Minecraft Survival Mode Building Tips

Building a good base home is one of the first and most important things you should do at the start of any new Minecraft game in survival mode! It’ll help you to protect yourself from hostile mobs, harbour useful items outside of your inventory and is the first step to coming up with a cool Minecraft village to show off to your friends!

If you’ve never built anything in Minecraft before, you might think that the structures you can make with the available blocks must end up being pretty basic – but it’s not like that at all. In actual fact, you can build some incredible structures in Minecraft! Players in the past have built replicas of everything from the Great Pyramids, to the Eiffel Tower and even a full replica of Buckingham Palace.

Whether you’re looking to build up your Minecraft building skills from scratch to eventually build yourself one of these crazy creations or simply want to build an effective and protective home, here are a few of our top tips for building in Minecraft survival mode.

Find A Place To Build That’s Just Right

It’s super important that you consider where your home should be built to be the best base it can be! There are certain places that you should avoid because they’ll leave you more at risk of attacks from zombies and creepers. Full forests, inside the sides of mountains, underneath large natural structures and anywhere with lots of shade surrounding it do not make very good places to build your base, because you’re more likely to realise you’re being attacked too late to do much about it.

You should also avoid anywhere that’s going to be inconvenient and become an annoyance for you while you’re playing – building at the top of a mountain will keep you safer, but who wants to climb up and down a mountain that often?

The best spot to build your home is somewhere easy to get to, with nearby resources and with no spots for attackers to catch you unexpectedly. If you have played Minecraft Manhunt, you will know all about avoiding attackers and hunting for good spots! Areas with villages or lava nearby are perfect, especially when playing Manhunt. Think you can survive as a speedrunner vs the hunters? Play the Minecraft Manhunt Server on OneBlockMC and try your luck.

Choose Your Materials Wisely

Experienced players may think it goes without saying, but new players should always avoid building their homes out of wood. Wood isn’t a very resistant material and wooden homes can be very easily destroyed by other players, fire-blasted by Creepers and set alight by a strike of lightning – and then all your hard work will have gone to waste!

Instead, it’s much better to choose materials such as cobblestone which are far more resistant and will make for a much more protective home. It may not be quite as aesthetically pleasing, but it does the job much better – to double up on protection, include two layers of cobblestone to form the outside of your house.

Windows Are Important!

Remember to include windows around the outside of your home so that you can quickly scope out any potential threats before you step outside. Depending on the length of your build, try to include two on each side to maximise the view that you get.

The best way to go about this is making your windows out of glass panes. As these are thin and don’t take up a full block, spiders attempting to climb your house can’t get past them – and nobody likes spiders, virtual or not!

Don’t Help The Mobs

Did you know that including a lip on your roof could actually risk the safety of your house?

Including a lip which makes up the base of your roof and creates shade around the outside of your house will give hostile mobs a place to hide under, which will help out the monsters and make things much harder for you once you try to leave to continue your adventure.

You should also do away with any trees close to your home, as this will also give mobs a place to hide – try to make it so that there’s very little room for them to linger around your home waiting for you!

Also, use torches to keep them from spawning too close to your home by placing 7-14 torches around the perimeter of your house.

Secret Tunnel Trick

House surrounded by hostile creatures? No way out?

Keep this from happening to you! Prepare for this pesky situation by digging out a secret tunnel underneath your base that is long enough to lead to an opening where you won’t attract the attention of the zombies or creepers.

By digging a tunnel and placing a trap door at each end, you’ll have put a great secret measure into place to stop yourself being surrounded with nowhere to go. Bet those creepers didn’t see that coming!

Up Your Game

Don’t forget to keep updating and expanding your base as you progress in the game! There are plenty of other aspects that you can eventually build onto your base to make it even better, such as adding an adjoining farm or create a mineshaft that you can enter from inside your house.

You can also continue to add new defences to keep your home as strong as you can, such as adding items to better keep out mobs, or maybe add a cobblestone generator to make your extensions easier.

A basic base will only serve you for so long – keep improving your base and, before long, you’ll have created yourself a fortress fit for a king! Or just a Minecraft pro, of course.