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Minecraft: a first evening before the first night
One hour: survival mode, easy difficulty, a shelter before dark and a bed by the second night. After that it is yours.
Start a survival world on Easy
Peaceful removes the monsters entirely if a child is playing; Easy keeps a little tension. Leave cheats off.
Punch a tree, make a crafting table
Wood into planks, planks into a table, table down on the ground. The crafting screen is the whole interface.
Make a wooden pickaxe, then a stone one
Pickaxe from planks and sticks, then dig a few stone blocks and make a better pickaxe from them. Stone tools last far longer.
Dig into a hillside before sunset
Three blocks deep, seal the entrance with dirt. A hole is a house on night one.
Find three sheep on day two
Wool plus planks makes a bed. Sleeping skips the night, which is the single most useful thing to learn; since September 2026 three hay bales also make a straw bed that skips the night without moving your spawn point.
Set the purchase controls before handing it to a child
The Marketplace is one tap from the main menu. Xbox family settings or the phone's Ask to Buy cover it.
Before you go
- Torches stop monsters appearing; light everything.
- Never dig straight down.
- The Bedrock tutorial world is worth an hour if the game feels opaque.
- Java's community servers and mods are free and enormous.
Read the full Minecraft chart entry for the bearings, the toll and who it suits.