Minecraft crafting for beginners: every recipe you need on your first day

TUREFF• •0

Most new players get stuck on the same thing in their first ten minutes: they have wood, but they do not know what to do with it. This guide walks through the recipes you need on day one, in the order you need them, and what to aim for on day two.

How crafting works

Open your inventory and you will see a small 2x2 crafting grid. That is enough for the first few items. Everything bigger needs a crafting table, which gives you a 3x3 grid. In recent versions the recipe book (the green book icon) shows recipes you have unlocked and can fill the grid for you, which is handy while you learn.

Step 1: logs, planks and sticks

Hold down the attack button on a tree trunk to break it and collect logs. Get at least a dozen if you can.

Planks: one log in the grid makes 4 planks.
Sticks: two planks, one above the other, make 4 sticks.
Crafting table: fill the 2x2 grid with 4 planks. Place it on the ground and use it.

Step 2: your first tools

Tool recipes all follow the same pattern: the material along the top or side, sticks as the handle.

Pickaxe: 3 planks across the top row, 2 sticks down the middle.
Axe: 3 planks in an L shape at the top, 2 sticks down the middle. Chops wood faster.
Sword: 2 planks stacked, 1 stick below.
Shovel: 1 plank, 2 sticks below.

Wooden tools wear out quickly. Use the wooden pickaxe to mine a few stone blocks, which drop cobblestone, then remake your pickaxe, axe and sword with cobblestone in place of planks. Stone tools last much longer and dig faster. Recent versions also added copper tools, which you can make once you find and smelt copper.

Step 3: furnace and torches

Furnace: 8 cobblestone around the edge of the 3x3 grid, leaving the middle empty.
Charcoal: if you have not found coal yet, put logs in the furnace with planks as fuel. Logs smelt into charcoal, which works exactly like coal.
Torches: coal or charcoal on top of a stick makes 4 torches.

Torches matter more than they seem. Hostile mobs spawn in darkness, so lighting up your shelter and its surroundings keeps them away.

Step 4: food

Your hunger bar drains as you run, jump and fight. Early food options:

Cook raw meat from cows, pigs, chickens or sheep in the furnace; cooked meat restores far more hunger.
Apples sometimes drop from oak leaves.
Bread: 3 wheat in a row. Wheat comes from breaking tall grass for seeds and planting them, or from village farms.

Step 5: shelter and a bed

Chest: 8 planks around the edge of the grid. Store what you are not carrying.
Door: 6 planks in two columns.
Bed: 3 wool across the top row and 3 planks underneath. Wool comes from sheep; any colour works. Sleeping in a bed skips the night and sets your respawn point.

If you cannot find three sheep before dark, dig into a hillside, seal the entrance with blocks, place a torch inside and wait it out. Use the time to craft and smelt.

Day two: what to aim for

Find iron. It shows as stone with beige specks. Mine it with a stone pickaxe, smelt it in the furnace and you have iron ingots.
Upgrade to iron tools in the same patterns as before, starting with the pickaxe.
Make a shield: 6 planks in a Y shape with 1 iron ingot in the top middle. It blocks arrows and creeper blasts when held up.
Start a small farm near your base with seeds and water, so food stops being a worry.
Make a bucket: 3 iron ingots in a V shape. Water lets you farm, put out fires and get down cliffs safely.

Tips that save a run

Do not dig straight down; you can fall into a cave or lava.
Carry spare blocks to build an emergency wall.
If you die, you drop everything where you fell, so remember the spot.

What was the hardest part of your first day? Share your tips or questions in the comments.