Minecraft Articles

Video / Updated 08-14-2023

Hunger is a dangerous long-term obstacle in Minecraft. When the Hunger bar on your screen indicates you are hungry, you must eat food to restore it and your character's health. Your symptoms of hunger depend on the difficulty level. If it is not at the Peaceful level, your character grows hungrier by taking action, such as sprinting, jumping, or absorbing damage. This video will show you how to restore hunger using food and which foods are most effective at quickly restoring hunger. You will discover how to determine which foods have the highest saturation levels and will stick with you for the longest amount of time. You will also learn which foods to avoid because they cause adverse effects, such as nausea and hunger, and how to use foods in ways that are more effective, including cooking raw potatoes so that they become baked potatoes. Find out how to earn bonus health with golden apples crafted from apples and golden ingots, and earn fire resistance if you craft an enchanted golden apple with golden blocks. It is important to carry road rations with you, such as steak or bread, so that you don't have to keep running home to eat when you get hungry.

Article / Updated 08-11-2023

You can earn a few different kinds of Minecraft badges. Here, you find out how to earn Scramble badges, which are different from the other types: All the code blocks you need are already in the programming area — they’re just scrambled around on the screen in an animation. To earn a Scramble badge, follow these steps: Test the correct version of the code in the simulator or Minecraft to see what it’s supposed to do, like saying “Hello, World!” Gather together all blocks that have been scrambled on the screen, by dragging them near each other. Unscramble the blocks, and test your mod to see whether it matches the correct version that you test in Step 1 of this list. To find all the blocks you need in order to complete the badge (sometimes, the blocks that have been scrambled are offscreen), you move around by using the scroll bars on the right side and bottom of the programming environment. Earn the Saying Hello badge: Scramble Edition Open the Saying Hello (Scramble) challenge by clicking on the badge. You see ten blocks scrambled on the screen. Follow these steps to solve the challenge and earn the badge: Click the blue Test button to test the correct version in Minecraft, or click the orange Test button to test the correct version in the simulator. Then observe what happens. Gather the ten blocks and begin to arrange them in such a way that when you run the mod, it does exactly the same thing that the correct version did. Test your mod in Minecraft or the simulator to see whether it has the same effect as the correct version. If it doesn’t, edit the blocks arrangement and test again. Continue this edit-test cycle until you have put together the correct arrangement of blocks. Communicate with your computer Writing code is the way that programmers communicate with their computers, and the way that you communicate with Minecraft. The problem, however, is that computers do exactly what you tell them to do, not what you think they should do. For example, in the Saying Hello (Scramble) challenge, you may have noticed that the answer looks strange if you expected the messages to be sent in numbered order, like this: One Mississippi Two Mississippi Three Mississippi and instead they’re sent out of order, like this: Two Mississippi One Mississippi Three Mississippi If you were told, “Go to your shoes and put on your room,” you probably would figure out that what you should do is go to your room and put on your shoes. If you told a computer, “Go to your shoes and put on your room,” the computer would literally go to its shoes and then try to put on its room, which is impossible, so it would probably display an error message. You must be precise when you write code, and — more ­importantly — you should test your code often and in small increments to catch mistakes. At the bottom of any Scramble challenge are two videos that you can watch to see strategies for completing this type of badge. Though the videos aren’t specific to each challenge, watching them can help you with any badge that asks you to unscramble code.

