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A COMPREHENSIVE SURVIVAL MODE GUIDE
BY BLACKFEATHER
REQUIRES A BASIC UNDERSTANDING
OF MINECRAFT,
AS WELL AS A BASIC GRASP
ON THE CONCEPTS OF SURVIVAL MUTIPLAYER
ENJOY,
YOU LAZY-ASS CUNT
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TUTORIAL/BEGINNERS GUIDE
This guide is intended for those who are not very familiar with Minecraft. It describes how to play and how
to survive the first night of Singleplayer Mode (BETA), assuming you are playing on the default Normal
difficulty setting. Take note now of the four difficulty settings, and their effects.
PeacefulPlayers regain health over time in this mode. Hostile MOBS do spawn, but are removed form the game
instantaneously, meaning they are of no concern. Slimes are the only exception to this rule, yet their
existence is rare. Switching from any other difficulty to peaceful results in existing hostile MOBS (SAVE
FOR SLIMES!!!) to disappear indefinitely. Despite regaining health over time, it is still possible to die in
Peaceful, VIA Falling damage, Lava, falling into the void, and drowning. Remember that!
Easy
Hostile mobs spawn. Enemies deal less damage than they would on the Normal difficulty. Creepers will
cancel their explosions after moving only a short distance away.
Normal
Hostile mobs spawn. Enemies deal standard damage and have standard health.
Hard
Hostile mobs spawn. Enemies deal greater damage than in Normal Mode, and Creepers will not cancel
their explosions unless a big distance is between them and the player, making the explosion MUCH
harder to avoid!
Now that you understand the difficulties, turn yours to NORMAL, and we can begin!
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Controls
The default keys for movement are as follows:
W Move forward
S Move backward
A Move left (strafe)D Move right (strafe)
Space Jump
Shift crouch/sneak
(Remember that these are just the defaults. You can change them at any time by going into the
OPTIONS screen, by pressing the ESC key)
The mouse is used to look around, and to interact with the world. Move the mouse to turn your head.
Click and HOLD the left mouse button to break down (or mine) blocks. Right click to place (or use) the
currently highlighted item from your inventory hot bar. The mouse wheel selects the currently held item in
your inventory hot bar, or as an alternative, you may use the number keys 1-9.
The E key opens your inventory window (AS DOES THE I KEY), and Q will throw a held item.
Additionally, F5 will enter 3rd
person mode. Pressing it again will revert the camera orientation to 1st
person. F1 will toggle all HUD (Heads Up Display) and darkness effects. F2 will save a screenshot, which
saves in the directory .minecraft\screenshots. Since BETA 1.2, it is possible to make a screenshot using
F2 without holding F1 at the same time. It will keep up the HUD.
F will create fog in the world, and essentially sets the render distance in-game, without having to go to the
options screen. Adjusting the fog may help prevent lag if youre having any, but it also prevents you from
seeing as far as possible across the map. This will make it more difficult to see and mobs, as well as
anything else. There are four stages of fog, the first being where no fog is present, and you can see
across the map. The second stage gets rid of about half of your sight. The third stage prevents you from
determining what time of day it is, as it blocks the position of the Sun/Moon from your view. In those mode
you can generally only see about 20 blocks away from you. The last stage is where you can see only tenblocks away. You will have the least amount of lag in the last stage of render.
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INITIAL PROPERTIES
There are many ways to play Minecraft, as it is a sandbox game. However, hostile mobs will spawn in the
dark. Unless you know how to defend yourself against them, it is a good idea to build a lit shelter on the
first day, before nightfall, as to protect yourself. You can, if you wish, forgo building a shelter and simply
attack any hostiles you encounter, but this is not advised on your first night, considering you will be at a
lack of resources (Weapons, food, etc), and as such, you will most likely be overwhelmed.
YOU ARE NOT A GOD. YOUR ASS WILL GET SHOT
It is also a good idea to mark where your spawnpoint is. Make a landmark as soon as possible (EX: With
a pillar of dirt/sand, or anything else that is large and out of place), so that you can find your spawnpoint.
You want to know where this I sin order to orient yourself in the world. It is also a good idea to make your
first home very close to your spawnpoint, so that if and when you die, youll be spawned next to your
home, safe and sound.
Note that when you die in Minecraft, all of the items you were carrying or wearing are scattered around
your point of death, and you are teleported to your spawn location. Five minutes after being dropped,
these items, like any dropped items, will disappear.
While you are making your preparations for nightfall, keep an eye on the sun. When you first start a new
world, it will be early morning. The sun rises in the east, and sets in the west, just like our sun. At midday
it will be directly above you. Clouds always travel north. WORK QUICKLY! A Minecraft day lasts for
around 20 minutes: MEANING You have 10 minutes of sunlight, and 10 minutes of darkness.
THE ESSENTIALS
However you approach your first night is up to you, but you will at least need wood, and ideally coal or
charcoal to have a fighting chance.
To collect resources, you aim at the block representing the resource and HOLD the left mouse button.
This will instruct your avatar to punch repeatedly. Cracks will gradually appear in the block . Keep holdingthe left mouse button until the block breaks and drops. You can collect the dropped resource by moving
near its spinning representation. It will then appear in your inventory. It is a good idea, if you are building
away from your spawn, to mark it and make an arrow pointing to your home in case of death.
WOOD
Wood is obtained from tree trunks. Wood is the staple of everything that is crafting, and is required to
access the larger crafting grid necessary for the crafting of tools. It is also possible to extract charcoal
from wood, making wood the single most important and useful resource early on.
After collecting 4-10 wooden blocks, you can craft your first item, although it might be recommended to
craft after getting only 3 blocks of wood.
If wood can not be found near your spawn point, dont be afraid to travel for it. It is possible to change
your spawn point, though we will go into more detail about this later on.
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Craft a Crafting Table
Crafting is the core to MineCRAFT. While there are some items you can craft directly from your inventory,
you will need a Crafting table to craft almost all tools, and most other items.
To craft a crafting table, first open your inventory (Press E or I) & click on your collection of wood we
gathered earlier.
Then place that wood in your 2X2 crafting square in your inventory. This will produce planks:
Left clicking on the newfound planks in your crafting box will produce 4 planks to every one wooden block
you have. This means that if you managed to get five pieces of wood, you would end up with 20 wooden
planks. Remember that there is very little use for unrefined wood in Minecraft, so dont be afraid to turn all
of your wood into planks. When you are crafting, right click your planks instead of left-clicking. Thisproduces multiple planks in one slot, and is more efficient.
Now you should pick up all of your wooden planks, and head into your 2x2 crafting square. Place one
wooden plank in each square (BY RIGHT CLICKING, TO PLACE ONE PLANK INSTEAD OF THE
WHOLE STACK). You should have a square of wood, similar to this, and crafting table in the results box.
Click on the result, and place it in an empty square of your hotbar.
Press the ESC key to return to the world, and walk to place you feel appropriate. Select your newly
crafted crafting table with either the mouse wheel or the number keys. Point at a flat square of ground
(NOT DIRECTLY WHERE YOU ARE STANDING!) and right click. This will place your crafting table on
the ground, ready for use. If you wish to pick it up and move it, left click and hold to punch it to pieces,
and pick up its spinning icon.
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Craft a Pickaxe
In order to collect stone and coal, the next staple resources, you will need a pickaxe. Your first pickaxe
will be made of wood; not very durable, but until you collect some stone, it's all you have.
You will need at least five planks to make one wooden pickaxe. Use your crafting table by right clicking on
where you placed it. Your workbench view is similar to your inventory view, except you now have a moreuseful 3x3 crafting space. First we need to make a handle for your pickaxe. To do this, pick up a stack of
planks and place one above another anywhere in your crafting square. Two planks produces four sticks:
Pick up your sticks and clear your crafting table if there's anything left in there. Now place one stick each
in positions 5 and 8, and one plank each in positions 1, 2 and 3. You should now be able to add a pickaxe
to your inventory:
You may have noticed that in order to craft a pickaxe, you more or less draw it with its components in
your crafting square. Other items are crafted in a similar fashion.
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Gathering Resources
Once you've crafted a pickaxe, you can successfully acquire cobblestone. Start by finding stone in the
world; it should be fairly easy, as it's extremely common. If you don't see any on the surface, dig down
and you'll find it quickly.
Using sticks and cobblestone, you can now make some stone tools. It's recommended to craft a few
stone shovels, a stone pickaxe and a few stone axes and a stone sword. Stone axes will allow you to cut
down wood much quicker than with bare hands.
