Survival tips
Reflect heat around the campfire.
Even without aluminium foil or space blanket, you can still conserve heat from a fire by creating a natural reflector. First, create four stakes that will serve as a rack next to the campfire. Stack green (as in fresh) stakes into the rack until they pile up into a small wall next to the campfire. This will reflect heat otherwise blown away by the wind, giving them all to you. This will work as long as you sit across the reflector.
Filtering water is one of the most important survival skills.
You never know what’s inside a stream or river. It has all sorts of stuff that you probably don’t want in your system. Grab a sock and fill them with charcoal. Follow it up with a layer of sand and then finally a layer of grass. The grass will catch the large particles in the water while the sand will filter out the fine granules. The charcoal will purify the water of any harmful chemicals.
Invest in waterproofing as much as survival tips and tricks.
This means going for waterproof versions of equipment (i.e. watches and compasses) and getting equipment that will keep your other stuff protected from water. Always use containers that have waterproof seals and never mix anything damp with all your other drop stuff. This is especially important for food containers, because moisture can only hasten spoilage. Water may be essential for hydration, but for everything else, staying as dry as possible is a must for survival.
How to collect rainwater for survival.
After a rainfall, you can bet that moss, leaves, and all sorts of plants around you are wet. Collecting bundles of them and wringing them over a container can net you as much as a litre of water. Make sure you check out the tall grass as well. This is good for collecting fresh water because rainwater is guaranteed to be clean. This is also one of the easiest ways to collect water without having to purify it. Alternatively, you can also rub your clothes against the grass and wring out the moisture that gets stuck unto them.
Make an easy torch.
Torches are pretty useful to wave at a rescue team from above. It’s also a good way to light your path during the night if your flashlights die on you. To make one, take a long branch and split the tip in half. Take some tree bark and insert them between the split branches. Ignite it and you’ve got yourself a torch. Birch trees are pretty ideal for this because of their flammable material. Make sure you invest in a handy flashlight to be safe.
Use fungus to start fires easily.
Coal fungus and horse hoof fungus have both very flammable properties. Break the fungus in half and you’ll reveal their flammable parts right in the core. They easily catch sparks. Most of these fungi are usually found in dead trees, which means you’ve got a good source of dry material there as well. What makes fungi particularly unique as tinder is that they smoulder – all you have to do is to blow into the ember to make the fire grow. Because of this, they make portable firelighters as well.
Trap in villagers every time you find a village
This one might sound a bit cruel… But if you want to find villagers to trade with, trapping them in would stop them from wandering off or getting killed and some of the ways of doing this are walling up the village or blocking the doors of the houses as the villagers go to sleep. You’re just protecting them from zombies after all!
Walls and torches save lives
Building walls is something very important if you want to stay safe. Be it to protect your house or to stop creepers from sneaking up behind you while you’re tending to your crops. Walling up areas stops mobs from getting in while lighting up those areas will stop mobs from spawning in.
Storage Wars
Having an efficient and neat storage system would increase your productivity and make life in Minecraft much simpler. Keep your mining tools close to your mines, keep your food in a separate chest from your wood and if you’re good at Redstone, you can even make machines that sort out your items.
Plan out your builds
Let’s say you’re making a new base or renovating your existing one. The process would be much easier if you plan it out and do things like making a block palette or make a skeleton for your build with dirt before you use other materials. Remember, these should be the bare bones of your build made to set the aesthetics- not something intricate and difficult to understand. If you want, you can even use graph sheets to make physical designs of your builds!