Article / Updated 04-25-2023

The availability of enchantments in Minecraft ranges from low to high and requires Experience points and bookshelves. To reach the highest levels of enchantment, 15 bookshelves need to surround your enchantment table. (However, the bookshelves don’t have to be connected.) To achieve a lower enchantment, you should place a block, such as a piece of carpet or a torch, between the enchantment table and a bookcase. Unfortunately, you don’t fully control which enchantment is available. Steps for enchanting a tool or armor After constructing an enchantment table, here’s how to enchant a tool or armor: Open up your enchanting screen by right-clicking the enchantment table. The enchanting screen will show, with a place where you can place items, and three buttons. Select the tool or armor or other item (like a book) to be enchanted. Hoes, shears, and horse armor cannot be enchanted on a table. Power the enchantment table with lapis lazuli. In the latest version of Minecraft, in order to enchant things, your enchantment table must be powered with lapis lazuli. You do so by placing lapis lazuli in the second block on the enchantment table. Place the same number of lapis lazuli as you have numbers on the right. Then you’re given three options, displaying only the Experience points required for the spell, and, by moving your mouse over the option, one of the enchantments that you are guaranteed to get, with a one, two, or three as your price. You aren’t given any indication if you will gain any other enchantments for the item you are enchanting however. Choose one of the three options randomly. The options are labeled using a special language (with characters called “runes”) but even when ciphered, the combination of runes doesn’t disclose the enchantment. The higher the level option, the higher level enchantment you will receive. To know what the item was enchanted with, mouse over the item in your inventory and the enchantment will appear under the item name. To get around the problem of not knowing what an item will be enchanted with, many players choose to enchant a book, revealing the enchantment, and then use the book on an anvil to apply a specific enchantment to the desired item. (For a list of enchantments, see the table below.) The one, two, and three are your cost. Choosing one means you will have to pay one experience point and one lapis lazuli. Paying three means you will have to pay three experience points and three lapis lazuli. List of enchantments Enchantment Effect Item Protection Reduces damage Armor Fire protection Reduces fire damage Armor Feather falling Reduces fall damage Boots Blast protection Reduces explosion damage Armor Thorns Damages attacker Armor (helmet, boots, leggings only on anvil) Projectile protection Reduces projectile damage Armor Aqua infinity Increases underwater mining speed Helmet Respiration Increases underwater breathing Helmet Depth strider Increases underwater movement Boots Looting Increases mob drops Sword Knockback Increases the range that a mob is thrown when hit Sword Fire aspect Sets items on fire Sword Bane of anthropods Increase damage to spiders, silverfish, and endermites Sword and ax (ax only on anvil) Sharpness Increases damage Sword and ax (ax only on anvil) Smite Increases damage to skeletons, zombies, and withers Sword and ax (ax only on anvil) Fortune Increases block drops Sword, shovel, ax Silk touch Mined blocks drop themselves Pickaxe, shovel, ax, and shears (shears on anvil) Efficiency Increases mining speed Pickaxe, shovel, ax, and shears (shears on anvil) Lure Increases rate of fish biting Fishing pole Luck of the sea Decreases odds of junk when fishing Fishing pole Infinity Shooting uses up no arrows Bow Punch Increases knockback Bow Flame Sets arrows on fire Bow Power Increases damage Bow Unbreaking Increases durability Armor, sword, bow, fishing pole, axe, shovel, and pickaxe; using an anvil —shears, flint and steel, carrot on a stick, and hoe How to craft an anvil in Minecraft An anvil is useful in Minecraft to repair items without breaking the enchantment. An anvil can also combine enchantments and rename items. An anvil is more complicated than a crafting table, and it requires experience points (earned by completing tasks in the game, and by killing mobs) and materials in order to repair an item. Like many of the items an anvil repairs — including tools, weapons, and armor — an anvil becomes damaged with use and lasts, on average, for only 24 uses. After you craft an anvil, it opens its own menu when you right-click it. To repair or enchant an item, follow these steps: Place the item in the first slot. Place the sacrifice piece in the second slot. For enchantments, you place the enchantment book in the second slot. For other items, you place an ingredient (such as iron ingot to repair an iron sword) in the second slot. The game calculates the cost of the repair and determines whether you have enough experience points (seen as the bottom bar below the hearts) to complete the repair. (This statement does not apply to Creative mode.) Repairing on an anvil is generally only desirable to preserve enchantments. You can drop an anvil and inflict considerable damage on mobs and players (the anvil will not be damaged). An anvil is one of the more expensive items to craft, because it requires more iron than a complete set of iron armor. To craft an anvil, place three blocks of iron on the top horizontal row, three iron ingots on the bottom horizontal row, and 1 iron ingot in the middle square. Then you have a total of 31 iron ingots (blocks are composed of nine iron ingots apiece).

Cheat Sheet / Updated 10-20-2022

To master Minecraft, you must gather resources in the three major areas of the game: the Overland, the mines, and the Nether. Being prepared with these resources allows you to survive, build, create, and advance through the game.

