"Average" MC Player: A player familiar to the concepts of the game, such as enchanting and brewing etc, but still needs some more information and training to move on.
Welcome to my post on Useful Tricks!
I was on YouTube recently watching some MC Tip videos and I noticed almost all of them had one major flaw. Most of the tricks where useless or did not go into further detail. As a result of this, I came up with my own list of useful tricks, with them all specifically being picked on usefulness rather than how cool they look.
Note: This is only the basics, if I didn't mention how to build an active quantum computer I'm sorry.
I assume if you are reading this you - Can work with the enchanting table GUI.
- Can work with the brewing GUI.
- Understand core concepts of the game.
One: Time Management:
You can usually tell a bad player from a good player not from how many blocks they can mine, or how many end games they can reach, but instead by their handling of the management of time. When it comes to smelting, bad players will often use one furnace. A furnace takes ten seconds to smelt an item. If a bad player were to try and smelt a stack (64) of items, they would be there for 640 seconds. However, a good player will already know how to exploit this theory. By placing multiple furnaces, and spreading out the items between them, you can decrease overall smelting times drastically. For example, if you smelt 64 items in one furnace, it takes 640 seconds. Putting 8 items in 8 furnaces will smelt the stack in just 80 seconds, meaning it goes 8x faster. You can go as many times faster as you want, although I question the sanity of whoever tries and uses 64 furnaces manually without any automation. However, with automation, you can increase the efficiency of smelting even more. You should also take note of each passing day and compare it to previous worlds. Are you running slower or faster, if slower is the answer, you need to practice more and more. Some of it is luck, but some of it is knowing what to do and what time to do it at.
Two: Master the art of automation.
Good players will learn how to use redstone and other useful tools to automate their game for them. Whether it be auto-collecting crops from a farm, or building an intricate structure with minecart chests and droppers, mastering automation will definitely increase your skill in the game overall, and will give you a better understanding of how these little parts work together to make something big. Obviously, I can not teach all of automation in one post, so I will leave a few links in this spoiler to some videos that I highly suggest you watch if you aren't familiar with the topic.
Farms:
Smelting:
Mob Grinders (EXP):
Three: Planning ahead and avoiding in-game distractions.
Good players will actually think before entering a Minecraft world. Sure, seeds may be random, but there are some things that should always be done. For example, know your numbers. All players should know that it takes 11 ingots to make a set of tools and 24 to make a set of armour. From there, look at your play-style and look at the type of items you'll be using. Not using a hoe? Then don't bother getting the extra resources for the hoe. The trick is to be specific. This will progress you through the game on task. Another benefit of actually planning is that you won't be distracted as much by random occurrences now that you have one specific goal you wish to achieve. Bad players will often get caught up in all the madness that they'll lose touch and keep trying to do a little bit of everything, but if you have a very specific goal, any inconveniences should be hard to find and should only be quite short in the long term.
Four: Practice the first half of the game a lot.
I'd like to say there a two parts too vanilla minecraft; Pre-nether portal and after nether portal. Pre-nether portal is all the stuff you do to get into the nether. The latter half is the massive journey you take to reach the end. Obviously, the latter half of the game takes a very long time compared to the first half, so getting through the first half like the wind comes in handy. In general, to get faster at the first half, you want to have, like mentioned earlier, and extremely specific plan in place. For example, mine is the following (Yes, I'm aware of the bucket portal trick):
- When spawned, break logs. I usually break ten to be on the safe side. Make the crafting bench and sticks in the 2x2 grid then a wooden pickaxe in the 3x3 grid.
- Collect eleven stone. Build a furnace and stone pickaxe.
- Bring the crafting table and furnace with you and mine until you get six pieces of iron ore. Make an iron pickaxe and a empty bucket then continue mining. Use excess iron for sword, axe and armour. Keep mining until you get three diamonds and make a diamond pickaxe. Fill the bucket with some water from a cave system and pour over lava after checking how deep it is. Best place for diamonds is Y-10 to Y-12 (F3 or Fn+F3 for coords).
- Harvest fourteen obsidian. Ten for the nether portal, four for the enchanting table. Make sure to get flint from gravel too.
- Make igniter with one flint and one iron ingot, build portal with ten blocks by not using the four corner blocks, and light the portal.
