UserGuide2 NotToDoList

Originally created by Kerrawesome

Below is a user collected list of things you shouldn't do in order to make your game experience as enjoyable as possible. These are just rules to keep you safe, so if you get bored of following any of these rules feel free to break them and play the game your own way. Your choice leaves you responsible!

Don't dig straight down
This one is obvious. By mining the block below you, you're likely to fall into a cave system and take significant falling damage, fall into lava and lose your inventory or fall into a dungeon and be massacred. Notch has even added a splash text to this effect. It is always safer to mine in a staircase pattern or find an open-mouth cave on the surface. it is also safe to put ladders down as you go so you don't fall off the block and get killed.

A 2×1 hole straight down is still not advisable but is much safer, since you don't have to stand on the block that you're removing. If you want to dig straight down, another method consists of mining 4 blocks in a 2×2. Stand on one and break the one next to it, hop onto that, and repeat. Make sure you don't dig two down from the one you step onto; you have to be able to jump back up. This will consume more resources but constructs a staircase back to the mine entrance.

A safer method is to dig a 3×1 hole with a ladder down the middle. (multiple ladders may also work) It's worth re-adding some side blocks every 5 to 8 levels, in case you fall off the ladder. You can also pour water at the bottom to protect you from fall damage. The wider hole gives you room for both those side blocks and torches, and means you always have someplace safe to stand when digging. Such a shaft is also a good start for shaft mining the area. Digging straight down can also get you stuck in the hole you've dug. In that case, pillar jumping should get you out.Many players will end up learning the hard way and die, so if you're new to Minecraft, remember this bit of advice.
 * Note: If you happen to find a cave and aren't carrying the necessary equipment (sword, torches, armor, etc.), go back to the surface and get better supplies before exploring too far.

Don't dig straight up
This isn't quite so obvious. However, if you mine the block above you, all sorts of nasty things could fall onto you. Water, lava, or hostile mobs can kill you by burning or attacking you to death. Gravel and sand can also suffocate you, although this has been slightly nerfed. Placing torches underneath where you dig up can prevent suffocation, but you may still drown or burn. Placing ladders, if you have any, will protect against everything but mobs (in a single-block-wide shaft, the ladder may slow the mobs down somewhat). Be extremely wary if you hear noises above you, as you may happen upon a dungeon. If there is a fluid one block above you, you will observe a dripping effect (assuming particles are turned on); blue means water, red means lava and green drips mean there's a slime above you. If you see this, be very careful! Remember that you will not see a drip if you're digging up next to the edge of a lava or water lake, but the fluid may still pour out over you. Always have somewhere safe to retreat to.

Don't stand right in front of the block you are mining
This isn't quite so obvious either, But if you mine the blocks in front (while being very close to the block) all sorts of things could happen, You could walk into a ravine, or walk straight into a monster spawner, or even worse, have lava flow right onto you. Use the ambience to your advantage. If you hear a weird noise, proceed with caution.

Don't get too close to a Creeper
When it gets dark also during the day if you see any, stay away from Creepers as they can kill you in one explosion on hard if you do not have any armor. If you hear a the sound of a Creeper (which sort of sounds like ssssss) proceed with caution. Your best bet is to run away in most situations, as even at walking speed the player moves faster than a Creeper.

If you are forced into a situation where you need to fight a Creeper, keeping your distance is preferred. The best option is to use a bow, as you can kill a Creeper at such a large distance it won't even be able to target you. If the Creeper is close, you can build a 5 block high "pillar" by jumping and placing a block underneath your feet, which will allow you to shoot a Creeper wandering around the base of the pillar, preventing it from getting close enough to explode.

If you do not have a bow and must fight it, your best bet is to use a Sprint Attack. If you hit a Creeper (or almost any other mob) while sprinting, you will hit it farther away than if you just hit it normally. Usually this is enough to keep it far enough that it won't try to explode, but if it hits a block while being knocked back it may still try and explode, and if you miss while attempting a Sprint Attack the Creeper will likely explode close enough to severely hurt or kill you.

If all else fails, try to get the creeper to explode as far away from you as possible. Ironically, this is the easiest to do on the "Hard" difficulty setting, since creepers can "count down" to detonation when they are further away from you than on other settings. It is even possible in some situations to persuade a creeper to explode without causing any damage to the player at all. Their explosion will cause damage to the environment unless they are partially in water, so if you need to make one explode, the ideal way to do this is to get it in water, and then get close enough to cause it to start detonating and then swim away, lowering your chances of getting hurt or killed.

Never play on hard if you are a first time player
Trying hard for first players may sound fun, but it is a lot harder than easy and can kill an unready player very quickly at night. One last thing. The damage that all mobs deal is a lot more than on easy and normal. This makes mobs a lot harder to kill and you will find yourself getting killed a lot more.

Don't try to kill zombies or Endermen with a bow
Until you build a mob farm or skeleton dungeon grinder or have a Infinity enchantment on your bow, use your arrows sparingly. They are best saved for more dangerous mobs, such as skeletons, creepers (look above), and spiders. Zombies are easier to kill with a sword, and safer as well, because the high attack speed will keep them away from you. The exception is when the zombie is burning, in which case, you will be set on fire when hit. This also applies to passive mobs. Endermen are completely immune to arrows, and you should avoid shooting them entirely. Alternatively, if you have a wolf or two, why bother wasting your sword's durability on the zombie? Just punch the zombie and the wolves will take care of the rest. Meanwhile you can get on with killing creepers and skeletons.