Article / Updated 10-18-2022

Minecraft is a virtual open world video game where players can dig, mine, build, craft, and enchant things. The game is typically described as a “sandbox game” because players can create their own worlds and experiences where the possibilities are truly limitless. Unlike normal video games, Minecraft allows you to be in control of the game, and it even has options allowing players to act as moderators and build their own coding/modding directly into the game! Getting started Getting started with Minecraft is super easy. First, you need to purchase and install the game. After installation is complete, simply start the game by running the launcher you downloaded from the Minecraft homepage, which also gives you the option to play from your browser. Now it’s time to log in, navigate the main menu, and select your game type. See our guide for beginners below. Logging in and the main menu The launcher opens the News screen, which displays game updates and links. Enter your username and password in the lower right corner and click Log In to continue to the main menu. This list describes what you can do after you click the buttons on the main menu: SinglePlayer: Start or continue a basic game. The remaining portion of this article covers the options for starting a game in SinglePlayer mode. MultiPlayer: Join other players online. Languages: Change the language of the text in Minecraft. Use the tiny button, just left of the Options button, showing a speech bubble containing a globe. Options: Manage game options such as sound, graphics, mouse controls, difficulty levels, and general settings. Quit Game: Close the window, unless you’re in In-Browser mode. Starting your first game in SinglePlayer mode To start your first game in SinglePlayer mode, follow these steps: Click the SinglePlayer button to view a list of all worlds. If you’re just starting out in Minecraft, this list should be empty. Click the Create New World button to start a new game. The Create New World page appears. In the World Name text box, type whatever name you want and click the Create New World button at the bottom of the screen. To turn on cheats, click the More World Options button, and then click the Allow Cheats button to turn cheats on or off. Turning on game cheats increases or decreases the level of difficulty as you play and switches between Creative mode and Adventure mode. Cheats give you more control over the world when you’re just getting started. When you finish creating your world, the game automatically starts by generating the world and placing your avatar (character) in it. Selecting the right game mode in Minecraft Minecraft offers several different game modes that allow you to experience the open world in a unique way. The following types of Minecraft game modes are available: Survival — after randomly being spawned in a new world, players have to try to survive by gathering material, building shelter, gaining experience, and fighting off hostile mobs. Creative — a game mode where players have immediate access to almost all blocks and items, are invulnerable and immune to death, and have the ability to fly. The purpose of this game mode is to create/design unique worlds. Adventure — players interact with objects (levers, buttons) and mobs to complete an adventure. Spectator — invisible to everything and cannot interact with blocks, entities, or your inventory. This mode is typically used to observe other players' created worlds. Hardcore — similar to survival mode, Hardcore is set to the “hard” difficulty level permanently and players cannot respawn; once you die, the map is deleted (or you permanently become a spectator). Your first day in Minecraft When selecting SinglePlayer and Survival mode in Minecraft, your first day can be very exciting but also very stressful. You are immediately thrown into a world with little resources and have to prepare yourself to ensure you survive your first night, when hostile mobs are more likely to attack you. Typically, your first day in Minecraft involves things like collecting resources, punching woods, killing animals, building or finding shelter, gathering food, etc. Now that you know how to play Minecraft, enjoy building and exploring the limitless virtual worlds available to you!

