View source for Tips, Tricks and Common Mistakes

'''A lot of players, new ones especially, may not know some of the little tips and tricks that make Survivalcraft easy.'''

'''Most of these tips presume you are playing in Challenging, Cruel or Adventure mode. Survival is not an issue in Creative mode.'''

'''You should read through the [[Beginner's Guide]] first and the [[Survival Guide]] to get the basics on play.'''

==Beginner's Survival Tips==
These tips are for the first time player, or any newly started game. They assume you do not have a lot of resources and have not yet built a permanent house.
*Find a decent place for your shelter before the sun begins to set. Predators will be on the prowl as soon as it gets dark and a decent amount of time is required to dig or build a sufficient shelter before the sun sets.
*Get into the habit of sleeping in the strongest clothing you have and keeping your best weapon in hand. Unless you are in a very small shelter, an animal could spawn inside with you!
*Until you have good clothing and a fair supply of material, it is easiest to survive if you stay in or very close to desert biomes. You will not freeze, it does not rain, you can see farther away (no trees) and you can usually find food animals nearby. However, lions, hyenas and other dangerous predators and territorial animals are also desert dwellers.
*Don't leave your shelter during bad weather. The rain will make you get cold much faster, plus lightning is also a risk worth considering.
* Don't go into a snow biome without protection or you will freeze.
*Stay out of the water unless you are in a very warm biome and even then watch your step! Don't step on rays. They don't like it and will attack you. Piranhas, barracudas, sharks, whales and orcas will all try to eat you if you're in their waters.
*Watch your step everywhere! It's too easy to think you are only walking over a hill but the other side might be a sheer cliff or there might be a grass trap in an open field.
* Carrying capacity is limited. Only carry what you need. You can use the personal crafting slots as extra storage, if needed. Throw away things that are easy to replace such as leaf blocks, if you're in a forest. You can also craft chests and leave extra items in them if you don't want to discard anything.
*When playing in any survival based mode, make sure to get the basics first: food and shelter. The shelter can be simply a hole and the food can be bird eggs or pumpkins.
*It's a good thing to remember to get stone as soon as possible, as it can be used for building, and making better tools. This way your wood can be used for other purposes, such as makeshift armor or constructing your home. -Super
*Have [[Campfire]]s! Temperature drops dramatically at night, even in desert biomes. If you are low on body temperature for an extended period of time, you may catch the Flu! It is quite dangerous and slowly drops you to 2 hearts. You are also much less resilient, have less strength and speed, and activities can be interrupted by coughing and sneezing. Campfires cost only 4 sticks, can be crafted without a crafting table, and an easy way to dry off or warm up.
*Cook food. Raw food rots very quickly, and eating rotten food can cause you to get sick! When sick, you slowly drop down to one heart, and are constantly interrupted by tossing cookies. You must also vary your diet to avoid sickness, as eating the same food over and over again may also cause it.
*Get food as fast as possible. Food cannot be easily gotten during the night and you will starve to death if you don't get food fast.
*Back up worlds frequently, so if you die or make a mistake, you can start from your latest backup.
==Shelter Tips==
Tips for building a better shelter whether it's just a one-night-stand or a permanent residence.
*Kaalus has finally told us how to prevent random animal spawns inside our houses. They first have to be "well lit" but the floor must be made of non-naturally occurring materials, such as planks or cobblestone. Do not use dirt, grass, granite or basalt, etc. This also applies to outside areas such as animal corrals.
[[File:Survivalcraft_2014-09-04_11-17-40-.jpg|thumb|right|A lion through a door]]
[[File:Lion_nose.jpg|thumb|right|A lion through a corner]]
*Beasts can poke their head right through doors and bite you if you're in the next block. <!--Perhaps through other 'non-solid' blocks as well...?-->
If you have a wall where two blocks are touching only at their corners, beasts will poke their head through that corner and bite you if you're close enough. But, you can also use this fact to kill them or scare them off, without even leaving your shelter.
* To make your shelter "fire-proof", use non-flammable materials like dirt, stone etc.
* To make your shelter "lightning-proof", you may want to add a cobblestone roof. Blocks with up to 20 explosion resilience may be destroyed by lightning. To be lightning-safe, build your roof out of full blocks of sandstone/limestone (er 50) or stronger materials. [[Stone Bricks]] or [[Cobblestone]] are good, easy to get materials for roofs. Painting them does not decrease their protection value. 
Any flammable block may be set afire even if it isn't destroyed by the lightning, so you don't want to make a wood-based roof.
* A one block hole in the ground, three blocks deep will protect you from attacks of large animals that do not fit in the pit. But beasts will smell you and come to try and taste the new meat. It may take all of a day just to drive them all away and leave you no time to run home.
* A pillar will protect you from beast attacks, but werewolves can jump 4 blocks high if standing on top of another.
* You can sleep in a one block pit if it's 3 blocks deep and you fill the opening. However think about whether you actually want to make this your spawn point!
* All beasts seem to dislike narrow tunnels (one block wide), especially those with sharp turns. It probably annoys their path finding routine. Call it natural claustrophobia. So, you can often be safe without a door if you have a one block tunnel at least 5 blocks deep that takes a turn into another narrow tunnel. Hyenas seem to be the only animals that will even explore this kind of tunnel and they won't pass the turn.
* A trap door in a regular doorway, or a stairway will not keep out the beasts. Just the taller ones.
* Doors place their hinges on the left by default. To have the door hinged on the right, leave out the bottom block to the left of the doorway.
* A door may not place properly if the side walls are glass. To get around this, make the side from something else first, then place the door, then replace the side with the glass.
*You can place a door 'sideways' by facing along the wall instead of looking through the doorway. This will also make the door 'inverted', if it's electrified. I.e., it starts off open.
*Placing [[Cactus|cacti]] by your one-block-wide door will keep out most animals. They have a behaviour where they stay away from danger and as the cacti may be harmful to them, they will be hesitant to pass through. -Aylin