Don't venture outside on your first night
Unless you are an experienced player or are on Peaceful mode, venturing outside during the night is very dangerous. You will almost certainly be killed by mobs. Mushroom Islands are the most safe, as mobs do not spawn there (except Mooshrooms, which are harmless). However, they are very rare, so plains are the safest places to be outside at night, because you can see monsters coming from a distance. Forests and jungles can be dangerous, because you can easily be cornered, or surprised by a creeper coming around a tree. It would be far better if you stayed inside your first night, or stay away from any thing that can possibly kill you or can get you hurt. However, some people enjoy fighting mobs with little supplies, as it provides a challenge.The mobs that will most likely kill you are Creepers and Skeletons.

Don't forget your sword when caving
A good sword is a player's best friend when in dangerous situations. One of the worst places to forget a sword is in a cave. In underground places, mobs spawn as fast as as you can kill them, even with a sword. Even if you light up an area, if it is in a Slime Chunk, Slimes can spawn. Plus, if you happen to find a Dungeon, which are more common than you think, you can get killed fast if you do not have a good sword.

Don't dig underwater in survival mode
In survival mode, blocks take five times as long to break while the player is underwater. That's why there is a high risk of drowning while digging underwater, if you are not close to the surface. Placing signs, ladders, iron bars, glass panes, a door or fence on nearby blocks can be used to produce air pockets where you can catch a breath and recover your air supply. Also, placing a torch at head height will replenish your air supply, and the torch will break, and return to your inventory. Since all blocks displace a full block of water as long as there is something in the block space, placing a "partial" block (such as an iron bar or a sign) will create a full block air pocket. You can also create air pockets by digging out dirt or sand under an overhang (the block above must not be sand or gravel).

Don't build a wall that spiders can climb over
A wall is an excellent means of defending a certain area, either as a way to keep monsters out or for a player to shoot enemies from afar without danger to himself. However, if a wall is designed incorrectly, spiders can easily scale the wall and make your wall far less effective. Spiders treat all vertical surfaces as ladders, allowing them to climb any wall with ease. However, they cannot pass through a block that is directly above them, so building an overhang on the outer side of a wall will deter spiders from climbing any further.

Don't leave gaps in your shelter
The purpose of a shelter is to protect you from the outside world. Leaving any sort of opening in that shelter defeats the purpose of having one, as monsters will simply be able to walk right in and attack you. Make sure that your house or fort is secure from all monster attacks, and only has entrances that can be defended easily. If you wish to see what's going on outside of your shelter while standing within, always make windows out of glass or glass panes instead of just punching a hole in the wall. An uncovered hole will allow skeleton arrows to strike you from inside the house, and Creepers can see you from outside and explode next to the wall. Using glass will prevent monsters from attacking you in this manner.

In case you don't have access to sand (to create glass), wooden fences can also do the trick, as hostile mobs cannot see through them.

Don't run around with a bucket of lava in your hand
Lava is one of the worst ways to die since you usually lose everything you were carrying. It is easy to accidentally tap it laying the lava spring right in front of you leading to a horrible death. Even if it doesn't kill you, it may destroy whatever you were working on, or perhaps destroy your builds.

Don't forget to carry a bucket of water at all times
If you are going to carry anything with you at all times, it should be a bucket of water. A bucket of water is more useful and more vital than any other item you could ever carry. Leaving it in your inventory simply is not sufficient as in a life or death situation you don't have time to find it in your inventory. Always leave your bucket of water on the hotbar. Water buckets rarely come into use, but are instrumental as life-saving devices when they do. If a player falls into lava, placing water will extinguish the fire and allow them to climb out. Water can also create obsidian walkways over pools of lava. Water buckets provide a fast method of safely descending cliffs: players may place water, wait, then reclaim the water and fall into the disappearing waterfall. If falling near a wall, players may even save their lives by placing water on that wall and holding the jump key. Pick up your water after using it, so it can keep saving your life.

You'll almost never need more than 2 or 3 buckets of water at any time—one full of water, one empty to pick up springs, and perhaps a spare to take home some lava. Remember that a 2×2 "infinite water" pool works both ways—you can bucket springs and empty the buckets into it.

Another use for a water bucket would be repelling Endermen. Endermen are hurt by water, and if they come into contact with it, they teleport away.

Don't start a sugarcane farm right outside or near your home
It's hard to identify a creeper hiding in sugarcane in the fraction of the second you have before he starts his timer, and by the time you've gotten your sword out, your house will have a hole in it. However, it is completely safe if you use double fences, light up your farm, close the gate(s), and remove any higher ground near the farm. However, if a creature is following you, you can walk into the middle of a 2-Block tall sugarcane. The creature will not be able to find you in the reeds, and will most likely walk away - but it may still walk into the plant.

