100+ Minecraft Building Tips and Tricks!
100+ Minecraft Building Tips and Tricks!
Transcript
00:00 Hello everybody! My name is Marlow and in this video I'm going to be sharing with you
00:04 100 building tips and tricks in Minecraft that I have learnt over my many years of playing
00:09 this game, all of which are ranging in difficulty, some perfect for a beginner and others that
00:15 some of you more advanced players may never have heard of until now. But before we begin,
00:20 I should say that I am making this video in celebration of the fact that we have just
00:25 hit 100,000 subscribers on the channel, which is amazing! So thank you so much to each and
00:31 every one of you, it is really, really appreciated. And of course, if you're new around here,
00:37 please feel free to add to that number by subscribing down below. It doesn't cost you
00:41 a thing and I would be really happy to welcome you aboard. And without further ado, here
00:46 is number 1 of 100, which is a little known trick when it comes to using path blocks.
00:52 They are an entire pixel shorter than a full block, so when you use your shovel to make
00:57 a path block, you can actually see under the block it is next to. Meaning if you have some
01:02 wood for example, you'll be able to see the dirt underneath it. Replacing that dirt with
01:07 another wood block just makes it look a little bit neater. If you place three fences between
01:12 two wall blocks, you'll get this cool arch shape. I especially like using this for bridges.
01:18 I'm not a big fan of empty space when it comes to building, so I have a rule where if there's
01:22 an area 3x3 blocks or more, all consisting of the same blocks, I need to place something
01:28 there. Whether it's a shelf, a lighting fixture, or even just a painting, it's gonna make your
01:33 build feel a whole lot less open and empty, which usually in my opinion is a good thing.
01:39 Here's one most of you probably know, but for those who don't, you can place stairs
01:43 upside down. Meaning your roof for example can go from looking like this, to this. Much
01:48 better isn't it? That's not the only thing stairs can do though. Depending on how you
01:52 place them and the rotation of the stairs next to them, you can curve them so to speak,
01:58 which looks great on the corner of a build like this one. It's a lot less rigid and you
02:02 just get a bit of a smoother line around. Some of my favourite blocks for building are
02:07 the utility and villager profession blocks. They have some not so obvious textures. For
02:12 example, the bottom of a smithing table looks like this, and you could use it in a ceiling
02:17 maybe. If you place the composter in a wall, the side texture works very well with a lot
02:22 of wood types, and the blast furnace has a great top texture too. Perfect for a factory
02:27 floor. And there are many, many more. But one I would like to highlight is the barrel.
02:33 Definitely one of my favourite blocks. They have a wonderful side texture, which I use
02:38 quite a lot for adding detail to my wooden pillars in a build. Plus their underside texture
02:43 is one of the best in the game, and because it's a barrel and the rotation can be changed,
02:47 it means you can showcase this in the floor, wall or ceiling. Another block that is great
02:52 for floors is the beehive. They are very similar to oak planks and certainly for more refined
02:58 in my opinion. Of course, a honey farm would probably be necessary for this one. The mechanics
03:04 of walls was recently changed in 1.16 so that if you place them down with nothing in front
03:09 or behind them, they would completely smoothen out. So when you use this in a side of a build,
03:15 they kind of act as vertical slabs and it's just a great way for adding in a small amount
03:20 of depth. Real quickly, I would just like to say that if you are enjoying the video,
03:24 please consider clicking the like button. This has taken a long time to make, so the
03:28 support would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much. If you use some trapdoors to
03:33 surround the bottom block of a corner pillar, it can make it seem more sturdy and structurally
03:38 sound. Plus, it's an added bit of detail that usually looks pretty good. Another use
03:42 of trapdoors is that they are great for roof outlines, in particular spruce and dark oak.
03:47 By adding them next to your slabs and stairs, you can get a much more gradual slope to your
03:52 roof, even on a smaller scale. Speaking of roofs, if you want to make a rundown and dilapidated
03:58 build, you can mix in some different slabs and stairs to your roof to portray that idea.
04:03 Simply by switching them around and rotating some of the stairs, you can pretty much mess
04:07 the roof up, making it look as though there are some missing pieces or just general holes
04:12 in the roof. This also works well for everywhere else of course, but I think especially so
04:17 for a roof. Another trick for making a ruined build is to add some greenery. Vines and leaves,
04:23 that sort of thing. However, when adding in those leaves, try to place them down in a
04:27 way that makes sense. Instead of making a big clump like this or just adding in one
04:32 sporadically throughout the build, try to think how they would grow. They'd probably
04:36 stay pretty well connected and end up drooping over the edge of the build for example. Basically,
04:41 don't just spam them everywhere. Try to think about it a little bit.
04:45 One of my favourite detail blocks is the flower pot. Obviously it's great for its intended
04:49 use of displaying flowers, but I also like to use it just as an added bit of detail,
04:55 like on the top of a fence here or around the corners of a wall. Campfires are the perfect
05:00 block to use as a chimney. Stick it on top of some blocks shooting out of the roof, cover
05:05 it with trapdoors and boom, you've got yourself a smoking chimney. What you can then do is
05:10 connect that chimney to a fireplace on the inside. Now you've got somewhere that smoke
05:15 is supposedly coming from. If you want to make a carpet for a floor, try using a mix
05:20 of carpet blocks as well as ordinary wall blocks. Mixing these two together and adding
05:25 that very small amount of depth makes the carpet seem a lot more shaggy, shall we say.
