Shelter
On your first night in Minecraft, you can dig a hole on a mountainside or underground. However, with all that wood you’ve gathered you can create a small cabin. This shelter will protect you from the hostile mobs that roam the land at night.
In the beginning, it’s a good idea to locate a spot near a water source, although not mandatory. This will simplify farming later on. Once you’ve found a suitable location near water, you can clear the grass by punching it.
When you remove the grass, it will drop seeds, which we’ll discuss in the farming section below. Now, equip the wooden planks and place them one by one on the ground to create a rectangular shape.
To craft a door, arrange six wooden planks in a 2×3 grid on your crafting table, which will yield three wooden doors. You can place two of these doors within the 2×2 gap you left to create an entrance for your very first Minecraft cabin.
Now, you can relocate your essentials like a crafting table and a furnace inside your cabin. It is also best to craft a double chest to store all your items and avoid overloading your inventory. To craft a double chest, combine two small chests in a crafting grid. First, create a single small chest by arranging eight wooden planks around the border of a 3×3 crafting grid on the crafting table.
Next, create another small chest and place them side by side anywhere you’d like. This will result in a large double chest capable of holding more items.
Lighting
Lighting plays a crucial role in Minecraft survival, whether it’s day or night. In caves, keeping areas well-lit with torches is important to prevent hostile mobs from spawning. These mobs tend to appear in darker conditions, which is why they always spawn at night.
A basic but highly effective light source you can craft is the torch. To create four torches, simply place a stick below a single piece of coal in your crafting grid.
Spawn Point
To set your spawn point, which is especially crucial if you’ve ventured far from the world’s original spawn point, you need to craft and use a bed. Crafting a bed involves placing three pieces of same-colored wool and three wooden planks horizontally in a 3×2 pattern on your crafting table. The reason we use the same-colored wool is because having different colored wool won’t allow you to craft the beds.
If you happen upon a black sheep, be on the lookout for at least three of them to ensure you can craft a bed.
After placing a bed, right-click on it (LT on Xbox and L2 on PlayStation) to set your spawn point.
Farming
Next, let’s explore additional food options like farming. In Minecraft, there are various food items you can cultivate, but for your first night, let’s start with something simple such as wheat seeds.
Once you’ve collected some seeds, equip a hoe and right-click (LT on Xbox and L2 on PlayStation) on a grass block to create soil.
With the seeds ready and equipped, right-click (LT on Xbox and L2 on PlayStation) on the moist soil to plant them.
To craft bone meal, simply place a regular bone (acquired by defeating skeletons) into a crafting grid.
With bone meal equipped, right-click (LT on Xbox and L2 on PlayStation) on the planted seeds to rapidly advance their growth to the next stage.
It is also worth noting that a single water source “block” can hydrate up to 4 adjacent soil blocks in all directions.
Once the wheat has fully grown, you can harvest it by simply punching it. Make sure to unequip any tools while harvesting, as using tools will wear them down unnecessarily.
It’s important to avoid jumping on the soil as it can turn it back into regular dirt, especially if you’ve planted seeds that are nearly ready for harvest. Jumping on soil can disrupt its growth and result in a loss of productivity and time. Even if the wheat is fully grown, jumping on the soil will destroy the yield, returning only the seeds and not the wheat itself.
You can walk on it or, as my preferred method, crouch. To crouch, hold down the shift key on PC (or the right analog stick on consoles). When you move on soil while crouching, there is a zero percent chance for the soil to be destroyed.
Breeding
Breeding is an important aspect of Minecraft and the backbone of numerous advanced automated animal farms you see created by Redstone enthusiasts. But we will not delve into that just yet.
As mentioned above, you can find many farm animals roaming around in batches of 4-6. You can kill almost all of them except two. You probably already guessed it – the two will be used to breed and repopulate to get an infinite source of food.
Before we bring the animals, it is best to build an enclosure to keep them secure. You can craft fences by using sticks and planks in a 3×3 crafting grid on a crafting table.
You can also craft a fence gate for entry and exit into the enclosure. However, it’s not particularly necessary because we won’t be using the fence gate to access the animal pen. The issue with a fence gate is that when you open it, the animals tend to make a run for it, scattering around the area. Managing and herding them back inside can become quite challenging.