Don't forget to bring at least one full stack of common blocks if you're mining deep
Lava is the biggest problem when mining. Find yourself trying to mine through a large lava pit? Mine up until you're above it, then sneak to the edge and keep dropping gravel or sand into the pit to fill it. No need to reorder your mine plotting or mess around with obsidian and no worry about accidentally tunneling into a hot spot. Cobblestone is arguably more effective; it's more easily replenished, and you won't use as many blocks when you find lava.

Don't forget to isolate diamond ores before mining
If you see diamond ore, especially on the ground, mine away the blocks around it. If you see lava, take care to completely remove or replace it to ensure you won't come into danger while attempting to extract the diamond. The same principle can be applied to gold, redstone, obsidian, mossy cobblestone and to a lesser extent iron, coal, Lapis Lazuli, and emerald. Dirt, gravel, and stone should be gathered above ground, where it is safe, and lava should be collected from the Nether or from surface lava pools, as it is easier to use a bucket on source blocks in these places.

Don't surround your bed with blocks
If there is not a free space next to your bed, you're going to wake up standing on your bed. If there is only one block of free space over your bed, you're going to wake up inside a block. When you are inside of the block, you will begin suffocating and losing your health. Redstone may kill you too. You can remove the block where you are, but must be quick. If you are too slow, you will die. After your death, you will respawn in your original spawn point. A notification comes up when you get there, reading "Your home bed was missing or obstructed". Sometimes when that happens, you could be in some random spot in your world. So, again, BE CAREFUL! It is dangerous!

Don't attack more than one creeper at a time
Even if you have a diamond sword and can get in enough hits before the creeper blows, don't do it (unless you have diamond armor)! Especially in hard mode where you won't be able to get away fast enough to escape the blast. This isn't especially obvious, but if there's a creeper behind another creeper and you do this, you will very likely be blown up. If you have a (diamond) sword, it's safer to fight more monsters at one time. But still be (very) careful!

Although, it can be useful to use a creeper's explosion to kill other hostile mobs attacking you, including other creepers.

Don't forget to bring a sword or bow
Undead mobs like Skeletons and Zombies like to hide in the shade. They will not burn because the sunlight will not hit them directly, making them invincible to being burned. Get a sword. Once you have string, craft a bow. On a similar note, don't forget to craft some arrows. It's just as important as your sword.

Don't fight ranged mobs in water
If you try to fight a skeleton in water, it will shoot really fast and try to knock you away. This could kill you if unarmored. If you are fighting any melee mob, you will get extended time to hit them before they hit you due to everyone's slowed movement. Creepers can still hurt you, but they will not destroy the surroundings, and you will benefit from increased knockback. However, remember that your movement is hampered too.

Don't attack a silverfish in a stronghold (unless you can kill it in one hit)
Once you attack a silverfish in a stronghold, it will awaken all other silverfish there, meaning you have a LOT of silverfish to deal with. It is a better suggestion to just run away until it enters a new block. Getting into an inaccessible location for the silverfish is a good idea as well. If you have a diamond sword that can kill it in one hit, that's a different story. You can just hit the silverfish once and it will die, not awakening other silverfish. No matter how low or high, it will always be a 1-hit kill. Another way to safely kill silverfish is to use a Lava Bucket or a Flint and Steel to burn them. This won't awaken more because you are only indirectly dealing damage to them. Be careful when using this method though, as it is very easy to accidentally burn yourself.

Don't get careless in a mineshaft
Abandoned mineshafts are some of the most serious places in Minecraft. If you get too careless, you could walk right into a cobweb, or cave spider spawner, and cobwebs don't slow down cave spiders, so you will die in a situation like this. Always bring shears so you can mine out the cobwebs quickly and escape. Also, don't goof around near lava lakes in a shaft, because the wood around you could catch on fire and you will too. If you are standing on a bridge over a ravine, be extra careful of skeletons and especially creepers, which might send you careening off the bridge,and cause you to take extreme (possibly fatal) fall damage or worse, plunge into a lava river. You can also get lost and never see day again until you are killed by a mob. So please, don't get careless in mineshafts.

Don't forget to light every room in your house
When you think you are safe in your dark house, you are not. Mobs can easily spawn when you leave the house and when you come back, you might be killed because you are not ready to battle. Using torches is good enough, but for advanced players they may use glowstone. Nobody wants to be surprised by uninvited guests in their home.
 * Exception: If you want to have a mob spawn room to collect the drops.

Don't look up in the sky while walking
If you're doing this, you might fall into a ravine, lava lake, or a patch of mobs, or fall down from a mountain. You'll be likely to die and lose your stuff if you do this. This would be dumb if you're playing on survival, especially hardcore. Nobody wants to be surprised by falling down to a ravine, lava lake or a patch of mobs. Looking around is the way to go while walking.

Don't forget to leave a trail of torches underground
Especially in an abandoned mineshaft. If you don't leave a trail of at least something, you are extremely likely to get lost. Just imagine all that good you have at your home, possibly lost forever. If you don't want to leave a trail, then a compass is what you need. This is pointless if you know how to get out.

Don't activate a Nether Reactor if you are not ready yet.
It is better if you are ready, because you can be inflicted by great damage. Also do not try to grab loot before fighting, because you can be killed.

