Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 10 i The Ultimate Guide to Minecraft!

Notch’s mantlepiece in that LA mansion must be pretty full. Perhaps he’s started scattering awards across multiple rooms. The 16th Game Developers Choice Pioneer Award at the end of March will be the next shiny piece of named metal to arrive in his hands. The Pioneer Award goes to those who achieve ‘breakthrough tech and game design’ and there’s no arguing that Minecraft has done that. Previous winners of the award - which was formerly know, quite bizarrely, as The First Penguin Award - include Elite designer David Braben, Riot Games founder Branden Beck, and Valve boss Gabe Newell. It’s not the first time Notch has picked up a GDC Award either. Back in 2011 Minecraft picked up gongs for the Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game, and the Innovation…

The great, open grassy expanses on Minecraft are excellent places for finding cows, sheep and pigs to slaughter for meat, as well as horses for transport, flowers for dyes and grass for wheat seeds. They’re the perfect place to set up farms to gather resources, as livestock is easy to lure back and pen in. The open landscape makes it easier to spot enemies nearby, too, which make plains great places for building your shelters. Handy!…

Incredibly rare, mesa biomes are home to red sand, hardened clay, and stained clay blocks. Stained clay blocks are available in the same 16 colours that wool blocks are, so make a great alternative building material. If you manage to find the even rarer bryce variant mesa biome, then you’ll be treated to expansive views of hardened clay spires. These structures are inspired by the real life Bryce Canyon, in Utah, USA.…

In the immortal words of Motown sensation The Jackson 5: “ABC, it’s easy as punching trees.” Okay, so that’s not really how the song goes, but let us dream/misquote – because we’re bringing you a complete alphabet of Minecraft in all its glory. Minecraft’s all about the fundamentals, you see: the building blocks, if you’ll pardon the pun. Whether you’re going for broke in Hardcore Survival mode or creating a 200-block-high portrait of your cat (hey, we’re not here to judge), building upon a solid foundation is vital. Step away from that sandy biome, then, and let’s take it back to the basics. The very basics. In just 26 letters, we’re going to give you the rundown of everything essential you need to know about Minecraft – and, er, probably…

Winter, thank goodness, is coming to an end. The days are getting longer, the daffodils are peeping through the ground and Easter is just around the corner. And what better way to celebrate than with a trio of spring-themed Minecraft projects? With its sunshine, farmyard animals and flowery glades, many of Minecraft’s biomes are perfect for embracing the joys of the new season – so we’re capitalising on that to bring you these crafty endeavours. Over the next few pages, we’ll be taking you step-bystep through how to make your own real-life grass block, how to string together some bunny-shaped bunting, and how to create some brightly coloured spawn egg Easter decorations. They’re all fairly simple to carry out, so while you’re sat at home on your school holidays, surrounded…

Obviously a prime source of sand, and therefore glass, Beaches also come in rarer stone or gravel forms. With sand beaches you can generally find sandstone when digging far enough down. In incredibly rare seeds you’ll find exposed dungeons here, too. Be careful when digging deeper on gravel beaches as you might fall straight down into dungeons or mineshafts hidden below.…

Hey, you! Yes, you with the excellent bookazine and the weary expression. Bored of wandering aimlessly through adventure landscapes? Tired of taking tours of other people’s huge, empty castles? Then do we have an opportunity for you. Two words: Extreme. Custom. Maps. Okay, that was three words – but these downloadand-play maps aren’t about tedious stuff like counting and safety. They’re about ACTION. That’s ACTION. Yeah. And we’ve packed more action into these eight pages than Arnold Schwarzenegger riding a space rocket into the sun with a rucksackful of kung-fu penguins and fireworks strapped to his back. Oh, and he’s got roller skates on. Hold onto your diamond helmets, because these custom maps don’t let up. Whether it’s hardcore parkour in dangerous locations, crazy brainteasers that test everything you thought…

You might think you could never create a game as complex as Minecraft but even Notch once sat down in front of a computer, and thought “I have no idea what I’m doing.” All developers started small with simple games and ideas, working through tutorials and trying to learn more. Even Minecraft is only as complicated as it is today because it’s been updated and changed for years - all you could do in Notch’s original demo was pick up and put down one kind of block. The thing is, if you’ve spent any amount of time in Minecraft then you’ve already started to think like a developer. Yes, really! You’ve looked at a system, learned its rules and then used those rules to create amazing things. Even the biggest,…

Filled with precious wood, which is vital for making tools and the workbench early in the game, forests are the best place to start out. Be careful though as they’re often hilly and dark, with dangerous mobs spawning under the leafy branches. They’re especially difficult to navigate at night as the trees can obscure your vision, so creepers become much harder to spot and can easily sneak up on you. BOOM!…

