Minecraft is a sandbox video game maintained by Mojang Studios, a subsidiary of Microsoft. Since its official release in 2011, Minecraft has become one of the best-selling video games of all time. It can run on many platforms such as Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, etc. There are three main editions of Minecraft- Java Edition, Bedrock Edition and Education Edition. Both single-player and multiplayer modes are available.

• Overworld: The default world containing biomes, animals and villages
• Netherworld: A dangerous, hellish world with unique mobs and blocks
• Endworld: A world home to the Ender Dragon and End Cities

• Passive mobs: Cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and villagers
• Neutral mobs: Endermen, bees, dolphins (which attack if provoked)
• Hostile mobs: Zombies, skeletons, creepers, spiders, witches, etc
• Boss mobs: The Wither and the Ender Dragon

• Survival mode: Players have to gather resources, manage health and hunger, and survive mobs.
• Creative mode: Players get unlimited resources and are immune to any damage, which proves to be ideal for builders.
• Adventure mode: Designed for custom maps where players can't break blocks without tools.
• Spectator mode: Used to observe the world invisibly without interaction.
• Hardcore mode: A survival mode with permanent death (no respawn).

Minecraft can be purchased and downloaded from the official website of Minecraft (See our experts' corner for another alternative). The Minecraft marketplace offers skins, world packs, mini-games, etc, which can be bought. Creators can earn real money through the Minecraft Partner Program by selling their inventions on the marketplace.

• Firstly, you must acquire wood, which is used to make many tools.
• Building a shelter before nightfall (when most mobs spawn) is recommended in higher difficulty modes.
• Upgrade from wooden tools to stone as soon as possible.
• Kill 3 sheep or use 3 wool blocks + wood to make a bed, which can be used to skip the night and set up a spawn point.
• Water buckets are useful since they save you from lava and fall damage.
• Use seeds and farm animals to attain resources.
• Place torches around your base and mines.
• If you die, your items drop. Keep backup tools and food in a chest near your spawn point.
• Enable cheats to experience a controlled game, allowing you to teleport, change gamemode, set time, etc.
• Jump and strike at the peak of your jump for a critical hit, which deals more damage.
• Enchant your gear strategically by placing protection on armour, sharpness on swords, efficiency on tools, and mending on everything.
• Teleport away from danger or across large gaps quickly.
• Mob farms or auto-fisheries provide fast XP for enchanting.

Tlauncher offers a free download of Minecraft. It is a safe and trusted source for downloading. But this won’t create a Minecraft account, and so you cannot join most official servers (like Hypixel).

Trading with villagers can provide many resources, even diamond gear. Use a zombie to infect and cure them, which reduces the prices.

Some cheat codes are:

• For a very sharp diamond sword: /give @p minecraft:diamond_sword{Enchantments:[{id:"minecraft:sharpness",lvl:1000}]} 1
• For teleporting to x:100, y:70, z:-200: /tp @p 100 70 -200
• For adding experience: /experience add @p 500 levels
• Similarly, /summon can be used to summon mobs, /kill to kill entities, and /gamemode to change the mode (survival, creative, etc).