Minecraft tutorial, tip & tricks: February 2017

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Top Ten Tips for Minecraft

Tips for Minecraft: Interested in playing Minecraft but don’t know where to begin? We’ve compiled a concise list of tips to get you on your way to building your stairway to Minecraft heaven.

Minecraft! It's a relatively new game. It's not even technically finished, yet it's already sold over 2 million copies! Creative mode is available for free, but it's more of a suggestion of what Minecraft is really all about. Do yourself a favor and buy the game for the full experience. Not sure of how to play, or just looking for a quick renewal of the basics, or perhaps a few helpful tips for Minecraft? Then read on, my good friend. Happy mining!

#10 You want that coal.

Don’t be tempted to skip over coal deposits on your journeys, you never know when danger happens and you need a cooked pork chop, or you may decide later on that yes you do need 20,000 blocks of smooth stone for that totally awesome castle. You can techincally skip it over if you don't actually have a pick, because if you're in a dire need of light you can always cook up logs in a furnace to make some quick charcoal. Redstone though? Unless you’re building a 16-bit CPU chances are you don't need it.

#9 Build air pockets!

When you want to hunt some squid or you’re diving for clay that’s gone a little deeper than you realize, save yourself some time and build a small air pocket. You won’t have to surface as much and you get the work done a lot faster, also there is considerably less death in this method.

#8 Be prepared!

Build yourself a traveler’s kit of sorts before you head out on your adventures. Keep a stack of logs with you while you go mining. Bring extra supplies! Keep in mind where you are going. Spelunking? Bring a stack of logs for sticks and some wheat in case the going gets tougher than you expected. No one said you couldn’t go back, or even build a temporary hut for safety and storage.

#7 Mod it!

The modding community for this game is rich with awesome ideas and beautiful creations. Do yourself a favor: Expand your Minecraft experience and download a few mods. For example, not happy with how the game looks? Download a texture pack, or open up that photoshop or download Paint.net. Please do take the time to read as much as you can about the mod, especially if you’ve never done this kind of thing before. Whatever image manipulation program you use, just make sure it’s capable of altering transparencies (MS Paint cannot do this).

#6 Google it!

Do you find redstone logic gates confusing? Did you discover a dungeon for which you want to be able to use your now endless supply of skeletons but you’re not sure how to do so? There are a million guides out there that will teach you all of this and more. Take the time to study them and save them for later so you don’t have to dig up your projects again.

#5 Patience!

Did the newest update break all of your mods? Make sure you keep backups of your Minecraft folder, wherever it may be. Name them by their most recent update. When you run the game just simply choose not to update and there you go! You can keep playing with your mods until they update. Be sure to check Notch’s tumblr page to stay up to date! http://notch.tumblr.com/

#4 Plan it out!

Get yourself some graph paper, or keep a file on your computer just for your collection of building plans. Draw out what you want to build, and count up how much resource needed it will take. Decide where, if any, scaffolds may need to go, of which you can simply use dirt or gravel. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and resources instead of being that guy who's replaced a smooth stone block for the 14th time. Always remember that this is an unfinished game as well, and that your old maps may no longer be viable. If you’ve built something you’d hate to see go, record your methods so you can rebuild it later.

#3 Hide it!

Playing with others online? How safe is that server you’re playing on? Don’t just stick your hard-earned Diamonds and Mossy Cobblestone in a chest out in the open of your obvious storeroom, hide it! The key is to be creative, and don’t hide things behind a painting unless you are sure that painting looks close enough to everyone else’s texture that it actually hides something. Even then it’s not the most ingenious place. Invite a close friend to your humble abode and ask them to find your goods. If your friend has easily found them, try harder.

#2 Experiment!

Do you live in a log cabin? Do you want a fireplace? Turns out that fire burns wood (yeah I know who would have thought?). Construct experiments outside your home. Rebuild your living room and install the fireplace. If it went up in flames, try again.

#1 Bored of the game? You’re not thinking hard enough!

Move out to the desert and try to live with as few wood supplies as possible, move underwater and build a glass biosphere to live in. Browse the internet for new things to build. Teach yourself logic gates by building a redstone testing center. Download new mods to test out. Remember that this is a sandbox game, so it is limited only by you. Once you decide it’s done, then you’re done, too.

