Minecraft is the fresh new sandbox game with randomly generated worlds. The game is quite simple. As soon as you start out you’ll notice your surroundings are just all blocks, almost like legos. However it is still a very enjoyable experience.
As soon as you start you will notice you can break blocks with the left mouse button. After breaking a block you can pick it up and then promptly place it anywhere you want. Notice that your hand is not an effective tool for gathering so you’ll want to make a new tool. Proceed to do so by breaking wood blocks (near leaves) and picking up the smaller version of them. Open up your inventory by pressing E and move the logs to the 2X2 area near the top of the inventory window. You should be able to click on the square next to it to get planks. Now that you have 4 planks, put one plank in each of the four squares. Congratulations, you now have a Workbench which is going to be one of your most commonly used blocks.
To continue put two planks on top of each other and make sticks. Then, put the sticks on top of eachother in the center and bottom center squares of the work bench. From here you can go 3 ways, an axe (a plank in the top left corner, the top middle square, and the left middle square), a pickaxe (a plank in each of the top squares) or a shovel (a plank in the top middle square) You now have a gathering tool.
I personally recommend making the pickaxe first as you can mine stone and make a higher tier of tool. Use your tool to mine out as many blocks as you can. You will begin to notice the sun going down. Minecraft has a time cycle of Day/Night with daytime lasting around 10 minutes and night lasting about 5. During the night many monsters will spawn and attack you and unless you are prepared you will most likely die. If you find yourself in a cave you are going to want to leave as that is where monsters most frequently spawn. Monsters spawn anywhere in darkness. The four basic monsters you are going to find are Spiders (can climb walls and take away 1 heart per hit), skeletons (ranged attackers who deal 2 hearts), zombies (you can recognize them by their trademark moan and they deal 2 hearts per hit) and creepers (green things with four legs, these hiss then explode when in close proximity which will most likely kill you; avoid them at all costs)
So how do you survive your first night? Shelter. That is the key. With pickaxe in hand, look around for a stone like block with black spots on it. That’s coal, mine it out and then put it on top of a stick to create torches. Torches not only provide light but prevent monsters from spawning in the area they are placed in. Find a nice cave or dig one out (or if you have enough planks make a structure) and fill in the entrance with blocks (if you have enough planks you can make a door by putting a plank in every square in 2 columns)
Now it’s a simple matter of waiting. If you want you can start the entrance to a mine by digging a staircase down with your pickaxe or begin on building more tool, it all up to you. When morning comes: Congratulations! You have just survived your first night in Minecraft! If you are looking to further level up your tools look for light-brownish spots in stone. That is iron which is better than stone. You have just taken the first step in your Minecraft journey, I hope you continue to succeed in your journey.