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VOOZH | about |
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VOOZH | about |
Building a shelter is one of the most important parts of playing Survival mode in Minecraft. There any many different ways to build shelters based on size, purpose, biome, and personal preference.
These shelters are organized by how long it would take to build them. Obviously, these can vary, depending on how detailed you make them. Material collection time counts too!
Shelters of this type can be built in short times, often under a minute, and typically have very little practicality. Though their easy construction makes them ideal for impromptu, nomadic, and first bases, they cannot feasibly support the needs of most players.
These structures are somewhat bigger and more advanced than nomadic shelters. They offer some basic degree of protection. They may take a bit longer to make than Nomadic shelters.
These are freestanding structures, capable of sustaining the player for extended periods. They offer a decent amount of protection. They take 1-3 Minecraft days to make.
These structures are often large and complicated in design and, as a result, can be time-consuming to make. However, they offer anywhere from a good degree to a great deal of protection. They take anywhere from a few Minecraft days to many days to make.
This category of structures are renowned for being among the most complex and advanced constructions that a Survival mode player can afford and take a long time to build and can, therefore, be considered late-game buildings. The protection offered by these building complexes is second to none. They will take longer than Hard shelters and in some cases, you will spend in total a real-world day to create.
These structures focus more on feats of engineering rather than practicality and therefore offer relatively little protection relative to how challenging they are to build and many of them can even be dangerous to live in. They are, however, a sight worth looking at. These will take a varied amount of time to build, so players may not be ready to build such bases until they can commit extended periods of time.
While not full structures themselves, they are worth mentioning since they can be used to augment existing shelters.
"Nomadic Shelters" are usually crude, primitive, and simple in design relative to other more advanced shelter types, often being the bare minimum of what qualifies as a shelter. They are, however, cheap and easy to build and can be constructed and set up almost anywhere, making them suitable shelters for use during the first, second and third days of Minecraft, for nomadic players or as an emergency fall-back solution in dire situations.
The simplest, yet the fastest possible shelter can be made by digging 3 blocks straight down and then capping off the hole with a block of the player's choosing, like dirt for instance. This requires only a few seconds. While digging straight down like this is never recommended, it is highly unlikely to run into a cave when digging only 3 blocks from the surface. It is relatively safe to expand the shelter from thereon. This type of shelter can be done also when your base is already established, but you are caught by the night while far away from your base. This method is safer than it seems; zombies, skeletons, creepers, endermen and spiders cannot get in. A problem is getting out however; it is a possibility for the player to dig out of the base straight into hostile mobs such as creepers. One way to fix this is to build a little hut above it. This is not permanent; it is advised to seek a more sophisticated shelter after a few nights. Diagram below: To avoid mob spawning when sleeping through the night is impossible due to a lack of wool, one can light up their base using torches.
or you can expand it like this:
Location
On the ground level in a place with dirt.
Extras
Note: This shelter type will only work properly in ocean biomes.
Description
This shelter is simply a boat. Since most hostile mobs cannot spawn in liquid, it is possible to use a boat to survive your first night (note that drowned can spawn in water). If you are stuck on a small island out in the middle of an ocean with few (if any) resources around, a boat could be your salvation if you can find enough wood for it and the crafting table required in its creation. For this shelter to work properly, you should stay at least 42 blocks away from the beaches at night to prevent any hostile mobs from spotting you. If you need quick food, craft a fishing rod. Your hunger also does not deplete in a boat.
Operation time:
It should preferably not be used longer than a few Minecraft days, unless the movability is important for nomadic purposes.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Description
Like how a caterpillar surrounds itself with a cocoon in order to undergo metamorphosis, this shelter involves simply surrounding yourself with a certain material to shelter yourself from the dark.
Materials
Structure: (As seen from the ground upwards)
Budget Model
Normal Model
Note that the door here is to denote the "entrance" (that is, the blocks you break in order to get into and out of the cocoon.
Location
Anywhere
Extras
Materials
Description
Use a creeper-made (or TNT-caused) crater or stone basin as a temporary (or permanent, if you want) home. While easy to make, it is not recommended for a long-term stay unless expanded and upgraded.
Location
Anywhere with a crater/basin.
Construction
Either...
(Example 1) Jump into the crater, and begin digging a 2 block high hole in the side (you may dig down 1-2 blocks if the crater is not deep enough) for the opening. Then go in and hollow out a small room inside of that. You may like to dig down a few more rooms, but it is not recommended if you have no lighting. Cover the opening with blocks (dirt or cobblestone works wonders.)
or...
(Example 2) If the crater/basin is small enough and you have enough blocks to allow it, cover the whole crater/basin with a roof made out of dirt, cobblestone, etc., but leave a small entry hole, jump into the crater/basin and block off the hole, then light up the interior. This gives you a slightly more spacious home, but it requires you to have enough blocks to build a roof to cover the whole crater/basin.
Extras
Materials
Glass, wood logs, leaves, stairs, wood planks,
Description
Inside a normal tree. It's a simple shelter and works best for emergencies, since it doesn't have much expansion possibilities in a short time(unless you put down some saplings and connect the trees).
Location
Anywhere with a tree or a sapling and bone meal and enough space.
Construction
Break the tree trunk and then use the wood logs to pillar jump up quickly until you are completely covered by leaves. Then put the 2 remaining blocks on opposite sides to avoid leaf decay and done, you got a practically perfect shelter that blends with the environment! You can get on top of the tree removing the logs and pillar jumping all the way up.
Extras
Materials
Description
A cliff-side cave is probably the most popular shelter for the first night. It takes only a few seconds to make, and once inside, the creator is safe to expand it. It also offers good protection against most mobs (excluding creepers, as they can blow up your rock walls). Since it's a structure inside the ground, building material will be gained instead of lost when expanding it.
Location
The most common location for this shelter is wherever you mined your first cobblestone or coal. Simply expand the hole you made to make it livable to create this shelter. The main advantage of this shelter is that it can be built wherever there is a cliff. Make sure there is a solid wall, preferably straight up. Mining down does not usually make a good shelter. A cliff by a large body of water is preferred as hostile mobs cannot spawn in the water. Also, try to find a place with coal for torches.
Construction Extremely simple. Mine a 1×1×2 hole in the wall, then enter the hole and close it off. From there, you may start mining deeper.
Extras
Materials:
Description:
Claim a village house for yourself and convert it into a home.
Location:
A village
Construction:
The first part is the hardest: first, find a village. Once you find a village, pick a house that you find suitable and claim it as your home, customize and upgrade at your leisure.
If you're just trying to spend the night in the village, the plains temple, taiga temple, or one of the desert small houses (tower house) are usually the best choice, because the door keeps you safe, except for zombies that may spawn inside during sieges, or break down the door in hard mode, and because the building has a tower, you can be safe from a surprise creeper attack in the morning. Just before exiting the building, double-check that there is no creeper nearby from the top of the tower. Then go outside and do your things.
One major downside is that if the player is within the village during night, this is likely going to attract the attention of zombies which can easily lead to the whole villager population being wiped out over time, due to several different factors. Also, if a player has the Bad Omen effect, then a raid can occur in the village and most likely will kill the villagers with the village, due some illagers being able to break or even open doors. The vex can clip through walls.
If you want to protect the villagers, but do not have enough materials to build a wall around the village and light up the whole area, simply do the following:
Extras:
Images
Materials
Description
Desert Pyramids are not only good shelters, but also contain worthwhile loot such as emeralds, diamonds, gold, iron, and bones; take note of the secret chamber with a pressure plate and the 3×3 grid of TNT.
Location
Desert Pyramid, found exclusively in desert biomes.
Construction
Extras
Materials
Description
A pillar of blocks, occupying a 1×1 space with (optionally) a small platform at the top to improve safety. The pillar of blocks should reach very high, possibly to cloud level, to avoid the hazards of the ground. The structure works best when you have lots of one type of non-entity block. Only use a block that is affected by gravity if you want to remove the pillar later on.
