MINECRAFT EXPLORE

Minecraft is an extremely addictive game in which the player's imagination and creativity are widely rewarded.. This is the simple answer to the question: What is Minecraft?

When you read about the game on most websites or ask gamers who are fans to describe the game to you, the most basic definition of Minecraft you will read and hear is that it is a sandbox-style game of building, survival, and adventure that was envisioned and created by the Swedish code-wizard Markus "Notch" Persson, and is now sold by his company, Mojang with versions for PC and some mobile platforms, and a version for Microsoft's Xbox 360 released in 2012.

A variation of the simple answer I heard from a gamer while I was covering the SecureWorld Expo for work was this: "Minecraft is LEGO for adults!" There is more truth to that than fiction, because in the end for a lot of gamers that is precisely what Minecraft is, and particularly for players who prefer the Creative Mode of game play over Survival Mode.

A more complicated answer to the question of just what is Minecraft requires us to ask yet another question: Have you ever heard of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? This question has far more significance than it might seem, because the answer represents the entire infrastructure of the game philosophy and easily explains why it is as popular as it is.

Abraham Harold Maslow was an American professor of psychology who taught at a number of impressive schools, including Brandeis University, and Columbia University, and also happens to be the man who created Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs -- which if you think about it worked out really well since you know, it was named after him and all

His paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" (written and published in 1943) described his ideas about human developmental psychology, describing the stages of growth in humans. This is really significant because among other things, while Maslow used terms like Physiological, Safety, Belongingness and Love, Esteem, and Self-Actualization needs to describe the pattern that human motivations generally move through, when you break this down to its core components -- and use a pyramid to depict them which, interestingly, Maslow never did -- you generally see them laid out as follows (with the most important at the bottom):

Self-Actualization: Morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving.

Esteem: Self-esteem, confidence, respect of self, respect by others.

Love / Belonging: Friendship, family, sexual intimacy.

Safety: Security of person, resources, morality, the family, health, property.

Physiological: Breathing, shelter, personal safety, food, water, sex, sleep.
 

First we should point out that McDonald's is nowhere on that list, and second, that sex appears in several places, but more important than that, the list begins not at the top but at the bottom -- and the world of Minecraft (minus the sex sadly) is the perfect laboratory to simulate the base for Maslow's hierarchy of needs! That alone makes this one of the most brilliant games ever conceived, because in its simplicity it is an elegant hack that just happens to nail all but one of those base needs to a "T" it does.

Minecraft as a game focuses upon creativity and building, using a variety of textured cubes within its 3D world to allow gamers to create, build, and experiment by finding and using the resources that exist in that world.

Originally it included only the single-player survival mode, but as it approaches its next commercial release on the Xbox 360 LIVE Arcade platform, the game has expanded to include three well-defined modes: Survival, Creative, and Hardcore Survival -- with the third mode basically consisting of the Survival mode but locked on the highest difficulty, and having real consequences for dying in the game.

In Survival mode, the player must construct their own shelter and obtain food to stay alive, while in Creative mode the emphasis is simply to make things -- and when we say make things we do not mean boats, houses, or castles, but THINGS. Devices, contraptions, pig-flinging canon, you name it! The sky is the limit! Literally!

Another interesting aspect of the gaming world and experience that is to be found here is that for the most part it is a game whose fun is created by the gamer -- that is to say that there is no real set way to play it -- it is not a rail-based game, and there is no right way to play. Having said that, gamers who are new to the world of Minecraft will find this guide to be indispensable, because within it you will find the basic information, tips, and tricks as well as pointers towards a more advanced play -- from obtaining the ability to survive to really thriving in this world of basics.

The alpha version of the game was released on May 17th, 2009, and its beta version followed on December 20th, 2010 -- emerging from beta on November 18th, 2011, and quickly gaining wide commercial support from the gaming community that has grown up around it.

Minecraft is available on multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, Linux, Mac OSX, Microsoft Windows, Xperia Play, with a commercial release scheduled on the Xbox 360 console some time in 2012. In addition to the installation-versions, there is also a web-based version that can be played from any browser as long as you own a game license and login.

