Minecraft is one of those rare games that offers players absolute freedom. Rules bind the world together, but what players decide to do in the world is practically limitless. (I am not even kidding. One player made a computer within the game that you could then play a simpler version of Minecraft on. It was literally a situation where a game was being played within a game.) And to make the game sound even cooler, Minecraft has zombies!

For those who don't know much about Minecraft, let me give you a quick rundown of the game. (Forgive me if this explanation sounds less than explanatory. The game is kind of hard to explain.) You're in a world made of different kinds of blocks. You can make tools that will help you access more valuable blocks, and you can then construct whatever you want with them. You can make boats, statues, roller coasters, or mansions, nearly anything you want. I've seen people who make gigantic versions of Goku floating in the sky.

Minecraft offers a lot that you can do if you fiddle around with the equipment and materials at your disposal. Even if you have sunk hours into the game that doesn't mean that you know everything about it though, all the tricks and secret methods you can use to ease your troubles in this world. Minecraft is so awesome that even die-hard fans might have missed out on a few things. Read on if you wan tot discover for yourself what some of these things are.

25 Lava Under Pressure

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Lava is a temperamental material to use. Like water, but far more dangerous, lava has a tendency to spill over and consume everything in its path. I've found myself the unfortunate victim of lava spillage on more than one occasion.

Your problems can totally be solved if you use pressure plates to contain a single block of lava. Lava and water flow around pressure plates, so make sure you use four of those plates. Otherwise your character might catch on fire.

24 Hiding Without Crouching

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In Minecraft, if you're playing with friends, you can always tell where they are by the little white name tag that hovers above their character. If you're playing on a server with complete strangers, you can see their name tags too.

This only becomes a problem if you're being... less than friendly with other people. If you're playing the sneaky game, crouch and your name tag disappears. Another handy trick you should know is that chests and signs block your name without you having to crouch.

23 How To Hide From The Enderman

via: minecraft.wikia.com

In order to make Minecraft a bit more of a challenging game for players who want a higher difficulty, Minecraft is populated with some lethal creatures. One of these creatures is the Enderman. These tall, and midnight-black monsters attack players when players look at them.

A cool thing you might not know is that if you place a pumpkin helmet on your character's head, you can look at an Enderman with impunity. Endermen are fairly harmless if you always carry that pumpkin helmet.

22 The Upside Down

via: minecraftforum.com

Minecraft includes some Super Secret Settings that can change your playing experience dramatically. Not many know of these settings, but let me tell you right now, one of my favorites is the one that turns the world upside down.

The ground becomes the sky, and the sky becomes the ground.

You can travel along once-familiar paths in a whole new manner. It makes everything look different. If it gets to be too much for you, you can go back to the settings and change it back to normal.

21 Saving The Villagers

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The zombies plaguing the world of Minecraft do not just affect the player's character. Zombies can infect the non-playable villagers that populate Minecraft too. If you're feeling altruistic, you can cure the villagers that have been zombified.

You have to throw a Splash Potion of Weakness at a zombie villager first, then use a Golden Apple on it. Next thing you know, the villager will return to its normal self. If only other kinds of zombies could be fixed so easily.

20 Using Torches To Break Up Sand And Gravel

via: youtube.com (GTRAQS)

When mining things, it can be a bit of a hassle using regular tools to get the job done. Tools wear out and can break, which means you have to get yourself a whole new tool to use. As a result, players have come up with ways to break block down to get items from them without using tools on them.

Torches can come in real handy when it comes to breaking gravel.

If a gravel block falls on a torch, it will break into bits which you can then collect.

19 Ultimate Trash Bin

via: gaming.stackexchange.com

If you're walking through a desert section of the world of Minecraft, you might have come across a cactus on your travels. These little green blocks with spikes may have annoyed you initially when you accidentally walked into them, but they can be useful too.

Did you know you could use a cactus as a garbage disposal?

Anything you throw at a cactus disappears. So if you feel overwhelmed with a bunch of rotten meat from slaying zombies in your inventory, just toss the meat at a cactus.

18 The Mooshroom Goes...

via: youtube.com (TLV)

For those new to the Minecraft world, the existence of mooshrooms will come as a surprise. A mooshroom is a red and white cow with mushrooms sprouting from its back. Like regular cows, these animals are harmless and can be useful in your endeavor to survive.

If you milk a mooshroom, instead of giving you milk like a regular cow would, the mooshroom gives you mushroom stew. It's always a good thing to have a source of food readily available.

17 The Rare Command Block

via: youtube.com (MCPEMike)

The command block is such a powerful tool, it's not readily available in Minecraft's survival mode. These blocks are, as their name implies, able to execute commands that you assign them.

As you can probably guess, this puts a lot of power in the hands of a player. These blocks cannot be found in the natural Minecraft environment. They have to be spawned using commands of your own. Personally, I prefer to duke it out in survival mode.

