Minecraft for Nintendo Switch: The ultimate starter kit
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Minecraft is weird and wonderful but not always easy. Here are some tips to get you started!
One of the best things about Minecraft is the need to explore in order to fully understand everything in the game. There's no starter manual for new players, and this game contains far more than the colorful blocks you see on the surface. This is a game for explorers, creators, and adventurers alike, as long as you know where to look for things.
To help you get pointed in the right direction, we've assembled a quick walkthrough of the more complicated beginning topics. With these tools, you'll be able to venture forth and accomplish anything!
How to create a world
When you start playing Minecraft for the first time, you'll want to create your first world. You can create a world from scratch, using texture packs of your choosing, or by selecting from pre-made worlds, like Super Mario World.
When you create a world from scratch, start by giving it a name. Then, select the game mode from Survival or Creative. If you select Survival, you'll be vulnerable to attack from other creatures in the world, as well as other players if you've created an online game with others.
You can then select your level of difficulty from Peaceful, Easy, Normal, and Hard. Each level provides different adventures with increasingly harder means to survive, even in Creative mode.
You can select a texture pack from 14 options. Six are included with the base price of the game. The other eight can be played as a trial version, but you won't be able to save the game. When you try to save, you'll be offered the option to purchase the texture pack, but you'll still lose all of your progress. So, don't spend too much time building stuff using one of the premium textures because you'll lose all of your hard work, even if you decide to buy the texture pack.
Texture packs included with the game:
- Classic
- City
- Fantasy
- Festive
- Super Mario
- Natural
Texture packs you can purchase for $2.99 each:
- Candy
- Cartoon
- Chinese Mythology
- Greek Mythology
- Halloween 2015
- Pattern
- Plastic
- Steampunk
Decide whether your world will be available for online gameplay. This is how you create a multiplayer game that your friends can join when they see that you're playing Minecraft online.
There are a few more advanced options you can select before you create a world. Select More Options to choose advanced world creation options.
You can then enter the seed code to generate a specific pre-made world. Seeds codes can be found online. If you don't enter a seed, a random one will be generated for you, which is totally fine.
If you want to explore a relatively small region, change the world size to Small. You can expand your exploration area by selecting Classic or Medium.
Tack on a few little extras, like pre-built structures, a chest filled with items that is conveniently near where you spawn, or a completely flat world.
When you're ready, select Create World and you'll be ready to go!
The secrets of biomes
Minecraft divides the Overworld into biomes, which are essentially connected areas with a variety of specific features, adding a sense of exploration to your game. Different biomes are home to various resources and animals, as well as multiple NPC buildings, like temples, huts, and villages. Here's a guide to the biomes you'll find in Minecraft!
Plains
Plains are wide, mostly flat expanses covered in grass and flowers. Here you will find plenty of caves to explore and plenty of livestock to herd, including horses. Plains biomes are home to many villages.
Forest
Forests are usually hilly areas covered in trees, flowers, grass, and mushrooms. Here you'll encounter all types of livestock, including wolves.
Dark forest
These forest variations are made up of dark oak trees and are sometimes referred to as "roofed forests." Find large and small mushrooms here, and be careful when navigating these biomes as they are dark enough to spawn enemy mobs during the day.
Birch forest
This is a variation of the forest biome made up entirely of birch trees.
Desert
Desert biomes can be quite expansive and are made up of sand and sandstone. There are plenty of cacti but usually no trees. Desert biomes are the only place to find desert temples and desert wells. You can also find villages here.
Beach
You will often find a beach where a desert biome abuts an ocean, but beaches can technically be found anywhere there's water. Beaches are almost always made up of sand but can sometimes be made up of gravel.
Cold beach
Cold beaches are snow-covered variations of regular beaches. Don't worry, though, no need to go hunting for warmer clothes.
Stone beach
Also known as a cliff, stone beaches are tall walls of stone that connect to an ocean.
Swamp
Swamps are usually quite flat and consist of pools of green water with lily pads and trees covered in vines. If you're looking for a lot of sugar cane or mushroom, this is the place. Be careful when traversing at night — slimes come out in force.
