Miller - Hacks for Minecrafters: Master Builder: The Unofficial Guide to Tips and Tricks That Other Guides Wont Teach You (Minecraft & 174; Hacks Master B)

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Copyright 2014 by Hollan Publishing, Inc.

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Manufactured in the United States of America, September 2014

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Cover photo credit Megan Miller

Book design by Sara Kitchen

Print ISBN: 978-1-63450-043-2

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63450-044-9

INTRODUCTION

H alf of playing Minecraft is buildingbuilding shelters, bases, traps, and farms. Some people like building so much with Minecrafts blocks that thats pretty much all they do. Minecraft fans have built amazing things, joining up in teams to build intricate and massive structures like the space shuttle, fully detailed cities with hundreds of buildings, bridges, and parks, as well as epic scenes and buildings from Lord of the Rings , Harry Potter , and more. To see some of these, search online for amazing Minecraft buildings.

For most people, though, building means a simple cube of cobblestone, with a couple panes of glass. Of course, if youre busy killing zombies and raising cows, building a snazzy home may be on the bottom of your list. You may find it more important to have a protective wall that a creeper cant explode.

However, if you have an architectural streak and you want to get started on building awesome homes and buildings in your Minecraft world, this book will show you the tricks the Minecraft experts use, including:

How to build arches and spheres that look curved

How to use depth and detail to make your buildings look realistic

How to use steps, levers, trapdoors, and more for your furniture and amenities

To help you get started on some no-fail, amazing builds, this book includes step-by-step guides for building:

An airship

A fortified castle

A pagoda

A Mayan pyramid

An underwater house

CHAPTER 1

GETTING STARTED

B uilding 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.

Blocks to Build With

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.

You can also use raw wood, upright or on its side, for great effects.

Other blocks to use. You also dont 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 Minecrafts 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 itemsslabs, planks, fences, and wood stairs (except for ladders and wood doors)hay bales, coal, and bookshelves.

Basic Building Steps

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 its 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.

Building to Scale

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 cant 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, Id divide by 3 to get the number of Minecraft blocks: 15 wide by 10 deep.