Top 30 Best Minecraft Tips & Tricks For 2014

Here are some helpful tips and tricks to get you going in Minecraft for every platform the game is on, including the Xbox One and PS4.

Minecraft has been out for awhile, and players have discovered a wide array of tips and tricks during their forays into its vast and wide open sandbox environment. Given the game’s quirkiness, players have discovered a lot of neat little tricks to help them get the most out of the game.

In case our previous top ten tips for Minecraft weren’t enough, here are thirty more quick and dirty tricks that’ll help you out in the game.

1. Create a zombie-proof door by raising it by one block.

2. If you’re planning to jump from someplace high, make sure you have a water bucket in your hand and spam space bar and you might just survive

3. If you sprint and jump at the same time it’s faster than just sprinting.

4. If you’re in lava and you’re about to die, just place down a water bucket.

5. Throw your garbage away in cactus.

6. If you have a fire resistance potion a pillar of lava can be used as a quick drop.

7. If you’re going on a ride in a boat push the boat out before hopping in. This gives your boat a little speed boost

8. To get the most out of your glowstone use a silk touch tool.

9. Sand and gravel can be broken by saplings, rails, flowers, mushrooms, torches, redstone torches, levers, fence gates, and even string.

10. You can get the maximum effect of a potion by throwing it in the sky and having it land on your body.

11. If you’re going up against silverfish, use the lighter so they can’t reproduce.

12. If you’re fighting against the Wither, do so in a confined space so it can’t maneuver and hurt you.

13. If you open your inventory you can shift-click your armor on and off.

14. In your inventory screen, you can use the hotkey numbers on your keyboard to choose where you want things to go. This also works with items.

15. You can create a pool of water that can be infinitely used by putting two water sources in two corners of a square and taking water from each of the corners.

16. The best lawnmower is a water bucket The best way to get rid of cobwebs is to use a water bucket, too.

17. You can hop across oceans with a lily pad.

18. When adventuring in caves you can use torches to block off water sources.

19. While in water the following things give a little airpocket: fences, nether fences, iron bars, glass panes, fence gates, trap doors, ladders, slabs, doors, cobblestone walls, and signs.

20. You can kill endermen easily by hitting them in the feet.

21. Save the durability of your weapons by hitting monsters manually—by clicking slowly.

22. Mushroom biomes have special properties: monsters don’t spawn in at night.

23. You can hit fireballs back at ghasts.

24. You can sneak while climbing up and down ladders so other players won’t be able to detect you.

25. When growing jungle trees, birch trees and spruce trees place them two blocks away from each other so they can grow. Oak saplings can be grown side by side.

26. If ice has no solid block underneath it, nothing will happen when you break it. If ice has a solid block underneath it, it’ll turn into water.

27. If you have a pumpkin on your head endermen will not attack you. You can attack them without being attacked in return.

28. While in water, creepers don’t do any environmental damage. Neither does TNT.

29. Monsters like the Blaze can be hurt with snowballs.

30. When editing signs, you can use the up and down arrow keys to select the text row.

100 Tips & Tricks To A Better Mine-Life

Are you new to Minecraft? Are you a long time veteran? No matter, this list is for you.

This list consists of building tips, mods, and other forms of Minecraft-related knowledge to help your Mine-Life become better. Even a few TNT tips for those of you who are a bit destructive. See what you may learn from reading.

Common Sense/Knowledge

1) Always take a chest with you. If you are mining a tunnel of Cobble, this will save you a trip back to your base.
2) Never dig straight above/below you. You can either fall into a chamber of lava or fall down and die or dig upward and be crushed by falling sand (protip: JUMP when this happens, it will Glitch you on top of it all..)
3) Don't play till 3-5 a.m. you lose a lot of sleep and I don't think you should be staying up too late working on that pro project. ;)
4) If you find yourself face to face with a creeper, don't run and turn away, punch it in the face with whatever you have and then turn and run away, so it doesn't explode directly beside you, giving you a chance to survive.
5) Switch to peaceful, twice as much done without all the "arg..." "SSSSSS" and "ka-dung" (bow).
6) When you find yourself in the face of a skeleton archer and can't run up and kill him follow this 4 part plan:

a) circle him and continue jumping around in a circle while edging forward

b) hit and jump back (dodge arrows)

c) repeat a)

d) He is dead.