Location
Anywhere the player can easily construct a tower.
Construction
First, equip your block. Then, point at the ground, hold your right mouse button and jump. Repeat until you are at cloud level or any other level that skeleton arrows cannot reach you. After that, in order to minimize the risk of falling off, build a platform at the top of the pillar and light it up. It's all up to you on what you want to do with the shelter after that. For the nomadic player, just stay up there until the sun rises. Dismantle the platform (if present) and mine the pillar blocks below you, until you reach ground level.
REMEMBER: If you are planning on building a real shelter up there, recall that there is a height limit Y=320, which could compromise structures built above Y=300.
Materials
Description
An expanded version of the above pillar and platform, this shelter is now a proper tower, allowing it to be shorter in height without losing protective capability.
A good shelter should not only protect you from any type of hostile mobs during the night, but also prevent a surprise Creeper ambush in the morning. This shelter type achieves this without the need for sophisticated materials such as glass or doors and can be set up pretty quickly.
The design is essentially a tower with a rim for night-time protection, but with some gaps between the tower and rim to see what is going on below in the morning, and have a slash at any assembled hostiles before leaving the shelter.
Location
This shelter is best suited for wide-open terrain or hilltops.
Construction
Structure: (A seen from the ground upwards)
Not what you think.
Materials
Description
Sure, it might not stop invading spiders, (To stop invading spiders: Get some extra blocks to go around the top level of your walls. Spiders may climb, but not upside down!), but at least it works for the first night! The Open-Air is basically walls surrounding you. No roof. This can easily transition into a permanent house. Feel free to add a roof after you build the walls, but it won't be an Open-Air any more at that point.
Location
Flat, open ground.
Construction
First, gather your dirt and basic necessities. Place your dirt in a (preferably, size is up to you) 5×5 area. Once you've built a 1-layer 'wall', build until you have a 3-layer wall. By this time, it should be sunset. Again, the time will vary, depending on the number of layers on your wall. After you have built your wall, jump down to your 'shelter'. Done! Note that spiders will be able to climb over the walls and enter your shelter, and phantoms will still fly in, but adding a rim will prevent spiders from invading your home. Enjoy your night. Don't fill the area! An optional way to do this is to instead dig a pit and dig out the blocks around where the wall is. This way you're gaining materials instead of using them.
Extras
Materials
Description
Using a red huge mushroom, you can quickly make a tent to spend the night in. When you dismantle the shelter later by mining the mushroom blocks you can get more mushrooms that you can use to make more mushroom houses later, or some mushroom stew to eat.
Location
This structure can be built anywhere flat. Note that giant mushrooms already exist in dark forests and swamps [Bedrock Edition only].
Construction
For a red mushroom tent, make sure there is plenty of flat space around, dig a 1-block deep hole in the ground, plant the mushroom in it, and use bonemeal on it. Be sure to stand only one block away so you will not be suffocated when it grows. Then, put a torch on the stem, and wait until morning, then, dig yourself out. If you do not dig a hole for the mushroom, there is a chance that the mushroom may leave a 1-block high gap that spiders can fit through, or sometimes even a 2-block high gap, just fill it in with dirt.
For a brown mushroom tower, just plant the mushroom and fertilize it; there is no need to dig the hole. Then, pillar jump to the top with dirt or sand, or to make it spider proof, place ladders up the stem and a hatch to stop monsters.
If you grow multiple mushrooms on top of each other, you can create a tower; see below.
Description
For extra security and visibility, why not make your mushroom into a tower? Stacking both red and brown giant mushrooms can make a great instant landmark/safe haven while traveling (especially in forests or mountainous areas) by growing 3-5 giant mushrooms on top of each other.
Materials
Location
A space with nothing above it for 12-15 squares, or the mushroom won't grow.
Construction
When it's dark enough, plant a mushroom in a space with nothing above it, use bonemeal to enlarge, put a ladder on the stem, punch one hole at the top of the ladder. Put a square of dirt directly above the stem and repeat earlier steps two to three times. Since nearly any type of block or useful item can be placed on top of a mushroom safely, a brown mushroom can be easily used as a waystation, with torches to prevent enemy spawning and to aid in visibility, beds to sleep in, as well as chests and crafting table/furnaces. The extremely fast process can be used to escape enemies at sundown. Red mushrooms are best used as a visible landmark, but can be expanded using dirt or cobblestone to use as a waystation as well.
Pros and cons
Extras
No, not a tree house. A proper tree home.
Materials
Description
Very similar to a mushroom shelter, only using an oak or birch tree instead. Find any regular tree (or grow one by planting a sapling and using bonemeal on it, for larger trees, use 4 saplings in a 2×2 grid), and surround the area around the tree so that the leaves become a roof. Then, mine the log in the center to make space and gain some wood, but leave at LEAST 1 log in the tree to keep the leaves alive. This also has the advantage of telling you the time of day on the "Fancy" graphics option and getting you some wood for the first day. Here's how:
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Location
Preferably a forest biome.
Materials
Description
Find a tree (the bigger the better, but more costly) and pillar jump up on it. This is a great nomadic shelter, as it takes seconds to build and has a nice view of the outdoors and you can shoot monsters down from it. The biggest drawback is the inability to mine, so a cliff-side cave or cave shelter may be preferable.
Location
A jungle biome, in a tree. Jungle trees can grow to be the tallest trees in the game. Craft some ladders and make your way to the top.
Materials
Description
Stand where you are right now, and make sure the 5×5 space around you isn't occupied. Right after you check, imagine you are an enchantment table, and place the dirt blocks/planks as if they were bookshelves. Repeat this until you have some walls that are 4 blocks high and you used up exactly 60 blocks of material. With your remaining material, build the ceiling. This method gives you a 3×3×3 space- that means you have plenty of space to do a lot, and not big enough for ghasts to spawn in the Nether.
Location
Anywhere, but not suitable for rough biomes, such as badlands (mesa) and extreme hills. Preferably plains or a desert.
Materials
Description
Place down your chest-boat, leash it to your happy ghast, and you're done! You should put everything into your chest-boat afterwards.
Pros:
Cons:
Easy shelters are small, not as cramped, and need more flat space than nomadic shelters. They can be built commonly with 5×5 to 10×10, have a choice of a second floor, and brings the player access to first-floor expansions. Building takes at least a couple of minutes, along with an extra few minutes for the interior to finish.
Materials
Description
The tiniest, yet most useful house.
Location
This "Micro Mansion" can be built anywhere, provided you have a minimum of 5×5 blocks of space.
Construction
Extras
A blast furnace will come useful, same with a smoker.
Materials
Description
Treehouses provide a high base. They are useful, especially against creepers, because most are too high for creeper explosions to reach. They are often used with a bow and arrows because they are excellent sniping spots. Another advantage of treehouses is that they are a great lookout point. They give you a good view of the map, helping you find the place for your next shelter. Also, if you are thinking of making a treehouse as your permanent home, you could expand it by linking it to other trees, giving the player an extremely large and good lookout view.
Location
The best tree for this is the jungle tree. This method of shelter does not only help you stay away from mobs at night; it's a great look-out position, especially if the jungle borders a desert or a plains biome. You can even create bridge gaps from other trees to make a whole network of treehouses! An added bonus also comes with the location: an almost endless supply of wood!
Construction
The first thing you will build when constructing a treehouse is the staircase. Without a staircase, you cannot reach the treehouse. The amount of stairs you build will vary depending on the height of the tree you are building in. Make these stairs and place them. Remember to place wooden planks under the stairs to support them. (Not only does this make them easier to build, it also makes the staircase look better.)
Note that vines act like ladders (without a hitbox).
Now, you should have a staircase that leads to the top of the tree. Climb this staircase and lay down a 4×5 base of wooden planks. One common practice is to remove a layer of leaves and then, build the base. This maintains the same level as you would have had without a base.
