Minecraft – How to Survive Your First Night

Collect resources and build a shelter to avoid monsters.

New Minecraft players will sometimes wander around aimlessly, unaware the sun remains in the sky for 10 minutes. When it goes down monsters appear, including Spiders, Zombies and perhaps the worst enemies of all, Creepers that sneak up on you and then explode. 

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It’s easy to die in Minecraft and we don’t want you to perish. The following beginner tips will tell you how to survive the night (all 10 minutes of darkness) without a scratch. 

Harvest Three Blocks of Wood

You don’t have time to waste, so immediately approach the nearest tree and attack it with your hands. Make sure you continue holding the Attack command throughout the process, otherwise the pieces of wood disappear and you’ll need to start over. 

After attacking for a little while the tree vanishes and leaves behind some Wood. Walk over this Wood and add it to your inventory. If you hear a noise while doing this, you picked up the Wood. 

Repeat the process until you have three pieces of Wood. 

Make a Wooden Axe

From there, bring up your inventory and move the three pieces of Wood into the crafting section. See the item on the right side of the screen? This is what you can make using the available resources. 

Each piece of Wood produces four Planks, so craft until you have 12 Planks. Now add a plank to each crafting slot so there are a total of four. This lets you build a Crafting Table. After making the Crafting Table, place it into a hotbar slot along the bottom of this screen. 

Exit the inventory and use the quickslot command to put the Crafting Table nearby. When using it, you’ll be able to put up to nine ingredients into those available crafting slots. 

While in the Crafting Table screen, add two Planks (one on top of the other) and build Sticks. These serve as the base ingredient for a variety of different items, so it pays to have some on hand.

From there, use two Sticks and three Planks to build a Wooden Axe. This item makes chopping and then harvesting Wood much easier than relying on your hands.

Make a Wooden Shovel and Pickaxe 

Harvest a good amount of wood and then head back to the Crafting Table. Follow the instructions to create a Wooden Shovel and Wooden Pickaxe, then add these tools and the Wooden Axe to your hotbar. 

Harvest Six Pieces of Stone 

Equip the Wooden Shovel and dig until you hit Stone; if you see Stone in the world, you don’t have to dig. Now switch to the Wooden Pickaxe, press and hold the command button to begin harvesting at least six pieces of Stone. 

Tip: Did you use the shovel to dig? If so, there’s a chance you can’t jump out of the hole, but don’t worry. Your character can jump as high as one block, so create steps one at a time until you reach the surface.

Create Stone Tools

Return to the Crafting Table and replace your Wooden Axe, Pickaxe and Shovel with Stone equivalents. The recipes are similar, except you use Stone and Sticks in place of Wood. 

From this point on you don’t need to use Wooden tools again, but save yours for a little while. We have a good use for them.

Make a Shelter Before the Sun Goes Down 

We don’t know how much time you have left before the monsters come out to play, so switch gears to building a simple shelter. If you’re losing daylight, quickly dig into a hill or tunnel into the ground. If you feel brave and have minutes to spare, surround your character with a Stone or Wood hut. Remember, building walls takes time. If you chose to do the latter, always put a roof on the hut, otherwise Spiders will get inside. 

Now that you have shelter, put a Crafting Table in there so you can build after nightfall.

Creating a Furnace, Door and Light

When you have Cobblestone, use it to build a Furnace; this lets you cook food and provides a light source. Toss your wooden tools into the Furnace and they’ll burn for a little while. Continue burning Wood until you have Charcoal; this serves as fuel and lets you cook more stuff. Also make sure to cook harvested meat; raw meat may poison you.

Now you’re ready to make a Door with six Planks of Wood. When it’s done, leave a space in your shelter that is two blocks high and one block wide. Put the door into this space. 

Finally, you’ll need to make some Torches with Sticks and Charcoal. Put Torches all over the place to keep Monsters out; they don’t wander into lit areas. Torches burn forever, so you won’t have to replace them. 

Don’t Stop Working

You can still be productive after the sun goes down. Remain inside of your shelter and dig into the ground for more Stone, as well as different resources like Coal, Flint and Iron; put Iron into your furnace to get Iron Ingots, which you can turn into a Pickaxe to harvest Redstone, Diamonds and Gold.

Of course you can go outside if you wish, but watch your back! And to avoid getting lost, it’s a good idea to build landmarks during the day so you can find your way back. Even a pile of dirt can save your life. 

Forge a Sword 

Now is also a great time to make a weapon. Visit the Crafting Table and use one Stick, plus two pieces of Wood, Stone or Metal to create a Sword. A Stone Sword is good for the time being, and you should always keep it in your hotbar to quickly switch to it. 

Get Food 

You can’t die of starvation, but extreme hunger will deplete your hearts, thereby making you susceptible to different hazards like monsters and falls from great heights.  During the daytime, hunt Chickens, Pigs and Cows, cook the raw meat and eat it. You can also use Sticks and String to make a Fishing Rod, then catch fish from bodies of water. But for now, kill nearby Chickens, Pigs and Cows. 

Using these tips will help you stay alive. Although there’s a long way to go, we’ll tell you how to beat the Ender Dragon. Bookmark that and save it for much later.


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Prima Games Staff
The staff at Prima Games.