Another New Island - and Diamonds

I jumped into my boat and sailed past the original spawn island to go visit an entirely new island that looked promising. My plan is to turn this into an outpost with a large wooden lookout tower.

Here I am in my boat, approaching the island.

And here I am arriving.

 

 It has a lot of sand, some oak and birch trees, and a few red poppies growing. This looks like a nice place to build a tower. First, I'll need to chop down all of those trees and then start building.

I built the first set of wooden walls for the lookout tower and then started digging a tunnel underneath once night began to fall. Unfortunately, I haven't slept in my cozy bed for several nights, and two phantoms started to attack. I hid inside my tunnel and took care of them with my bow and arrow,

 Back underground, I found a large cavern with waterfalls and lava. It seems to be close to a deep part of the ocean, because when I examined the source of the waterfalls, it opened up to the ocean floor.

Here's where the waterfall meets a lava flow, creating obsidian.

 

 At long last, I found diamonds! But not before I was killed by three baby zombies. Those guys are the absolute worst. They are very difficult to kill because they move around so fast. Just one gives me trouble. Trying to take on three was impossible. The good news is that I was able to respawn and quickly return before any of my stuff disappeared. I was worried I would lose my enchanted bow of infinity.

 So now that I have diamonds, I have a diamond pick axe and that means I can start mining obsidian. I also found some magma blocks underneath a pool at the bottom of the cavern.

Deep into the Dungeon

So after I died from falling down a hole, I decided to mount an expedition deep into the caverns below the island I have settled down on.

There must have been inhabitants on this island long before me, because there is a vast and complex system of dungeons deep underground. It is infested with no end of nasty monsters, including zombies, skeletons, spiders, and those terrible poison cave spiders. Yeeech!

I have been able to extract quite a bit of iron ore and coal from the mine. I even found some lapis lazuli in a chest I found in an abandoned minecart.

Now that I have an iron sword and a full suit of iron armor, I'm ready to venture even deeper into the twisted caverns as I search for the elusive diamond veins.

Life on the Bigger Island

Everything is starting to come together on the bigger island that I moved to. My house is almost finished, but I ran out of birch wood and still need to complete the roof.

I discovered another big hole in the ground. Only I discovered it the same way as last time: by falling down it and dying. I lost all my stuff this time, but at least I have something new to explore.

Arrival at the Bigger Island

After fighting with a lot of monsters including those nasty drowned zombies, I got in my boat and headed to the bigger island, where I knew I could find more animals and build a proper house.

This bluff on the island overlooks my humble little tree island and sand island -- the places where the game started. I will return to them someday, but for now it looks like home will be here, where I have more access to animals and building materials. I can also spot a small group of horses nearby, and I really want to tame one. I got lucky and fished up a saddle earlier.

This island also has a few hostile residents, including a skeleton hiding under a tree and a creeper or two. I will steer clear of them for now.

I had plenty of wood saved up from my tree-chopping days earlier, so I set to work on building a simple wooden house and a sheep pen. With the wheat I grew on the smaller island, I was able to tame this sheep and lure him into his little pen. Once I find another sheep, I can start breeding them so that I have a steady supply of wool. One of the first things I need to do for my new house is to build a bed.

And here is the horse. He is curious about the house I have built.

Since night is falling, I decide to go back into my house to do a little crafting. Say hello to my chicken friends, who are sharing the safety of the house with me.

Attacked by a Drowned

I was ambushed by a Drowned which is an underwater zombie. These guys were introduced in the Aquatic update. They spawn underwater and also spawn when a regular zombie drowns. I managed to fend this guy off with my stone sword, but ran into trouble when night fell and two skeletons, a spider, and another group of Drowned showed up.

I ended up dying and respawning a few times but was able to collect all my stuff.

After that adventure, I thought it might be a good idea to leave this tiny tree island. So I got in my boat and headed towards the bigger island.

Starting a New Game - Sand Island

I'm starting a new Survival Mode game in Minecraft. This one has a tough spawn point. A very small island with just sand.

Fortunately, there's another island just a short swim away that has a small cluster of trees. That's enough wood to get started with making tools and doing a little digging. It will be a good place to spend my first night.

Once I reach the tree island and start chopping some wood, I notice an even bigger island in the distance. This one looks like it might have some animals on it. Once I have enough wood here, I'll build a boat and head over to this bigger island.

In the meantime, I discovered a giant hole in the ground here on tree island. Unfortunately, the way I discovered it is by stepping into it and falling to my death. All I lost was some wood that I had been chopping. Good thing there are plenty of trees here.

At least this deep hole in the ground has some iron. That will be useful.

Even though my little island is very remote, a wandering trader decided to visit. I have no emeralds to trade with him, but at least he keeps me company.

I've got plenty of wood, but not enough food. I was able to kill some spiders that spawned overnight, so I had enough string to make a fishing rod. Now I can go fishing in Minecraft for food.

Not much of a catch today. Just some assorted fish, a lily pad, and a saddle.

Tomorrow, I will build a boat and head for the bigger island in search of some animals.