Next, build a layer of outer walls. These should only cover the border. To be economical, you could skip the corners, as they are not necessary. Build two more layers on each of these.
Now, you will construct a roof. You don't need to add another border level; this was compensated for in the last step. Instead, fill in the top border with wooden planks. This roof should block out most of the light; look in the "Extras" section for ways to counter this.
Alternate No-Stairs Method
A more effective and easy method to construct a pathway for access to the treehouse would be to use ladders placed on the trunk of the tree to reach the entrance of the treehouse instead of stairs to access the treehouse which makes it less likely for mobs to climb onto the treehouse and also the benefit of using this method is that it uses fewer materials. It is strongly recommended that you use a trapdoor at the top of the ladders to prevent mobs from gaining access to the treehouse via the ladders.
Alternate roofless method
This method is best in high trees. Simply the same as before, but only build walls one high and then, place fences on top. It is useful when fighting mobs like creepers.
If you connect with other trees in a jungle you can make a large circular disk platform around each, allowing large, roofless, and safe "rooms". This method is only safe when you have plenty of torches.
Extras
An ice castle is made of some icebergs contained by a wall of blue ice, and corridors in the iceberg lit by lanterns. You can have villages inside of it if you want. Bedrooms are useful to make it good for living in, and you can also make towers. If you want to make a successful ice castle you will need blue ice, lanterns, beds and doors. You can make a courtyard out of stone. If you are in Creative mode you can make impenetrable walls with bedrock.
Materials
Description
Not the strongest tower, but can be done if you live in a snowy biome.
Location
Any snow biome.
Construction
First, get some snow, you'll need a lot of it. Use a shovel to get snowballs by breaking the snow. After you have collected enough, place them in a 2×2 square in the crafting grid. Get the snow blocks and build your shelter with them.
During construction, it might start snowing. Note that snow can fall on snow blocks, causing a snow layer to form on top.
These snow shelters often look great in snow biomes.
Igloos can also generate naturally. These naturally generating igloos make great shelters, as they always generate with a door and helpful furniture such as a bed, crafting table and furnace, and sometimes even a brewing stand and a chest containing useful items.
Extras
Materials
Description
Don't want to spend 5 minutes in a hole? Build this mobile fortress that takes 5 minutes to build and 5 minutes to destroy!
Location
A 6×6 or 9×9 flat space
Construction
First, build a 1×1 tower 6 blocks up on all the corners. Next, connect each corner together. Now, build the wall and dig a 1×2 hole for the door do not use windows. Now, fill in the roof, but leave a 2×2 space at a wall for the trapdoors and ladders. Place the ladders under the hole and then, on the roof of the house make some battlements. Now, place the trapdoor and you're done! You now have a mobile fortress that's safe from creepers and if a spider gets in, you can run down the hatch!
Extras
Materials
Description
A house made out of dirt that blends in with the environment. There are two main versions of this, a house of leaves in a jungle atop a tree, or a base on top of a hill that looks just like the rest of the landscape.
Location
A forest, plains, or jungle biome.
Construction
Use the dirt to blend in with the environment. Make sure to adjust to elevations. The grass will grow on your roof, so it looks even cooler. For maximum security, conceal your door behind a 1×1×2 stack of dirt and don't add any windows. If you're really ambitious, make a piston door with dirt and sticky pistons. Hide the lever behind a block of dirt. This is perfect in multiplayer as it hides your shelter from griefers and thieves.
Extras
The expansion to the Open-Air, in detail.
Materials
Description
You've played the game with the walls, now, play it with the roof! A basic house.
Location
Flat, open ground.
Construction
First, build a wall, just like the nomadic open-air. After that, close the roof, add windows (smelt the sand with your furnace), and you're set for expansion! If you like, dig your floor and replace it with any block you like.
Extras
Materials
Description
A house constructed using a surface cave as its base structure. It can be dangerous due to its initially dark state, but allows for easy expansion. Being a cave, it will contain a mine already within itself.
Location
This type of house can be built in any surface cave one finds. It is a bonus if you find one with coal already in it, as you have your supply of torches supplied by your house. A cave with multiple surface entrances can be used, but may prove more difficult to secure.
Construction
Once you have found a suitable cave, the first step is to seal off the entrances. Use any building material to create a complete seal to keep out night monsters. A wooden door may be added if you have enough wood and time. Otherwise, just seal the entrance off completely (make sure to use torches first, or you may find yourself in the dark) leaving no gaps.
If you proceed deeper into your cave, and monsters are found, it would be wise to seal off the rear end of your cave as well, unless you are able to deal with the monsters.
After this, you can hollow out the cave to your liking.
Extras
Materials
Description
A nice house to build. Looks nice when built in water and lava, if possible. Can also be used as guardhouses/lookout posts. You can also choose to take over a pillager outpost, and make it homely!
Location
In a lake (of water or lava) or simply on the land (high ground is recommended, using as lookout).
Construction
Once you have found a suitable place to build, start building the fences up from the bottom of the lake on the corners of a 7×7 square, 3 blocks or higher above the ground. Now, start building the actual structure on the 'legs'. This should create a 5×5 interior. Then, Dig a hole in the floor wherever you like and extend a pillar of blocks downward. On those, place ladders and place a trapdoor at the top. Then, do whatever you want with the inside. Don't forget to add some light!
Extras
Materials
Description
A house underwater, where no hostile mobs can get to it. Except for possibly ocean guardians, if you are near an ocean monument… (make sure to not make it so deep that you drown on your way back up!)
Location
In an ocean, river, or deepish lake, preferably not near an ocean monument.
Construction
Go in the water and go about 5 blocks down. Then, mine into the side of the body of water and make a room (you can expand on it later). Place a door down at the entrance, making an airlock. Then, place a torch down inside. Expand on it any way you want to.
Extras
You can use signs in place of the door. You could use glowstone, sea lanterns, or some other light-emitting block in place of the torches in case your house floods.
Description Very safe and well suited for PvP servers or a friend's vanilla. Easy to make and fast to make bigger this shelter basically consists of an underground base made below a village with the entrance under a villager's house.
Construction Find a villager house and remove one block from the floor, then continue mining below you while placing ladders. When you reached the height you want to build the house start mining around (preferably in a square). When you finished mining cover the walls with planks and you've made your house.
Extra Try adding furnaces and chests, if you're planning to stay long then build up a farm and start strip mining.
Maybe you ended up there because you got lost, or maybe you wanted to explore. Whatever the reason, you are trapped in a desert and you are in need of shelter for when night falls.
First lay out an 11×11 square by digging a 13×13 trench, 2 blocks deep. Dig the square one deep, then go back and dig it 2 deep. Start by putting down a marker, then dig one block at the marker, then dig 6 blocks in each direction from the marker. That's the first edge of your square. From the ends of that first trench dig up 12 blocks from each end. Check the lengths are both 13, then join the last side of the trench.
Digging on a flat section of desert you will collect 93-94 sand digging these trenches. To complete this design you need another 22-23 sand. Getting 128 in total is not a bad number. You should also collect 12 cacti, or an absolute minimum of 4. If dirt is available, collect 16 dirt, or an absolute minimum of 12. If dirt is available you need 64 less sand, so don't worry about sand, you will have plenty just from digging the trenches.
Now in the center of your 11×11 square, build a 5×5 house. Start the doorway opposite your marker, 3 clear blocks distant. If you are in a hurry skip the corners (as shown). Build the walls 2 high, out of sand. The pits are one deep. They are to stop zombie children coming through your open 'windows' and 'doors'.
The first level of the house (1 block high) is as below. Leave an open space for the two doorways. Dig small single-block pits beneath where the window openings will go. Dig semi-circular (5-block) pits around the blocks of sand that will form the lower half of the two 'doors'.
The second level of the house (2 high) is as below. Place cacti on the top half of the two 'doors' (maybe later when you are closing up for the night). Leave a one-block open space for the upper part of each of the doorways and for each of the 'window' openings.