When you come across the pigs, it's good to stock up on a few pieces of raw porkchops. It's also
recommended to punch sheep until you have at east 3 wool since it allows you to make craft a bed in the
shelter when the night falls.
Later that day, using your pickaxe, mine at least 8 blocks, and craft them in the crafting bench by
arranging them in a square formation, leaving the middle slot empty. This will make a Furnace:
Next, you'll need at least 1 wood block and 1 wooden planks block (you may have some as leftovers fromcrafting the crafting bench and the pickaxe earlier). Place the furnace somewhere, open it and place the
wooden planks block in the fuel slot (the bottom one) and the wood at the smelting slot (the top one).
Once both blocks are in place, the smelting process will start automatically, consuming immediately the
wooden planks block and heating the furnace up. After a few seconds have passed and the smelting is
complete, Charcoal will appear at the previously empty slot on the right. Place it into your inventory and
you're ready to craft your first torches (read the Strike a Light section below)! Like crafting tables, you can
break a furnace to collect it and be able to place it elsewhere, but, unlike workbenches, they require a
pickaxe to do so. Breaking a furnace with your bare hands, or any other thing, will destroy it for good.
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This entire process can be bypassed by mining coal directly (you'll still need a pickaxe to successfully
extract it). Coal ore is found amongst stone blocks either in stone outcrops on the sides of hills or deeper
underground. Wander around a bit, making sure to keep close to your spawnpoint - you don't want to get
lost!. Keep an eye out for the characteristic black spots of coal ore blocks, as it's very easy to see if it's
exposed. This is what you should look for:
Keep in mind that coal ore is subject to random placement, and you may not find any exposed or in easily
accessible locations. Once you have located some, make sure that you are holding your pickaxe and
collect as much as possible, keeping an eye on the time of day it is probably close to nightfall by this
stage. It's also a good chance to collect more cobblestone, which will be handy for crafting more durable
tools.
Coal and charcoal have different names in-game and you can't stack them together, but they're
functionally identical in every way. Anything you can do with regular coal, you can do with charcoal, and
vice-versa.
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A Word about Digging
One of the immutable rules of Minecraft is:
Do not dig straight down.
It is possible to stand on a block while destroying it. Once it's destroyed you will fall down one block to
whatever is beneath it. Bear in mind this might be thin air. You could fall into a deep dark cavern, not only
suffering fall damage, and being in the dark, but be beset upon by all kinds of hostile mobs who reside
underground. You could even fall into a pool of lava!
Another one of the immutable rules of Minecraft is:
Do not dig straight up.
Again, it's perfectly possible to do, but if you don't know what's above you, you might find yourself
dropped upon by a mob, or buried under sand or gravel which unlike other blocks, obeys gravity and
suffocates those it falls on. Or, as before, you might get set on fire by a lavafall.
And again. Do NOT dig straight down
Strike a Light
Initially, your sole light source at night will be torches. These are made from coal or charcoal and sticks.
You don't need a crafting table to make torches, as they can be made in your 2x2 inventory grid or on the
3x3 crafting table grid.
Make some sticks from planks as required and place coal above sticks in your crafting squares as follows:
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One piece of coal or charcoal and one stick make four torches. You can place multiple quantities on your
crafting squares and each left click of the result will use one set of ingredients. If you cannot find coal on
your first night use wooden planks to heat things, and create charcoal:
Now that you have the means to craft and a means of producing light, it's time to find a hole to cower in
for the night.
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BUILD A SHELTER
There are several ways to construct a shelter. You can either build one in the open from materials you
collect (dirt, wood, stone, sandstone) you can close in the mouth of a cave, hole or other naturally
occurring hollow, or you can dig a hollow in the side of a hill or make a hole in the ground. Be careful
around cave entrances, as hostiles often lurk in those even during the day.
Whatever method you choose might be dependent on your surroundings, what you have managed to
collect, how much time you have until nightfall and your fancy; however, it must have these key features:
Light. Mostly so you can see what you're doing. If you are in a sufficiently small area (less than 25 square
radius) hostiles cannot spawn next to you. So even if you fail to find coal on your first day, you can make
a small rudimentary shelter to see out the night.
Walls. Hostiles cannot deal you damage, or shoot arrows at you through walls.
A door. If you have six planks, you can make a door for your shelter. When placing it make sure you
place the door from the outside of your house as doors have direction. Skeletons can shoot at you from
an inward facing door, but you can attack mobs from behind a door while remaining unharmed.
No big holes. It's a good idea to leave a hole high up in a wall so you can see when the morning breaks if
you couldn't build a door. However, be aware that you can be shot at through a hole, some hostiles can
drop through holes in roofs if they can get up there, and spiders can crawl through one block high holes if
they can gain access. So, choose the position with care. An alternative is a one block high outer wall, with
an over hanging roof, and a one block high "window" so you can see outside. Then a full height internal
wall that you can duck behind in case of skeletons who can shoot at you through your window.
A safe crafting area to place your workbench. To pass the time waiting for morning you might want to
craft a few more tools for the next day. Initially consider making a few stone pickaxes if you were able to
collect any cobblestone during the day, more torches, and definitely a sword. If you have encounters with
hostiles during the night, you can deal more damage with a sword. Swords are crafted from one stick (not
two) and two items for the blade. You can use planks or cobblestone if you managed to mine any along
with your coal.
So, depending on how much time you have left, what your surroundings provide, and what you have
managed to collect, choose to either dig into the side of a hill, dig a small hole, live in the hollow your coal
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mining created, or build a shelter from materials you have collected. Remember not to dig straight down
(see above).
For example, to build a simple 5x5x3 hut you'll need 55 blocks of dirt, wood, stone or a combination of
those items (a few less for doors or windows). Digging a hole in the side of a cliff is usually a good
method as you collect cobblestone at the same time as hollowing your chamber. Watch out that you don't
connect to a cave system, while knocking out a wall. If you do, it's probably best to brick it up with dirt or
cobblestone until you're prepared to venture in there.
Once built, you can light your shelter by right clicking on a wall or floor while holding a torch.
Also think a bit about the structure of your house as this will really be your only chance to change it.
See the Crafting items section at the end of this guide for a complete listing of every item you can craft,and how to go about doing so.
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WAITING UNTIL MORNING
Enjoy your first night. You can either hide in your hole/house/cave or venture out with your sword and
take your chances with the mobs. If you do, stay away from the walls of your shelter in case a Creeper
follows you and decides to explode, in which case your shelter would most likely be decimated. Another
alternative is to begin digging into the earth a bit. Creating a mine in your house isn't a bad idea, but as
was said before, never dig straight down. Dig in front of you, and if you want to descend, dig through a
block a step or two away from your character. If you break through into a cave system, it's probably a
good idea to block it off for now and come back to it when you're prepared. Mining in this manner should
give you a significant amount of cobblestone and some more coal, should you find any. If you're really
lucky, you might stumble upon some iron, which is invaluable in making tools. This option will probably
pass the time the fastest; so fast, in fact, you may find yourself mining well into the day, and perhaps into
another night if you get carried away.
Creating an underground farm is a good way to pass the night off, and has advantages such as constant
light and wont get trampled on by friendly mobs, this is a good design for an underground farm.
Once the sun rises, your troubles aren't completely over. Zombies and skeletons will eventually catch fire
in the sunlight and burn, spiders and creepers still wander about in the morning, but spiders will become
passive in the daylight- just so long as they remain in the light and you don't attack them. But the main
things you have to worry about when coming out of your shelter are creepers, so keep your sword at
hand when you venture out.
Since BETA 1.3, Beds have been added. You can make them by putting a row of Wool on top of a row of
Wooden Planks. You can just right-click it after being sure that it is in a safe, well-lit location that mobs
can't enter. In a few seconds it will be morning again. If it isn't in a safe, well-lit location you will wake up
with an aggressive mob next to you.
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IF ALL ELSE FAILS
Sometimes, you won't have the luck to spawn in a forest or near coal. Maybe you fall into a hole and it
takes you 5 minutes to get out. If this happens, you can still survive. First, dig a hole in the side of a cliff or
hill. Make it at least 3 blocks deep. Then go inside the hole. You can keep digging as far as you can, if
you want. But when you see the sun start to set, fill in your entrance. If it is at least 3 blocks high and you
are a good distance off the ground (8+ blocks) then you can leave a one-block window. Otherwise, it is
safer to wait until night is over. If you don't have a window, mine one of your bricks every minute, and
check if it is still night. If it isn't fill it back in and repeat in one minute. If it is daytime, then congratulations:
You have survived your first night. If you don't like the digging option you can swim out to sea and wait for
dawn. Hostile mobs will only spawn on solid blocks (besides ice) so you don't have to worry about them.
just make sure you aren't to close land so they can spot you. Or you could find a large tree. Pillar up to
the top and stay there. Mobs will not spot you if it is a large enough tree and if they do, just move to the
other side of the tree. Spiders could give you a problem, but hopefully, they won't see you. A word of
advice if you do this, trees contain wood. Use it to your advantage.