Don't turn all your bones into bone meal
When you turn your bones into bone meal, it now takes up 3x the space in your chest. The same thing applies to wooden logs and other multiplying blocks. You also want to keep some bones in case you come across some wolves. You can also make the contrary: saving space in your chests by turning your precious ores into blocks of ores. Don't worry if you want to use the ores later because you can "de-craft" the blocks using the crafting table.

Don't make white wool
The player can put normal wool and bone meal in the crafting grid and make "white wool", which is basically your normal wool you started with - except you just wasted some perfectly good bone meal. It is also a waste of time finding the skeletons for the bones.

Don't mine valuable blocks with low-level equipment
If you don't have an iron pickaxe for gold, diamond, redstone, and other valuable ores, they won't drop their contents. Instead, they'll just break (eventually). Likewise you need a diamond pickaxe for obsidian. A good indication is the amount of time it takes for them to appear to be destroyed. If you have been mining a block for more than 4 seconds (with the exception of Obsidian, for which it takes 9.4 seconds with a diamond pickaxe), then it is very unlikely to drop resources when destroyed and you will just lose the item you tried to mine. However they are not good for mining, as they only gain you a miniscule amount more net iron per minute, and a lot less of everything else, plus, you find fewer caves with the slow mining, meaning that they aren't even good for mining iron.
 * Wooden planks have better uses than tool crafting, and should only be used as such when there is no alternative or when you are just starting. When you start, you should make a wooden pickaxe, mine 19 stone blocks, and then you will never again need the wooden pickaxe, or any other wooden tool. 11 of the 19 can be used for a full set of stone tools, and the remaining 8 for a furnace. You can then burn the wooden pickaxe in the furnace.
 * You should use golden tools only if you need especially fast gathering of resources for a short period (for example, working underwater). Gold also enchants very well, so gold tools are useful if you want any enchantment which would otherwise be difficult to obtain, such as silk touch. However, note that gold pickaxes can't mine the advanced ores (Including gold ore itself!), regardless of enchantments.
 * Cobblestone tools are fairly slow, but they are so cheap as to be disposable, and two of them will last as long as an iron tool. (Longer, with Item Repair.) These are good for digging out lakes, harvesting jungle trees, and other bulk work.

Don't waste valuable equipment on low-value jobs
Diamonds are worth their weight in... well, DIAMOND! Using your diamond pickaxe for bulk mining may be faster, but will damage the pickaxe a little more every time. Using it for digging dirt won't even be faster. Pretend that every diamond you have is the last one you will ever have - plan for the worst, be pleasantly surprised by everything non-bad that happens. Diamond items last long enough that they're as likely to be lost to a "bad death" as they are to wear out, so the other question is when and where you're willing to risk them. Never use iron, gold or diamond for hoes, as the only gain is durability (and for gold, not even that), unless you have more diamonds than you know what to do with. Remember also that your most valuable resource is your time. As the saying goes, "The world is infinite, your time is not". Someone could easily hollow out a 10 x 10 x 10 area with wooden picks and wooden shovels, but it is a waste of time when one has diamond tools to use on the same project. Using iron and stone tools to mine in order to conserve your diamond takes away the point of gathering the diamonds in the first place, and most people don't want to spend their entire minecraft experience digging. If you only have an hour to play minecraft every day, it would be better to spend 20 minutes of it digging out an area for a house foundation than 2 hours building it, even if you "waste" a few diamonds in the process.
 * Iron is faster than stone and lasts twice as long. The sword and armor are also noticeably more powerful. Iron ore is fairly common, but not unlimited (unless you build an iron farm), so don't get careless about spending it. These should be your go-to tools "in the field", that is when travelling or adventuring. Enchantments can make them much more useful, and getting "the wrong enchantment" is much less annoying when it's just iron at stake.
 * Diamond tools are for special missions—when you want stuff that will last a long time (but not forever), and work fast. However, the supply is strictly limited, so choose carefully how you use them and risk them! Given that you want to get the most out of your diamond items, you should enchant them as powerfully as you can.
 * Branch mining with a diamond pickaxe can easily use it up before you find enough diamonds to replace it. This goes double for using it for large excavations or building, or digging your way around the Nether.
 * Similarly, a diamond axe will be used up by a few jungle trees
 * Shovels also get used up, but are much cheaper than other tools, only one diamond a piece. If you have many diamonds, an "eterna-shovel" may be a decent time-saver.
 * Swords only cost two diamonds, and can give you a key edge in fights, so they are worthwhile, but remember they also increase the possible cost if you do die.
 * Diamond armor should pretty much be saved for stronger hostile mobs, until you've got enough diamonds stockpiled that you can risk losing your investment. (24 for a full set of armor!)

Don't use non-weapon tools for damaging mobs
Carry a sword with you until you craft a bow. Other tools cause less damage to mobs, and they lose durability faster.

An axe has the added advantage of the ability to chop wood faster as well as being a decent weapon. At some point you WILL want to replace it with a stone or better sword though. A diamond axe does more damage in the long run than an iron sword, but only do this if you are desperate (i.e. your sword breaks in the middle of combat.) Axes are more expensive (3 material (wood, stone, iron, gold, diamond) and 2 sticks instead of 2 material and 1 stick) and are really not worth it.

