Tutorial:Flat survival

Flat survival beyond mere subsistence is particularly challenging because there are no structures and no materials to start with except for the block layers and mobs of the flat world. Java Edition players have several options for superflat worlds, but can simulate the flat world in Bedrock Edition for a unique extreme challenge by disabling structures.

World presets

Because of the differences of available blocks between the presets, each type of flat world requires a different approach.

There are 8 different presets you can play on, with each having its advantages and/or disadvantages. The variety in available resources (especially stone), biomes, and elevations changes gameplay dramatically across presets.

Classic Flat

A flat world consisting of one layer of grass blocks and two layers of dirt, followed by bedrock. Classic Flat uses the plains biome, allowing passive and hostile mobs to spawn, which are essential for resources, but stone is absent.

Tunneler's Dream

This preset contains a windswept hills biome, significantly higher elevations, and access to stone.

Water World

This preset features an ocean biome, significant amounts of water, and access to stone, deepslate, and gravel, but the bonus chest can't generate. Although there are exclusive aquatic mobs, areas for spawning common hostile mobs must be manually created, and common passive mobs do not spawn at all. A platform above the water for mob spawning and a base can be created using the dirt below the gravel on the ocean floor. Obtaining all the dirt is fairly easy because you can die and respawn at the ocean floor,‌^{[BE only]} and create an air pocket below the ground. This is the only preset impossible to beat on Hardcore mode.

Overworld

This preset is similar to the Classic Flat preset, except for the fact that stone is available.

Snowy Kingdom

This preset features a snowy plains biome, snow, and stone. Most of the common mobs do not spawn, replaced by rabbits, polar bears, and strays. In Bedrock Edition, regular hostile mobs (except slimes, skeletons, and zombie horsemen) do not spawn either, meaning that getting villagers is impossible. Furthermore, water can only be obtained from fish buckets from wandering traders.

Bottomless Pit

This preset is similar to the Classic Flat preset, except for the presence of cobblestone and the lack of bedrock. The cobblestone can be mined for resources or to create access to the void.

Desert

This preset features a desert biome mostly consisting of sand, sandstone, and stone. The challenge is harder because no trees can be grown, making wood only available by buying moss blocks from wandering traders. On top of that, common passive mobs do not spawn, replaced by rabbits and camels. Hostile mobs endemic to deserts are husks, parched and camel husks, with the husks worsening the already significant problem of hunger. Furthermore, water can only be obtained from fish buckets from wandering traders.

Redstone Ready

This preset is similar to the Desert preset, except there is no sand and a lot more sandstone. Monsters still spawn here, but it is a lot harder to obtain mob loot because you can't collect building blocks for a mob grinder and need to dig it in the ground.

The Void

This preset features a 33x33 square stone platform with a single block of cobblestone in the middle, and an empty void filling the rest of the world. Because the biome in which the platform generates is plains, hostile mobs can spawn here, allowing for an extremely hard challenge when starting with no resources. In Java Edition, this preset uses a unique biome without mob spawning, making survival in this preset impossible without cheats. A similar world from Bedrock Edition can be created using /fillbiome with plains.

• 
  Classic Flat and Bottomless Pit
• 
  Desert and Redstone Ready
• 
  Overworld
• 
  Snowy Kingdom
• 
  Tunnelers' Dream
• 
  Water World
• 
  The Void

Cheats

Achievements are disabled in flat survival, so it does not matter if you start out in Survival, or start out in Creative and switch to Survival. Starting with Creative, you can set yourself up for the desired level of challenge by giving yourself a few items critical to survival.

The other approach is to avoid any cheats and enable Survival in the world creation. You can enable the bonus chest for some quick resources, but you can also start without any items for a harder challenge.

You can also try to survive on a flat world in Hardcore mode. This automatically disables all cheats and the bonus chest, and it is especially hard during the first part of the game, where you need to kill a lot of mobs with your fist. The lava, End portal, and grass block in worlds with no grass can be obtained with a behavior pack.

Some cheats

Players attempting a flat survival game often begin by giving themselves some minimal amount of resources at the start of the game, just enough to keep things challenging:

• Saplings are needed for wood. Oak and dark oak also provide apples, which can be eaten or saved for the possibility of curing a zombie villager much later. Note it is not required to cheat for renewable wood and apples, but obtaining saplings without cheats can be extremely hard.
  • In the Desert, Redstone Ready, and The Void presets, provide yourself with one dirt block to grow the trees on (also not required).
• One block of lava allows the player to access stone in presets that do not already have it, assuming the player already has access to water. Additionally, a lava bucket is also your key to entering the Nether once you get pointed dripstone from a wandering trader to create more lava in a cauldron, for making obsidian for a Nether portal.
• For a greater challenge, you can start with just a log and two apples. You can then collect enough iron ingots from killing zombies to make a cauldron and a water bucket.
• An End portal allows access to the End in late-game to beat the ender dragon and obtain an elytra. For the biggest challenge, make the portal frame without any eyes filled in. You can also create a behavior pack to randomly generate end portals throughout the world. This can be done using a structure_template_feature and an end portal structure file created with a structure block.
• Grass blocks are not available in presets that don't generate them, and are necessary for spawning certain passive mobs in The Void preset. You can start with only one grass block it spread to dirt blocks obtained from wandering traders, or for a greater challenge convert one dirt block you've collected into a grass block with /fill.

These are cheats, but because you can't earn achievements anyway in flat survival, do whatever you think would provide the most fun challenge.

Starting the world with no cheats makes the challenge harder, and impossible to access the Nether or the End.

Bonus chest

As an alternative to buffing up your resources in Creative first, you can create the world with a bonus chest in Survival mode. Play until you die or reach your goal, such as creating a village or making a base.

Your bonus chest contains some resources, and you have to work from this to survive and gain more resources. If the bonus chest does not contain enough items to create renewable resources, restart with a new world and chest.

