Minecraft Beginner Guide 2026 — How to Survive Your First Night and Beyond

Minecraft remains one of the most popular games on the planet heading into 2026, and with major updates like Spring to Life, Chase the Skies, and Copper Age arriving throughout 2025, there has never been more content for new players to discover. Whether you are loading up Bedrock 26.1 on console or jumping into Java Edition snapshots, this guide covers everything you need to survive your first night and build toward the endgame.

If your game is crashing on launch, check our Minecraft Java crash fix guide. Playing on a lower-end machine? Our best Minecraft settings for low-end PCs guide will help you get smooth framerates.

Java vs Bedrock in 2026 — Which Should You Play?

Minecraft currently uses the year.drop.hotfix versioning format. Bedrock Edition is at version 26.1, while Java Edition is in the snapshot phase for 26.1. Both editions receive the same content, but there are important differences to understand before you start:

• Bedrock Edition runs on Windows 10/11, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices. It supports cross-platform multiplayer natively and tends to run more smoothly on lower-end hardware. The marketplace offers paid cosmetic and map content.
• Java Edition runs exclusively on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It supports free community mods, shaders, and resource packs. Redstone mechanics behave differently from Bedrock and are generally considered more predictable and powerful.

Our recommendation: If you want to play with friends on different platforms, go Bedrock. If you want access to the full modding community and more precise technical gameplay, go Java. Both editions are included with a single purchase of Minecraft on PC.

Surviving Your First Night — Step by Step

Night arrives at roughly the 10-minute mark of a new world, and hostile mobs spawn in the dark. You need shelter before that happens. Here is exactly what to do:

1. Punch a tree. Hold your attack button on a tree trunk to break it into Oak Log blocks. Collect at least 8-10 logs.
2. Open your inventory (E key) and convert logs into planks using the 2×2 crafting grid. Four planks make a Crafting Table.
3. Place the Crafting Table and craft a Wooden Pickaxe (two sticks and three planks across the top row). This is your most important early tool because it lets you mine stone.
4. Mine stone. Find a cliff face or dig down a few blocks to find grey Stone blocks. Mine at least 20 Cobblestone with your wooden pickaxe.
5. Craft Stone Tools. Make a Stone Pickaxe, Stone Sword, and Stone Axe. These are significantly faster and more durable than their wooden counterparts.
6. Build a shelter. A simple 5×5 dirt or cobblestone box with a door is enough. Place torches inside (one stick below one coal or charcoal) to prevent mobs from spawning indoors.
7. Craft a Bed. You need 3 Wool (from killing or shearing sheep) and 3 Planks. Sleeping in a bed skips night entirely and sets your respawn point. This is the single most important item in early survival.

Pro tip: If you cannot find sheep before nightfall, pillar up 12 blocks by jumping and placing blocks beneath you. Mobs cannot reach you, and you can wait out the night safely, though less comfortably than sleeping.

Essential Crafting Progression

After your first night, follow this crafting progression to build a strong foundation:

• Furnace (8 cobblestone in a ring) — Smelt iron ore into Iron Ingots and cook food for better hunger restoration.
• Iron Tools — Mine Iron Ore (found between Y-levels -64 and 72, most common around Y=16) and smelt it. Iron Pickaxe is required to mine gold, diamonds, and deeper ores.
• Shield (1 iron ingot + 6 planks) — Blocks Skeleton arrows and Creeper explosions. Essential for cave exploration.
• Bucket (3 iron ingots) — Carry water to create safe descents, put out fires, and build obsidian.
• Diamond Tools — Diamonds generate most commonly between Y=-64 and Y=-14. You need a minimum of 3 for a pickaxe, but aim for 11 (pickaxe, sword, full enchanting table setup).

