Environmental
When you extend your base, be sure that nothing fragile like
torches or
redstone
circuits are on the floor in the area. If you strike a water source, it
can wash such things away. If you are unlucky, you yourself can also be
swept away (maybe into something dangerous) or drown. If you wish to be
extra careful, you can place slabs around any redstone circuits you do
not want to be accidentally flooded, as slabs block the flow of water.
Lava flows slower, but is much more hazardous, as it sets you and your
wooden items on
fire.
“Built on sand” is a real life saying which means “This won’t last
long”. This is true in Minecraft, too. Not only are sand and gravel
subject to falls or cave-ins due to obeying gravity, but they also have
less resistance to explosions than other materials. Additionally, both
of these block types have sufficient other uses (such as sand for glass
and gravel for
flint or coarse dirt) that it is best to use them for those, rather than as a construction base.
If you have a floor of sand or gravel, be careful when mining —
digging near sand that isn't supported from below WILL cause it to
collapse. Be wary of placing torches on sand columns which may fall. If
such a torch is destroyed, you may find a
creeper or other
mob which
spawned in the darkness.
If you discover a natural cave with a roof of sand or gravel, be
extra careful. Even if you don’t choose it to become your new home, as
soon as you place or remove a block near it, the loose sand or gravel
will suddenly be affected by gravity and fall down,
suffocating you, flooding the cave with lava or water and/or allowing
mobs to come in from the dark cave/
night above.
In the same manner that sand or gravel makes a poor choice for
flooring or a foundation, obsidian is particularly good, due to its'
high explosion resistance. While it is unlikely that you will be able to
produce enough obsidian to build entire walls or floors out of it, it
can still be used for foundations, wall trim, and entrance frames. If
you are indeed going to use a large amount of obsidian, you may wish to
see
Tutorials/Obsidian farming.
Mobs
General
- Don't build out of wood. Yes, it looks nice, but it is fragile to
explosions, flammable, and vastly more labor intensive to produce as a
building material, than other blocks. If you must use it, build three
block thick walls, with a cobblestone core, and a wood facade as the
outer two. If you are in multiplayer, someone could burn your house.
- For general construction, cobblestone is ideal. It is easily
obtainable, (via either mining or a cobblestone generator with lava and
water, which can be constructed in the vanilla game) is non-flammable
and impervious to Ghast fire, and also has a decent resistance to
explosions. Nether and stone brick are somewhat less plentiful, but more
aesthetically pleasing alternatives, with the same defensive advantages
as cobblestone. Obsidian is also an ideal choise, as it can resist
explosions like TNT or creepers. However obsidian is hard to find and
pick up, as it requires a diamond pick and lava, and is not very
aesthetically pleasing.
- Mines and underground passageways should be no wider than two
blocks, to discourage mob spawning. Torches should also be placed at
four block intervals.
- Use a fence
or a wall to keep all mobs except spiders and spider jockeys off your
lawn. Though to keep spiders and spider jockeys out, just ring the top
of your house with any block.
- You can create Iron Golems
to defend your territory. These metal wonders will deal lots of damage
to any mobs that come near it. They can be very useful for defending
small houses. Beware of the Creeper though! Iron Golems will not attack
creepers.
- Use a cactus fence built from two rows of cacti (like this:
(Note: The cactus has to be on sand.) or an alternating row of cacti and flames from
netherrack to keep mobs from passing through it.
- Build a ditch deep enough that the mobs who fall in can’t get out
anymore, which is either filled with lava or streaming water leading to a
Mob Farm.
- Keep your home area well lit. Mobs only spawn if the light
level is below 7; remember that a torch provides level 14 light and
this decreases by one for every block away from the torch. Lit
Netherrack works well, since it doubles as both a light source, and a
means of setting mobs on fire, although there is also the risk of
setting yourself on fire. So if you do want use this method, bring a
bucket of water.
