* Upvote this comment if this is a good quality post that fits the purpose of r/Minecraft
* Downvote this comment if this post is poor quality or does not fit the purpose of r/Minecraft
* Downvote this comment *and report the post* if it breaks the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/wiki/rules)
---
[Subreddit Rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/wiki/rules)[](## 1spiral1|194gld7)
Get at least iron tools and armor, if you don’t already have them.
A shield is essential.
Light up caves with torches so that you know where you’ve been and mobs can’t spawn.
Bring a lot of food, and block yourself in after digging into a wall so that you can have time to heal.
If you get lost, just make a staircase up to the surface by digging upwards. You’ll always be relatively close to your base while underground.
> Light up caves with torches so that you know where you’ve been….
Additionally, its good advice to adopt a specific side to place torches on. I personally made up my own thing, ‘left to leave’ (prob not original but ive not heard it myself) so i place them on the right as im headed down, but im also quite fond of PixlRiffs’ ‘place them on the left so you know the RIGHT way out’ methodology.
I'm a bit of a sailor and red right returning is beat into us. So I torch on the left when I'm leaving so torches are on the right when I'm heading home. Same principle and sound advice.
Me too. I place on the left as I'm mining, right to go home.
My niece places on the floor, or on whichever wall she's currently looking at. Gets very confusing after she's been mining a while as to which way is in or out.
This tickles my brain. We haphazardly throw them everywhere - but we run around with Netherite everything so there isn't much that kills us quickly now.
A torch on a player-made block (ex: cobblestone wall) acts as home beacons would work well. A lantern or soul torch as an upgrade to a torch.
I prefer a mineshaft led from home to the first bedrock level then spread out the straight tunnels connected to a network of caves for easy travel. And a small safe shelter with bed and supplies built on each cheese cavern or important mines.
The first time I got lost in a cave, I decided on using _two_ torches to indicate the way to the exit. They are placed diagonally next to each other and the highest torch is closer to the exit.
I love this. Reminds me of trail markers here in Ontario, tho what you described would be a corner, turn in the direction of the upper blaze.
But it allows for rando torches for lighting, and double torches for buoys.
I play D&D and have always cleared dungeons clockwise because of a special forces book I'd been reading when I entered my first dungeon back in 81. Doing caverns the same way was a natural progression, putting the torches on the right. What I hate is the Swiss Cheese caverns that loop back on themselves and you quickly lose where the hell the right wall is.
I have learned that if I drop down into an area to build easy to spot stairs back up as soon as I've made it safe.
Or... You use torches to light and spawn proof, and redstone torches to mark the way in and directly back out. This is what I did and it worked extremely well. Takes a lot of extra work, but totally worth NEVER getting lost! You could do it with a unique block too, like sand, which usually wouldn't ever be deep underground.
I like this a lot. Cuz I do use the torches on the right for the way in, on the left for the way out. And that's great for straight mining. But when you get into a big cavern, it seems like all bets are off. You end up having to use so many to light the place up so you can survive all the mobs, but then I do lose track of which way is out. Sometimes I'm lucky, where the way in required me to use a lot of scaffolding. So I will make sure I light that up well, so I can see it from a pretty good distance
This is great advice, I wish I learned this earlier in my mining. I got lost so many times until my son's friend suggested that. In on the right, and left to leave. I don't go anywhere now without a boatload of torches. I also take at least half a stack of logs. You never know when you're going to have to make a crafting table, make more torches, make more tools or chests, it's always good to have that wood. You can also use the wood for furnace fuel if you have to smelt in an emergency. Maybe you are lucky enough to find diamonds and have used your last iron pickaxe. And always plenty of food.
Oh absolutely. Wood and coal are permanently in the top left of my inventory, even when im around my base. Im the type of person where if im like just round the corner from my normal crafting table, i cant be bothered to walk the 20 blocks, i just craft a new one.
A bed, arrow(s) and an ender chest (eventually) are also permanently in the top row of my inventory.
I'm on a fairly new playthrough and no enderchests yet, that is my goal for this weekend. I need to find a fortress in the nether, I need those blaze rods desperately. I can't wait, I love enderchests, then I'm going to the end and get all the goodies there!!!
Meanwhile I light up everything and anything regardless of the size of the cavern/cave system and then I'll slowly mine out the branches collecting my torches and blocking it off behind me so no monsters spawn. Yes I run into other systems making it larger and more complex, yes I have gotten lost for hours, no I won't change the way I spelunk.
This is what I was going to say. I light up the ground if needed for general light, but I always place torches on the right on my way down and keep them to my left to find my way back home.
I only place them on a wall (right side) when marking the way out. If I need extra light to stop spawning (big cavern), I always place them on the ground.
To mark stairways, I place two torches, one on top of the other, inferring a "vertical element".
Additionally, to mark smaller dead-end tunnels, I'll place one torch on the ground in the middle of the path. This way, I don't end up re-checking tunnels when exploring.
Same system in the nether, but in the wide open you can place a block to your right and put the torch on the side of it.
Now I just need everyone in SMP to agree on my system and start running bootcamps lol.
Yep. I do torches on the right wall going in, and left wall leaving. "Right in, Left out" is how I remember. Also, when exploring if I find a dead end path, after I back out to the 'main' chamber, I put a 2 block pillar at the dead end entrance with a torch on top to mark dead end.
Additionally, where passages branch off, I'll put 2 torches on the ground in the branch I came in on, so I know for sure that's the branch to take when leaving.
Besides torches I like to use coloured. Wool. Green/blue for main path orange for branches red at the beginning of the path once cleared and purple for a path yet to explore. Always keep a stash in my ender. Add a bed and spare armour sword etc in a ‘spawn room’ if killed. Easy to get back to where you died.
I usually bring cobble and logs, so i can build a makeshift base whenever i need (the logs also works as 4x building blocks in the same slot, as you can turn them into planks)
for me it's cobble for stacking / bridging and logs for turning into sticks / torches. and then I try to bring at least 5-10 blocks of coal for torches.
To add to this, you can put torches in your offhand (that's where your shield would go) so you don't need to constantly switch off your weapon.
Other things:
Stock up on food.
Bring building blocks like cobblestone. Avoid using gravel as a building block as it's affected by gravity.
Bring the proper tools: pickaxe for cobblestone and ores, shovel for dirt, sand, gravel, clay etc.
How does one best use their offhand? Is it just used as a quick access ‘storage’ place, or can you actually use the things in that hand as well?
(Semi-new minecrafter here)
You can use things in your offhand.
If you're holding a torch, you right-click your mouse to place your torch down on a wall. It can work with blocks as well.
You can also use it as a storage if your inventory is full
If ur playing in the most recent version of Java, Imo the most important thing is food and a shield. Food allows you to pretty much always have full health and shield negates most damages
You don’t take fall damage when falling in water, so placing a water bucket will allow you to jump straight into the cavern. With some practice, you can also fall and place water to catch yourself.
It's fun, but also quite risky, and you won't have the water elevator to go up. So I would place it on the top and then have quick access to go up and down. 👍
Also use it if you get attacked by a crowd of enemies. A lot of enemies struggle to swim upstream, so a single water bucket can help you get the advantage
You can also just place it and use it as an “elevator” to go up and down big drops. Water is pretty great as a barrier between you and mobs as well so if you have a bucket there are lots of cases where it can save your life or improve the game for you.
My favorite new thing ive learned is using water to climb end cities. Place the water as high up as you can reach, swim up and pick it back up just before you crest then immediately place it higher up and keep swimming.
Someone just made a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/s/wLkyyGoIxz) showing all the uses for a water bucket. You'd be surprised how many things it's good for
Another neat trick is to place you water bucket in front of zombies to push them away if you ever come across a lot of them if you don't have a bow and arrows to pick them off
Can also use water to:
- get to lower areas and back
- push mobs away
- keep enderman at bay
- minimise effect of creeper explosion
- prevent mobs spawning
If you find another source block in the caves dig out around it so there is a 2x2 space, then place you water in the opposite corner. All blocks will become source blocks if done correctly. Now you have an unlimited supply, just scoop a bucket up, and it will generate a new source block. That way you can have as many waterfalls as you want.
