Introduction

The virtual world of Minecraft is everywhere. With more than 17 million purchases total and purchases raking in more than $300,000 a day, Minecraft has become the number-two game in the world, lagging only behind Nintendo Wii's Wii Sports title, which comes bundled with every Wii system. Shortly before this book went to print, Mojang, the company that created Minecraft, was acquired by Microsoft. The Pocket Edition, which appears in iOS and Android app stores, consistently ranks among the top-grossing apps in each mobile app store.

As a parent of seven kids, I quickly became aware of the power Minecraft has on families. When my kids would invite their friends over, and after all of them were engrossed in using a tablet or Kindle device, they would explore and play and sometimes even nag each other in the game. "Dad, JJ just blew up my house!" is a common phrase in our household, and "Dad, can you give me ops?"

Perhaps, as a parent, you've seen a similar situation, wondering what in the world your kids are talking about and whether you should be concerned. Or perhaps you're one of the children who's playing and you want to better understand how to build the largest village or automate your entire world by using farms, iron golems, or even redstone contraptions and circuitry.

Although Minecraft is an amazing game, it isn't really even a game: It's a "world" that encourages exploration. To expand and increase your world, you need to do things to enhance the mind and grow your skills. In Minecraft, you learn about topics such as architecture, geology, farming, and nutrition, and about advanced logic, circuitry, programming, and even server administration and API development (the topics I'm teaching to Thomas, my 12-year old son and co-author).

No one ever officially wins a game of Minecraft. It's a game that encourages collaboration and cooperation, so it doesn't work well when players fight against each other. As a parent, you can feel comfortable knowing that your kids are playing a game that teaches teamwork. As a child or regular player, you can anticipate playing a game that's fun and enjoyable, where other players will, for the most part, help you along the way.

We hope as you read this book that you can see how to enjoy the game as much as we (my sons and I) enjoy it. As a parent, I've been able to bond with my children by engaging in a shared experience. My kids have had some fun in an environment that's familiar to them from sharing it with their dad. Minecraft is an incredibly fun game that enriches your mind and expands your knowledge, and it lets you do both in an environment in which you can learn and grow with your closest friends and family - or meet new people along the way.

About This Book

We wrote this book as a family. Jesse is the dad, and Thomas is Jesse's 12-year-old son. The icons labeled Joseph's Corner throughout this book hold input from Jesse's 10-year-old son, Joseph. Even Jesse's 6-year-old son, JJ, contributed some of the images in the book. It was a family project, and our hope is that other families can benefit from this book, just as we have.

Parents, you might want to start in Chapter 17. Jesse wrote that chapter as a guide to show parents how to get started, to address their concerns, and to help them protect their children along the way. Chapter 17 can help you get ready to let your children advance through the game in confidence - or even embark on an adventure yourself, with your kids.

For everyone else, this book is written in a format that lets you pick up the book and start reading anywhere. Pick your favorite topic, read about it, and then take your game to the next level. Or you may want to start from the beginning (it's a good place to start) and advance to the end.

In a sense, this book operates much like Minecraft does: After you have the basic ingredients, you can take your game wherever you want. Skip to the End. Advance to the Nether. Just pick a chapter and start reading.

Take this book and share it with a close friend. Let your parents read it. Let your children read it. Let your siblings read it. Minecraft, whether it's played with friends or the mobs in your own single-player virtual world, really is a social experience and best played with people you know. We hope that you can share the knowledge in this book with the same people you play with in the game.

Conventions Used in This Book

If you already own a For Dummies book, you're likely familiar with the conventions we use in this book. It's simple: URLs use a monospaced font, like this:

stay.am/minecraftfordummies

Foolish Assumptions

Minecraft is a constantly changing game, and it's updated regularly, so it may not necessarily look the same now as when we wrote this book. For that reason, we recommend always referring to our Facebook Page at facebook.com/minecraftfd or on YouTube at youtube.com/minecraftdummiesbook. In addition, be sure to check out the official Minecraft Wiki at minecraft.gamepedia.com.

We assume that you have either a Windows PC, a Mac, or an iOS or Android device. You can also play Minecraft on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, as well as on certain other consoles, though our focus in this book is on the Minecraft PC edition for the Windows and Mac desktops. At the end of each chapter, we briefly describe the differences between Minecraft for the desktop and Minecraft for your mobile device.

Beyond that, Minecraft is a cinch to play. If a 6-year old can play it (Jesse has even caught his 2-year-old trying to figure out how to play), you know that it doesn't take much to get started.

How This Book Is Organized

We've organized this book in a way that lets you get started by hitting the ground running. You can find out all about the elements of survival, and how to get everything you need to make the most of the game. You can truly start anywhere in the book though, so pick a chapter and start reading.

Part I: Getting Started with Minecraft

Part I is a great place to start if you have little to no knowledge of Minecraft and you want to survive your first "day" in the game. We show you how to survive your first night, how to construct a crafting table, and how to engage in various methods of staying alive so that you can continue on and expand what you can do in the game.

Part II: Learning Basic Survival Skills

Are you tired of losing hunger points or your characters dying from malnutrition? This chapter shows you ways to stay hydrated in the game and protect yourself from evil at the same time. We show you how to build farms for a supply of food that can be replenished, and we spell out better ways to mine for more minerals so that you can build better tools and weapons.

Part III: Developing Advanced Skills

In Part III, Minecraft gets fun! This part shows you how to build, and take advantage of, villages in the game to earn new supplies and food, and how to protect those villages. It describes how to work with redstone circuitry and how to build items such as chicken farms, which automatically harvest, cook, and store chicken for you to eat. This part talks about enchantments and other ways to make armor stronger, or even perform magic in various ways.

Part IV: Customizing Minecraft

In Part IV, you can read about ways to integrate the game with various Minecraft servers. This part describes how to send commands to Minecraft to make it perform tasks such as switch between Survival mode and Creative mode. We point you toward our favorite YouTube channels and places where you can find out more about Minecraft.

Part V: Making Minecraft a Family Affair

We wrote this book for anyone to read, but we focus particularly on families. In Part V, we show you the various platforms of Minecraft, from PC edition to PE edition, and then we list the game's various difficulty levels. And, we've written a chapter, entirely for parents, on the things they need to know as their kids play the game.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Each chapter in this part of the book holds ten (or so) items, usually tips, that can help you expand your game. Use our tips and tricks, our redstone contraptions, and our best advice on better ways to build, for example. If you think that you already know everything there is to know about Minecraft, read this part of the book to discover new topics.

Icons Used in This Book

Throughout this book, you see little icons next to extra tidbits of information about Minecraft:

Wherever you see this cute little icon, we leave a tip to make you one step more knowledgeable about Minecraft. These are the places where you're likely to hear yourself say, "Hmm, I didn't realize that."

We created this special icon just for this book. These tips, written by Jesse's 10-year-old son, Thomas (and Thomas's younger brother Joseph), reflect the mindset of the younger generation of Minecraft players (10 years and younger).

We promise not to bore you by becoming too repetitive, but if we ever have to remind you of something, we stick this icon on it. We want this information ingrained in your mind so that you can recite it...