- Mobs don't spawn on water. If one or two sides of your home base are
open to the sea, you don't need to wall these off. Extend your
surrounding wall a few blocks into the sea, and this should be enough to
keep the mobs out (Remember to put a lip on the top of the outer wall,
as detailed below, to prevent Spiders.)
- An especially effective spider deterrent is making said lip out of burning netherrack.
- Another way to keep mobs out of your house is a staircase that has an overhang.
- If you are in single player, a door made of pistons keeps you hidden
from mobs almost all the time. Place 2 pistons facing the outside.
Then, place a lever right next to both of the pistons backs. Next, turn
off the pistons, go outside, then make an arch around the spot where the
pistons would stick out. Finally, where the pistons would stick out on
the sides make a tunnel to your base. Make sure you can walk through it.
When the pistons come out, the mobs can't enter, and skeletons can't
reach through your door. Another good way to protect yourself from most
overworld mobs is to create a long hall with a lava floodgate to burn
mobs. This can be done with both pistons, or dispensers containing lava
buckets. This will not work on nether mobs.
- Mobs cannot spawn on stairs or bottom-half slabs. Make roofs,
catwalks, and even floors out of these to prevent mobs from spawning
there.
Widely considered to be the most dangerous mob in Minecraft is the
Creeper, because of the damage it causes to buildings (they can
effectively blow large holes in your structures). However, you are safe
within your base if there are creepers outside, as they can't get close
enough to you to explode. You might even be able to open your door and
kill the creeper with a bow and arrows, as long as you keep your
distance!
Also, be aware that Creepers can detect you and start their fuse from
one block away, even if there is a low wall or fence keeping them away.
Ways to avoid this are: build a wall at least
two full blocks tall (even if it is made of certain
translucent blocks such as
slabs, fence or
glass); or build your home with all spawning surfaces on all traversable paths sufficiently lit.
Different blocks have different resistances to
explosions. Dirt walls will be easily destroyed by Creepers, while two block thick cobblestone will resist most Creeper explosions.
Obsidian is explosion-proof, so you can laugh in the face of Creepers trying to destroy walls built of this block.
Cats
are also a good defense, as Creepers will run away if they are in a
short distance of one. Even if you've attacked the Creeper, it will run
away as long as there is a cat nearby, so it is a good idea to put cats
around your base.
Spiders can jump 2-3 blocks, therefore 4 block wide ditches with over
hangs won't protect you against spiders/spider jockeys. Spiders are two
blocks wide, which means they cannot move through 1-block wide spaces.
Since
Beta 1.2, spiders can also climb walls and fences, so you won’t be safe in your walled garden anymore.
To effectively spider-proof your buildings, you’ll have to do one of these things:
- Build a lipped wall (a wall with overhang, mostly at the top.
and
are common wall-top profiles). This lip can have 1-block wide gaps in it, since spiders require a 2 block wide space to climb.
- Fences can also work as a wall-top and have the advantage of being
able to easily look down to see the wall itself—handy for making sure
nothing is at the door before leaving. The wall must be at least two
high to prevent spiders, though this is true of regular cobblestone
wall-tops as well.
- Completely cover it with a roof.
- Dump buckets of lava around your castle.
- Build your buildings underground. As long as the entrance to the
underground building is only 1 block wide and/or completely enclosed
with trapdoors, no Spiders will be able to get in. A top view example:
.
- You can keep spiders from climbing walls using glass panes/iron bars to create an edge. example:
Spiders can climb cactus fences, but they will suffer some hit damage doing so. Therefore cactus fences only
reduce
the chances and speed of a spider climbing walls. Either make multiple
fences or one fence tall enough to kill any spider that climbs all of
them. Each fence only needs to be one row of cacti, because while cacti
can’t be placed next to each other, spiders are two blocks wide. Use the
method in the
General
section for a version which works on other mobs too. (If you prefer a
wall for keeping off all other mobs, you can use this cactus fence:
)
Skeletons are dangerous because they can fire arrows through gaps in
your defenses. Wherever possible, fill open gaps with any of certain
translucent blocks such as slabs, fence or glass to make windows.