A handy tip that I have for you to easily enter and exit the enclosure is to craft a simple carpet. You can make a carpet by arranging two wool blocks side by side in a crafting grid.
You can place a single piece of carpet on the fence to facilitate entering or exiting the enclosure. The way this works is that it only allows you to jump on it. The farm animals or any other mobs cannot jump on the carpet when it is placed on the fence.
Now that you’ve set up the fences, be sure to leave at least one or two spaces open to allow animals to enter. We’ll guide the animals inside and then use a fence to block them in. Afterward, we can place a carpet on the fence for a convenient exit.
To gather the animals, you’ll need some wheat. Fortunately, by this point, at least one of your planted seeds should have fully grown into wheat. Harvest it and then search for animals. The one you really want is the cow, as it satiates you the most. If you equip wheat in your hand and approach any sheep or cow, they will begin to follow you.
To breed the animals, simply right-click (LT on Xbox and L2 on PlayStation) on two cows (or sheep) while holding wheat in your hand.
After a few seconds, a baby version of the animal you bred will appear. Usually, baby mobs take 20 minutes to mature into adults. You can speed up this process by feeding baby cows some wheat, which accelerates their growth by 10%. However, if you continue to feed them, it yields diminishing returns and wastes your food.
The adult cows used for breeding can be bred again after 5 minutes. You can’t breed them immediately after one session. While cows provide a great source of food and leather, sheep are valuable for wool and mutton.
Night Time
With a secure shelter, a spawn point, and a steady food supply in place, let’s talk about nighttime and the hostile mobs that come with it. During night-time in Minecraft, your usual course of action is to return to your shelter and sleep by right-clicking on your bed. However, if you require resources that can only be obtained from hostile mobs, you might choose to brave the night outside and confront these mobs.
Minecraft features a variety of hostile mobs throughout the game, but for simplicity’s sake, we will focus on the most common ones, explaining how to handle them and the items they drop.
Zombies
Zombies are the most common and the least threatening hostile mob in the game. Zombies burn during daylight and can only spawn in the dark.
Skeletons
Skeletons can be quite difficult to deal with, especially during the early stages of the game. It’s advisable to steer clear of them, especially if you encounter two together. They can attack from a distance and pack a punch. When defeated, skeletons drop bones, arrows, and occasionally bows.
Creepers
Creepers are among the most menacing hostile mobs in the game and can be a source of frustration. These creatures have a tendency to explode when they approach, causing significant damage to nearby objects, including chests, structures, and items in your inventory. It’s always wise to eliminate them from a safe distance. You can sprint and strike them to push them back and prevent them from getting too close. Repeat this until they’re defeated.
Spiders
Spiders exhibit different behavior based on the time of day in Minecraft. During the day, they are neutral and won’t attack unless provoked. However, at nighttime, they become hostile and will actively pursue you. Spiders drop string and spider eyes as loot.
Enderman
The Enderman is Mojang’s interpretation of the infamous Slenderman. These tall, black figures can spawn during both day and night. Endermen are initially neutral, but become aggressive if you attack them or look directly at them. To avoid provoking them, keep your crosshair off them. When agitated, Endermen teleport around and deal significant damage.
One unique feature of Enderman is their habit of randomly picking up blocks and teleporting away with them. When defeated, they drop valuable loot known as Ender Pearls.
Slimes
Slimes are not as commonly encountered in standard Minecraft biomes, but you might see them depending on your initial spawn location. Slimes typically spawn in “slime chunks,” which are specific chunks designated for slime spawning. Swamp biomes are a good place to find slimes in abundance. When you defeat slimes, they drop slimeballs, which are essential for crafting items like sticky pistons. When you defeat a large slime, it splits into multiple smaller slimes.
And with that, we conclude our guide on surviving your first night in Minecraft. Keep in mind that Minecraft is a game where you learn and progress at your own pace. There’s no need to rush. Enjoy the game’s beauty and the sense of adventure it offers. As you play, you’ll naturally develop the skills to craft items on the fly. Before you know it, you’ll be creating impressive structures using Redstone contraptions!