An axe is one tier worse than a sword. A pickaxe is two tiers worse, meaning a stone sword does as much damage per hit as a diamond pickaxe. Shovels are three tiers worse, meaning a wood sword deals as much damage per hit as a diamond shovel. Hoes are so pathetically weak that they give you NO damage bonus over your fists, so don't use them unless you want to grow some food.

Don't kill passive mobs that drop meat with a sword if you have flint and steel
If you're already carrying flint and steel while you're hunting, save yourself some time. When hunting a mob that yields meat (pork, chicken, steak), using a flint and steel cooks the meat for you. This is especially useful on chickens, since they are easy to kill, and cooked chicken restores more health than raw chicken. You'll save coal and time you would have spent cooking it, and a flint and steel costs less to make and has fewer uses than your trusty iron or diamond sword. However, be careful not to set fire to yourself, or to try it on mobs near water as if the mob extinguishes himself, it will not drop cooked meats when re-lit. Try and set as many on fire at a time to maximize efficiency, and watch out for flammable houses or trees. Lava also works, and it doesn't have durability, but it kills mobs quickly, so be sure to remove it. Plus, remember that lava will destroy any items that fall into it, so be careful if you decide to use lava to hunt mobs. Some may deem cooking raw meat normally far more useful due to the massive amounts of fuel they may possess. Coal is easily obtained anywhere, and blaze rods are easily obtained through a blaze farm. The time required to cook it could be bypassed by farming, mining, etc.

Be careful using these methods if it concerns a chicken, cow or pig farm, since you might kill all your flock/cattle and you need at least 2 of each for reproduction.

Beware of the durability level, too. If it goes down, you'll need to waste another iron ingot on it, not to mention a flint, too.

Don't kill sheep if you have shears
Sheep drop only 1 block of wool when you kill them. If you have shears, you can right-click on a sheep with shears which will give you 1-3 blocks of wool and also you would do a deed of kindness. Not only that, if you right-click a sheep with a dye in your hand, the color of the sheep will change to that color. Sheep eat grass to re-grow their wool, and will have the same color they had before. This makes wool of all different colours renewable. Note that baby sheep cannot be sheared.

Don't make too many planks
Think of your stack of logs as a "compressed" version of a stack of planks. As soon as you make planks, your wood takes up four times the room. You could also need to make charcoal if there is a coal shortage and a low supply of logs, however this is pointless if there is a forest nearby.

Similarly, don't make too many sticks. If you have a lot of extra planks, turning them into sticks will double the amount of space they consume and lower their usefulness (if your planks have been turned into sticks, then you can't craft a new chest for your ridiculous amount of sticks).

Don't use gold as your Tools or Armor
Even though gold tools do work much faster than diamonds, they have really very low durability. So rely on iron tools and armor. Iron tools and armor are important for Survival Mode until you find enough diamonds to craft diamond tools and armor. Other than that, you can rely on gold for powered rails, gold blocks and a clock.
 * Unless you have a gold farm. If you do, then gold becomes an infinite resource.


 * Gold is also better than Leather armor in all cases, so if you don't have enough Iron to make a full set of armor, Gold is good for your helmet or boots.


 * Gold tools could possibly replace diamonds if you cannot find diamonds.

Don't use Glass carelessly
Glass doesn't drop itself when broken, so if you change your mind on creating a window, you just lost glass. If an NPC Village is not nearby, lost Glass can become an issue. Before you place Glass, make sure to use a block substitute such as Iron Bars or Leaves instead of Glass. It's also important to not hold glass in the hotbar unless you plan to use it soon. This is the same with Glass Panes.

Don't use an axe on leaves
Using an axe on leaves is a bad idea, because it will drain the uses your axe has. If you use it on all of the leaves on a tree, not even an iron axe will last very long. It is just as fast to use your fists, or any non tool items, so never use an axe on a leaf. However, the tools that are made for leaves are shears, which can be used to collect placeable leaf blocks, and swords. However, these leaf blocks could potentially hog up your inventory, so you may not want to do this, unless you wish to make a structure/hedge out of leaves. If you'll be cutting through a lot of leaves, you may choose to make a few disposable stone swords to use as machetes; this also works on the cobwebs you find in abandoned mineshafts.

Don't use the wrong tool for the job
Using a pickaxe on dirt or wood will only waste the uses on the pickaxe. Avoid using anything other than a sword or bow on a monster, for the same purpose. Instead of using a pickaxe on gravel, break the bottom piece of gravel and place a torch quickly to mine all of the gravel in a vertical line. And avoid wasting valuable diamonds on a shovel or hoe when a shovel breaks quickly and even a stone hoe can till dirt in the blink of an eye. Note that if you use a tool to hit a mob (ex. killing a mob with an axe) it takes 2 uses for one hit!

Don't attack tiny slimes with a sword
Tiny slimes have the lowest health in the game - so low that they can be taken down with a single punch. They also deal no damage. Knowing this, you shouldn't waste your sword on them because it's unnecessary, and will waste your sword's durability. This doesn't apply if you need slimeballs and you have a diamond sword.

Don't shoot paintings or minecarts
Don't shoot these items. They count as entities, and as such the arrow will disappear if you shoot it.

