I should have checked this topic earlier >_<
After spending the vast amount of time this weekend playing (literally 6+ hours each day) on Single Player survival, I have come up with some helpful (maybe?) tips.
-Monsters.
Monsters only spawn at night outside*, and when they get hit with sunlight, skeletons and zombies burst into flame. They don't die immediately, but take damage over time. Creepers won't burst into flames - they will stay up during the day. Spiders also stay up but will not attack unless it is night time or you hit them first. Zombies are slow, skeletons are a little quicker, creepers move fast, and spiders can run as fast as you. All of these can spawn underground, as well as slimes (which are buggy on my server - they don't die when hit, nor do they split). *Monsters will not spawn in well-lit places. Place a lot of torches unless you want friends around... especially in caves!
Creepers are awesome, I love dying by them usually because it is SO unexpected it makes me jump out of my skin. "Sssssss... BOOM!" Damn you creepers! However, creepers are also the only source of gunpowder in the game - but they cannot explode or they don't drop any. And note: if a creeper "blows up" in water, it only does HP damage to anyone nearby - it does not blow up blocks.
Which lead me to make a monster trap. Basically I run around the countryside, lure monsters after me, and jump into my trap. I sit inside as all the monsters drown, and the current from the water trap brings them to me. Problem is, I kinda suck at it and have died a ton. Oh well.
-Farming.
I love trees, so much that I made a massive treehouse several floors high. Trees will grow (as far as I know) as long as they have light (torches nearby lets them grow faster), at least 5 or so blocks of empty space above them, and they are not in the shadow of other things (ground, trees, stone). They do NOT NEED water. Wheat, on the other hand, does. Cacti only need sand and some space (1 block in between). No idea about reeds, I still have yet to try growing them.
-Monster generators.
I've found two. Sometimes underground you'll find a natural cavern that ends with mossy cobblestone, a chest, and a monster generator. The generator will spawn constantly, unless you surround all 8 block around it with torches. Doing so you can make a drowning trap nearby, and set up the current to have a lot of fun. As in, afk for a few hours near your skeleton trap, and come back to have several stacks of arrows. I love the bow!
-PLacing blocks. Hold down Shift to creep. You can walk right up to an edge without falling off; making it easy to place blocks. I die SO much less often now thanks to this.
-Underwater base
I made a pretty awesome one and am still expanding. It has a tree farm, a grain farm, flowers, and all glass walls and ceilings. Once you get used to crafting underwater (ie, digging out a block and shoving in glass before the water gushes in), it's really easy and addicting.
-Water Elevator
Remember how I said I had a massive tree house? And an underwater base? HUGE height difference... so I made a water elevator about, oh, 50 blocks high. Check out a video to get an idea on how it works. Sure, I COULD have used ladders to climb up... but the elevator is so much cooler.
-Materials
Stone is quick and plentiful to find. I use stone tools almost exclusively just because of that. Iron is tough to find, and I'm saving up for minecar tracks. Gold is worthless for crafting. Diamond is pretty good, but SO rare. So stone it is, and one iron pick for mining diamond if I find it. I have heard of three effective mining techniques - parallel mining, drift mining, and pocket mining. Parallel is time consuming but looks good. Basically go in one direction for as long as you want mining out a 3x3 area, then go back, go over 5 blocks, and do it again, same direction. Drift mining is using TNT, and looks like SO much fun that I'm saving up gunpowder to try it. Look up videos on it, it's so fun looking! Pocket mining I just heard about today - basically the idea is that materials come in veins, so you mine a pocket around the ore you find, then find another, and keep doing so. Ore almost always comes in pockets.
-Flint
Just figured this out yesterday while making arrows. Flint is a random (20%, maybe?) drop from mining gravel. If you find a large amount of gravel, dig it all up, place it down, dig it all up again. Each time it's a 20% chance to get flint, so you can do this a lot before running out. Got me about 30 flint in 10 minutes. Perfect for arrows!
That's it for now, might try to log on Paskil's server tonight, but it sucks not being able to fight or take damage from monsters. I love that thrill!
Edited, Sep 27th 2010 3:58pm by LockeColeMA
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WoW - Aureliano the Insane - level 90 Druid on Sen'Jin
Nanaoki - level 88 Mage on Sen'Jin
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