Table of Contents
Introduction 1 About This Book 2
Conventions Used in This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 3
How This Book Is Organized 3
Part I: Getting Started with Minecraft 3
Part II: Learning Basic Survival Skills 3
Part III: Developing Advanced Skills 4
Part IV: Customizing Minecraft 4
Part V: Making Minecraft a Family Affair 4
Part VI: The Part of Tens 4
Icons Used in This Book 4
Beyond the Book 5
Part I: Getting Started with Minecraft 7
Chapter 1: Entering Minecraft 9
Getting to Know Minecraft 9
Registering a Minecraft Account 10
Purchasing and Installing Minecraft 11
Playing the Game 12
Logging in and operating the main menu 12
Starting your first game in SinglePlayer mode 13
Understanding basic controls 14
Watching the Heads-Up Display (HUD) 17
Minecraft PE 18
Purchasing PE 19
Starting PE 19
Understanding the Heads-Up Display (HUD) for PE 22
Chapter 2: Surviving the First Night 25
Preparing for Your First Night 25
Devising a game plan 26
Using the inventory 27
Manipulating the inventory 28
Setting Up for Your First Night 29
Harvesting trees 29
Building a crafting table and shelter 30
Making sticks and wooden tools 33
Completing Optional Day One Activities 35
Constructing a chest 35
Mining cobblestone and coal 36
Building a bed 37
Surviving the Night 38
Switching from Peaceful mode to Easy mode to Normal mode 39
Surviving the first night: Three strategies to light the way 40
Surviving the Night 44
Implementing a Minecraft PE strategy for surviving the night 45
Part II: Learning the Basic Skills 47
Chapter 3: Surviving Hunger 49
Understanding and Avoiding Hunger 49
Finding food 50
Eating food 54
Saturation: Making the most of your food 55
Limiting exhaustion 57
Understanding Minecraft PE and Food 58
Attacking and Defending 58
Making Weapons 59
Wielding swords 59
Stringing the bow 59
Protecting Yourself with Armor 60
Wearing leather 62
Donning the helmet 63
Pounding the chestplate 63
Putting on leggings 63
Walking in your boots 63
Storing armor 63
Chapter 4: Discovering Blocks and Items 65
Starting In the Wooden Age 65
Making It Through the Looting Age 70
Surviving the Stone Age 74
Using the Furnace 76
Using the Stonecutter with Minecraft PE 79
Building an Effective House 79
Moving from Effective Houses to Bases 80
Part III: Mastering Techniques 83
Chapter 5: Understanding Biomes and Mastering Farms 85
Knowing Your Biomes 86
Generating worlds 86
Growing flowers 86
Playing in snowy biomes 86
Chilling in cold biomes 87
Living in medium biomes 89
Roasting in warm biomes 93
Exploring in neutral biomes 95
Building the Perfect Farm 96
Growing crops 96
Knowing the basic plants 99
Farming animals 102
Growing mushrooms 102
Knowing the PE Farming Differences 104
Examining Different Types of Mobs 104
Living with docile mobs 105
Protecting yourself from hostile mobs 107
Ignoring neutral and allied mobs 111
Raising pets 113
Playing with PE mobs 114
Chapter 6: Mastering Mines 115
Mining Efficiently 115
Cave mining 115
Digging into branch mining 117
Stepping into staircase mining 121
Building a quarry 122
Ripping into strip mining 123
Rushing into speed mining 124
PE Mining: Random Mining 124
Chapter 7: Increasing Resources through Villages and Excavation 125
Trading in Villages 125
Exploring village features 126
Trading with emeralds 127
Surviving zombie sieges 129
Exploring PE Villages 131
Excavating Structures 132
Excavating a Desert temple 132
Finding jungle temples 133
Breaking into a dungeon 134
Invading the witch hut 134
Exploring an abandoned mine shaft 135
Finding a Stronghold 136
Exploring the nether fortress 137
Discovering ocean monuments 137
Understanding Minecraft PE Excavation 138
Chapter 8: Developing Redstone 139
Playing in Creative Mode 139
Understanding Redstone Basics 141
Transmitting power with redstone wire 142
Using other redstone mechanisms 143
Applying redstone circuits 151
Advanced redstone circuitry 152
Counting Minecraft Ticks 159
Activating Command Blocks 160
Creating Self-Sustaining Farms 160
Chapter 9: Progressing Through the Later Block Ages 163
Exploring the Iron Age 163
Using Tools of the Iron Age 163
Playing with fl uid dynamics 166
Entering the Agricultural Age 168
Reaping the Benefi ts of the Age of Wealth 169
Finding the Nether and End 175
Coloring with dyes 179
Finding the Fun Stuff 180
Starting Big Projects 183
Farming hostile mobs 183
Farming golems 185
Exploring the block ages in Minecraft PE 187
Building Transportation Systems 188
Building boats 188
Riding pigs and horses 188
Transporting by way of minecarts 190
PE Transportation 191
Securing Your Base 191
Chapter 10: Powering Up 193
Enchanting Weapons, Tools, and Armor 193
Enchanting an item 194
Using enchantments 196
Repairing things on the anvil 198
Brewing Potions 201
Brewing basic potions 201
Using potions 203