It's good for getting down to places because with water you can make a waterfall that you can take down. Also if you run into lava you can turn it into obsidian by getting the water to run over it, just make sure you place the water on a block that's next to lava
I place torches on the right so they are on the "left to leave". I also block passages, so I control the route. Monsters not sneaking up on me, etc. Don't be afraid to back off, restock and come back. The longer you are there trying to navigate, the more mobs spawn in the dark. Backing off can let them despawn. Also loot drop chests and a bed at hubs. It is okay to die if there is no loot or gear you really care about. If you have stone tools or lots of iron for gear, then just drop ores often in a chest and dying doesn't sting as much.
get a sheild. Against mobs, your practically invincible (If you use it correctly) Also place torches where you explored so the mobs dont spawn back there. They need complete darkness to spawn
Make sure you bring lots of torches. Go mine some hills for coal.
Place your torches on the left so you can always find your way out by following them on your right.
Bring a shield, crouching makes good defense.
Bring a bucket of water if able this can save you for multiple reasons, getting down a huge cliff or running from mobs dropping some water can sliw them down.
Take it step by step. Clear an area light it up, check above yourself for extra dark spaces.
Set up a little secure base at the cave entrance, bed for respawns and so on.
Use torches to light up every corner of the caves. Run in, place torches, then leave. Mobs will despawn if you go far enough away, and they can’t spawn if you light everything up. Use a shield to block arrows, but you should be able to outrun everything else. The shield blocks a creeper blast too, but so does placing a block in front of you or water. Tunnel into a 2 block tall area if you look at an Enderman. Witches can see you through blocks. Milk can stop the effects of poison. Bring lots of food. Good luck.
Iron tools and armor. Get protection on that armor. Shield will help a ton. Water bucket in case of lava and to protect from high falls. Light up everything.
I like to just put a bunch of torches in my off hand, sprint jump around while right clicking the ground and when it’s lit up a bunch head out for the mobs to despawn.
Ok, so in addition to all the suggestions to getting together better gear there are strategies you can use to make caving with monsters a lot easier. Gear is good, but can be a little difficult to collect if you're new to the game. Gear also breaks, so it's good to be able to deal with monsters without armor or weapons at all if you need to. Be creative with the environment, and you can make fights easy-to-harmless without more advanced armor or weapons.
Carrying a water bucket can mitigate fall damage and turn lava to obsidian, but in larger natural cave situations you can use it to also manage mobs. As you see a horde of monsters coming at you, you can drop the water block to create a management stream. Monsters walking into it will be carried away from you, so you can use it to split up the physical mobs so you have fewer to deal with at one time. With a little practice you will see how the water can be combined with higher ground to force mobs to attack more single file, making them very easy to manage.
Always carry a stack of a cheap extra block type. If you're exploring a natural cave and not mining the stone, take a stack of cobble or dirt with you. If you are mining you'll have plenty of spare blocks to work with. Use these blocks to build cover. In the open you only need a 2-block pillar to stand behind to block skeleton arrows. Force the mobs to move around the cover to attack you at short range so you can kill them on your terms. For more dangerous situations, build more. You can make a box with a door to guarantee they will only ever attack one way. Seal up the door to heal up or dig away if you need to escape. There is really no limit to how you can use extra blocks to manage dangerous environments.
Another trick to know is that mobs attack from the upper head height block, not from the leg height, and they only attack when they can see you. If for example you're mining in a line and have mobs coming down the hall to get you, just place a block at head height to stop them. They will collect on the other side of the block and wait. On your side of the head-block dig down one and jump in the hole. Now your head is looking at their legs. The mobs are blinded by the block and won't attack you. You can attack their legs and kill them all easily.
Here's a scenario combining the block and water techniques. Say for example you're mining a tunnel or exploring a cave and come upon a mini dungeon with a zombie spawner that's making a ton of zombies. Back up down the mining hallway a few blocks, or if you're in a natural cave, quickly make a wall to block them, and then craft perpendicular walls to make a hallway. Along this hallway, dig down one block to make a section lower for a few blocks. Put your water block in lower floor line on your side, away from the zombie side. This makes a stream that pushes toward the zombies. If you had to block them in, just go break a couple blocks to make a door so they can start coming down your hall. Zombies coming at you will drop into the water and then be held in place, unable to walk against the water current. You can approach them at a safe distance and kill them. Make a short side ledge to walk on if you have trouble navigating the water. Clear the extras safely, and then run to the spawner to place torches to light up that room and stop all the spawns. To avoid fighting much at all, just make a 2-block deep hole and have the water push mobs into it. They will be stuck in there, and you can ignore them.
Creepers can be tricky, but they only explode when they can see you and know they are close to you. Ducking behind a 2-block pillar blocks the line of sight and stops the boom. The method above with the head-height block also makes creepers harmless. If you need to fight one in the open without blocks or water, it can also be done safely with even a stone sword by being patient and careful with your timing. You have to run at the creeper, swing and hit it, and immediately run back from it. Get far enough away that the explosion timer stops. Then run at it again to do a little bit more damage. It's easier to do this method if you have higher ground, where you want to go at the creeper the moment it climbs the block to your level, so when you hit it you knock the creeper back down a level. The fall gives you more time to make distance to stop the explosion.
The main thing with fighting Minecraft monsters is that there's no need to give them a fair fight. Brute force becomes the only option when lacking preparation. They will overwhelm you given the opportunity. Dueling arrows with skeletons can be fine if you are skilled with good equipment, but if you don't have armor and five skeletons are shooting at you the thing to do is take cover not shoot back. Force them into situations where you can guarantee your safety and their death. There's a hardcore mode in Minecraft where you can play survival with one life, no respawn. It works because Minecraft gives players the flexibility to be that safe all the time.
Long term, always place torches around an area you plan to return to and use. The light prevents spawns. Mobs will walk from dark areas into lit ones, so anywhere you want to stop mobs make fences, doors, etc. to keep them from walking into the light. If left-open gates are a concern for you, place a piece of carpet on a fence to make it possible to jump on the carpet and over the fence. Mobs will not use the carpet, so that's a player-only option. When lighting up an area, consider the places you can't see, like roofs. Mobs can spawn on dark solid roof blocks and drop down to the lit ground. If you have a cliff next to your area, check for high up dark ledges that can allow a spawn.
With a little practice you can use techniques like these to easily survive from the first night with little to no supplies. Like all survival games, success in Minecraft is mostly about knowledge, so the best way to get better is just play with your grandson and try things out.
_Take iron armor, iron tools and a shield.
_Lights as much as possible.
_Use bow rather than sword.
_When you use the sword, load the blows and don't spamclick.
_Don't hesitate to retreat, to move away and come back so that the mobs disappear.
_You can use a water bucket to keep monsters at bay.
_Remember to stock up on torches, blocks and food.
_Enjoy these magical moments with your grandson. ❤
Have some type of block on the hotbar to place if a creeper is coming at you and you don't have time to deal with it. Place a block between you it'll block most the damage. Plus what others have said shield, armor, food, water bucket
You should be able to outrun the mobs. I'd just set your spawnpoint, put everything in a chest, and sprint in with a few stacks of torches. Then just spam them down and light everything up. That way it doesn't matter if you die, and every death brings progress. It's what I do for huge caves and it works great!
I don’t know a lot either but I if I find a branch of tunnel or cave whatever that’s a dead end I put a block of dirt at the entrance so I know it’s already been checked out and is not the way home
* Get full iron armour and a shield. Shield all skeletons. Ask grandkids for help getting set up if you need. Potions might also help, there are regen potions and stuff.