16 Torch Holders

via: youtube.com (MineCraftRules11)

Just as you can use torches to break sand and gravel by having sand and gravel blocks fall on them, you can use torches to hold sand and gravel blocks aloft.

This comes in handy when you want to create an edifice that is suspended in the air or if you're excavating in a certain area and you want to make platforms for yourself that can help you get across an underground chasm. Just make sure you bring a lot of torches with you if you're planning on doing this.

15 If You Want To Make a Huge Mistake...

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If you manage to best an Evoker (another monstrous creature from Minecraft's depths), it will drop a Totem of Undying. With this Totem equipped, a player can be saved from the brink. (That's why it's called the Totem of Undying.)

Did you know that you can give a Totem of Undying to a mob?

This is not a tip. In fact, this is not conducive to your survival. The mob will benefit from the Totem in the same way you do. But it makes for a hilarious time.

14 You Shall Not Pass

via: epicminecraftpeseeds.com

Lava is an unstoppable force of nature in Minecraft. I once thought I could wall some lava in with some gravel. Oh, I was so foolish. How was I supposed to know that all I needed to stop some lava, aside from pressure plates, were simple signs.

If you place signs around an area that is suffering from an excess of lava, the signs will prevent the lava from traveling any further. The same is true for water, but I do think lava presents itself as more of a threat needing to be stopped than a few drops of water.

13 Explode The Bed

via: planetminecraft.com

A little known fact about Minecraft is that beds do not like being in the Nether. Why you would make a bed in the Nether in the first place is beyond me, but I should warn you that under no circumstances should you try to sleep in it.

If you sleep in a bed while it's in the Nether, the bed will explode.

I'm not kidding about this. It is as if the bed just can't handle holding your body as you try to take a nap. It makes itself explode in a kind of protest.

12 How Do You Create Invisible Blocks?

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Nothing is more fun than creating humongous edifices out of invisible blocks. You can make an invisible block by placing a block of your choice in an area between two other blocks. Then you use bonemeal on the grass block beneath your block.

This will create tall grass on the grass block, which you should then try to place a ladder on. This will create an invisible block above the tall grass. Feel free to use this invisible block at your discretion.

11 Never Run Out Of Water

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Water is an extremely useful material to constantly have at your disposal when you're making things or mining or even just exploring. All you really have to do to have an infinite water supply is create a small pit with at least three empty squares.

Get yourself two buckets of water from an actual body of water and then carry them to this pit. Fill it with the two buckets, and every time you take water from the pit afterwards, it will refill itself thanks to the flowing nature of water.

10 Indestructible Wood

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Wooden items are not wholly indestructible in Minecraft, but some are resistant to a certain kind of damage that you would think anything made of wood would be susceptible to.

Wooden doors, pressure plates, and signs do not burn away with fire.

(Though an important side note should be that lava is still as destructive of these things as before.) Ladders and things like rails also do not burn away either. Keep that in mind when you're constructing a fireplace for your house.

9 All You Need Is A Compass

via: bdcraft.net

With such a wide, wide word at your fingertips, it's easy to get lost while playing Minecraft, especially if you're underground. This is perhaps the most helpful tip I ever learned while playing.

If you hit a block, the cracks that first appear will form a rudimentary compass. There will be a large crack pointing to one side, and this side is north. So, if you ever get lost while playing, be sure to mine a few blocks to guide you home.

8 Sailing Away

via: minecraftforum.net

I know that many people can get annoyed with glitches, but glitches tickle my funny bone. (That's probably why Mass Effect: Andromeda is one of my favorite games. I can't remember laughing so hard.) A particular glitch with boats and minecarts allows your Minecraft character to ignore the power of walls.

If you are in a boat or minecart and you're trying to wiggle around by a wall, you will appear to phase through the wall. Caution: you might get stuck there.

7 The World Isn't Black And White... Or Is It?

via: minecraftforum.net

Another of the Super Secret Settings that I absolutely adore is the one that can turn the world black and white. The rich colors of your typical Minecraft world fade away to just those two colors.

It is a pretty neat experience to walk around the world feeling as if you just entered some noir universe. As with the upside-down setting, you can change everything back to color in the same place. I'm telling you, when those bright colors return, you will feel as if your eyesight has returned to you.

6 Personalize Your Dog's Collar

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One of the first things I ever did while playing Minecraft was tame my very own wolf so that it became a dog. (Animal companions are the best.) You can change the color of your pet's collar by entering a command (kind of cheating) or you can use a dye.

If you use a dye, make sure you pick a color you like and that you use the dye on your wolf's collar and not on anything else. I had a horrible experience where I unintentionally dyed a nearby sheep instead of the collar. Totally wasted the dye for a blue sheep.