This is chapter 5 of the Minecraft Basics Guide
In surviving your first night in Minecraft we saw the dangers that come at night. Hostile mobs like Zombies and Skeletons can make your life very hard. That’s why, sooner or later, players usually want to stop somwhere and start building a base.
You probably already saw what it’s possible to build in Minecraft and how players are capable to make spectacular creations. If you search “minecraft base tour” on Youtube you will find the most amazing bases.
But unless you are playing in Creative mode, it will be a bit early to think about doing something of that scale. Right now you should focus more on building your first temporary base. This way you will have a safe repair against enemies and you will be able to gather resources. It is also useful to build your main base close to a Mob Spawner, something that we will discuss in another chapter of this guide (see also: How to find ALL Mob Spawners in Minecraft).
That being said, let’s see what you will need for your first temporary base.
The essentials
- We saw how to make and use a Bed in the previous chapter of this guide. If you still don’t have one, you should start looking for Wool to craft it. Skip the night whenever you want will be very useful.
- You will also need some food. We are going to see how to to make a self-sustaining Wheat field, but you will need to eat something while you wait for your first harvest.
- If you don’t have them yet, make sure to have the basic Iron tools: Pickaxe, Axe, Shovel.
New useful items
You are going to need soon these 3 items:
- Bucket
- Hoe
- Chest
You can use a Bucket to carry with you water, Lava and Milk. Moving water where you want is very useful and it is absolutely essential for farming. To craft a Bucket you will need 3 Iron Ingots:
To collect water, right-click on it while holding the Bucket in your hand.
You will see that the Bucket turned into a Water Bucket. Now, if you right-click anywhere, you will pour the water out of the Bucket.
A Hoe will turn a Dirt (or Grass) block into Farmland, where you can plant most of the vegetables. To craft a Hoe you will need 2 Sticks and 2 Cobblestone (or Irong Ingots, but there is no reason to waste Iron on a Hoe, you will see).
If you right-click on a block of Dirt, while holding the Hoe in your hand you will turn it into Farmland.
You can store all your resources and valuable items in Chests. To craft one, you will need 8 Wooden Planks.
When you right-click on a Chest, it will open and you will have access to it. You will be able to move items there from your inventory.
Build a small base
You can either carve a small base on the side of a mountain:
Or you can build one. Wood is fast to gather and it looks better than Cobblestone, so it’s a good choice.
Then place inside the structure a Bed, a Crafting Table, a Furnace and a Chest, so that you have everything that you need without going out.
You may want to place a Door at the entrance. To craft it you will need 6 Wooden Planks:
Beware of Zombies at night, though: sometimes they can break doors (see also: Can Zombies break doors?).
Also, you should place Torches in the area around your base, to prevent hostile mobs from spawning.
Continues in Farming
