Early Game Tips (First week or so)

[Mesh]

I replied to the observations thread and it just seemed like a bit of a mess, then I noticed in the first two pages of the forum there doesn't seem to be a cohesive self contained mini guide for early game since all the changes. So since I've just started a server with 10 people, I thought I'd weigh in with a list of my own. If I've missed a guide somewhere or there's another thread this belongs in then feel free to move it there, I only had a brief skim of the titles of posts.

Tips below are from my limited experience with the new age so far (currently achieved iron axe and hoe, just planted hemp, waiting on growth). However I am a veteran of the mod, actively playing it as my sole Minecraft experience since it was first released.

After day one you ideally want one or two cooked food in your belly so your hunger bar is as full as possible. I'll not bother detailing day one, other than to say: punch wood, get shaft, make it pointy, get stone, make it sharp, hit wood with stone, get more wood, get club, bludgeon an animal or two to death, find cave, make fire, cook food, fill belly, start day 2.

General Practice
1. Every morning look for cobwebs to break, even if you don't break them that moment, take a mental note (they arent going anywhere). Remember you can break down any bows into string too
2. Look for bones, you can make bone clubs and they are just as strong as axes for attacking animals, after day one I recommend switching to bone clubs or axes to kill animals, you use too much hunger chasing after them with wooden club. With an axe/bone club and with practice, you can kill pig on the spot over 75% of the time, sheep are weaker and much easier to kill.
3. Try to learn how to force creeper explosions without taking much damage, the amount of dirt you can get is invaluable in the first couple of days. Or consider killing them if food is tight, Nitre can be used to cure meat, albeit at reduced efficiency (doesn't restore as much hunger so use it as a last resort).
4. Gather wood; stone can be gathered at night if you have enough exposed stone in your little cave, don't expand the cave too much because you dont want to have to light it with a torch
5. Gather clay as you go, and dig a rudimentary 4x4x2 ditch. Later you can build a pedestal to protect from mobs when you have enough logs to spare
6. Keep an eye out for surface iron as you go, and save it to mine later if food is an issue. You need 8 iron for a chisel and this should be your goal after you have a clay oven.
7. Once you have a chisel you get access to stone picks and then you can start aiming for an iron hoe for hemp seeds... chickens... sustainable food.

Hunting
1. Hunt as many animals in the general vicinity of your cave first, the few remaining animals will not be there for long (ignore cows obviously)
2. Head in one cardinal (N,S,E,W) direction and hunt as you go, take note of the time of day and turn back at a little past midday, you need time to re-light your campfire/oven
3. I use the animal availability as a que of when to move on, early game I'd recommend moving from cave to cave going where the animals are. However don't just move out in to the middle of an animal rich area as you'll waste them come night time, you want to move gradually, move into an area you have cleared out, but nearer to the places you haven't been.
4. Even after attaining a hoe you still will need to keep up the hunting, you never want to let yourself have less than three stacks of food on you.

This is stuff I've been doing, it may not be the best solutions to all the problems but that's the beauty of the mod, there are different ways of doing things, these are my solutions. Doing this we have managed to have a server of 8 people thrive, more people make certain things easier but 8 people is 7 extra mouths to feed so it isn't without its drawbacks!

[dawnraider]

One thing I'd note is that a hoe isn't the only option after getting a chisel. I've seen three main strategies: pick, axe, or hoe

Pick: The pick will make your life much easier for gathering more iron. It can break stone in one hit, and dig through second strata stone which lets you get more iron at that level (since you can get all the ore not just exposed ore). This option is the most risky but also can be very profitable for iron, however, it does have a higher cost than the other options.
Axe: An axe gives access to planks. This means better storage, crafting tables wherever you want, easier access to wood, and a better weapon. This option gives more safety and versatility, and is usually what I go for.
Hoe: A hoe lets you get hemp seeds to get an early start on tech with a windmill, and lets you get chickens for early sustainable food. This option is better for the long term, especially with getting permanent torches earlier, but provides little to no short term benefits.

I also don't think its necessary to move around at all. My current base is set up around my first night hole and I never had food problems.

[FlowerChild]

Cool stuff :)

A small comment on first day:

I tend not to create a wood club, and instead punch a couple of chickens while looking for a good place to settle. Just wanted to note that a wood club is really a choice, trading wood for hunting efficiency, and on the first night that's not necessarily a simple decision.

[Mesh]

Axe: An axe gives access to planks. This means better storage, crafting tables wherever you want, easier access to wood, and a better weapon. This option gives more safety and versatility, and is usually what I go for.

Definitely a good point and if I were playing single player I'd almost certainly make an axe first for access to chests, I pretty much exclusively play SMP at this point so the lack of chests is less important since if someone dies others can step in and loot what's important.

I also don't think its necessary to move around at all. My current base is set up around my first night hole and I never had food problems.

Aye fair point, I've only done two early game playthroughs, first one I went in almost blind and went in to discover it all myself so I was forced to move around and adapt, second time was on the server and with 7 or 8 other mouths to feed, moving around was practically a requirement. Mind you in hindsight we probably could have stayed in one place, we only moved to one other area before we got a hoe and settled down.

I tend not to create a wood club, and instead punch a couple of chickens while looking for a good place to settle. Just wanted to note that a wood club is really a choice, trading wood for hunting efficiency, and on the first night that's not necessarily a simple decision.

Definitely yeah, first day has a few choices like that and chickens are perfectly viable to beat to death with your bare hands haha

[dawnraider]

[...] second time was on the server and with 7 or 8 other mouths to feed, moving around was practically a requirement. Mind you in hindsight we probably could have stayed in one place, we only moved to one other area before we got a hoe and settled down.

That is definitely something to consider. I exclusively play single player right now (none of my friends IRL play MC) and so my observations are obviously biased based on that, which is why I usually go hoe dead last (after shears and a sword) simply because hunting can sustain me. But even if you have one other person that isn't as viable.

[Mesh]

I've found that one other person is perfectly viable. I've actually found that the sweet spot is around 3-4 people, you can still comfortably manage hunger quite nicely and the advantage of the added bodies far outweigh the drawbacks. Once you go any higher though you start to notice really it, and other factors start to affect survival much more; the environment (world seed) and luck both can play a massive part as you add more people. It amplifies their effects.

Anyway as for your point on which iron tools, that's always been a personal choice and usually one made based on the user's personal playstyle, it's actually an interesting psychological choice. Personally I'm an absolute pussy and so anything involving going caving or deep mining scars the shit out of me, now more than ever with the changes to torches. Honestly I hit a wall in my solo playthrough because I was too scared to go mining, I'm a 37 year old man for god's sake. So because of this I generally go for the hoe first. Certainly though with changes to early game I'd heavily consider an axe

[EpicAaron]

Two things about the iron tools that people often ignore:

Hemp takes a really long time to mature, and even then it has to be grown en-mass to provide a significant return in seed. Having to keep that stuff loaded so it will grow is incredibly annoying, so best get it started early. As someone that likes to be able to grind stuff and maximize porkchop efficiency and eventually reach the saw tech ASAP, I try to get the stuff planted as soon as possible. Of course, seed output isn't going to be enough to sustain more than two people in a multiplayer scenario. Maybe crafting multiple hoes could be considered as an option for speeding along the development of a plantation sized farm?

Seeds also provide access to chickens which in turn can be used as "spider traps" so the darn creatures stop falling on you every time you leave your hole in the ground. I think it is technically the first mob trap type structure the player can make in the game.

Secondly, the iron axe allows for the creation of doors. Doors are so nice. They are like ladders that you can't fall off of. A doors is the first thing I craft every time I make an axe.