Once you practice your plan enough, you'll be able to fly past the first half of the game in under five or ten minutes, depending on your luck finding diamonds. Obviously, mine if very beginner friendly, but just do whatever you do best.
Five: Come to term with basic terminology.
Trying to read tutorials online without knowing any terminology like stacks or smelting or brewing can be really hard. So, I'd suggest you look into a minecraft glossary if you're really new to the game. The fact you're here is already a good sign you'e interested in the game. Here's a basic glossary: Basic Glossary
Six: Take advantage of useful mods, and note what versions they are and their compatibility with other useful mods of the same version.
If you want a mod that dramatically increases your speed through the game, but it isn't cheating, I'd recommend Vein-miner. When you hit ore, it breaks all other ores connected to it, but also damages your tool for each ore broken, thus making it the same as normal, but heavily quicker. If you don't know how to install mods, I suggest you look up an online tutorial for that in your own time.
Seven: Some bonus information and tips to become better at minecraft.
- You can survive a fall of 21 blocks with full health.
- Milk gets rid of all potion affects.
- You can build a portal with just a lava bucket and water bucket, but it takes some time to get used too.
- When mining straight up, place a torch underneath you instantly break gravel and sand.
- Mobs can see you in a 16 block radius and you can only hear Mobs within 16 blocks. Use this knowledge when caving wisely.
- Practice hitting back fireballs from ghasts.
- When growing saplings, place them two blocks away from each other. Oak saplings can be grown next to each other. Placing 2x2 jungle saplings and bone mealing it will result in the larger variant of jungle tree.
- Use ice or glass to see under 1 block deep lava to check for diamonds.
- Use enderpearls to teleport large distances.
- You can place a torch underwater to replenish your breath instantly.
- Raising a door by one block negates zombies breaking it.
- Best level for enchanting diamond boots with feather falling is level 26. Silk Touch book is level 18.
-
That's all. It wasn't something special, but then again, it's only for the basics. Thanks for reading my first post.
This is a very nice first post with helpful advice.
I agree that it would be nice to have a disclaimer about the targeted playstyle which seems to be taken for granted. It’s not my playstyle, because I get my pleasure out of manually prettying up my farm and I have no interest in progressing past what you call the first half of the game, but it is interesting for me to read the tips anyway. I’ve watched loads of tutorials but I learned several new things from your post.
(There are a few outmoded bits ["You can place a torch underwater to replenish your breath instantly." was deliberately broken by MS/Mj as of 1.13].)
It still works, though not instantly and it takes a lot of torches since each one only replenishes a little bit of breath, you're better off using a bucket so as not to waste torches.
Doors still provide permanent air spaces (though that may change in 1.14)
Mining a block out of an underwater ceiling also provides a permanent air space as well as a place to place a torch for lighting and to help find the air space again.
In underwater ravines mining a short 1X2 tunnel into the wall serves the same purpose.
--
I think all saplings except spruce can be grown with no spaces between them nowdays.
Giant spruce trees can also be grown with saplings in a 2X2 square.
Time management is subjective. Single furnace may be inefficient if you dump a stack of things into it and wait there for it to smelt. If you go off to do other things in the mean time, does it really matter? Hopper-fed furnace, however, definitely should be a thing so you can drop in a bumch of smeltables in a chest, a lava bucket or two for fuel and walk off without a worry.
More interesting are ways of not needing to smelt. Auto chicken/cow cooker = no need to 'smelt' meat.
Silk touch = no need to smelt cobble to stone.
Iron farm = drastically reduced need to smelt iron.
Pre-nether/post-nether? Really, nether is just an additional environment to be utilized, the sooner the better. High speed transportation, glowstone, quartz, brewing setup, endless easy lava supply. In many ways, nether is a lot safer than overworld.
"Average" MC Player: A player familiar to the concepts of the game, such as enchanting and brewing etc, but still needs some more information and training to move on.
Welcome to my post on Useful Tricks!
Farms:
Smelting:
Mob Grinders (EXP):
- When spawned, break logs. I usually break ten to be on the safe side. Make the crafting bench and sticks in the 2x2 grid then a wooden pickaxe in the 3x3 grid.
- Collect eleven stone. Build a furnace and stone pickaxe.