7) Find diamond? Don't use it on armor, use it on a pickaxe and use MineEdit to "Super Repair" it. Will last around 1,000+ cobble, 250-500 Obsidian, or 450-500 of the other blocks (iron, diamond, gold)

8 ) Legit is the best policy. Don't spawn items, get them like you are in the days of old'.

9) If you chose to build a house, do something original and fun if its good enough it might just be featured here. :)

10) Keep a special folder with all your Minecraft pictures and programs. It's easier to keep up with, instead of having it all in a large "Downloads" folder hidden in the mist.

11) Always have torches...no matter what

12) Paranoid keeps you alive. Listen to the noises young padawan.

13) Find yourself in the face of a mob spawner? put a 4 tallx1 wide wall around it. Will allow them to spawn, but only inside of it, and if you are evil enough you might leave one hole open on the bottom to hit them and get items.

14) Underground foretresses spell Mobs all over it. Build on a mountait and have a dungeon in it that leads to different tunnels

15) Some people don't do this, I do. When coming into a stray tunnel put a torch with a sign that says

"To go forward ->

Leading out <-

Blocked tunnel (water) v" to not get confused at those 2-5 way tunnel systems and get lost....forever

Mods & Texture Packs for a better gameplay.

16) FlyMod/'Hack'

17) Minimap mod, usefull.

18) doku's RPG texture pack

19) Color Stone Torch Mod (seen here)

20) Minecraft Music! (seen here)

21) Mo' Creatures (extra monsters mod)

22) Quandary Texture Pack (subtle change to original Minecraft texture pack)

23) Single Player Commands

24) Miner's Hats with lights!

25) Plastic Craft (interesting new food & items to craft)

26) The Female Mod - Get your own buddy to run around with you in single player (pun intended)

27) Survival Horror Mod - This combined with FearCraft and a dark descent towards the bedrock will surely have you scared

28) FearCraft a sound mod overhaul that will have you shaking in your computer chairs

29) One Stop Mod Shop

30) and for other mods you might want Minecraft Forum's Modding and Mapping forum

Building Tips

31) Album full of helpful pictures via me & a certain group of people who shall be left unnamed.

32) Cirlce planner (online)

33) When you venture out its best to have a large landmark (tower or etc.) or just a massive base you can see from a long distance back.

34) Download MineEdit, set Spawn point in SP to your home so you don't spawn in some random desert...

35) When building things in the sky, make a big square and THEN hollow out pieces you dont need, this will save time...and health...and items

36) Play classic and get a "plan set up" (all materials infinite) and then do it on Beta.

37) Tree houses are cool, but sometimes hard to find...remember placement.

38) Test yourself by building 3D buildings or things from real life (pyramids, mountains, government offices....etc)

39) Build away from the cities and everything else. /sethome

40) Don't grief others, try not to get griefed. Protection is key on SMP.

Mechanic Tips (Redstone/mechanical)

41) Redstone dust is easy to find. Look about 3 - 5 layers up from the bedrock. Its red.

42) Gates. Most useful thing you may ever use.

43) Redstone wire connected to TNT. Use with caution...

44) Commonly known fact - Redstone charges only lasts for 15 Redstone wires long.

45) Doors. Rig up an iron door to some underground hidden redstone wires and have a stone button set up into some cobblestone. Stealth mode.

46) Monsters. You can probably know where I am going with this. If you trap a mob spawner in obsidian (about 6-9 wide) and have TNT blocks set up in all corners lead a redstone wire to them, and when they are all inside and there is a lot. Blow it. Collect everything. Repeat. Gets a lot of string, gunpowder, etc.

47) Water Ladders and Minecart cannons.

48) Powered Minecarts are good for moving Storage Minecarts.

49) NEVER get in a Minecart cannon for the love of Notch. You will never find that cannon again...

50) If you want to make a mob killing machine set up a wall of lava and dispensers like this guy did

The Long Haul, Journey Across The Land

51) Always bring extra tools, you will probably need them.

52) Sword in slot 1, pickaxe in slot 2, axe in slot 3. Easy to reach up from WASD to them and kill something or etc

53) Chunk not loading? Look for diamonds, try to remember the EXACT location. Dig to there. Rewards await. (logout and log back in so chunk reloads.)

54) Bring chest (or if you have a Minecart track, bring a storage minecart) into mine.