At a minimum, your bonus chest should contain 4 planks or a log and importantly at least 2 apples to make golden apples for getting villagers later. In Bedrock Edition, saplings can also be obtained from the bonus chest, which makes it significantly easier to grind mobs. Saplings in order of preference:

• Oak is easily sustainable and expandable into forests, and produces apples, crucial for getting villagers later.
• Spruce provides a lot of wood and drops more saplings because it has more leaves than dark oak, but it doesn't drop apples.
• Dark Oak requires a minimum of four saplings to grow a tree. Dark oak trees also produce apples and a lot of wood, but there is a risk of not dropping enough saplings for another tree.
• Birch provides the least amount of wood on the average, but it's common to get more than one sapling from a birch tree.
• Acacia is as sustainable as oak, producing about the same amount of wood and saplings, but doesn't produce apples and hard to mine down.
• Jungle has the greatest risk of not dropping enough saplings for another tree, although it does provide a good quantity of wood like spruce.

Depending on the world preset, you may want to use cheats along the bonus chest, such as a lava bucket, End portal, or grass block in presets without grass. Note that the bonus chest does not generate on Water World.

No bonus chest

Without a bonus chest, you need to obtain saplings or moss blocks from wandering traders. This is extremely hard, because it is almost impossible to get items the trader buys, as most of them require a crafting table. The only available item is a milk bucket, which is rarely dropped by wandering traders when they hold it. In Java Edition, baked potatoes are also accessible because they can rarely be dropped by zombies burning under the sun.

See § Wandering traders below for more information about obtaining renewable wood and emeralds without a bonus chest or cheats.

Starting the challenge

The very first beginning of a flat survival challenge differs depending on the preset, cheats, and bonus chest, but any approach requires a simple mob grinder as soon as possible.

Bonus chest

First, open the bonus chest if you have one, and collect everything inside plus the four torches around the chest. There are different approaches for contents of the chest and the preset. The bonus chest doesn't generate in Water World.

• If the chest contains saplings and two apples, or enough saplings to renew apples, and the preset has dirt, save two apples and grow trees. Using the trees, you can craft basic gears, collect building blocks for a mob grinder, and create farms. You can now skip to § Further progression, but the tips in this section still apply.
• If the chest does not contain saplings, or if the preset does not have dirt, but there are two apples, follow this section to create a mob grinder. Depending on the available wood, craft in order: a crafting table, one boat, four trapdoors, another boat, a hoe (if not available and if there is dirt). Grind zombies until you have 7 iron and craft a cauldron. With three more iron, craft a bucket and fill it with water once the cauldron is full. Place this in the world and use glass bottles from witch drops to refill the cauldron. You can now make an infinite water source, allowing to create a village next (see § Creating a village). Cure clerics, farmers, or fishermen; and if passive mobs spawn, butchers, shepherds, and leatherworkers are also possible. Farm and trade to get emeralds, which you can use to buy moss blocks or saplings from wandering traders.
  • This is not required, you can also use the milk bucket approach described below.
  • In Water World, it is much easier to use the water bottle method below.
  • Additionally, other tips in this section still apply.
• Alternatively, if you can't get renewable wood but there is dirt, use a hoe to farm wheat seeds (from fertilizing grass or the bonus chest) and sell hay bales to wandering traders to buy saplings.
  • Asides from the milk bucket/fishing approach, this is the only method in Snowy Kingdom or if there are not enough apples.
• If you can't get two apples and there is no dirt, follow the tutorial as if there were no bonus chest, but use the wood to craft trapdoors, a pickaxe, and other useful tools.

Always use the torches to mob-proof your base and store valuable items in the chest.

Water World

The Water World preset has a different approach for the first minute, which involves dying to drowning damage. Make sure to set the "Respawn Radius" option to 0, so you always respawn at the exact world spawn without needing to swim. Dig down into the gravel (first quickly swim down to the bottom in Java Edition) until you hit dirt, which may require multiple deaths. Place the dirt above yourself in the hole and increase the brightness/gamma setting to its maximum, make sure your health is at maximum. Now, dig two more blocks down and start collecting as many dirt as possible. Avoid breaking the top dirt row, because falling gravel is above. 5-10 stacks of dirt should be enough, but the more the better. Return to the first hole and remove the dirt block. Swim as quickly up as possible, which is just possible with full health, while pillaring up with dirt. At the surface, continue like in any other preset with a mob grinder.

Animals

On the Classic Flat, Tunnelers' Dream, Overworld, and Bottomless Pit presets, passive animals can spawn. Raw meat is very important at this point, especially in Hardcore mode, as rotten flesh will be the only other renewable food source. In Water World, Snowy Kingdom, and Desert, fish and rabbits are a source of food instead, although harder to obtain. Use simple tools, if available to obtain more animal drops in early-game.

Collecting blocks

Before a mob grinder can be created, you need to collect building blocks. In most presets, except Redstone Ready and The Void, dirt or sand is abundantly available at the surface. Because sand is as a gravity-affected block harder to use, craft it into sandstone in the 2x2 crafting grid in the inventory. Collect around 5-10 stacks of building blocks the first day, preferably with a wooden shovel if you have spare wood to craft one.

When stone is available and you have a pickaxe, collect it to level up your gear. A pickaxe can be used to obtain building blocks in Redstone Ready, but should not be used in The Void because a limited amount of stone is available, which is not enough for a mob grinder.

Dealing with mobs

Hostile monsters spawn at night in any preset, and with limited gear they can be dangerous, or obstruct early progress. When you have building blocks, you can create a small house to pass the night or hide from slimes at day. Create a bed if you have enough wood and sheep can spawn. You can kill some mobs for early loot if you're confident with fighting.

The Void

The Void preset has no resources for the player except mob spawning, which only happens on one side of the platform when you are on the other side. All mobs that spawn need to be killed by fist, if you don't have resources from cheats or the bonus chest. Try to kill mainly spiders first, or obtain food from zombies. String can be crafted into wool, which you should use to build a safe place, and a simple mob grinder. Before you have a mob grinder, you can die in the void to reset mob spawns (not on Hardcore), or you can punch mobs off the platform you don't need. Avoid creeper explosions, and try to get skeletons attacking other mobs.

Even with these tips, it is very challenging to get a reasonable amount of wool, and it can take very long.

