Tutorial:First Night Survival

Are you having trouble surviving that first night? Or perhaps you are looking for a way to make your first night more productive? Well, this tutorial is here to help you!

The very first thing you should do after spawning in a new world is to mark the spawnpoint, usually making a 3-block high pillar of the nearest cheap material (see picture below).



Once this is done, you must find a tree and mine at least three-five blocks of wood. Next, you should craft all the wood into Wooden Planks, craft a crafting table, and on the crafting table craft one Wooden Pickaxe. With said tool, you should mine at least 13 Cobblestone (two for a Stone Sword, eight for a Furnace and three for a Stone Pickaxe/axe), or mine 3 Cobblestone, craft a Stone pickaxe, and mine 10 more.

At this point, you may choose several different options depending your Minecraft surroundings and experience.

Sleep Through the Night
If there are at least three sheep nearby, and you wish to skip over the night, making a bed is the best option.

You must kill the sheep, using your Stone Sword, which will provide you with Wool for crafting a bed, in addition to food for you to eat.

While waiting for nightfall, you should find a suitable location for a bed, (generally somewhere also suitable for a small shelter), and kill any nearby animals for food. If there is more time after doing this, you may collect more materials, build a small shelter over your bed.

Once night falls, you should immediately sleep in your bed, thus safely skipping over the First Night.

First Night House
There are two methods of surviving the night in shelters, and even more ways to build the shelters.

For both methods, you should first use your Cobblestone to craft a Stone Axe if you wish to build the survival shelter out of wood, or a Stone Pickaxe if you plan to build it out of Cobblestone (or both if a combination of the two is desired).

Survival Shelter
This is a good option for you if you are a beginner, and do not wish to sleep though the night, or if you were unable to collect enough Wool for a bed.

You should collect building resources as soon as possible. You should have at least a stack of blocks for building the shelter (Wooden Planks are the easiest building material, as one Wood Log can craft 4 Wooden Planks). Before hunting for food, unless your Hunger bar begins to shake, you should build your shelter as soon as possible. You can add on to it later, if there is time before night.

A recommended starting size for a shelter is 5 blocks long, 5 blocks wide, and 3 blocks tall. Corners are not necessary, but may be desirable, in which case you will need more materials. The shelter should contain your Crafting Table and Furnace, as well as a window (glass or a glass pane can be used) or a small peep hole (slabs or stairs work well) for checking to see if the night is over yet. A door can be added too, but it is worth noting that Zombies can break doors down on hard Mode.

Just before nightfall, you should enter your house and close the door, or of there is no door, block up the entrance with two blocks.

At this point you should cook any food that needs to be cooked in the Furnace, while waiting for morning.





House Building at Night
If you are a player with intermediate experience, and you wish to advance in your world, but you are not yet prepared to fight Monsters, this is a good option for you.

You should start collecting building materials as soon as possible. When chopping trees, be sure to kill any animals along the way, and when mining, be sure to get all iron ore and a few pieces of Coal Ore. Whenever possible, you should cook any meat and/or Iron Ore. If you have any Iron, you should craft an Iron Pickaxe/axe or both, again, depending on the materials of which the house will be built. Then, you may also want some Sand for Glass.

Near the end of the day (when the Sun is about 3/4 of the way through the sky), you should quickly build a room suitable for protection against Monsters. If you have a stairwell mine, the house may be built over it (the mine should be properly lighted). You should also place several torches around the house, to help prevent mobs from spawning close to your house.

At night, you should enter the house, and begin adding on to it. Adding a basement is the easiest way to start, next is building additional floors, and the hardest is adding on sideways.

When building a basement, you must never dig straight down, and should have a staircase or ladder leading back to the main floor.

When adding extra stories, be sure to be cautious of Skeletons, as they may be able to shoot you off your roof. Always sneak, as falling off the roof while not being properly equipped for fighting can be deadly. Try to stay as near to the middle of the roof as possible.

Adding on sideways is the slowest and most dangerous way of adding on to your house at night. Adding on from the inside is the safest method. When expanding a room from the inside, do not take down the whole wall at once. Mine one block and replace it with another one in the desired location. Do this until the entire wall is where you want it.



Fight through the night
If you are an advanced player, and you wish for more of a challenge, fighting through the night is the way to go.

First, you should locate a nearby cave (if it is 20+ blocks away, you should bring your Crafting Table and Furnace along), killing any adult animals along the way for food.

Mining in caves is generally safe during the daytime as long as the Player stays near the surface, but he/she should always keep a Sword ready in case a Monster spawns in a dark area, and should be careful to not go deep into the cave.

Now, with the Stone Pickaxe, you should search for and mine any Iron Ore and some Coal Ore. With the Coal, you should immediately make several torches (eight to 24), making sure to not use all the wood. Use the torches to light up any dark areas in the cave. With the remaining coal, smelt all the iron ore, and cook any food.

With the Iron Ingots, craft as many of the following tools as possible in order of importance: Iron Sword, Iron Chestplate, Iron Helmet, Iron boots, Iron leggings, Iron Pickaxe (optional), Iron Axe (optional) and various other iron tools.

Ground fighting
When night falls, you should exit the cave if you haven't done so already, and kill hostile Mobs, but avoiding Endermen and skeletons whenever possible.

You should never stay in one spot for long, as that allows Monsters to easily surprise attack you. You should also be carful to not wander far from the spawn, to prevent yourself from getting lost. If your health is at or below 8 health points, you should avoid all Hostile Mobs until your health is mostly regenerated.

When day comes, be careful of any remaining hostile Mobs, especially those that don't burn in sunlight.

Cave Fighting
This method is generally safer as far as Monsters go (with a few exceptions), but presents its own dangers.

You should bring lots of wood and food into the cave, as those will prove quite difficult to find underground.

As night nears, you should find (or mine) an easily accessible section of the cave and fortify it for use as a retreat shelter. You may wish to craft a Chest and drop off any items that might clog up your inventory.



It is important to not get lost in a cave, so you should build a road to the retreat shelter, or use another method, such as blocks pointing toward it, or use the common "Torches on the Right" method, or a combination of those methods to find your way back.





In the Morning
As the morning comes, don't waste time! If you are underground, come back up. If you're in a shelter or house, go outside. You need to prepare for the next few nights, as they will be similar to the first.