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Minecraft Pocket Edition: 9 basic tips for the Survival Mode

Minecraft Pocket Edition: 9 basic tips for the Survival Mode
Maria Baeta

Maria Baeta

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If you like the original Minecraft,  you’ll love Minecraft Pocket Edition (Android | iOS). That’s because this mobile version is a faithful reproduction of the sandbox builder.

Here are some tips to start your game and master Minecraft Pocket Edition. These tips focus on Survival mode, the challenging game mode that includes monsters, challenges, and limitations.

Collect basic supplies

The first thing to do when starting a Survival game is to gather all the supplies you can. Start by cutting down trees and gathering wood: the first material you can use to build tools.

Build your table and your basic tool kit

Build a crafting table with the wood you collected so you’ll be able to create more complex objects and collect other materials. For example, an ax will make it easier to collect stone, one of the most versatile elements in Minecraft.

Build more advanced elements with stone

Now that you have stronger materials, you can build other basic tools. My recommendation: start with an oven, an ax, a shovel, a pickaxe, and a sword.

Build a hiding place for your first nights

The days in Minecraft go by really quickly. On the first day, while you’re building your table and tools, you won’t have time to build a decent house to spend the night.

Don’t worry, because on the first day you can build a hiding place to escape the monsters, called creepers, that attack at night.

To create a hiding place, just dig a hole in the ground about 10 blocks down. Make it even more secure by surrounding it with torches. Out of sight of monsters and with torches, you’ll avoid unwanted visits and survive your first night.

Just make sure you build this hole so that it’s easy to escape. It would be very sad if you survive the monsters, but die because you trapped yourself.

Build the house of your dreams

Now that you’ve survived the first night, you have more time to build your home. Since the “cave method” can help you survive temporarily, don’t rush building a house Instead, wait to make it safe using a good design and quality building materials. Don’t build a simple log cabin, it will be better if you add other durable materials such as stone.

Look for more advanced resources

Once you’ve created a reasonably decent home, it’s time to seek other useful resources, such as metal or diamond.

Get to know all the monsters

The idea behind these tricks is to help you avoid all threats, but you might still come across some of them. These are the different types of monsters and the best way to protect yourself against them:

Skeletons: Skeletons have unlimited arrows and bows. To get rid of them, attack them with your sword.

Creepers: They explode when you are close to them, so try to stay away from Creepers. To kill them, use your bow and arrows.

Zombies: They are slow creatures that kill by hitting their victims. As with the skeletons, use your sword to get rid of them.

Spiders: Watch out as they hide between blocks to attack you by surprise. The good news is that they only attack at night. Take advantage of daylight to get rid of them.

Use Creative mode to practice

Minecraft Pocket Edition also has a Creative mode in addition to Survival mode. This is a free mode that lets you build at your leisure, without limited materials, and you won’t have to worry about being attacked by monsters.

If you are still a Minecraft newbie, you’ll find the Creative mode very useful to start testing all the possibilities that the game offers and practice the routines you’ll have to use on the Survival mode.

Use Seeds to increase the fun

Seeds are codes you can enter to generate different types of terrain. Test several codes to try different effects, such as a map that’s mostly water or snow or even a floating island.

The Seeds list is almost endless and is updated constantly, so I recommend you to visit pages specialized in them as often as you can. One of the best is the official Minecraft forum.

Play, experiment and have fun

Here are some basic tips to get you started in Minecraft Pocket Edition. But all the adventures and misadventures you’ll experience afterward are up to you: if anything defines Minecraft it’s how every game is different, and guides are really useless. So start playing and try all the available options; you’ll be surprised how many things you can create in the game.

Download Minecraft Pocket Edition: Android | iOS

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Follow me on Twitter: @mariabaeta

Maria Baeta

Maria Baeta

My first computer was an Amstrad CPC 6128 and so began my love for gadgets. Besides tech and games I love music (I'm a singer in two bands of swing, jazz and blues), cinema (watching and writing about it), gastronomy (cooking... but above all eating!) and alternative fashion. Do you follow the cult of The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Great, I'm sure we can get along.

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