The game
An overview of the basics: surviving, building, the weather and what's out there. The bigger systems have their own pages.
Survival
You have health and hunger. Food is what heals you, and if your hunger runs out you start losing health. Sprinting, fighting and being cold all make you hungry faster.
For fighting there's a shield, a bow, and a dodge on Q that makes you invulnerable for a moment, so a well-timed dodge takes no damage. Armour comes in leather, copper, iron, gold and silver, and other players can see what you're wearing.
Each world has its own difficulty: Peaceful, Easy, Normal or Hard.
Building and crafting
Lots of blocks and furniture: stone, timber, brick, painted plaster, terracotta, slabs, stairs, walls, fences, doors, chairs and benches you can sit on, cupboards, a fireplace that lights the room. About 450 recipes in all.
There's a recipe browser built in. Hover over any item and press R to see how it's made, or U to see what it's used in.
Weather
Rain, snow, fog, hail, blizzards and thunderstorms. Weather moves in as fronts, so the wind picks up and the sky clouds over before the rain starts, and you can get a rainbow after.
It affects the world. Lightning turns sand to glass and can be caught with a lightning rod. Rain puts out campfires and fills holes in the ground. Snow builds up and melts again. Being out in a blizzard makes you cold, and you'll need a fire.
With Wild Weather turned on for a world you also get hurricanes and tornadoes, which pull blocks out of the ground.
Creatures
22 kinds. The animals are passive: deer, rabbits, boar, sheep, wolves that keep their distance, eagles up in the mountains, moles.
At night you get ghouls, wretches, hollows (they shoot arrows), shriekers that fly, and crawlers, which also live in caves and can climb walls. Most of the night mobs burn in sunlight.
Also in the game
Water and lava
Water actually flows and has volume, so draining a lake into a channel lowers the lake. Water and lava turn into stone where they meet.
Wiring
Wires, logic gates, latches, delays, observers and pistons. Hook it up to doors, lamps, bells and machines.
Explosives
Kegs that blow holes in the ground. Harder blocks take more of the blast, so craters come out uneven.
Farming and fishing
Wheat, carrots and saplings. A fishing rod and a campfire to cook on.
Maps
A map draws itself as you walk, and marks the structures you've found. Some chests have treasure maps in them.
Graphics
Coloured lighting, stained glass that casts coloured shadows, auroras, and two shader packs included.