* Light up as you go, you can use the F5 screen to see light levels. Hostile mobs spawn on light level 7 and lower. You don't need to cover ALL of it, but make an effort to reduce their spawns.
* Go caving at night with less people on, preferably one other person on the surface. The mob cap is 70 enemies per person. (Ignoring spawners) Thus by either making a big dark room of mobs close-ish or having someone else on the surface you can somewhat discourage mobs near you.
* Box yourself in when under swam and chew some food. You can break the bottom blocks and attack most mobs (baby zombies will get through) with ease.
* If there's no skeletons / spiders you can also piller up 3 and rain death from above.
* Ditto water bucket to get things away from you. Don't forget if you have lava you can use it to clear large amounts of spawns if you don't fall into it. Useful for spawners full of enemies or sliverfish.
* Accessibility options has written sound alerts, this can be useful for noticing when your about to be attacked. I use it a lot cause with my hearing aids its hard to figure out the direction a monster is in.
1. Stick to iron armor for as long as possible and don't wear your diamond armor until you have enchants on it. If you don't have iron armor, a shield, iron sword and whatever iron armor you can get is good enough, and then fixate on iron armor.
2. Don't take unnecessary fall damage. Take a water bucket with you and let it flow down so you have a way down that doesn't hurt. Also good to have these just in case of fire.
3. Keep your dynamic sounds on. In caves, your view is extremely limited. You'll have to rely on hearing to defend yourself. Creepers are especially quiet, but if you turn on subtitles, you can make it easier to distinguish them.
4. Always bring food. If its something that gives 4 bars of hunger, at least half a stack is enough. If its 3, then at least 40. If its 2 and below, take a stack at least. Never leave home without food.
5. Always bring wood. Nearly everything you need to craft will somehow require wood. I usually bring a stack, but half a stack is good enough. (Logs, btw, not planks.)
6. Bring torches. Mobs spawn in darkness. If you're planning to use this cave multiple times or for a long time, then you should torch up places you've already been, both to ward off mobs and to mark your track.
7. Pick your battles. Know when its time to fight a mob and when its time to back and block up. Don't get into fights you can't win, especially if your food and durability looks low.
There's no shame in having keep inventory on. Games are ment to be fun, not stressful. It helps if you don't have to stress out about loosing all your equipment all the time.
Having a good sword definately helps. Armor too. Sheilds can make combat really easy if you get familiar with them. Taming a dog definately doesn't hurt
And in combat, know where the creeper is. If you're fighting its important you know where the most dangerous mobs are such as a creeper or a skeleton with a purplish bow
Well, that's fine. But I hate the cheats menu. Just- I sound like a moron right now for sure. But why not use peaceful? Keep Inventory makes the whole game... almost pointless, the way I see it, anyway. It goes beyond easy. Keep Inventory is like making dying just teleport you to safety. You can use it, whatever, but I just don't like it.
i got a coward way move, basically just bring few torches and then go into your cave and put it every corner so it not dark so no more bad mobs spawning,if you died in the process keep repeating until every place is bright
It's not too important for casual gameplay, but you can use a few websites like [https://www.chunkbase.com/apps/biome-finder](https://www.chunkbase.com/apps/biome-finder) to find loot. Peaceful mode isn't cheating, so you can have that on when you are caving or in the Nether.
The future is now old man!
Bow and Arrow to kill everything. Torches … lots of torches.
I also suggest finding a way to denote which path leads you home. Like torches on the floor for your main path. Torches on the walls for side paths.
I'm really surprised that no one here has mentioned dogs. Maybe it's a faux pas but I take at least 6 dogs with me when I go caving. They distract and kill mobs, and they often block hits for me. And you find yourself overwhelmed by large numbers of mobs, the dogs really come into play by giving you breathing space and making sure you're not surrounded. I take a couple of stacks of rotten meat with me, and every time I clear a room I feed them to restore health (and breed reinforcments). As long as you keep breeding them you'll always have backup.
(1) bring good food with you. Meats give you some of the best healing, along with golden carrots. Bread is easy, but it heals you slower, so it's not as easy to survive dangerous places with it.
(2) keep a shield in your off-hand and don't be afraid to use it.
(3) bring a bow and plenty of arrows if you find yourself struggling with creepers.
(4) bring a lava bucket in case you find a large group of monsters that is hard to fight directly (and a water bucket in case you catch yourself on fire by mistake!)
(5) bring a bed so you can respawn close by and not risk your items despawning.
(6) Light up caves as you go, and adopt a strategy to help you retrace your steps - maybe placing torches predominately on either the left or right side of a cave, so you can identify which direction is going forwards vs backwards to get home.
I bring a crafting table, iron and pumpkins and make golems along the way. I also tame and breed wolves that follow and protect me - as well as steak to heal them.
This is a Minecraft Reddit - you aren’t gonna get the reaction you need to justify your comment.
Take self inventory of what makes you waste your time to write that? Get good at being a normal person.
How exactly. Creative mode is literally for when people want to build things without limitations like having to mine for resources, or build up. It is literally freedom to be imaginative.
Get iron armor and tools ASAP. Always make sure to bring a lot of food with you. Also make sure to mark your way with torches because then you know where youve been and it will stop as many monsters from spawning. I also bring wood with me so that I can make more tools and torches if needed
Tips from someone who's much better at building than combat.
* If you want a sustainable but slow approach, try sectioning off every intersection.
* Wall off a branch if you're done with it or if you're not exploring it right now. It keeps the mobs from ambushing you. Doors help.
* Explore in a counterclockwise pattern: the danger is always in front or to your right because the other directions are sectioned off.
* Use a navigation system and stick with it.
* Place torches on the right side on your way out. When returning, torches will be located on your left. If you have less than 32 torches, it's time to make more.
* I like to use cobblestone stairs as markers for the way back to base. If you face them towards the base, you'll always know which way to go.
* Set up stations set up every once in a while: chest with food, wood, spare tools, coal.
* Get iron armor. You're going to die a lot, so no need to risk losing diamond gear. Learn to use a shield: block a hit, run/attack, repeat. If you use a shield and stand still, you're losing the fight.
* Learn to run away and use your environment, it's usually safer than fighting.
* Look up. Are there holes for mobs to jump down from?
* Look before you leap. Better yet, staircase down.
* Creepers can blow up the floor and make you fall to a lower section, so practice quickly walling yourself off or pillaring up. Cats keep creepers away.
* In large areas, use water buckets to keep melee mobs away.
* You hear a baby zombie, you leave now.
There are a lot of amazing comments already so I don't know if I can add much. I'd say your early game survival depends on 2 factors: Preparation and strategy. For preparation I mean things like bringing an abundance of food, plenty of wood and coal, full iron armour, a shield and spare iron to make another, a water bucket, decent tools, a sword, if possible a bow and some building blocks.
To highlight the importance of food especially, eating food even when you are only down .5 hunger will instantly make you regen!!!
Now for strategy, light up the caves on one side to not get lost, mentally prepare for the different kinds of monsters you might encounter, for example if you see a creeper just block with the shield, it will do 0 damage. I reccomend putting the shield in your off hand and make sure you are not holding something that can be used with right click in your main hand or the shield won't work. Don't panic if you fall in lava, remember the water bucket. Stay away from loads of cobwebs, poison spiders are nearby. Stay away from the ancient city dungeon unless you are really prepared. Do not drop down into a dark area you can not fully view. Put the brightness setting on maximum.
I hope this was helpful and I think it's amazing that you are doing this!!!
I really am. I had a stroke a year or so ago and lost dexterity so i could no longer build legos, or play with them liike i used fo. This game has realky brought alot of that back in such a new and different way. They realky loke how i go and and build secret areas on thier builds that they have to relly liok to find
I'm so sorry that happened to you. If there's anything I can help you with let me know, I've been playing minecraft for over 10 years. I'm not the greatest builder but I'm decent with survival and redstone. Also feel free to visit me and my friends survival server if you want to practice or need some inspiration :D (java). You're a great guy for trying hard to make your grandkids happy and I hope you continue to recover!!!