It’s not every day you get a proper excuse to build your own city in Minecraft. It’s no wonder then that Bath Digital Festival 2016’s 48 hour ‘Build Bath In Minecraft’ competition was swamped with hundreds of blocky architects. Each entrant was given a plot on a shared server to build their own piece of the beautiful Somerset city. Projects could be anything from real life inspired pieces to visions of the Bath of the future and there were categories for the most creative plot, most futuristic, best historical influence and the judge’s favourite. Dave Boddington, production manager from Minecraft supremos The Yogscast, was along to deliver prizes and catch up with the competition. “Events like this are great. They give students and all kinds of people from all kinds…

Christmas is always a great time for Minecraft fans. It might seem like light years ago, but we can’t help looking back fondly at those cube-shaped presents, just waiting to be ripped apart under the tree. However, Nintendo fans got the best present of all this year, as Mojang announced not one, but two new Minecraft games for the Wii U – the regulation Minecraft: Wii U Edition and Telltale’s episodic Minecraft: Story Mode adventure. Just don’t tell Mario, okay – you know how that guy is around bricks. We’ve covered Story Mode before, but the Wii U Edition of Minecraft is particularly special, as it contains brand new features you won’t find anywhere else, such as Off-TV Play and a whole chest full of free skin and texture packs.…

Cobalt is a new game from Oxeye Game Studio, and is available to buy for £16 on PC, Xbox One and Xbox 360. It’s a 2D platformer with an emphasis on multiplayer combat – letting you and your friends (or strangers from across the internet if you prefer) fight against each other using a broad selection of guns and grenades. It isn’t very much like Minecraft, although it does support an active community of mapmakers. So why are we telling you about it? Because it was published by Mojang, and Minecraft developer Jens Bergensten helped to make it. Cobalt is interesting and enjoyable in its own right, especially if you like to compete against your friends for bragging rights. As a multiplayer game it’s short and punchy, letting you get…

It might initially appear similar to the regular ocean biome, but delve down into the depths and you’ll find potentially epic secrets within. In deep oceans, the sea bed can be upwards of 30 blocks deep, making navigation a real pain as light generally won’t travel down that far. We recommend a combo of a cracking quality helmet with the respiration enchantment, and the tactical use of air pocket creation for optimal exploratory options.…

Denoted by the flat topped acacia trees dotted about its flat landscape, Savannas are a one stop shop for the budding equestrian. It’s one of the only locations in the game, alongside plains, where horses will spawn naturally. It would make a fitting place to set up a home base, especially if you can find a village to trade with (or to steal harvest from, you wrong ’un).…

You can tell swamplands not just by the darker tone of grass and obvious watery-ness, but also by the abundance of lily pads and vines growing all over the shop. Ideal for finding sugarcanes, smaller clay deposits and mushrooms, this sea-level biome also has a chance to spawn a witch’s hut: perfect for getting your hands on witch loot, including the occasional potion. Watch out for slimes, though. They spawn like it’s out of fashion here at night, which can make a midnight stroll an experience to forget.…

Assassin Craft http://bit.ly/1SQ9FmG The iconic garb of the Assassins can easily be yours in Minecraft thanks to the Assassin Craft mod. This adds a bunch of new recipes that bring the killer cowls and weapons of the series into your Minecraft world, from Arno’s French cutlass to Altair’s signature flowing white robes. The mod also adds Assassin’s Creed guards and villains to assassinate with a variety of crossbows and hidden blades. There’s a blacksmith to help you gear up, and the Romulus dungeon, full of enemies and secret treasure. The cutest addition is the hay bale block, which you can dive onto from any height to avoid taking falling damage. You’ll finally be able to perform the leap of faith in Minecraft! Roman City http://bit.ly/21RAYDb The great thing about Minecraft…

Call of Duty http://bit.ly/1Qiu0Dd Guns guns guns! This Call of Duty inspired mod adds some of the most detailed gun models you can hope to use in Minecraft. Weapons vary from pistols to light machine guns and assault rifles. You can use iron sights aiming to hit targets, and damage varies depending on the model and where your shot hits. So load this mod up, create a little arena and invite some friends in for a few rounds of deathmatch. CivilizationCraft http://bit.ly/1Y1coQX An interesting twist on the PC empire building strategy series, Civilization, this modded server asks players to band together to gather resources and erect buildings that boost your empire. Those of course include some of Civ’s famous wonders of the ancient world. It’s a multiplayer affair that relies…

Finally, everyone will listen! While we’ve all known that Minecraft is perfect for learning a whole raft of things from physics to design, now there’s an official Education Edition for use in schools. MinecraftEdu, a version of Minecraft specifically for the classroom, has already been available since 2011 and used in more than 40 countries around the world but now Microsoft has expanded the game for a full official release. And in even better news, it’ll start off completely free. Minecraft Education Edition will initially be available as a cost free trial for schools who choose to sign up and will be improved by constant feedback from online communities of teachers. “In education, we are constantly seeking pathways to explore learning beyond the confines of a textbook. Minecraft allows us…