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The third level of the house (3 blocks high) is as below. Use dirt or sandstone for these blocks above the doorways, window openings, and forming the roof, as they need to ignore gravity whenever there is air beneath them.
If you did not find dirt, craft some sandstone right away. You can easily create 16 sandstone from the sand you dug out of the trenches. You need a minimum of 12, but 16 is an efficient number (craft 64 sand) and allows some spare in case you make a mistake. Running out of sandstone can get you killed on your first night!
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If you have enough time and materials, complete the 4 corners as 4-high sand pillars (sticking up one block above roof level) and put cacti on the corners.
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If you don't have time or materials to do the corners, don't worry about it, do it the next day. If you have even more time and materials, add a second set of 4 cacti, each raised on one block of sand to match the others. This is so they are safe for you to bump into, but not safe for spiders to climb over.
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You now have a spider-resistant roof that will grow into a semi-lethal spider trap in a day or so.
It's probably dark by now, so get inside, but you can make some finishing touches on the inside of the house for added safety. Dig down one block in each of the interior corners. This gives you stress-free space to hide if mobs get close, or from ranged attacks. Leave the blocks by the windows and doors in place so you are able to look out. Leave the one sand block in the center of the house in place so you can pillar-jump up through your skylight to take a quick, careful look around.
Keep a few blocks of sand handy in your inventory for pillar jumping. And in case you get really freaked out and just want to rest, you can block up the 'window' openings.
If you develop your shelter by adding an outer ditch (spaced 3 blocks further out), and add denser layers of cacti, and finally a pillar to help you navigate home, it will look something like this:
Materials
1 spruce sapling, bonemeal, 1 lava bucket, 1 water bucket, 1 door, 1 fireproof block.
Description You don't use many items to build this shelter, and this shelter is fireproof.
Location Anywhere where is a small amount of trees nearby and the surface under leaves of the spruce tree is on one layer.
Construction Place spruce sapling (Optional: Use bonemeal to grow it faster). Place block on top of the spruce tree. Next, place lava on top of that block. Wait for lava to go to surface (you can wait longer than that, as well). Place water on block that you placed in point two. Wait to water change all lava to cobblestone. Take water. Mine 2×1 hole on the wall. Place door in it. Ta-da! shelter finished using 5 items.
Materials
64-256 planks, cobblestone, stone
Description
These freestanding shelters are not usually the first shelter that the player builds, because it usually consumes the time fast. These shelters provide good protection against mobs.
Location
You can build these type of shelters anywhere where there is flat ground. You can also clear out a flat area, but this will consume more time and leave you vulnerable in the night if you don't have your house built in time.
Construction
The size of the shelter is decided by you, the player. The foundation can be any size you want, but a bigger building will take more time to complete and, hey, the sun doesn't stay in the sky forever! First, make the foundation of the building as wide as you want. Then, you can make a wooden floor, or you can just keep the ground as your floor. Jump and place a block underneath you to make the shelter taller. When your shelter is complete, you can make access to the rooftop, if you like. Placing a door or fence gate at the entrance is important because without one, the aggressive mobs can come inside your house and kill you. Also, make sure your shelter is well lit to avoid mobs spawning inside; the bigger your house is, however, the more torches you need. A lantern provide slightly more illumination than a torch.
Extras
Materials
Basically the same as freestanding and many obsidian
Description
Same as freestanding, but more protective and can be used as a decoy for griefers. This still retains the classic beauty of freestanding shelter. If you want to make this as your permanent shelter, consider adding some defense around the house.
Pros
Cons
Location
An open field or places that can easily attract griefers (for griefers decoy)
Construction
For the basics, it's the same as the freestanding. For additional protection, place the obsidian as the base wall. Then, cover the outer part with wooden planks or dirt (for attracting griefers to burn it or exploding it). For the inner part, you can either use planks or any other blocks. Don't forget to cover the exposed obsidian as it could alert griefers of your trap or reduce the beauty of your house.
Extras
Materials
About 6 stacks of wood, 28 cobblestone and plenty of torches.
Description
A basic two-story house that has a deck. It provides protection, and the bed is on the second floor.
Location
A flat area.
Construction
Make a 6×6 foundation and fill it with wooden planks. Then, make a simple frame for the first floor with wooden planks and cobblestone on the edges of the walls. Add 2×2 holes in the center of each wall for the windows, but leave the front open with a 2×2 hole for the 2 doors. Do the same thing that you did for the first floor, but put a single door on the left side of the front of the house on the second floor. Then, add a 6×3 deck off of the front of the second floor. Add a railing and supports to the deck using fence blocks. Now, make a staircase to the second floor to the right of the door if you're looking at the doors from the inside. Adding torches is obviously recommended. If you want a bigger house, it is highly recommended to build a 7×7. Just follow the steps giving to you earlier.
Extras
Materials
Description
The title says it all: a mountain, preferably not too big, hollowed out and converted into a shelter! Good protection, as watchtowers and a moat can easily be added after making a basic shelter within the mountain.
Location
A small, freestanding mountain, not part of a large mountain range, preferably 25-40 blocks tall. A good advantage is that as you build, you are gaining material, and not losing. Time: 1–2 days.
Construction
Find a mountain that matches the description above. Bring along a pickaxe or two, depending on its size. Hollow out the entire mountain, add a staircase/ladders and some floors, and you are ready to begin customizing!
Extras
Materials
Description
A house that floats in mid-air! Protects greatly, as mobs can't get in and spiders have nothing to climb on. However, it can take a bit longer to start building than freestanding structures, about 1–3 days.
Location
A cliff face, preferably over water, is the best place to build the structure. Any large hill is a good starting point (this option is assumed for the construction section). With more work, however, it can be built anywhere, using a staircase or water elevator for access.
Construction
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Notes
You may have some trouble getting into your house. One thing to make sure of is the door. Since the hinge area is solid even when open, you should jump to the door from the side opposite the hinge. Simply widen the bridge at the end to do so more easily. The area under the pit should ideally have some sort of fall-breaker in case misjudgment of the jump occurs. Once you are confident you can jump it consistently, you can build a mob trap for anything that approaches. Make sure that you can escape it if you DO fall, however.
Extras:
These will be the same as a normal house- except anything to do with the underground. Just build that sort of structure on the area opposite the bridge/stairs. Even grass can be brought up with a stair of dirt. Do not use a full stair with lower support, as to prevent intrusion while you wait for the spread. You can also add nether portals for easy transport up and down. If you do, make sure to block it off or hide it so griefers and ghasts can't get to it.
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Also, when playing multiplayer, cover the outside of the floor with white wool or possibly quartz. People that will look up at it will think that's it's a cloud! And you don't have to worry about griefers! Another way to conceal a sky base is to make it out of chests and trapped chests and place blocks temporarily because chestlike blocks don't render far away from players
Materials
Description
This is a relatively simple shelter to build, although requires a fair amount of gathering and smelting to obtain all the required materials.
Location
It can be built on any wide open flat space.
Construction
The bunker is a single-story shelter made entirely of stone, with the walls always being at least two blocks thick. Size is down to the player's preference, although a 12×12 outer wall perimeter will provide ample space inside for a bed, workbench and multiple chests and furnaces. Ideally, an iron door should be placed on at least two sides of the building, in case a creeper remains to lurk outside one door in the morning. Stone buttons or levers can be used to control the doors both inside and out. With the walls being at least two blocks thick, the player can safely sleep in a bed at night without having to worry about being awoken by hostile mobs. Windows should be added on all sides so the player can be certain that the outside of the shelter is clear before venturing out in the morning.
Description
A place to hide out and undetectable from above ground mobs and players. Perfect if you need cobble and you gain materials not lose them.
Construction
Dig down 12-16 blocks dig out a room. Make an iron door at the entrance or you could build a house above that and make a piston entrance. Anyway, you're free to expand and decorate.
Materials
Description
This is a harder shelter to build, mainly because it requires lots of stone or exploring.