==Mining Tips==
===Digging Straight Up or Straight Down===
Do not do this as it may just kill you or trap you. If you did not pack any blocks or ladders, you can get trapped in your "mine" if you dig straight down. Using this kind of mining is very dangerous, as it may lead it to death. (as well as digging straight up.)
*You may fall into a cave, which may contain bears or other cave dwelling animals and kill you if the fall does not.
*You might fall into a lava pool, which kills you instantly.
*When digging straight up, you may uncover a column of sand or gravel and this will fall on your head and suffocate you.
*If you did not dig deep enough, and the hole is big, a hostile animal may go inside and kill you.
*You may take fall damage that can cost your life.
*Also after the new 2.2 updates, you won't be able to climb up by jumping and placing a block beneath you.

===Digging through mountains===
This is much safer than digging straight up or down but is also dangerous, especially if you are not looking on the ground and fall into a cave. Other dangers in doing this are:
*A hostile animal may go inside the mine and kill you.
*A hostile animal may spawn inside and kill you.
*Gravel/sand may fall on you and you will get killed. This can happen even if you are not digging straight up. Sometimes there is a bigger area of gravel or sand suspended above the cave. This whole area will fall if even one part of it is disturbed.
~Plant Champion

<br />
===Digging Anywhere===
You should always be careful when working around large areas of sand or gravel. Sometimes there is a cave underground and the sand or gravel is suspended over nothing. If you make even one block in this area fall, the entire area will collapse into the mine. If you are standing on top of this and the cave is deep enough, you will die from the fall. Even placing a torch next to one of these block can start the avalanche. If you are mining for sand or gravel, only take the top layer off at any time. This reduces the chance that a collapse will start.

===Carrying Capacity while Mining===
If you are going to mine for any significant period of time, it may be helpful to carry a crafting table and chest(s) down into the mine with you. That way you can stash some blocks or ores in the chest instead of carrying them around all the time.

If you find a magma pool while mining you may want to consider throwing stuff that you don't want into the magma to dispose of it. This is not as advisable with version 1.26, since staying very near magma for longer periods of time can be deadly.

You can save carrying space by taking any malachite chunks and combining them into blocks. That lets you carry 9 times as much in the same space. You can easily break them back down when you're at your base or home. This is helpful if you are running into a lot of copper ore. Do NOT do this with any other ore as it will take up MORE space. For example you can carry 40 coal chunks in one stack. If you make coal blocks, you can only carry 4 in one stack and that equals only 36 chunks.

If you are going to smelt certain blocks or ores once you get them back to base, it may be better to do that in the mine (but NOT copper). That way the coal needed to smelt them will not have to be carried out of the mine and you will have more room to carry other things.

===Breaking Blocks===

Certain tools work better on different blocks. You can be more efficient when using the right tool.