Don't make a hoe out of anything other than stone or wood
Although it may be tempting to have a diamond (or gold) hoe, don't! Any hoe can till a dirt block at the blink of an eye. The only thing you can gain with making hoes out of minerals better than stone is durability, but since wood and stone are both renewable, making a hoe out of rare materials is a waste. In the early game, stone is the optimum material for hoes. If you are like many players, you may find yourself with a surplus of iron after several hours of game play. If you intend to build a VERY large farm, making an iron hoe will save you a lot of time, running back and forth to make hoes. In this case, an iron hoe is a good idea. But if you are building a small or medium sized farm, stick to cobblestone. Having a diamond hoe is considered being "high class" so if you have a lot of diamonds, it does have some bragging rights.

Don't throw away valuable equipment that has lost most of its durability
None of us want tools that are about to lose durability. So, many of us just throw them out, even if they are valuable. It's a big mistake! For example, let's say a zombie attacked you while you were wearing diamond armor, and the armor lost most of its durability. DON'T THROW IT OUT. Yes, just think about all your hard work and the diamonds you wasted. It still has some use! Shears with less durability has some use! You can get more wool! (But don't collect leaves!) Same goes for tools. You could also use them to repair other armor with powerful enchantments or low durability. And anyway, It's always good to have an extra pair of tools in a chest in case you die and lose your stuff.

The downside of using objects with a low durability is that they may break whilst being used. This is a problem especially for weapons and armour. This inconvenience can be mitigated without disposing of the equipment: if worn out equipment is stored while new items are being used, the pieces of equipment can be combined later.

Don't immediately throw away your items with lesser value
Admit it. We don't want our chests hogged up with less valuable items right? You think in your mind: "Just throw it into lava." Don't make that mistake! Items made of materials with lesser values still have a use. Also, all that cobblestone that filled 500 chests in your storage room still has a use. Cobblestone can fit great with mossy cobblestone when building a fake jungle temple, and can make great emergency tools. Even though it has a lesser value with not much durability, it still has some use in it. So you tried to mine a bookshelf and it dropped 3 books only, you think it is useless. THINK AGAIN. If you throw them out, then you cannot craft a new bookshelf. If you got leftover glowstone dust, then don't throw them away! You can use them for crafting! Think about what you are throwing away before you do.

Don't turn all of your cobblestone into stone bricks
Don't do this, just in case your pickaxe breaks and you have no cobblestone. Stone bricks cannot be crafted into a pickaxe and just think about all of your cobblestone you wasted. You need them to make stone pickaxes. You can place the blocks and break them to obtain cobblestone, but you'll waste your coal.

Don't throw away your tools
You might need extra tools as backups, if any of your tools break you may need an extra. If you had 1 pickaxe and it broke, you have to stop mining and go to your base/home and get the supplies you need. The exception would be wooden tools - they're slow, they break easily, and you usually still have a few from your first day lying around. It's not a bad idea to get rid of those; however, you could put them in a chest as a trophy to remember you survived your first day.

Don't use shears to collect too many leaves (or vines)
Shears are made for collecting plants like leaves, vines, and grass. But don't collect too many, as they will hog up your inventory. It is better to have a "leaf chest" where you hold all the leaves you collect with your shears. Another thing is that each time you collect a plant with the shears, it tweaks the shears a little more every time. If you collect several stacks of leaves and you don't know what to do with them, you will have just wasted 2 iron ingots. You could have used those ingots for something else.

Don't hog up your inventory
Don't do this or you can't get any more stuff. Lava is a good thing to destroy the annoying circling items on the ground, but it destroys the item and it's a waste of rare stuff. A better alternative, is Cactus. Cacti can destroy items more reliably than lava, as items in lava can bounce back and you might pick them up. However, in this situation, it is a horrible idea since you might mistake for a diamond and it doesn't bounce back from cacti or fire. Don't forget a lot of wooden planks (like 64) to make chests or you have to go back towards you home again to empty your inventory into the chests and you might lose your cave by griefers which blocks caves by covering them with soil/grass block, or you might forget to make a trail of torches, or you make multiple paths of torches and you will go to the wrong cave and then you have to make a new mineshaft to mine resources again. What a waste of time and resources.

Don't use all of your string just to make bows
String can also be used to make wool.

Never ever EVER EVER EVER delete your world if you lost everything under any circumstances!
So you have done well in survival mode. You have diamond armor, diamond tools, diamonds, gold and iron. All it takes is one careless mistake to all be naught. If you and us had that mistake, then we will delete our world! DON'T DO THIS. It's a very big mistake! If we did this, then not only our hard work is naught, but we will lose our precious castle, land and friends forever!!! The only way to solve this is to open up your world and continue playing. You may have lost a number of items, but if you have been storing resources at your base, you should be able to bounce back quickly.

Minecraft is a game of exploration and discovery. Take the opportunity to discover new sources of diamonds, gold and iron. Iron in particular is very plentiful, and if you already have a base and some mines started, it should be easy to gather enough materials for a full suit of armor and a sword.

Don't use your last arrow on anything other than a skeleton unless you have the materials to make them
If you have a bow, it is vital to surviving, especially when dealing with creepers and spider jockeys. If you are on your last arrow, do not use it on anything other than a skeleton, unless you have a great amount of flint, sticks, and feathers. This is because skeletons are the only mobs that most likely drop arrows. If you don't have any chickens, gravel, trees, or villages around then it would be very hard to get more.