- Bring the crafting table and furnace with you and mine until you get six pieces of iron ore. Make an iron pickaxe and a empty bucket then continue mining. Use excess iron for sword, axe and armour. Keep mining until you get three diamonds and make a diamond pickaxe. Fill the bucket with some water from a cave system and pour over lava after checking how deep it is. Best place for diamonds is Y-10 to Y-12 (F3 or Fn+F3 for coords).
- Harvest fourteen obsidian. Ten for the nether portal, four for the enchanting table. Make sure to get flint from gravel too.
- Make igniter with one flint and one iron ingot, build portal with ten blocks by not using the four corner blocks, and light the portal.
Once you practice your plan enough, you'll be able to fly past the first half of the game in under five or ten minutes, depending on your luck finding diamonds. Obviously, mine if very beginner friendly, but just do whatever you do best.
Five: Come to term with basic terminology.
Trying to read tutorials online without knowing any terminology like stacks or smelting or brewing can be really hard. So, I'd suggest you look into a minecraft glossary if you're really new to the game. The fact you're here is already a good sign you'e interested in the game. Here's a basic glossary: Basic Glossary
Six: Take advantage of useful mods, and note what versions they are and their compatibility with other useful mods of the same version.
If you want a mod that dramatically increases your speed through the game, but it isn't cheating, I'd recommend Vein-miner. When you hit ore, it breaks all other ores connected to it, but also damages your tool for each ore broken, thus making it the same as normal, but heavily quicker. If you don't know how to install mods, I suggest you look up an online tutorial for that in your own time.
Seven: Some bonus information and tips to become better at minecraft.
- You can survive a fall of 21 blocks with full health.
- Milk gets rid of all potion affects.
- You can build a portal with just a lava bucket and water bucket, but it takes some time to get used too.
- When mining straight up, place a torch underneath you instantly break gravel and sand.
- Mobs can see you in a 16 block radius and you can only hear Mobs within 16 blocks. Use this knowledge when caving wisely.
- Practice hitting back fireballs from ghasts.
- When growing saplings, place them two blocks away from each other. Oak saplings can be grown next to each other. Placing 2x2 jungle saplings and bone mealing it will result in the larger variant of jungle tree.
- Use ice or glass to see under 1 block deep lava to check for diamonds.
- Use enderpearls to teleport large distances.
- You can place a torch underwater to replenish your breath instantly.
- Raising a door by one block negates zombies breaking it.
- Best level for enchanting diamond boots with feather falling is level 26. Silk Touch book is level 18.
-
That's all. It wasn't something special, but then again, it's only for the basics. Thanks for reading my first post.
This ain't bad…
(There are a few outmoded bits ["You can place a torch underwater to replenish your breath instantly." was deliberately broken by MS/Mj as of 1.13].)
It does, however, need a prominent YMMV disclaimer….
This is a very nice first post with helpful advice.
I agree that it would be nice to have a disclaimer about the targeted playstyle which seems to be taken for granted. It’s not my playstyle, because I get my pleasure out of manually prettying up my farm and I have no interest in progressing past what you call the first half of the game, but it is interesting for me to read the tips anyway. I’ve watched loads of tutorials but I learned several new things from your post.
It still works, though not instantly and it takes a lot of torches since each one only replenishes a little bit of breath, you're better off using a bucket so as not to waste torches.
Doors still provide permanent air spaces (though that may change in 1.14)
Mining a block out of an underwater ceiling also provides a permanent air space as well as a place to place a torch for lighting and to help find the air space again.
In underwater ravines mining a short 1X2 tunnel into the wall serves the same purpose.
--
I think all saplings except spruce can be grown with no spaces between them nowdays.
Giant spruce trees can also be grown with saplings in a 2X2 square.
Just testing.
Time management is subjective. Single furnace may be inefficient if you dump a stack of things into it and wait there for it to smelt. If you go off to do other things in the mean time, does it really matter? Hopper-fed furnace, however, definitely should be a thing so you can drop in a bumch of smeltables in a chest, a lava bucket or two for fuel and walk off without a worry.
More interesting are ways of not needing to smelt. Auto chicken/cow cooker = no need to 'smelt' meat.
Silk touch = no need to smelt cobble to stone.
Iron farm = drastically reduced need to smelt iron.
Pre-nether/post-nether? Really, nether is just an additional environment to be utilized, the sooner the better. High speed transportation, glowstone, quartz, brewing setup, endless easy lava supply. In many ways, nether is a lot safer than overworld.