What you will be doing in Minecraft game

Building and destroying

Once you've got yourself settled in Minecraft, you'll no doubt want to start building things. At first it might just be a small abode, but later you'll learn to make minecart tracks, redstone circuits and much more. Minecraft allows you to build almost anything you can imagine.

If you look online you'll see some of the amazing constructions people have made, from entire cities to recreations of science-fiction spaceships. On the other hand, in Minecraft the entire world is destructible. So anything you build you can also destroy. You can make TNT, which will enable you to blow up sections of the world, or you can simply mine your way into the ground or a mountain and take it apart You can build or destroy anything you please.

Creating

Another main feature of Minecraft is creating items. In the game there are a number of resources that you can miner and you can use these to create weapons, tools and other objects. This includes everything from maps to swords to buckets. At the end of this guide we've included a reference guide that shows you many of the things you can create. To create items in Minecraft you'll be using the vatting table, one of the most useful things in the game. Here you can combine items to create new ones. For example, iron ingots placed in a 'V' shape will create a bucket. Many of the items you can create replicate their actual appearance; a bed, for example, is three pieces of wool placed atop three pieces of wood planks.

Mining

Mining in Minecraft is essential if you want to create items. Whether you're scavenging drops from enemies or digging underground, the more resources you find, the more things you'll be able to build. The worlds in Minecraft are created in layers (one layer is one block), starting at unbreakable bedrock at layer 0 to the very top of the game-world 255 layers high. Different items spawn at different layers underground, so you'll have to explore the depths of the world if you want to find what you're looking for. Underground you'll find caverns that contain different resources, while there are also dungeons that contain certain rare resources. To create and build items and structures, you'll need to mine to collect useful resources.

Surviving and exploring

The Survival mode is all about, well, surviving. You'll need weapons and armour to battle hostile enemies, so in turn you'll want to mine useful resources to create new useful battle items. Aside from fighting mobs, you'll need to eat to survive. You have a health bar that diminishes over time, and if it reaches zero you'll start losing. By hunting animals you can scavenge for food, or you can grow wheat and other crops to make your own food. While you learn to survive you'll also explore the world around you. You'll encounter different biomes, find new areas underground and encounter friendly and hostile mobs alike. When exploring, survival is of the essence to ensure you don't lose experience and items.