Chapter 1

Entering Minecraft

In This Chapter

Understanding Minecraft

Registering your account

Buying and downloading Minecraft

Starting your first game

Recognizing the basic controls

You’re ready to build, fight, create, craft, and brew. But how do you begin? This chapter tells you how to register and begin your first game.

If you’re a PE player (PE stands for Pocket Edition, the version of Minecraft for mobile devices), skip to the end of each chapter in this book to find a special section written just for you. In this chapter, PE players can find out how to download the game and understand its unique basic controls.

Getting to Know Minecraft

Minecraft is taking the world by storm! These days it’s hard to be a gamer without hearing or coming across the Minecraft brand — in fact, as of this writing Minecraft is the second most-played game right behind Wii Play, which just so happens to ship with the consoles it ships with. Parents and kids alike can’t avoid the game.

Minecraft is a massive adventure you can play on your own, or with your friends. The adventure encourages exploration and “mining” of the resources you need to build your world. As you play, there are monsters, zombies, and even dangerous animals that can hurt you along the way. You have to keep yourself fed and nourished in order to stay strong. In so many ways, it mimics real life.

There is so much to learn in this game — from geology to architecture, to farming, nutrition, and even electronics, engineering, and logic, you’ll find yourself learning throughout your adventures. Keep exploring, and the more you learn, the more cool things you’ll be able to build.

The game is playable on both mobile and desktop. You’ll probably find yourself, as a true player, exploring both of them at some point. The desktop version allows you to explore and do the most, but mobile is the cheapest and most widely available version to play. Spend time in each to learn new and different things you can do in them.

Registering a Minecraft Account

To jump into the action, you first have to register a Minecraft account. Then you can play in Demo mode or upgrade to a Premium account, which you need for the full version. Follow these steps to register an account:

1. Go to http://minecraft.net.

   The Minecraft home page opens.

2. Click the Register link in the upper right corner of the page.

   The Register New Mojang Account page appears.

3. Fill out all information requested in the text boxes, specify your date of birth, and answer the security questions (see Figure 1-1).
4. Click the Register button to finish.

   

5. Check the email account you entered for a verification message from Minecraft.
6. Click the link provided in the email to complete the registration.

   Check out the next section to find out how to purchase the game.

Purchasing and Installing Minecraft

To buy and install the game, log in to your account at http://minecraft.net. (See the preceding section for details on registering.) Then follow these steps:

1. Click the large Buy Now or Get Minecraft button on the home page.

   The Minecraft Store page opens. This interface changes often, so the exact wording can also change as you read this.

2. Select the option to login or register for Minecraft (it might also say “Get Minecraft,” but the interface changes often), as shown in Figure 1-2.

   At the time of this writing, the game cost $26.95.

   If you can’t click the button, you may not be logged in (or you may have already bought the game).

   

3. Fill out the payment information, and then click the Proceed to Checkout button.
4. Follow the necessary steps to complete the purchase.
5. Return to the Minecraft home page. On the right side of the screen, the large Buy Now button should now be labeled Download Now. Click this button to open the Download page.
6. If you’re using Windows, click the downloaded file and save it anywhere on your computer.

   To view instructions for other operating systems, click the Show All Platforms button.

7. Double-click the file to install the game.

The payment is immediately attributed to your account, so, if necessary, you can download the file again for free. The Minecraft home page also gives you the option to play from your browser — click the link under the Download Now button.

Playing the Game

After you install Minecraft, you’re ready to start playing the game. To start, run the launcher you downloaded in the previous section of this chapter, “Purchasing and Installing Minecraft.”

Logging in and operating 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, shown in Figure 1-3.

This list describes what you can do after you click the buttons on the main menu:

• SinglePlayer: Start or continue a basic game. This chapter covers the options for starting a game in SinglePlayer mode.
• MultiPlayer: Join other players online. You can find more information about MultiPlayer mode in Chapter 9.
• Languages: Change the language of the text in Minecraft. This tiny button, next to Options, is 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:

1. Click the SinglePlayer button to view a list of all worlds.

   If you’re just starting out in Minecraft, this list should be empty.

2. Click the Create New World button to start a new game.

   The Create New World page appears, as shown in Figure 1-4.

   

3. In the World Name text box, type whatever name you want and click the Create New World button at the bottom of the screen.