Shovels are best for digging soils. Axes are for chopping plants and electrics. Pickaxes are used to break stones. Some tools may work a bit faster even on 'other' types of blocks. For example a shovel can break stone a little faster than your bare hands.

Some ores may need stronger tools to get the ore to drop. For example, diamond ore needs at least an iron pickaxe or it will drop nothing.

~108.17.83.163

Do not use expensive tools when doing simple jobs like:
*Breaking leaves (suggested : hand)
*Breaking wood (suggested : wood/stone axe)
*Breaking soil (suggested : hand, wood/stone shovel)
*Breaking stone (suggested : wood/stone pickaxe)
*Other easily broken blocks (sand, gravel, etc.)
Do not use tools not intended for that type of block (like destroying wood by pickaxe or destroying bricks with a shovel), unless you need to break them in a hurry and lack the sufficient tools.

~Plant Champion

==Animal Tips==

*You can push non-aggressive animals around without harming them by 'hitting' them with an egg in your hand. 

===Leaving Your Animals===

A common mistake players tend to make is to leave their captive animals (such as horses, cows, etc.) alone for a long time. When going on a long journey, you may not think about how your animals may be doing back at home. You need to visit your animals weekly, as they will die without your acknowledgement of their existence. As long as you visit them, they will not die because of neglect. If you have a cow use a whistle to guide it. If you have a horse ride it. You can also choose to feed them grass, rye etc. removed from the ground and thrown to them.

~Chart

===Jumping Fences===
When you acquire a donkey, horse, or camel, a tip to keep them enclosed in their fence is to put a double[[File:Donkeyfence.jpg|thumb]]fence up for them to stay in. Donkeys, horses and camels can jump single fences, and because of their walk around behavior, they will wander off, jumping the fence if necessary. So you may go to bed with your animals in a fence, but when you wake up, they may be wandering around! Double fences can eliminate this trouble for good. Note that if you have a tiger they can jump double fences. So for a tiger you will want to put triple fences.

~Chart

Wooden fences actually give very little protection against ANY animal. You can easily jump a wooden fence by placing yourself directly BETWEEN THE POSTS! So, it's no surprise that many animals can do the same. Stone and iron fences don't have this problem but still can be jumped by the above animals (and tigers and werewolves, of course).

===Using Your Whistle===

Although the whistle is a helpful tool in Survivalcraft, you need to remember that your horses, donkeys, and camels will only come to you if you are within a 30 block range. So it is not a good idea to allow your saddled animals to wander about, thinking you can summon them with a whistle. It is a good idea to keep your animals in a double fence, and keep the whistle just for emergencies, etc. if you fall off of your horse, and it continues to run, you can summon it again. Using the whistle will also make cows and bulls run away.

~Chart

===Animal Aggression===
Since the 1.26 update, animals now act with aggression towards each other. This means that not only will predators go after you, but they will go after your livestock: Cows, horses, donkeys, ostriches, camels, etc. So it is a good idea to get bulls for your cow fields, and build your fences 3 blocks high and 2 thick. This way, predators that can jump high (tigers and werewolves) won't be able to get into your fences. Plus, if predators like wolves manage to get in or spawn inside the fence, once they decide to go after your cows, the bulls will chase them off, trying to kill them in the process. Rhinos may also attack wolves, lions, tigers, and any other predators, which may include you. Their attack strength will generally destroy the animal within a few hits, and they will take on bears and win.

~Chart

=== Makeshift Animal Shelters ===
While going out and around, you could find some animals worth keeping, such as horses and cows. To ensure they don't get killed by other animals, gather a good supply of leaf blocks (~40), shouldn't take more than 2 minutes. Using the leaves, lure your animal into a small area by throwing their food into a hole dug a block into the ground, and place the leaf blocks around them, making like a small house. A good house would be 3 x 3, so that you don't accidentally hit them while building. The food sets them in the small area, and the leaf blocks ensure they don't wander or get killed. Be sure to cover the wall corners with the leaves, as even carnivores will poke their heads through and attack your "pet". -Super

=== Cetaceans in Captivity ===

==== Getting Spawner Eggs ====
Orca Spawner is encoded as 12058742. Beluga Spawner is encoded as 12320886. Therefore, you can replace the egg in hand with this value by [[Hacking The Project File|editing the Project file]].

