How to play Minecraft

What you need

• Minecraft Java or Bedrock Edition on a supported device. Java runs on computers; Bedrock runs on consoles, phones, tablets and Windows.
• An account for the platform used. Online multiplayer on consoles may also need that platform's online subscription.
• A mouse and keyboard, controller or touchscreen. Every input works; pick whatever is comfortable.
• For a group: a shared world on one device (split-screen on some consoles), a world one player hosts for friends, or a server.
• Optional but useful: a notepad for coordinates of your base and anything interesting you find.

If you play on PC for long stretches, a comfortable mouse or headset makes a real difference. Razer's accessory range is one place to compare options; check platform compatibility first. (Affiliate link: we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. How links work.)

Set up the game

1. Create a new world and select Survival. Leave cheats and difficulty at settings that suit the group; menus differ between Java and Bedrock.
2. Pick a difficulty. Peaceful removes hostile mobs entirely, which is a calm way to learn crafting. Easy or Normal is the usual first real game.
3. Avoid Hardcore at first. Mojang describes it as a mode where death is permanent and the world is lost.
4. For a building-only session, select Creative instead. Creative makes you invincible, gives you unlimited blocks, lets you fly and break any block in one hit. These instructions focus on the opening Survival day.
5. When the world loads, you spawn at dawn with an empty inventory. In Bedrock, the starting point is chosen from friendlier biomes such as plains, forest or savanna; in Java it can be almost anywhere.

Survive the first day and night

Mojang says a Minecraft daytime lasts about 10 real minutes. That is your window for this list.

1. Punch a tree. Break a tree to collect logs; walk over the dropped blocks to pick them up. Get at least five or six logs.
2. Make planks and a crafting table. One log makes four planks in your inventory grid. Four planks make a crafting table. Place it. Its larger grid and recipe book unlock tools.
3. Make sticks and a wooden pickaxe. Two planks stacked vertically make sticks. A pickaxe is three planks across the top row and two sticks down the middle.
4. Mine stone. Use the wooden pickaxe on stone to get cobblestone, then craft a stone pickaxe (same shape, cobblestone on top) and a stone sword (two cobblestone above one stick).
5. Find food. Gather food and build a lit shelter before night. Hostile mobs become a risk after dark on difficulties where they spawn.
6. Light the way. Coal plus a stick makes torches. Hostile mobs spawn in darkness, so torches around your shelter keep them away.
7. Shelter for the night. Wall yourself in with dirt or cobblestone, or dig into a hillside and close the entrance. A mob that cannot reach or see you cannot hurt you.
8. Plan the next day. Eight cobblestone make a furnace for cooking food and smelting ore. Three wool (from sheep) and three planks make a bed. Use a bed in the Overworld to set a new respawn point; breaking or moving that bed can invalidate it.

A sample first session, step by step

One player, Survival, Normal difficulty, a forest spawn at dawn.

1. Minutes 0 to 2. Punch an oak tree and collect 6 logs. Turn 1 log into 4 planks and make a crafting table from them. Place it beside the tree.
2. Minutes 2 to 3. Turn 2 more logs into 8 planks. Make 4 sticks from 2 planks. At the table, make a wooden pickaxe (3 planks, 2 sticks). You now have 3 planks, 2 sticks and 3 logs left.
3. Minutes 3 to 5. Walk to a stone hillside. Mine about 20 cobblestone. Turn 2 more planks into 4 sticks, then make a stone pickaxe and a stone sword, leaving 3 sticks. Spot a black-speckled block: coal ore. Mine it for 3 coal.
4. Minutes 5 to 7. Craft 12 torches from 3 coal and 3 sticks (one coal and one stick make four). Kill two pigs for raw meat; it can be eaten raw in a pinch, but cooked is far better.
5. Minutes 7 to 9. Note your coordinates. Dig three blocks into the hillside, place torches inside, and seal the opening with cobblestone. Make a furnace with 8 cobblestone and cook the pork using a plank or coal as fuel.
6. Night. You hear a zombie outside. Stay in. Dig a short horizontal tunnel deeper into the hill, lighting it as you go, and collect more stone and coal. Never dig straight down.
7. Dawn. Zombies and skeletons burn in sunlight, but creepers do not. Peek out, check for a creeper, then go find sheep for wool. With 3 wool and 3 planks, craft a bed and sleep in it to set your respawn point.

How progress works (there is no score)

Minecraft does not have a points total that wins the game. What you manage instead is your health, your hunger and what you are carrying.

• Health is the row of hearts. Run out and you die.
• Hunger is the row of drumsticks. Eat to keep it up; a well-fed character recovers health.
• Death in Survival sends you to your respawn point with an empty inventory. Your dropped items stay where you died for a limited time. Mojang's guide says you have five minutes from when that area is loaded to get them back, and items that fall in lava are usually gone.
• Respawn point: world spawn by default, or the last bed you used in the Overworld. Move or break the bed and you go back to world spawn.
• Long-term goals are yours to pick: a base, a farm, iron and diamond tools, exploring the Nether, or reaching and defeating the Ender Dragon. The world continues after any of them.