55) Friends make for good miners. Watch out for them, might get hit

56) when night comes around just build a 1x1 tower and put a bunch of torches around it. wait till day to come down, shoot things with a bow to pass the time.

57) See that creeper? Run. Now.

58) Mountains sometimes house secret cave systems, these are good for getting cobblestone and iron.

59) Bring friends to help pass the time.

60) Ride a pig across the lands it will eventually die because of all the raw materials you are carrying. (I am completely joking)

Houses/Bases/Forts Tips

61) Build them in a high place unaccessible to monsters.

62) Houses for comfort, Bases for misc., Forts for protection from the monsters of the outside world.

63) Best bet is to make your Mine inside your house so its easy to get too.

64) Creepers WILL blow up your house. Build an outside wall outside of your house about 10 away. Moats that are about 6 deep are good for keeping them at bay.

65) Build near a large body of water if you want, it makes for a good place to drown monsters

66) Elaborate mazes are easy to get stuck in. Don't make one leading to your fort. Might get chased by a monster and get killed at a dead end (this happened to me...)

67) Lava around your house makes for a good deathtrap.

68) When you build at night press F5 so you can watch your back.

69) Set up dispensers on the top floor of your house and you can shoot down EVERYTHING if you have enough.

Server Tips

70) Write down the server IP or website just in case you forget.

71) Always read/find out the server rules so you don't just accidentally get banned for something. All servers have different rules usually.

72) Befriend admins and mods. Get on their good side and you might just get a few diamond tools or some materials.

73) If you join a server with a bunch of griefing in it, try to fix some of it...would be nice. Or just disconnect.

74) Donate. It will keep everything alive and running on the server.

75) Build. Keep the server interesting for whomever may join and see your marvelous work of Mine-Art/Construction.

76) Mine. Keep a mine to yourself out away from everyone, this will keep your items private and your finds your own.

77) Safe houses. Dealing with other people online you can't tell what they will do. Always protect your chests (/lwc password <password> usually) and build or dig a safehouse into your home. The best bet it to build a wooden house and have a floor panel known only to you marked, with a ladder underneath it. Keep your chests under there.

78) Lava & Water. Watch what you do with this stuff....it might just get you killed or banned.

79) Minecarts and Boats. These are buggy on most servers, don't glitch yourself up. But when you do use one of them....make a roller coaster or water park.

80) Originality. Don't copy something you saw online, its unoriginal and may look cool but...deep down inside you will know...you don't care either way.

81) Language. I never seem to realize why a few words mean something so bad to people...I would use curse words to express deep feelings but people think of them as bad, I don't see why. If there is a rule against foul language, keep it to yourself or shout it to the sky in real life.

82) Hacking. Don't do it please. Its not cool and doesn't help you be "cool"

83) Griefing. Just because someone made you mad on a server doesn't mean you have to go off on a hissy fit and destroy people work, or just do it for sadistic "fun". Self control people.

84) Duping. I won't say much on this besides for you to keep it to yourself...don't give out duped items.

Server Staff Tips (for all you Mods)

85) Be nice to the nicer players, but be a strict enforcer when someone is screwing off and being a complete tard and making people mad.

86) Help with a player's project. If they need a ceiling build or something protected, there are commands for that. You and I both know that.

87) /magiccarpet = fun.

88) Don't be the Deadmau5 troll, it burns.

89) Banhammer. Use at your own risk.

TNT Tips (Large amounts)

90) Be prepared for lag or crashes, always save before you blow something up.

91) When placing TNT, have the view on Tiny and Graphics to Normal for quicker placement.

92) Redstone wire + distance.

93) Don't use TNT near bedrock, may destroy some diamonds or gold. I have done this multiple manytimes.

94) Use Cartographer to see how big your TNT block REALLY is. Take before and after pictures, crater = epic

95) How to avoid often crashes (not guaranteed but helps).

a) [WINDOWS_XP-7] Open task manager>processes set javaw.exe, java.exe, and all other java().exe's to HIGH priority to avoid a crash

b) [LINUX-UBUNTU_10.10] Open System>Administration>System Monitor>Processes right click the java.exe's and change priority to high.

c) [MAC] Figure it out yourself. I couldn't tell ya.

d) close all other programs and go to sleep. check in morning (have ManyCam record it for reference of how long it lasted)

96) Graphics card is key...

97) Bedrock won't blow up no matter how much TNT there is. Quit trying...

