How to survive on an island in Minecraft

Minecraft's terrain generation is responsible for countless islands on countless worlds, and while these locations may be fun spots to visit, some players decide to try their chances by surviving on islands exclusively. This is often known as a "survival island" challenge, where players are tasked with surviving as long as they can and even potentially finishing Survival Mode without leaving a spawn island.

But how do you actually survive on an island in Minecraft? While there are multiple approaches, here are some common sense suggestions, recommendations, and tips to keep in mind in case you plan on taking on a survival island challenge in the future.

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Tips for surviving on an island in Minecraft

Craft a Fishing Rod Quickly

Fishing will be a fantastic way to get high-saturation foods on a Minecraft island (Image via Mojang)

Depending on the size of your island, killing ordinary animal mobs or growing crops may not always be feasible. Fortunately, fishing is always an option to collect high-saturation food like cod and salmon, and crafting fishing rods is a simple process that only requires sticks and string. Since spiders can spawn on islands, you'll always have a source of string as long as you can kill these hostile mobs.

Repairing fishing rods is just as easy, and fishing doesn't take a terribly long amount of time to rack up tons of food (especially if you have an AFK fish farm). If there aren't enough mobs or crops on your island, or even if there are, fishing will supplement your food supply and keep you moving.

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Kelp is Your Friend

Kelp isn't just an early-game food source for Minecraft island survivalists (Image via Mojang)

While kelp is a solid early-game food source in a Minecraft survival island challenge, it's also a fantastic source of experience points thanks to the advent of kelp XP farms. By smelting and storing kelp that has been converted into dry kelp, you can collect plenty of experience for your repairing and enchanting needs.

While kelp won't appear in frozen, deep frozen, and warm ocean biomes, it remains a very useful source of both food and gaining XP levels if you spawn on an island near it. Grab some early and often, as kelp grows quickly and easily and has plenty of upside in the early and mid-game.

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Constructing a Shelter

Wood always isn't abundant or available in a Minecraft survival island challenge (Image via Mojang)

While plenty of survival islands have enough trees to make a shelter like you would do elsewhere in Survival Mode, this isn't always the case. In the event you find yourself on an island with no trees, you'll have to get creative, but the good news is that as long as you have sand nearby and some form of fuel source for a furnace, you can still make a shelter with mud blocks.

By smelting sand to create glass bottles, you can fill your bottles with water and then apply these water bottles to ordinary Minecraft dirt to create mud. By combining the mud with wheat (if available), you can create packed mud that can be made into mud bricks. Building a door won't be easy without wood, but you can always make an iron door or simply use other blocks to block the shelter entrance.

Obviously, mud isn't sturdy for shelter, but as long as you don't draw any creepers too close to your base, it should do the job.

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If You Have Trees, Be Smart

If you're surviving on a Minecraft island, be careful with your trees (Image via Mojang)

If you're lucky enough to have at least one tree on your Minecraft survival island, it isn't in your best interests to break its log blocks immediately. Instead, you may want to consider breaking its leaf blocks first, which can provide drops of apples, sticks, and additional saplings that you can plant. Additionally, if there are flowers anywhere on the island, there's another opportunity to consider.

Specifically, if you find yourself planting tree saplings, be sure to place flowers around them. This increases the chance that the tree will grow with a bee nest attached to it, providing you access to bees, honeycombs, and honey.

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The Keys to the Nether and End Rest Below

Heading underground is still fair game when surviving on an island in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

While most survival island challenges don't allow you to travel to other landmasses in Minecraft, the majority of rulesets still let you head underground, and this will be key to completing your Survival Mode run if you have ambitions to head to the Nether or the End. Underground, you can obtain access to lava for creating obsidian for Nether portals as well as find strongholds with End portals.

You may have to mine a considerable distance underground to find either of these things, but they allow you to access the other two Minecraft dimensions without heading to other landmasses on the surface and break the established rules of surviving on an island on your own.

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Check Nearby Shipwrecks, Underwater Ruins, and Ocean Monuments

Minecraft's aquatic-generated structures can be invaluable for surviving on islands (Image via Mojang)

If you're playing on a world on a Minecraft version that has been released after Update Aquatic, you should be able to find plenty of generated structures underwater including shipwrecks and underwater ruins. Moreover, if you're running a game world released after the Bountiful Update, you can also find ocean monuments near your island's waters.

These structures can offer loot that you won't obtain naturally on the surface of your island. Once you're well-equipped enough to do some diving and potentially battle aquatic mobs like drowned and guardians, it's worth venturing into the nearby sea to collect the loot that you likely won't be able to get easily elsewhere.