTU

Wooden Pickaxe:
OOO
UTU
UTU

Wooden shovel:
UOU
UTU
UTU

Wooden Sword:
UOU
UOU
UTU

Wooden Hoe (tool):
OOU
UTUI
UTU


(IMPORTANT!!): Build 2 chests:
OOO
OUO
OOO

The chest is unique, you can place 2 together and expand the inventory it can hold to double what only one can carry. It also saves space. Keep it separated, you'll find yourself making many more in the future.

These will prepare you to fight, mine, farm and so forth.

Pickaxes are probably the most vital tool at your disposal. Shovels being a close second. I say this because all enemies can be outrun so long as you can sprint.

Speaking of sprinting: you're probably low on food, or close to it. Let's use that hoe shall we? Pull out your hoe and find a nice spot near your house. right click on a dirt block and you'll see that it readies the land for planting. We'll need some seeds for this! Go out and beat on some grass, eventually you'll pick up a few seeds. Come on back and right click on the tilled grass with the seeds in hand, you'll plant the seeds. This will make wheat in a few minutes of growing. You can speed up the process using a bucket of water. When the wheat has turned brown (fully grown) you can break it for a bushel of wheat and more seeds. replant the seeds. You'll need 3 bushels of  wheat to make bread at your workbench.
To make bread
O = wheat
U = empty
UUU
OOO
UUU


Alright, Now then; You've got your basic tools, you got some food being made and a nice little hut... Now comes the more annoying part. Beginning to mine. You'll find yourself in the darkness of tunnels and mineshafts for hours if you're not careful! Stick near the surface, fine exposed coal ore and dig up a couple dozen cobblestone. Cobblestone is a very abundant and important item which can be used to improve your weapons. But first:

Build a furnace (the same ordeal applies):
O = Cobblestone
U = Empty
OOO
OUO
OOO

Place this furnace down and use some of the remaining cobblestone to make an improved sword, shovel, axe and pickaxe at your work bench. The stone pickaxe will be needed to mine Iron!

Remember that Coal you picked up? Pop it into the furnace a while. you can stack most items in stacks of 64, Excluding tools and armor. Some items such as snowballs have a smaller stacking ability like 16 or 32. Usually they'll be in increments of 8.

Go out and begin digging, You'll want a couple stone pickaxes in case you break 'em down in the mines. Also bring along about 32 wood planks so you can make some torches (1 coal, 1 stick) if you ever lose your way.

Okay spend some time in the caves and dig til your hearts' content. When you feel you've gotten a good backing of iron bring it back. You'll be unable to use it until you smelt the iron in your furnace! This will allow you to use the Iron Ingots. It takes time to smelt iron and gold. Diamond is dropped as a ready to use item.

When you have enough Iron stock piled, make a new sword, 3 iron pickaxes and a shovel. Then find more iron unless you have a bunch to spare. When you have enough: Build yourself some armor!

O = iron ingot
U = empty

Helmet:
OOO
OUO
UUU

Chestplate:
OUO
OOO
OOO

Leggings:
OOO
OUO
OUO

Boots:
UUU
OUO
OUO

When you've built them you can put them into the slots on the left side of your avatar in the inventory screen.

Also build a couple buckets.
O = iron ingot
U = empty

Bucket:
UUU
OUO
UOU


From here up it's a hunt for diamonds! Prepare yourself for the most grueling grind of your life to reach the Ender Dragon.... it's going to be a nightmare.

After a few hours of digging around you'll run into the diamonds at some point. After that you'll be in the need of new diamond tools and
armor.

After you get your armor it's going to be an even harder hunt. Fill up a bucket with water and venture into the depths once again. This time you're looking for lava. When you find lava dump your water onto it to make obsidian! You need a diamond pickaxe to dig up obsidian and it takes a bit of time to dig up. Pick up the water with your emptied bucket again. Then, dig up a stone from the corner of the obsidian, and pour the water into this little crevice. Once you do that start digging outwards from the water. This is a safety measure to keep it from being destroyed by lava AND to save you

When you've collected a hefty amount (around 32 or more if possible!) you can head back up to the safety of your house.

Now then, this might seem silly since you've been living off bread and rotten flesh from zombies no doubt, but hunt down those cows! You'll need plenty of them to make what you need for this next step.

The next step is making bookshelves, and an enchanting table. You're going to need 2 diamonds, a lot of books, and at least 4 extra obsidian from your batch that you brought up. This will be an interesting little project and you'll need to slaughter many cows. You'll also need a sugar cane farm. Unlike wheat, Sugar cane only grows near water. So, when you get it, make sure to plant some near your house! Sugar Cane is normally found in swamp, plains or the edge of ocean biomes. These plants grow to be 3 tall. So when you break it, leave the bottom one planted! only take the top 2 from the stalk..  Now.. turn that sugar cane into paper!

O = Sugar Cane
U = empty

Paper:
UUU
OOO
UUU

Now, remember all that leather you picked up? start using that paper and the leather to make books!

L = Leather
P = Paper
U = empty

Book
UUU
PPU
LPU


Alright! Now we got some books! Now, turn those into bookshelves using the wood planks and books.

U = Wood Planks
O = Books

Bookshelf
UUU
OOO
UUU

now you'll need a lot of these but you'll also need a book for something else! An Enchanting table!