Modifying potions 204
Brewing negative potions 204
Brewing splash potions 206
Reverting potions 206
Brewing order 206
Fighting witches and potions 206
Building the Beacon 207
Chapter 11: Advancing to the Nether, the End, and Beyond 213
Reaching the Nether 213
Building a portal 213
Surviving the Nether 215
Finding the Stronghold 217
Playing PE Minecraft — the Nether 218
Conquering the End 219
Staying busy in the afterglow of completing The End 221
Surviving Hardcore Mode 222
Part IV: Expanding Your Minecraft Experience 225
Chapter 12: Playing in Multiplayer Worlds and Cheats 227
Starting or Joining a Multiplayer World 227
Setting up a LAN server 228
Joining a public server 229
Joining regular and bukkit servers 230
Playing PE MultiPlayer Mode 231
Using the Chat Menu and Cheats 232
Entering commands that can be used by all players 232
Using operator-only commands 233
Using operator-only, public-server-only commands 236
Using nonspecifi c parameters 237
Playing Mini Games 237
Chapter 13: Customizing Your Experience 241
Implementing Additional World Options 241
Using seeds 242
Customizing a superflat world 243
Choosing large biomes and amplified worlds 244
Playing in Customized mode 245
Playing in Debug mode 246
PE Old World Type 247
Using the Profile Editor 247
Managing the minecraft Folder 248
Using minecraft 249
Recovering minecraft 250
Exploring Adventure Mode 250
Playing Custom Maps 251
Using CTM maps 251
Exploring adventure maps 251
Using game maps 252
Navigating the Escape Key Window 252
Earning achievements 253
Adjusting your options 258
Customizing Skins 259
Installing Resource Packs 261
Installing Mods 262
Installing Mod Packs 264
Customizing Gameplay Through Apps 265
Chapter 14: Minecraft in the Larger World 267
Checking Out External Sites and Resources 267
Watching YouTube 268
Subscribing to Redstone YouTubers 269
Finding Minecraft YouTube groups 270
Watching building-focused YouTube channels 271
Learning about plugins 271
Finding map makers 272
Listening to Minecraft music on YouTube 272
Going Beyond YouTube 273
Going to Minecon 274
Part V: Making Minecraft a Family Affair 275
Chapter 15: Choosing the Platform That Works for You 277
Playing Minecraft PC 278
Exploring Minecraft PE 280
Using Minecraft on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PlayStation 3 281
Using Minecraft for Raspberry Pi 282
Anticipating Future Editions of Minecraft 282
Chapter 16: Understanding the Minecraft Game Modes 283
Entering Survival Mode 283
Practicing with Creative Mode 284
Navigating Adventure Mode 286
Torturing Yourself Through Hardcore Mode 287
Seeing the World Through Spectator Mode 288
Dying and Respawning 289
Dying in Hardcore and Peaceful mode 291
Implementing cheats 292
Understanding Game Modes in Minecraft PE 292
Chapter 17: Understanding What Every Parent Needs to Know about Minecraft 295
Teaching Through Minecraft 296
Knowing Where to Buy Minecraft 299
Differentiating between game types 299
Ordering your child’s first Minecraft account 301
Registering a Minecraft account 301
Purchasing and installing Minecraft 302
Keeping Your Kids Safe 303
Knowing whom your kids are playing with 303
Understanding Minecraft channels on YouTube 304
Installing safe software 306
Teaching Proper Minecraft Etiquette 307
Preventing server crashes 308
Stealing is wrong 308
Asking permission 308
Playing with Your Children 309
Mastering the basics 309
Playing in Creative mode 310
Winning the game 311
Part VI: The Part of Tens 313
Chapter 18: Ten Helpful Survival Tips 315
Dig Safely 315
Cook Efficiently 316
Obtain Obsidian and Portals Quickly 317
Mine In the Right Location 318
Avoid Overexertion 318
Defeat Basic Mobs 320
Obtain Experience Points 321
Craft Quickly 322
Check Basic Equipment 322
Find Natural Comfort 324
Chapter 19: Ten Helpful Building Tips and Tricks 325
Making Your Starter Home Stylish 325
Improving the Exterior Design in Three Stylish Ways 326
Hiding Lighting 327
Combining Blocks in Different Ways 329
Understanding Circles, Spheres, and Domes 330
Designing the Interior 331
Building tables 332
Arranging chairs 332
Creating bunk beds 333
Lighting the fi replace 333
Playing with Sand and Gravel 333
Laying Roofs 333
Terraforming the Terrain 336
Using Pressure Plates 336
Chapter 20: Ten Helpful Redstone Tips and Contraptions 339
Keeping the Power On with a T Flip-Flop 339
Building Design A 339
Building Design B 340
Building Design C 342
Getting Hopper Help 343
Building a Block Update Detector (BUD) Switch 345
Creating a Constant Signal Switch with the RS-NOR Latch 346
Walking Through Walls with a Double Piston Extender 347
Creating Short Pulses with a Monostable Circuit 348
Extending Pulses with Pulse Extenders 349
Creating Hidden Doors with Sticky Piston Doors 350
Creating Hidden Inputs 353
Blowing Things Up with TNT Contraptions 354
Index 357