Mob grinder

The first mob grinder in flat survival is different from regular mob farms, because water is not available. Even in the Water World preset, it is not recommended to create such a farm because you don't have tools to deal with the water. When you have renewable wood from saplings, you can create a more efficient mob farm with trapdoors, but this is not necessary. In any mob grinder, you need to kill monsters by hand (or weapon) to yield rare drops.

A simple mob grinder consists of a killing chamber, usually 2x2, at one block above the surface, surrounded by blocks except for the lowest layer to be able to kill the mobs. The killing chamber should be extended vertically up to 18 blocks above the floor of the chamber. At this height, create a platform of solid blocks. This can be any size, the larger the better. If trapdoors are available, place them opened at the gap to the killing chamber. Surround the platform with fences (if available), or a three-block high wall and a roof.

Mobs cannot spawn near the center on the platform when you are close to the killing chamber. Therefore, wait 10-20 blocks from the killing chamber before some mobs are falling down, and kill them. You can extend the platform and make more killing chambers to increase loot, but this may require a higher simulation distance. You can also create more floors, but only below your first platform, as higher falls will kill the mobs without dropping rare loot.

On the Redstone Ready preset, you can create the same mob farm but need to dig into the ground instead of building, if you don't have a pickaxe.

In Water World, you can more easily kill mobs (not necessarily with a grinder) using flint and steel, once you've obtained iron.

Without trapdoors, this mob grinder can be very slow and it is faster to simply kill mobs in the open if you're confident enough with that. However, it is still useful to build some kind of construction or chamber, for hard situations or trapping mobs.

A safer method to kill mobs faster than with a mob grinder is by building a square area surrounded by two-block high walls from about 30 by 30 blocks. When you stand in the corner, mobs will slowly spawn in the other corner. You can walk closer to kill them, without more mobs making it dangerous.

Wandering traders

After about 3-5 days of grinding mobs and gathering resources, the first wandering trader will spawn. When you have access to renewable wood, early traders don't have use and can be ignored, but without a bonus chest they are crucial. Kill one of the trader llamas, and hit the trader 18 times with your fist (or by other sources of damage), make you damage the trader with 18HP × 9. Next, punch the last llama and let it spit on the trader, which should be fairly easy. The trader then drinks a potion of Invisibility. Shortly after, it will hold a milk bucket, instantly punch it to kill the trader.

The trader only has an 8.5% chance to drop the milk bucket (increased by 1% per level of Looting), so you may need to repeat this multiple times. Once you got the bucket, wait for another trader that buys milk buckets and sell it for 2 emeralds. With one emerald, purchase two moss blocks, from this or later wandering traders. You can use the other emerald for anything else that can help with progress (more moss), or save it for later.

In Java Edition, it is easier to kill zombies that are burning under the sun, which may drop baked potatoes. Collect four baked potatoes to get one emerald from a trader.

Place the moss blocks into the world, and apply bone meal obtained from killing skeletons (or fish on Water World) until an azalea appears, which you should grow into an azalea tree. Collect all wood, the rooted dirt, and the leftover moss block if playing in The Void, Water World, or Redstone Ready. In those presets, continue fertilizing the moss block until you have wheat seeds from short or tall grass. In other presets, these can be obtained by fertilizing grass blocks.

Note: Surround the moss block with as much as possible wool in The Void to prevent valuable stone from converting into moss.

Using the wood from the tree, craft a crafting table and a wooden hoe. Use the hoe to convert the rooted dirt to dirt, and convert that to farmland. Place the wheat seeds on top of the farmland, and use bone meal to harvest wheat. You will need at least 36 wheat (if you kept the second emerald from before), preferably obtain more. Don't worry about hydrating the farmland, if you keep crops placed on top it will not decay, and you can always till it again with the hoe, or obtain more seeds from the moss.

It requires a lot of bone meal to get this wheat. You can speed up mob grinding with wooden tools and an improved grinder, using wood from more azalea trees. However, do not grow them on the moss block, but on the farmland (which can be converted to farmland again afterward), or on other growable blocks if you have them.

Craft the wheat into hay bales which can be sold to (multiple) wandering traders, and purchase an oak sapling using five emeralds. You now have renewable wood, a crafting table, and access to all wandering trader offers (if you keep selling hay bales), as if you started with a bonus chest.

Water World

If you are on the Water World preset, you can directly sell water bottles to traders before purchasing an oak sapling. Water bottles are rare fishing loot, and a fishing rod may be dropped by the common drowned in the sea. They can also be obtained from filling glass bottles from witch drops in the water. You can continue fishing for an easy source of emeralds, and other resources.

Further progression

After you've obtained renewable wood, your priorities are:

• A wooden hoe for making farmland and grow crops
• Wooden swords for killing mobs more efficiently
• A bed for sleeping during some nights to prevent phantoms from spawning
• Fences and a few fence gates for animal farms (if grass blocks are available)
• Trapdoors to improve mob traps and grinders
  • Use the improved mob grinders to obtain more iron ingots, armor, weapons, arrows, and bone meal for growing crops.
• Glowstone or redstone dust (crafted into torches) from witch drops to light the area

Wooden tools and leather armor are the best you can expect to have for a long time, but you can get higher tiers of (enchanted) armor and weapons with lower durability from mob grinding. Furthermore, you can slowly get iron ingots from mob loot to upgrade your gear and get more items.

Slimes are everywhere during the day and night. You cannot prevent them from spawning, but you can use shovels to turn the area around your home base to dirt path blocks and build a fence around it to prevent them from spawning or entering your area.

Creepers have an annoying tendency to destroy your home base, so don't do anything too fancy until you have a protected area to build in. A simple shelter with a crafting table and a chest are sufficient to start with. Once you have fenced in and spawn-proofed an area of reasonable size, you can make a better shelter and a bed.

On presets with stone, you can mine this to get stone tools, and most importantly a furnace. With the renewable wood, you can create charcoal to start smelting items and cooking food. Smelting mob armor into gold nuggets, iron nuggets, or copper nuggets is crucial for obtaining gold ingots, or iron ingots in the Snowy Kingdom preset.

It is recommended to move from the start platform in The Void to a new wooden platform so you can mine the stone. The safest way to mine the stone is by placing bottom trapdoors next to each block, and mine the blocks while sneaking toward the edge. At this point, only use eight stone for one furnace and safe the rest.