That tells you all that you need to know -- and now it is time to go out and buy a copy, register it, and create your login -- at the main screen, create a new world in survival mode and tell the game to construct it -- and once it has done that, it is time to play Minecraft.

As you can tell from the by-line, the Unofficial SuperCheats Guide to Minecraft was written as a collaboration between Peter Boots-Faubert, and CM Boots-Faubert. While Chris played the game for the purposes of writing this guide, Peter is a fan of the game, and has been playing it since the release of the second beta version. The game version used for the creation of this guide is the full retail version for Windows PC, played without any mods or added content.

The vast body of the guide was written by Peter, but because it was created through play of the PC version, and because the PC version is at present the dominant version, it was written with a heavy emphasis upon the strategies and play that apply to that version of the game. This was an error that was not caught until the guide was mostly completed, and passed on to Chris to be edited.

The realization that the guide was narrowly structured for the PC version presented something of a quandary because the purpose of this guide in addition to serving as a useful and entertaining reference source for the PC version, is also to serve as the core resource for gamers playing the Xbox 360 version of the game. This is important because while the original PC version of the game is widely popular and enjoys an incredible following among PC gamers, it is one of a handful of PC games whose cross-over appeal convinced console gamers to play it on PC -- though among that community there are plenty of gamers who have vocally pointed out that they are just waiting for the console version of the game to arrive.

That being the case, the discovery that the guide was not structured to allow for the easy integration of and expansion for the console version (Mojang has confirmed that the only version of the game for console play will be on the Xbox 360) the decision was made on the literal day that the guide was supposed to be submitted for publication to recast it completely -- so we tore it apart and rebuilt it in its present form in order to make updating and expanding it later a more workable process.

Having said all of that it behooves us to point out that this fact notwithstanding, our recasting the guide to make the integration of the console version a major element of its focus in no way detracts from its value to players of the PC (Windows and Linux) and mobile versions (and we do plan to expand the content that applies specifically to the mobile versions later).

Some of the versions are more restrictive, some (notably the Linux Version) require the player to have at least a minimum of system and server administrative skills to really get the best out of the game -- but in the end they all share a common thread of strategy and play style that easily translates into one game, one goal, and one voice.

The world of Minecraft is a giant sandbox and can be a scary place when you've just jumped in and don't know what to do. On the first day, you'll have only a few minutes of daylight before the enemy Mobs begin to spawn as night falls. What you do in the first five minutes of gameplay will determine how well you'll be able to survive. Minecraft has no limit to your imagination; you can build your own house out of whatever material you wish. You can make weapons and armour to help protect yourself from mobs. You can make contraptions with the form of electricity known as redstone to kill other players in multi-player mode or to operate an automated farm.

Minecraft was released first as an alpha version on May 17, 2007, for PC. The official "full" release launch was on November 18, 2011. A light version of Minecraft made it to Android devices on October 7, 2011, with an iOS version on November 17, 2011. On May 9, 2012, Minecraft was released on Xbox 360 (co-developed by 4J Studios) as a digital download. It is coming to Xbox One as well with new expanded multiplayer features. By August 2013, Minecraft had sold 8 million copies on Xbox 360 and 11 million copies on PC.

Beginners
If you are new to Minecraft, start with Beginner's Guide, which will walk you through creating the basic necessities for exploring your new world. Once you are comfortable with the basics, move ahead to the Crafting Guide or add your own recipes. One of the most difficult parts for beginners is not having enough items or blocks to craft certain things. In this case, you can use a Minecraft duplication glitch (PS4).

In this Minecraft Wiki, you will find all the hints and tips you need to survive that arduous first day, so you may rest and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Additionally, if you have an interesting Minecraft project, feel free to share it on the Minecraft Projects page. Dont forget to check out the new updates to Minecraft!

