"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.
* Usually a portable shelter by design
* Easy to dismantle and rebuild
* Materials can be easily obtained and carried around
* Offers limited protection and is extremely vulnerable to [[creeper]] attacks
* Many designs do not allow the player to easily tell when it is safe to go outside
* Usually vulnerable to spider attacks
* Always have proper lighting
* Build basic fortifications (fences, walls, etc.) if necessary or desired
* Have a door and windows, if resources allow that
* Just because a nomadic shelter is crude, primitive and simple in design doesn't mean it cannot serve as the base and foundation for a more advanced shelter if the player, for example, decides to end their nomadic travel, settle down and adopt a more sedentary lifestyle.
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.
{{layered blueprint|name=ES|default=Layer 1or you can expand it like this:
{{layered blueprint|name=ESE|default=Layer 1On the ground level in a place with dirt.
* Ladders (For getting out)
Note: This shelter type will only work properly in ocean biomes.
* 5 wooden planks of the same type
|A2= Matching Overworld Planks
|C2= Matching Overworld Planks
|A3= Matching Overworld Planks
|B3= Matching Overworld Planks
|C3= Matching Overworld Planks
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.
|A2= |B2= Stick |C2= String
|A3= Stick |B3= |C3= String
It should preferably not be used longer than 1-3 Minecraft days (unless you like being nomadic).
* Easy to craft, requires only 9 wooden planks.
* Mobile, can easily be moved from one place to another.
* Since you are in the water, you will be always safe from endermen (and other hostile mobs will have a hard time reaching you).
* You can use a bow to snipe hostile mobs from the water with little to no chance of retaliation, then collect their drops at dawn.
* Food can be obtained through fishing.
* If you have to cross an ocean, you could spend the night doing that instead just going to sleep in a [[bed]].
* Offers evasion, but no protection.
* You will eventually be forced to make your way to the mainland to resupply on resources.
* You cannot use crafting tables, furnaces, chests or anything similar without finding solid ground.
* [[Fishing]] is not a reliable source of food in the long run.
* Requires you to disembark from the boat and to proceed on foot if you have to cross the solid ground.
* If a [[skeleton]] destroys the boat (which is likely to happen if you get too close), you will have to quickly replace it to avoid drowning.
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.
* At its smallest, just 9-13 blocks of a chosen material
* The recommended build size requires 25 blocks
'''Structure''': (As seen from the ground upwards)
{{layered blueprint|name=Budget Model|default=Layer 1{{layered blueprint|name=Normal Model|default=Layer 1Note 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.
* Windows (can be made with fences)
* Basic fortifications (like fences and walls etc.)
* Creeper (if no basin already exists)
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.
Anywhere with a crater/basin.
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.)
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.
* A ladder to get out (example 2 only)
Glass, wood logs, leaves, stairs, wood planks,
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).
Anywhere with a tree or a sapling and bone meal and enough space.
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.
* More logs to avoid leaf decay.
* A crafting table, a furnace and a chest.
* The tree shelter can be converted into a treehouse.
* If you want more space, use a 2×2 grid of saplings to create a large Tree (does not work with all tree species)
* (Optional) A sword, just in case you happen to run into an unexpected cave with mobs in it.
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 [[mob]]s (excluding [[creeper]]s, 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.
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 and, WHAM! you got yourself a cliff-side shelter.
The best part of this shelter is that you can build it anywhere there's a cliff. Make sure there's 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.
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.
* Link to an above-ground base
* Plenty of rations and tools in case you drop into another tunnel and find yourself trapped.
File:Vertical Hill.png|Where to build a cliffside cave.
File:WhereNotobuild.png|Where not to build a cliffside cave.
File:2x2x1Wall.png|A 2×2×1 hole in the wall.
File:3x3x3Room.png|A finished cliff-side cave.
* At least around 6 torches
Claim a village house for yourself and convert it into a home.
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 desert small house (tower house) is usually the best choice, because the door keeps you safe (except that [[zombie]]s may spawn inside during [[siege]]s, 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|Bad Omen]] effect, then a [[raid]] can occur in the village and most likely will kill the villagers with the village, due some [[illager]]s being able to break or even open doors.
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:
* Collect as many materials as you can: You need torches and dirt.
* Thoroughly light up the interior of all houses that have doors on them to prevent hostile mob spawning
* Wait until all the villagers have gone indoors, then barricade the doors with a 1-2 block tall stack of dirt in front of the door.
** The villagers will not be able to come out (and get into trouble) and zombies will not be able to get in (and kill the villagers)
*** This is for the villagers' own safety, their AI is woefully ill-equipped to deal with the dangers of the outside world.
* Build a second floor (which some of the houses already come with)
* Add furniture (which some of the buildings come with)
* Occupy the whole village! The buildings that have a chance of being generated in the village include the library, which includes bookshelves (which you can later mine using the [[Silk Touch]] enchantment), other buildings which also have bookshelves; one of snowy tundra medium house (house made of wood) and one of taiga medium house (medium house without furnace). Some small houses also have a crafting table. There's also the weaponsmith shop, which comes with furnaces; 2 furnaces for plains, desert and one of savanna weaponsmith (weaponsmith with smooth stone), but there is no furnace in taiga and snowy taiga weaponsmith, however, one of taiga medium house has a single furnace, also, furnaces can be found in many houses if you are in snowy tundra village. A small pool of lava can be found in plains, desert, snowy taiga, and savanna village weaponsmith (taiga and snowy taiga village has no lava), and many buildings have a chest of goodies. The plains temple (which looks like a classic church) is a two-story building, and you can use the tower and roof to look over the entire village, alternatively one of desert village small house, which looks like a tower can also be used if you are in desert village, due it being the tallest building in village, consist of staircase with 4 windows hole (1 window hole each floor).
