One of my Minecraft Essential Handbooks came today. It’s the one with the pickaxe icon on the front. I read it cover to cover in less than 20 minutes. It was only 79 pages, but it was mostly pictures with words, so it’s far from a novel. But it’s fully color and hardcover and was only $5, so I think it was well worth the price considering it’s normally $8.

Near the end it has a tip for finding your way back to your home when you get lost, and that is to build some beacons. They said to just build up 2 columns of dirt blocks, then place your torch on one column, then dig your way down with the 2nd column of dirt blocks. That makes sense, but you know, I didn’t think 1 torch was going to help me find my way at night, or even during the day. I wanted to build up a huge tower of blocks with 4 torches and 4 pumpkins, since pumpkins are supposed to give off better light than a torch. I spaced them far enough that I could still see other beacons, but just in case I couldn’t see the other beacons, at the bottom of the beacon I created an arrow with cobblestone so I would know which direction I had to go in to find the next beacon or the home beacon.

As you can see in the image above, it’s very difficult to see. All you can really see are the arrows, which is why I zoomed them in for you. This particular beacon is the home beacon which stands just behind my cobblestone house. I made the beacon with cobblestone so that it would match my house, but all the other beacons are made with oak wood planks because I have an abundance of wood thanks to fact that every time I chop down a tree, it drops several oak tree saplings which I plant for more trees so I don’t have to keep chopping down all the trees in the land. I just plant around 50 to 100 near my house, then spend whatever amount of time I need chopping them down whenever I need more wood.

Another tip is to create a road using cobblestone, which basically means I have to mine the dirt as I’m travelling and fill in that space with cobblestone, which as you know can take a long time, especially if you just want to go explore. You can’t really explore if all you are doing is laying road, so the other alternative is just dropping torches every minute so you can find your way back using the torches. Later, once you’ve found the new mine or whatever it is you found, you can just create your new road along the torches, then add the cobblestone.

A cobblestone road, torches to light the patch, beacons and signs are a few of the ways I have gotten myself back to my house when I start getting lost, or think I am getting lost. Today for example I had built the first beacon, but then I found a horse and tamed it and put a saddle on it, then brought it back to my house, but I forgot to make the lead, so when I went into the house to make the lead, the horse was gone. Is it a lead? It’s basically a rope that you can put on your horse to tie it to a fence so they don’t wander off. It works with a dog as a leash. Anyway, I went searching for the horse, and next thing I knew I was lost and couldn’t find my beacon. I eventually did, but one beacon isn’t going to help me, which is why I build 3 more in many different directions from my house. I will have to keep adding more later just in case I get lost again and can’t find my roads or my beacons. I still never found that stupid horse, but I have 2 more saddles and I plan on taming another horse. Maybe some day my tame horse with the saddle will return to me.

The first book that I received today was full of useful information, I can’t wait to get the other 3 tomorrow.