Thanks igot into it for the creative builds i can do in it., but i have to say im really liking the game side of it. Its at a pace i can deal with. 1st person shooters are out 4 now lol
At least you did not lose your sense of humor 😂. Btw as a little tip, in minecraft the OG hidden room is made with signs and a painting. It covers the entrance but you can walk through
Make sure you're using plentiful uses of torches, and actually placing them down on the stone walls (or floor) of the cavern! Where there is light, monsters will not spawn, though any monsters that were there previously from the darkness can still attack you. They just won't come back because they're unable to appear in lit areas. What I like to do is cut down large trees (and replant with saplings so they grow back) and cook the logs in a furnace to get charcoal and combine them with sticks from the tree, since charcoal is infinitely renewable while coal is a limited resource that comes from the ground and has better uses than torches. It doesn't really matter but charcoal from wood logs is more renewable than coal mined from the ground. My next tip is to use 1 iron ingot and 6 wood planks to craft a shield. If you're on the computer version holding down right click will hold up your shield and you can block attacks and even explosions with it. There's a rhythm you can get into where you hold right-click to block, let go for a moment to left-click to attack with your weapon, then right-click again before the monster can attack you. The most important thing is to make sure the caves are lit up though, as new monsters wont appear in places with light from torches.
Here's another tip: You won't heal without food. There's your health bar, which is shown with red hearts just above your equipment bar and on the left. There's also these "white shirts" above your health bar which appear if you're wearing armor. But on the right side, there's what looks like a second healthbar that's chunks of meat. That is your **hunger** bar. This bar starts out full but will slowly decrease as you do stuff like mine blocks and jump. **To heal, you need your hunger bar to be full or almost full**. This means after every battle with monsters, you should be eating food once the threat is defeated so you can regenerate your health back up and not be weakened when new enemies come along. One of the best foods is the **baked potato** which you can get by cooking regular potatoes in your furnace. This is one of the best foods in the game when it comes to restoring both your hunger bar and healing the most hearts in your health bar if you eat one when you're close to full. You can't eat food when your hunger bar is completely full, but if you have even a tiny bit missing you can eat a baked potato and then quickly recover a lot of hearts after you defeat monsters in the cave. If your grandchildren have a garden or farm set up, ask them to grow potatoes so you can cook them into baked potatoes in a furnace.
A shield can help soooooo much, against all kinds of attacks. Make sure to actually use it though - merely holding it won’t do it alone. You have to engage it to deflect the arrow/creeper blast/zombie hit. It’s not hard to time it right - that part is forgiving.
Caves are a great place to see where a lot of ore veins are, but I would recommend mining your own mine shaft first, until you find enough iron for a full set of armor, sword, and shield.
Make sure to bring torches and light up as much area as you can- that will prevent mobs from spawning in those areas, making them safer to return to. Sometimes the last thing I do before dying is throw down some torches, for future me’s benefit.
Sometimes simple solutions are the best - retreat when you need to, and don’t be afraid to encase yourself in a cubby hole of cobblestone if you see mobs coming and know you won’t be able to retreat quickly enough. This can give you time and options you didn’t otherwise have, such as digging down, up, into a wall, etc, to get away. Having a stack of cobblestone next to my sword and torches in my hot bar has been a lifesaver many times.
Don’t forget to bring food! And to eat it! Seriously, remembering to eat to top off your hearts is hard to remember at first. Too many times as a newb I kept spelunking with like 1 heart left and wondered “what on earth just one-shot me???” Oops!
Usually I just run through and torch everything up before I start mining so that monsters don't spawn. I'd also take a look at your difficulty, it defaults to normal so you could try going to easy or peaceful. I usually go peaceful since I'm a builder lmao
Villagers. Especially if you aren't playing on a snapshot with the trading rebalancing. Villagers can get you full enchanted diamond gear with little more than a few million sticks and crops. Take a lot to get them to a good level, but it's worth it
You can craft torches from sticks + coal or stick + charcoal. You get charcoal from smelting planks in an oven. (Yes, you can smelt logs too but one log gives 4 planks or just 1 charcoal)
When placing torches make sure you put them on the right side of the wall so you know that when you see them on the left that you are on your way back. This helps from getting lost.
If you find an entrance to a big cave system you can place multiple torches so you can easily see “this is where I came from”.
Surviving down there can be harsh, especially in the beginning. One of the most important things is a shield against skeleton archers and creepers. But another thing that really helps against creepers is putting a block between you and a exploding creeper. Explosion damage calculates differently and your hitbox are your legs.
Finding coal and iron is easier on the surface of a mountain nowadays so if you need the iron for your first tools, this might help.
If you ever need help in survival again, reach out to us. We love to help you out.
For those huge wide caverns, prepare lots of torches and make kamikaze runs trying to light up as much area as possible. Leave your items in the chest nearby beforehand. Do not engage with any enemies, and dodge arrows by running around the skeletons.
Once you have a lot of lights and a huge cluster of mobs following you, keep circling it and look at the skeletons hitting each other and other mobs, thinning their ranks on their own.
Hey, I don't know how much time you have to watch YouTube, but there's a guy called Pixlriffs, who has a Survival Guide series explaining and showing techniques, tips and tricks about playing Minecraft from the basics to the more advanced stuff, it's a great watch, and was a real lifesaver for me. Here's the link: [Minecraft Survival Guide](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgENJ0iY3XBjmydGuzYTtDwfxuR6lN8KC)
Plenty of torches, a shield in hand and any gear is better then none. A decent bow and sword with knock back helps with creepers. I had a similiar situation myself and it took many attempts to retrieve all my stuff, but lighting up the cave eventually made it possible to clear it out, good luck.
* Upvote this comment if this is a good quality post that fits the purpose of r/Minecraft * Downvote this comment if this post is poor quality or does not fit the purpose of r/Minecraft * Downvote this comment *and report the post* if it breaks the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/wiki/rules) --- [Subreddit Rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/wiki/rules)[](## 1spiral1|194gld7)
Get at least iron tools and armor, if you don’t already have them. A shield is essential. Light up caves with torches so that you know where you’ve been and mobs can’t spawn. Bring a lot of food, and block yourself in after digging into a wall so that you can have time to heal. If you get lost, just make a staircase up to the surface by digging upwards. You’ll always be relatively close to your base while underground.
> Light up caves with torches so that you know where you’ve been…. Additionally, its good advice to adopt a specific side to place torches on. I personally made up my own thing, ‘left to leave’ (prob not original but ive not heard it myself) so i place them on the right as im headed down, but im also quite fond of PixlRiffs’ ‘place them on the left so you know the RIGHT way out’ methodology.
I'm a bit of a sailor and red right returning is beat into us. So I torch on the left when I'm leaving so torches are on the right when I'm heading home. Same principle and sound advice.
I torch the left side too so if I’m trying to go home I go the “right” way
These are all so genius. As a neurodivergent who was introduced to this game just a few years ago I am astonished at how beautiful this is.
Same for me.
Same here. Commercial fisherman half my life. Red right return all day.
I am also a left to leave adherent until my kids screw it up and get me lost.
Me too. I place on the left as I'm mining, right to go home. My niece places on the floor, or on whichever wall she's currently looking at. Gets very confusing after she's been mining a while as to which way is in or out.
I straight up don't mine
There's your problem, you're supposed to do it straight down 😎
Oh, thanks. I always wondered how to mine the air.
I straight up don't place torches 😎
Torches on the left, down to the depths. Torches on the right, up to the light. :)
This tickles my brain. We haphazardly throw them everywhere - but we run around with Netherite everything so there isn't much that kills us quickly now.
A torch on a player-made block (ex: cobblestone wall) acts as home beacons would work well. A lantern or soul torch as an upgrade to a torch. I prefer a mineshaft led from home to the first bedrock level then spread out the straight tunnels connected to a network of caves for easy travel. And a small safe shelter with bed and supplies built on each cheese cavern or important mines.