Don't play with fire
This is a no-brainer. Fire, wood and leaves result in even more fire! Fire can destroy chunks of forests, as well as accidentally burning down part of your house. Follow what Smokey the Bear says: "Only you can prevent wildfires."

Also, never, ever carry a bucket of lava in the hotbar unless you're about to use it! You should even avoid carrying flint and steel in the hotbar, at least when you're in a forest or other flammable area. If you are making use of lava or flint and steel, have a bucket of water handy. Then, if you make a mistake (we all do), you can quickly put out the flames. You can also try to punch the fire when it's created, and it will be immediately extinguished (hopefully it hasn't spread already).

Don't use 9 pieces of coal when you can craft them into a Block of Coal
Nine pieces of Coal burns for 720 seconds while a Block of Coal, which can be crafted with 9 coal, burns for 800 seconds. Effectively, this gives you one item worth of free fuel.

Don't build a house with blocks that can easily be destroyed by creepers or TNT
Speaking about blocks, cobblestone is a cheap material and has a blast resistance of 30, but it can be destroyed by TNT or creepers. End stone has a blast resistance of 47, but it can still be blown up. That includes other blocks below the blast resistance of 500. Use obsidian or if you are in creative mode, use bedrock. Be careful about building, don't use blocks under the blast resistance of 500! They may look very ugly and bad, but they are very strong and it is a small step of improving it. However, for aesthetic purposes, using obsidian and bedrock may be unfeasible. Also, it looks ugly to most players, thus, players will hate your base. Also, your bedrock/obsidian base makes players think you are a very bad builder. In that case, just be careful. An easy solution to this problem is to cover up the resistant block with your favorite building block. But, make sure you have enough to spare, because it will take a lot more blocks to build a cover for your house than it did to build your house.

Don't build houses mainly out of obsidian
Yes, obsidian is blast proof and protective for bases. It also has some disadvantages too.
 * Obsidian can be only obtained (slowly) with a diamond pickaxe. Thus, if you can't find diamonds, then too bad. You could also pour lava (source blocks) and convert them to obsidian with a water bucket, but that's equally time-consuming.
 * Also, it is rare because there is no End, meaning there are no End Spikes (Obsidian Pillars) since they are a good source of obsidian.



Don't make a fireplace in a flammable house
Fireplaces look very nice, especially in homes made of logs or planks. However, you are discouraged to do so, because of the chance of the fire spreading. You can, however, build a fireplace and make sure no flammable blocks are around (at least six blocks away). However, be aware this is not foolproof and your house may still catch on fire. Fires don't spread forever, but fire can still destroy a good chunk of your home.

Hint: Make a fireplace ONLY with non-flammable blocks. Or just use a furnace or a torch if you don't want to risk.

Don't grief up your spawn place
If you want to play with TNT, please don't use your spawn place for this. If you die and have not made or slept in a bed, you will spawn at this place, so if you dug where you spawn, you will fall to the bottom of the hole, take fall damage and may not be able to get out as you have no pick or materials. And always remember to mark the spawn point when spawning into a new world! You can always create a new world in creative mode to prevent this.

Try not to live in certain biomes
Some biomes are better to live in than others. Oceans are, of course, not advisable to build a beginner house in, due to the lack of trees, materials, or caves, however for advanced builders the flat aspect and monochrome surroundings might fit into their design. This also goes for the desert and mesa biomes, while both devoid of trees are generally a flat biomes, and is the perfect setting for pyramids and other exotic builds. The swamp and extreme hills biomes are not recommended as build sites due to witch and slime spawns in the former and long drops and few trees in the latter. However, an extreme hills biome makes a great spot for building an epic house in Creative. The snow biome will periodically develop a layer of snow over dwellings, so build at your own risk. The jungle biome, while full of trees, is hard to build in due to crowding, and can be very dangerous to navigate at night. The plains, birch, flower, and standard forests, savannas, deep forests, mega taigas, and taigas due to being non-snowpacked, biomes are typically recommended for beginner players due to the availability of resources and spawn rates of friendly mobs. Many Biome variants and technical biomes are suitable too. See biomes for more. Mushroom biomes are deceptive. No monsters can spawn, and mooshrooms make infinite food sources with bowls, but you can't grow trees easily, and mobs can still cross over from other biomes.

Don't venture out at night in certain biomes
Some biomes are better when venturing out at night and the forest and jungle biomes and roofed forest biomes are the worst. It's crowded and a creeper can corner you to a tree, roofed forest biomes can let hostile mobs spawn as it's often very dark. The extreme hills are not recommended due to long drops, although it is very easy to stay on top of a mountain, and punch mobs off the cliff. The swampland is also not recommended, but for advanced gamers it's the second best, due to slimes, and slimeballs create leads, sticky pistons, and slime blocks, also there are a fair amount of trees. That also goes for the taiga biome. Snow hills biome are the second worst due to multiple hills and you can get lost. The desert biome is also not advised due to the sheer number of mobs that seem to spawn in it. There may be plenty of areas to run, but skeletons can keep shooting you from quite a distance, and you may get surrounded. Not to mention the cacti all over the place that you may stumble backwards into when fighting several mobs in front of you. If you're up for a challenge however go right ahead and take the night by storm. Plains are one of the best due to no obstruction, and the lower mob count however there are to many caves and hostile mobs can come out and attack you. Mushroom biomes are the best biome to live in as no hostile mobs will spawn and you have unlimited food with the giant mushrooms dropping tiny mushrooms and can be crafted in to mushroom stew. Mooshrooms drop raw beef and leather and can be sheared to get 5 red mushrooms and "bowling" them with an bowl will give you mushroom soup.