98) Barriers. Get a bit of obsidian and make a bomb shelter away or over the ground zero. Light it up then close up the barrier. -I will survive!-

Final Words

99) The cake is not a lie. It is here now

100) Lurk moar. Turn off sticky keys and hold shift to creep.

101)You now realize there was no 68.

If you looked up to check, you are laughing after reading this.

If you didn't laugh. You better laugh.

Miclee's Pigmen Tips

Note: These don't all involve those terrible things in The Nether whose cursed souls shall be kept there forever, though some do.

102) Do not expose to heat.

103) Do not touch.

104) Zombie pigmen are to be seen as un-needed and worthless. If you find a use, such as a shield, use it.

105) Regular pigmen are to be viewed as a human views another. Treat them however they treat you, and they will do the same.

106) If exposure to heat occurs, lightly season.

107) Do not chop up and sew together into a cape, expecting to fly. That is a myth.

108) Regular pigmen may provide shelter if you kill them.

109) Regular pigmen may provide shelter, given you do not hit them.

110) Food.

20 Tricks You Could Do in Minecraft

It's you've got some time to spare, watch the full video walkthrough below:

Tip #1

You can place torches on furnaces and crafting tables! You will need to go through a short process before doing so, but it IS possible.

Make sure you have a transparent block behind your furnace/crafting table before we begin. If there are any solid blocks around the crafting bench/furnace, remove those, as well. If you do not remove all solid blocks around them, the torches will gravitate towards them instead of placing itself on top of the crafting bench/furnace.

Targeting the transparent block's edge that is facing the crafting bench/furnace, right-click with a torch in your hand. You will notice the torch magically place itself on the crafting table!

Tip #2

You can place blocks on the side of a torch by hovering over the torch until you see the grid box.

Right-click on the side of the torch grid box with a block in your hand, and it will place the block to the side of the torch! This tip is very helpful for crossing lava pools and saving resources.

Tip #3

Torches placed under falling gravel or sand will break the sand/gravel for you, as long as the sand/gravel falls 2 blocks.

Hold a torch in your hand and break the lowest sand block.

Right as the sand block breaks, place your torch under it quickly!

Watch the torch do the heavy lifting for you, preventing backaches while excavating!

Tip #4

Torches can hold any amount of weight on them.

This allows you to create a sandstone-free pyramid and other fun designs.

Tip #5

You can stack signs on top of each other, and line them up to make for awesome detail in your builds.

Signs have "grids" just like every other block in Minecraft!

Tip #6

Wooden slabs are not affected by fire and also have a stronger blast resistance than that of wooden planks.

If you play on a server that has fire-spread enabled, you do not need to worry about your wooden slabs catching fire!

Tip #7

Redstone can travel through half-slabs, allowing you to hide your redstone like never before!

All redstone is connected except for full blocks on either end.

Tip #8

Pressure plates can hold water and lava inside of them without it spilling all over!

Tip #9

Signs and ladders can stop water and lava.

This tip is great for mob spawners, secret underwater rooms, and the like.

Tips #10 and #11

Ice placed under soul sand will make you walk even slower than just soul sand.

Soul sand registers in the game as a smaller block than the rest.

With these two tips, you can make a pretty awesome trap!

Tip #12

You can break boats and minecarts with a bow and arrow!

By breaking a boat with a bow and arrow, you receive the same drops as you would by breaking the boat normally.

When you break a minecart with a bow and arrow, you receive a minecart again. It's the same as if you were to break it regularly!

Tip #13

Items thrown into flowing water that is atop ice blocks will result in the item flowing incredibly fast.

Look at the difference in speed in the image below!

Tips #14 and #15

You cannot see player names through chests and signs, even if the player is not crouching.

When players are behind a wall or underground without crouching (holding the shift key), you can see their player names.

When a player crouches while behind a wall or underground, you will not be able to see their name.

Tip #16

A player that is in a minecart on a rail can ride directly through a 1-block wall.

This tip is great for tricking people on your roller coaster—or simply for traps!

Tip #17

One lava bucket will fuel a furnace for 1,000 seconds and can cook 1,000 items in a furnace. One blaze rod will fuel a furnace for 120 seconds and can cool 12 items in a furnace.

You can use ANY item that is made out of wood to fuel a furnace, including but not limited to saplings, jukeboxes, bookshelves, fences, trapdoors and chests.