Jungle
Jungles are extremely lush biomes covered in towering tropical trees. Climb vines, harvest cocoa beans, and find jungle temples full of treasure. If you're looking for melons or a pet ocelot, head for one of these biomes. They're usually pretty easy to spot, thanks to the tall trees, and are generally quite wide.
Mesa
Mesa biomes are extremely rare — they are made up of multiple colors of hardened clay. These biomes are important, as they contain gold ore at any height and can have abandoned mine shafts above ground.
Bryce mesa
The Bryce mesa biome is similar to a standard mesa biome, except it has towering spires of hardened clay.
Taiga
Taiga biomes are usually quite hilly and have plenty of spruce trees. You can find villages here, and wolves are common.
Mega spruce taiga
These biomes have a ton of spruce trees grouped closely together. You'll find podzol on the ground, as well as mossy cobblestone.
Mega taiga
A variation of the standard taiga biome, here you will find enormous spruce trees and podzol blocks rather than grass blocks. Mossy cobblestone can be found here.
Tundra
Tundras are relatively difficult to survive, thanks to a lack of resources and animals. You will find an oak or spruce tree here and there, but for the most part, you'll only find snow and frozen rivers.
Tundra spikes
Tundra spike biomes are small and quite rare, so take a screenshot if you find one! These are basically tundras covered in towering spires of packed ice.
Savanna
The savanna biome is sort of a cross between plains and desert. You won't find much water, and the grass is a darker green. The acacia trees found here make great decoration thanks to their unique color — villages you find here will show this off well. You will also find plenty of livestock, including horses.
Mushroom Island
Found way out in the ocean, mushroom islands are made up of mycelium blocks instead of grass and dirt. Huge mushrooms that resemble trees grow here, and the only mobs you'll find are mooshrooms — a cow and mushroom hybrid animal. If you're looking for a spot to build without being disturbed by enemy mobs, this is the place.
Hills
Hills can be found in most other biomes and take on the properties of that biome. Nothing overly special but a nice calm area to work in.
Mountains
Mountains, also known as extreme hills, are found in many other biomes and can reach all the way up into the clouds. These biomes are very fun to explore and provide a good base for building some wild structures.
How to craft all the things
As the name of the game might suggest, a big part of doing just about anything in this game is gathering the parts to build things that make your life in this world a little easier. This includes weapons, armor, tools, and, in advanced cases, portals to other dimensions. Once you get the hang of crafting, the way you play will change entirely. You'll start thinking about resources as you travel, which makes a big difference for a lot of people and winds up being a ton of fun!
Getting started with crafting
The first thing you should craft are some wood planks, which can be accomplished without using a crafting table. Find some nearby trees and press the RZ button to mine wood from them with your bare hands. Gather at least 12 pieces of raw wood to get started.
Once you have enough raw wood, you can craft the wood planks in your crafting interface. Press the Y button to access your crafting interface. You can switch group types by pressing the L or R button to navigate to the next tab. Use the left joystick to scroll through items and the A button to craft items.
- Press the Y button to open your crafting interface.
- Select the Structures group. It's the first tab.
- Select the wood plank you want to create from the first structure item. Planks you can create will be full color. If you don't have enough material to create an item, it will be grayed out.
- Press the A button to craft the wood plank.
Press the A button again to create more wood planks until the raw wood runs out.
The new material will automatically transfer to your inventory
The next thing you'll want to craft is a crafting table, which allows you to craft more intricate recipes:
- Select the Crafting Table from the Structures group.
Press the A button to create the crafting table.
The crafting table will automatically transfer to your inventory.
- Press the B button to close your crafting interface.
- Select the crafting table from your inventory so you're holding it.
- Press the B button to drop the crafting table on the ground.
Now that you have a crafting table, you can craft more intricate recipes. In this example, we'll craft a wooden pickaxe using the crafting table that you've place on the ground:
- Select the Y button to open your crafting interface while standing in front of your crafting table.
- Select Sticks from the Structure group.
- Press the A button to create a stick.
- Select the Tools and Weapons group. It's the second tab.
- Select the Wooden Pickaxe from the Tools and Weapons group.
Press the A button to create the pickaxe.
The pickaxe will automatically transfer to your inventory.
Now you've got a crafting table and a tool to help get you started. Go out there and mine some materials so you can craft some more cool stuff!