Feeding yourself

Cooking your food is not an option during the earlier stages of the game if no stone is available for a furnace. To cook food, you need to create a village (see below) to trade for a campfire.

You can farm crops from seeds and roots. Beetroot, melon, and pumpkin seeds can be found in your bonus chest,‌^{[BE only]} potatoes and carrots can be obtained from mob loot. Finally, wheat seeds sometimes drop from grass created by fertilizing moss or grass with bone meal from mob loot. Grow enough of these crops with bone meal if water is unavailable to breed animals as appropriate, and get the best food including bread or beetroot soup.

Getting items from wandering traders

Once you have an improved mob farm for a lot of bone meal, and a large wheat farm, you can craft and sell hay bales to wandering traders, allowing access to most important items. Make sure to buy as much as possible items from every wandering trader that spawns around your base, in order of preference:

• Two buckets of fish. This allows you to renew water and get a bucket to move it. Place two buckets of fish in the opposite corners of a 2x2 hole to create a renewable water source. You can use this to create a pond for aquatic mob spawning (important for tridents and copper), aquatic flora, efficient farming, selling more items to traders, and most importantly fishing.
  • It is not required to collect iron ingots and craft a cauldron for the water, as you have enough items to trade for buckets at the same point as where you can get a cauldron.
  • This is not required in Water World.
  • Because water quickly freezes in the Snowy Kingdom preset, create a waterlogged water spawner instead, with fences or buttons. Larger ponds can be saved using light sources.
• Any rooted dirt or (pale) moss blocks in Desert, Redstone Ready, and The Void, to expand farms.
• One pumpkin can be used to obtain pumpkin seeds and farm more pumpkins. With the eggs from chicken farms and sugar from mob grinders you can craft pumpkin pies, the highest tier of food available at this point.
• A Silk Touch pickaxe can be sold by wandering traders. This is especially useful to move bee nests. When an oak or birch tree grows near flowers or flowering azaleas (by bone mealing grass or moss), it can contain a bee nest with bees. By creating a bee farm, you can obtain honey bottles and honeycomb, using shears and water bottles from mob loot.
• Glowstone, at this point solely for lighting up your base.
• Mushrooms are used for mushroom stew, but more importantly for fermented spider eyes which can be sold to traders.
• One sugar cane (after you've obtained water). This is important for getting books later, and renewing sugar without needing to rely on witch drops.
• Sea pickles are useful as a light source, albeit more expensive than glowstone. However, after purchasing one coral block from a trader, you can renew sea pickles so you don't need to buy more light sources.
• Spruce saplings are the best saplings to get a large amount of wood, using 2x2 trees. Other saplings can also be useful, but are less important.
• Kelp, for obtaining more easily renewable fuel if a furnace is available.
• Sand or red sand to obtain glass and glass bottles, and grow cacti, but it is not renewable.
  • Not required in Desert, although red sand can be used for aesthetic purposes.
  • Sand is useful to get passive mob spawning in Redstone Ready.
• Any plant you can't get from bone mealing grass or moss blocks, simply to renew it and unlock more crafting recipes.

When you've got a significant amount of iron ingots or glass bottles, you can fill those with water or milk (if cows are available) and sell them. Along with the other items listed above, you'll get large amounts of items to obtain more emeralds.

Congratulations! You now have an easy, unlimited supply of food and additional resources. This is a significant milestone on the way to a comfortable life. If you plan to get villagers, you can start planning and constructing some village buildings, although getting villagers is a huge next step.

Other tasks

While it is recommended to create a village first for the most game progression, you can obtain and renew other items without access to villager trading, and improve buildings. This is most important in the Snowy Kingdom preset, where villagers are unobtainable, making this the final step.

• The latest materials allow access to most simple mob farm designs. It is recommended to farm any mob that spawns in the preset's biome, although armor, potion, copper, and iron drops are only available with player-controlled mob grinders. This is very important in Snowy Kingdom because iron ingots are much rarer, only dropped by zombie horsemen or as skeleton armor which can be smelt.
• You can choose to cheat a block of lava into the world at this point, because you can farm it with cauldrons and pointed dripstone. Renewable lava allows access to stone (if not already available in the preset) and obsidian, making dirt renewable and unlocking smelting, more crafting recipes, the Nether, and mob farm designs. You can also wait until you've created a village and accomplish the challenge of getting everything in a flat world without cheats.
• It is recommended to expand your base in The Void preset with wood. Make multiple platforms high above the world bottom (Y=40-80) and create a few waterfalls to safe yourself if you fall off, or surround the platform with walls.
• Use glowstone (from witches or traders), or renew sea pickles to light up the area around your base.
• Create other farms to easily renew all items and passive mobs you have.
• You can choose to cheat a grass block into the world if it is not available. This allows access to passive mobs in The Void.
• Get the most out of your flat world by digging into the ground. Collect available blocks like including stone (any preset besides Classic Flat, Bottomless Pit, and The Void), cobblestone which can be smelted into stone (Bottomless Pit), and sandstone (Desert, Redstone Ready). The Water World preset also has gravel and deepslate on the bottom of the ocean, more easily obtainable by slowly building air pockets and a ladder.
• While it is recommended to wait until you get villagers, you can make an anvil and apply enchanted books from fishing to armor, weapons, and tools (crafted or from mob loot).
• A pillager patrol can spawn in any flat world. Kill the pillagers to get arrows, crossbows, and ominous bottles which are important for battling raids later.
• You can do various Minecraft challenges in a flat world, such as collecting any obtainable items. See § Obtainable blocks and items for a guide to obtain everything from a flat world and Tutorials for general challenges. You can also build a large base with the infinite space, or create your own challenges, possibly with others in multiplayer. Most challenges are easier with villagers, however.

Creating a village

Once you have unlimited water available, you can work on creating a village, which requires villagers. There is a large cascade of dependencies here to obtain golden apples and finally villagers. It is not possible in Snowy Kingdom as witches and zombie villagers don't spawn.