==== Capturing Cetaceans ====
Orcas and belugas are both caught the same way; building a sea pen, going out in the ocean, hitting one, and leading it back to land. I recommend you put a magnet in or near the pen you will catch the beluga/orca in, so you can use a compass to easily navigate your way home.
[[File:Image-1424045724.jpg|thumb|220x220px]]
==== Making a Tank ====
If you would like to keep your whales in a tank, make it very big because many orcas and belugas die from being cramped. Be sure that the tank is at least three blocks deep and two blocks of air above (to breath). If your whales do not have access to air they could drown and die.

==== Canals ====
If you are making canals to a main tank on land, make them at least two blocks deep and four blocks wide; neither orca or beluga can fit in spaces that are less than 4 x 4.

===Pack Fights===
Sometimes, animals will attack other animals on accident, which may cause them killing each other where they normally wouldn't care. This is mainly caused by the block attack behaviour, where if a predator is going after prey and the prey is on top of something, they will attack whatever they are on. This may cause them to attack another predator under the prey animal, which will then lead to them attacking back and so on. This behaviour may be funny with wolves, as they have no idea who to attack.
-Aylin

===Animal horns===
New players may tend to stay away from Gnus and Reindeer because of their horns. The truth is that they won't attack you and aren't even aggressive, but attack back very rarely if attacked (applies to female cows as well).

A bull will become hostile if you attack him, or attack or milk his cow(s). There is also a very rare chance that if you are in a snowy area you may find a white bull. They create 1-8 pieces of [[Raw Bacon|bacon]] upon death and are stronger than regular bulls. They do not protect any cows but protect other [[White Bull]]s and unusually, [[Rhino|Rhinos]].

=== Animal Respawn ===
Animals can respawn after dying, so it is good to take this into account. Most animals that respawn are not always friendly, however. Most of the time, it is predators like lions or hyenas and wolves and bears that tend to respawn. Fish and animals like cattle, boars and such respawn rarely, if not at all, forcing you to either farm or travel to get food. -Superguy

==Hunting Tips==
*Be very careful with any projectile weapon - [[Diamond Tip Spear|spear]], [[Bow]] or [[Crossbow]].  The ammo can bounce off objects and WILL often fly straight back at you. This can kill you!
*[[Explosive Bolt]]s will throw flaming [[Debris]] in all directions. Be very careful when using them.
*NEVER try to kill a [[Beluga Whale]] or [[Orca]]. You will most likely die.
* Don't fight strong animals without [[Armor]] or at least a good retreat strategy.
* You can pick up a lot of the arrows you shoot. This is much more difficult in rough or grassy terrain. The arrows can be hard to spot in these areas.
* [[Stone Tip Arrow|Stone Tip Arrows]] are cheap and very effective.
* The spear is also an effective melee range weapon. Its damage and hit chance are only slightly less than the machete.
* Speaking of which, when the above are used together, it's a deadly combo for hunting. Lure and bait your game, get the first hit with a machete, and keep at it. When they run away, throw your spear(s) at them until they're down. Easy hunting! -Superguy


===Hunting Fish===
Hunting fish can be difficult, as the fish/rays will swim away very quickly. I suggest trying to hunt in smaller lakes, that way you can more easily corner the fish/rays. Also, be careful not to step on the rays when wading through water. They can sting you; brown rays have an attack power of 1, and yellow 5.

Sharks and other carnivorous fishes can easily be caught by luring them using rotten meat.

This trap is very helpful in catching sharks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQQrW-DHGLA

~Chart
===Hunting Birds (Flying) ===
When hunting birds, it is best to hunt them from afar, as they will fly away if you get too close. I use a bow and arrows, the arrows will kill the birds in 1 shot. [If not available, use spears to get them at a distance. Sneak to them, and aim your spear a bit higher because of gravity. Always a one hit kill! -Super] 


~Chart

===Hunting Birds (Non-Flying)===
When hunting birds that do not fly, Ostriches and Cassowaries, I like to attack them head on with a diamond edge machete. This way, I can continue to hit them as I walk backwards, and then chase them when they run away. It works really well for me, but you can also hunt them from afar with arrows like a flying bird.


(If you wish to hunt birds from a close distance, you may use the sneak button so you do not scare the birds. This tip is not so useful in 1.26 - sneak does NOT work very well any more!)