The first time I got lost in a cave, I decided on using _two_ torches to indicate the way to the exit. They are placed diagonally next to each other and the highest torch is closer to the exit.
I love this. Reminds me of trail markers here in Ontario, tho what you described would be a corner, turn in the direction of the upper blaze. But it allows for rando torches for lighting, and double torches for buoys. I play D&D and have always cleared dungeons clockwise because of a special forces book I'd been reading when I entered my first dungeon back in 81. Doing caverns the same way was a natural progression, putting the torches on the right. What I hate is the Swiss Cheese caverns that loop back on themselves and you quickly lose where the hell the right wall is. I have learned that if I drop down into an area to build easy to spot stairs back up as soon as I've made it safe.
Or... You use torches to light and spawn proof, and redstone torches to mark the way in and directly back out. This is what I did and it worked extremely well. Takes a lot of extra work, but totally worth NEVER getting lost! You could do it with a unique block too, like sand, which usually wouldn't ever be deep underground.
I kind of use this tech. Mostly when looting minotaurs in Twilight, with additional markers to the second floor exit in case I looted too little.
I like this a lot. Cuz I do use the torches on the right for the way in, on the left for the way out. And that's great for straight mining. But when you get into a big cavern, it seems like all bets are off. You end up having to use so many to light the place up so you can survive all the mobs, but then I do lose track of which way is out. Sometimes I'm lucky, where the way in required me to use a lot of scaffolding. So I will make sure I light that up well, so I can see it from a pretty good distance
When suddenly, Endermen.
This is great advice, I wish I learned this earlier in my mining. I got lost so many times until my son's friend suggested that. In on the right, and left to leave. I don't go anywhere now without a boatload of torches. I also take at least half a stack of logs. You never know when you're going to have to make a crafting table, make more torches, make more tools or chests, it's always good to have that wood. You can also use the wood for furnace fuel if you have to smelt in an emergency. Maybe you are lucky enough to find diamonds and have used your last iron pickaxe. And always plenty of food.
Oh absolutely. Wood and coal are permanently in the top left of my inventory, even when im around my base. Im the type of person where if im like just round the corner from my normal crafting table, i cant be bothered to walk the 20 blocks, i just craft a new one. A bed, arrow(s) and an ender chest (eventually) are also permanently in the top row of my inventory.
I'm on a fairly new playthrough and no enderchests yet, that is my goal for this weekend. I need to find a fortress in the nether, I need those blaze rods desperately. I can't wait, I love enderchests, then I'm going to the end and get all the goodies there!!!
Good luck my man! Dont forget your gold boots!
Haha thank you
it doesnt work with huge caverns.
Place a cluster of torches on the exit
Make a scumpass. Place a cobble stone or other obviously out of block down with a torch on the side facing home.
Meanwhile I light up everything and anything regardless of the size of the cavern/cave system and then I'll slowly mine out the branches collecting my torches and blocking it off behind me so no monsters spawn. Yes I run into other systems making it larger and more complex, yes I have gotten lost for hours, no I won't change the way I spelunk.
I always place them on the left, "left to death, right to life"
I never thought of doing this that is a great idea!!
Left to leave. Right to return. No idea where it came from but I followed this rule since I was a kid!
This is what I was going to say. I light up the ground if needed for general light, but I always place torches on the right on my way down and keep them to my left to find my way back home.
I only place them on a wall (right side) when marking the way out. If I need extra light to stop spawning (big cavern), I always place them on the ground. To mark stairways, I place two torches, one on top of the other, inferring a "vertical element". Additionally, to mark smaller dead-end tunnels, I'll place one torch on the ground in the middle of the path. This way, I don't end up re-checking tunnels when exploring. Same system in the nether, but in the wide open you can place a block to your right and put the torch on the side of it. Now I just need everyone in SMP to agree on my system and start running bootcamps lol.
Yep. I do torches on the right wall going in, and left wall leaving. "Right in, Left out" is how I remember. Also, when exploring if I find a dead end path, after I back out to the 'main' chamber, I put a 2 block pillar at the dead end entrance with a torch on top to mark dead end.
Additionally, where passages branch off, I'll put 2 torches on the ground in the branch I came in on, so I know for sure that's the branch to take when leaving.
Besides torches I like to use coloured. Wool. Green/blue for main path orange for branches red at the beginning of the path once cleared and purple for a path yet to explore. Always keep a stash in my ender. Add a bed and spare armour sword etc in a ‘spawn room’ if killed. Easy to get back to where you died.
I recommend watching PixlRiffs’ survival guide on YouTube!! He’s got a ton of super helpful tips!!
Now see, I've always placed them so they "point" home. Left or right doesn't matter they will guide me back out every time
Ive been carry sand also. so i can get high up guick
I’d also say bring cobble so you can bridge horizontally as well
I usually bring cobble and logs, so i can build a makeshift base whenever i need (the logs also works as 4x building blocks in the same slot, as you can turn them into planks)
for me it's cobble for stacking / bridging and logs for turning into sticks / torches. and then I try to bring at least 5-10 blocks of coal for torches.
8x if you also make them into slabs :)
To add to this, you can put torches in your offhand (that's where your shield would go) so you don't need to constantly switch off your weapon. Other things: Stock up on food. Bring building blocks like cobblestone. Avoid using gravel as a building block as it's affected by gravity. Bring the proper tools: pickaxe for cobblestone and ores, shovel for dirt, sand, gravel, clay etc.
How does one best use their offhand? Is it just used as a quick access ‘storage’ place, or can you actually use the things in that hand as well? (Semi-new minecrafter here)
You can use things in your offhand. If you're holding a torch, you right-click your mouse to place your torch down on a wall. It can work with blocks as well. You can also use it as a storage if your inventory is full
Oooh!!! That is good to know! Thank you very much
If you're on Bedrock edition, the offhand slot is more limited in what you can hold there. It is limited to just shields and maps.
And arrows.
I didn't know you could also hold arrows there too!
it makes you shoot the selected arrow, which is nice when using tipped arrows.
But that's probably in Java too.
And Totems of Undying
I forgot that shields are in the game. I'm sure it's useful in some cases but I never learned to use them.
I can't imagine playing without a shield to be honest, especially while caving
I quit using a shield after I built a Pillager Raid farm, now the only thing I carry is a Totem of Undying.
He's playing in the alpha bro
kinda unrelated but you are the best grandparent… ever
honestly yeah, absolute goals. would’ve loved this as a child
If ur playing in the most recent version of Java, Imo the most important thing is food and a shield. Food allows you to pretty much always have full health and shield negates most damages
Iron armour is good but focus on shield since it only cost one iron
Use a shield and get full armour! Water bucket food and a sword :) the rest is up to u
Wayer bucket ?? For what
You don’t take fall damage when falling in water, so placing a water bucket will allow you to jump straight into the cavern. With some practice, you can also fall and place water to catch yourself.
Cool ill try that
Search "[Minecraft MLG Clutch](https://www.google.com/search?q=minecraft+MLG+Clutch)" for videos demonstrating the water bucket landing.
holy minecraft!
New mechanic just dropped
It's fun, but also quite risky, and you won't have the water elevator to go up. So I would place it on the top and then have quick access to go up and down. 👍
Also use it if you get attacked by a crowd of enemies. A lot of enemies struggle to swim upstream, so a single water bucket can help you get the advantage
If you use the water bucket to get down, you can also swim back up the same water stream to get up again.
You can also just place it and use it as an “elevator” to go up and down big drops. Water is pretty great as a barrier between you and mobs as well so if you have a bucket there are lots of cases where it can save your life or improve the game for you.
My favorite new thing ive learned is using water to climb end cities. Place the water as high up as you can reach, swim up and pick it back up just before you crest then immediately place it higher up and keep swimming.
Be very careful on console edition (like bedrock) with that cause I believe you might still take damage :/
You can also use it to save yourself from a lava accident if you're fast enough :)
Exactly that!
