How to Survive in Minecraft/Day 1

The first day of any Minecraft world influences all future decisions, and can make the difference between thriving, survival, or death. Managing your resources is important as well as getting food and keeping yourself safe.

The very first seconds

Structures

The first thing to look for are structures. Things like shipwrecks, jungle or desert temples, or villages help to jump-start a player's journey, sending them from the wood age to the iron age or higher. Villages are particularly helpful as they provide a ton of food in the form of hay bales and wheat which can be crafted into bread, making a lot of food, which is especially important early game when food options are more scarce.

Wood

If you can't find any structures, the next best thing is to look for wood to craft basic tools with, either in trees or abandoned mineshafts, although trees are preferred as there are few hostile mobs in forests.

Once you have found wood, look at it to highlight it, and then break it by holding down the Break Block control, which is usually left-mouse click. When you break one block, move your field of view until another block of wood is highlighted, and then break it by holding down the Break Block control. Repeat this with all of the other wood blocks. You may need to move under the tree, where the 2 blocks of wood were, in order to see the rest.

Basic tools

Crafting recipe:

Planks	Planks
Planks	Planks

This makes 1 crafting table.

In order to get planks, you have to craft the logs into planks. One log inside the crafting menu by itself equals four wooden planks of that type. Then, you want to craft some sticks with the planks, which can be done by 2 planks in a column, which makes 8 sticks. Make sure not to do one plank by itself, as that gives wooden buttons, which are used for redstone, which is unlocked later in the game.

Mining

Crafting recipe:

Cobblestone	Cobblestone	Cobblestone
	Stick
	Stick

This makes a stone pickaxe.

Use the planks and sticks to create a pickaxe. A pickaxe requires 2 sticks in a column starting from the bottom, and a plank for each space in the top row. After this, use the pickaxe to mine 19 stone to get 19 cobblestone. Use the cobblestone to make one stone pickaxe, axe, sword, shove, hoe, and a furnace. From there, you can mine directly for iron, or just mine for more stone and coal, as iron is already common enough to find within 10 minutes.

Iron

If you do happen to find iron ore on your first day, then feel free to mine it. This will drop 1 Raw Iron per iron ore, which you can bring up and smelt with a furnace using coal or wood. If there is no coal, then you can smelt wood to make charcoal, then use that for torches and iron. Gradually use the iron to make tools and a shield, which will protect you against zombies, skeletons, and Creepers, oh my! Crafting recipe:

Planks	Iron Ingot	Planks
Planks	Planks	Planks
	Planks

This makes 1 shield.

Food

While hunger may not be an issue on the first day, it is still important to get food for the second day or beyond. Use your stone sword to hunt some animals such as Cows, Pigs, or Sheep. Sheep have the added benefit of dropping wool, so killing three of them give you enough wool to make a bed, which is useful to skip future nights as well as avoid PhantomsAfter getting some meat, you can smelt it the same way you smelt iron to get the cooked version, which restores more hunger and saturation than the raw variants. Crafting recipe:

Wool	Wool	Wool
Planks	Planks	Planks

This makes a bed.

Farming

Animals will be good for a while, but they will eventually become scarce. When this happens, it is important to get a renewable food source, such as breaking grass to get seeds to plant in tilled soil made with a hoe to eventually grow wheat which can be used for bread.

First of all, you need to actually get the seeds or vegetables needed, either from mining grass (not the block), or defeating Zombies. After that, use a hoe to till a grass block or dirt block into farmland, then right click the farmland with the seed or vegetable. Congratulations! You have planted a crop!

Now you need to wait for a few days for the crop to grow. It is recommended to plant multiple crops at once to increase the output of food, and have water near the farmland to make the crops grow faster.

Shelter

Surviving the first night will be difficult without walls to block yourself from hostile mobs such as zombies and creepers. There are a few different options that a person can use for their shelter.

Cave Home

A cave home is when a player finds a cave and decides to make it into a living space. This is one of the quickest to set up, you only need the essentials and torches.

Advantages

• Only need torches
• Ores can be found

Disadvantages

• Mobs can be found
• Lava
• Have to wall off an area if the cave is too big

Cliff Home

To make a cave home, you may use the hole you just mined if it was into a cliffside or steep area. This is like a hole but you can actually see when it is daytime and is less cramped. Make sure to not dig into a cave! Or maybe do if looking for ores.

Advantages

• Surrounded by stone so non-flammable and explosion resistant
• You gain materials instead of losing them

Disadvantages

• Size is dictated by the terrain you mined into

• Not a lot of light can enter
• Can collide with a cave

Hole

This shelter just consists of you digging a three block hole in the ground, jumping in it, then sealing the top off to protect yourself from mobs. This is effective, but also a bit cramped and dark, and you don't really know when it will be sunrise.

Advantages

• Quick to make
• Mobs are not able to see you

Disadvantages

• Cramped
• Dark
• You don't know when it is daytime

Sky Block

This shelter consists of building up into the sky and avoiding mobs via them not detecting you. Make sure to build up at least 10 blocks!

Advantages

• Mobs are not able to detect or get to you
• See everything from up high

Disadvantages

• Can't jump down due to fall damage
• Long time to build then destroy

Proper House

Making a proper shelter from wood or stone can be rather time consuming and lead to it being unfinished by nighttime if it is 5 by 5 or more, but a 3 by 3 living space is sufficient for your current needs. Stone is preferable as it is not flammable and is better able to resist explosions by Creepers.

Advantages

• Can be expanded into a permanent shelter
• Proper protection from mobs
• Versatile

Disadvantages

• Takes a relatively long time to make compared to the other shelters
• Not safe to build at night
• Can be resource intensive due to 3*4 being 12 blocks per layer, and you want at least 2 so 24 blocks or more.

First Night

After your shelter has been constructed, the sun is probably setting and hostile mobs should start spawning. Stay in your shelter and mine a bit for ores like coal for torches or iron for iron tools if you want, but don't go down too much otherwise mobs will spawn in your home, which would be a problem. You can also just play another game to pass the time, but don't take too long, otherwise it will be day again! You can also expand your shelter to have more rooms like farming if you have seeds, or a future bedroom if you didn't have the time for a bed.

Wall

A wall is good for keeping mobs out of the proximity of your house, and can be made from wood or from stone. To keep out mobs you only need a fence or wall perimeter 1 high visually or a 1.5 high hitbox, but skeletons can still shoot over unless you make it into a 2 high wall.

Crafting recipe:

Planks	Stick	Planks
Planks	Stick	Planks

This makes 6 fences.