Minecraft can seem like a soothing and calm sandbox game where players can freely go on an adventure and build anything they want on the surface. But unbeknownst to most of the new players in the game, this is not the case in a survival game mode in Minecraft. Even when a player starts on their first day inside the game, they are already pitted against many threats—not to mention a race against time as night looms near. And if a player is not careful in a survival game, this might end with the player losing all of their items, tools, weapons, armor, and experience points upon death. And what is even worse, hardcore mode will end the game itself, making the player lose all progress and forced to restart the entire world from day one. If you think about it rationally, avoiding death in the game is challenging and almost impossible to do, as you will probably encounter an accident or two along the way. However, if you know what to expect beforehand and are prepared for the worst, then you might get lucky and survive for a long time. Here are some tips on how to avoid dying in Minecraft.
How To Avoid Dying in Minecraft
Do Not Sprint Unnecessarily
We all know moving around in Minecraft is unavoidable and necessary when we want to stay alive and progress with the game. And shockingly, moving around excessively can drain hunger and saturation points as a survival player. Walking, however, will not drain these points as much compared to running or sprinting, jumping included. Every survival player should conserve their energy, especially during the first few days of a new survival game world, since obtaining food is harder. When a player’s hunger bar reaches six hunger points or less, the player will be unable to sprint; therefore, maintaining it at high levels is crucial to survival. Without any food to consume, a player should be careful not to sprint too much and should prefer walking over running all the time. Being unable to sprint will make it harder to run away from hostile mobs—especially creepers that explode near you—and often lead to a player’s death. So it is best to sprint only when necessary to manage your hunger levels properly. A good way around this is to use mountable mobs such as horses, mules, and donkeys instead, as these mobs can boost your traveling speed while keeping you from exerting any effort.
Keep your hunger bar up
Actions constantly drain a player’s hunger bar, and without eating, it will eventually reach 0. Once the hunger bar reaches zero, your health bar will be affected. This will gradually drain your health points until you reach half a heart, in which case, you can die when you take even a hint of damage. However, in hardcore mode, starvation can kill a player. Therefore, eating edible food should be a priority for every survival player. Passive mobs that drop raw meat such as sheep, cows, pigs, and chickens can be pretty hard to find, especially in locations they are not meant to spawn as frequently as other mobs. This means it is harder to farm for food out in the open of the Overworld than when creating an animal mob farm of your own. Even more so for the nether realm, as the Nether’s environment is naturally harsh, it is almost impossible to farm for food there. This gives players all the more reason to create sustainable farms of their own, whether these are animal farms or crop farms.
Do not eat inedible food items
Be very careful not to consume rotten flesh accidentally and raw chicken meat as each of these food items, although tempting when hungry, may inflict food poisoning—or better known as the hunger status effect—on the player. The Hunger status effect will cause the player to drain the hunger bar much faster when moving or doing actions. While eating a raw chicken may only have a 30% chance of inflicting food poisoning on the player, eating rotten flesh has an 80% chance to inflict food poisoning. This means you are more likely to be inflicted with the hunger status effect if you consume rotten flesh. However, suppose there are no other food items available. You can still consume raw chicken or rotten flesh if you take no action or movement while under the hunger status effect. You will have to wait until the effect wears off before moving about to prevent any loss of your hunger points. Other inedible food items may cause damage to the player when consumed. One of these is the spider eye which will poison the player when eaten and cause a total of 4 heart points of damage. Another is the pufferfish which most new players may not know but will cause hunger III, nausea I, and poison II for 15 seconds when eaten. This makes the pufferfish an almost impossible option for choosing what food items to eat during an emergency. Either way, all status effects can be nullified by drinking a bucket of milk or simply waiting for the effects to wear off.
Avoid falling from heights
One of the main reasons players often die in survival mode is falling off of high places. Generally, a player takes a small amount of damage when they fall from 4 to 7 blocks. When the fall height reaches eight blocks or more, the player takes a large amount of damage which could cause them to lose half their health bar. And when a player falls at the height of 24 blocks or more, the player will most likely die due to the extreme height even when at full health. You can counter the fall damage by equipping yourself with boots enchanted with the Feather Falling enchantment, drinking potions of leaping, damage resistance potions, damage absorption potions, and other related status effects.
Do not dig straight down
Every veteran Minecraft player knows this mining rule: never dig straight down. This rule is clear as many newbie players almost always learn their lesson the hard way. Digging straight down can lead to a player’s death if the player is not careful. The ground in the Overworld is all well and good, but you never know what is beneath you. There are large caves and caverns underneath, and if you are unlucky enough, you might dig out the last block that keeps you from falling into the depths below. So to be safe in mining, stick to the staircase method in which you create a stair-like pattern going down to avoid any unnecessary deaths on your part and losing all your valuable items and experience along the way.
Do not swim in lava
We all know that lava itself is a dangerous resource, whether it is in real life or inside the world of Minecraft. A survival player should never try to test their limits by walking over or swimming in lava itself. Swimming inside a pool of lava has the same damage output as being burned to death by fire, only it is much worse. If a player accidentally falls prey to lava and dies, their items will likely burn up. Therefore you might not recover anything on your way back, including all your weapons, tools, and armor. So to be safe, stay away from lava unless you need to obtain a bucket of lava for crafting or smelting purposes.
Do not use spawn-related items in the wrong dimension
Spawn-related blocks or items such as the bed and respawn anchors are locked by their specific dimensions. Dimensions, in Minecraft, will mean the Overworld, the Nether, and the End. In the Overworld, the only spawn item you should use is a bed, as this sets your spawn point when you interact with it. In the Nether, the alternative of a bed is a respawn anchor, which is only activated if a glow stone is placed inside. And for the End, neither of these things exist as the End is the only dimension not to have a spawn-related block that players can use. Hence, each of these items should be used only in their specific dimension. Using the wrong spawn-related block in the wrong dimension can create a powerful explosion within the block’s radius, killing any mob or player nearby. You should not use a bed inside the Nether (they explode), as this can lead to your death if you are not careful.