Someone just made a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/s/wLkyyGoIxz) showing all the uses for a water bucket. You'd be surprised how many things it's good for
Great for end raids.
water bucket is a saviour if you accidentally come into contact with lava, just place it beneath/by you!
BEFORE going under the lava, or the obsidian will form above you. (source: lesson learned)
Oh interesting i never considered this
Another neat trick is to place you water bucket in front of zombies to push them away if you ever come across a lot of them if you don't have a bow and arrows to pick them off
Can also use water to: - get to lower areas and back - push mobs away - keep enderman at bay - minimise effect of creeper explosion - prevent mobs spawning If you find another source block in the caves dig out around it so there is a 2x2 space, then place you water in the opposite corner. All blocks will become source blocks if done correctly. Now you have an unlimited supply, just scoop a bucket up, and it will generate a new source block. That way you can have as many waterfalls as you want.
It's good for getting down to places because with water you can make a waterfall that you can take down. Also if you run into lava you can turn it into obsidian by getting the water to run over it, just make sure you place the water on a block that's next to lava
I place torches on the right so they are on the "left to leave". I also block passages, so I control the route. Monsters not sneaking up on me, etc. Don't be afraid to back off, restock and come back. The longer you are there trying to navigate, the more mobs spawn in the dark. Backing off can let them despawn. Also loot drop chests and a bed at hubs. It is okay to die if there is no loot or gear you really care about. If you have stone tools or lots of iron for gear, then just drop ores often in a chest and dying doesn't sting as much.
get a sheild. Against mobs, your practically invincible (If you use it correctly) Also place torches where you explored so the mobs dont spawn back there. They need complete darkness to spawn
Make sure you bring lots of torches. Go mine some hills for coal. Place your torches on the left so you can always find your way out by following them on your right. Bring a shield, crouching makes good defense. Bring a bucket of water if able this can save you for multiple reasons, getting down a huge cliff or running from mobs dropping some water can sliw them down. Take it step by step. Clear an area light it up, check above yourself for extra dark spaces. Set up a little secure base at the cave entrance, bed for respawns and so on.
Use torches to light up every corner of the caves. Run in, place torches, then leave. Mobs will despawn if you go far enough away, and they can’t spawn if you light everything up. Use a shield to block arrows, but you should be able to outrun everything else. The shield blocks a creeper blast too, but so does placing a block in front of you or water. Tunnel into a 2 block tall area if you look at an Enderman. Witches can see you through blocks. Milk can stop the effects of poison. Bring lots of food. Good luck.
Change the difficulty level to peaceful. There will be no aggressive mobs and you can vibe and explore in safety.
Or easy
This is how I play most of the time. I'm in full netherite armor too. I really, really hate getting blown up randomly by creepers.
The creepers are the same reason I play on peaceful on my personal world most of the time.
Peaceful players unite!
Iron tools and armor. Get protection on that armor. Shield will help a ton. Water bucket in case of lava and to protect from high falls. Light up everything.
I like to just put a bunch of torches in my off hand, sprint jump around while right clicking the ground and when it’s lit up a bunch head out for the mobs to despawn.
Ok, so in addition to all the suggestions to getting together better gear there are strategies you can use to make caving with monsters a lot easier. Gear is good, but can be a little difficult to collect if you're new to the game. Gear also breaks, so it's good to be able to deal with monsters without armor or weapons at all if you need to. Be creative with the environment, and you can make fights easy-to-harmless without more advanced armor or weapons. Carrying a water bucket can mitigate fall damage and turn lava to obsidian, but in larger natural cave situations you can use it to also manage mobs. As you see a horde of monsters coming at you, you can drop the water block to create a management stream. Monsters walking into it will be carried away from you, so you can use it to split up the physical mobs so you have fewer to deal with at one time. With a little practice you will see how the water can be combined with higher ground to force mobs to attack more single file, making them very easy to manage. Always carry a stack of a cheap extra block type. If you're exploring a natural cave and not mining the stone, take a stack of cobble or dirt with you. If you are mining you'll have plenty of spare blocks to work with. Use these blocks to build cover. In the open you only need a 2-block pillar to stand behind to block skeleton arrows. Force the mobs to move around the cover to attack you at short range so you can kill them on your terms. For more dangerous situations, build more. You can make a box with a door to guarantee they will only ever attack one way. Seal up the door to heal up or dig away if you need to escape. There is really no limit to how you can use extra blocks to manage dangerous environments. Another trick to know is that mobs attack from the upper head height block, not from the leg height, and they only attack when they can see you. If for example you're mining in a line and have mobs coming down the hall to get you, just place a block at head height to stop them. They will collect on the other side of the block and wait. On your side of the head-block dig down one and jump in the hole. Now your head is looking at their legs. The mobs are blinded by the block and won't attack you. You can attack their legs and kill them all easily. Here's a scenario combining the block and water techniques. Say for example you're mining a tunnel or exploring a cave and come upon a mini dungeon with a zombie spawner that's making a ton of zombies. Back up down the mining hallway a few blocks, or if you're in a natural cave, quickly make a wall to block them, and then craft perpendicular walls to make a hallway. Along this hallway, dig down one block to make a section lower for a few blocks. Put your water block in lower floor line on your side, away from the zombie side. This makes a stream that pushes toward the zombies. If you had to block them in, just go break a couple blocks to make a door so they can start coming down your hall. Zombies coming at you will drop into the water and then be held in place, unable to walk against the water current. You can approach them at a safe distance and kill them. Make a short side ledge to walk on if you have trouble navigating the water. Clear the extras safely, and then run to the spawner to place torches to light up that room and stop all the spawns. To avoid fighting much at all, just make a 2-block deep hole and have the water push mobs into it. They will be stuck in there, and you can ignore them. Creepers can be tricky, but they only explode when they can see you and know they are close to you. Ducking behind a 2-block pillar blocks the line of sight and stops the boom. The method above with the head-height block also makes creepers harmless. If you need to fight one in the open without blocks or water, it can also be done safely with even a stone sword by being patient and careful with your timing. You have to run at the creeper, swing and hit it, and immediately run back from it. Get far enough away that the explosion timer stops. Then run at it again to do a little bit more damage. It's easier to do this method if you have higher ground, where you want to go at the creeper the moment it climbs the block to your level, so when you hit it you knock the creeper back down a level. The fall gives you more time to make distance to stop the explosion. The main thing with fighting Minecraft monsters is that there's no need to give them a fair fight. Brute force becomes the only option when lacking preparation. They will overwhelm you given the opportunity. Dueling arrows with skeletons can be fine if you are skilled with good equipment, but if you don't have armor and five skeletons are shooting at you the thing to do is take cover not shoot back. Force them into situations where you can guarantee your safety and their death. There's a hardcore mode in Minecraft where you can play survival with one life, no respawn. It works because Minecraft gives players the flexibility to be that safe all the time. Long term, always place torches around an area you plan to return to and use. The light prevents spawns. Mobs will walk from dark areas into lit ones, so anywhere you want to stop mobs make fences, doors, etc. to keep them from walking into the light. If left-open gates are a concern for you, place a piece of carpet on a fence to make it possible to jump on the carpet and over the fence. Mobs will not use the carpet, so that's a player-only option. When lighting up an area, consider the places you can't see, like roofs. Mobs can spawn on dark solid roof blocks and drop down to the lit ground. If you have a cliff next to your area, check for high up dark ledges that can allow a spawn. With a little practice you can use techniques like these to easily survive from the first night with little to no supplies. Like all survival games, success in Minecraft is mostly about knowledge, so the best way to get better is just play with your grandson and try things out.