Worked example: a house-rule scorecard for a group race

Families often want a winner. This is a house rule, not part of Minecraft. Each player starts a separate Survival world with the same seed and plays for 20 minutes:

Player B cooked food but never found sheep and died once at night, so Player A wins 10 to 4.

Beginner strategy that actually helps

• Never dig straight down. Mojang's own advice. You can't see what is under the block you stand on, and it may be lava or a long fall. Dig in a staircase instead.
• Make a stone pickaxe before spending time deep underground. Wooden tools wear out fast, and stone is everywhere.
• Write down your base coordinates before walking far. Getting lost on day two is more common than dying on night one.
• Carry spare blocks and food. A stack of dirt or cobblestone lets you wall off a mob, bridge a gap or build an emergency shelter in seconds.
• Crouch along ravine edges. Crouching stops you walking off the edge of a block.
• Light everything. Hostile mobs spawn where it is dark. Torches around your base and in your tunnels cut spawns dramatically.
• Don't fight crowds early. Mojang's line is worth quoting in spirit: don't take on a group of mobs with a wooden sword and a pocket full of dirt. Retreat, wall up and come back in daylight.

Common mistakes and mix-ups

• Treating Creative and Survival as identical. Creative supplies blocks and removes ordinary survival pressure. Achievements from one do not mean you know the other.
• Assuming death ends a normal Survival world, or that items always reappear safely. Death only ends the world in Hardcore. In Survival you respawn, but dropped items can be lost.
• "My bed didn't save my spawn." The official answer: the bed sets your spawn only once you use it, and you'll see "Respawn point set." If it is broken, moved or blocked, you go back to world spawn.
• Expecting sunlight to stop every mob. Zombies and skeletons burn in daylight; creepers, spiders and some others do not, and Endermen and pillagers can appear by day.
• Hunting for a "save" after dying. Minecraft has no option to reload an earlier save when you die. Back up important worlds outside the game if you care about them.
• Copying a recipe from an old video. Recipes and mechanics change with updates and differ between Java and Bedrock. The recipe book in your own game is the authority.

Popular ways to play

• Official mode: Creative. Unlimited blocks, flight and no damage. Perfect for builders and very young players.
• Official mode: Hardcore. One life; death deletes the world. Only for experienced players.
• Official setting: Peaceful difficulty. No hostile mobs, so you can learn crafting and building in Survival without threat.
• House rule: shared-base co-op. Friends split jobs: one mines, one farms, one builds. Agree that nobody takes items from shared chests without saying so.
• House rule: build contest. In Creative, set a theme (a castle, a treehouse) and a 20-minute timer, then vote on the results.
• House rule: no-death challenge. Play Survival on Normal and see how many in-game days you last without dying.

Teach it in five minutes: a script for the host

1. "This is Survival. You start with nothing at sunrise. Daytime lasts about ten minutes."
2. "Hold the attack button on a tree to collect logs. Open your inventory and turn a log into planks, then four planks into a crafting table."
3. "Use the table's recipe book. Make sticks, then a wooden pickaxe, then mine stone and make a stone pickaxe."
4. "Before dark, find food and build a little room with torches. Monsters come out in the dark."
5. "If you die, you lose what you were carrying unless you get back to it quickly. You don't lose the world."
6. "Don't dig straight down, and write down where your base is. Go!"

Age and group-size advice

• Ages 5 to 7: Creative or Peaceful Survival with an adult nearby. Reading helps with the recipe book, but plenty of young players learn by watching.
• Ages 8 to 12: Easy or Normal Survival. A family world where a parent plays too makes online safety simpler.
• Teens and adults: Normal or Hard, and Hardcore once confident.
• Solo: the default and a great way to learn at your own pace.
• 2 to 4 players: split-screen on supported consoles or a hosted world. Agree on rules for shared chests and griefing before you start.
• Larger groups: a server or Realm. Set expectations about building near others and taking items.
• Online safety: for children, use platform parental controls to limit chat and multiplayer to known friends.

Minecraft questions people ask

Check yourself

Sources and edition notes

Minecraft Java and Bedrock share the beginner Survival loop; interface, controls and some mechanics differ by edition and update. The guide avoids exact button mappings and update-specific recipes. Day length, mob behavior, respawn and death details, and the bed, furnace, torch and crafting table recipes come from the Mojang guides below. The scorecard is a house rule.

Sources and stated format checked October 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing.

• Minecraft: how to survive your first night
• Minecraft: crafting and recipe book
• Minecraft: spawning and dying

Related games