Article / Updated 03-15-2022

One of the most commonly used construction commands in Minecraft is /fill. You can use this command to place lots of blocks in a certain area instantly. To use this command, follow these steps: Go to a corner of the area you want to fill. The Fill command affects blocks in a box-shaped region, up to 32,768 blocks in volume. Pick any of the 8 corners of the box you want to fill. Press F3. This step displays a bunch of information about the current game. Record your coordinates. Part of the information displayed in F3 mode is a line that says Block: followed by three numbers. These numbers tell you where exactly your character is. The X and Z coordinates of your character tell you where you are on the plane parallel to the ground, whereas your Y coordinate tells you your height. Make a note of these numbers because you’ll need to write them into the command. Move to the opposite corner of the area you want to fill. Record the coordinates there. Alternatively, use relative coordinates: A tilde (~) in a command indicates that a coordinate is relative to your own position. So ~ ~ ~ indicates your current position, and ~ ~-1 ~ indicates the block below you. Press the “T” key to open the Chat menu, and type /fill [your first coordinates] [your second coordinates]. For example, you might enter /fill 1123 20 16 1122 30 -16. Enter a space, and then type minecraft: (or press Tab as a shortcut). Every block in this game has a technical name, such as minecraft:stone, minecraft:planks, or minecraft:redstone_torch. The first part is necessary only for autocompletion purposes, as described in Step 8. If you already know the technical name of the block, don’t type only minecraft:; go ahead and type minecraft:stone or minecraft:planks or whatever the name is, and then skip to Step 10. If you don’t know the technical name of the block, stick with Step 7 as written and then go on to Step 8. Press Tab to see a list of block names. From here, you can find the block that you want to fill the area. If you know that its name starts with a certain couple of letters, type those letters, and then press Tab for a narrower search. After you see which block you want to use, type it after the minecraft:. Press the spacebar again, and enter the data value of the block. This is 0 by default — if you select another number, it chooses a variant of the block. For example, wooden planks have a different color based on the data value you give them. Steps 9 and 10 are optional — however, if you complete Step 10, you must complete this one as well. Press the spacebar again, and enter a keyword indicating how to handle blocks that are already inside the fill area. You can pick one of five different keywords: replace: With this keyword, when you fill the target area, any block already in that area is replaced. Alternatively, you can type replace followed by a space and then the name of another block (see Steps 7 and 8). This makes it so that the /fill command replaces every block of that type only in the target area rather than filling up the whole area. Note that replace is the default keyword. At this point the command should look like /fill 1123 20 16 1122 30 -16 minecraft:wool 1 replace. destroy: All existing blocks in the target area are destroyed, just as though a player mined them. keep: This command does not affect blocks already in the target area (except for air, of course). hollow: With this command, only the outer layer of the target area is filled with blocks — all blocks on the inside are replaced with air. outline: Only the outer layer of the target area is filled with blocks, but blocks on the inside remain as they were. Don’t be put off by the length of these instructions — the more you practice, the easier (and faster) it is. The process in the preceding step list works best when you don’t quite know the size of the area you want to fill. But if you want to fill an area that you know is 10x10x20, for example, there’s a faster way to do it: Go to a corner of the area you want to fill. This part is just like the other method, but it’s done for a different purpose. Press F3. In addition to pulling up a menu, the F3 button changes the crosshair in the center of the screen into a symbol composed of a red segment, a green segment, and a blue segment where green is the Y direction, red is the X direction, and blue is the Z direction. These segments point in the positive x-direction, y-direction, and z-direction, respectively. Use the crosshair to figure out the relative coordinates of the opposite corner. For example, if the crosshair numbers read ~100 ~-5 ~2, the opposite corner is 100 blocks in the X-direction, -5 blocks in the Y-direction, and 2 blocks in the Z-direction. Open the chat menu and type /fill ~ ~ ~ [relative coordinates]. For example, to create a platform 100 blocks long and 100 blocks wide, where one corner is where you are and the opposite corner is at 99 ~ ~99, type /fill ~ ~ ~ ~99 ~ ~99. Complete the process as usual. (See Steps 7–10 in the preceding step list.)

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-24-2022

Modding Minecraft allows players to make large interactive modifications to their Minecraft worlds with a simple click of a button. Although you can build infinite mods, this book focuses on creating Minigames within Minecraft, where players can compete in single-player and multi-player mode. Designing and coding the Minigames requires coding, but with the help of LearnToMod, you can create your own Minigame to play with friends!