~Chart

===Hunting Passive Animals===
When you are hunting passive animals for meat, like gnus and such, I like to attack them as I do a flightless bird which is Head on. As of 1.26, even passive animals may retaliate when attacked, but they are mostly a chase-and-kill deal. Hit them so that they will run in the direction of the flattest land. It is a lot harder to chase them uphill, and it will save you a lot of energy. I do not suggest hunting them with arrows, as they run quickly and you will have a trail of arrows to pick up later.

~Chart

I usually do as much damage I can in my range using a machete, (usually for cows) then keep a spear in my inventory and spear them once they are off. This also works really well when your fur stuff slows you down and the cows can outrun you in cold climates.

-Aylinerik

===Hunting Cattle===
When hunting cattle, I attack the bulls first. I hit one, and all of the rest run after you as well. It is vital that you pay close attention to what order you hit the bulls in (if there are more than 1). If you keep hitting the same one over and over, it will cower before the others. But if you alternate and hit them all the same number of times, they will all run at about the same time, and you can easily chase them down without losing your herd of cows. It also saves you a lot of energy because you don't have to run as far to get the stray bulls.

To kill the cows, the same rules apply as passive animals (as shown above).

~Chart

=== Trap Hunting ===
If you come across a grass trap with spikes at the bottom you can use this to your advantage for an effective means of hunting passive animals. Make sure it has plenty of spikes. Find your animal(s) you want and throw an effective bait for it in direction of the grass trap. (i.e. Grass for cattle, pumpkins for boars, etc.) If the bait doesn't fall on the trap then run and pick it up and throw it again until it falls on the trap. The animal(s) will try to get it and fall in the trap. This is great for hunting cattle. The cows won't run away and the bulls won't go after you. Instead they'll just keep falling in one after another trying to get the bait that fell to the bottom. After all have died, dig down making a rough stair case in the dirt and then carefully chop a path through the spiked planks to pick up the meat. You can also make your own traps of course. And always be careful not to fall in a trap yourself. Remember that spontaneously generated grass traps usually are found in groups so don't fall in another one trying to get a herd of cattle into a trap.

~Anonymous

You can use food to separate one or two individuals from a herd of them. Gather some of what they like to eat, before confronting them. Then walk around them until one or two are a bit separated from the rest. Then throw down a bit of their food and watch. If only one or two come after the food, you should be able to get them away from the rest. Wait until they are right over the food. They could even be starting to eat it but try to not let them finish it. Instead, grab it back up, then move a bit farther away from the herd and throw it down again. If you're lucky, only the tempted one(s) will go after the food again. You can repeat this until they are far enough away from the others so that the rest won't see you kill them. Then get out your machete, say your thanks and start swinging!

[[User:Stanimus|Stanimus]] ([[User talk:Stanimus|talk]])
===Hunting Predators===
When you hunt predators because they are too close to your house, livestock, etc., make sure to have at least an iron edge machete. You MUST have a weapon that is not going to fail you. Just attack the predator head on, hitting them as you walk backwards. You need to pay close attention, as you do not want to be injured in the process. (Yes, you can do it without being injured. I took on a pack of 5+ wolves and was unharmed.) 

You can also stand on a 4 block high stack of any block you wish, and hit the predators as they try to attack you. A great way to make your "tower" is to place your blocks 4 high, and then put ladders on the side so you can easily get up and down.

~Chart
===Hunting on Horseback===
It is a lot easier to hunt on horseback if you are focused enough. You also need to use a palomino horse, as they are never stubborn. Horses move very quickly, and they help save you a lot of time when hunting.
====Hunting Passive Animals on Horseback====
: To hunt passive animals on horseback, simply shoot them with an arrow, chase, and repeat. You can also do this with a machete, but I like to use arrows so I don't have to get right up on my prey. After your kill is dead, grab the meat, and go back and pick up your arrows.
====Hunting Predators on Horseback====
: When hunting predators on horseback, run by the predator, hit them with a machete, and continue running. You can turn your body while the horse runs forward, and keep hitting the predator as you run. The horse is conveniently faster than lions, tiger, bears, rhinos, coyotes, etc. So you won't have to worry about being caught.