Adventure Style
When first beginning a game of Survival or Hardcore (recommended for true adventure style), collect wood from nearby trees. Wood is needed to create a crafting table and a wooden pickaxe. The wooden pickaxe is necessary to harvest cobblestone to create a stone pickaxe and a minimum of 1 furnace, although 3 are recommended. Also useful at the cobblestone level, a stone sword is advised as one needs to tech to iron next, and it is likely that night will come before then, and some degree of protection is advised. After a cobblestone pickaxe is obtained, use it to harvest a minimum of 3 iron ingots and a minimum of 1 coal. It is recommended to harvest 30 iron ingots to create iron armor and an iron sword, along with an iron pickaxe. Next, a minimum of 3 diamonds must be harvested.Then if you find two more make an Enchantment table to enchant a pick of at least iron with fortune for your next vein of diamond. It is recommended to find a naturally occurring cave or fissure that drops to the last 16 levels of the world. It is also recommended to look around lava, because you will see more open rock at once. It has never been proven or confirmed that diamonds are generated more around lava pools. Remember, upon finding diamonds, dig around them first to ensure that they won't fall into lava and burn. A bucket of water is found to be very useful as one bucket can diffuse an entire lake of lava, and still retain the bucket. If 2 more diamonds can be found, it is recommended to craft a diamond sword. If you happen to find any more, you could use them to make an Enchantment Table. Once a minimum of 3 diamonds have been harvested, craft a diamond pickaxe. If still in the bowels of the world, it is likely obsidian may have been spotted. A minimum of 10 obsidian must be harvested to create a frame for a nether portal. If you collected those extra diamonds, take 4 more pieces. You'll need them to make the rest of the game easier. Once a minimum of 10 obsidian has been harvested, return to the surface, collecting 1 flint from gravel on the journey up. 1 iron ingot will also be needed.

Once breathing fresh air again, decide whether to collect ender pearls or collect blaze rods first. Note that Ender pearls can aid in traversing nether terrain, however ender pearls are valuable resources. If you decided to harvest ender pearls, Aim for a bare minimum of 12, though a highly recommended number is between 15 and 20. If you chose to collect blaze rods, proceed to build a nether portal frame, and craft a flint and steel. Using 10 obsidian blocks to build a portal simply negates the use of the corners of a proper frame. It is also recommended to have a stack of dirt or cobblestone to use as markers when venturing through the nether. Activate the portal with the flint and steel, and enter the nether. Once in the nether, locate a nether fortress, proceed to locate Blazes, and neutralize them until you have harvested enough blaze rods to account for half of the ender pearls you have/plan on having. It is recommended to obtain 10 blaze rods. 1 blaze rod will create 2 blaze powder. Once ender pearls and blaze powder have been obtained, combine the two to create eyes of ender. 12 are necessary to activate an empty frame, though most frames have 1 to 2 frames already filled. Launch an eye of ender to obtain a starting direction, and head that way. Launch another eye of ender once in a while to ensure the correct path is being followed, and that the nearest portal hasn't been passed. Ensure that the eyes are recollected at every given chance. When an eye heads into the ground, a portal has been located. At this point, one can attempt to find a cave that leads to the stronghold (true adventure style), or mine a spiral stair all the way down, so as to avoid digging straight down. Try to avoid falling into the pit of lava which is found under every portal. Once the portal has been physically located, activate every frame and the portal to the end will be revealed. Enter and prepare for a long and somewhat uneventful fight. A bow and 64 or more arrows are recommended, along with a pumpkin used as a helmet. 

Fighting the dragon is relatively easy. Use arrows or snowballs to shoot the floating blocks on the towers, or ender pearls to teleport on top of the towers and destroy the blocks. This is necessary as even one block left alive will keep the dragon alive. Once the blocks are destroyed, all damage negated from the dragon will not return. Kill the dragon and finish Minecraft!
Step 1: Building the Nether Portal

After you have played in a Minecraft world for a while, hopefully you have acquired at least four iron ingots along the way, whether you smelted them or found them in a chest. You will need to craft three of the ingots into at least one bucket that will be used to create Obsidian for a Nether portal. The only other way to make a Nether portal without buckets involves mining already-created Obsidian with a diamond pickaxe. Acquire a piece of flint as well.