D = Diamond
O = Obsidian
B = Book
U = Empty

Enchanting Table
UBU
DOD
OOO

Okay now then place this down in your house with plenty of room around it! Because there's a special way to place these bookshelves around it. You'll be putting the shelves down 2 layers (so the shelf will be eye level) around the enchantment table. here is the setup to reach level 30 enchants.

B = Bookshelves 2 high
O = empty walkway
E = Enchanting Table
BBBBB  
BOOOB
BOEOB
BOOOB
BBOBB

You'll need around 30 bookshelves (People say you only need 15 bookshelves, but it looks nicer like this and assures an average level 30 enchant with good results..) which means you'll need 90 books! And in turn much more paper, along with 90 pieces of leather.  Yes, this is a pain in the butt to do. And cows are like diamonds, a real rarity sometimes! Now the next thing you'll need is Lapis Lazuli, which is pretty useless blue stuff, or so everyone claimed. But now it's needed to enchant your items!


Okay now then, you'll need something else next You'll probably have dug up gravel on your travels and got something called flint. It looks like broken glass charred by fire. Place this with one piece of iron diagonally from one another in your inventory build ability. You'll make Flint-Steel, which will let you light the next build.

the next thing we build is the nether portal. Which thanks to a recent patch can be any shape you so desire so long as you can fit in it.

You'll need obsidian to create it just to warn you.


After building it you'll light it with the flint steel. This will open the ability to go to the nether world! Here there are many things to get but several more ways to die. The world is filled with lava, high ledges and sudden drops. Magma moves like water, quick and unexpected so don't go digging around without a backup plan!


Here in the nether you have several enemies to be wary of.

Ghast: They sound like babies, they look like flying slimes with faces and tentacles. They shoot fireballs and are immune to fire. Hit the fireball back at them to kill them easily or use a bow! Otherwise use cobblestone to block their fireballs! Cobblestone will not be removed upon impact with the fireball

Blaze: These guys are a pain in the neck. They fire charges of fire at you that inflict damage over time. They are found in the nether fortress normally around their spawners. This monster is a key in your entering the end. This is the only hint i will give you about the end. As you need to have fun!

Zombie Pigman: These creatures act like wolves. They do not attack until you attack them. Leave them alone and they'll leave you alone as well. However if you do upset them, they become relentless and will not stop going after you until you kill all of the angered pigmen.

Wither skeleton Black, tall and wielding a beast of a sword they tend to be with other skeletal swordsman that can make your trip to the nether a torture task. The attack of the wither skeleton is special, it puts an ailment that causes you to lose health and you can not see what your health is at while it happens. This can be a real pain if you knew you were low to begin with.

When you come back from the nether be sure to save your stuff. those blaze will need to be crushed into powder and you'll also need to kill many enderman to get their pearls. You attach the pearls to the blaze powder and thus you get the Eye of Ender. You'll need several of these to open the end portal and a couple more to find a fortress. So be aware, there is much more to do!


HELPFUL TIPS!

Silverfish are another hostile mob that is found around overworld fortresses. They guard the end portal. When you're unsure of which is a silverfish egg, hit it with something other than the pickaxe! It will not take as long to break, and you can use it to avoid a nasty assault.

Having a skeleton kill a creeper drops a random music disk!

Having a full food bar will not drain nearly as much as a missing food piece would. It's a saturation bonus that allows more to be done So it's helpful to keep bread, cooked food and cake around as extra support in such situations.

Wolves can be tamed using bones dropped from skeletons!

Some monsters will carry items or armor you can take!

You will hear all mobs except the creeper and wither skeletons before you see them.

Use an anvil to repair items before they break, you'll need the ingot you made the item with to do so and a couple levels of experience.

Redstone Repeaters can be used to extend redstone reach without changing the time of the switch.

Powered rail is useful for pushing carts up long hills and tracks, you only need one every 12 normal rails if it is on flat surfaces. If it's going up hill it'll need to be placed in sets of 3  every 4 normal tracks. Otherwise you'll end up going right back down.

Hoppers can be used to move items from a chest into a dispenser, furnace, dropper or another chest!

beds can be used to spawn your character at your house! you'll need 3 wool and 3 wood planks.

The other thing you'll find helpful: The surface tends to be at 64 on average, and will decrease in time until it reaches 2! (this is when the bedrock layer begins and you can not pass it.)

Coal is found anywhere between stone and bedrock

Iron is found between level 2 and 67 BUT is found more often between 12 and 32

Gold is found between levels 2 and 32 BUT is found more often between 15 and 32

Lapis Lazuli is found between levels 2 and 33 BUT is found more often between 2 and 20

Redstone is found between 2 and 15 (there is no real known common region for this to spawn. it's pretty common around Diamond...)

Diamond is found between 2 and 15 BUT is found more often between 5 and 12 (is most common at layer 13 though!)

Gold is found between 2 and 33

Emerald is a little trickier. Found commonly on layer 13 and will nearly always be readily available in the EXTREME HILLS EDGE biome. stick to the very limit of the region, use F3 to do this, and you'll find Emerald relatively easily


And most importantly....

Beware of HIM
He watches all.



Happy mining everyone!

Great work. It will definitely help new players.