Highlights

• Crafting Table: Build a crafting table early on to unlock more crafting options and make progress in the game.
• Shelter: Create a basic shelter to protect yourself from enemies and survive the first night in Minecraft.
• Wooden Pickaxe: Craft a wooden pickaxe to mine important resources and progress further in the game.

Minecraft is one of the most beloved games of all time. During the game's initial beta, it blew away players with the level of creative freedom it gave them. Since then, the game has managed to maintain its incredible popularity, as its player base continues to grow.

However, Minecraft's seemingly endless amount of content can be overwhelming for new players. You might find yourself wondering what to build first. Here is a collection of the most vital things that a Minecrafter should focus on making.

Updated November 6, 2023 by Rosa Baumgartl: Minecraft has been around since 2011, and new players are joining all the time, which also means brand-new worlds to explore and things to learn. With the addition of Chest Boats, and all the beautiful colors they come in, we thought we'd add a few more things to keep in mind when opening up the game for a fresh start. You're never too much of a veteran to add tips to your toolkit.

If you're a new player, we have even more beginner tips to help you — check out everything you should do first, so you know which activities and what to build right from the beginning.

24 Crafting Table

The easiest but most important thing to make in Minecraft is the crafting table. With it, you get an abundance of more crafting options. In fact, there is not a lot that you can make without one. Therefore, building a crafting table should be one of the first things you do in Minecraft.

Punch a tree to get four logs, and turn those logs into planks by putting them into your crafting grid, or select planks in the crafting menu. After that, fill your crafting grid with the planks to build a crafting table.

23 Shelter

Once you get more resources and tools, you can make a beautiful place to live. For the first night though, you just need to make a shelter that keeps out the enemies who spawn in the dark.

If you make this your first objective after you start a new game, then you should have time to collect wood or dirt and build a basic hut that stops anything from getting in. Those who spent their first day exploring might not have the time for that. If that's the case, digging a few blocks into the ground, jumping in, and placing a few blocks above your head might be necessary to protect you from dangerous mobs.

22 Wooden Pickaxe

The Pickaxe is the most vital tool in Minecraft. Without it, you won't be able to mine most of the crafting materials in the game. So one of the first things you must build when starting a new world is a Wooden Pickaxe.

It takes three Planks and two Sticks (which can be made using Planks) to make the wooden version of the tool. To make one without the crafting menu, place a horizontal line of Planks at the top of the grid in the crafting table and put the two Sticks in a vertical line underneath the middle Plank.

21 Wooden Axe

If you're using a lot of wood to build your home or any other structures, then it's smart to invest in a Wooden Axe. At first, you may be skeptical, as there's no issue with using your hand to punch down trees. But the process is much more efficient with an Axe, and in the long run, you'll save plenty of time.

Just place three wooden Planks in the left corner of the crafting grid, and place a Stick in each of the squares underneath to make your Wooden Axe. If you have plenty of excess Cobblestones, you can use that instead of the Planks to make a stone one.

20 Torches

When deep down in one of Minecraft's many cave systems, Torches are as essential as a Pickaxe. Not only do they light up the dark caves so you can see what materials and monsters are around, but they show you where you've been. They are also useful in lighting up your house, or any place you don't want monsters to spawn.

All you need to make Torches is Sticks and Coal or Charcoal. The former can be found through mining, whereas the latter is made by putting wood into a Furnace. To craft them, just place the Coal or Charcoal in the middle of the crafting grid, and place the Stick underneath.

19 Bed

In the first few days of a new Minecraft world, you should be focusing on building up your house or base of operations. That can be difficult at night due to the lack of visibility and the fact that enemy mobs are walking around ready to attack you. Sleeping in a Bed automatically takes you to the next day, enabling you to skip the night completely. Also, it allows you to set your spawn for when you die.

To make one, you need to gather three pieces of Wool from sheep, and three Planks of wood. If you don't have the use of a crafting menu, the recipe to make the bed is three pieces of Wool in a horizontal line with a parallel line of Planks underneath them.

18 Fencing

Some passive mobs are brilliant sources of food, and it won't be long before you start getting hungry. However, slaughtering every cow and chicken you come across will soon leave you with none left. By crafting Wooden Fences, you can create a pen for them so they stay near to your base, while also being easy to breed for a continual source of protein.

Fences are made by placing two Sticks in the center column, and four Planks on either side. This will make three Fences, and you'll need at least 25 for a decent-sized pen. A Gate can be made by inverting the recipe, and surrounding two Planks with four Sticks. Lure animals inside by using Wheat, Carrots, or Seeds.

17 A Safe Mine

Early on in your Minecraft adventure, you probably don't want to stray too far from your spawn as you don't have the equipment needed to survive every encounter. Therefore, it's a smart idea to build a mine close to your home — perhaps even inside it. This way, you have quick access to a place where you can gather resources.

Plus, if you light that place up with torches and don't accidentally dig into a cavern, it should be a pretty safe space to work where you're not bothered by many mobs. To make such a thing, all you need to do is dig into the ground.

16 Boat

If you're going to go exploring, which is the best way to discover awesome structures and precious resources, you'll eventually run into water. Yes, you can just swim it, but a much faster way to traverse that ocean is in a Boat. These can be made out of any kind of wood, though every Plank must be from the same kind of tree.

On your Crafting Bench, place five Planks in a 'U' shape, and voilà! To get really fancy with it, you can then combine your Boat with a premade Chest, providing you with a little extra space on your travels.

