Whats New in This Guide?

Minecraft is a game that grows over time. Each year, more blocks, creatures, content, and options are added to the main game. This is always exciting because you never know what the future is going to bring. Because of that, we’ve taken the time to add more ideas, explanations, and examples to our book. Every chapter has been revised to reflect the game as it stands today. Plus we’ve included new chapters, so let’s talk about those.

Art Gallery

In this edition of the guide, we’ve included original artwork inspired by the characters, creatures, items, and worlds of Minecraft. Visit this artistic section of the guide for dynamic, colorful depictions of some of your favorite characters and creatures, along with some amusing tidbits of information. See, Creepers don’t have to be scary. They can be cute. From a distance.

We wanted to show off the changes from more recent patches to the game, but in the middle of doing that, we thought, “Why not go through the history of Minecraft and talk about when all of the game systems were added—it’s pretty cool stuff.” So that’s exactly what we did. You won’t have to read this if you’re looking for purely mechanical help with playing the game, but if you’re interested in the legacy of Minecraft, this chapter is right up your alley.

Bigger and Better Projects

This chapter is our primary focus for new ideas and fun in this version of the book. Last year, we gave everyone a solid foundation to build on for a wide variety of Minecraft structures, traps, and machines. Now that people have had time to practice, they should be ready for the next step. We take you through creating dungeons, group projects, and other wild ideas. If you haven’t read the rest of the guide yet, hold off on this chapter; we’re going to forge ahead without taking as long to explain the fundamentals. This is for players who’ve already mastered the basics and want to try entirely new challenges.