Interesting Things You Don’t Know About Minecraft

Leveling up 

• You need 7 experience points to reach level 1. After this the amount needed increases 2 points until you reach level 16. After level 16 the amount needed increases each level by 5 until level 30. You need nine experience points to level up after level 30. 
• Players gain experience points from gathering Experience Orbs dropped by mobs killed within five seconds of first attacking a player. This means you can knock mobs off of a cliff and still gain experience. 
• Once you reach level 32,767 playing Minecraft, your experience bar and level indicator will disappear.  

Play Minecraft in 3D

• Did you know you can play your favorite video game in 3D? To turn on this mode: Go to Options; Video Setting and then Turn 3D Anaglyph Mode On. Now all you need is red and blue glasses! 

Check your coordinates

• You can check your coordinates while playing the computer version of Minecraft. Just press F3, and you can check your x (East-West), y (high-low) and z (north-south) coordinates. 
• Y coordinates allow you to check your depth when mining, y=0 is bedrock, while y=64 is sea level. 

Crafting items

• Crafting is trickier playing the PC and Mac versions of Minecraft, than the Xbox 360 and Pocket Editions. These ports tell the gamer the items that are made with materials, while you need to figure this out playing the computer versions. 

Item durability

• Minecraft tools and weapons have different levels of durability, which refers to the number of uses before being worn down. 
• For armor, durability refers to the amount of damage taken before being destroyed. 
• Durability also varies according to the construction material used to make an item.
• Using a tool or weapon to do something it wasn’t intended for will decrease the durability by 2 points, instead of 1.
• Shears don’t lose durability when used to destroy blocks of wool.
• In Beta 1.2 gold tools could be used to mine stone and wood faster than diamond tools, but they still had durability points.

Torches

• Look for torches in strongholds, abandoned mineshafts, and NPC villages.
• The creator of Minecraft, Markus “Notch” Persson, originally meant torches as temporary light sources that would eventually burnout.
• Torches can get rid of sand and gravel quicker because they break the blocks into parts.
• Restone torches and natural light won’t melt snow or ice.

Minecraft chests 

• Players can store up to 27 stacks of items and blocks in a single chest.
• Placing two chests next to each other gives you a double chest with 54 slots.
• Lava and water will flow around a chest and won’t destroy it.
• Press “Use” on a donkey or mule to add a chest to your ride. This chest only has 15 stackable slots and can only be removed by killing the animal. You can only open this chest by pressing “Inventory” when riding, or holding “Sneak and pressing “Use”. 
• If a cat sits on your chest, you can’t open it.

Eating foods

• Different foods restore varying amounts of hunger points in Minecraft.
• 1 hunger point equals half-a-shank; 1 potato equals one point while 1 cake is 12 points.
• Eat to your hearts desire, you can only eat when your food bar needs topping up.
• Sheep aren’t on the menu. They only drop wool when harvested.
• Chickens lay eggs every 10-15 minutes, which can crafted into cakes and pumpkin pies.
• Eating foods has no effect on a player’s ability to climb, jump and swim

Sleeping 

• When playing Minecraft in single player mode, sleep in your bed the first night. This will automatically make it your spawn point.
• If you try to sleep during the day, a message will appear saying “You can only sleep at night.”
• You can sleep during a thunderstorm during the day.

Minecraft blocks

• The number below each block is its block I.D. Knowing a block’s I.D comes in handy playing in multiplayer. It allows a player to quickly share blocks with other players. 
• During development of Beta 1.7, Notch and team were in discussion about whether to have spike blocks or sticky pistons. Fortunately, the team selected sticky pistons over spike blocks, which would have moved like a piston, and almost instantly killed a character. 
• Lava blocks will flow seven blocks in the nether and only four in the overworld.

Use the Minecraft trivia above to play your favorite game better and have more fun.

In future articles, we’ll talk more about Minecraft trivia and fun facts!