Location
It can be built on any wide open flat space.
Construction
The bunker#2 is a single-story shelter made entirely of stone, with the walls always being at least three blocks thick. Size is down to the player's preference, although a 12×12 outer wall perimeter will provide ample space inside for a bed, workbench and multiple chests and furnaces. Ideally, an iron door should be placed on at least two sides of the building, in case a creeper remains to lurk outside one door in the morning. Stone buttons or levers can be used to control the doors both inside and out. With the walls being at least two blocks thick, the player can safely sleep in a bed at night without having to worry about being awoken by hostile mobs. Windows should be added on all sides so the player can be certain that the outside of the shelter is clear before venturing out in the morning. This is especially effective against armies of players, as iron doors and stone bricks are much harder to break, plus, there's the added benefit of having silverfish coming out and attacking the attackers every now and again.
A good idea would be to put guards on a bunch of these outside your PvP base, with TNT in the tunnels if someone breaks through.
Description It's a good idea to make you one of these when you spawn because it can protect you from mobs, but you might have to make two stone pickaxes and shovels.
Location Underground or in cliffs that are not hollow.
Construction
Find a cliff that meets the above specifications. Dig a 1×2 tunnel 4 blocks deep. Then, make a 7×7 3-block high space here. Put up the door and some torches, and voila! Your cave is pretty much complete. Put all of your basic Minecraft home items on the floor next to the walls. You may also want to replace the ugly dirt and stone in the walls and ceiling with some more aesthetic blocks, like wood or (for a more dungeon-like feel) stone bricks.
Notes
Your cave's main weakness is that has only one exit. You may want to dig a 1×2 "emergency exit" out of your base, so that you can sneak out if there are creepers patrolling your main one. It's also preferable to mark the base so that it can be seen from far away.
Extras
This kind of shelter/village is good on a multiplayer PvP server as it can be defended with a minimum of 3 people with little hassle if you can't defend it, then, you wouldn't be able to defend anything else short of a castle.
The one big drawback of this kind of dwelling is that it is highly visible, although it would be possible to create this in an underground cavern.
Materials
In singleplayer, it is possible to make this out of wood for aesthetic purposes.
Description
Location
Construction
This is the center of your village, around it you will construct your other buildings
There should be 2 L shaped ones and one straight one so that there are three entrances leading to your central building, like so:
Notes
Extras
A walled base capable of housing multiple players. It is built mostly for defensive values. It basically consists of a wall with buildings attached to it.
Materials
128 to 1000 material of your choice.
Description
A square of the wall with buildings attached to the inside of it. Towers can be put on the corners. Some designs have an open yard near the entrance with no buildings nearby.
Construction
First, build a square or rectangle base with blocks. Then, build walls around the edge, leaving room for an exit/entrance. The next step is to plan the shape and build internal buildings, like towers, a bedroom, storeroom, etc. Give easy access to the walls, which should probably be three blocks high, so falling from them won't cause damage.
If you make your wall spider proof, make sure that you have a lip every second brick to prevent mobs from sneaking up on you as you leave. Not leaving gaps does have the advantage of making skeletons walk under it, rendering them unable to shoot you from the towers (though they will probably ambush you later).
Extras
A nice looking house that stops all mobs and is somewhat easy to build.
Materials
Construction
Make an outline of your building that is one block high out of cobble. Then, make studs with the cobble and the glass/glass panes like this: cobblestone, glass, cobblestone. Then, top it off with another layer of cobble. Once that is done, use the wood to make a roof and you are set. You can use the roof however you like, but make sure to prevent spiders from entering.
Notes
A standard home having many different types.
Materials
Description
These homes depend on what you plan to build. How long they take to build will depend on what you plan to build. These are aesthetically pleasing homes, and don't require too many materials to construct them, depending on what you want of course.
Construction
See village blueprints for construction details.
Notes
Description
This is a tower that has several floors and isn't that hard to build, but takes a while to make and requires a good deal of materials.
Materials
Construction
Build a one-block layer of cobblestone or other good flooring material. Make it as big as you want, but smaller is better because it means you won't have to make each floor as big. Next, make four three-high pillars of cobblestone on the corners. Make more pillars if you are paranoid of creepers, but the cobblestone should help absorb the blast in case of creeper attack. Fill in the walls with your wood. If you really don't want any creepers or have too much cobblestone, use that instead. Fill in the top with wood for a ceiling—two blocks high is nice, use slabs if you really want efficiency. Add windows. Use glass panes or iron bars. Repeat this until you reach your desired height.
Notes
Sneak while you build this! Falling is fatal from the 7th floor or above. The original author died while building the seventh floor.
Jungle trees are quite helpful. You can get nine or ten floors from two trees.
Make a quarry near this, especially if you are using several cobblestone pillars/cobblestone walls. Make it in the basement if you have a small area to build.
Try to keep the size down. 8×8 is a nice size.
Add-ons
Description
Like the treehouse, but better for surviving in.
Materials
Construction
First, find a tree. A jungle tree works fine, but it looks better if made in a large oak tree. Then, use wood planks to make a staircase winding around the outside of the tree, so you can jump up blocks all the way up. When you are 4 blocks beneath the top, hollow out an area. If you are doing it on a jungle tree, this step is not necessary. Then, build out as much as you want, replacing the walls, floor, and roof with wood planks. Keep the space open for you to come up the staircase. Keep windows open, and add trapdoors where you enter from the staircase. Add a workbench, furnaces, torches, and a bed to complete your new home.
Notes
This can be expanded upon. Simply build bridges to other trees and repeat this process. This is a good structure for avoiding monsters, but the trapdoors are necessary to keep mobs out.
Add - Ons
Description
A medium-sized cottage.
Materials
Construction
Extras
Description
This house is from the map "The Abandoned Military Camp" from Flans website.
Materials Not adding until construction finished
Construction
First Layer
These homes are complex and some may combine other shelters with large add-ons, making them different shelters like the ones below.
The obsidian square is a large rectangle or square that is up in the sky. The walls, ceiling and floor are 1 block thick and made of obsidian. You can do everything inside of this building. You can make a courtyard or a tower or even a forest depending on your size.
Description
These shelters are built entirely underground, usually at a depth of 15-25 blocks under the surface.
Tools
Advantages of Underground Homes
Building an underground Home has several advantages, especially on multiplayer.
Disadvantages of Underground Homes
Necessary Materials
Location
The entrances to this shelter can be anywhere, but in multiplayer, care should be taken to avoid making your location obvious to griefers or thieves. The top of a mountain, the middle of a desert, or even inside another, well-defended shelter are great locations to place the entrance.
Construction
Dig a 2×1 tunnel downwards, placing ladders on the walls every block, and torches in small alcoves to the side. Once a suitable depth has been reached (20 blocks are recommended, but anything below 10 is acceptable. If you dig below level 16, the shelter will work as your mine.), hollow out a chamber. The size of this room is a matter of preference, but a 5×5×2 space is ideal. Light this area with torches, and your rudimentary shelter is complete. Add-ons can be expansions to the original chamber or separate "rooms" of their own. Separate some of the rooms with doors so if a monster does get in, you can hide in another room where you can figure out how to deal with the mobs.
This type of shelter can also be easily converted from the player's first shelter, provided it was built in the ground or in the side of a hill or mountain. The player can expand on this shelter, adding extra rooms and increasing the size of the rooms. Extra rooms can include a main hall, kitchen, bedroom and mine.
Extras
Description
A large wall and ceiling over an island for lots of protection against mobs, similar to an Irish crannog.
Necessary Materials
About 100-2000 blocks of any building materials depending on the size of your island.
Location
On a small-medium island.
Construction
Find a decent size island and get lots of stone. Then, you build a 6-9 block wall with your stone. After you've done this, place torches everywhere over your walls and floor and get rid of them afterward if you need to build. Next, you add your roof and you can live hostile free!
Extras
Description
An underwater base for total protection from creepers and other mobs, along with looking good.