~Chart


===Hunting Using Traps===
What I like to do when hunting using traps:
#Dig a pit 8 blocks deep with desired width. Place a layer of wire-through blocks (wire facing the top) on the 3rd layer from the bottom, leaving the bottom 2 layers EMPTY (for now). Also, light this under area with torches. 
#Put spiked planks on the layer of wire-through blocks you just created.
#Wire all of the spiked planks together.
#Create a staircase leading to your trap. Make it level to the spiked planks.
#Wire your planks to a button; make it accessible from your staircase. To do this, simply dig BESIDE your staircase, and bring your wires up through there. Attach to button. This makes it possible to contract and spike your spiked planks. 
#Put a door on your staircase - the area level to the planks. Make sure it is flush to the spikes, this way no predators can find a "safe spot". 
#Cover the outside of your staircase with trapdoors and the top of your trap with grass traps.
#Stand in your hidden staircase at night on a new/full moon to attract werewolves (to farm diamonds), or on any night to attract bears (for fur) or wolves and coyotes (for leather).
#When an animal falls into your trap and dies, you can contract the spikes, get whatever it dropped, and put more grass traps on the top of your pit - all without leaving your staircase/trap!!! 
It does take a long time to make, and a lot of materials, but it is WORTH IT!! I have been using this method since 1.24, and I have harvested soooooo many resources!! 

If you need some help building this, further directions, etc. Just leave me a message on my wall: [[Message Wall:ChartreuseNarwhal]]. I know I may not have given the best directions :P

I will add pictures as soon as I can ;)

~Chart

== Flu And Sickness ==
=== Flu ===
When your body temperature is low for an extended period of time, you will start sneezing. This signals that you may catch the flu! The flu causes your hearts to turn dark blue, and slowly drops you to two hearts by coughing attacks and sneezing. To avoid the flu, wear thick clothing such as [[Fur Leggings]], and layer your clothing when going into cold climates. Wear clothing on all parts of your body, as leaving any part unclothed significantly reduces your insulation. 

If you catch the flu, the best way to get rid of it is to sleep in a warm place. Having your shelter closed off and warm is a great idea. Simply sleep it off.

=== Sickness ===
When sick, you start vomiting and slowly drop to one heart. Many things cause you to be sick. One of them is eating spoiled/rotten food. Food rots if it is not eaten for a while. Raw food items such as [[Raw Bird]] and [[Dough]] rot faster than cooked items. A little fish icon at the top right of food items signals if it is rotting. A white icon means the item has time. A brown icon means the food is rotting and must be consumed soon. After an item has rotten, its texture dramatically changes into a greenish color. Do not eat rotten items! 

Another cause of sickness is eating the same diet constantly. You should vary your diet, in order to stay healthy! You can farm many things at once, so for example you can eat bread/pumpkins by just farming. You can also turn raw pumpkin into [[Pumpkin Soup]].

== Staying On Course ==
===Using A Magnet===
Using a magnet is a great way to ensure you don't lose home. Simply craft a [[Magnet]], place it close to your home, and carry a [[compass ]]with you whenever you plan to stray afar. You can also just craft a compass, and It will attract to your last sleep position.

~Chart

===Building a Monument===
If you don't have a compass or magnet and still want to travel around, you can build a tall tower near your home. When you are close enough, you will see this and can use it to guide you home. Don't build a tall tower of just one block - then you can't get back down! Build a two-block tower as high as you can then stand on one and destroy it below you. This will bring you back down to ground level. It's best to use leaves for this one and just break it with your hand. Otherwise you will wear out your tools fast.

~MJaz
===Way-point Markers===
====When Hunting, Exploring, etc.====
Using markers made from cheap materials to find your way home on short adventures will help prevent you from getting lost. You can use leaves, dirt, sand, etc. to make your markers. Just stack them 3-4 blocks high as you go, making more as you lose visibility of the last one. You can also put torches on top of them if you need to find your way home in the dark.

~MJaz
====When Mining====
Placing torches/wicker lamps in tunnels in your mine or cave will prevent you from getting lost. I put torches on the floor/wall when I go in a tunnel, and them remove them on my way out. This way, when you are exploring caves with many tunnels, you will never have more than 1 lit tunnel, and you will not get lost. 

~Chart

==Other Tips==

===Hotbar caution===
You need to be aware of some things that are not recommended to keep in your '''hotbar.''' Some items will destroy or damage your environment and self if not used with care. If you have any of these items in your hand while trying to open a chest, for instance, something else will happen and that can be very damaging.