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HOME SAFETY
If you have become comfortable in your home, you may want to keep it protected. This can be done by
building a door or a high wall just outside your entrance. This will help keep your house safe from
creepers and any other hostile mobs that may decide to pay you a visit. If you feel really creative, you
could try to make a trap. A simple one is TNT under a pressure plate. The TNT is activated by the
pressure plate and then blows up whatever is above it. TNT is made from Gunpowder, which is obtained
from creepers. You will also need sand. After a while, you may want to let water enter the block below it,
so it does no environmental damage.
TNT, however, requires resources that are difficult to gather, and they are a one-time use option. A better
way to protect your home is to 'plant' cacti around it. Simply find some cacti, gather some sand, and place
them in defensive positions around your home. You won't be able to make a normal 'wall' of them, since
cacti self-destruct when something is placed in the area within one square of them in a + shaped pattern,
but you CAN stagger them, creating a checkerboard pattern around your home with cacti. Remember to
leave yourself a way in, but otherwise, cacti walls can be an amazing passive defense. Make sure that
you do not place your bed next to a one block thick wall, as mobs will spawn and attack you in the middle
of the night!
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CONGRADULATIONS!
Youve survived your first night! From here on, Minecraft becomes your personal playground. What will
you do? Create a farm? Mine for diamonds? Try your luck in the nether? The possibilities are endless!
The following sections of this guide contain some useful information as to the aspects of the game that
were not covered earlier, including a complete overview of every item, mob, block, biome, and other
aspect you could possibly imagine. Please enjoy, and happy crafting!
-Blackfeather
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BLOCKS
Minecraft is composed of and built entirely out of blocks. They are the basic unit of Minecraft. You dig
through blocks, you build with blocks, and your character is made of blocks they are everywhere. It is
possible to change how the blocks appear by applying new Texture Packs.
The face of a block is 16x16 pixels, and each block is proportionately one cubic meter.
Water, Lava and Portal blocks have a shifting pattern for each face.
TYPES OF BLOCKS
There are currently 76 different types of blocks (including Air, still Water, still Lava, blocks which cannot
be built at the moment.
In a standard randomly generated Beta Map you can find the blocks Stone, Grass (or Snow), Dirt, Water,
Lava, Sand, Sandstone, Gravel, Gold ore, Iron ore, Diamond ore, Redstone ore, Lapis Lazuli ore, Clay,Coal ore, Ice, Wood, Leaves, Cactus, Sugar Cane, Pumpkins, yellow and red Flowers and brown and red
Mushrooms. In dungeons (added in Seecret Friday Update 2), you can also find Cobblestone, Moss
Stone, a Mob Spawner, and Chests, even though cobblestone and chests are usually made by the
player. Obsidian can be found naturally, but it is not part of the random generation, instead it is created
when naturally occurring lava source blocks and water come in contact. Cobblestone can also be found
naturally, and is formed with the same circumstances as obsidian, except that it is formed when water
and moving lava contact.
In the initial free version of Survival the player began with 10 TNT blocks and could obtain Dirt,
Cobblestone from Stone, Wooden Planks from Trees, Gold from Gold ore, Iron from Iron ore, Step from
Coal, and white Cloth from Sheep.
In Classic mode the player can build with naturally occurring blocks, save Redstone and Diamond, and
can use Bookcase, Sponge, Coloured Wool, Brick, Obsidian and Moss Stone. Operators of servers can
also build Bedrock. Some custom servers give the ability to place Grass and (still) Fluids, too.
When playing the current Beta, the player can craft a variety of blocks not naturally found in maps,
including Stairs, Workbenches, Paintings, Bookshelves, Furnaces and more. Redstone, Diamond and
Lapis Lazuli can be found in the lower areas of maps, and Obsidian forms when water touches a spring
lava block.
The blocks Netherrack, Glowstone, and Soul Sand can be found in The Nether, which the player can only
enter by creating Portal blocks.
See the picture on the next page for a visual guide to every block found in Minecraft (*THIS DOES NOT
INCLUDE PLAYER-BUILT ITEMS, FOR THE MOST PART*)
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BLOCK CHART
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THE COMPLETE, ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO MINECRAFT BLOCKS
AIR
Air is an invisible non-solid Block that is meant to represent the absence of a block. Although technically a
block, it is usually not seen as such. Air can only be destroyed or created by the placement or removal of
other blocks. Air and other non-solid blocks are the only spaces the player and other Mobs are allowed to
move within.
When coming out of the water, air will restore all bubbles on the players' air meter and make it disappear.
Entering an opaque block will suffocate whatever is inside, while air will stop the suffocation.
History
In the Indev versions, air affected fluid blocks that were horizontally adjacent to it. If air was touching the
fluid block, there was a 2/3 chance the Fluid block would disappear and make the pool recede and a 1/3
chance the fluid block fill the air, making the pool spread.
Type Non-Solid Block
Physics No
Transparency Yes
Luminance No
Blast Resistance[edit]
0
Tool None
Stackable N/A
Data value dec: 00 hex: 00
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CLOUDS
Clouds in Beta are objects that slowly float overhead in the sky. Clouds always float northward, and are
visible above-ground during day and night, so it is an easy way to tell direction. A player cannot interact
with Clouds in any way, since they are neither blocks nor items.
In fancy graphics mode, they are 3D. In fast graphics mode they are flat.
When a player's camera is above or below clouds, blocks or objects inside or on the other side of those
clouds are obscured. When a player's camera is inside clouds, other blocks inside clouds are visible,
while blocks outside of clouds are obscured.
Clouds are not visible through a block of glass or leaves while the block is being hit.
Sometimes in high maps it is possible to see clouds on a hill or a mountain.
In fancy graphics, clouds have a fixed thickness, with the bottom at the lower-middle part of height 108,
and the top at the lower-middle part of height 112, where 0 is used as the bottommost height where youcan place a block and 127 as the highest point.
Clouds can be removed by using a program that supports transparency by opening the .png file up and
erasing everything in it, then re-saving.
Despite seeing the appropriate heights of clouds, there are no clouds in The Nether.
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STONE
Stone, also known as smooth stone, is a type of block added very early in Minecraft. It uses the same
texture on all six sides of the block. Stone appears abundantly on naturally generated maps, and (besides
Air) has the most blocks in a normal map.
Creative Mode
Stone is available for use in Creative mode. The Stone layer of a Creative map contains Caverns, Ore
and underground pools of Water and Lava. When Water and Lava collide, Cobblestone or Obsidian is
formed.
When there were not many block types, Stone was an often-used building material. Currently, Stone is an
all-around block used in buildings, basements, tunnels, roads, paths and many other things.
In Multi-player, Stone blocks will turn into Bedrock when an Op uses the /solid command. Bedrock is
placed through Stone to ensure non-Op players cannot place it.
Beta Mode
In Beta mode, Stone is a useful resource. Mining Stone with a Pickaxe will drop Cobblestone which is
used in many crafting recipes and as a sturdy building material. Cobblestone can be smelted into smooth
Stone again. Stone can be used as a building material as well and can be used in several crafting
recipes.
The natural Stone layer of a map contains Caverns, veins of Ore, Gravel and Dirt, Dungeons and Springs
of Water and Lava.
Type Solid Block
Requirements None
Physics No
Transparency No
Luminance No
Blast Resistanceedit
30
Tool
Stackable Yes (64)
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Data value dec: 01 hex: 01
DIRT
Dirt is one of the first blocks introduced in the game. It utilizes the same texture on all six sides of the
block. Dirt is very common on normally generated maps, making up the majority of the top layers of
blocks, between Grass or Snow and Stone. It is also found underground in clumps in all altitudes. It is a
very weak type of block and is easily destroyed in explosions from TNT or Creepers, making dirt shelters
a fallback option at best. Dirt is generally used for terraforming. When a Dirt block is adjacent to a Grass-covered block and is exposed to sunlight, it will eventually be converted into a Grass block; the exact time
this happens is random and unpredictable.
Dirt is simple to mine and is often acquired in large amounts when unmonitored during its excavation. It
will always drop a resource block, regardless of how it was mined. It may be mined by hand fairly quickly,
but using a shovel will significantly speed up the process.