Enchanting — How It Works in 2026

The Enchanting Table is one of the most powerful tools in the game, and setting it up correctly makes a huge difference:

1. Craft an Enchanting Table using 4 Obsidian, 2 Diamonds, and 1 Book.
2. Surround it with Bookshelves. You need exactly 15 Bookshelves placed one block away from the table (with nothing between them) to unlock Level 30 enchantments, the maximum tier.
3. Enchanting costs experience levels and Lapis Lazuli. Each enchantment requires 1 to 3 Lapis Lazuli depending on the tier you select. Always choose the Level 30 option for your best gear pieces.

Best early enchantments to look for:

• Fortune III on your pickaxe — Multiplies diamond and ore drops. Massively accelerates resource gathering.
• Unbreaking III on any tool — Triples effective durability.
• Protection IV on armor — The best general-purpose armor enchantment.
• Sharpness V on your sword — Increases melee damage against all mobs.

Villager Trading in 2026 — Major Changes

The Villager Trade Rebalance introduced significant changes that every new player needs to understand. The old method of finding a librarian and rerolling trades for any enchanted book in the game no longer works:

• Librarians are now biome-locked. Each librarian’s available enchanted books depend on which biome their village is located in. A Plains librarian will offer different books than a Desert or Taiga librarian. You need to visit multiple villages across different biomes to collect all enchantments.
• No max-level books from trading. Villagers no longer sell the highest tier of enchanted books. You cannot buy Protection IV or Sharpness V directly. Instead, you must combine lower-level books at an Anvil (for example, two Protection III books combine into Protection IV).
• Diamond gear requires diamonds. Armorers and Toolsmiths now require you to supply both diamonds and emeralds to purchase diamond-tier equipment. You can no longer get full diamond gear purely through emerald farming.

This means mining is more important than ever. Villager trading supplements your gear but no longer replaces exploration and resource gathering.

Getting to the Nether

The Nether is Minecraft’s hell dimension and a required stop on the path to the endgame. Here is how to get there:

1. Mine Obsidian. You need a minimum of 10 Obsidian blocks to build a Nether Portal frame (4 wide, 5 tall, corners optional). Obsidian forms where water meets lava source blocks and requires a Diamond Pickaxe to mine.
2. Light the portal with Flint and Steel (iron ingot + flint from gravel).
3. Prepare before entering: Bring cobblestone for quick shelters, a bow with arrows, at least one stack of food, and your best armor. Beds explode in the Nether — do not try to sleep.

In the Nether, your two critical objectives are:

• Blaze Rods — Dropped by Blazes in Nether Fortresses. You need at least 7 (1 for a Brewing Stand, 6 to craft into Blaze Powder for Eyes of Ender).
• Ender Pearls — Traded from Piglins (give them gold ingots) or dropped by Endermen. You need enough to craft 12 Eyes of Ender (Ender Pearl + Blaze Powder each), though some may break when thrown.

Reaching the End

Once you have your Eyes of Ender, throw them into the air by right-clicking. They float toward the nearest Stronghold. Follow them until they start pointing downward — dig below to find the underground Stronghold. Locate the End Portal room and place up to 12 Eyes of Ender into the portal frame (some may already be filled). When all 12 slots are filled, the portal activates.

The Ender Dragon fight is the game’s final boss. Destroy the End Crystals on top of the obsidian towers first (bow and arrows work well), then attack the dragon when it perches on the fountain in the center. With decent iron or diamond armor and a few stacks of arrows, most players can defeat it on their first attempt.

TL;DR — Minecraft Beginner Checklist

• Punch trees, craft Wooden Pickaxe, mine stone, build shelter, and craft a bed before the 10-minute mark
• Progress through Wood, Stone, Iron, Diamond tool tiers in that order
• Set up an Enchanting Table with 15 Bookshelves for max-level enchantments (costs 1-3 Lapis each)
• Librarian trades are now biome-locked with no max-level books — mine your own diamonds
• Build a Nether Portal (10 Obsidian, Diamond Pickaxe required) to get Blaze Rods and Ender Pearls
• Craft 12 Eyes of Ender, find the Stronghold, activate the End Portal, and defeat the Ender Dragon
• Current version: Bedrock 26.1 / Java 26.1 snapshots — year.drop.hotfix format