Instead, they do another action based on their own purposes:

*Match - will set the item on fire
*Bucket (empty or full) - will dump its contents or try to capture some
*Rake - will try to cultivate the chest or door... instead?!?
*Whistle - will sound off and use up durability 
*Boat - will be placed
*Saltpeter - will be wasted


You should not keep any of these in your hotbar to be safe. The match and filled buckets can do a lot of damage if used accidentally and should never be held in your hand unless you are using them - carefully.

===Using Explosives===
A mistake on some players is using explosives. Explosives may damage the terrain and even kill you. It wastes a lot of gunpowder, so be careful on using it. Another common mistake is using explosives to get ore. Using explosive to get ore is not wise, as it may just destroy the ore and drop nothing. Gunpowder is hard to find, and using explosives to get rare ore is not a wise decision, so be careful when using explosives! And using explosives after the 1.25 update can cause damage to you even if you are far away due to the debris. If you have animals it can kill them too.

~Plant Champion 

If you do wish or need to use use TNT kegs, you should surely use a remote detonator. Any exploding keg will throw flaming debris as far away as 30 blocks! Unless you have a clear, quick path away from it, you should '''never''' light them with a match. Also building a diamond or Iron block shelter can protect you if you're further than 6 blocks away.

~Stanimus


===Dual Worlds (cheat - or map substitute?)===
If you get really lost and absolutely have to find out where you are and where you need to go, you may want to resort to this trick/cheat. Or if you like exploring new caves or certain types of terrain, it can be useful as well. It doesn't work with made or modified worlds - adventure maps...

Find the seed of the world you are having problems in.

Create a new world with that same seed but in creative mode. Set the time of day to morning (or evening).

Now you can fly around this world and try to figure out where you are in the other world, or look for interesting features or whatever. It's easier to keep track of where you fly in this world by keeping it morning (the sun is always in the East) or evening (etc.). Before you go off flying you should build a pillar at the drop-off point, and place torches or even more pillars along the way, to make it easier to get back to spawn. Then when you find what you are looking for, you can backtrack to the drop-off point to help find your way in the 'real' world. If you already have a base in the 'real' world, build pillars there to help find it as well.

To use this to locate special features, start where you are in the 'real' version and search around until you find what you are looking for. Check several landmarks along the way back and make note of the distances between them. Now you can start the 'real' version and retrace your steps to your goal, using the landmarks you noted before.

This trick is somewhat like cheating but more like having an interactive 3-D map. Since there are no maps in Survivalcraft, this is a reasonable substitute, IMHO.

[[User:Stanimus|Stanimus]] ([[User talk:Stanimus|talk]]) 16:41, August 16, 2014 (UTC)



===Conserving Coal (chunks)===

Early in the game it can be essential to conserve your coal usage, especially if you don't find any exposed coal ore in the first days of survival.

The simplest way is just don't use it for smelting or cooking. Cacti make the best substitute and it's infinitely renewable! Ivy, leaves or grass can work in a pinch too, but it takes a ''lot'' more of them to cook anything.

You can make coal by burning wood in a furnace. This requires 2 woodblocks of any type and so is very expensive. Because of this, you want to use this coal as efficiently as possible.

One coal chunk can be used to smelt or cook 11 or more items. However, if you have only one bucket you can only boil ONE egg per chunk!!! (You'll need to make buckets from copper to cook eggs.) So, until you have plenty of coal to use or two or more copper buckets, eat your eggs raw. To cook eggs using only two buckets place all your eggs (of one type, preferably 11 per coal chunk) and two buckets with water in the source boxes in your furnace. Then put coal in the furnace. Keep an eye on the buckets. Whenever one transfers to the exit box move it back up to the source box with the other bucket of water. Do this until you are done cooking all the eggs.

Also, the coal will not continue to burn once the supply of material is depleted. This means if you have only 2 bird meat and 2 bacon it will take 2 coal chunks to cook them, even though one coal can cook many more birds than that. So, when you are hunting, try to stick to one type of meat so you can put it all in the furnace at once and use up less coal.

If you want to make torches right away, realize that it requires 4 blocks of wood to make only 2 torches this way! That's a lot of wood. Wait until you find some easy to reach coal ore and save your wood for sticks.
This should only be an issue for the first few days since coal is the most plentiful ore in the game. One tip is that you should '''never''' make coal blocks when you run into a lot of coal. It actually takes more inventory space that way.