Using a hoe on a placed block of dirt will prepare the block for use in farming. After using a hoe on a
block of dirt, the top of the dirt's appearance changes, becoming ridged and bumpy like tilled soil. When a
block of tilled dirt is introduced to a block of water, it becomes darker to replicate the appearance of wet
soil.
Type Solid Block
Requirements None
Physics No
Transparency No
Luminance No
Blast Resistanceedit
2.5
Tool
Stackable Yes (64)
Data value dec: 03 hex: 03
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SAND
Sand is a block type that was first added to Minecraft in version 0.0.14a. Sand has a single texture that is
put on all six sides of the block. A notable fact about Sand is that if there is no block below it, it will fall
until it lands on the next available block, thus making it one of four blocks which gravity applies to (the
others being gravel, water, and lava). Sand can be found in large quantities in certain areas of the map,
especially in Desert biomes. Beaches that appear by lakes or by the ocean can also be made of sand upto four blocks deep, extending down to the Stone layer. Sometimes Cavern tunnels branch up underneath
Beaches or sand plugs at the bottom of lakes. This creates natural floating Sand that will fall if a nearby
block is updated. Before Beta 1.3, players would always spawn on sand in single-player Survival mode.
Sand can be mined easily by hand, although using a shovel is faster. Sand gives resources when mined
with any tool. Sand has a very low block resistance. When Sand is being affected by gravity and falling, it
exhibits a smooth falling animation. If falling sand lands on a mob or the player and covers their head, it
will suffocate them until they move out of the block.
Sand can be used in the construction of Airlocks and the creation of mob suffocation traps. Sand is not
often used to build structures with because it is affected by gravity. Nonetheless, some players use non-
gravity-affected blocks to support Sand.
A Sand block can be smelted into a Glass block. Four sand blocks are used in the Crafting recipe of TNT
together with Gunpowder. Four sand blocks may also be used to create sandstone.
If falling Sand lands on certain blocks like Torches or Steps, it will disintegrate into a sand resource block.
As of Beta 1.3, beaches which are sufficiently deep (2-3 levels) will have naturally occurring sandstone at
their base.
Current Uses
Can be used in building but Sand is affected by gravity so if you use it in building be careful. Sandstone is
a preferable alternative to Sand in building.
Used to make:
Glass
Sandstone
TNT
Airlocks
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History
Sand has been available for use since Classic Mode. During that time, Sand blocks were rare and only
appeared naturally in one block-thick beaches (usually by water or in the middle of a landscape). These
beaches were always level and below Ocean level. Sand instantly appeared at the lowest point it could
go when it is when placed above an air block without any sort of falling animation. Destroying a pillarmade from sand from the bottom would cause the sand to disappear from the top first. These attributes
were present until the release of Infdev.
Map editors could be used to create floating Sand, although the server would crash if the Sand was
affected from its state.
Trivia
An old glitch in Classic mode allowed players to raise the height of a fluid block by placing Sand over it.
The Sand would stay suspended in mid-air until it was broken. When broken, a fluid block corresponding
to the type below the sand would appear where the block was. The suspended fluid block would remain
immobile until a block was placed next to it, causing a flood.
Saplings can temporarily be placed on sand, but only if there is snow on the sand. The sapling will
eventually pop out of place.
If a block of sand has snow on it and is made to fall, the snow is destroyed.
Floating sand can be generated naturally in the game though this isn't common. If the "floating sand" is
disturbed or if a block is removed it will all collapse.
Type Solid Block
Requirements None
Physics Yes
Transparency No
Luminance No
Blast Resistance[edit]
2.5
Tool
Stackable Yes (64)
Data value dec: 12 hex: 0C
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SANDSTONE
Sandstone is a solid block. It can both be found naturally at the bottom of sand stacks, and crafted with 4
blocks of sand in a square, thus not requiring the use of a crafting table. It was added in the Beta 1.2
update on January 13, 2011.
Function & Behavior
Sandstone's unique style allows for desert-themed architecture. It can be quickly obtained in order to
build a shelter and survive the first night in Survival when you spawn in a desert biome.
Unlike sand, sandstone is unaffected by gravity and will not fall if placed without a supporting block.
Placed sandstone can be harvested with a pickaxe. Breaking a sandstone block by hand destroys the
block but drops no resources; it takes slightly longer to mine it with bare hands than wood.Sandstone naturally occurs at the bottom of areas of sand to ensure that sand does not start out floating.
However, if a lake occurs in the space it may carve away the sandstone and result in unsupported sand.
This block can be crafted into a sandstone slab.
Sandstone's blast resistance is similar to sand or dirt, and markedly less than wood or stone.
Sandstone used to take a very long time to mine using a pickaxe. Even using a diamond pickaxe, the only
block that took longer to break was obsidian. This was fixed in a later patch
History
Sandstone was added in Minecraft Beta 1.2.
In Beta 1.3:
Sandstone can now be used to craft a sandstone slab.Sandstone is now found at the bottom of naturally generated sand.
Type Solid Block
Requirements ?
Physics No
Transparency No
Luminance No
Blast Resistance[edit]
4
Tool
Stackable Yes (64)
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Data value dec: 24 hex: 18
MONSTER SPAWNER
Monster Spawners are blocks with a transparent blue lattice structure found in dungeons as a guardian to
the treasure found within. Inside the block there are flames and a miniature spinning version of the mob
that is spawned, though it does not give off any light. The model inside the spawner rotates faster until the
next mob is spawned.
A spawner has a range of four blocks and it will create mobs at the same vertical height as the spawnerprovided there is space for its mob type to be generated and the light level within the spawning radius
remains below seven. The player must be within 16 blocks for spawners to generate mobs, which will
spawn even if there is a wall between the spawner and an available spawning space inside the four block
radius. This has led to many contraptions designed to kill whatever drops from it, usually a drowning trap,
allowing the player to collect spoils in great numbers with little risk.
Monster Spawners will spawn Spiders, Skeletons, or Zombies. They do not naturally spawn Creepers.
Spawners cannot be picked up by the player when destroyed, though in Beta they can be obtained
through the /give operator command. A placed spawner will spawn only pigs.
In Peaceful difficulty, Monster Spawner blocks will still appear, but any spawned mobs will disappear theinstant they spawn. This makes it easy to make the aforementioned trap without any trouble.
Type Solid Block
Requirements None
Physics No
Transparency Yes
Luminance No
Blast Resistanceedit
25
Tool
Stackable N/A
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Data value dec: 52 hex: 34
Trivia
In cases where the dungeon is located near the surface, the player can remove the ceiling of the dungeon
and expose the Monster Spawner and surrounding area to direct sunlight, preventing monster spawns
during the day.[1]
When mining near a monster spawner that has no valid places to spawn sometimes a monster will spawn
immediately after a block is mined. The player should take caution for this reason while collecting Moss
Stone from a dungeon but hasn't destroyed the monster spawner. It's speculated this might happen
because the spawner gets a chance to spawn before the lighting calculation for the space the block
occupied.
If a spawner is edited to create Ghasts or Giants, the model inside will not be miniaturized.[2][3]
There is a bug that comes up rarely where a monster spawner "spawns" and there is no visible enemy,
though sounds can be heard and when you move closer the mob sometimes appears.
Occasionally, a monster spawner may spawn two monsters at once. It is likely that another monster willspawn sooner than normal if this occurs.
If the "F" key is rapidly pressed, everything in the map will become invisible except fire (such as the fire
inside a monster spawner). This can make finding dungeons easy. (Fast machines cannot do this)
When hacked into the inventory (Or in Infdev), they only spawn pigs when placed. These player placed
spawners will only create pigs if there is grass with a light level above 9.
Monster spawners can be edited with a map editor or client mod to spawn any mob (Slimes have certain
conditions that must be met to spawn).
The miniature mob model displayed inside the monster spawner was enabled again in Beta 1.2 after
missing for several versions.
There is currently a bug in multiplayer in which all monster spawners show a pig model inside, despite
what it actually spawns.
Monster spawners can spawn monsters in a nearby cave, even when the monster spawner is fully lit.[4]
A dungeon may spawn without a ceiling on the surface. They will appear to be a hole in the ground, which
has a wall of Cobblestone, and a floor of Sand. If you break the Sand, you will uncover a monster
spawner, and the regular floor, made of Mossy Cobblestone, and Cobblestone.
As of Beta 1.3, on multiplayer, there is a bug where pigs can spawn near spawners if there is grass.
These pigs are client-side and cannot be killed.[5]
As of Beta 1.4, on multiplayer, there is a bug where a surface dungeon's spawner will be a pig spawner.
