Minecrafter 2.0 Advanced: The Unofficial Guide to Minecraft & Other Building Games

contents

introduction

State of Minecraft

What Exactly Do We Mean by Biome?

Kill More Mobs

Advanced Redstone & Inventions

Mine Better

Advanced Farming

Building Advanced Structures

What To Do When

Beating the Game

Minecraft Gallery

More Ways To Play

Mobile Minecraft

Facts About Notch, the Man Behind the Mine

Mojang Personalities

Minecraft Community

Other Sandbox Games

introduction

MINECRAFT! It’s everywhere these days, and we here at the Minecrafter absolutely love it. If you hadn’t heard of this game before last year, you probably have now, as Minecraft has absolutely exploded onto the public consciousness like few games ever have. Minecraft truly is the king of all indie games, and as one of the most successful and profitable pieces of entertainment ever created, more and more fans are flocking to our favorite blocky builder game all the time. Nowadays it seems just about everyone’s getting their mine on!

Because of that overwhelming demand for more!more!more! Minecraft, folks everywhere are looking to learn more about this simple-seeming, but actually extremely complex game. And that, dear Crafters, is where Minecrafter Volume 2 comes in.

Where the first issue of Minecrafter took Crafters from their first steps in the world of the game to basic Redstone and structure building, this jam-packed second issue focuses on more advanced topics and concepts and goes deeper into specific strategies. Want to know how to Kill More Mobs? That’s in here. Looking to get a start on a Redstone computer? This guide will put you on the right path. Want to beat the game and be the first on your block to read the End Poem without using the Internet? You’re about to slay you an Ender Dragon, kiddo!

We’ve also thrown in more info on the culture of the game outside of actual play in this issue, such as more about Notch and Mojang, Minecon and the various communities that have built up around the game. As Minecraft has grown in popularity, we’ve started to see some seriously cool stuff go down surrounding the game, and we’ve collected some excellent data and striking shots to get you up to speed.

Minecrafter Vol. 2 is all about taking you beyond the start of your Minecraft journey and deeper into the game you love (or will soon!).From those who want to build higher, bigger and better, to those who are looking to beat this most unconventional of games, to those wanting the newest Redstone tips and tricks, Minecrafter Vol. 2 is your go-to guide for the best strategies, the coolest new structures and every-darn-thing Minecraft there is.

There’s a world of infinite imagination and excitement waiting for you just on the other side of this page, so as we say here at the ‘Crafter, grab your pickaxe and let’s dig in!

State of Minecraft

Before we dive into those tasty, tasty strategies you came to this book for, let’s take a moment and look at the state of the Minecraft phenomenon and where it has come in the last year.

Biggest Year Yet

It’s not often that a video game (or anything for that matter) reaches its greatest successes yet nearly five years after originally coming out, but that’s exactly what has happened for Minecraft! 2013 was truly Minecraft’s year, as not only did the fan-base absolutely explode, but the game itself became much more complex, and there were even two entirely new versions of the game released for the Raspberry Pi and the PlayStation 3!

Speaking of the fans, just take a look at these numbers: It took the PC version of Minecraft from 2009 until January 2011 to be downloaded 1 million times, but as of 2014, the computer version of this much-loved game has now seen an absolutely stunning 13 million downloads. That’s 12 million new copies downloaded in just three years! The Pocket Edition and Xbox 360 version have equally impressive numbers, with the PE earning 10 million downloads (calculated May 2013) and the Xbox version having been purchased a cool 8 million times (August 2013). Considering that these numbers don’t even include the brand-spankin’ new PS3 version or the Pi version, not to mention the months since May and August (for the PE and Xbox, respectively), the number of official copies of Minecraft out there is estimated to be over 40 million as of the start of 2014, making it one of the biggest entertainment titles in history.

Two New Platforms to Craft on in 2014

If 2013 was Minecraft’s biggest year so far, 2014 looks like it just might rival that title in a big way.

To begin with, Mojang and 4J (the makers of the console ports for the game) have stated that not only will Minecraft continue to be updated for the Xbox and PS3, but that a version will also be released for the new PS4 and Xbox One systems! These versions are said to be compatible with the previous version for each system, meaning players should soon be able to move their Xbox 360 and PS3 worlds onto the newest, most powerful gaming systems on the market.

What to Expect Next

As we’ve mentioned, this book deals primarily with the two fastest-growing versions of Minecraft (the console and Pocket Editions), and boy-oh-boy is there a lot of new stuff that is set to come out soon for both platforms!

For the PE (Pocket Edition), it’s been hinted that an official, working multiplayer version is soon to be released, and we can only hope that such an update will also bring the PE closer to the console, adding more materials, mobs and features.

On the console side, we’ve already seen one major update since the last Minecrafter, and that added such awesome new features as the Jungle Biome, the fearsome Iron Golem, the adorable Ocelot and new events like Villager breeding and Zombie raids. This may seem like a lot, and it definitely has made the game even more interesting, but it seems that the best is yet to come for the console versions.

Among the rumored additions in the upcoming TU14 update for the console are the long-awaited Horses (you can ride ‘em!), Withers, Anvils and Hoppers, with some hopeful Minecrafters saying that there’s a chance we might see Emerald Ore, Ender Chests, Temples and even trading with Villagers added in. These have all been in the PC version for some time now, and we should see at least a few (if not all of them) on the console in upcoming months.

Crafter DE4Dl3AVES was one of the many to join the game in the last two years

Stained Glass is one thing we expect to see on the console

Speaking of the PC, while this book isn’t specifically about that version of the game, we can learn a lot about what’s to come for the PE and console versions by looking at what has come out for PC. 2013 saw one of the biggest updates yet to any version of Minecraft with version 1.7.2 for the PC (October). With an absolutely massive amount of new content, including new Mobs, new Biomes and tons of new materials (Stained Glass!), not to mention the awesome new Amplified world type (ravines that go all the way down to the Bedrock!), this update was called The Update that Changed the World, and it shows us that over the next year or so we should continue to get huge amounts of new content added to the other versions of the game.

Where We’re At

With all of this (and who knows what else) in store for us from the folks at Mojang, and with Minecraft expanding to just about every major platform out there, this is the most exciting time yet in the world of Minecraft! For you new folks, welcome to one of the most exciting phenomenons and communities in entertainment, while for you veteran Crafters, let’s get to work and make even bigger, even better builds. As they say, the sky’s the limit in Minecraft.