PlanetCraft and Planet of Cubes Forum

Here today I am posting a complete beginners guide to Planet of Cubes: Survival Games.

When you first join the game, you will spawn in a PvP-free area, protected by invisible walls. If you exit them, you can destroy the land and attack players... But they can attack you! 

Don't go going crazy building your house yet! Before you depart on your grand adventure, (OPTIONAL) don't leave without 1 or more people accompanied with you. It is very helpful to have a NICE partner with you.

Okay, now that you have got a companion, try your best to gather resources, especially wood and cobblestone. Once you have a certain amount, craft a Workbench. Craft this by clicking the ... button and click craft on the menu. Scroll down a slight bit and you will find the workbench. Craft it.

HOW TO FIND WOOD: Find this as the brown block found inside leaves.

HOW TO FIND COBBLESTONE: Dig down in the ground until the dirt layer ends, and be left with a gray resource. Use your workbench to craft STICKS and use yuour WOODEN PLANKS to make a WOODEN Pickaxe. Equip this and break the gray resource to get 1 Cobblestone.

Most of the information above was common sense, but just try to gather a LOT of Wood, and a lot of cobblestone. Ask your partner, if you have one, to help with this.

TIP: You can find ores, such as Coal, for making torches, a light source, and iron, for making weapons, tools, armor, shears, etc... The way to acquire the ores is to keep mining the cobblestone underground, or by exploring a cave.

Rarer ores: Gold Ore, used for tools and armor, and gold blocks and nuggets. Redstone, for potion brewing. Diamond Ore, used for powerful tools and armor, and Diamond Blocks. There is lapis, but pretty much no use to it.

After you gain the MAIN resources, wood and cobblestone, MAYBE FOOD for your travels, run away with your partner to coordinates past 600 and 600. It may take an hour to get to this location, but there will be no one there. Perfect for making an undisturbed base. (If you find a base, please, just please leave it be.)

When you reach your desired spot, make a shelter IMMEDIATELY. It doesn't matter how it looks, you can always change it later. Take some time to explore your surroundings. This is EXTREMELY important. Return by nighttime. During your first night, you and your partner should stay in the house all the night. Maybe discuss plans for your base, or with enough skills and courage, go hunt down those monsters with a newly crafted Sword. Mob drops get very important, such as Glowstone Dust.

During the second day, allow your partner to either mine or gather resources above ground. Return for the night. Discuss further plans.

(Don't forget to take a break.) You both should break grass to gather Seeds, and make a farm. To make a farm, craft a Hoe and equip it. Hit the ground with it. Now the dirt is ready to PLANT!! For faster growth, place Torches near it, Glowstone Blocks above the plants, or place water near it for hydration. 

Getting a farm set up is pretty easy work, so you will have much more time during the day to do other things.

HOW TO SET UP YOUR BASE: The following is how to set up your base. You can skip this part and read the rest if you don't care.

So, first, make your house look a bit more stylish, if you haven't already. Any style is fine, by make the walls of the house DOUBLE LAYERED. The inside layer should be make of cobblestone, the outside with whatever resource you like. Build enough simple houses for eveyone inside your group to live in. Even simple cube houses are fine. You can place a one layer cobblestone WALL, the actual wall that if craftable, to prevent zombies, animals, skeletons, CREEPERS, and SPIDERS from getting inside. Make it two blocks tall to provide protection from skeletons. HOW TO SET IT UP FROM PLAYERS:  If you really, really want to prevent players from finding your base, here are a few tips: Make it underground. Gather TONS of dirt, then make a mountain outside your base so your base is completely inside a  mountain, but make the walls of it steep so players won't want to climb it. Don't allow any light to be shown to players or don't show any signs that there is civilization nearby. Cover up your tracks. Remember though, you can do whatever you desire.

Now that you have got houses, defenses, and maybe camoflauge, the next thing you need to do is intense mining. First, empty out your inventory into a chest. What you will need:

One stack of cobblestone, one stack of Wooden Planks, one stack of Torches, 6 Stone Pickaxes and 2 Iron Pickaxes. For other uses: One Sword, Armor, Water Bucket (For cave exploration only!!

What I am going to describe is a amazing technique used to mine and come back with some shiny diamonds. First, mine a 2 x 2 staircase leading down to bedrock. (Make it look neat!) Bedrock: A black block, unbreakable by any tool. Is found on the bottom layer of the map.

Now, keep digging that 2x2 passageway until you gain 3 stacks of cobblestone, or until you find lava that blocks your path. Return back to the start of the mine, but still where the bedrock is located. (This technique is called Branch Mining, a compact and good way to get ores, without a cave.) First, dig a 2 x 1 tunnel on the side of one of the walls. Do it until you find lava that blocks your path. If you find a cave, place an extra torch by the passageway to make the cave. When you are finished with that tunnel, go to the same side and skip two layers of blocks, and dig a 2 x 1 tunnel there, so there is a 2 x 1 tunnel right next to it. This technique is important because by skipping two blocks, you are able to get all of the contents of a gigantic room. It saves time and resources. Do this until the whole walls of your 2 x 2 passage ways are filled by those tunnels. IT shows to other players that you are smart and organized, too! It will encourage someone to join if their introduction video to their base includes that.

By the time you finished mining, you are garunteed to have 6+ diamonds and a ton of ores, not to mention a hiding place if your base ever gets raided!

PART 3: Now you have probably gained many resources, already following the tips I have given you. You probably have good looking houses, a defensive system, etc., but you realize that you have just scratched the surface of this game? Right? Good.

In this part of the guide I am going to be discussing more about buildings, and base defenses.

Soooo, some essential buildings that your base needs are going to be discussed here. You base is going to need, first, tons and tons of members. Maybe 10 is fine? (Remember, you can create or form your group/clan/guild in the Survival Clans and Groups Section of the forums. To anyone reading this without an account, hurry up and make one!) These people need to be smart, they cannot be 7 year olds. (No offense. :P ) If you want a striving community, you need them to be at least good at video games, and some courage to fight monsters and not hide away in their house all day. They need to be conservant of resources, good at building, organized, and good at following the theme of your base. (You may have a medieval theme for your base, for example.)

Second, you will need Warehouses, especially to put in building and crafting material. Just make cylinder shaped buildings, enough to fit 10-50 chests, and spread them throughout your base. WARNING!! DO NOT MAKE THEM UNDERGROUND. I have my reasons. For these warehouses, to sort them out through which resource type is inside, place a block of its genre onto the building. Allow it to be easily visible. For example, if you are storing building materials, such as wood and cobblestone, place wood and cobblestone blocks(one of each) on both sides of the doorway. Easier organization and you won't waste time looking through unorganized chests. Just tell your team members that they are for decoration only. Then, make an underground passageway leading into the insides of them. Make the passageways look like mines! Maybe place an iron ore here or there, to prevent players/ teamates from finding out what those passageways are really for!

(For Above-Ground Bases) Place Watchtowers in the center of your town, and the corners. Have 1 or two people hunting monsters at night for further protection from players. Make sure your guild members are talkative, so they can warn you whenever a hostile player enters your lands. Make 3 block thick walls, and hollow them out. Find a ton of lava, and fill the hollow walls with lava. Place Gates around your base so players can get in, but cant get out when the lava comes.