1. You need to kill a bunch of drowned to get three copper ingots. Build a pond (generated in Water World) of about four blocks deep and ten blocks wide, and punch zombies inside to convert them into drowned.
2. Craft a lightning rod and place it inside a (crowded) pig pen, about three blocks wide. Make sure to get as many pigs as possible, preferably more than 200.
3. Wait for a thunderstorm (don't skip nights during rainfall), and stand close to the pig pen until lightning strikes, converting the pigs into zombified piglins.
4. Kill all zombified piglins (if possible, with Looting) from a safe distance. Once you get enough gold nuggets for 16 gold ingots, craft 2 golden apples with it.

Pigs cannot spawn in Desert, Water World, Redstone Ready, and The Void as there are no grass blocks. Fortunately, these presets allow access to stone to craft a furnace. Using wood or charcoal, smelt golden armor and weapons from mob loot to get gold nuggets for the golden apples. This is also easier in other presets if you have stone.

Converting zombie villagers

Next, you need two zombie villagers and a witch from a mob grinder or spawning platform. Trap them all, or at minimum the witch, in boats. Enter the boat with the witch (it can't hurt you), but make sure to have 8HP HP or less. The witch will now start throwing splash potions in front of you, of which 25% are Weakness potions.

Move towards the zombie villagers and aim the splash potions at them. Once they're hit with a Weakness potion (indicated by the dark gray color and yellow particles), turn the boat and use the golden apples on them. Kill the witch and wait for the zombie villagers to cure (separated), while protected from sunlight and despawning.

In Desert and Redstone Ready, you can simply kill a parched instead and shoot the zombie villagers with the dropped Weakness arrows.

If, after working through all this and getting lucky enough, you may find yourself with two villagers. You can breed them with bread and beds to get more, but an automatic villager breeder is recommended and possible with the available resources.

When your approach is to begin with villagers before obtaining saplings, first trade until you can buy them from wandering traders.

Protect your villagers!

Build a village with protection for hostile mobs using walls or fences. Make houses from dirt and wood, with doors and beds, and light the area with torches from the bonus chest or glowstone from wandering traders or witch loot. Otherwise, you can make the village mob-proof by covering the area with dirt paths and bottom slabs.

Getting the most out of your village

Villager professions

Decide what professions your villagers should have. The two cured villagers are employed, but you need job site blocks for restocking and getting more professions.

• A cauldron, from mob loot, is used by a leatherworker.
• A composter, from tree farming, is used by a farmer.
• A barrel, from tree farming, is used by a fisherman.
• A loom, from tree farming and mob loot, is used by a shepherd.
• A smithing table, from tree farming and mob loot, is used by a toolsmith.
• A cartography table, from tree farming and sugar cane farming from wandering traders, is used by a cartographer.
• A lectern can be obtained with tree farming, sugar cane farming, and leather from either animal farming, killing trader llamas, rabbit hide, or fishing. It is used by librarians, considered the most important profession for getting enchanted books.
• A stonecutter can be obtained by purchasing polished granite, andesite, or diorite from a cured (journeyman) mason, which is also the profession of this job site.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}
• A blast furnace, smoker, or grindstone can only be obtained when you have access to stone. If you are in The Void without renewable stone, craft at least one of each. They are used by armorers, butchers, masons, and weaponsmiths respectively, which are very important for diamond armor and tools.
• A fletching table requires flint, only accessible in the Water World preset or when you cheat for lava to get access to the Nether. Used by a fletcher, it can be used to get tipped arrows but this is not required for most arrows.
• A brewing stand can only be obtained when you have access to the Nether, and is used by a cleric. You don't need renewable stone, as they can be crafted with blackstone from the Nether.

Cured zombie villagers can have professions that are normally not accessible, but because they can't restock you'll need to keep curing new villagers (see Tutorial:Curing a zombie villager for more tips).

Useful trades

Villagers can sell you useful items which are otherwise unobtainable or extremely hard to obtain. They can also have useful trades that let you obtain emeralds easily.

Obtaining emeralds

• Farmers purchase any crop which should be easily farmable at this point.
• Fishermen purchase the easily obtainable string, and fish which can be farmed or fished in water ponds, but also renewable boats.
• Clerics purchase rotten flesh, which is easily obtainable in any preset (except Snowy Kingdom where rare zombie horsemen are the only source), and also farmable glass bottles and rabbit's feet (certain presets only).
• Cartographers and librarians purchase farmable paper.
• Stepherds purchase wool from sheep, which can also be obtained froms string. They also purchase dyes you can renew from flowers from wandering traders or grass.
• Leatherworkers purchase leather, rabbit hide, and flint, which are easily renewable in certain presets only.
• If you have an iron farm (see below), you can sell iron ingots to toolsmiths, weaponsmiths, or armorers, the last two requiring stone for a job site.
• Fletchers are the easiest source of emeralds, purchasing sticks, string, flint, feathers, and tripwire hooks. However, without access to the Nether or Water World, they cannot restock.
• Butchers purchase various types of farmable meat or kelp if passive mobs don't spawn, but cannot restock without stone.
• Masons can be used to sell stone from a stone farm when you have a lava bucket, or a preset with stone layers.

Important resources

• A fisherman can sell you campfires.
  • This is very useful, because you can cook food if you don't have stone, you can use it in place of lava in farms, and breaking a campfires yields charcoal from which you can make torches for much-needed light. You can renew campfires by crafting them from their dropped charcoal, while providing more logs.
• A farmer can sell you great food sources, like golden carrots, bread, and apples.
• A librarian can sell you lanterns, which are slightly better light sources than torches (emitting light level 15 like campfire). They can also sell glass (easy to get on Desert), and enchanted books, which you can use on tools and weapons after you get an anvil.
  • Librarians are also useful for renewing name tags, and obtaining compasses and clocks.
• A toolsmith can sell you diamond pickaxes, hoes, shovels, and axes. They are the only reasonable way to obtain diamond tools, and bells which can be useful for your village and raids.
• Masons are the key to obtain various important building blocks, including bricks, chiseled stone bricks (for lodestones), dripstone blocks (to renew dripstone), polished stones (for more stonecutters), stained and glazed terracotta, and quartz.
  • Polished stones are most important in Desert, Redstone Ready, and The Void, because they can be used to renew dirt with moss blocks (convert into podzol with 2x2 spruce, then break for dirt).