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GRAVEL
Gravel is a type of block typically found in naturally occurring pits, underwater, underground or in The
Nether. Like Sand, Gravel will fall to the lowest y-coordinate below it if there is no block underneath it.
Therefore it is possible to suffocate with careless use of gravel by being crushed beneath the weight. If
the lowest block in a column of Gravel is occupied by a nonsolid object, like a Torch, the Gravel block will
disintegrate into a gravel resource instead.
In Alpha and Beta, gravel has a 10% chance of dropping flint once destroyed. However, this has been
increased since Beta 1.3. Flint is used to create Flint and Steel and Arrows. Gravel blocks that don't drop
flint can be picked up, placed, and destroyed again. However, blocks that drop flint do not drop gravel, so
this cannot be exploited to gain an infinite amount of flint. Shovels will destroy Gravel more quickly than
other tools, but do not affect the chance of flint being dropped.
Uses
Gravel's abundance and gravity-obeying property makes it useful for a variety of tasks, especially
considering the other gravity-aware block Sand is more useful for creating Glass. For exploration, they
can be used to quickly build pillars to reach heights that are easy to dismantle after. They can also be
used to quickly fill in water or lava lakes by dropping them on the edges or against overhead blocks, so
that they fall and occupy the fluids. Filling caves in with gravel is also a quicker way to close them off
after mining them while preventing hostile mobs spawning. Finally, it can be dropped from above onto
trapped mobs to suffocate them to death.
Power-Mining
A great way to power-mine massive columns of gravel is to dig under the stone or dirt that it is resting on.
Under that dirt or stone, place a torch, a redstone torch, a piece of redstone wire, or a piece of minecarttrack. Mine the dirt or stone and the column falls into the placed object, quickly producing dropped
resources. However, using this method, flint will not drop. This can also be used for Sand.
Type Solid Block
Requirements None
Physics Yes
Transparency No
Luminance No
Blast Resistance[edit]
3
Tool
Stackable Yes (64)
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Data value dec: 13 hex: 0D
Trivia
On occasion, some normally generated maps may produce beaches made of gravel instead of sand.
Gravel spawns in 2 block high bands across the walls of the Nether.
In the Nether, it is possible to find massive cliffs made of naturally-floating gravel. Just like with Sand, if
you destroy, replace, remove, or if a Ghast's cannon ball hits any of these blocks, all of the adjacent
floating blocks will collapse.
An old glitch in Classic mode allowed players to raise the height of a fluid block by placing Gravel (or
Sand) over it. The Gravel would stay suspended in mid-air until it was broken. When broken, a fluid block
corresponding to the type below the Gravel would appear where the block was. The suspended fluid
block would remain immobile until a block was placed next to it, causing a flood. This bug has since been
fixed.
If a flint is found from destroying a gravel block, a gravel resource will not be released.
Dirt adjacent to gravel is usually 2 or more blocks high.
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CLAY (BLOCK)
Clay is a block that was introduced in version 1.0.11 (Seecret Friday Update 6) on July 25th 2010. It uses
a light-blue/gray recolor of the Sand texture.
Clay can be found on the surface in groups of varying number by a body of Water usually surrounded by
Sand. It is usually exposed, but is sometimes found under sand or water. It is uncommon, but is easier to
find than other "rare" blocks (like Gold) due to the fact that one simply needs to explore surface-level
shorelines to find it. It is believed to be more common on the shorelines of desert biomes, as they tend to
more commonly generate near sand. The block seems to have been a lot less common before the
Halloween Update.
It can be mined with any type of tool, but Shovels are the optimal choice. Destroying clay blocks will yield
4 balls of Clay each, which can be crafted back into a clay block or smelted into brick.
If you're having trouble seeing if a block is clay or not, look for the characteristic lines of stone. Clay is
usually a lighter color than stone and appears to be smoother. Clay also sounds like dirt and mines much
faster than stone (especially with a shovel).
Trivia
In real life, Clay can actually be bright red, not just gray.
Clay can also be found a few meters under the soil in real life.
Clay can be easily found in the middle of an expanse of water. When sand is on the surface or a block
under, there is a chance that clay is there, too. Use a boat to find these areas.
If inventory space is tight, clay balls can be formed back into clay blocks using the 2x2 inventory craftinggrid. As blocks, clay can take up to 4 times less space, but in order to revert the clay blocks back into
balls for smelting into bricks the clay blocks must be placed and destroyed again.
Type Solid Block
Requirements None
Physics No
Transparency No
Luminance No
Blast Resistanceedit
3
Tool
Stackable Yes (64)
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Data value dec: 82 hex: 52
OBSIDIAN
Obsidian is a deep purple block that was first released into the game in version 0.30. Obsidian may be
found on rare occasions, when there is flowing Water and source Lava blocks nearby. Obsidian is created
when flowing water hits a lava "source block"; when water and runoff lava collide, cobblestone is created.
Obsidian never actually spawns with the chunk, but is created by the environment. Obsidian can only be
successfully mined with a diamond pickaxe. Each obsidian block takes 15 seconds to mine when using a
diamond pick. It can be broken with a non-diamond pickaxe, but this takes 50 seconds and will not yield a
collectible block.
Obsidian in the wild is somewhat rare and difficult to mine since it usually rests on top of a Lava block.
Obsidian farming is thus the preferred way to acquire large quantities. A basic Obsidian farm is composed
of a trough seven blocks long into which seven blocks of Lava are poured using the Bucket. A water block
is then placed on top of one end of the trough so that it flows onto the lava and converts it into Obsidian.
As of the Halloween Update, Obsidian can be used to create portals to The Nether. This requires at least
10 blocks of Obsidian (14 for a full frame) and a Flint and Steel.
Current Uses
Portals to The Nether
Decoration
Bunkers. At 6,000, Obsidian's explosion resistance rating is second only to Bedrock. It is therefore an
exceptionally desirable construction material for making defensive structures, in both PvE or PvP, as it is
effectively impervious to both lava and explosions.
Type Solid Block
Requirements None
Physics No
Transparency No
Luminance No
Blast Resistance[edit]
6,000
Tool
Stackable Yes (64)
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Data value dec: 49 hex: 31
History
Obsidian was available for use since Classic mode. It is generally used for making dark things, or the
black lines of Pixel Art.
In Survival Test mode, Obsidian was extremely tough to break and would drop one or two Cobblestone
blocks when broken.
Obsidian was removed in Indev and brought back in Infdev. Obsidian was used to mark the positions of
the cardinal directions. This created two intersecting planes extending just above the surface of the solid
material that surrounds them. This has since been removed.
Possible Future
Notch has mentioned he may require floating islands to have obsidian in the future:
Perhaps all floating chunks of blocks should fall down,except for a special block (obsidian?) that can be
used to make floating things. Floating islands would need obsidian veins to stay afloat.
Later, when asked about making floating blocks fall, he answered: No, I've stopped liking that idea. Not
sure why.
Farming & Casting
On the 16th of March 2011, a new way to farm obsidian involving redstone as the only irretrievable
source (rather than lava) was discovered. The process involves having a row of running water with a line
of redstone next to it and pouring the lava onto the redstone, in-turn, replacing it with obsidian. This is
currently the only known way to create numerous blocks of obsidian without using multiple buckets of
lava. This method still works in 1.4, even though Notch knows about it.
Indeed! I foresee a bunch of patches if competitive playever takes off, though. Infiniobsidian is probably
OP.
Obsidian can also be easily farmed through the creation of nether portals. Since a portal is created in the
Nether to mimic the overworld, by creating pairs of portals one can destroy the first portal and run backthrough the second.
Structures can be constructed out of Obsidian without the use of a diamond pickaxe by creating a mold
and placing the lava source within it, then running water over the lava. This will form the obsidian in place,
but without diamonds it is quite hard to get rid of.
Safe(er) Mining
Obsidian, if found in the wild, is typically directly above a lava source block, making it dangerous and
difficult to mine. This can be overcome, however by placing a water spring block directly over the block
you are currently mining. This will convert any lava around the obsidian block into more obsidian, so it's
less likely to fall into lava.
An equally effective way is to find the edge of the obsidian "lake", dig a one block deep hole under which
there is no lava, and place the water source in this hole. Then, start mining the obsidian bording the water
spring. When it breaks, the fast-moving water will fill the void faster than the liberated obsidian block can
drop into the lava. The player can continue mining outward from the spring as far as the water will travel.
This method relies on the same properties of water as the f irst strategy, but does not require the player to
battle against running water while mining.