Necessary Materials
Any block; preferably glass.
Some form of light, glowstone, etc. Torches cannot be placed on the sides of glass, so be wary when utilizing glass for the walls.
Location
In a deep lake or in the ocean. Be careful to not build near ocean monuments so that guardians will not spawn.
Construction
Start by filling the space where you are going to build your house, then dig out the inside. Next, start removing the wall and replacing it with the block of your choice. Then, add your ceiling and replace the water on the top. For added ease build your house underwater out of wood then cover it with any non-flammable material. Now, dig one block under your house and burn it which will remove all the water. You now have a "creeper proof" house (unless it blows up the water without being in it, although this has only been proved with TNT). Make sure the surrounding area is lit up to prevent drowned from spawning.
Extras
Description
The freestanding shelter, just bigger and harder to build and also with extra floors.
Necessary Materials
Location
A large, flat area, with room for expansions, underground or to the side.
Construction
The size of the shelter is up to the player, however, the bigger your house is the more room you will have for expansion.
1. Build the foundation of your house one block higher than the ground, so you can make a patio and as an added bonus you don't have to clear out the ground to make a floor.
2. Next, build your walls 5 blocks high so the ceiling isn't too low, and the windows don't look weird. The house will also feel bigger that way.
3. Make the ceiling. This means the inside of the house is currently 4 blocks high.
4. Make any rooms you want (crafting room, brewery, bedroom, etc.).
5. If you don't want a second floor, you're done! If you do want a second floor, continue on. Punch 1×1 hole in your ceiling. Pillar jump up on to your second floor, but as you keep going up and down you will have to destroy your pillar, so ladders are recommended here. For the second floor, repeat step 2, 3 and 4. If wanted, you can make glass skylights for both the roof and the floor of the 2nd level.
6. If you don't want an underground floor, you're done! If you do want an underground floor, continue on. Dig down 5 blocks from your floor. Next, hollow out the area you want to use. Dirt and stone don't really make great décor, so wooden planks are the preferred building material. Hollow out the wall and replace it with the planks. You can make entrances to all your expansions here. You may use ladders or stairs to get down to your underground floor.
7. If you don't want a balcony, you're done! If you do want a balcony, continue on. Go outside your house. Pillar jump to wherever you want to place your balcony. Use cobble or wooden planks. Extend your balcony about 3-5 blocks out. Add a fence and you're done! A nice extra is to put wooden steps and a sign by each side, so it looks like a chair.
Extras
Description A shelter situated in a ravine. Rooms may either overhang on the side or occupy the entire ravine. These are easier to build if the opening is close to (if not breaking) the surface, and more difficult if deep underground. Sometimes a ravine may spawn above another ravine, so you can use the lower as your shelter, and upper as your farm(s).
Necessary Materials
Location
In a Ravine
Construction If there is lava on the bottom, freeze it with water. Any water/lava from the sides should be plugged. Make the floor flat, and then light up the ravine with as many torches as you can. Start the walls, and put in the items you want in the rooms (bedroom, craft room, furnace room, storeroom, minecart room). Rooms should be 3-4 blocks high (or if you're building a staircase, whichever suits the staircase best), and once all rooms are at the preferred height, build the next floor. Repeat until the house has as many rooms as you need.
You may want to seal off caves, but you don't have to smooth the walls. Farms can be easily built on the floor too. A glass floor would also look interesting.
Extras
Description
A castle capable of keeping out an army of monsters
Necessary Materials
About 1000 blocks of your desired block, but you can exceed this limit if you want to.
Location
A large flat plains, a man-made flat area, or the world type Super-Flat. If needed use map editors, unless playing survival (legit)
Construction
Take the cobblestone and make a 3 block wide, 1 block long, and 1 block high base. Continue across until the length stretches all across your flat area. Then, clear out a 6 block long section for a primary entrance. Make the walls about 20 blocks high and make ladders or stairs leading up. Add an overhang to the walls to keep out spiders. Make shelters and useless buildings inside the walls. This should take about 3-7 nights, depending on size.
Extras
/kill to get out with /spawnpoint command blocks (in fact, to make it a working escape-proof dungeon, you'll need so many command blocks you might as well make it the server jail while you're at it).Description
A castle built using a village with enough add-ons to become its own mass shelter. It can house many players and animals.
Necessary Materials
Location
Any area with an NPC Village. The village will be a part of your home; keep that in mind.
Construction
Surround the village with cobblestone. Be sure to add gatehouses so you can enter and leave your stronghold. Optionally, leave room for some more structures in the village. When surrounding the village, create a two-layer wall of cobblestone. Make the inner layer one block smaller than the outer layer. This will allow you to snipe mobs outside the castle.
Extras
Description
A normal, circle shelter.
Necessary Materials
Location
A flat area that is over 15×15.
Construction
The same process as a freestanding shelter, but with the walls formed in a circle instead of a square.
Extras
Description
A shelter in the Nether.
Necessary Materials
Lots of cobblestone/obsidian.
Location
Nether, preferably next to your portal.
Safe construction
It is recommended to build a small shelter before you start any of your construction areas before starting to build your home, to ensure you won't get visited by "unexpected guests". If you build in the open, you can`t do this, but if you can you should.
Nether shelter types
Safest, because you build it safely away from ghasts and you are surrounded by walls. Making a nether cave home can prove much easier than building a similar home in the Overworld because you won't be attacked by mobs. The only mobs you will meet are zombified piglin which will not attack without reason. You should still be careful around them, though. You should also watch out occasional lava pools while digging away.
Difficult, as you are going to be attacked by ghasts. Your walls must be made of cobblestone or any other block with a Blast Resistance of 4.2 or higher. Be prepared to fight at any time, except in peaceful mode.
This one is fairly easy: just find a nether fortress. Be careful, as fortresses will be hard to traverse. Be sure to clearly mark your designated "home" area, or spread your furniture around the entire building. Ghasts may or may not be a problem, depending on the location. Zombified piglin won't be an issue unless you attack them first. Magma cubes and blazes will likely not be too much of a threat.
Windows
A ghast cannot see you through glass. Thus, you can build windows in the Nether as long as you stay inside it is safe, to protect your self and your windows, you might want to use pistons to put some cobblestone in front of the window, which can be relocated by pressing a button. Allowing yourself to be inside the home safely and have a good view of the Nether. And when you go exploring you "close" the window, for in case you get hunted by a ghast.
Extras
These shelters offer the most amount of protection. Generally large and made out of obsidian combined with many add-ons.
Description
This is a very large bunker. It should have rooms for almost anything, and have enough space for many large building projects. It is dug almost down to bedrock so, if you build in the right area, there should be no danger of digging to the surface.
Necessary Materials
Lots of pickaxes, supplies for building traps (such as redstone, pistons, and tripwire), and torches.
Location
Anywhere that you can dig down easily from. It takes a long time to build, so you should have a pre-existing base.
Construction First, dig a long hallway, with stairs going down 6-10 blocks every 30 blocks or so. Make the hallway big enough, so that lots of people can be in it at one time comfortably. Then, dig rooms off to the sides. If you did this correctly, there should be enough space for a couple of hundred rooms. Make rooms dedicated to various things, like an armory or forge. This base can hold lots of people and is hidden well, so feel free to build it in multiplayer.
Extras
Description
This is basically a castle, only much, much bigger. Its walls are lined with obsidian so you don't have to worry about creepers.
Necessary Materials
A lot of cobblestone (About 100,000 to 1,000,000 blocks. So don't try to build this unless you have enough for a lifetime.)
About ⅓ as much obsidian to line the walls.
Location
Somewhere flat (it is recommended to practice this shelter on super-flat on creative mode).
