Minecraft Hacks Master Builder

Building in Minecraft can be much more than making a shelter to keep you safe at night. If you like, you can spend time in Creative mode and take the time to build amazing things. In addition to homes, you can build almost anything you can find in the real world.

You can basically build with any blocks, of course.

Traditional building materials. Traditional building materials are stone, stone bricks, cobblestone, wood planks, and sandstone. There are several variations on these, such as mossy stone bricks and chiseled sandstone. Some of these variations are difficult to mine or create or can be found more easily in temples and dungeons. They are all readily accessible in Creative mode.

Traditional building materials that you can craft and find in Survival mode easily include wood, stone brick, brick, cobblestone, and their variations.

Raw wood. Raw wood can be a great material to use, and you can also place it on its side to show off the interior.

Other blocks to use. You also don’t need to stick to the traditional wood, stone, and sandstone building material blocks Minecraft provides. Use snow, colorful wool blocks, quartz, nether brick, and stained clay. The only blocks you should not build with are gravel and sand, as these can collapse. Also, some blocks are flammable. If you are planning a working fireplace or a lava moat, you will want to avoid placing flammable blocks closer than 4 blocks from a fire source or 2 blocks from any other side.

You can use nontraditional building blocks for great looks, colors, and detailing, from snow to end stone, stained clay, and colored glass. Some of these you may have difficulty obtaining in Survival mode.

Take a look at all of Minecraft’s building blocks. You can repurpose many for other uses. Two trapdoors can be the side arms for a chair and a redstone lever can be a sink faucet.

Flammable blocks include netherrack, vines and leaves, and wooden items—slabs, planks, fences, and wood stairs (except for ladders and wood doors)—hay bales, coal, and bookshelves.

The basic steps to follow when you build something are:

• Decide what you want to build. If you can, use photos or pictures as references or for inspiration.

• Decide how big it’s going to be and how much space you need. Draw a simple blueprint or layout on paper.

• Find a location in your world for your build.

• Clear a flat area to start building.

• Create foundations for a building or markers that show where you are placing the front, back, and sides of your building.

• Build! Build the outer general structure first. (For homes and buildings, this would be the walls, floors, and roof.)

• Detail and decorate. Go over your structure, correcting mistakes, making improvements, and adding the details that will bring your creation to life.

If you are recreating something from real life in Minecraft blocks, at “real-life” size within Minecraft, each Minecraft block is defined as 1 meter cubed, or 3.3 feet in each direction. So if you want to build your own house in Minecraft, you can measure the walls in feet or meters and know about how many Minecraft blocks it will take. You can’t use half blocks in Minecraft, of course, only whole ones, so you will need to round up or down for the Minecraft measurement. For example, if my house is 45 feet wide by 30 feet deep, I’d divide by 3 to get the number of Minecraft blocks: 15 wide by 10 deep.

In Minecraft, 1 block is equivalent to 1 meter (or 3.3 feet) cubed in the real world. That means Steve is about 6 feet tall!

If you want to build a supersized version of something, find the real-world measurements and multiply them to get the final measurements. So if I wanted to build a giant skateboard, I would measure a real one in inches first—height, width, size of the wheels. This will give you the right proportions. Then you can build the skateboard in blocks instead of inches, or multiply all the measurements to make the design as large as you like.

Many times in building something, you have to count the blocks you are using. You may need to make sure two walls are the same length or place two buildings the exact same size or distance from a third building. It’s very easy to lose track of where you are when you’re counting, or miss a block, or even get interrupted and forget. One way to keep track is to use some kind of marker every fifth block. That way, if you lose track, you can recount by fives to where you are.

Here are three ways to use counting markers: in a wall, place a different block every fifth block—you can go back to replace it later; punch a hole in the ground; or place a single block every five.

Building in Minecraft is much easier in Creative mode. In Creative mode, you have a never-ending supply of Minecraft blocks, so you don’t need to plan on having the right materials. You can break blocks instantly with your hand. You can also fly around your building to place blocks, so you’re in no danger of falling and damaging or killing yourself. And of course, mobs won’t hurt you. With cheats on, you can change the time of day instantly so you can always work in daylight. You can also use the pick block key (usually the mouse’s middle key) to select any block in your environment and put it in your hand, ready to place.

There are lots of advantages to building in Creative mode, like not being at risk of a long fall to the ground!

Although building in Creative mode is easier, building in Survival mode can be more satisfying. You have to do the work to locate, gather, and craft materials and plan efficiently so you don’t waste these hard-won resources. You also feel pride when you have met the challenge of a time-consuming build accomplished in a hostile world.

So if you are up for the challenge of building in Survival mode, here are some tips:

• Build scaffolding from dirt blocks as you get higher. You can build dirt walkways and stairs outward from dirt beams to get to new places.

• Keep a stack of sand and a shovel so you can drop a pillar and shovel your way back down to the ground.

• If you are working really high above the ground, have a bucket of water handy. For a long drop, you might just have enough time to pour a pool of water beneath you as you fall, which can cushion your fall.

• Use the sneak key (Shift) with W so you can place blocks directly in front of you and underfoot.

In Survival mode, you can create a scaffold of dirt steps and beams to help you get to new heights.

In Survival, use the sneak key (Shift key) with W to creep over the edges of blocks. This allows you to place blocks in front of you at your feet and not fall to the ground. Hold the sneak key until you make it back to a solid block underfoot.