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Trivia
Even though Obsidian is the second hardest block to destroy, in reality, obsidian is glasslike, made by
volcanoes, and is actually quite fragile. The misconception is probably due to obsidian being able to reach
a sharpness comparable to diamond while being easier to produce, therefore being a favored material
during the Stone Age for use as blades and arrow tips.
Obsidian portals created by the game always have corner blocks, so you can make portals without cornerblocks to get four free blocks of obsidian.
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Snow
Snow is a block modifier added in version 1.0.4 on July 9th, 2010, along with ice. It is found in biomes
that have snowfall, namely Tundras and Taigas. Snow can be removed like any other block. Placing a
light source will cause snow around it to melt and will prevent them from developing. Snow melts in the
same pattern as ice.
A layer of snow will not hinder natural grass regrowth. Snow will not damage tilled and hydrated field
areas, nor will it protect those plowed fields from being trampled on. Gravity-affected blocks like sand and
gravel will not fall if the block below them has snow on it.
Destroying snow with a shovel yields one snowball, which can then be crafted into snow blocks or be
thrown. If it is destroyed with anything other than a shovel, nothing is dropped.
If snow forms on top of a cactus, the cactus will still cause damage when stepped on or touched. Cacti
cannot grow if there is snow on top of it.
Due to a missing feature (snowfall) since the release of biomes (in the Halloween Update), snow does not
regenerate any longer.
Glitches
Floating snow can be found above lakes in snowy biomes. This is presumably caused by the generation
of underground lakes near the surface. The lake removes the block which the snow rested upon, but not
the snow. The snow can be walked through and fallen through, occasionally causing the player to
unexpectedly fall into a lake from what appeared to be a solid ledge. The floating snow creates an
interesting effect and can be used to create realistic looking tables, and other furniture. If you put a blockon floating snow, all of the nearby floating snow will disappear, similar to destroying a block of floating
sand.
Type Block Modifier
Physics No
Transparency Yes
Luminance No
Blast Resistance[edit]
0.5
Tool
Stackable N/A
Data value dec: 78 hex: 4E
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Trivia
Prior to the Halloween Update, snow could only be found on maps that were in Winter Mode. When
creating a new save, a map had a chance of having worldwide snowfall.
Before the Minecraft Alpha 1.0.5 update any blocks placed on snow would appear one block above the
snow.
In earlier versions of Minecraft, a player could easily harvest snow by placing a block of water. By doing
so, the player received a large amount of Snowballs with little effort.
Notch mentioned that he might make snow tiles break when fallen hard upon. [citation needed]
Redstone (Dust) cannot be placed on snow without breaking the snow.
It seems with the addition of different types of lakes above ground, you may have floating snow. This
happens since the snow is spawned when the chunk loads first. Then, the lake is spawned afterward.
This leaves the snow floating above the lake. You cannot walk on floating snow.
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COBBLESTONE
Cobblestone is a darker block, often looking like a roughly paved area. This block only occurs naturally in
dungeons or when water and lava flow into each other. It makes great walls for constructions such as
castles, towers and roads. Cobblestone is obtained by mining stone. Cobblestone is slightly harder to
mine than normal stone, and there is an alternative version of the block known as Moss Stone, which can
only be obtained from dungeons.
Current Uses
Cobblestone is required to craft furnaces, Cobblestone Slabs, stone stairs, stone tools and weapons,
levers, and dispensers. Because of the abundance of stone, cobblestone is a commonly-used building
material.
Cobblestone can be smelted back into smooth stone in a furnace. It takes roughly 11 minutes to smelt an
entire stack of Cobblestone into smooth stone. This is helpful to know when using a lava bucket to smelt,
as a lava bucket lasts for roughly 17 minutes of use.
History
Cobblestone was one of the first ever blocks as seen in very early Minecraft footage, when the game was
just a clone of Infiniminer. Its textures are from one of Notch's previous games called RubyDung.
Cobblestone was removed in 0.0.19a, but returned in 0.0.20a. It was removed due to lack of room in the
UI. Because of its dark color it was often used in pixel art to represent darker colors until other, darker
blocks like black cloth and obsidian appeared.
Type Solid Block
Requirements None
Physics No
Transparency No
Luminance No
Blast Resistance[edit]
30
Tool
Stackable Yes (64)
Data value dec: 04 hex: 04
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Trivia
Cobblestone is immune to Ghast fireballs, making it useful for guarding portals.
Until the release of Minecraft Beta 1.3 cobblestone was used to create stone slabs.
Sometime in the future Moss may grow on existing Cobblestone that is in dark areas, turning into Moss
Stone.
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MOSS STONE
Moss Stone (previously known as Mossy Cobblestone) was first introduced in Survival Test and remained
in all later versions of the game. It looks almost the same as Cobblestone, the only difference being that it
is covered in moss. It is often used in combination with normal cobblestone to make buildings look old
and like ruins. It is currently only found as a collection of 30-64 at a time in underground Dungeons,
though it can be mined and used like normal Cobblestone. Unlike standard Cobblestone, Moss Stone
cannot be smelted or crafted into anything.
Notch has stated that moss will grow on normal cobblestone in the future, and there is speculation that itwill spread to other cobblestone blocks as well, making it similar to how Grass grows on Dirt. However,
this is a low priority task.
Moss Stone looks very similar to Netherrack in that both blocks are similarly textured, with Moss Stone
being grey with green moss and Netherrack being bright-red with dark-red moss.
Trivia
Moss Stone cannot be smelted
Moss Stone is a positive indication of a dungeon.
Moss Stone can not be used to make weapons/tools.
Type Solid Block
Requirements None
Physics No
Transparency No
Luminance No
Blast Resistanceedit
30
Tool
Stackable Yes (64)
Data value dec: 48 hex: 30
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ICE
Ice is a semi-transparent solid block formed on Snowy Biomes (formerly snow worlds) from exposed
water, it was added in Version 1.0.4 alongside snow, and is slightly slippery. Any block of water exposed
to snow will eventually freeze into ice. All sides of an ice block use the same texture.
Ice can be easily destroyed without tools, but using a pickaxe greatly helps. If there is another block
directly underneath the block, it will revert back to water when broken, otherwise it will shatter into nothing
in much the same way as glass.
Ice will melt into water when adjacent to level 12 light from any block that gives off light (sunlight does not
melt ice). Torches cannot be placed on ice directly.
Due to a missing feature since the Halloween Update, water may no longer freeze into ice because it
does not snow any more. Ice still naturally forms in certain biomes.
If hacked into an inventory, and placed on any type of surface (except for blocks in The Nether) and then
broken, water will come pouring out of where it was broken.
Ice can be very useful for transporting resources (using water currents), as items and miniblocks move
extremely fast when the water they are in flows over ice. Items slide on ice blocks when dropped at an
angle even if water is not placed on top.
Type Solid Block
Requirements None
Physics No
Transparency Partial (-2 to light)
Luminance No
Blast Resistance[edit]
2.5
Tool
Stackable N/A
Data value dec: 79 hex: 4F
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TriviaIf a player rides a pig on ice using a saddle, the pig moves incredibly fast, making journeys across long
frozen lakes easier.
Although it is seemingly transparent, water cannot be seen through ice, nor can other ice blocks.
If an ice block is hacked into one's inventory and broken in the Nether, the water will not evaporate. This
is useful for creating obsidian farms.
Sugar cane can be placed on the side of ice.
When a map generates it is possible to get a cave one block below water level with a ceiling of ice.
If an ice block is placed in mid-air and is melted by a source of light, such as glowstone, then it will melt
into water while staying in the air. The water will remain suspended in the air until a block adjacent to it is
modified.
If you try to light ice on fire with a flint and steel, no flames will appear, but the flint and steel will still act
as if it had used (it will count as a use). The same thing happens with glass.Ice isn't as transparent as glass and so it gives less light.
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BEDROCK
Bedrock (otherwise known as Adminium or other variations) is a block that was added to Minecraft inversion 0.0.20. Bedrock has a modified texture (higher contrast) of a Stone block placed on all sides.
Bedrock appears naturally in Beta mode, but not in Classic.
Bedrock is indestructible, and is only removable in Multi-player creative maps or by using a Map Editing
program.
Behavior: Creative Mode
In Creative single-player mode, bedrock is impossible to place. This is because bedrock is never directly
placed, but rather by using a server command to change other blocks into it. Any bedrock that exists in a
map cannot be destroyed by the player.
