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:

      

If we have a tip to share in addition to the content you’re reading, you see this icon.

      

When we present information you’ll want to keep top of mind, this icon appears in the margin next to that information.

      

This is the stuff you should pay attention to – don’t skip it! Something will go wrong if you don’t heed the advice here.

      

Perhaps for the more geeky, or just those that like to learn, this will take you to the next level, and show you how to learn more than what this book was intended for.

      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

In This Chapter

      ▶ 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.

      

Always locate trees when starting a game, because you use wooden materials to craft most of the items you need. To survive the first night, craft these elements:

      ✔ 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.

      

When you start creating your own world, you may discover that the sun is setting too fast for you to finish preparing for night. If that’s the case, you can press Esc to open the Pause menu and choose Options⇒Difficulty repeatedly until it reads Difficulty: Peaceful. This option makes the world much safer and causes your health to regenerate.

      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:

      ✔