Construction
To start it should take up an area of at least a 5×5 chunks. Make walls, they should be at least 7 blocks tall and 3 blocks thick, mine out the middle layer and replace it with obsidian and break the top layer (to prevent unwanted tunneling extend the obsidian layer about 15 blocks into the ground). Next, make the towers, they should be 50 to 250 blocks tall, They should be hollow, but don't forget to line the walls with obsidian. Then, make the roof. Remember it should be about 2/5 wider than the circumference of the tower. Add the spikes. If you've done it right then the towers should look like those of one of the castles you would see on TV. That's just about it, you now have your own ultimate siege fort. You can personalize it in any way you like. Don't forget to light it with torches or glowstone.
Extras
Description
A large house made out of obsidian.
Necessary materials
Location
Forest or jungle biome so the burning trees will increase the defense. Although, rather obviously, this might also be a bad thing, if you have enough materials for this thing, you should be able to survive.
Construction
Build a large skyscraper about 700×700 blocks wide. Use the leftovers for the walls. Add lava at the walls to kill mobs and to set the trees on fire. Add towers the same as the ones in the ultimate siege fort and add lava to the walls.
Extras
Pros
Cons
These shelters provide nearly perfect protection. These structures are massive, and have large amounts of add-ons, not recommended for any players who are not willing to spend many days constructing these.
The second hardest and most protective shelter in Minecraft.
Description
A city under one gigantic obsidian shelter.
Necessary Materials
Location
If you are able to clear all that land, then build it in a forest or tundra biome. Of course, these are only recommendations.
Construction
Mark out a plot of land at least 65×65 chunks. It does not necessarily have to be square. (The one the author built was a dome) Then, raise the walls with obsidian at least 30 blocks. Then, add a roof of obsidian. Now, you can add 5 more layers of obsidian. Once you have got that done, install a 5 block high piston-operated door made of obsidian at least 2 blocks thick. Line the inside of the giant obsidian shell with stone and wood. You can build lots of things inside there! Finally, add an obsidian 'fence' about 2 blocks thick around the gigantic structure and put actual fences on top. Make the gate piston operated. Just build whatever you like in there!
Extras
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Description
Make your own world into one big city. It should only be attempted by pro pros and map makers.
Necessary materials
A maniac amount of blocks of your choice
Villagers
A world with no mobs
A couple of real-life months
Extras
Your choice
Description
A giant island with a city on top.
Materials
Construction
With your 100 blocks, build up straight a pillar and go up. When you reach the 100 block mark, build a gigantic circular platform, using about half of your iron blocks. Build skyscrapers and houses with the iron and gold blocks, maybe a palace for you to rest, inns, shacks and huts with planks- and some defense. Now, decorate the houses and the palace, light up the entire city, build a garden and a farm, and enjoy your brand-new, cool-looking sky city.
Extras
Pros
Cons
These structures take a notoriously long time to build and may be impossible on Survival mode. However, they offer perfect protection.
Description
A gigantic cube of bedrock that can act as a shield for an inner base. Slits in it can accommodate TNT cannons.
Note: You cannot obtain bedrock in Survival without commands. Even if you managed to break bedrock using glitches, the bedrock won't drop as an item.
Necessary materials
Construction
Build a wall 100 blocks high and down to the bedrock layer. Make the base outline of a square and fill in all gaps with bedrock. Leave slits for TNT cannons. Then, turn the ground below the place where you are going to build the base into a crater and fill with lava before sealing it off. Then, build a column up and form a platform. Then, it's up to you.
Extras
Description
This is a gigantic indestructible dome made out of barrier blocks.
Note: Barrier cannot be obtain without commands, so this is required to be built in Creative.
Necessary materials
Construction
First, build a massive dome out of barrier. This is difficult and time-consuming. The dome should has the diameter of at least 200 blocks. If you have mods that allow you to build beyond 256 blocks, the dome should has the diameter of 900 blocks. Then build a city (or a village, town, etc). You can also build a castle, palace, mansion under the dome. If you want to expand the dome city (without mods to build beyond world limit), build multiple dome cities, and connect them with roads under bedrock tunnels (so people from outside cannot go inside). Built properly, this could be beautiful and protective.
Extras
These types of dwellings are mostly to impress other players, or are amazingly dangerous to live in.
Description
This type of shelter can vary in location and security. For example, an innovative dwelling could be located within a double dungeon (with the spawners still there), built into the bottom of an overhang, or above a lava lake! Innovative dwellings are usually much more difficult to live in and build; however, they work with the map and are great for impressing other players.
Location
The location of this type of shelter can vary drastically, depending on the map, and on the player's preference.
This type of house is hard to make, but almost no mobs can get you. First, find a jungle and either pillar up a giant tree or use ladders/vines (recommended.) Once on top of the tree, just make a house. It's an awesome idea to make bridges to other giant trees, to use either as a great lookout point or as extra rooms for your base inside the leaves of the tree. If you're feeling ambitious and have a lot of time, make a huge treetop village and invite your friends! You can keep adding more and more... the possibilities are endless!
Dungeon dwellings require minimal preparation on the part of the player. They are small, and there is also the risk of spawned enemies as well as caverns nearby. Many are located deep underground, so they can be relatively difficult to locate and navigate to. Leaving the spawner in for decoration can serve as the player's death sentence. However, advantages of this type of home are little setup, free mob drops (if one decides to set up as a mob trap instead), and in multiplayer, difficulty by other players attempting to locate the home.
There are 3 types of overhang base. The first is built into the underside of overhangs of mountains. Unfortunately, suitable overhangs and ones located in scenic or easy-to-defend places can be difficult to find. Building is another problem, as you would either have to pillar upwards to excavate the home or enter from the top and use water to build on the underside of the overhang. Sand or gravel is recommended, as removing pillars made out of these materials is much easier and can be done directly from the ground.
The second type is built by making walls that go from the ground to the top of the overhang. You can put in many floors and have tons of stuff. You can also connect it to a hollowed-out mountain for even more space. The third is to find a wall (a ravine, maybe?) and make there your base as an overhang.
As difficult as this setup may be, one can use this type of base as a stealthy reconnaissance outpost, by dropping lava, arrows, or even TNT on unsuspecting players or just for viewing epic scenery.
This is regular on creative, but is actually one of the BEST homes in survival. It looks nice and can be a dome if you are skilled it contains a lot of decoration and space. This is a modular home as well so can expand well.
You must make sure to use the base of the dome or cylinder as a walling material and this must be 4-6 blocks high as your lower floor remember to try to sink it into the ground and maybe connect it to a cave for a tunnel/mine. Then, make a walkway with a small hole in the middle to have as a second-floor viewing the water wonders. You can add pistons to part of the lower floor where it's above the ground to exit and do fighting in the water or underwater mining. It also creates lots of clay for you to use and is virtually fully mob-proof as mobs swim so will not be able to attack you and water protects from creepers.
Time to make: Medium dome 2–5 days, large dome 4–7 days, supersized dome 2 weeks, Corridors (40 blocks long) 2–3 days.
These are arguably one of the most difficult bases to build, not only because above ground lakes tend to burn wooden homes down, needing a lot of lava as well as the fact that returning home with a stash of diamonds could quite possibly be riskier than hugging a creeper on Hard difficulty. As the player must use non-flammable materials, such as cobblestone, players may not like how the home would look. On the other hand, the lava can protect against all types of mobs, allow animal spawns, and is relatively easy to spot from a distance during the night-time from a high perch.
This structure makes an interesting-looking tower, but requires a few resources. First, make a sculpture out of ice (the design is your choice) that is about 3×5×9 blocks. Next, encase it in a structure made from non-flammable materials, with a 1-block gap between the ice and the structure, like this:
Make sure to keep the top open. After the structure is complete, pour lava into the top. After the hissing noises have stopped entirely (3–5 minutes), use a bucket to get rid of the lava, tear down the structure, drain the extra water, and decorate your new house! Glass windows and doors are recommended. Try to get inside without breaking any blocks, only ladders.