   I cover more world options in Chapter 13.

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.

Chapter 2 explains how to use a basic cheat for surviving your first game.

When you finish creating your world, the game automatically starts by generating the world and placing your avatar (character) in it.

Understanding basic controls

The world of Minecraft (you can see an example in Figure 1-5) is made of cubic blocks, materials such as dirt or stone, that you can break down and rebuild into houses or craft into useful items. A block made of a material such as sand is referred to as a sand block. Because the side length of every block measures 1 meter, most distances are measured in blocks as well: If you read about an object that’s located “3 blocks up,” for example, it’s the distance from the ground to the top of a stack of 3 blocks.

In addition to building and crafting, you have to defend against monsters and eventually face them head-on. As the game progresses, your goal becomes less about surviving and more about building structures, gathering resources, and facing challenges to gain access to more blocks and items.

To survive, you have to know how to move around, attack enemies, and manipulate the blocks that comprise the world. Table 1-1 lists the default key assignments for each control.

If you reassign any major keys, you may cause confusion later in the game.

Table 1-1 Default Controls in Minecraft

Walk around and explore the world. After you get the hang of using the controls and you’re prepared to immerse yourself in the fun and challenge of the real game, it’s time to figure out how to survive. Chapter 2 gives you the lowdown on surviving the first night.

Watching the Heads-Up Display (HUD)

The little arrangement at the bottom of the screen is known as the Heads-Up Display, or HUD. To show the important details of your character, the HUD features the five sections described in the following list, as shown in Figure 1-6.

• Health bar: These ten hearts monitor the health of your avatar. As your avatar incurs damage, the hearts disappear. After all ten are depleted, your avatar dies and reappears at its spawn point, a position that can be changed by sleeping in a bed.

  Your avatar can take damage by falling from ledges 4 blocks tall, colliding with harmful blocks or entities, or succumbing to other dangers, such as drowning. When you equip yourself with armor (see Chapter 4), the Armor bar appears over the Health bar, indicating the protective value of your armor.

• Hunger bar: This bar represents the food supply. The emptier the bar, the hungrier you are. Hunger is an important concept to understand, so it’s covered in Chapter 3.
• Experience: The green Experience bar fills up when you collect experience orbs. These orbs appear naturally whenever you defeat monsters, smelt items in a furnace, breed animals, or mine any ore except iron or gold. When the bar is full, a number appears or increases over it, indicating your experience level. You can spend levels with Anvils (detailed in the bonus chapter, available for download at www.dummies.com/go/minecraftfd) or enchantment tables (detailed in Chapter 6), but you will lose them if you die.
• Inventory: These nine squares, at the base of the HUD, contain items you’ve collected, and they’re the only squares in the inventory that you can access without pressing E. You can use the 1–9 keys or the scroll wheel to select items, and right-click to use them. If you’re using a sword or a tool for breaking blocks faster (such as an axe), the item automatically functions when you left-click. (I discuss the inventory in more detail in Chapter 2.)
• Breath: When your avatar’s head goes underwater, ten bubbles appear just above the Hunger bar and begin to pop, one by one. They signify how long you can hold your breath; if all the bubbles are gone and you’re still underwater, the Health bar begins to deplete.

Carefully monitor the Health and Hunger bars, and organize the inventory slots for easy access.

Minecraft PE

Minecraft PE, or Pocket Edition, is the most widely used version of Minecraft in the world. There’s probably a good chance, even if you use the desktop version that you also play with your friends on an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android phone or tablet, or Kindle (and many other devices!). If you couldn’t tell already, Minecraft PE is the version built just for mobile and smart devices.

As you’ll quickly discover, and as we explain throughout this book, Minecraft PE has a few, slightly more simple features that you need to understand, separate from the desktop version. If you play only PE, most of this book still applies to you —— you’ll just want to be sure to skip to the end of each chapter to catch what, of the desktop-focused items, has been changed within Minecraft PE.

For this chapter, we start by showing you how to get started with Minecraft PE.

Purchasing PE

Purchasing Minecraft PE is easy! In just a few steps, you’ll be off and running. Much unlike the desktop edition, which requires a much more expensive app download, the PE edition is usually only a few dollars, and you can get started almost immediately. Here’s how to get it:

1. Go to the App Store (if you have an iOS device, such as an iPad or iPhone or iPod touch) or the Google Play store (if you’re on an Android device or Kindle).
2. Minecraft PE is usually one of the top ten paid games in the app store, or you can search for it by typing Minecraft.

