Minecraft Recipes For Dummies. Jesse Stay
not assume anything. But because there are so many of you, we have to assume a few things! These are the things you should probably have available, or be familiar with as you go throughout this book:
✔ You have a computer or a mobile device (chances are most of you are playing Minecraft on a mobile device through Minecraft PE)
✔ You know basic skills of accessing the Internet.
✔ If using the PC version, your computer can download and run Java programs.
✔ You have a basic understanding of making your way around Minecraft.
Icons Used in This Book
For your convenience, we’ve placed icons throughout the margins to help you understand more about the content we’re sharing. These are the common icons and how we use them:
Conventions Used in This Book
Throughout the book, you’ll see numbered steps, bullet lists, screen shots, as well as little icons signifying different ingredients for recipes. You may also see web addresses in monotype font that look like this:
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com
Where to Go from Here
This is only the beginning! Remember: the end game is not necessarily the end! Take the things you learn here and explore. Go check out redstone and explore new ways to build advanced circuitry and logic. Build your own worlds! Build a farm! Make your own mods. Quite literally, the world is at your fingertips in Minecraft!
If you really want to take it to another level, we mentioned in the earlier section, “About This Book,” the Minecraft wiki. We also suggest the Facebook Page (http://facebook.com/minecraftrecipes) and YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/minecraftrecipesfd) where we’ll post regular updates of current and new recipe ideas in Minecraft. Come join us (Thomas and sometimes his younger brothers and Jesse) and say hi!
Chapter 1
Getting Started with Recipes
▶ Finding, stocking, and using your inventory
▶ Crafting items you need for the first day and night
▶ Knowing the difference between shape and shapeless crafting
▶ Crafting some basic tools
Minecraft, as its name implies, is about, well, crafting. Minecraft has roughly 180 crafting recipes (and many more in the works), ranging from tools to foods and from household items to magical potions and more. Learning how to craft from essential items to more elaborate redstone recipes helps you survive early in the game and then create a wealthy empire filled with useful and luxury items.
After you create a new world in Minecraft, the first order of business is to survive the first night. A Minecraft day lasts for 20 minutes; you experience 10-minute daytimes and 3 minutes total of sunrise and sunset, during which you can prepare for the 7-minute nights, when dangerous monsters spawn in the darkness.
In this chapter, you find out how the inventory works and how to craft basic items that can help you survive the first Minecraft day. You also see how these items enable you to use increasingly sophisticated materials and craft increasingly complex items.
Devising a Game Plan
After your avatar appears, you need to find a living space with some trees and a suitable (usually flat) area for building.
✔ Crafting table (also known as a workbench), used for building
✔ Storage chest
✔ Shelter with a door
You can also craft useful but non-essential items for the first night:
✔ Wooden and stone tools
✔ Torches
✔ Furnace
✔ Bed
Later sections in this chapter explain how to craft these items.
Using the Inventory
Before you start gathering materials and crafting items, you should know how to manage the Inventory screen. The 9 squares at the bottom of the game screen display items you’ve obtained. For example, if you break a block such as wood or dirt, an item pops out that is automatically picked up, causing it to appear in one of the inventory squares. The row of squares at the bottom of the game screen represents a quarter of the inventory.
To see the entire inventory, as shown in Figure 1-1, press E.
Figure 1-1: The Inventory screen.
You should be familiar with these four components of the inventory:
✔ Inventory slots: The 4 rows of squares at the bottom of the screen, where you see your items. You select the items in the bottom row outside the Inventory screen with the 1–9 keys on the keyboard.
✔ Crafting grid: A 2-by-2 square, followed by an arrow pointing toward another square to the right. When you want to craft basic items, such as torches or mushroom stew, place the ingredients on the grid to make the result appear on the other side of the arrow. After you create a crafting table, the crafting grid expands to a 3-by-3 grid.
✔ Character portrait: A small screen showing what your character looks like now. This portrait can change when your character sits or sleeps, wears armor, gets hit by arrows, drinks invisibility potions, catches fire, and more.
✔ Armor slots: The four squares in the upper left corner, representing a helmet, a suit, leggings, and boots. When you obtain armor later in the game, you can place it in these slots; Shift-clicking a piece of armor automatically equips it in the corresponding slot. See Chapter 3 for more information about armor.
Crafting in other platforms
Crafting is quite limited and extremely simplified in the Pocket Edition (PE) version of Minecraft. The Inventory screen groups items into these categories:
✔