I decided to explore the cave I saw to the east of the spawn point, hoping it would at least provide a good place to build a temporary dwelling. You won't be able to get anywhere in Minecraft without wood, as it is needed to make the Crafting Table, which is required to make tools and numerous other improvements. So, the first step a new Minecrafter usually takes is to punch the **** out of the nearest tree. I happily set to work on this poor guy:
Behind it, I was pleasantly surprised to see a lone pumpkin staring back at me:
I named him "Pumpakin" and promptly punched him too. With my logs and Pumpakin in hand, I moved on to the cave I had seen from the spawn. Unfortunately, I found out it already had a tenant:
Spiders are one of four monsters in the Minecraft main world. They attack by jumping at you and recently were given the terrifying ability to scale vertical walls. Luckily this one seemed unable to climb out of its hole, so I opted to leave it there while I turned the cave into a home. It may be hard to make out in the screenshot, but the spider was standing on a block of coal. Coal is essential in Minecraft because it is one of two things required to make torches. Torches, in turn, are the primary source of light in the Minecraft world. They are used to light up dark caves and the night landscape in order to keep off the scary, monster-spawning darkness. I used the wood from my tree to create a Crafting Table, and set to work on some interior renovations to my cave-home. I first would need a pickaxe to take care of the stone, as stone takes forever to remove with hands. First, one needs sticks to make the handle for tools. The raw log blocks one receives from trees converts into four blocks of wood each, and four sticks are made from two blocks of wood:
A pickaxe is crafted by using two sticks and three blocks of either wood, stone, or the more rare ores. Since all I had at this point was wood, I made a pair of wood pickaxes:
I proceeded to make my home a little more... spacious:
Meanwhile, the gross spider seemed to have buzzed off to a darker, more evil section of this dark-ass cave. So, I decided to jump down and mine the coal from where I had first seen the spider, as the last few rays of sunshine faded:
I had enough reclaimed stone from my "renovations" to build a staircase back up. Using my coal, I could now craft some torches to keep my home monster-free and bright:
I also crafted a stone sword for protection from the baddies in the cave and outside:
Armed with my sword and torches, I ventured a short ways deeper into the dark cave. I saw no immediate monster threats, and at least one block of iron ore (the silverish block on the right):
I'll have to explore that a bit later, though. In the meanwhile I had finished walling up the cave and put up a door:
I also put Pumpakin on guard duty facing the scary darkness:
Feeling emboldened by my success up to this point, I decided to go outside and see what I monsters I could see creeping about. Bad idea; zombie stealth attack:
I managed to fight him off and grab the feathers he dropped (I'm still not sure why zombies drop feathers....) However, he had managed to hit me a couple of times, and I was now wounded. I decided I wasn't feeling so brave after all, and went back inside to wait out the night. A bit later, I heard a skeleton knocking on my door. Skeletons are another hostile Minecraft monster that spawn in darkness. They attack by shooting arrows, and I have the absolute worst time with them. However, I knew I had the upper hand and I obligingly opened the door and proceeded to murder him with my sword:
So there you have it. I've survived half of one night in Minecraft. When the sun rises, I'll have to hunt for food and then start exploring deeper in the cave. That's all for now.
~It appears that I may have forgotten to scale the larger images, a mistake I won't make again. For now, though, it seems like the oversized images aren't causing any problems, so I'll leave these up.~
Behind it, I was pleasantly surprised to see a lone pumpkin staring back at me:
I named him "Pumpakin" and promptly punched him too. With my logs and Pumpakin in hand, I moved on to the cave I had seen from the spawn. Unfortunately, I found out it already had a tenant:
Spiders are one of four monsters in the Minecraft main world. They attack by jumping at you and recently were given the terrifying ability to scale vertical walls. Luckily this one seemed unable to climb out of its hole, so I opted to leave it there while I turned the cave into a home. It may be hard to make out in the screenshot, but the spider was standing on a block of coal. Coal is essential in Minecraft because it is one of two things required to make torches. Torches, in turn, are the primary source of light in the Minecraft world. They are used to light up dark caves and the night landscape in order to keep off the scary, monster-spawning darkness. I used the wood from my tree to create a Crafting Table, and set to work on some interior renovations to my cave-home. I first would need a pickaxe to take care of the stone, as stone takes forever to remove with hands. First, one needs sticks to make the handle for tools. The raw log blocks one receives from trees converts into four blocks of wood each, and four sticks are made from two blocks of wood:
A pickaxe is crafted by using two sticks and three blocks of either wood, stone, or the more rare ores. Since all I had at this point was wood, I made a pair of wood pickaxes:
I proceeded to make my home a little more... spacious:
Meanwhile, the gross spider seemed to have buzzed off to a darker, more evil section of this dark-ass cave. So, I decided to jump down and mine the coal from where I had first seen the spider, as the last few rays of sunshine faded:
I had enough reclaimed stone from my "renovations" to build a staircase back up. Using my coal, I could now craft some torches to keep my home monster-free and bright:
I also crafted a stone sword for protection from the baddies in the cave and outside:
Armed with my sword and torches, I ventured a short ways deeper into the dark cave. I saw no immediate monster threats, and at least one block of iron ore (the silverish block on the right):
I'll have to explore that a bit later, though. In the meanwhile I had finished walling up the cave and put up a door:
I also put Pumpakin on guard duty facing the scary darkness:
Feeling emboldened by my success up to this point, I decided to go outside and see what I monsters I could see creeping about. Bad idea; zombie stealth attack:
I managed to fight him off and grab the feathers he dropped (I'm still not sure why zombies drop feathers....) However, he had managed to hit me a couple of times, and I was now wounded. I decided I wasn't feeling so brave after all, and went back inside to wait out the night. A bit later, I heard a skeleton knocking on my door. Skeletons are another hostile Minecraft monster that spawn in darkness. They attack by shooting arrows, and I have the absolute worst time with them. However, I knew I had the upper hand and I obligingly opened the door and proceeded to murder him with my sword:
So there you have it. I've survived half of one night in Minecraft. When the sun rises, I'll have to hunt for food and then start exploring deeper in the cave. That's all for now.
~It appears that I may have forgotten to scale the larger images, a mistake I won't make again. For now, though, it seems like the oversized images aren't causing any problems, so I'll leave these up.~
