Minecraft Beginner's Guide: Your First Day, First Night and Survival Basics

Minecraft 🎮 Game page →

1. Punch a tree for logs When the world loads, walk to the nearest tree and hold left click to break logs. Eight to ten logs are enough at first. Breaking them by hand is slow, but there's no other way to get your first tool.
2. Make planks and a crafting table Press E; putting one log in the 2x2 crafting grid gives 4 planks. Four planks in the 2x2 grid make a Crafting Table. Place it and right-click it to open the 3x3 grid.
3. Sticks and a wooden pickaxe Two planks stacked vertically give 4 sticks. Three planks across the top row with two sticks down the middle make a wooden pickaxe, which you need to mine stone.
4. Upgrade to stone tools Mine some stone with the wooden pickaxe; it drops as Cobblestone. Use the same patterns for a stone pickaxe, axe and sword. Stone tools are faster and last longer.
5. Find coal, make torches Stone with black specks is coal ore. One coal above one stick makes 4 torches. Hostile mobs spawn in darkness, so torches are the cheapest way to keep your surroundings safe.
6. Build a shelter before dark An in-game day lasts about 20 real minutes, with roughly 10 minutes of full daylight. Before sunset, build four walls, a roof and a door, or dig into a hillside and seal the entrance. Light the inside with torches.
7. Craft a bed and sleep Collect 3 wool from sheep (by hitting them or using shears) and combine it with 3 planks. Right-click the bed at dusk to skip the night. The bed also sets your respawn point, so you wake up at home when you die.
8. Sort out food When your hunger bar runs low, health stops regenerating. Cows, pigs, sheep and chickens drop raw meat; cooking it in a furnace made from 8 cobblestone makes it far more filling. Coal or wood works as fuel.
9. Reach for iron Stone with orange-beige specks is iron ore, mined with a stone pickaxe. Smelt the raw iron in a furnace into ingots. An iron pickaxe, armor and a bucket open the next stage, and you need at least an iron pickaxe to mine diamonds.

• Write down your coordinatesOpen F3, note your home's coordinates and keep them somewhere. Getting lost far from base is the most common beginner problem.
• Back off when you hear a hissThe green Creeper creeps up silently, hisses and explodes, costing health and blowing holes in your build. Step back the moment you hear it and fight from range.
• Sneak along edgesWhile holding Left Shift you won't fall off block edges. It saves your life when bridging high up or walking near cliffs.
• Never dig straight downDigging under your feet can drop you into a lava lake or a deep cave. Dig in steps like a staircase so you can see what's ahead.
• Carry a water bucketMake a bucket from iron ingots and fill it with water. Pouring water in front of lava or onto yourself when burning often saves you, and water turns lava into stone.
• Store valuables in chestsWhen you die, everything you carry scatters where you fell and despawns after a while. Leave diamonds and other valuables in a chest (8 planks) before heading into a mine.
• Use the recipe bookThe green book icon in your inventory and crafting table is the recipe book. It shows what you can make with what you have, so you don't need to memorise recipes.
• A shield makes fights easierA shield takes 6 planks and 1 iron ingot. Put it in your off hand and hold right click to block arrows and hits.
• Make use of villagesYou can trade with villagers for emeralds and use the village's beds and farms. Protect it from zombies and it becomes a solid long-term resource.
• Enter the Nether preparedA Nether portal needs an obsidian frame at least 4x5 blocks; corners are optional, so 10 obsidian is enough. Light it with Flint and Steel. The Nether is dangerous, so don't go in without armor, food and spare blocks.

• Spending the whole first day exploring and getting caught without shelter: zombies, skeletons and spiders multiply quickly in the dark.
• Forgetting the bed: without a set respawn point you return to the world spawn, possibly very far away.
• Taking valuables into a mine: they scatter when you die and disappear when the timer runs out.
• Mining diamond ore with a stone pickaxe: it drops nothing and the ore is wasted. You need at least an iron pickaxe.
• Pushing through caves without lighting them: mobs keep spawning in dark corners and you lose your way back.

This guide was written for version: This guide reflects the current Java and Bedrock versions as of September 2026. Controls are Java Edition PC defaults and can be rebound in settings.

Minecraft 🎮 Game page →

All game guides →