7 best tips to start a Minecraft survival world (2024)

The first few days of any new Minecraft survival world are some of the most important. They often set the foundation that the rest of the playthrough is based on. However, with Mojang's blocky masterpiece being as open-ended as it is, it can be hard to know exactly what to prioritize in these pivotal minutes in order to set up the most successful world possible.

Detailed below are seven of the best tips out there for ensuring that a survival world flourishes, along with what makes them so great.

Note: This list is subjective and solely reflects the opinions of the writer

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7 of the best tips for a new Minecraft survival world

1) Set up a shelter

An example of a basic day one survival base (Image via Mojang)

There are few places more dangerous to survival than the overworld at night. Dangerous, hostile Minecraft mobs, like creepers, skeletons, and zombies, spawn in large numbers and can quickly overwhelm players without adequate weapons and armor.

This means that the single most important thing to do on day one is set up some kind of shelter. This can either be a small, basic structure or a small area dug out of a mountain. So long as there's a spot to store items, smelt ores, and avoid the night, it'll be good enough for the early game.

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2) Start a food farm

Basic farms are essential for staving off early-game starvation (Image via Mojang)

Food is one of the most important parts of survival. Having a high hunger bar is needed to naturally regenerate health and sprint. Additionally, on hard and Minecraft hardcore difficulties, starvation will actually kill players. This means that sorting out a source of renewable food is essential to long-term survival.

The easiest renewable food source to set up is a crop farm. Wheat seeds can be obtained from tall grass and villages. Villages can also provide melons, pumpkins, beetroot, carrots, and potatoes. Make sure to plant some seeds on the first day or two of a survival world to make sure that they grow before food becomes an issue.

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3) Trap zombie villagers

A zombie villager trapped in a boat (Image via Mojang)

Villaget trading is one of the most important and powerful features available to players. It allows for items like sticks, pumpkins, and melons to be converted into emeralds, which can then be spent on enchanted books, diamond gear, and much more.

The discount that players get from curing a zombie villager's zombification is one of the most important parts of a true Minecraft villager trading hub. This process can save players hundreds of emeralds over the course of buying from villagers. This means that players should make a point to trap any zombie villagers they stumble across for future trading purposes.

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4) Kill iron golems

Killing an iron golem from a pillar (Image via Mojang)

While they might seem imposing and deadly, because they are, Minecraft iron golems are also unexpectedly great to hunt down on the first few days of a new survival world. There are simple and easy methods, such as pillaring and suffocation, that can be used to safely dispatch these lethal guardians.

Iron golems will drop between three and five iron ingots. This can let players skip right over both wood and stone in tool progression, allowing them to jump straight into the midgame.

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5) Make a sheep farm

A basic sheep farm (Image via Mojang)

Wool is a deceptively important resource. It's needed to make beds, which can allow players to skip through dangerous nights. Sleeping also stops phantoms from spawning, which is nice.

Wool continues to be useful, however, both as colorful building blocks and for crafting banners. This means that the sooner that players can collect even a few sheep for a simple Minecraft farm, the better.

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6) Find cows early on

Cow crushers are great because they can be made both early on and for cheap (Image via Mojang)

Cows are quite a useful mob to farm. They drop steak, which is one of the best early-game Minecraft foods. They also drop leather, which is needed to craft the books for a complete enchanting setup. Farms for them, known as cow crushers, are also very cheap and easy to build early on.

These factors all combine to make finding cows as early as possible an important thing to do in any new world.

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7) Replant trees

Replanting trees helps ensure that there's plenty of trees near home (Image via Mojang)

Replanting trees might seem like a waste of time, especially when setting up a Minecraft survival base in a forest biome. However, wood is one of the most important resources in the early game. It's needed to make tools, weapons, chests, torches, crafting tables, and more. This means that players will probably end up chopping down a ton of trees.

It can quickly end up taking several extra minutes to chop down trees, just due to how far the treeline has been pushed back. Replanting trees as they're chopped will avoid this issue entirely.