15 An Easy Way To Spot Your House

Before you go off into the world to explore, it is smart to build something to indicate where your house is. Maps can help, but if you don't already have one, then you'll need resources to put one together.

So early in the game, the easiest way to indicate where you live is to simply build a huge, well-lit tower by your house. You should be able to spot it from a distance. Later on, you might create a Compass or even build an actual Beacon to find your home, but a simple tower is useful at the start.

14 Stone Sword

There are plenty of monsters in Minecraft who will attack you on sight. The best way to deal with them is by using a Sword. Like Pickaxes, Swords can be made using many different materials, from weaker Wooden Swords to strong Diamond blades.

The Stone Sword is the first one you should create. You could craft a weaker wooden one before that, but by the time you really need to use it, you'll probably already have the required ingredients. To make a Stone Sword you need two pieces of Cobblestone and a Stick. When using the crafting grid, put the stones in a vertical line in the middle and place the Stick underneath them.

13 Furnace

The main purpose of a Furnace in Minecraft is to smelt ores and cook food. Only by smelting the likes of Iron and Gold Ores will you be able to use them as a crafting material. Whereas most of the food you pick up can be cooked, which improves their effectiveness on your hunger meter when you eat them.

Crafting a Furnace requires eight pieces of Cobblestone. Placing them in a square shape around the edge of the crafting grid is how you build a Furnace without the use of a crafting menu.

12 Chest

Despite your personal inventory space in Minecraft being quite large, it fills up quickly when mining. So the best course of action is to create a Chest and put all the things you might need at some point in it. Plus, if you keep valuables in the Chest, it means you won't lose them when you die (unless the chest is blown up with you).

The process for building a Chest is identical to making a furnace, except instead of using eight Cobblestone blocks, use eight wood Planks.

11 Wooden Hoe

Farms in Minecraft are extremely useful as they give you an unlimited supply of food.Before you can plant anything, you need a hoe. To make a wooden version of the tool, you need two wood planks and two Sticks. Place one plank in the top left corner of the grid and put the other in the space to its right, then put the Sticks in a vertical line underneath the block in the middle of the grid.

Once you have the Hoe, use it on dirt or Grass blocks so you can plant seeds on them. However, to grow, they need to be near water. Therefore, you should put a small stream of water between each patch of wheat.

10 Iron Pickaxe

For most jobs in a mine, a wooden pickaxe will serve you well enough. But if you come across some rare or valuable resources, trying to mine them with wood is just a waste of time and, well, resources.

Iron itself needs at least a stone pickaxe. Once you have an Iron one, you’ll be able to get Diamonds, Emeralds, Gold, and Redstone. Anything less, and they’ll disappear along with the source block once you’ve painstakingly cut through. An Iron Pickaxe is also invaluable for deep mining, as you can get more work done without having to carry ten wooden ones.

9 Iron Armor

Once you've gathered a fair amount of iron and already used some of it to make a pickaxe, you can craft some armor with it. After all, the more you explore, the more enemies you're going to face. An extra bit of protection is always welcome.

You need plenty of ingots to craft a full suit. After all, there are four separate pieces, including a helmet, chest plate, pants, and boots. You don't have to create them all at once, though. If you want, you can slowly build up your set.

8 Shears

Taking an Axe or a Sword to a sheep will give you one block of wool. But as the old adage (almost) says, “Give a man a sword, and he has wool for a day; give a man a set of shears, and he has wool for life.”

With a set of Iron Shears, you can give a sheep a haircut and get one to three blocks of Wool for the extra effort. This already potentially multiplies your yield. But the biggest bonus is that a set of Shears properly wielded will not kill a sheep, and so long as they have an adequate food source in reach you can shear the same sheep again and again and again.

7 A Bucket

One of the most devastating events in a game of Minecraft, no matter your level, is the sudden and unexpected appearance of lava. Unfortunately, it is also one of those games where lava creeps up on you like something much creepier than lava. Remove one wrong block underground, and you could be on fire.

The fastest route to not being on fire is being in water, and the easiest way to get to water when you’re mining is to carry a Bucket. It takes fair bit of iron, but if you treat it like it’s made of solid gold and pick up your water source block after extinguishing yourself, your bucket can be a literal lifesaver. You can also use it to carry lava or milk.

6 Diamond Pick

It's iconic, really. The Diamond Pick is universally known as a symbol for Minecraft, but it's not easy to get your hands on in the early game. These Picks can mine Obsidian, which is necessary for setting up a Nether Portal as well as crafting an Enchanting Table later in the game. To make the Pick, you need three Diamonds and two Sticks in the same formation as every other Pick.

Finding the Diamonds is the tricky part, as they only spawn underground, and the deeper you go, the more abundant they are. Your chances to bump into them only start at level Y=15, and peak around Y= -53. Be careful of lava pools down there though.

5 A Base Near A Village

For a game whose name implies that mining and crafting will be your primary tools, Minecraft villages have a surprisingly busy economy. If you can find one with all of the important buildings — eg. a blacksmith, a church, a farm, a stone-cutter’s, etc - then you’ll be laughing. Trade them whatever they’re looking to buy for things like Emeralds and Enchanted Books.

It’s a good idea to have at least a temporary base near your favorite villages; not only for ease but for the villagers’ safety. If you have to steal one of their beds overnight, you might wake up to find one less villager in the morning — possibly your favorite trading partner.