Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the world. In fact, in its 11-year history, it has accumulated over 600 million players. This is a huge stat for any game, but for the humble block-building game, it is an impressive feat. Coming out of Sweden, the game’s unique mechanics and many memorable character designs has inspired a generation of creators. Since its early inception, the game has continued to grow with regular updates adding new features and blocks for players to interact with.
Minecraft, at its very core, can be described as a building game. In its most popular mode, Survival, it throws players into a huge randomly generated world and asks the players to survive by finding food, defending themselves against dangerous enemies, popularly known as “mobs” and by seeking out riches, either underground by mining or simply finding items scattered around the world within chests.
For all its great aspects, Minecraft does exclude one important detail. It does not tell new players how to effectively play the game. While the game does have a tutorial, this is mainly used to show players the various buttons and functions of the game like tool creation, farming, block breaking, and farming. This is because Mojang, the creators of Minecraft, want to give players as much freedom as possible. However, it does make it difficult for new players to get a good foothold in a new world. This guide will take you through the steps of surviving the first few nights in a Minecraft world, hitting at the most important things to get done in the early game.
Note: This will be a Minecraft Java guide but many of these tips can apply to Bedrock/Console version as well.
Starting Out
Before loading up a new game, you are given the opportunity to select from various options in the New World screen. For any players, I would recommend not turning on Bonus Chest as the materials you gain from this is easily accessible and while it can help in the first day, collecting materials early on is an important function for new players to understand. Go through the tutorial part of the game to get a good understanding of the interfaces such as the inventory (accessed by clicking E), the crafting interface, and the furnace. These are the most important early game interfaces.
Now, as you load into your game, you will notice that you have no items in the inventory (if you are playing on the console, the game gives you an empty map at the start). So, your first task will be to find the nearest tree and punch some wood. Wood is the basic material that is required in almost all aspects of tool creation and is the most readily available block in the game depending on where you start. Use the tree blocks to create a crafting table. This allows you to increase your crafting grid from a 2X2 in your regular inventory to a 3X3 in the table. Use this to first create a wood pickaxe. I would recommend not creating any other tool since wood tools are the weakest in the game and your priority should be attaining stone tools.
Use the wood pickaxe to mine out some cobblestone. You can use this to create stone tools that will last longer and mine blocks faster. Grab yourself a stone pickaxe, a stone axe, and a stone shovel. You do not need to worry about getting a sword. The stone axe works out better in this early part as it is more efficient than a stone sword when fighting mobs. Once this is done, your next priority is finding some sheep.
Mobs in Minecraft require darkness to spawn. So, you will encounter most mobs during the night, making the first time extremely dangerous for new players. To avoid having to survive through the night, you will need a bed. For a bed, you need three wool of the same color and some wood planks. So, your top priority should be to find some sheep. This may be hard for some players depending on your spawn location in the world (Feel free to restart a world if you are not happy with the spawn location at first). If you find a bed, sleep through the night.
If you are unable to find sheep, it is not a big deal. Ensure that you have some form of food by killing some of the other animals like chickens, pigs, or cows. You can craft a furnace using cobblestone and use that to cook some of the meat. Build a small house using the blocks you have acquired or dig a hole in the side of the mountain. Since you are without a bed, you will not be able to skip the night. This means that you have about ten minutes where you should stay indoors. It is important to remember that many mobs will burn in the daylight, however, Creepers and spiders will not so be careful even after the first night is over. Use the night to get some stuff done. Decorate your house, mine, plan out your next day, or just sit in the corner of your enclosure. When it is day again, go out and try to find sheep. A bed is a must-have.
Note: When mining, I would recommend turning subtitles on and following mob sounds or the sound of lava and water. This will likely lead you to some caves. Caves are the best place for finding rare resources. Side note, you can only find diamonds between bedrock and Y-level 16. So, if you are looking for diamonds ensure that you are low in the world. Use some mining techniques like strip mining for this. There are numerous great tutorials on YouTube for finding diamonds so just pick one and mine.
Progressing in your world
Now that you have a bed, a house, and some food, your next step is to improve your tools and house. To do this you will need to mine. Start mining down into your world as the better materials like iron and diamond are found deeper in the world. Look out for iron, it is the next resource in your tool lineup and is needed to create a bucket. If you find some iron before you find three sheep, craft some sheers so you can get wool from a single sheep three times. If you already have a bed, use the iron to first craft a bucket, then a shield, followed by a sword, and finally a pickaxe.
This is also a good time to start farming. Farming is essential in Minecraft. Not only does it give you some food, but it also allows players to breed animals and harvest more meat. Look for some grass and break it. Eventually, you will get some wheat seeds. Craft a stone hoe and till some land. Remember that you can only till land near a water source block (4 blocks away in any direction is the maximum). You can either find a body of water and perform this near that or dig a one-block hole and place some water in there using your bucket. Plant some crops and go back to mining or explore your land. Crops take a few days to grow so give it some time, once they completely grow, you will be able to harvest multiple seeds along with the crop itself. This will let you start your own farm. Go ahead and create a small animal pen. Lure some cows or sheep in with wheat and feed them to grow your animal farm. I recommend cows as this is the best meat in the game. Look for some sugarcane and start a farm, it will be useful in the future.
Note: If you start off in a spruce taiga, you will be able to find sweet berries. This is the best food source early on as they grow quickly. Collect some and start a farm for a quick food source. Be aware that if you run into them you will be damaged by the thorns. Build some half slabs and place them above the sweet berries to avoid getting damage from them.
Get out there
With your farm in the works and your continued mining trips, you should have enough resources to last for a while. So, go out and explore the world. Getting a lay of the land around you is always a good idea since you never know what awaits you outside your immediate area. Look for villages. This is a great place to trade items you do not need or ones that you have been collecting and farming for emeralds. You can use this to buy some items you have not yet found. The village houses can also have chests with items that you can grab. If you see hay bales, collect them as they can be converted into a lot of wheat. Use this wheat to create bread, it is a good food source.
Other than villages, look for some broken nether portals. These are made from obsidian, a dark-purple block. You need a diamond pickaxe to mine obsidian so do not try and waste your time if you do not have one. These portals often have chests with good items so loot them. You can also look for some other structures. The important thing here is to explore.
If you were able to find some Redstone and iron, create a compass. If you have some sugarcane, use it to craft paper and then create a map. It is not a necessity but having it is always good. A useful tip for navigating your world is to use the debug screen. This can be accessed using the F3 button. It will display your coordinates.
Go on and Survive
With all this out of the way, you should have a great start in your world. Build some structures, improve your existing structures, and start your path towards reaching the Nether and the End. This is the regular progression in Minecraft, but it is not something you have to do. The game gives you the opportunity to play however you want to so do what you want. It is easy to get bored when you are performing the same tasks so add some variety.
Go ahead and check out some YouTube channels as well for Minecraft Survival Guides. I recommend Pixlriffs, he is a great YouTuber with a long Survival guide series and his channel helped me gain a lot of knowledge when I started out.
Remember that Minecraft is a game that is updated about once a year and with each major update, there are many new features. Keep up to date on these updates so that you are aware of any changes to the game.
I wish you luck in your new Survival World and hope that you enjoy this breathtaking game. Minecraft has an amazing community of players so feel free to reach out to the community. Also, there are plenty of resources like the Minecraft Wiki that will give you details on any of the aspects of the game you are having trouble with. Good Mining!