   You may also see the demo, which is free but has fewer features.

3. Download the game (with a parent’s permission, of course, if you’re under 18) and you’re set to start!

   See Figure 1-7 for an example of what the game looks like in iOS.

Starting PE

Playing your first game in Minecraft PE is straightforward. Just follow these steps:

1. Tap the newly installed Minecraft app.

   You should see the word Mojang and the company’s red-and-white logo at the beginning (indicating that it’s booting up).

   When you see the text Minecraft Pocket Edition and a phrase imprinted in yellow (one phrase is randomly chosen at startup) at the top, you’re at the title screen.

   In the lower left corner, you see the version information (such as v0.9.5 alpha). In the lower right corner, you see the Options button.

2. In the center, click the Play button.

   This step opens the Worlds screen. On the Worlds screen, you can click to choose from these three options (shown in Figure 1-8):

   • New: Create a new world.
   • Edit: Edit worlds. This option is rarely used.
   • Back: Open the title screen.

Now you’re ready to start a game. Follow these steps:

1. Tap the New button.
2. Tap the Name box, and name the world.

   

   

3. Tap Done.
4. Tap the Survival button.

   Leave the Seed box blank for the first game. (You can find tips to customize the game with seeds in Chapter 13.)

5. Tap Create World, and you’re set!

On the Create New World screen, tap the Advanced setting (in the upper right corner of the screen) to open the Advanced Settings screen. The difference between the two screens is that the Advanced screen has three new buttons and omits the mode description. You can use the three new World Type buttons to select the old, limited world; the new, infinite world; or the Creative mode only, flat world. If the Infinite option is grayed out, you cannot play in that mode because your device is too slow to keep up. To exit the Advanced Settings screen, simply tap the Advanced button again.

Understanding the Heads-Up Display (HUD) for PE

You see the Heads Up Display at the bottom of the screen as you play the game (see Figure 1-9). This series of monitors and controls can help monitor your health, energy, and inventory status throughout the game.

Here is a description of the monitors and controls of the Heads Up Display, which is shown in Figure 1-9:

• Health bar: The Health bar is displayed in the upper left corner of the screen. You can regenerate your health by eating food.
• Controls: The controls are at the left: Press up to move forward, down to move backward, left to strafe (move to the side without turning your head) to the left, or right to strafe to the right; press the middle button to jump. (While you’re holding the Up button, two buttons should show up; use them to move diagonally.)
• The Screen: The screen isn’t technically a control, though moving a finger on top of your device changes the way you’re facing. If you want to look to your right and move forward, for example, you swipe your finger across the screen and hold up. Tapping on the screen places a block. Holding the tap breaks whatever block you’re holding the tap on.
• Inventory: At the bottom of the screen, you see six squares — five empty squares and one square with three dots in it. Tap an empty square to select an item in the slots. Tap the square with three dots to bring up the full inventory. Tap the X at the top left to get out. Tap a square in the inventory to bring it up to the selected square at the bottom. For example, tap the button with the iron chestplate to put on armor in the inventory. Tap the bookshelf to craft whatever you can craft in the 2 x 2 inventory crafting that is in Minecraft PC Edition.
• Pause and Chat: In the upper right corner of the screen (for iOS users) are the Pause and Chat buttons. For any other device, you have to swipe the screen to the left as though you were going home, and you press the back arrow.

  Be warned that tapping Pause opens the Pause menu, though it does not pause the game. On the right side of the Pause menu is a list of players who are in your world; to the left are three buttons.

  • Top: Returns you to the game
  • Middle: Opens the Options menu
  • Bottom: Returns you to the title screen
• Chat button: Clicking the Chat button opens the Chat menu.
• Back button: Pressing Back returns you to the game.
• Keyboard button: Tapping the text box or pressing the Keyboard button brings up the texting buttons. Typing a sentence and then tapping the arrow pointing to the right “speaks” your message to the other players in the game. Pressing the upside-down triangle closes the texting buttons.
• Armor bar: The Armor bar is in the upper left corner of the Inventory screen. It tells you how much armor you’re wearing.