Sorry about that cliffhanger in the last post, but I didn’t want it to drag on so I cut it short. I think it was worth it, though, because we started learning more about the game at this point and started making more interesting builds, and actually started working toward something instead of just mining relatively aimlessly.

We even got some Redstone in there! I mean, I’m no Mumbo Jumbo or Pingu (by a long shot), but for a few hours of gameplay and a couple YouTube videos, I didn’t do too shabbily. These are just incredibly accessible, practical builds; that took my base area to new levels. Keep reading to check those out.

Everything around the treehouse (from the end of the last post) seemed, essentially, like more of the same — Just variations of wood. Not finding anything really new, we set off again. We tried to pay attention to landmark features and leave breadcrumbs for ourselves so we could make our way back at some point, but it didn’t really help.

Of course creepers and zombies were a problem, but now we’ve got ice archers? (“Stray’s” I guess) And they poison you?!? That’s annoying. We had to act fast, so we built a fence around this area to keep enemies out.

I had a vision pretty quickly for this base. I wanted the façade of the mountain to stay the same, with our living areas being within that space. And I wanted to add windows and lights so it looked like a home carved into the side of the mountain; which is exactly what it was.

On the ground level, when we first arrived, we built into the mountain to make our base. We simply carved out an area that looked big enough and dropped in beds, storage chests, and work benches. I wanted some “natural light” in this area, but we unfortunately didn’t have any glass or sand at the time, so I just made an opening in the wall. I figured we were protected by the fence we had already built.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think about spiders and the fact that some mobs have ranged attacks. We’d be minding our own business trying to get something done in the house, when all of a sudden we’re getting shot from behind. It got old fast, so we ended up filling in the gap pretty quickly. Actually, I still wanted the natural light, so I left the bottom row open. But then we were subject to spiders and baby zombies.

And the fence itself that we initially built failed quite a bit. Since we were in the snowy biome it, well, snowed. A lot. That snow would pile up (which is a cool game mechanic, I just didn’t know it existed), which would create a step for mobs to use to get over the fence. You just can’t win with this game.

After a couple nights I just high-tailed it over to the first beach I could find to gather some sand and head back, to create real windows that also protected us. It was necessary, too, because I had a few ideas for this base and they all involved windows. And I just tried to be cognizant about the snow, and clear it out whenever I noticed it piling up.

I wanted to expand the home and add a proper bedroom. Plus I wanted the outside to look more like there was a home built in there, so I started building up. There was a nice corner in the side of the mountain, so I carved out an opening to that. I put a wrap-around window in that corner, with a narrow hallway entrance, in order to make up the bedroom.

It was completed when gf added in the beds with the headboard and carpet; along with the seating area behind. Also on the second level (before the bedroom) was a bit of a library. I put windows looking out on the side of the mountain too — along with the aforementioned corner — to really make it look like a home from the outside. But otherwise, it was just the area you first got to when you went up the ladder to the second level.

Gf ran with it, though, and added some carpeting, bookshelves, and “seating” around the perimeter. We took a lot of it down when we moved (needed the bookshelves for enchanting, when we finally discovered that); but that’s what this looked like in it’s heyday — and I really liked it. Now, it mostly looks abandoned and ransacked.

Redstone

Also, around this time, I learned about Redstone. I had mined a ton of it, but I had no idea what it was or what it was used for. Thanks to YouTube, though, a whole new world was opened for me. I immediately started thinking about how I could apply these new principles.

My first thought was to have a machine that pushes mobs into a pool of lava at the push of a button. The main issue was actually getting the mobs in front of the pistons. My best thought was to have the tops of the pistons be on the same level that they walk on to get to me. Then, there’d be a small platform a block down in front of the pistons.

So, ideally, they’d walk across the piston, drop down onto that platform (where they’d stay because they A) wouldn’t willingly walk into lava and B) are still trying to get to me); at which point I’d press the button and have the pistons make the push.

I wanted to capture any items that the mobs dropped, too, so the plan was to put hoppers and chests under the lava. I needed a place to put the chests, with the hoppers above, with lava on top of those, not to mention the step for the mobs and the pistons that push them — so I built a huge structure off to the side that would accomplish just that.

And actually, for a first attempt, it worked pretty well. I had stairs going up to the top/platform, so I could lead the mobs up to the platform. I’d run around trying to got mobs to follow me; and when they did, I’d head up the stairs, jump across the gap, and head to the button hoping they’d follow.

It was a 2-block-long jump, so I could clear it and head to the back of the machine, while not worrying about mobs following me that far. And I built the entire structure relatively long because at this point I was thinking about the bow-and-arrow enemies and how they like to stay a bit further back.

In the back of the trap I had the aforementioned, button and I would wait for the mob to inevitably walk toward me and off the one-block ledge onto the block right in front of the pistons. At the push of a button, those pistons extended and pushed the enemies into fire. Easy peasy.

There were a few downsides. For one, I took a lot of hits trying to lure enemies — I couldn’t just stand there and wait for mobs to come to me at the back of the trap, I had to physically go out and get each one to follow me. Also, Spiders were largely immune due to how I had the Redstone laid out. And, not that this affected the trap’s performance, but it was rather unsightly.

I thought I could solve a lot of those problems by making the platform of the trap at the same level as the rest of the ground — digging down for the drop-off, chests, hoppers etc. I could enclose the Redstone more easily (I thought), and hopefully enemies would see me just standing there and come after me, instead of having to lure them.

One small issue

There was one small issue with this plan, though, and it was that I was in an ice biome. So there was just water under the ground level. I had to essentially build a box underwater, fighting off Drowneds and trying to avoid drowning myself in the process (which I failed at constantly). I eventually got the box built and drained, though, and was ready to make the trap.