The easiest way to make a Nether portal without a diamond pickaxe:

1) With your iron, craft a bucket. One bucket is all you need, but the more buckets you have, the more efficient this job is going to be.

2) Fill a bucket with lava. If you have more than one, fill all but one with lava, and the last one with water.

3) Make the shape below using Dirt and Lava.

4) Place water over the lava blocks. The lava should have turned to obsidian. If it turned to cobblestone, then the lava was flowing and not a solid source block.

5) Place on the top of the previous blocks following:

6) Place water over the two lava blocks.

7) Do step 5 and 6 two times more on top of the current layer.

8) Finish the top with a shape similar to the bottom.

9) Remove all dirt blocks. From the side, it should look something like this.

10) Make a flint and steel with your flint and iron and use it to light the portal.

Step 2: The Nether
First of all, gear up. The nether is extremely dangerous, especially with all the lava and the creepy hostile mobs. Pack away anything unrelated to weapons and food.
Enter The Nether by standing in your portal.
Look around. Familiarize yourself with the surroundings. Watch out for Ghasts and other hostile mobs. Attention: If you have just begun this world and you are not familiar with many things of the nether, do not go on. Head back and do more mining.

Explore the nether until you find some blazes. This would be easiest if you find a Nether Fortress as these often have blaze spawners in them. Make sure to mark your trail so you can find your way back. It would be a good idea to use cobblestone, because ghasts can not destroy it. If you need resistant building blocks and are running out of cobblestone, smelting some netherrack for crafting nether bricks can be a good idea.
Defeat them until you have at least sixteen blaze rods. The reason for that is that you will need at least 4 of those for finding The End. It is hard. The rest are for fixing the end portal. This task would be made easier if you had a potion of fire resistance, which requires an additional rod to craft a brewing stand.

Craft the blaze rods into Blaze Powder.
Along the way, be sure to try and kill any Wither Skeletons that you may come across. These are important if you want to try for the other major boss battle in the game, against the Wither.
Try to find Nether quartz ore, if you like to use redstone.

Step 3: Finding a Stronghold and Entering The End
Back in the overworld, find some Endermen and defeat them.
Craft the Ender Pearls you got from the Endermen with the Blaze Powder into Eyes of Ender. You are likely to need a lot.
Throw one of your Eyes of Ender. You do this by right clicking.
The Eye of Ender should fly up in the air. Follow it and when it falls down pick it up and throw it again. If it breaks use another one. The Eye of the Enders should eventually lead you to the Stronghold in which the End Portal is located. Do this until the Eye of Ender goes into the ground.

Do not dig directly down where the eye of ender enters. There is the risk of falling into the pit of lava surrounding the End portal. Other potential methods of going down are Staircase Mining and attempting to find a cave that leads into the Stronghold.
You will come to a stronghold. Search for the room with the end portal. Your Eye of Ender can help if you throw it will lead you directly to the End portal room.
In the room there is a square made out of end portal blocks. Be careful. There is a Silverfish spawner in every End Portal room. Some of the End Portal blocks have Eyes of Ender in the top. Right click on the ones which don't have an eye of ender. This will consume the eye of ender. Do this on all the blocks without an Eye of Ender already. A portal should form.

Jump into The End portal. Make sure you are prepared, because you can not get back out until you destroy the Ender Dragon! (Of course, suicidal actions like falling into the Void will also put you back into the over-world.)

Step 4: Killing the Ender Dragon
For a full guide, see: Tutorials/Ender dragon slaying
At this point, you are in The End. It is made up of end stone and is filled with endermen. There is also a single Ender Dragon flying around, assuming this is your first time in The End in that world. Note that you can come back to The End at any time after you have killed the Ender Dragon, and it will not have re-spawned. You can not get out of The End until you destroy the Ender Dragon.