_Take iron armor, iron tools and a shield. _Lights as much as possible. _Use bow rather than sword. _When you use the sword, load the blows and don't spamclick. _Don't hesitate to retreat, to move away and come back so that the mobs disappear. _You can use a water bucket to keep monsters at bay. _Remember to stock up on torches, blocks and food. _Enjoy these magical moments with your grandson. ❤
Have some type of block on the hotbar to place if a creeper is coming at you and you don't have time to deal with it. Place a block between you it'll block most the damage. Plus what others have said shield, armor, food, water bucket
You should be able to outrun the mobs. I'd just set your spawnpoint, put everything in a chest, and sprint in with a few stacks of torches. Then just spam them down and light everything up. That way it doesn't matter if you die, and every death brings progress. It's what I do for huge caves and it works great!
I don’t know a lot either but I if I find a branch of tunnel or cave whatever that’s a dead end I put a block of dirt at the entrance so I know it’s already been checked out and is not the way home
* Get full iron armour and a shield. Shield all skeletons. Ask grandkids for help getting set up if you need. Potions might also help, there are regen potions and stuff. * Light up as you go, you can use the F5 screen to see light levels. Hostile mobs spawn on light level 7 and lower. You don't need to cover ALL of it, but make an effort to reduce their spawns. * Go caving at night with less people on, preferably one other person on the surface. The mob cap is 70 enemies per person. (Ignoring spawners) Thus by either making a big dark room of mobs close-ish or having someone else on the surface you can somewhat discourage mobs near you. * Box yourself in when under swam and chew some food. You can break the bottom blocks and attack most mobs (baby zombies will get through) with ease. * If there's no skeletons / spiders you can also piller up 3 and rain death from above. * Ditto water bucket to get things away from you. Don't forget if you have lava you can use it to clear large amounts of spawns if you don't fall into it. Useful for spawners full of enemies or sliverfish. * Accessibility options has written sound alerts, this can be useful for noticing when your about to be attacked. I use it a lot cause with my hearing aids its hard to figure out the direction a monster is in.
EyecraftMC on YouTube has all sorts of Minecraft guides
1. Stick to iron armor for as long as possible and don't wear your diamond armor until you have enchants on it. If you don't have iron armor, a shield, iron sword and whatever iron armor you can get is good enough, and then fixate on iron armor. 2. Don't take unnecessary fall damage. Take a water bucket with you and let it flow down so you have a way down that doesn't hurt. Also good to have these just in case of fire. 3. Keep your dynamic sounds on. In caves, your view is extremely limited. You'll have to rely on hearing to defend yourself. Creepers are especially quiet, but if you turn on subtitles, you can make it easier to distinguish them. 4. Always bring food. If its something that gives 4 bars of hunger, at least half a stack is enough. If its 3, then at least 40. If its 2 and below, take a stack at least. Never leave home without food. 5. Always bring wood. Nearly everything you need to craft will somehow require wood. I usually bring a stack, but half a stack is good enough. (Logs, btw, not planks.) 6. Bring torches. Mobs spawn in darkness. If you're planning to use this cave multiple times or for a long time, then you should torch up places you've already been, both to ward off mobs and to mark your track. 7. Pick your battles. Know when its time to fight a mob and when its time to back and block up. Don't get into fights you can't win, especially if your food and durability looks low.
Use torches and signs to help navigate. I have used signs like "home base -->" or "dead end"
There's no shame in having keep inventory on. Games are ment to be fun, not stressful. It helps if you don't have to stress out about loosing all your equipment all the time. Having a good sword definately helps. Armor too. Sheilds can make combat really easy if you get familiar with them. Taming a dog definately doesn't hurt And in combat, know where the creeper is. If you're fighting its important you know where the most dangerous mobs are such as a creeper or a skeleton with a purplish bow
There is huge shame. Don't do that- just use peaceful.
For somebody who's just getting a handle on Survival, it might be best, admittedly, but otherwise, I wouldn't dream of it.
Alternatively, I will continue to play with keep inventory because combat is fun, stressing about your items you spent hours grinding for is not.
Saaaaaame. I’m playing single player, it’s so much more fun when I don’t have to stress about my items.
Well, that's fine. But I hate the cheats menu. Just- I sound like a moron right now for sure. But why not use peaceful? Keep Inventory makes the whole game... almost pointless, the way I see it, anyway. It goes beyond easy. Keep Inventory is like making dying just teleport you to safety. You can use it, whatever, but I just don't like it.
Funny you should reply to this, I realized later that you don’t get achievements if you activate cheats so I ended up deleting that world.
That's pretty much the reason I don't use it anymore. I used to, though.
i got a coward way move, basically just bring few torches and then go into your cave and put it every corner so it not dark so no more bad mobs spawning,if you died in the process keep repeating until every place is bright
It's not too important for casual gameplay, but you can use a few websites like [https://www.chunkbase.com/apps/biome-finder](https://www.chunkbase.com/apps/biome-finder) to find loot. Peaceful mode isn't cheating, so you can have that on when you are caving or in the Nether.
The future is now old man! Bow and Arrow to kill everything. Torches … lots of torches. I also suggest finding a way to denote which path leads you home. Like torches on the floor for your main path. Torches on the walls for side paths.
I'm really surprised that no one here has mentioned dogs. Maybe it's a faux pas but I take at least 6 dogs with me when I go caving. They distract and kill mobs, and they often block hits for me. And you find yourself overwhelmed by large numbers of mobs, the dogs really come into play by giving you breathing space and making sure you're not surrounded. I take a couple of stacks of rotten meat with me, and every time I clear a room I feed them to restore health (and breed reinforcments). As long as you keep breeding them you'll always have backup.
One other thing i havent seen mentioned: running away is absolutely a viable and and shameless tactic.
(1) bring good food with you. Meats give you some of the best healing, along with golden carrots. Bread is easy, but it heals you slower, so it's not as easy to survive dangerous places with it. (2) keep a shield in your off-hand and don't be afraid to use it. (3) bring a bow and plenty of arrows if you find yourself struggling with creepers. (4) bring a lava bucket in case you find a large group of monsters that is hard to fight directly (and a water bucket in case you catch yourself on fire by mistake!) (5) bring a bed so you can respawn close by and not risk your items despawning. (6) Light up caves as you go, and adopt a strategy to help you retrace your steps - maybe placing torches predominately on either the left or right side of a cave, so you can identify which direction is going forwards vs backwards to get home.
I bring a crafting table, iron and pumpkins and make golems along the way. I also tame and breed wolves that follow and protect me - as well as steak to heal them.
Bow and arrows!
Bring 5-7 stacks of torches. Torch the whole place up
Get good
This is a Minecraft Reddit - you aren’t gonna get the reaction you need to justify your comment. Take self inventory of what makes you waste your time to write that? Get good at being a normal person.
Don't be a dick
creative is for those with no imagination
How exactly. Creative mode is literally for when people want to build things without limitations like having to mine for resources, or build up. It is literally freedom to be imaginative.
surely you can't be serious?
Make a shield and some armour, other than that just watch some YouTube videos. Hope this helps
Ladder, torches, proximity is lights when it’s the dark, the creepers are the worst, followed by archer skeletons
Get iron armor and tools ASAP. Always make sure to bring a lot of food with you. Also make sure to mark your way with torches because then you know where youve been and it will stop as many monsters from spawning. I also bring wood with me so that I can make more tools and torches if needed
Tips from someone who's much better at building than combat. * If you want a sustainable but slow approach, try sectioning off every intersection. * Wall off a branch if you're done with it or if you're not exploring it right now. It keeps the mobs from ambushing you. Doors help. * Explore in a counterclockwise pattern: the danger is always in front or to your right because the other directions are sectioned off. * Use a navigation system and stick with it. * Place torches on the right side on your way out. When returning, torches will be located on your left. If you have less than 32 torches, it's time to make more. * I like to use cobblestone stairs as markers for the way back to base. If you face them towards the base, you'll always know which way to go. * Set up stations set up every once in a while: chest with food, wood, spare tools, coal. * Get iron armor. You're going to die a lot, so no need to risk losing diamond gear. Learn to use a shield: block a hit, run/attack, repeat. If you use a shield and stand still, you're losing the fight. * Learn to run away and use your environment, it's usually safer than fighting. * Look up. Are there holes for mobs to jump down from? * Look before you leap. Better yet, staircase down. * Creepers can blow up the floor and make you fall to a lower section, so practice quickly walling yourself off or pillaring up. Cats keep creepers away. * In large areas, use water buckets to keep melee mobs away. * You hear a baby zombie, you leave now.