There are fewer things deadlier than Kylo Ren in a strop in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, but the Starkiller Base is definitely one of them. Capable of destroying entire planets across the galaxy, this deadly weapon is an err, force to be reckoned with. Of course someone has created it in blocky form. Definitely no need to be Poe faced when you see the detail that’s gone into it. Just watch out for the death Rey! We’ll stop now. Ervinache235 from Planet Minecraft has the honour of crafting the first recreation of Dark Side’s second favourite weapon (surely the first is the lightsaber). It’s his biggest piece of work yet. He is still adding surface details to the planet but his piece is incredible. It even includes…

If ever there was a biome generated specifically for two lost lovers to bound across before smashing together in a springtime embrace, then it’s this one. Flat, and peppered with those titular perennials, these plains are the only place you’ll find naturally spawning sunflowers. Alongside dandelions, these can be used to obtain yellow dye.…

Easter is, as everybody knows, a most sacred time of year. Easter is about sacrifice. It’s about rebirth. It’s about the holy ritual of shoving novelty chocolate into your face-hole until your pores start to leak whatever the hell it is they put in Creme Eggs (paradise goo? Liquid unicorn? Best not to ask). Of course, Easter’s really about easter eggs - and by that we mean hidden secrets, not actual eggs - and Minecraft’s got loads of them stuffed inside its ravines. But like all good things in Minecraft, they’re buried underneath the surface, revealing their delicious mysteries to only the most persistent pickaxes... Too busy battling a serious case of the chocolate sweats to move? No matter – we’ve dug through every crevice of code to bring you…

Winter has finished its chilly vigil! Spring is in the air! The first few brave sunbeams are beginning to pierce the clouds. But how to celebrate this momentous occasion? You could go out and take a brisk walk to see the daffodils. You could springclean your room within an inch of its life until every surface gleams. . Or, you could just stay indoors with Minecraft, and spruce up your game to match the changing seasons. (Spoiler: we only care about the last one.) Over the next few pages we’ll be taking you through 13 mods that add a touch of springtime to your game – whether it’s to flora, fauna or just overall. These add-ons might take the tiresome toil out of farming, introduce a wealth of new critters…

With randomly created, fullyformed structures, villages are often the most exciting of the biomes to stumble into. They’re inhabited by large-nosed villagers who happily go about their own business during the day. You can even trade with them in the PC and console versions, should you so desire. However, zombies will frequently invade during the night and knock down doors to infect the natives, so you’ll have to fight to protect them or destroy the zombie spawn point. Not quite Resi 4’s village scene, but close enough……

W e’ve all been there. You’re just putting the finishing touches on your majestic castle when your boss/teacher/spouse/passengers nag you to stop playing Minecraft, for trivial reasons like ‘eating’ and ‘sleeping’ and ‘keeping your eyes on the road’. Next time one of these real life creepers tries to stop your Minecraft time, slam them down with one of these. 1 WE’RE NOT PLAYING MINECRAFT, MISS. WE’RE TRAINING THE SCIENTISTS OF TOMORROW Get caught playing Minecraft at school and you’ll learn lots about detention. University of Hull students found a clever workaround. They created MolCraft – a downloadable Minecraft world that teaches you all about biochemistry. Walk through recreations of molecular chains, collect all the treasure chests, and learn some chemistry along the way. You’ll never need school again! (Maybe.) 2…

If you haven’t heard the good word about command blocks yet, let me break it down for you: they’re cheats-enabledonly, un-craftable, code hungry-blocks , and you can program them to do tasks for you. Wait, no, come back! It’s better than it sounds! So it might not sound like fun, but your reward for sticking with them is seriously cool. When they’re set up correctly, you can have them carry out tasks that are literally game-changers - handing out supplies, working redstone wirelessly, even building whole structures for you at the push of a button. These clever little blocks might need a little bit of knowledge, but once you figure them out, they’re like if redstone with super powers. With command blocks on your side, you’ll be a Minecraft magician.…

Super Mario Brothers http://bit.ly/1DEwCDi Mario’s blocky world is perfectly suited to Minecraft, as this charming Super Mario Mod demonstrates. This funtime little mod captures both the sights and the sounds of the Super Mario universe with a suite of custom blocks representing warp pipes, brick walkways and the famous floating question-mark loot blocks. It’s almost like a Nintendo-flavoured home from home. You can break these blocks by jumping and hitting them with your super hard super Mario head – just like in, erm, real life – all while clothed in Mario’s stylish red cap and blue pants combo. Treasure blocks will even make a satisfying ping when you hit them, and there are classic Mario noises for jumping and hitting a flagpole, which rewards you with that familiar Mario fanfare.…

The ultimate challenge for vanilla Minecraft survivalists, The End biome is as hard to reach as it is to survive… almost. To get there you’ll need to search out a stronghold in the overworld. This is best done by flinging an eye of ender into the air and following its airborne trajectory. Once you find a stronghold and the ender portal that resides within, you have to activate it with 12 more eyes of ender to reach The End. There’s no day/night cycle here, and aside from a massive increase in enderman spawns, you also have the small matter of an Ender Dragon to contend with.…