Tips and Tricks

[Crazed_seal2]

1. When you start your first world and you have no idea what to do, I would suggest looking here: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Minecraft_Wiki
2. Start punching trees for logs. Get a good few logs about 20 will do you for awhile.

3. Have a look in options and see what Key opens your inventory.

4. Open your inventory, and left click the logs and put them in the 2x2 'Crafting' Area. You will see the box that the arrow is pointing to has got some wood looking blocks.

5. Click them a few times and it converts your logs into Wooden Planks.
You can now make a crafting Bench by filling the 2x2 Crafting area with Planks.

6. Make the Crafting bench. Exit your inventory and place a crafting bench on the ground by right clicking. Right Clicking the bench when its placed will open it and you will find a nice 3x3 Crafting Area.

 

[Crazed_seal2]

7. You can make lots of tools through the crafting bench such as pickaxes, axes, swords, and hoes.
Recipes:

Pick:
[M][M][M]
[A][S][A]
[A][S][A]
Hoe:
[M][M][A]
[A][S][A]
[A][S][A]
Axe:
[M][M][A]
[M][S][A]
[A][S][A]
Sword:
[A][M][A]
[A][M][A]
[A][S][A]
Values:
M = Material (Plank, Cobble, Iron, Gold, or Diamond)
A = Nothing(AIR)
S = Stick

Some Other things:
[F3] Pressing F3 will come with lots of Statistics like Performence, and other Data. It will also show 'IDs' of mobs in a medium radius. You can use this to find caverns, dungeons and help you from getting killed

 

[Adiktuz]

never knew about F3... ^_^

 

[Crazed_seal2]

Its really helpful, you can find nearby underground caverns by looking for mob id's

 

[Lore-Wolf]

Did you know about looking into the ground using sand or gravel? ^^

 

[opiumwar]

hugging green things like creepers and cacti is the best way to survive your first days and nights

'Something f3 fails'