Destroy all the Ender Crystals with a bow, snowballs, or another projectile. This is because the Ender Crystals will heal the Ender Dragon. You could destroy them by hitting them with a sword, but they explode when destroyed so it is best to destroy them from afar. If for some reason you do not have a bow or snowballs, you can use ladders or Ender Pearls to get to the top of the obsidian towers. You can also 'climb' up with Water.

Now you have to defeat the Ender Dragon. This is the hardest task, as an Ender Dragon has 100 hearts and can deal a large amount of damage. You will see a bar at the top showing the Ender Dragon's health. You must also be wary of Endermen, which are very abundant in The End. It is wise to wear a Pumpkin as a helmet, (so the Endermen don't bother you) and at least one piece of Diamond Armor. The best way to damage the Ender Dragon is with a bow and arrows, so having at least one stack of arrows just for the Ender Dragon is recommended. Enchanting a bow with the "Infinity" enchantment removes worry of running out of arrows, allowing you to focus on defeating the Dragon. When the dragon gets low on health it will fly to the middle and sit on the end fountain. When the dragon is sitting on the End Fountain, it is immune to projectile damage, so you must hit it with a sword to kill it.

When it dies, it will burst into lights and disintegrate, dropping lots and lots of experience. An End Portal will appear below its death location. A Dragon Egg will also appear, which you can collect with a piston or other method.

Step 5: Finishing Off the End
Collect the Dragon Egg. Currently there is no purpose for the Dragon Egg, besides keeping it as a keepsake.
Jump into the End Portal, the ending story will be displayed.
Read the story, the credits and the quote. If you do not want to read all this, press escape.

Step 6: Prepare For the Wither
Get your strongest and most protective bows, swords and armor, enchant them to the max. Bring 2 stacks of arrows, unless your bow has Infinity, in which case you only need one arrow.
Brew Swiftness, Regeneration, Throw-able Healing potions. And Strength.
Jump into a Nether portal and find a Nether Fortress.
Slay as many Wither Skeletons as you need until you get three Wither Skeleton Skulls. It is advisable to carry and use Looting swords, as they increase the chance of getting a skull.
Go mine some soul sand. You'll see why in a moment!

Step 7: Creating the Wither
Pick a suitable spot for the boss fight. It should be far away from any of your creations or buildings.
Place four soul sand in a "T" shape, then place two of the skulls that you obtained earlier on top. Do not place the last skull on top until you are prepared to fight.

Step 8: Fighting the Wither
The Wither will be immune to attacks for a few seconds, when it is blue. After the health bar is filled up, the Wither will release a massive explosion.
It shoots Wither skulls, both of which inflict the Wither II effect on Normal or above. The black skulls create explosions that are similar to that of a Creeper. The blue skulls create a special explosion which can destroy obsidian. It is advised to bring a bow as the wither flies around often out of the player’s reach. The wither can heal itself by draining the health of passive mobs, so keep far away from large groups of them.

Once half its health is drained, an effect called Wither Armor comes onto the Wither. It is represented by white stripes on the Wither, which protects it from projectile attacks. When hit with a sword, the Wither Armor glows red. This status also negates its ability to fly, so the arrows aren’t necessary anyway.

Step 9: Completing the Game
Once the Wither is slain, it will drop 50 experience and 1 Nether Star. This is used to craft a Beacon. Check out the page to see how it works, and how it is crafted.
Once you've defeated the Wither and crafted a beacon, you have officially completed Minecraft! Congratulations!

Step 10: The Ocean Monument (Optional)
In the middle of a vast ocean, there may lie a gigantic ocean monument, with treasures of Gold Blocks and Wet Sponges. The mobs inside are dangerous, however.
It is recommended to come with Protection III or higher Diamond Armor, Night Vision Potions, Regeneration, Water Breathing, and the Depth Strider enchantment on your boots.
The Guardians inside are formidable with their lasers and all, but the true challenges are the Elder Guardians. They prevent you from mining the treasures before you defeat all the Elder Guardians in the structure due to a Mining Fatigue Effect.
The gold blocks inside can be used to create an Enchanted Golden Apple (does not work on pc), so this can be done before fighting the Wither.