===Making a Cannon===
Kaalus (the developer) presented a cannon video about how to construct a cannon model and how to fire blocks out of the cannon, but he did not show how to fire a bomb out of a cannon. First, make a cannon model out of any solid block such as solid copper or iron (solid diamond is not very effective because it's flammable and is a waste of diamond.) When your cannon model is complete, place a large gunpowder keg right at the back of your model. Then, equip at least two bombs, and throw the first bomb in. Then after exactly three seconds (not exactly), throw the second bomb. This will launch a bomb about 150 blocks. If you don't understand this is how the cannon works, when the first bomb is thrown into the cannon, the bomb has a five second delay. Then after three seconds you throw the second, the first bomb will have two seconds left for you to run. When the first bomb explodes, it causes the gunpowder keg to explode and launch the second bomb.

WARNING: This method doesn't always work and is best to use Kaalus's cannon model and when second bomb is thrown into the cannon you only have two seconds to run.

Recommendations: I would suggest to experiment this on creative.

Counting method: When counting a method is to say Mississippi which takes exactly (proved by scientists) one second.

Be careful, and before doing this consult the Explosives section. ~Tech3267

=== Building floating islands ===
To build a floating island, stack any block as high as you desire your island to float. Then build your island from anything except sand/gravel, and remove the stack below the island. You can use sand and gravel in your island, IF you have another block under them. You can also add water/magma waterfalls to flow off of your island.

This is very easy in creative mode, but takes a bit more time in challenging modes. (Not impossible though. I have managed it!) ~Chart



===Building Garden Roofs===

I've always had a problem with my soil ruining. Bears always (and sometimes other animals) ruin my soil. With this trick, you don't have to build three rakes. All you need is a stone one and some saltpeter.

Build a garden on your roof, and you can access it with a ladder. Make little walkways.

Under it, (and lower the ceiling) you are going to need water. Make a little hole where you can pour water in (make a few holes, the water will run out) an the soil will be wet.

You can do this with pumpkins and cotton and things like that.

===When in Water===

====Swimming====
If you are to swim across a body of water, make sure it is narrow enough so that you can get across without getting tired and drowning. 

--74.91.121.187

You can make a [[Wooden Chest Plate]] and/or [[Wooden Leggings]] to keep you afloat and you won't get tired while swimming greater distances.

If you are wearing armor and fall into deep water, you may quickly put the armor into your inventory to prevent drowning. However you will be vulnerable to the aquatic beasts.

You can carry a boat in your hotbar when working around deep water. If you fall in and sink, you can place the boat directly under you and it will lift you to the surface immediately.

=== Undo the blast ===
Many players must have had this experience when creating an adventure map or some traps. Anyway, I had this experience. I was building and large building with a self destruct function. I had set a lot of large gunpowder kegs in the basement floor. Later I changed the world's weather option to DISABLE and again started the game. Then before I could do anything, I saw the house blasting in front of me.

Survivalcraft don't have an UNDO or SAVE/LOAD option, but one can still upload your world to SD card before doing anything, you think, may go wrong.

~MJaz

=== Effective sleep ===
It is possible to abuse the fact that the player needs only 20 in-game seconds (1/60 of in-game day) to fully sleep. Build the following circuit, set the delay to maximum, switch dispenser to 'Shoot' and 'Accepts Drops', put something in it. As soon as you want to sleep, step under the dispenser, press the button and fall asleep '''immediately'''.<div style="overflow:hidden">[[File:Daily_Alarm_4.jpg|thumb|left|350px]]</div>
== A Bucket of water ==
A bucket of water can be used a lot of different ways in a survival mode gameplay. Some of these tricks are-
* Clearing the grass for preparing soil for farming. This saves you a lot of damage to your tools. Just spill some water on the ground and take it back. Your land is ready for your rake.
* Water can be used while running away from animals that don't jump too high when you are being chased too close. Spill some water between you and the animal. This will give you more time to run away.
* A stream of water will keep your soil moist for farming
* You can make walls of water to slow down animals. Make some walls of water at places where you are constantly threatened by predators. while they chase you run through the gaps you made in it and the predators will follow you straight through the water that will give you more time.
Watch this video to understand the above tips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOi0LNrrmPI

~MJaz

=Related Pages=
*[[Beginner's Guide]]
*[[Survival Guide]]


'''Note**'''

'''If you have another tip, trick, or common mistake, feel free to add it to this page. In order for this page to be as beneficial as possible, we will need any suggestions anyone has to offer.'''

'''Thanks,'''

'''~ChartreuseNarwhal'''
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