The first night in the Minecraft world has the same importance as the first day. But in the night darkness we should choose different actions than in the daylight. We cannot walk around in locations under the sky, because a lot of monsters are waiting for a fresh meat. It is better to keep hiding in our cozy cave and only sometimes give glance outside.
But what to do during a long nighttime? Of course, you can make a bed for your character and a night will be finished with just few seconds – the hero lies on his bed and almost immediately wakes at a morning. By this token, a bed will be good decision for many situations in the full Minecraft game. For example, if your hero will perish, he’ll appear not in a first spawn place, but near the bed made before, and on which he slept last time. Put a bed in a cave near a chest with stock of tools and materials, and you’ll continue the game not barehanded, and don’t lose caves or buildings, which already made. Also, while the hero sleeps on a bed, his hearts of health are restoring.
To craft a bed you need wool blocks. To collect them use a shears. To craft a shears you have to find iron ore blocks and smelt iron ingots. It is activity not for the first night – you’ll learn how to make a bed further in the tutorial series. Meanwhile, this period of the free Minecraft Demo is the good time to learn how to craft tools in the game.
Crafting is the basic skill in Minecraft. Without it you just can’t have as much fun, as the game can really give. The first thing you will need for crafting is a crafting table. To make it open the inventory window (push the E button). Here you can see all the stuff you already have in the game. For creation a crafting table you need 4 pieces of wooden planks. Usually in the Minecraft Demo they are given in the bonus chest. Also you can make them in the inventory window from any kind of wood. Just put a wood block in a cell of the crafting window. It automatically makes 4 blocks of wooden planks.
To make a crafting table put one block of wooden planks in every of four cells of the crafting window. On a PC use both of mouse buttons in the process of crafting: the left one is used to take or to put all stuff in a cell, the right one is used to take only a one piece or to put half of a taken stuff in an empty cell.
Take the table and put it in an empty inventory cell. Close the inventory (by pushing the E button again), take the crafting table in the character’s hand (by pushing a corresponding button 1-9), choose a corner in your cave and tap with the right mouse button on an empty place.
To open the workspace of a crafting table tap on it with the right mouse button. You will see the crafting window bigger than in the usual inventory. It gives a possibility to use more items and to craft with them more different stuff.
Here are few useful crafting recipes to explore at the first night! For all of them you need sticks (sticks used very often). You can make sticks from any kind of wooden planks. To craft sticks use this recipe:
How to craft a pickaxe in Minecraft?
You can use this very popular tool to dig mines and to collect blocks. A Minecraft pickaxe can be made of different materials. In the first night, after making a cave, you likely have wood and some stones. So, let’s look on the recipes of the pickaxes! Just place the items in the crafting window like on the pictures:
How to craft a shovel in Minecraft?
This tool is very good to dig the ground and to collect dirt or other soft blocks. Recipes of wooden and stone shovels are on the next pictures:
How to craft an axe in Minecraft?
This tool is very useful to cut down trees. An axe can help also in other situations. For example, it destroys chests and crafting tables very fast – they become small and you can put them in your inventory to take with you to any other place. To craft the axes use these recipes:
How to craft the torches in Minecraft?
In the darkness of caves and mines you will need the light of torches to see objects and to scare monsters. To craft a torch we need only two components: a stick and coal. Instead of natural coal you can use charcoal. The recipes of torches are:
How to make charcoal in the Minecraft game?
Going deeper in a mine, use torches to light your way. If you will find coal, come to the crafting table and make a reserve of torches.
In the situation, when you cannot find coal and your torches are already finished, make charcoal in a furnace! First of all you will need a furnace itself. You can craft it from 8 blocks of cobblestone on a crafting table. This material easy to find and likely you have already collected it during digging the ground. Put cobblestone to the crafting window, like is shown on the picture:
In Minecraft we use a furnace very often to smelt different blocks. For example, blocks of any ore may be transformed into ingots. To make charcoal you have to smelt wood blocks with any type of fuel (wood blocks, wooden planks, coal).
Take the furnace in the hand and tap on any empty space with the right mouse button. It will be good to put a furnace near a crafting table or always carry them both with you in your inventory.
Tap with the right mouse button on the furnace. The smelting window will be opened. In the cells for fuel and for smelting material put few pieces of wood. The process of smelting begins automatically. When charcoal will be ready, move it to your inventory and use in a crafting table to produce more torches. You can keep a furnace working and go in depths of your mines to look for useful blocks.
Where to find coal in Minecraft?
It is very good activity for the first night – after crafting tools use them in your mine. Just dig the ground in a cave and you will find a lot of coal blocks very soon (coal is the very common material in Minecraft). Collect not only coal, but all materials you have found. It will be very nice to find iron, because all iron tools are stronger than wooden or stone ones.
Safety regulations in Minecraft!
While digging a mine, remember three simple safety regulations. It is necessary to save a life of your character.
- First – never dig just under the guy. There may be a large hollow, he may fall in it and die.
- Second – never dig just over the character. There may be a gravel block. It always falls on an empty space and if your hero stays there, he may die.
- And third - remember about monsters! They live not only outside, in the night darkness, but also in dungeons. If during digging of a mine you’ll hear a roar, it means you are very close to a hollow in the virtual ground. Maybe a zombie waits behind a next block to catch the hero! But don’t be scared: usually mobs don’t attack instantly and likely you will have time to close a new entrance in your cave with blocks. Just do it without panic and remember the place or mark it with a torch to find the dungeon when your character will be ready for such an adventure. He will need weapon and armor for it. And don’t stop digging! Just change the direction and make another tunnel.
Mining may be very exciting, but the night comes to the end. The dawn is near and in the day time will be much more interesting to explore the above-ground world. Read about that adventure in our next tutorial "How to play Minecraft free. The second day"!