In multi-player mode, server ops can place bedrock blocks by using the "/solid" command. When /solid is
used, stone blocks turn to bedrock a short time after being placed. If /solid is used again, stone blocksplaced will remain stone blocks. Normal players cannot place or destroy bedrock, which makes it useful
for making Spawn Jails. However, ops can destroy bedrock like any other block, as a flag is set on the
client when they log in. Vats of fluid blocks (water and lava) are also recommended to have bedrock
barriers so as to prevent server floods. Bedrock is used as a dark colored building material for normal
structures as well.
A player can use an inventory editor to put bedrock blocks in their inventory. If they attempt to place the
blocks, the server will automatically kick them, even if they are an op. This is one of Notch's anti-griefing
features scripted into server software. Using the /solid command is the only allowed way to place
bedrock.
In all Classic maps, the very edges of a map are lined with a bedrock-textured barrier. This barrier is not
actually made of bedrock blocks; it is simply a flat, impassible wall with the bedrock texture.Consequently, attempting to place blocks on it does not work; you must place a block on one already
attached to the wall. This barrier appears on the sides of a map starting two blocks below ocean level,
extends along under the ocean and across the entire bottom of the map. Additional walls made of
bedrock blocks are often built against the ocean to prevent flooding in custom servers.
Behavior: Beta Mode
In Beta Mode, Bedrock appears on the very bottom of the 4 layers of a map and also at the top and
bottom 4 layers of The Nether. It generates in a very rough pattern. As usual, Bedrock here is impossible
to obtain without inventory hacking. In the The Nether it is tinted a reddish color.
In Survival Multi-player, Bedrock Blocks can be obtained by using the /give command. It is not advisable
to do this because the Blocks will still be impossible to destroy when placed without a third-party server
plugin.
Behavior: Retired Modes
Survival Test - Same as Creative mode, impossible to obtain, impervious to explosions.
Indev - Same as Beta and Creative. Bedrock on the bottom of the map will turn to Lava after a while if it is
exposed.
Infdev - Same as Beta.
Alpha - Same as Beta
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Flyleaf Note: Let it be said that from this point on, the chart found describing a blocks type, requirements,
physics, etc will NOT be included, as the information will be provided, in text, in the paragraphs
accompanied. This is to save space for pictures.
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WOODEN PLANK
Wooden planks are blocks that are not naturally found on maps; it has to be crafted by players. It appears
as a series of interconnected planks. It is good for creating a support style for your buildings and also
making huts and shacks. Wooden Planks may be burned in furnaces, creating 15 seconds of fire.
Wooden Planks are a renewable resource, obtainable by breaking wood blocks and placing them into a
crafting box in Beta. In Survival Test, they could be made simply by breaking wood blocks. It takes 43
planks to smelt a full stack of 64 items. It is easy to obtain, in biomes like forests.
There seems to be an unnamed block in the game's code that looks like wood, but takes the properties ofa mob spawner, which disappears when it spawns a pig. This block can be found with Marglyph's Too
Many Items ingame inventory editor.
Building
The value of building with wooden planks is disputed in Beta. Structures built of planks can be burned
down easily, either by accident or by Griefers. It is often used, regardless of the dangers, for its
abundance in trees and for certain sorts of buildings, such as Inns.
Crafting
Wooden planks are used in many crafting recipes: wooden axe, pickaxe, sword, shovel, and hoe;
pressure plate, workbench, chest, bowl, sign, door, boat, stick, stairs, jukebox, bookshelf, Note block,
Bed, and Slab.
History
Wooden planks originally looked like this: when they were first made.
The older wooden plank texture looks more like a brick block.
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BRICK (BLOCK)
Brick is a block first appearing in a version of Creative. The block has 1 texture that is put on all sides of
the block. Brick blocks do not occur naturally on a generated map.
Brick is available for use in Creative mode. It is mostly used to make nice looking homes or fireplaces, as
well as towers.
Clay's only usage is to be made into bricks or clay blocks, as breaking Clay drops 4 Clay Balls, which can
then be smelted into Clay Bricks. This means that for each Clay block found in a map, players can make1 Brick block. Due to the rarity of Clay, Brick is hard to gather in large quantities. Brick is a durable block
and resists well to explosions. A Pickaxe must be used to recover the resource of a placed block.
Breaking a block with the player's hand is slow and will not yield the resource. Since Brick is not
flammable, it is often used to make Lava Fireplaces.
Crafting
In Beta mode, a Brick block can be crafted from 4 Clay Bricks in the pattern below:
Trivia
Brick originally appeared (and still does in Creative mode, Survival Test, Indev and Infdev) with a bright
red texture. Upon being added in Alpha, the bricks in the texture were given a darker look.
Notch has said that there may be more kinds of brick blocks in different colors in the future.[citation
needed]
For a brief time, huge brick pyramids were a rare structure that could spawn in an old Infdev version. See
this video, this video and the end of this video to see the pyramids and exploration of them. The pyramids
were completely solid; they had no inside rooms. A strange quality about these pyramids is that if one dug
under it, a layer of dirt and stone extended under the pyramid. This suggests it spawned right on top of
the terrain instead of being a complete pyramid with the bottom parts underground. Pyramids were
removed before Alpha was released.
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GLASS
Glass is a block that first appeared in Creative version 0.0.18a_02. It has an almost completely
transparent texture put on all six sides of the block. Glass is not a natural block, and is never generated
as part of the terrain. Glass blocks adjacent to other glass blocks are invisible when viewed through
glass. Sunlight can penetrate through glass, making glass useful for buildings such as greenhouses.
Although glass breaks very quickly with no tool, swords can be used to hasten the process slightly with a
penalty of one extra use per block destroyed.
Glass will not hinder a redstone current from travel down the side of a block diagonal to it.
Be careful where you place Glass as when it is destroyed, it will shatter and give nothing.
Torches, Redstone (Wire), Jack-O-Lanterns, Minecart Tracks, Doors, Pressure Plates, Beds and Ladders
can not be placed on glass.
Glass blocks are crafted by smelting a block of sand.
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Trivia
In Survival Test mode, glass blocks could be broken very quickly and would drop a glass block to pick up.
The only way to obtain glass blocks at that time was to place them on the map before the level was
loaded in the client.
Notch has expressed low-priority desire to implement tile-to-tile support so when Sand comes into contact
with Lava, it creates Glass.[citation needed]
When water is above glass, an infinite source cannot be created.
When attempting to light glass on fire with the Flint and Steel, the durability of the tool is lowered without
any flames appearing.
Arrows will not break Glass when fired at it.
Placing a glass block on top of a chest does not prevent the chest from being opened.
Clouds seen through the glass disappear while the glass is being broken.
Glass towers ( 1x1x3-5) can create light underwater via sunlight
Glass placed next to water running downwards will make the water run more quickly and violently; this
can be useful in making traps.
When Glass is placed over a dropped item, the item is trapped inside the glass. You can also drop items
into Glass.
Glass used to have a different texture when it was first created.
Glass can be used for placing Redstone, ladders, torches or saplings on top on blocks that they can't
normally be placed on like chests and furnaces by placing glass one block higher beside the
chest/furnace and trying to place the Redstone, ladder, torches etc on the side of the glass. This willplace it onto the chest/furnace.
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BOOKSHELF
Bookshelf is a block first added to Minecraft version 0.26. Bookshelves have two textures: one borrowed
from the Plank block put on the top and bottom of the block, and one edited version of the Plank texture
put on all four sides.
Bookshelves serve as decorations or furnace fuel. A single Bookshelf can be crafted by arranging six
wooden planks and three books in the pattern below:
As one bookshelf requires three books, books require three sheets of paper, and paper requires one
sugar cane per sheet (three at a time), nine reeds are necessary for each bookshelf block. If reeds areallowed to grow to their full height before harvesting and only the top two segments are removed, then
nine reed plants will provide enough for two bookshelves, or 9/2 64 = 288 plants (plus 96 logs for the
wood) for a full stack of 64 bookshelves in one harvest.
Bookshelves can be mined fairly easily by hand, but quicker using an axe. Note that when bookshelves
are broken in any way, no resource-blocks drop from them to be picked up. Bookcases should be placed
with accuracy considering they can only be placed once. Bookshelves are flammable and will be
destroyed easily in explosions.
While Bookshelves are only decorative objects in SSP, certain SMP mods (for instance, the hMod plugin
CraftBook) allow players to right-click bookshelves to pull a random quote.
Retired Modes
This is a list of characteristics of Bookshelves in previous game modes.
Alpha - Same as Beta.
Survival Test - Impossible to obtain without loading a pre-edited map. Destroyed in explosions. When
mined drops nothing.
Indev - Same as Survival Test and Infdev. Cannot be crafted.