At this point, my vision expanded and I no longer wanted the one-block drop for the mobs. I wanted them to walk to the edge of the lava pit on the ground level, and instead of mobs dropping in front of the pistons, the pistons would pop up behind the mobs to push them into the lava. I tried several variation of this before realizing/discovering that pistons don’t like to move other moving pistons. So, I never got it working.

Before I was able to put it back to the original design, we decided to move on again from this area. Haley wanted to actually take advantage of villagers and make a real farm; and I was ready for a change. I was tired of being cold.

I closed off the trap so no mobs could get in — thinking I’d maybe come back one day and tinker — packed up and headed out again.

One of our main goals for the next area was actually using villagers for farming etc., so we high-tailed it to the first set of occupied houses we found. Having already ruined several villages by letting them get overrun with zombies, we were very cautious this time.

We lit up the whole area pretty quickly, then looked around, and found a nice open area for us to put our house. We chose a spot looking over a crevice that had water, and thought it would be cool to build out over that. There was also a big waterfall off to one side, so we really like what it looked like.

I wanted a slightly bigger build here, and I envisioned a very modern-style home with rectangles staggered on top of each-other for each designated space. So that’s what I got to work on. I did an entrance area, a bedroom, and a space for work tables initially. I also wanted to shoot my shot at making a piston door — so I did that as well — and I thing it turned out great.

At first there was a switch, but I eventually wired it up to pressure plates so we could just run in and out. I felt pretty safe doing so — we built a full barrier around the house, so mobs shouldn’t have been able to get in. I did have a couple moments of panic where I thought some were getting through (I’d hear the door while I was crafting or something) but it turned out to be the traveling merchant.

I’m not sure how he’s able to get in and zombies aren’t, but I’m grateful. We also left the entire back of the house open, just because. It was gf’s idea and I think it looked great. I’m guessing that helped keep mobs on the back-side of the home rather than inside the fence. Path of least resistance.

Once we figured out enchanting and what bookshelves were for, I stacked another rectangle on top to house those; and to upgrade the look of the house a bit (inside and out) I replaced the wall of our bedroom with windows, and that’s the house itself!

The Fun Stuff

Around the house there are a lot of things we built, too. Like I mentioned, gf wanted a farm and villagers, so she followed a YT tutorial and built one off to the side. We ended up getting tons of villagers with this setup. We (Haley mostly) also painstakingly fenced in the entire village so all of our work wouldn’t be in vain.

I couldn’t go too long without messing with Redstone, so I made a trip-wire trap that opened the ground as mobs walked across it, dropping them into lava (the one from the top of this post). I loved the idea behind this, and mostly the execution but it required a lot of finagling of blocks that I didn’t love.

In order to hide the tripwire, I needed to build a little bit of a tunnel; and cats and pigs (and the occasional baby villager) kept getting stuck in there. And since that’s where the tripwire was, they’d be triggering it. This would leave the pit open, so they wouldn’t be able to get out. I’d have to break the trap to let them free, and then re-build it.

The villagers also weren’t smart enough to avoid the trap itself either, so I lost a few who fell in. Along with a couple iron golems. It was still worth it.

On the other side, in a corner, I built a much simpler version of my first trap. There was just a one-block hole just on the outside of the barrier of our property; connected to a button that removed the block for the drop in to lava. It was simple but it worked well — I even caught a few creepers with it.

Redstone wasn’t the only thing that YouTube taught me. I also learned how to quickly cultivate helpful items like kelp/bone meal, sugar cane, and wood. I built a basement to house the farms because I liked the idea of an underground “factory”. Also, the back-side of our base had water, and I liked the idea of having a glass lookout from the factory into the water. So I went deep enough to do that.

First, I built the kelp farm that automatically created the bone meal, and I used the bone meal to grow the oak trees (for wood) and sugar cane (for paper). I wired up a dispenser for each, so the bonemeal was automatic. When I wanted sugar cane, all I had to do was add bonemeal, turn on the farm and wait.

For wood, I simply had to place the sapling; a tree would eventually sprout for me to harvest. With this setup, I could grow 5 at a time. I even built some pistons at the top to get rid of the leaves so I could get more saplings and sticks — keeping the farm self-sustainable. I probably didn’t need that part though as I always ended up just climbing the machine to get all of the leaves anyway.

We started realizing our need for iron, so we built the classic iron farm that involved killing iron golems automatically. There were a few issues setting this up — there’s a lot of conflicting information out there, especially given the various versions ‘vailable. But eventually we got it working properly. And for shits and giggles, I built a rail line from the basement over to the iron farm.

To Do’s Going Forward…

I also attempted to make a couple mob farms in this area — one at bedrock and one like 300 blocks in the air, but I never got those to work for me. All the videos I watched made me think I did things right, but I couldn’t get mobs to spawn. Never did figure it out. Now that I think about it, I didn’t give them a ton of time, but I felt like I should have seen at least one or two if it was actually working. Now that the other farms are established, I might go back and try to work on one of these again and actually get them to work.

At this point, we felt established. And while we had some goals still, we also were itching for some new experiences. At various times while we had been playing, we glanced at the add-ons to see what was available. There were a couple that looked promising; and since we wanted to keep this world relatively vanilla, we decided to start a new world for that.

We ended up making a pretty cool homestead there, too, but that’s for another time. My pyramid that reveals a hidden enchanting room will have to wait for another post. Let me know in the comments if that’s something you want me to show.

Otherwise, thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought of this, and what your Minecraft builds look like, I love getting inspiration from other designs.