Ooh, Minecraft! Haven’t done that one in a while. Sure, I’m game.
Enright 3, one very basic, important fact (and one that most well-meaning helpers and even some guides miss) is that there are two modes in Minecraft, Creative and Survival. Creative is pretty much what it sounds like; you have all the tools, terrain types, objects, items, etc. at your disposal and can set and destroy them at will. You can even fly (provided you’re not on a server which specifically prohibits it). It is possible to get killed, but that’s no big deal since you can just replace everything you lost. All those amazing constructions you saw were made in Creative, and this is pretty much its main purpose. It’s also good for testing out potions, working out tactics for killing enemies, practicing breeding, etc. It is possible to reach the Nether Portal and even The End, though for the latter you’ll need the actual End Portal location; making your own doesn’t work. Survival is where you have to work. You need to harvest, mine, and collect everything you need, you can’t fly, and death can really throw you for a loop (more on this in a bit). Note that despite anything you may have heard, achievements can only be earned in Survival.
There are four difficulty levels, Peaceful, Easy, Normal, and Hard. Peaceful has no enemies whatsoever other than the Ender Dragon, your food level never decreases, and all damage heals instantly. The only way to die is to fall off the world in The End. (Yes, of course I learned this the hard way, why do you ask? 
) Easy has the weakest enemies (still do a lot of damage if you’re unarmored, so watch out) and your food level decreases slowly. Normal and Hard are correspondingly more challenging.
So my first advice to you is SPEND PLENTY OF TIME IN CREATIVE ON PEACEFUL DIFFICULTY. (I know all the guides tell you to start with Survival Normal. They are deluded morons. Ignore them.) Make stuff, beat up foes, set trees on fire, explore underwater, and in general be a complete goof and have fun. When you’ve had enough of that, do Survival on Peaceful and get a good feel for collecting resources, crafting, growing food (very critical once you switch to Easy), and forging paths. Oh, and there’s tons of stuff to be had and you only have limited carrying capacity, so at some point you must also learn the art of handy storage. Put your chests in places where you can reach them easily, and have a system so you remember what’s in what. (Later, when you get serious and play on Easy, you’ll want to make the very handy Ender Chests so you don’t have to keep running to this or that location, but set that aside for now.)
If you decide that Survival is too much work and just want to stick to Creative from now on, that’s fine. A lot of players do just that. This is one of the least hardcore games ever, practically a mobile game (well, strictly speaking, it is a mobile game now, but you know what I mean), and playing around and seeing what you can come up with is perfectly acceptable.
But if you do decide to make the jump and start playing Survival on Easy (don’t take on the harder difficulties until you’re ready for them), I can offer the following tips:
-
You do not need to use the same difficulty level for each session. Therefore, you can get your resource-gathering work done on Peaceful, build what you need for long-term survival, and proceed into Easy ready to rock. I recommend at minimum mapping out the entire world, making several chests, collecting plenty of food, and making a full set of iron armor and an iron sword before proceeding to Easy.
-
Each seed produces the exact same world every time. If you found diamonds or a lava pool in a certain area in Creative, it’ll be right there in Survival. This is great when it comes time to mine those hard-to-find resources. Absolutely find out where the End Portal is in Creative before you even THINK about tackling it in Survival!
-
There are NO zones, areas, demarcations, or partitions whatsoever. There is no distinction between “indoors” or “outdoors”, “aboveground” or “underground”, “high altitude” or “low altitude”. Anything can be anywhere at any time. That’s why, for the most part, making a “house” is folly, because there is no reason a creeper or other nuisance can’t appear inside it and completely mess it up (happened to me once).
-
The only limitations on the animals’ and enemies’ (collectively known as “mobs”) is where they can appear (“spawn”). Animals cannot spawn in deserts or snow, and enemies cannot spawn in areas with sufficient light or in daytime; neither can spawn within a certain distance of you. But once they appear, they can go wherever they want. Endermen can be particularly nasty because they can spawn just outside your protective region of light and instantly zip in to pummel you (and they hit like trucks).
-
You’d think that the best way to survive the night (assuming you don’t yet have the resources for a bed) would be to dig two spaces down, fill the space above you, and wait it out. This is, of course, a really, really bad idea. Why? Because you won’t be able to see when the sun rises! What you should do is create a rising pillar of diggable material (i.e. dirt, sand, or gravel). Jump, set, jump, set, at least several spaces high. Watch the sky and wait for the sun to rise…then keep waiting until the zombies and skeletons are done burning to death (it takes a while). Then dig your way back down and go about your business unscathed.
-
If you die, everything you were carrying gets dropped on the space you died on and you get zapped back to the last bed you slept in if it still exists and you haven’t moved it, your starting point otherwise. There is a limited time to go back and reclaim it all, but the limit doesn’t start until you are within a certain distance. So as long as you don’t die in lava, someplace deep and inaccessible, or someplace where you’re likely to get killed again, you’re hunky dory! As you might have guessed, those are the three most likely situations where you’re the most likely to die. So whenever there’s a whiff of trouble, save.
-
Your best food source is carrots, as they’re easy to grow and require no preparation. Granted, most other items have more food value. The catch is that there are very few situations where you don’t want the food bar to be full, because that allows you to heal…and trust me, you will need to heal A. WHOLE. DAMN. LOT. on Easy. (And trust me, it only gets worse once you reach the Nether.)
-
To create a “safe” area (well, as safe as anything can be on Easy), you need 1. light, 2. barriers, and 3. a door. A roof isn’t strictly required unless you’re building next to higher ground, but if you’re making a permanent structure you should definitely include one. Set sufficient light sources throughout the entire interior to ensure no unwanted guests, then place the door in a convenient location. A wooden door is sufficient; zombies can break them down on the harder levels but not Easy. If you want an iron door, just remember that you need some means of opening it on both ends (a pair of wooden buttons will do nicely).
-
Trading is where we separate the men from the boys. You can gain a plethora of emeralds by selling items to villagers, some of which are easy to obtain (particularly wheat), which you can then give to other villagers for various items, some of them highly valuable (diamond armor) and some of them insanely valuable (ender peal). The important things to remember are that 1. each type of villager has a preset list of items for sale, and 2. the next item offered is selected at random. So you want to make good use of save scumming (trust me, you’re not accomplishing anything meaningful without save scumming) to make sure you get something good. In particular, you want to get a diamond pickaxe from a tool smith ASAP; it’s worth it’s weight in gold. Well, even more than that, given how limited gold’s uses are in this game.
Whew! Went on longer than I expected. All right, have it, and good luck. If you need any help getting the achievements, just ask!