Additionally, build low walls or
fences in places where you may be in range of a skeleton, since they will only fire arrows at you if they can see you.
Spider jockeys are dangerous because of combining the climbing and
tracking abilities of Spiders with the ranged attacks of Skeletons. You
must combine your defensive strategies for both skeletons and spiders.
They're pretty rare, so it is unlikely, but not impossible, to encounter
more than one Spider Jockey on the same night.
Zombies are the simplest mob to defend against. With limited mobility
and no ranged attacks, walls or pits will be enough to keep them at
bay. However, zombies can break down wooden doors to reach you if you're
in hard mode. If you're in hard, you can make a piston door so that
zombies cannot get through, or you may make an iron door. To prevent
other mobs using the entrance put a two high pillar of sand above the
door, though this won't stop or even hurt the offending zombie. A way to
prevent zombies from breaking your doors is to put the doors in
sideways, rendering them "open" when you close them. Or you could make
an iron door with a button on each side. Zombies can break down wooden
doors and not iron doors. Zombies will not jump over gaps, so you can
use lava trenches. If you are starting/low on Iron, you can use a fence
gate or place the Wooden door parallel to either side of the doorway
(when you close the Door, Zombies will think it is open).
You can also use traps such as pits, landmines, etc.
If you get lost in the Nether and have no choice but to start a new
shelter there, or even if you just wish to try out Nether survival, your
biggest problem is ghasts. They can fly through the air, and shoot
fireballs that explode on contact with the ground (Although the
explosion is fairly weak), and they can spot you from 100 blocks away.
Obviously, a simple fence won't suffice. The simplest solution is to
build a roof over your entire living area, preferably fairly big, in
case you feel like expanding your house later, and start building a
house in it. The best material would be glass, as you can see through it
and tell if any ghasts are nearby before leaving your dome, with the
downside of breaking easily if a fireball hits it and not being a
renewable resource in the nether. A recommended material is to use
cobblestone (or stone) as it is highly defensive against the ghasts
explosion, and very easy to obtain.
Because ghasts require a 5x5x5 space to spawn, it is possible to
create a large ghast-free area in a cavern by placing blocks so that
there is never enough space for the ghasts to spawn. Start by walling in
any entrances to the cavern so that ghasts can't wander in. Then you
need to place blocks within that cavern to prevent any new ones from
spawning (this is easiest to do in peaceful mode). The simplest method
would be 1x1 pillars of any material, placed in a grid across the entire
cavern, with 4 clear squares in each direction between each pillar. A
more complex method is to place glass blocks in a 3-dimensional grid to
fill up the entire space rather than pillars. The only limit to how
large an area you can protect is resources. Once you have protected a
cavern like this, you can terraform it, and it is actually safer than
anything you can build in the overworld since the only mobs that can
spawn are magma cubes and zombie pigmen.
A harsh rule in surviving in the Nether is never to build a
Netherrack
house as Netherrack is highly flammable and ghasts will probably tear
apart your house before you can even admire your beautiful Netherrack
mansion. (Think: Breaking netherrack with fists is quicker than punching
stone.) Another harsh rule to follow is not to leave ANY gaps near the
bottom of your house, or else fire will be able to come in if ghasts
attack the ground around your house. It's strange, but ghasts seem to
not be able to see through glass.
With the addition of the
Nether Brick
it is possible to build ghast-resistant structures of material that is
readily available in the Nether. You can easily create the
Nether Brick block by smelting
Netherrack and then using the Nether brick item in a 2 by 2 square to make the block.
Maybe build a full
obsidian bunker and an
iron door on the very front.
Obsidian is very hard to retrieve, so build a shell out of
stone or
cobblestone and cover it steadily with
obsidian. Don't use a
nether portal for your door, because if you have nothing to reset it, you can be permanently trapped in the
nether and can't come home! (though you can use a
fire charge to relight your portal).
