A full Minecraft day and night lasts 20 minutes, and roughly the last third of it is dangerous. You spawn in the morning with nothing, and by dusk zombies, skeletons, spiders and creepers start appearing anywhere dark. Everything below is about using the daylight well, so that when the sun sets you are either asleep in a bed or behind a door.
Quick answers
- First thing to do? Punch a tree. Wood becomes planks, sticks, a crafting table and your first tools.
- Most important item for night one? A bed. Sleeping skips the night entirely. It needs 3 wool and 3 planks.
- No sheep nearby? Dig into a hillside, block the entrance and wait out the night. Crude, but it works.
- What do I eat? Cooked meat from cows, pigs, chickens or sheep. Raw meat works in a pinch, raw chicken can poison you.
Image: SyntaxMine, made from Minecraft's own textures.
Minutes 0 to 3: wood
- Hold the attack button on a tree trunk until a log pops out. Take at least 10 logs, more if the tree is right there.
- Open your inventory and turn logs into planks (one log gives four).
- Turn two planks, stacked, into sticks.
- Craft a crafting table from four planks and place it.
At the crafting table, make a wooden pickaxe (three planks across the top, two sticks down the middle). Use it immediately on the nearest stone: you only need about a dozen cobblestone.
Then upgrade straight to stone:
- Stone pickaxe: mines iron and coal; wood cannot mine iron.
- Stone sword: your only defence on night one.
- Stone axe: chops trees faster and hits harder than the sword, but swings slower.
Not sure of a recipe? The shapes are worth learning by heart; our daily Craftle puzzle is a quick way to drill them.
Minutes 5 to 9: food and wool
Look for animals. Every one of them solves a different problem:
- Sheep give wool. Three wool is a bed, the single best thing you can make today.
- Cows give beef and leather.
- Pigs give porkchops.
- Chickens give chicken and feathers. Cook chicken before eating it.
Collect coal while you are near exposed stone; it shows as black specks. Coal plus sticks makes torches. No coal? Burn logs in a furnace for charcoal, which works the same.
Craft a furnace from eight cobblestone and cook your meat. Cooked food fills you up far better than raw; our guide to the best food in Minecraft explains why some foods keep you full longer.
Minutes 9 to 10: get ready for dusk
When the sun touches the horizon you have about a minute and a half before it is fully dark. Use it:
- Have a bed? Place it somewhere enclosed. You can sleep once it is dark (or during a thunderstorm), and the night is skipped.
- No bed? Build or dig a shelter: a two-block-tall room with walls on every side, a door, and a torch inside. Mobs need darkness to spawn, and since 1.18 any block light at all stops hostile mobs spawning in that spot; the details are in light levels and mob spawning.
Inside the shelter, use the time: smelt cobblestone into stone, cook the rest of your food, and craft a chest for your things.
If night catches you outside
- Pillar up. Jump and place blocks under yourself until you are three or four blocks up. Most mobs cannot reach you, but skeletons can still shoot.
- Dig down two blocks and cover the hole. Instant, if ugly, shelter.
- Keep moving in the light. Zombies and skeletons burn in sunlight at dawn; spiders and creepers do not.
- Never fight a creeper up close. Hit it once and back away, or just leave. Creepers explode about one and a half seconds after starting to hiss.
The morning after: what comes next
- Find iron. Iron tools, a shield (planks and one iron ingot) and a bucket change everything. Look in caves and cliff faces.
- Make a proper base with a door, a bed, chests and a furnace.
- Start a farm. Wheat from seeds (break grass) feeds you and lets you breed animals.
- Sleep every few nights. If you stay awake for three in-game days or more, phantoms start swooping down at night.
When you are ready to go deeper, diamonds are the next big goal: our guide to the best Y level for diamonds shows where to dig. And if you want a pet to keep you company, taming every pet starts with a wolf and a few bones.
Frequently asked questions
What should you do first in Minecraft?
Punch a tree for logs, turn them into planks and a crafting table, and make a wooden pickaxe so you can mine stone. Upgrade to stone tools within the first few minutes.
How do you survive the first night in Minecraft?
Either sleep in a bed, which skips the night, or shut yourself into a small shelter with a door and a torch. A bed needs three wool from sheep and three planks.
How long is a day in Minecraft?
A full day and night cycle lasts 20 minutes of real time. Daytime is about 10 minutes, and it is fully dark for a large part of the rest.
Can you sleep on the first night?
Yes, if you have a bed. You can sleep once it gets dark or during a thunderstorm, as long as no hostile mobs are close to the bed.
Why are phantoms attacking me?
Phantoms spawn at night when you have not slept for three or more in-game days. Sleep in a bed and they stop coming.
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