Infdev - Same as Survival Test and Indev. Cannot be crafted.
Classic - Can be freely placed.
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WOOL
Wool is a block derived from sheep that can be dyed 16 different colors. Wool blocks are weak,
flammable, and do not offer much resistance against explosions.
As of the Beta 1.2 update, white, light gray, gray, and black wool can be obtained naturally by shearing
sheep, and as of patch 1.4 brown and pink sheep spawn naturally through out the world. Rarity is
unknown. White wool can also be created by combining 9 pieces of string together, although harvesting
wool from sheep is considered a better use of the player's time. You can shear sheep from afar with a
fishing rod without hurting them, making wool easier to harvest. Sheep are shorn in one hit regardless of
what it equipped, however placed wool is more durable. It is quick to remove, however using a sword willspeed up the removal slightly, at the cost of 2 uses.
History
The above is the Beta color spectrum, and is the current colors used in wool in Minecraft.The below is the color spectrum used in the classic version of the game.
Wool was added for the creation of paintings, carpeting, colorful structures, and in-game pixel art. Wool is
also a suitable material for docks, as wool blocks will stop boats and absorb some impact from the
collisions in a manner similar to Soul Sand.
In Creative Classic mode, wool blocks were known as cloth blocks that came in a set of 16 colours,
although the palette was slightly different from the one available in Beta. Three shades of gray were
added in Classic 0.0.20a.
Except for white cloth, colored cloth blocks were unobtainable during Classic's Survival Test and Indev
unless they were pre-placed into the map file. They were completely removed from the code in Infdev.
lacing these blocks on the map would cause the game client to crash, since the blocks no longer existed.
When colored wool was introduced again in Beta 1.2, cloth blocks were renamed wool blocks.
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Trivia
Before leather was added, wool was used to craft leather armor.
When destroying wool, white wool debris is seen despite what color the dyed wool is.
It is recommended not to use string to make wool, as wool is easily obtainable but string is harder to
obtain as it is only dropped by Spiders and found in Dungeons.
You will get more colored wool with one dye if you use it to color sheep and then hit them, causing the
sheep to drop 1-3 wool blocks instead of just crafting one colored wool per dye.
You can't dye non-white wool.
The naturally occurring colors on sheep are black, white, brown, light grey and grey. There are also pink
sheep, although they are quite rare.[citation needed]
Non-white sheep are useless in obtaining wool for dyeing, until you paint those sheep white.
The damage values for the wool and the dyes are the inverse of each other.
((See later in this guide for a comprehensive tutorial on dying wool))
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SNOW (BLOCK)
Snow blocks are blocks made from snow. They are crafted from 4 snowballs, which allows you to create
them in your inventory. You cannot reverse the crafting process, but the block may be placed and
destroyed with a shovel, yielding 4 snowballs.
Snow blocks are much harder to be destroyed by forces that would destroy snow, such as lava, and fire,
and are impervious to torches and water.
Snow blocks have many uses, such as building, decoration, and storing snowballs. They blend in wellwith the taiga and the tundra biomes, and can be used to build snow-themed buildings, such as igloos or
snow castles. Snow may still fall on them, making them look bigger than they really are.
Snow Blocks are sometimes used for playing Spleef in Beta. Players use shovels to destroy blocks from
underneath their opponents.
Crafting
Trivia
Snow used to yield 4-6 snowballs when broken, allowing an infinite number of snowballs to be made.
Snow blocks used to take 9 snow balls instead of 4 to make.
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IRON (BLOCK)
Iron (also known as Block of Iron) is a block type which was made available in Creative version 0.30. It
matches the texture of Gold blocks with a different colour as they are both made from ore found in the
game. Iron has the same texture for each of its sides. In Survival mode, breaking iron ore would cause 1 -
3 iron blocks to drop. The blocks are very durable and will not be destroyed in an explosion. An iron block
takes about 4 seconds to destroy. In Indev and Infdev, iron blocks could only be made by placing 9 iron
ingots in a crafting bench. The 9 ingots can be recovered by placing the block in a crafting grid. This
makes iron blocks more functional as "storage units" than as building units.
Iron blocks had a different skin when first made. The skin was changed from to the current texture
in the Halloween Update. This block has the same texture on all six sides, which was different in the old
block, where three textures were used. It is possible that Notch has plans for the free space now available
in the terrain.png file.
Iron blocks can be mined with a stone, iron, or diamond pick.
Crafting
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GOLD (BLOCK)
Gold blocks (also known as Block of Gold) are blocks that were introduced in Creative version 0.0.20a,
and do not appear in normally generated maps anywhere.
Gold blocks are available for use in Creative mode and are often used to make shiny buildings or to show
"wealth". In Survival mode, mining gold ore will drop a block of ore, which can be smelted into a gold
ingot. Unlike earlier Minecraft versions, Gold is now susceptible to destruction from TNT, and no longer
resists explosions effectively. It only requires approximately 3 seconds to mine successfully.
InIndev and Infdev, gold blocks can be crafted by placing 9 gold ingots in a crafting grid. The gold blocks
could then be crafted back into 9 ingots again, making them more useful as "storage units" rather than
building units. Golden blocks can be used to make Golden Apples.
Gold blocks had a different skin when first made. The skin was changed from to in the
Survival 0.26 update, and then again to the current texture in the Halloween Update. However, in Classic
it is still seen as . This block has the same texture on all six sides, which was different in the
previous block, where three textures were used. It is possible that Notch has plans with the free space
now available in the terrain.png file.
Crafting
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DIAMOND (BLOCK)
Blocks of Diamond are currently available in Indev, Infdev, Alpha, and Beta and can be obtained by
crafting nine diamond gems together in a 3x3 square. They currently serve no crafting purpose, and
function only as decoration and as a means of storing diamonds in a compact fashion. Diamond blocks
can only be mined successfully with an iron or diamond pick. They have the same texture on all six sides.
Crafting
History
Diamond blocks initially had a different skin. The skin was changed from to the current texture in
the Halloween Update. In the old block, three textures were used. It is possible that Notch has plans with
the free space now available in the terrain.png file.
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LAPIS LAZULI (BLOCK)
Lapis Lazuli is a block that can be crafted from Lapis Lazuli dye. It is a blue colour, and looks similar
to Gold blocks or other metal blocks. Its only uses are as a building block and as a form of storage of
Lapis Lazuli dye. It was added in Beta 1.2.
Crafting
Trivia
It's easier to craft a Lapis Lazuli block than any other ore block, because a Lapis Lazuli ore block
drops 4-8 Lapis Lazuli dye.
In real life, Lapis Lazuli is a blue gem that may be ground and processed into ultramarine pigment.
Lapis Lazuli pigment has been famously used in the production of illuminated manuscripts, stained
glass, and cave paintings.
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STAIRS
Stairs are blocks that allow the player to change elevation without jumping. They are a more compact
alternative to Slabs, allowing a greater elevation change in a shorter horizontal distance.
Crafting
Stairs can be made from six wooden planks or six cobblestone, producing four stairs per craft. Upon
destroying the block after placement, it will yield only one of the original material.
Behavior
As of version 1.2.0 (the Halloween update) Stairs are placed facing the player so they may be
immediately climbed. This may cause problems when constructing a stair; just start at the lower end to fix
this. Alternatively, you can face the top of the stairs, sneak, and place stairs at your feet while hanging
onto the edge of a block to place them in the correct location while descending the stairs.
Water will flow over stairs as if it were a completely solid block. If one attempts to place a torch on top of a
stair block, the torch will be placed instead on the closest available non-stair block.
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As ofAlpha version 1.2.0_02, stairs have the odd property of being transparent to light; when placed one
or more spaces above the ground with air beneath, sunlight or other light sources will shine through and
light the blocks beneath/behind the stairs exactly as if nothing opaque were present between
them.[1]
Other atmospheric effects such as snowfall do not penetrate stair blocks, making them an
unusually effective material for creating roofing which keeps weather out, yet allows daylight in. Snow
cannot accumulate on top of stair blocks. Grass can grow on the block directly underneath a stair block,
and grass will not disappear if a stair block is placed on top of it. Wooden stairs will not burn.
Glitches
There is a glitch where when stairs are placed at the water's edge,(with the top edge of the block at the
water's level) Any boat going at any speed can collide with it with no damage to the boat, making it ideal
for the creation of a dock.
There is also a glitch where stairs appear invisible not much is know about it at the current time. You can
fix this glitch by placing a block behind the stair.
History
At some viewing angles, hovering the cursor over the stair block would make the black outline flicker,
making mining the stair block glitchy, and the block behind it would often be