PC Tips

20 Things You Didn't Know About Minecraft

It's you've got some time to spare, watch the full video walkthrough below, which details every one of the tips learned in last Saturday's workshop. You can also skip below to see them listed and explained individually.

Tip #1

You can place torches on furnaces and crafting tables! You will need to go through a short process before doing so, but it IS possible.
Make sure you have a transparent block behind your furnace/crafting table before we begin. If there are any solid blocks around the crafting bench/furnace, remove those, as well. If you do not remove all solid blocks around them, the torches will gravitate towards them instead of placing itself on top of the crafting bench/furnace.
Targeting the transparent block's edge that is facing the crafting bench/furnace, right-click with a torch in your hand. You will notice the torch magically place itself on the crafting table!

 

Tip #2

You can place blocks on the side of a torch by hovering over the torch until you see the grid box.
Right-click on the side of the torch grid box with a block in your hand, and it will place the block to the side of the torch! This tip is very helpful for crossing lava pools and saving resources.

 

Tip #3

Torches placed under falling gravel or sand will break the sand/gravel for you, as long as the sand/gravel falls 2 blocks.
Hold a torch in your hand and break the lowest sand block.

Right as the sand block breaks, place your torch under it quickly!

 

Watch the torch do the heavy lifting for you, preventing backaches while excavating!

Tip #4

Torches can hold any amount of weight on them.
This allows you to create a sandstone-free pyramid and other fun designs.

Tip #5

You can stack signs on top of each other, and line them up to make for awesome detail in your builds.

 

Signs have "grids" just like every other block in Minecraft!

Tip #6

Wooden slabs are not affected by fire and also have a stronger blast resistance than that of wooden planks.
If you play on a server that has fire-spread enabled, you do not need to worry about your wooden slabs catching fire!

Tip #7

Redstone can travel through half-slabs, allowing you to hide your redstone like never before!

 

All redstone is connected except for full blocks on either end.

Tip #8

Pressure plates can hold water and lava inside of them without it spilling all over!

Tip #9

Signs and ladders can stop water and lava.
This tip is great for mob spawners, secret underwater rooms, and the like.

Tips #10 and #11

Ice placed under soul sand will make you walk even slower than just soul sand.
Soul sand registers in the game as a smaller block than the rest.
With these two tips, you can make a pretty awesome trap!

Tip #12

You can break boats and minecarts with a bow and arrow!

By breaking a boat with a bow and arrow, you receive the same drops as you would by breaking the boat normally.

 

When you break a minecart with a bow and arrow, you receive a minecart again. It's the same as if you were to break it regularly!

Tip #13

Items thrown into flowing water that is atop ice blocks will result in the item flowing incredibly fast.

 

Look at the difference in speed in the image below!

 

Tips #14 and #15

You cannot see player names through chests and signs, even if the player is not crouching.

When players are behind a wall or underground without crouching (holding the shift key), you can see their player names.

When a player crouches while behind a wall or underground, you will not be able to see their name.

Tip #16

A player that is in a minecart on a rail can ride directly through a 1-block wall.
This tip is great for tricking people on your roller coaster—or simply for traps!

Tip #17

One lava bucket will fuel a furnace for 1,000 seconds and can cook 1,000 items in a furnace. One blaze rod will fuel a furnace for 120 seconds and can cool 12 items in a furnace.
You can use ANY item that is made out of wood to fuel a furnace, including but not limited to saplings, jukeboxes, bookshelves, fences, trapdoors and chests.

Tip #18

Nether fences and regular fences do not connect. This allows you to use them for designing something fresh and unique!

Tip #19

Sticky pistons that are powered with only one tick will push blocks instead of holding onto them.

Tip #20

In survival mode, swords break melons and cacti the fastest, while axes break pumpkins the fastest!

Questions for the Audience:

• Did you learn anything new?
• Was this tutorial helpful?
• What was your favorite tip?
• What kind of tutorials/tip-related posts would you like to see in the future?

I would love to hear a few words from the audience, so please... don't be shy!

Stay Tuned...

The new Weekly Workshop will be be announced tomorrow, so be sure to check back to see what we'll be covering next! If you have a suggestion for this week's and/or next week's workshop, leave a comment below. We'd love to hear your ideas!
We use TeamSpeak3 for our workshop tutorials; you can download it free here.