* Light up and build a wall around the village to ensure that you (and the inhabitants) will be safe while going from house to house.
* No need to put a crafting table or furnace in your house! If there is a building with a crafting table and a building with a furnace, the aforementioned blocks can be retrieved from there, just build a house with a bed (beds in villages are claimed by villagers, so you need to make one for yourself) and a chest (some buildings have chests or [[barrel]]s, which can be used as storage). Some buildings also have [[smoker]]s, [[blast furnace]]s, or [[campfire]]s (within taiga and snowy taiga villages). When you get an enchantment table, place more bookshelves in the library, then place the enchantment table.
File:Church House.png|A example of a house in a plains [[village]] church.
[[Desert Pyramid]]s are not only good shelters, but also contain worthwhile loot such as emeralds, diamonds, gold, iron, and bones, but do look out for the secret chamber with a pressure plate and the 3×3 grid of TNT!
Desert Pyramid, found exclusively in [[desert]] biomes.
* Find a Desert Pyramid. They usually spawn in deserts and can sometimes even be found near NPC Villages.
* (MUST be done first). Get some torches, a pickaxe, and some ladders and dig straight down 2 blocks outside the blue stained clay in the center, be careful not to activate the pressure plate.
* Destroy the pressure plate and take the loot from the chest and the TNT under the sandstone.
* Use ladders to get back up. You can use the underground chest room later as a room or expand from using the 1×1×2 spaces where the chests were as doorways.
* Light up the entire structure using torches.
* Add a door at the front, the 2 hallways to the 2 towers on either side and to the 2 doorways near the top of the pyramid.
* Add a ladder for easy access to the second floor above the stained clay.
* Add a trapdoor onto the hole above the blue stained clay.
* Add any necessary items such as chests, beds, Crafting tables, and furnaces.
* Add some fences around the walkways on the pyramid roof to keep any hostile mobs at bay.
* Build walls around the entire temple and light up the exterior to fortify it further
* Expand the lower chamber to accommodate farms, mines, an enchanting room, a smelting and/or anvil room, or whatever else you wish.
''Pillar (and platform)''
* Lots of dirt or any other kind of non-physical block
A pillar of blocks, occupying a 1×1 space with (optionally) a small platform at the top to improve safety. Great when you have lots of one type of non-entity block. Only use a block that is affected by gravity, e.g. sand, gravel; if you want to remove the pillar later on. Remember, do not build a short pillar. We are talking about a cloud-level pillar here.
Anywhere, but preferably a forest biome.
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, do '''not''' build above layer 250 (as the height limit is just above you and could compromise your structure.)
* About 40 blocks of your choice for the central pillar
* About 25 blocks for the rim
* Fences to add guardrails (can be ignored if you are careful)
* A ladder to get up and down the tower
* A door and a trapdoor to ease with entry
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.
This shelter is best suited for wide-open terrain or hilltops.
* Build a simple 3×3×6 solid tower.
* Once you get to the top of the tower, build out a 5×5 rim on it and add fences to the edges.
* Add torches to light up the rim.
* Dig a 1×1×6 shaft inside the center of the tower.
* Add [[ladder]]s and a [[trapdoor]] to the shaft and add a [[door]] to the entrance. Wait for dawn inside the shaft, behind locked (trap)doors.
'''Structure''': (A seen from the ground upwards)
{{layered blueprint|name=Watchtower|default=Layer 1|D=Doors|B=Dirt|T=Trapdoors
|----Layer 3 and upwards|
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.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.
* Add a roof (doing so will turn your Open-Air into a proper house, in which you're free on expanding)
* Improved wall (stone, for example.)
* Windows (which are highly recommended to be built, only if you want to add a roof)
* A mushroom (Either kind works)
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.
Pretty much anywhere flat. Or use a mushroom found in a swamp {{only|bedrock}} or dark forest biome and skip planting.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. 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.
File:Expandedmushroomtower.png|A mushroom tower waystation with cobblestone extensions
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.
A space with nothing above it for 12-15 squares, or the mushroom won't grow.
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.
* Pro: If you like having tall structures or skyscrapers this can be used for it to be more resource friendly.
* Pro: If you use brown mushrooms, it will always be in a flat circle.
* Pro: You can easily top your tower off with a sphere if you use a red mushroom on top.
* Pro: Safe from skeleton archers. (Watch out for creepers hanging around the base of the mushroom.)
* Con: Quite fragile (mushroom blocks have low blast resistance and hardness)
* Con: Requires [[bone meal]] and mushrooms which can be a bit hard to obtain.
* Con: Not enderman proof as they can teleport up to your shelter and may "steal" your walls/floor. (add a roof above the top mushroom to prevent the first problem)
* Furnace, especially if built by a mine as a landmark/waystation
No, not a tree house. A proper tree home.
** or a sapling and bonemeal (for larger trees, use 4 saplings in a 2×2 grid)
* Building blocks for the walls, like wooden planks
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:
{{layered blueprint|name=TreeHomeB|default=Before|W=Oak Log+top|L=Oak Leaves|B=Dirt
Preferably a forest biome.
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.
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.
* A handful to About a stack and a half (80-96) of planks (or dirt, but planks are better).
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 [[Enchanting Table|enchantment table]], and place the dirt blocks/planks as if they were [[Bookshelf|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 [[ghast]]s to spawn in [[the Nether]].
Anywhere, but not suitable for rough biomes, such as [[badlands]] (mesa) and [[extreme hills]]. Preferably [[plains]] or a [[desert]].