• Cartographers allow access to the Globe banner pattern.
• Armorers and weaponsmiths can sell diamond armor and weapons, but also chainmail armor and bells. Diamond armor and weapons can also be obtained through mob farming, but this is extremely rare. Their job site blocks are not obtainable without stone, however.
• Fletchers can be used for certain tipped arrows, but cannot restock without access to the Nether or Water World.
• Clerics can only restock their trades with access to the Nether, but are very useful for obtaining redstone dust, lapis lazuli, and glowstone, while also selling ender pearls and bottles o' enchanting.

Iron golem farming

You have different options for an iron farm in either Bedrock Edition or Java Edition.

In Bedrock Edition, you can have a working village and an iron farm coexist so that you can obtain iron at a decent rate while continuing to trade with villagers (see Tutorial:Iron golem farming § Survival mode build: Iron golem village).

You can use campfires to kill the iron golems. It is a much slower method than using lava but it is the best available in a flat world where lava is unobtainable. Without campfires, you may need to resort to slower or more dangerous methods, such as using cacti from wandering traders, or contriving to have a confined skeleton shoot at the golem. Various resources obtained through villager and wandering trader trading can help build a farm.

Getting an enchanted set of diamond armor and tools

An armorer or weaponsmith can sell diamond armor and weapons, but they cannot restock without access to stone, requiring you to cure new zombie villagers. Toolsmiths can always be used for diamond tools, and diamond armor or weapons can also be obtained (extremely rarely) from mob loot. Obtained diamond armor or tools can be disenchanted by merging them in the crafting grid, allowing to max out the enchantments using enchanted books from librarians or fishing. This requires an anvil from an iron farm or mob loot, and certain treasure enchantments are not available. You can get experience mainly from grinding mobs and trading.

With access to stone, you can make a grindstone which helps in enchanting and repairing armor or tools. An enchanting table may be obtained when you have access to the Nether.

Battling a raid

Fighting a raid in a flat world is easier than in a normal world, because the raiders are much easier to find. You can get ominous bottles from patrols, which should have spawned at least once at this point. Here are some tips to make sure you can't lose, but choose yourself what you prefer for the final challenge in no-cheat flat survival.

• Bring two villagers away from spawn and box them in with a bed. That guarantees that you cannot lose the raid. Because it can be hard to get a breeding pair of villagers, you need to preserve one in case the other villagers are killed.
• Craft and enchant a bow with Infinity so you can use one arrow for the entire raid. Make sure the bow has good durability. Alternatively, you can use a Mending bow and bring a few stacks of arrows from a mob grinder.
• In the area where you want to do the raid, build a tower up about 15 blocks with ladders to climb up and down, then build a small platform. When the raid starts, you can use the high vantage point to your advantage and use a bow to make the raid much easier.
• Try to get a full set of armor, along with a sword and a bow, all with decent enchantments. Armor should be iron or better, although if you have a farm for zombies, you might find the enchantments on their dropped gold armor to be useful (some pieces may have Protection or Projectile Protection III, which can reduce damage by 12 points over the base armor's damage reduction).

During the raid, snipe the mobs with a bow from your vantage point, and try not to engage in melee combat. In between waves, try to pick up the items, especially totems of undying, since you cannot get them any other way. Other drops such as emeralds, redstone, and enchanted books can also come in handy, however these items are obtainable by other means such as trading or fishing.

You now have access to all mobs, blocks, and items that are obtainable in a flat world without cheats. You can continue with other tasks listed above, general Minecraft gameplay, or start using cheats to continue the challenge.

Getting to the Nether

Getting to the Nether is not possible without cheating, because there is no way to get lava or obsidian in a flat world. However, you might want to advance further, and the Nether dimension allows access to a non-flat dimension of new possibilities. You can't earn achievements in a flat world, so there isn't as much of a downside to using Creative mode or some other means to add one block of lava to the world, which can be collected later with a bucket. If your flat world preset doesn't already have stone, you can use the lava to create a cobblestone farm, make stone tools, a furnace for cooking and smelting, stone blocks and slabs for creeper-proofing your living areas, and many other items.

Once you get a lava bucket, you can use pointed dripstone and cauldrons to get more lava, until you have at least 10 buckets worth. Make a Nether portal by converting the lava into obsidian, and mining with a diamond pickaxe obtained from master toolsmiths; or by placing the water and lava in the shape of a portal (see Tutorial:Nether portals § Creating a portal without getting obsidian). Lighting the portal itself is a challenge because there is no way to get gravel or flint (except in Water World); however, you can light it with burning wood ignited by lava.

Nether survival

When you get into the Nether, survival becomes easier. You can get gold, nether wart and ingredients for potion brewing, blaze rods for an ender chest, gravel for flint, pure diamonds, netherite and upgrades, and various treasures and new blocks, mobs, and items.

The ability to brew potions becomes possible, because brewing stands can be crafted and most of the ingredients required for Regeneration, Health, and Strength potions are found in the Nether. You can also brew your own Weakness potions to cure zombie villagers, resulting in lower prices for villager trades for diamond armor, tools, and enchantments. You can also build farms for blazes, wither skeletons, or zombified piglins, giving you more XP for using an anvil or enchanting table. An enchanting table is also craftable due to the availability of pure diamonds as generated loot in the Nether.

The resources found in the Nether allow to get job sites for fletcher and cleric villager professions. Furthermore, you can barter with piglins to get many more items easily, or explore the rest of the Nether instead.

Fighting the wither

One thing more skilled players may want to do is defeat the wither. Wither skeleton skulls can be obtained from a Nether fortress and soul sand naturally generates in the Nether.

Fighting the wither is significantly easier than on normal worlds because the terrain is flat (in the Overworld). Once you are ready to fight the wither, travel a few thousand blocks away from your Overworld spawn point and/or base, so you don't risk destroying your home area. When you spawn the wither, dodge its skull attacks and shoot it with a bow until it gets to half health, and kill it with a sword. Smite is very helpful.