Don't be careless with your new pet wolf
A tamed wolf can be very useful. It can give you a hand when fighting mobs, create guards, or just keep you company when lonely. It can be easy to forget to make your wolf sit down when not using it since it will kill any mob you punch possibly resulting in your farm that was once teeming with animals to end up empty. Also when you are attacked by a mob or player, the wolf will stand up and come to you. That can be annoying when you are miles away from your house. After you spend enough time with your wolves, you are less likely to make those mistakes but still don't get too careless! Try to befriend two wolves and then start breeding them to ensure you can easily replace a wolf who didn't have the same survival instinct that you do. Beware walking on ice though, because if you get too far away the wolf will teleport to you, and end up trapped under the ice, and will drown.

Don't adventure from your home without a few essential items
It's important to be prepared if you want to go adventuring. There are a few things that you will always need to carry with you after you leave your base.

General

 * Substantial armor
 * A good sword
 * Pickaxe
 * Optional bow and arrows, but recommended for killing skeletons
 * Stack of dirt or cobblestone
 * Water bucket
 * Food
 * Torches
 * Compass and/or map (if you plan to just explore)
 * Bed
 * Crafting table, trust me this will come in handy, especially at night

Stronghold

 * Substantial armor, diamond armor recommended
 * A great sword, diamond recommended
 * Bow, at least a few stacks of arrows recommended
 * Food
 * At least a stack of torches.

Mining

 * A shovel (For underground dirt and gravel patches.)
 * A substantial set of armor
 * A pickaxe to mine the goods
 * A sword
 * A stack of torches
 * A few wood planks or blocks (for crafting more tools or torches if needed)
 * A furnace
 * A few pieces of coal or charcoal  (about 10-15, for fuel)
 * A chest (to places the goods in)
 * Food
 * A stack or so of cobblestone/dirt in case you need to build up
 * A bucket of water
 * A bed (It's a good idea to set up a small room to sleep in if you plan to mine for a long period of time)
 * Dirt. This common resource may seem useless, but in can be used to mark a point or to scale walls. It is cheaper than both signs and ladders.

Abandoned Mineshafts

 * A bow and/or sword, preferably iron or above.
 * Iron or better pickaxes, at least two.
 * A stack of some kind of blocks.
 * Buckets.
 * Shears to cut cobwebs
 * Iron armor, diamond armor is recommended though.

Don't pass a chance to settle down in a village
Villages are DIAMOND MINES. They have farms if you're hungry. They have a population. They have non-hostile villagers. Villages are very good for players. They give shelter to the people without it, and a town. They also give you something to build on! Make a pool, a garden. Turn it into a city, while you have no effort building a home first. And don't forget, if there is a blacksmith's, there is a chest with something of use inside it! But first, before you settle down, try these things: - If you have pets, especially young pups and kittens, board up the blacksmith's lava with cobblestone or iron bars. That way, they can't be hurt in the lava. - All villages have wells. Board them up, otherwise pets can get stuck or drown. Look at your house. A villager won't settle down if you don't make it sustainable to them. Also, there is a chance that a village's well will have a stronghold, although the chance of this happening is only 1/100, even though according to the community, there are 3 of them in one world.

Don't be afraid to take a little damage
If you are in peaceful, you regenerate lost hearts quickly. Perhaps jumping down that mountain is a safer option than taking ages to build your way down when night is about to fall. If you have lots of useful stuff with you, such as diamonds, it might be better to put them in a chest and come back for it later, as jumping off something higher than 24 blocks will kill you (except if there is water underneath). Letting a creeper blow up can be useful when mining. If you have very heavy armor, you can use a Creeper to "Creeper Jump" if you have good armor and block with your sword. You'll take a little to a lot of damage, but sometimes it's worth it. What's better: an explosion in the ground, losing 2 hearts, and jumping on top of your house and be safe from the mob ambush, or fighting a mob army and losing around 8?

Don't use dyed wool to make a Bed
Another obvious one. Any beds you make turn out red (there's no textures for colored beds... yet!) regardless of wool color. You end up wasting dye for no reason at all.

Exception: Naturally dyed sheep. If you find one of these, the above doesn't matter, you didn't put anything into it, so why would you worry?

Always carry a Pickaxe and a Sword
If you are going to venture far away from your house, Always carry wood, a crafting table, a furnace, a pick, and a sword to mine goods and to protect yourself from Mobs (and you may get a lot of drops)."

Don't get crazy about always following any most of these rules
The people who made this sometimes forget that Minecraft is just a game designed to be fun. If you find some of these rules boring, break them! Always keep in mind that having as much fun as possible is the ultimate goal in Minecraft. As said by Vareide, "With no rules to follow, this adventure, it's up to you."