Even though Minecraft has been on the market for more than 15 years, the first night is always a bit spooky and especially challenging for new players. The game is primarily designed for survival, as the name of the standard game mode suggests. Surviving in a world that may seem idyllic at first glance, but can become quite dangerous at night.
The first night can vary greatly depending on the spawn point and map, making it difficult to consider all factors. Nevertheless, we’ll try and give you the best examples of how we survived our first night in Minecraft. The more you play, the easier it becomes!
Collecting Your First Resources
When you create a world in Minecraft, it is generated randomly. You wake up in an unfamiliar world and should first orient yourself. Where exactly am I? What’s around me? In the first few seconds, get a good overview of your surroundings to find your bearings.
After that, you should first look for the most important resources. Wood comes first and is easy to find in most biomes. In our game, we spawned in a spruce forest, but you might have oak, birch, or even jungle around you. Either way, start by punching a few trees with your bare hands.
Once you’ve gathered some logs, open your inventory. One of the first helpful things awaits you there. Click on the green book to open the recipes. Then craft wooden planks and from them, a crafting table. Additionally, you should create sticks from the wood and craft a wooden pickaxe.
Your next priority should be stone. You’ll find this on cliffs or in caves. Don’t go too deep, but use your pickaxe to mine some stone, which will turn into cobblestone in your inventory. If you’re lucky, you might also find black spots in the wall. That’s coal! Mine it too; we’ll need it later.
Craft Your First Tools!
With some cobblestone, more wood, and coal in your pocket, life gets a lot easier. Craft more tools from stone, including a new pickaxe, a shovel, and an axe. The recipe book, which updates with each new material you collect, will help you. You can make torches from sticks and coal to light up dark areas. You should also have a sword ready; it will be very helpful in the next phase!
Go on a Food Hunt
After all that work, your character will start to get hungry, and you might not be able to run anymore. The drumsticks in your health bar might also look a bit depleted. It’s time to find some food! Depending on the biome, it’s important to keep an eye out for various food sources. If you’ve already found a village, this aspect becomes much easier.
For food, you can:
- Kill animals
- Find a village and make bread from hay bales
- Get carrots or potatoes from a village
- Gather wild berry bushes (that’s what we did!)
- Break grass and start a farm
- Catch or fish for fish
- Get apples from oak trees
If you find raw meat or fish, you should cook it in a furnace beforehand. This keeps you fuller for longer and prevents the chance of poisoning yourself. You can fuel the furnace with coal or flammable wooden materials.
Keep an Eye Out for Sheep
While we’re on the topic of animals, you should look out for sheep. They not only provide delicious meat but also valuable wool. Three wool and three wooden planks will give you a bed, allowing you to skip your first night! If you’re lucky enough to find iron, you can shear sheep with shears. If not, you’ll have to kill them and get one wool each.
In our game, we were unlucky; there were no sheep in sight … and no other animals either. This made things a bit tougher.
Shelter for the First Night
The day is likely coming to an end now. You’ve experienced a lot on your first day! And hopefully, you’re prepared for the night. Look up to observe the position of the sun. When it gets close to the horizon, it’s time to find shelter!
There are several ways to survive the night. Build a hut from wood or another material, dig into the ground, or find a cave. In our case, we chose the latter. Seal off the cave so no monsters can attack you. If you have a bed, you could sleep through the night, but we weren’t that lucky and had to wait.
Be Brave and Fight?
You can use the first night to sort your resources and maybe even build some chests if your inventory is getting full. Or cook some steaks in the furnace for a cosy night.
But you can also be a bit braver and venture outside. Many monsters await you, including skeletons, creepers, spiders – or in our case, zombies. Beware! Zombies no longer avoid water and will turn into drowned after some time. Swing your sword from a distance and eat if your hearts are running low.
Tip: Undead monsters like zombies and skeletons burn in daylight. All others disappear. Only spiders remain, but they are harmless during the day and won’t attack you.
Conclusion – The Beginning is Always Hard!
One of the best experiences in Minecraft is surviving your first night and watching the sunrise in the morning! Congratulations, you’ve successfully survived your first night in Minecraft and are hopefully ready for a great adventure.
Ready to take your Minecraft experience to the next level? With your own Minecraft server, you can ensure you always play in a controlled environment. Rent your server and start your adventure with friends! It’s much easier to survive the first night together. And it’s just a lot more fun to play with others!