Once the wither is defeated, the Nether star can be collected and used to make a beacon. If you have a productive iron farm, gold farm, or trading hall, you can afford to power the beacon, which gives you buffs.

The End

Accessing the End is not possible in a flat world without cheating. You must give yourself 12 end portal frames to construct an End portal. This can be opened with ender pearls from mob loot and blaze rods collected in the Nether (see above).

The End generates as normal and allows to defeat the ender dragon, obtain loot from End cities (diamonds, elytra and shulker boxes), as well as chorus fruit and several building blocks.

Obtainable blocks and items

This section describes how to obtain every block, mob, and item in flat survival in order of progression, with each section assuming that all previous items have been obtained. Items are only listed when they first become available on all presets, there are easier ways to renew items later.

An empty locator map may be obtained by enabling "Starting map" in Bedrock Edition, but this hasn't a big use.

From the bonus chest

Not all of these may be available or renewable. Seeds and vegetation are not available in bonus chests in Java Edition.

From the flat world layers

Note that this does not list blocks that require a tool.

Classic Flat, Tunnelers' Dream, Overworld, Snowy Kingdom, Bottomless Pit

• Dirt
• Fire (in block form) from lightning

Water World

• Dirt
• Fire (in block form) from lightning
• Gravel
  • Coarse Dirt
  • Flint

Desert

• Sand
  • Sandstone
    • Cut Sandstone

From mob loot

Raw meat can be obtained in cooked form if the animal died while on fire, either from a burning skeleton arrow, Fire Aspect sword from zombies, or lightning.

Any preset

Note that zombie drops are only accessible in Snowy Kingdom from zombie horsemen. These items are all available in any preset, but certain mobs only spawn in certain presets.

Snowy Kingdom

With hostile mobs

These items are accessible in any preset except Snowy Kingdom, because most hostile mobs can spawn here.

Redstone Ready

• Arrows of Weakness from parched
• Rabbit's Feet from camel husk jockeys

Desert

Water World

Tunnelers' Dream

The Void

• Red Mushrooms from zombie horsemen

Classic Flat, Overworld, Bottomless Pit

In addition to both Tunnelers' Dream and The Void (except snowballs).

Fertilizing

These blocks and items can be obtained when you apply bone meal to grass blocks or underwater gravel. Some of these may only be obtained in item form with shears or a Silk Touch pickaxe from wandering traders. Flowers are renewable by applying bone meal to the block, and grasses can be grown into their tall variants.

Grass blocks in Snowy Kingdom and Tunnelers' Dream

Grass blocks in Classic Flat, Overworld, and Bottomless Pit

In addition to Snowy Kingdom and Tunnelers' Dream.

Underwater blocks in Water World

• Coral
• Coral Fans
• Seagrass

From trading with wandering traders

Not all of these are renewable without further progression.

Fertilizing moss blocks

From logs

This only includes items obtainable from 2x2 crafting, see below for obtainable items with a crafting table.

From water

Underwater blocks can also be fertilized, see above for obtainable items.

With Silk Touch tools from wandering traders

Mining stone and variants with a pickaxe from wandering traders

From fishing

After obtaining a fishing rod and water, it becomes possible to fish for additional items. This only lists items that have not been obtainable previously, see Fishing § Items obtainable for all loot.

From crafting on a crafting table

These blocks and items are available to craft on a crafting table when all resources above have been obtained; this does not list items obtainable through crafting that have been obtainable previously from mob loot.

With stone (variants)

Items crafted with stone are only available on Bottomless Pit after smelting cobblestone. Recipes with deepslate are only available on Water World.

From smelting

From crops on farmland

From villagers

Villagers are not available in Snowy Kingdom.

Trading

Armorer:

• Bell
• Diamond armor (enchanted)

Butcher:

• Cooked Chicken
• Cooked Porkchop

Cartographer:

• Explorer Maps, useless because there are no structures
• Globe Banner Patterns

Cleric:

• Bottle o' Enchanting
• Lapis Lazuli
  • Block of Lapis Lazuli

Farmer:

• Cake
• Cookie

Fisherman:

• Bucket of Cod
• Campfire (see below for available items)
• Cooked Cod
• Cooked Salmon

Fletcher:

• Tipped Arrow (Night Vision, Leaping, Slowness, Harming, Poison, Regeneration, Strength, Weakness, Turtle Master, and Decay, all level 2)

Librarian:

• Glass
  • Glass Pane
  • Stained Glass
    • Stained Glass Panes
  • Harness

Mason:

Toolsmith:

• Bell
• Diamond tools (axe, shovel and pickaxe are enchanted; hoe is not enchanted)
• Stone tools

Weaponsmith:

• Bell
• Diamond Sword or axe (enchanted)

From campfires

From cat gifts

From raids

• Totem of Undying

With lava

• Cobblestone, see available items in the above sections
• Lava Bucket
  • Fire by placing lava near flammable blocks
• Nether Portal, from lighting a Nether portal with fire or flint and steel
• Obsidian
• Stone, see available items above

From the Nether

From Nether mobs

From the wither

• Nether Star
  • Beacon
• Wither Rose
  • Suspicious Stew with Wither effect

With an End portal

Obtainable mobs

Animals

Monsters

Other

With access to the Nether

With access to the End

• Ender Dragon
• Shulker

Videos

Java Edition

• Video by Mogswamp Ft. Hobby:

YouTube Video (view on YouTube)

Bedrock Edition

• Video by ibxtoycat:

YouTube Video (view on YouTube)