Article / Updated 01-24-2022

Modding (adding modifications to the game) is a great way to customize your experience in the game, and mods allow players to inject their own creativity into their open Minecraft worlds. One of the great things about Minecraft modding is that anyone and everyone can add their own spin on things. You have the ability to create your own mods, share them with the community, and gain notoriety for creating some cool in-game ideas! You can also download, install, and remix other player-made mods, creating a constant evolution of the ways to play the game. So, How Do You Download & Install Mods in Minecraft? Unless your writing unique code from scratch and building your own mod, the best way to start to experience this world of customization is to download other players already-created mods. After downloading, you can then easily install them into your game and begin using them immediately! Follow the instructions below. Downloading Mods Thousands of people from around the world are sharing their mods every day. To download a Minecraft mod, go to a trusted site like MinecraftMods or your LearnToMod account, browse the list of user-created mods, and click on one that you find interesting. You can read its description to find out more, then click the Code or Download button, and add a copy of it in your own LearnToMod account. Installing Mods Once you have downloaded the mod that you want, it’s time to install it into your game so that you can begin using it. Each mod may have a unique installation guide associated with it, but for most popular mods, you can use a tool called Minecraft Forge for help with installation. To install a Minecraft mod, follow these steps: Make a backup file of your Minecraft world. It’s important to save your existing world in case the something goes wrong with the new mod. This will allow you to have access to your original folder and preserve your original game, settings, and creation. Download Minecraft Forge. This third-party tool will help with easily adding mods to your different Minecraft worlds. Next time you launch the game, you should have a new profile entitled Forge. Logging into this will provide access to a new menu option called Mods, where you can apply them to your new gameplay. Download compatible mods. Make sure you have your newly downloaded add-ons ready to be accessed. We will need to move these to a new folder for complete installation. Install mods by copying the files into the /mods/ folder. Select your mods and run them. Once you run your mods, you will see them applied directly to your game! Customizing Other Players Mods An extra challenge for you is to try to figure out how to add something neat to a mod that someone else has made. Follow these steps: Test the mod to see what it does, and compare that to what it is supposed to do. Read the code, and draw it out. (It’s sort of the reverse step of designing code.) Design one addition to the code and figure out where it should go (for example, in its own function or inside another function). As you add code, test, test, test! After you have remixed the mod, share it with everyone else on the LearnToMod site to see how other coders can take it even further.

Video / Updated 01-24-2022

In Minecraft, experience points, XP for short, are collected from glowing experience orbs. When a player collects enough orbs, they “level up,” making their character more powerful and able to access new talents and equipment. Gaining experience and leveling up is important because you can spend experience points to enchant and repair items, which allows you to improve your weapons and advance in the game. Enjoy our how to level up in Minecraft video guide and list of tips below to help you grow your experience bar quickly and easily as you work toward higher levels of playing! Best ways to earn XP / level up in Minecraft There are various different tactics a player can use to level up. Some methods will provide you with XP early in the game, and others will provide you with a significant number of points but cannot be accomplished in early gameplay. Gathering points “quickly” can be interpreted either way. Since XP are usually only helpful in later gameplay when an enchanting table and anvil become available, many players prefer to use methods that yield a higher number of points rather than repeating easy, early game actions over and over again. Here are the fastest ways to gain XP and level up in Minecraft: Killing hostile mobs will drop orbs. Many players create hostile mob farms that spawn Minecraft mobs and then weaken them allowing a player to quickly kill the mob without much risk. Some players will use TNT (be sure to activate yourself and not use redstone) to accomplish this. Also, destroying a spawner block when mining or defeating the head mob, the Enderdragon, provides an extensive number of points. Mining is a player's fastest way to gain XP early in the game. It's recommended you mine through the first night within the safety of your shelter rather than sleep in a bed in part to gain mining points. Smelting means cooking certain ores or food in the furnace. Some players will create a furnace on their first day, while others will achieve that on their second day. In general, smelting iron and gold yield better XP. Cooking food (especially meat) will not only give a player better hunger and saturation points but XP as well. Unlike the other ways of gaining XP, smelting does not drop orbs that must be picked up. The points are simply automatically given to a player when the product is removed from the furnace (removing items automatically using redstone such as a hopper yields no XP). Animals provide XP in two major ways. The first is through breeding, where an orb is dropped when a baby animal is produced. Breeding passive mobs is a significant part of Minecraft farming for a variety of reasons; XP are a pleasant bonus. Many players trap animals on the first day and begin breeding on the second or third day. Fighting skeletons (which also provide XP) help farming because the skeletons will drop bones (used as fertilizer on crops). The crops in turn can be used to breed animals. The second way is through fishing. Interestingly, XP are gained when the fish is reeled in, even if a player chooses not to pick up the fish. Fishing usually takes a few days, as a player will need to assemble a fishing rod, find a suitable place to fish, and not have other tasks that are more pressing. Bottle o' Enchanting is similar to a potion bottle but is obtained only by trading with villagers. When broken, it releases orbs. It’s important to note that not all methods generate the same amount of XP or grant any experience at all. For example, mining gold will not grant you any experience even though mining diamond ore grants XP. Check out the Minecraft Wiki for a more in-depth breakdown of the number of experience points granted by each source. Enjoy the journey to max level in Minecraft!

Step by Step / Updated 01-18-2022

You can do many things with natural elements in Minecraft. You will have several types of bricks, stones and rocks at your disposal. Here are just a few ways you can use them to your advantage.