These bases are some of the toughest to build because they are basically on top of a mountain. You're probably thinking, "That's easy to build", but it isn't, because it requires a mountain range or at least two mountains. The idea is you link the two mountains together with 10 block wide bridge, and rooms inside the bridge. That's only the start, to make a proper base you could add a floating island around the base and make it better to look at. It's one of the toughest because it requires a lot of stone. It is suggested that you get 200 saplings and plant them around your base as well as in it. When all this is done it will look amazing and easy to protect from mobs because they fall off the edge of the mountain and plummet to their death, but it will take time to build, it takes a lot longer to build than a lava fort, but there is an easy way. If you clear the top of the mountain and make it flat, it will be easier and you can just build a simple house. Of course, this isn't as safe.
This type of base is hard to conquer (see Tutorial:Defeating a stronghold). One first has to find a stronghold in their world (a difficult task as it is), light up the entire structure, patch any holes made by caves, and then make a safe entrance from the surface. You can also use a cave entrance, but this makes it harder to find when coming home after a long day of exploring. You also must be wary of silverfish, and be careful not to break any walls. However, once you do conquer the entire Stronghold, nothing can get to you. The main thing to be wary of are creepers waiting outside your exit, wanting to kill you as you foolishly walk up and out.
Extras
This will be a home where you shall never fear external damage. A griefer will never block the entrance with obsidian because the whole house is made of it. Best of all, it will be hidden with 2-4 layers of dirt and stone to cover it. This home will require huge amounts of time, space, materials, and hard work, but in the end, you will have everything you'll have ever wanted.
The layout is quite symmetrical except for the entrance. You should find a big hill or mountain to place the entrance. The actual entrance will a 2×1×2 square of stone that will open when the two sideways sticky pistons on either side revert to their normal position. The doors should open on both sides, but the outside switch will be in a 6×1×6 hollow space surrounded by dirt that you will dig through. You then build a 6×25×6 hallway entirely out of obsidian. It should be lit by a torch once every other block on both sides. This will lead to the grand entrance. At the end of the hallway, build an 8×1×8 rim on the blocks in front of where the hallway ended. This will create a big lip around the hallway. Continue building these rims until you finish the 14×1×14 rim. You then pick a corner of the 14×1×14 rim and build another identical rim including the corner of the original 14×1×14 rim. You then build the smaller interior rims just like you did with the first hallway. You'll be going backwards though, so instead of going 8×1×8,10×1×10, etc., you'll be going 12×1×12,10×1×10, etc. until you finish the 6×1×6 rim. Repeat for other two passage entrances until the result is a big square with symmetrical entrances on each side. Put a roof on the big square that is horizontal, not something that sticks out.
For the remaining entrances, build a 6×2×1 floor one block lower than the original floor. Make sure it lines up with the inner 6×1×6 rim. This will be the first of 25 "steps". The ceiling will also be one block lower than the top layer of the rim as well. The ceiling copies the floor, just 6 blocks higher. Make sure walls match the rim as well. Once the 25 steps are finished, repeat at other passageways.
After finishing the stairways, decide what each one leads to. In the main chamber, find the center and make a 4×4×1 square. Make a hole to bedrock with TNT and build whatever you want down there. If safe way down there is not built, please put signs warning yourself and others to not jump in the hole.
Add-ons
Projects Under Fortress
Materials
This is a house that will build itself perpetually. It will rebuild itself after creeper attacks if the redstone circuits and pistons aren't destroyed. It's a good idea to make the entrance come from underground because doors are hard to keep permanent.
Use an auto cobblestone generator (those above-ground ones that are piston-powered). Next, make a floating structure for your ceiling (the outermost block must be obsidian so you have an obsidian rim). Next, put upwards pistons on the ground under the obsidian rim. The cobblestone generator should push cobblestone onto the pistons. At the corners, you can either put a piston facing the next side, or another generator. On the area surrounding the wall, you will need a perpetual redstone circuit going to each piston. If the repeaters have the right delay, they should build your house.
Building up has several significant advantages: A skyscraper house can be seen from a long way away, provided it is tall enough. Of course, this can be a mixed blessing in multiplayer, the bad side being griefers can also see it easily. In singleplayer mode, it can serve as a spacious establishment. Besides countless rooms for storage, cobblestone generation (of course, if you do build something this big, you should have a lot of cobblestone), smelting, and such, it allows you to stack up farms in a small area so that all of them will be within chunk update range any time you're home. You can also use the roof, perhaps as a garden, or tree farm (a sufficiently large building can have the tree farm inside). You can also dig a quarry underneath your skyscraper to replenish iron, coal, etc.
It is important to ensure some practicalities are taken care of. For example, one must ensure the skyscraper's elevator allows the player to easily move between floors without taking up too much time—otherwise, it is probably best to just spread your base out horizontally. To do this, it is advised that you either install a water elevator, using soul sand and magma blocks to speed the player's ascent and descent, or a fast-acting piston elevator. Make sure a mechanism to stop the player at a floor of their choice is installed.
Even more pointless than a skyscraper, but in multiplayer, it will be ridiculously hard for griefers to destroy it whole, and also ridiculously hard to recover after griefer or creeper attacks. Like in real life and for safety, build it in the mountains biome. First, make a 6×6 tower, then continue on the wall. Every 200 blocks, another tower must be built. You can even use the same technique used in the self-building/rebuilding house to make it even harder to fully destroy! Build until it covers nearly the entire biome if you wish!
Resources needed:
Extras:
These are often just normal on-ground homes with walls around them.
Description
These shelters offer far higher protection, and if there are no dark places on the walls or inside, then, you can roam freely at night without fear of mobs (as long as you are inside the walls), offer a place to attack from, and allows you to build at night.
Location
Large flat area
Materials
Construction
First pick a perimeter for the wall so you will have space to build in later on, then build a 1 block high wall there. After that, keep making it higher and higher until you have the desired height. Then, you will build a lip that is at least 1 block over on the top of the wall to prevent spiders and spider jockeys from climbing over.
Extras
These are quite obvious additions if you are by the sea, and can be quite useful if you happen to have many bases and mines offshore. Watch this video for an example:
| Lighthouse and Waterways (view on YouTube) |
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Description
These are built next to water, by a natural sea or possibly a man-made channel, and allow the usage of boats to travel in and out of your base.
Location
Virtually anywhere there is water, most usefully if next to a sea.
Materials
Construction
First, pick a suitable area on the sea or dig a trench you can sail through and flood it. Once you have a waterfront ready, build as many units for boats as you wish. These are generally 2×2 squares that can be dug into land or built into the water, and usually, have a double door at the front to stop boats from drifting out to sea. Place boats in each of these and make sure you can sail in and out easily. Place wool or stairs at the opposite side of the doors to stop high-speed boats from shattering when they hit the wall. Add storage, dispensers, or anything else you want.
Extras
This is useful if you have several mines, bases, or other places of interest that are too far away to walk to from your shelter.
Description
These are built when you've got plenty of resources and you have need of getting somewhere regularly that is at least a few hundred meters away, or you simply don't have the patience to walk there and back.
Materials
Construction
First, build a booster with three powered rails (for more information, see "here"). Connect the T switch to the booster and make a water timer. Wire it up to the track switch. When you enter you press a button to activate the timer. You may want to activate the button when you get in and add a wire to the powering torch. Now, make your track and repeat at the other end. If you have a 400-meter track, you'll want a 12-second booster. You may want to build the majority of the track a few blocks above the ground and have heavily-guarded stations to avoid mobs (particularly creepers) damaging it. With this track you'll go 8 meters/second (or 11.3 meters/second, if you're going diagonally), which, depending on the terrain you're traveling through, will make your journey 50-80% shorter.
Extras
Horses are a faster alternative to walking.
Description
It's basically a house for your horses and a path for them to follow!
Materials
Construction
First, build a wooden or cobblestone 'hut' with a gate for the horses. Make it at least 8×5. Next, make a path to whatever destination. Make it at least 2 blocks wide and light it! Once you get the horses, you can virtually ride wherever you want!
Extras