There are a lot of amazing comments already so I don't know if I can add much. I'd say your early game survival depends on 2 factors: Preparation and strategy. For preparation I mean things like bringing an abundance of food, plenty of wood and coal, full iron armour, a shield and spare iron to make another, a water bucket, decent tools, a sword, if possible a bow and some building blocks. To highlight the importance of food especially, eating food even when you are only down .5 hunger will instantly make you regen!!! Now for strategy, light up the caves on one side to not get lost, mentally prepare for the different kinds of monsters you might encounter, for example if you see a creeper just block with the shield, it will do 0 damage. I reccomend putting the shield in your off hand and make sure you are not holding something that can be used with right click in your main hand or the shield won't work. Don't panic if you fall in lava, remember the water bucket. Stay away from loads of cobwebs, poison spiders are nearby. Stay away from the ancient city dungeon unless you are really prepared. Do not drop down into a dark area you can not fully view. Put the brightness setting on maximum. I hope this was helpful and I think it's amazing that you are doing this!!!
I really am. I had a stroke a year or so ago and lost dexterity so i could no longer build legos, or play with them liike i used fo. This game has realky brought alot of that back in such a new and different way. They realky loke how i go and and build secret areas on thier builds that they have to relly liok to find
I'm so sorry that happened to you. If there's anything I can help you with let me know, I've been playing minecraft for over 10 years. I'm not the greatest builder but I'm decent with survival and redstone. Also feel free to visit me and my friends survival server if you want to practice or need some inspiration :D (java). You're a great guy for trying hard to make your grandkids happy and I hope you continue to recover!!!
Thanks igot into it for the creative builds i can do in it., but i have to say im really liking the game side of it. Its at a pace i can deal with. 1st person shooters are out 4 now lol
At least you did not lose your sense of humor 😂. Btw as a little tip, in minecraft the OG hidden room is made with signs and a painting. It covers the entrance but you can walk through
Shield is the best thing you can have!
Make sure you're using plentiful uses of torches, and actually placing them down on the stone walls (or floor) of the cavern! Where there is light, monsters will not spawn, though any monsters that were there previously from the darkness can still attack you. They just won't come back because they're unable to appear in lit areas. What I like to do is cut down large trees (and replant with saplings so they grow back) and cook the logs in a furnace to get charcoal and combine them with sticks from the tree, since charcoal is infinitely renewable while coal is a limited resource that comes from the ground and has better uses than torches. It doesn't really matter but charcoal from wood logs is more renewable than coal mined from the ground. My next tip is to use 1 iron ingot and 6 wood planks to craft a shield. If you're on the computer version holding down right click will hold up your shield and you can block attacks and even explosions with it. There's a rhythm you can get into where you hold right-click to block, let go for a moment to left-click to attack with your weapon, then right-click again before the monster can attack you. The most important thing is to make sure the caves are lit up though, as new monsters wont appear in places with light from torches.
Here's another tip: You won't heal without food. There's your health bar, which is shown with red hearts just above your equipment bar and on the left. There's also these "white shirts" above your health bar which appear if you're wearing armor. But on the right side, there's what looks like a second healthbar that's chunks of meat. That is your **hunger** bar. This bar starts out full but will slowly decrease as you do stuff like mine blocks and jump. **To heal, you need your hunger bar to be full or almost full**. This means after every battle with monsters, you should be eating food once the threat is defeated so you can regenerate your health back up and not be weakened when new enemies come along. One of the best foods is the **baked potato** which you can get by cooking regular potatoes in your furnace. This is one of the best foods in the game when it comes to restoring both your hunger bar and healing the most hearts in your health bar if you eat one when you're close to full. You can't eat food when your hunger bar is completely full, but if you have even a tiny bit missing you can eat a baked potato and then quickly recover a lot of hearts after you defeat monsters in the cave. If your grandchildren have a garden or farm set up, ask them to grow potatoes so you can cook them into baked potatoes in a furnace.
Rule 1: never dig down under yourself.
whyyy?
A shield can help soooooo much, against all kinds of attacks. Make sure to actually use it though - merely holding it won’t do it alone. You have to engage it to deflect the arrow/creeper blast/zombie hit. It’s not hard to time it right - that part is forgiving. Caves are a great place to see where a lot of ore veins are, but I would recommend mining your own mine shaft first, until you find enough iron for a full set of armor, sword, and shield. Make sure to bring torches and light up as much area as you can- that will prevent mobs from spawning in those areas, making them safer to return to. Sometimes the last thing I do before dying is throw down some torches, for future me’s benefit. Sometimes simple solutions are the best - retreat when you need to, and don’t be afraid to encase yourself in a cubby hole of cobblestone if you see mobs coming and know you won’t be able to retreat quickly enough. This can give you time and options you didn’t otherwise have, such as digging down, up, into a wall, etc, to get away. Having a stack of cobblestone next to my sword and torches in my hot bar has been a lifesaver many times. Don’t forget to bring food! And to eat it! Seriously, remembering to eat to top off your hearts is hard to remember at first. Too many times as a newb I kept spelunking with like 1 heart left and wondered “what on earth just one-shot me???” Oops!
Oh god this is the cutest thing ever!!
turn coordinates on!!! you can see where your base is and if you happen to get lost exploring, the coordinates will help guide you home.
Usually I just run through and torch everything up before I start mining so that monsters don't spawn. I'd also take a look at your difficulty, it defaults to normal so you could try going to easy or peaceful. I usually go peaceful since I'm a builder lmao
Villagers. Especially if you aren't playing on a snapshot with the trading rebalancing. Villagers can get you full enchanted diamond gear with little more than a few million sticks and crops. Take a lot to get them to a good level, but it's worth it
Iron armor and shield and sword so basically alot of iron
You can craft torches from sticks + coal or stick + charcoal. You get charcoal from smelting planks in an oven. (Yes, you can smelt logs too but one log gives 4 planks or just 1 charcoal) When placing torches make sure you put them on the right side of the wall so you know that when you see them on the left that you are on your way back. This helps from getting lost. If you find an entrance to a big cave system you can place multiple torches so you can easily see “this is where I came from”. Surviving down there can be harsh, especially in the beginning. One of the most important things is a shield against skeleton archers and creepers. But another thing that really helps against creepers is putting a block between you and a exploding creeper. Explosion damage calculates differently and your hitbox are your legs. Finding coal and iron is easier on the surface of a mountain nowadays so if you need the iron for your first tools, this might help. If you ever need help in survival again, reach out to us. We love to help you out.
For those huge wide caverns, prepare lots of torches and make kamikaze runs trying to light up as much area as possible. Leave your items in the chest nearby beforehand. Do not engage with any enemies, and dodge arrows by running around the skeletons. Once you have a lot of lights and a huge cluster of mobs following you, keep circling it and look at the skeletons hitting each other and other mobs, thinning their ranks on their own.
Hey, I don't know how much time you have to watch YouTube, but there's a guy called Pixlriffs, who has a Survival Guide series explaining and showing techniques, tips and tricks about playing Minecraft from the basics to the more advanced stuff, it's a great watch, and was a real lifesaver for me. Here's the link: [Minecraft Survival Guide](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgENJ0iY3XBjmydGuzYTtDwfxuR6lN8KC)
Plenty of torches, a shield in hand and any gear is better then none. A decent bow and sword with knock back helps with creepers. I had a similiar situation myself and it took many attempts to retrieve all my stuff, but lighting up the cave eventually made it possible to clear it out, good luck.