Tips: Duh, why didn't I think of that?

[SterlingRed]

I have learned a lot over the years playing the game and I've learned a lot from others. What is obvious to me may not be obvious to you and vise versa. I think we need a good space to share the simple little tips with each other that may help both new and experienced players alike! So what are the little simple tips (at any stage of the game) that you do that someone else may benefit from? Here's one to start us off.

-Pre permanent lighting, put your base on the edge of the spawn load chunks so that some of your ovens are outside the spawn load chunks and some are inside the spawn load chunks. That way you can churn through cooking iron as you work on other things on the half inside the spawn load chunks, but if you go for a long trip, the other ovens get unloaded and are thus still lit when you come back. This significantly reduced the number of times I had to relight things in my most recent world and I'm sure saved me from a gloomy death more than once.

[EpicAaron]

Happy coincidence, I was considering making a "PSA" thread late last night. I have wanted to discuss primitive base building ever since I watched Cam's awesome Hardcore Spawn adventure film:



This video is a great showcase of the narrative potential of BTW's hardcore features. Castaway depression, strained hope, and lots of funny deaths. You also get to watch Cam iterate and adapt with each attempt. I noticed throughout all of them, however, that his base building is very limited. He tends to settle into a hole or shack and put up with it until an unfortunate creeper or spider does him in. Some of these location put him at a considerable disadvantage (visibility and height) to outside mobs.

I suspect that a lot of players get into the mindset that building structures is a luxury activity can't be afforded until significant technological advancement. Maybe this is true in a resource-strapped desert or tundra setting, but taking the time to build a proper fortification will increase survivability in the long run. Logs aren't just a fuel source--they are the first solid, gravity resistant building material accessible to the player.

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For the purposes of fire safety, do not build a cabin until an oven is crafted. I say "cabin," but even a simple palisade of dirt and logs is much preferable to having no barrier at all. Basic walls can eventually be augmented with a lip or roof for total spider safety. This feature makes hunting spiders in the morning a breeze (the amount of stupid deaths that I have suffered to losing an axe fight with a daylight spider is.. embarrassing). You can even dig some murder holes and trenches to trap other mobs in the morning. I tend to use my lipped-roof as a drying rack, which cuts down a ton of time that would normally be wasted dealing with bricks during the day.

The vantage point afforded by an above-ground base has the obvious benefit of allowing the player to scope out the position of mobs in the morning and plan out an "escape route" if it is necessary to go somewhere. Time and energy is saved when unnecessary fights are avoided. Surprise creepers have a much harder time getting the jump on you when you can account for them every morning. The greatest benefit though is the ability to spy iron-wielding mobs before they burn up. A shovel or sword, no matter how worn down, is an incredible boon.

It is also great to be able to move around and work on something at night. It sucks being confined to a little hole with nothing to do but knit. A great deal of pleasure can be derived from tending to hemp behind the safety of a wall, clubbing spiders during the night, or just gazing up at the stars while working on a tuque.

In conclusion, stop AFKing every night and start working on something constructive. You don't have to confine yourself to a crybaby hole.

[dawnraider]

A couple things I would add early game is that an open air spider bait trap can be very useful in getting string. If you have something open to the sky but which spiders cannot get through, you can either bait them to shoot webs down at you or just kill them while they are stuck above you. This helps significantly in getting string early game.

Also, make sure your base has multiple entrances so you can always enter or leave through another one if one is blocked by mobs.

[SterlingRed]

I suspect that a lot of players get into the mindset that building structures is a luxury activity can't be afforded until significant technological advancement.

So much this, my early game got so much better after I stopped thinking of it as a barrier to progression and started thinking of it as a survival challenge. That mindset helped me start investing in base structures and survival instead of just live in a hole until I can get enough iron to get diamonds.

[yany]

One thing that I keep doing more and more as I play is using building blocks to improve my chances in fights.

The most obvious ones are wither skeletons and endermen. With only 3 blocks of netherrack, I can make gateways in a fortress that I can pass, but wither skeletons can't. Hunting endermen becomes much easier if I can place a ceiling right above my head. If I make it out of wood, they don't even teleport on top of me, resulting in easy kills. You can even stand on top of your wooden platform if you want to have the high ground.

Then there are normal skeletons. Instead of walking up to a skeleton and tanking 2-3 arrows in the process, I often place 2 blocks on top of each other between me and the skeleton, and just let it walk up to me instead. This way I can deal with them taking only one arrow of damage.

If I find a passive spider in daylight, and I don't feel very confident about dodging its attacks, 4 of the anti-skeleton pillars guarantee perfect safety. Though this might be less useful in unexpected encounters than the skeleton one.

Clearing larger wolf packs goes from scary to easy if I can stand on top of a 2 block tall structure, where they can't jump up to hurt me. Of course, sometimes they walk away while I build up my defenses, but if I have a few snowballs on hand, they'll gladly come right back.

Some of these might be more obvious than others, but still, I think it's worth keeping in mind that you're still playing a block building game, even when you're fighting for your life.

[EpicAaron]

Clearing larger wolf packs goes from scary to easy if I can stand on top of a 2 block tall structure, where they can't jump up to hurt me. Of course, sometimes they walk away while I build up my defenses, but if I have a few snowballs on hand, they'll gladly come right back.

This is a great piece of advice. Never thought to use snowballs to get a wolf's attention!

Local wolf extermination is an upsetting but necessary practice to protect against nasty surprises in the long run. Surprisingly historically accurate, too.