Navigation

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Introductory Basics Menu screen Java Edition Bedrock Edition Glossary Playing with a controller Newcomer survival Beginner's guide First ten minutes Second day Third day Best biomes to use Hunger management Things to do Things not to do Simple tips and tricks Shelters Best biomes for homes Best building materials Building and construction Navigation Shelters Types
General General Achievement guide Legacy Console Edition Advancement guide Minecraft Nether The End Adventure Husbandry Adventuring Best enchantments guide Breaking a fall Breaking bedrock Chunk loader Combat Complete main adventure Creating a village Dual wielding Desert survival End survival Exploring caverns Gathering resources on peaceful difficulty Getting food quickly Getting max gear Headless pistons Hitboxes Horses Indestructible End crystals Managing slimes in superflat mode Mapping Measuring distance Minecraft in education Mining Ancient debris Diamonds Fossils Nether hub Nether portals Nether survival Organization Pillar jumping Phantom-proofing Spawn-proofing Summoning jockeys Things to do when bored The Void Thunderstorm survival Time-saving tips Transportation methods Units of measure Village mechanics Trading X-ray glitches Zombie siege defense Enchanting and smelting Enchanting Anvil mechanics Automatic smelting Manual smelting
Challenges General Acquiring a conduit Archaeology Curing a zombie villager Conquering a mountain Defeating a bastion remnant Defeating an End city Defeating a monster room Defeating an ocean monument Defeating a Nether fortress Mastering the pale garden Mastering the Warped forest Defeating a pillager outpost Defeating a stronghold Defeating temples Defeating trial chambers Defeating a woodland mansion Defeating a village raid Defeating the ender dragon Defeating the wither If it escapes Exploring an ancient city Locating a stronghold Obtaining every music disc Obtaining every block Obtaining every item Non-standard survival Adventure mode survival Custom maps Hardcore mode Ultra Half hearted Surviving in a single area for a long time Infinite desert survival Island survival Manhunt Mob switch Nomadic experience Trapping every mob Skyblock survival SkyWars survival Speedrunning Starting in the Nether Starting in the End Superflat survival Flat survival Getting to the world border Village only survival Challenge maps Beating a challenge map Creating a challenge map
Constructions Constructions Adding beauty to constructions Airlock Architectural terms Building a cruise ship Building a metropolis Building a rollercoaster Building micro shelters Building safe homes Building water features Chunk ban Color palette Creating shapes Defense Elevators Endless circling pool Furniture Glazed terracotta patterns Making nice floors Pixel art Ranches Roof types Roof construction guidelines Secret door Settlement guide Underwater home Walls and buttresses Water gate Water-powered boat transportation Block breaking Blast chamber Igniting TNT underwater Wither cage
Farming Blocks and items Amethyst Armor Azalea Bamboo Basalt Bedrock Beetroot Blaze Rod Bone Meal Cactus Carrot Cat gift Chorus Fruit Clay Cobblestone Cocoa Beans Copper Dirt Dragon's breath Dripstone Egg Enchanted Golden Apple Experience Fern Fish Flower Froglight Ghast Tear Glow Berries Glow Ink Sac Glow Lichen Goat Horn Gold Hanging Roots Honey Ice Iron Kelp Lava Meat Moss Mud Mushroom Music Disc Nether growth Nether vine Nether Wart Obsidian Ominous Bottle Potato Powder Snow Pumpkin, Melon Resin Clump Rooted Dirt Sculk Turtle Scute Seagrass Sea Pickle Snow Soul Soil Sugar Cane Sweet Berries Tree Trident Vine Villager trading hall Wheat Wither Rose Wool Duplication Mobs Mob farming Mob grinding Monster spawner traps Allay Animals Axolotl Bee Blaze Breeze Cat Cave Spider Chicken Creaking Creeper Drowned Ender Dragon Enderman Fox Frog Ghast Glow squid Goat Guardian Hoglin Iron golem Magma cube Phantom Piglin bartering Pillager Raid Shulker Skeleton horse Silverfish Slime Squid Turtle Villager Wandering trader Warden Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Wolf Zombie Zombie villager Zombified piglin
Mechanisms Basics Redstone Circuits Components Mechanisms Mechanics Dust Tips Command block Crafter Hopper TNT Tripwire techniques Snow golem Minecart Daylight detector Piston Trapdoor Quasi-Connectivity Components Randomizers Observer stabilizer Block update detector Comparator update detector Redstone telegraph Piston circuits Zero-ticking Instant repeaters Morse code Decorational Redstone music Doorbell Hourly clock Transportation Train station Flying machines 360 degree ender pearl cannon Storage Item sorting Item transportation Shulker box storage Storage Storage system PVP TNT cannons Trap design Traps Logic Advanced redstone circuits Arithmetic logic Calculator Redstone computers Miscellaneous Printer Rube Goldberg machine Command stats Automatic respawn anchor recharger Combination locks
Multiplayer General Griefing prevention Hiding chests Multiplayer survival Spawn jail Playing on servers PvP Java Edition Bedrock Edition Bases Joining a LAN world with alternate accounts Server setup Setting up a Java Edition server Forge server Hamachi server Setting up a Bedrock Edition server Server maintenance Setting up a LAN world
Technical General Creating Forge mods Moving structures using structure blocks from world to world Improving frame rate Minecraft help FAQ Note Block Studio Programs and editors Running the data generator Update Java See Minecraft's code Downgrading Restoring a hardcore world Adding profiles to the new launcher Useful commands Maps Custom maps Importing and exporting worlds Command NBT tags Falling blocks Updating old terrain using MCEdit Resource packs Creating a resource pack Loading a resource pack Models Sound directory Making custom panoramas Data packs Adding a new dimension Adding custom enchantments Adding custom paintings Adding custom trims Creating a data pack Custom structures Importing a data pack Repairing a world corrupted by a data pack Creating Minecraft media Creating videos Livestreaming Hide Server IP Game installation Installing versions Installing Minecraft Preview and beta versions How to get a crash report Custom Minecraft directory Playing and saving Minecraft on a thumb drive Recover corrupted saved world data Run Minecraft through Google Drive Save game data to Dropbox (world data only) Saved data Dropbox guide Create a Mac OS X startup daemon Playing Java Edition on ChromeOS
Outdated Farming Potion farming End of light mob farms Door-based iron golem farming Villages Legacy Console village mechanics Pre-1.14 village mechanics Village chaining Glitches Duplication Far Lands Contraptions Minecart booster Repeater reboot system Instant wire Water ladder Water tram Challenges Survival with no enabled data packs Construction Man-made lake Other Custom texture packs How to get a crash report (old) Setting up a Spigot server Update LWJGL Update Minecraft Custom world generation Playing and saving Minecraft on a thumb drive with the old launcher