05:31 If you have an empty space on the floor of your house, you can actually add in a carpet
05:36 or a rug may be a better term. This fills the gap nicely and should be a lovely addition
05:41 to your home. Try experimenting with different patterns and carpet colours. See what you
05:46 can come up with. We spoke earlier about the hidden textures of some of the profession
05:50 blocks and one that's probably worth going over is the loom and in particularly the side
05:55 texture. Mix it in with some bookshelves and you've now got some empty bookshelves. Once
06:00 again coming back to the uses of slabs and stairs and probably not for the last time
06:05 either. If you're making a wall out of something that has slab and stair variants, you can
06:10 place them into your wall and get some windows of varying sizes. You can also do this and
06:16 then put a block behind that wall to give you a nice accent colour like I've done here
06:20 with the deep slate and amethyst. An extremely helpful tip for building, which I'm sure you
06:25 would have heard mentioned before, is adding in texture to your build. This can make them
06:30 look so much more interesting. Take this flat stone brick wall for example. Just by mixing
06:36 in some other stone types it already looks a whole lot better. An upgrade on the idea
06:40 of adding in texture is adding in a gradient to your build. BdoubleO is a master of this
06:46 and I'd highly recommend checking out some of his stuff if you want to learn a bit more.
06:51 But the premise is you find a group of blocks that together create a gradient, starting
06:55 off darker and getting lighter, vice versa. You then use these blocks in your build to
07:00 turn that entire thing into a gradient itself. This is especially useful in larger builds,
07:06 maybe not something to bother with if you're working on a smaller scale. If you want to
07:10 improve the look of your window, try adding in some trapdoors next to them to pose as
07:14 shutters. Spruce trapdoors are usually the best option for this in my opinion. You don't
07:19 always have to place them on the side however. You could do something like this by adding
07:24 it above a window with an open fence gate just below. Something a bit different and
07:29 may work better depending on the size and location of the window itself.
07:33 We're gonna stick with the trapdoors theme here. They are a great block for added bits
07:37 of detail to a build. They don't necessarily have to always serve as something functional,
07:42 perhaps place them in a pattern or just to cover up another block for no other reason
07:48 than it looks cool. They are a fantastic shelf block to display some items on, and you can
07:53 also use them next to stairs in order to create an archway.
07:57 Campfires can be extinguished by right clicking them with a shovel, which actually leads them
08:01 to be very helpful in all types of building, but a specific detail I like to use them for
08:07 is to make a small stack of logs. Simply by placing some oak logs down next to each other
08:12 and then some extinguished campfires on top and around them, it looks as though you've
08:17 got some different pieces of lumber all stacked up in a pile.
08:21 Another great use of the campfire is for displaying food. You can actually cook up to four pieces
08:25 of food on them and if you extinguish them before they finish cooking, this time using
08:30 a splash water bottle, this is what the end result looks like, which is pretty cool. And
08:35 those food items will actually stay there until you break the campfire.
08:39 One of my go-to decorations for the exterior of a house is flower beds. All you've got
08:43 to do is surround some coarse dirt with trapdoors, place some flowers on top and voila. And on
08:49 the flip side, one of my go-to decorations for the interior of a house is by using scaffolding
08:54 to make a small table. They are also fantastic for making some chair designs too.
08:59 I love to use stripped oak logs as a flooring block because you can change the rotation
09:04 of them, it means you can create some pretty cool patterns. Plus the texture itself isn't
09:09 too in your face, so it's actually quite subtle. Now I'm not really sure how to explain what
09:14 these are called, decorative window pieces I suppose. I don't know, but I add these around
09:19 my windows all the time simply to make them look a little bit more interesting.
09:24 Maybe you have a higher up window, how about hanging one of these down with some chains
09:28 attached to them? And just hanging things from chains in general can look pretty sweet.
09:32 A simple way to improve the look of your doors is to add in an awning. Maybe that's what
09:37 the decorative window pieces should be called. Regardless, just by using four fences and
09:42 three slabs at a very basic level, you can make your doorway look even better.
09:47 If you're not a fan of the awning idea, then a super easy way to make your doorway look
09:51 fancier is to place it on the back of a block instead of the front. This way you can add
09:56 in a small amount of depth to the door and it's not just flat to the surface of the blocks.
10:02 I've got a few more door tips for you here. The next one is to try using some stairs around
10:06 the doorway like I've done here. That way, once again, we're adding in a small amount
10:10 of depth and just generally making it look more interesting.
10:14 I really like using chiseled blocks too in my doorways just by placing them in the corner.
10:19 That way it's something similar but also a little bit different so it stands out.
10:23 Perhaps you're building something slightly more modern. A great idea for a doorway is
10:27 glass panes. By adding them in like I've done here with this build, you can create the illusion
10:33 of double doors that would then swing open and shut. Of course, it's not very practical
10:38 as glass panes do not possess that mechanic but if you're not really worried about having
10:42 a functional door, go right ahead with this one.
10:45 Here is my last door trick and that is to place trapdoors next to your actual door to
10:50 make a much larger door. This is especially great for castles and like most things, works
10:55 best with spruce. Once again, using spruce trapdoors, you can make a neat looking wall
11:00 divider to separate different parts of a room. If you want to make your bed look a bit more
11:04 interesting, you can design a frame around it or at least at the head of the bed you
11:09 can. Just be careful not to completely surround it otherwise you're not going to be able to
11:13 respawn there. Maybe that's a bit much or you don't have room for something like that.
11:17 What you can do is very simply add some signs around your bed to enclose yourself in and
11:22 give it some sort of railing. Speaking of which, placing down some backwards lecterns
11:27 makes for a cool railing design. Banners make for a great addition to your bathroom and/or
11:32 kitchen as they kind of look like towels. You can even place them so half the banner
11:36 is missing under the floor to make it a smaller towel. If you place down four snow layers,
11:41 put an armor stand with a helmet on top and piston push a block into it from above, you
11:47 can nicely display that helmet as a decoration. There are a ton of uses for armor stands and
11:52 I've actually made a separate video showcasing some of these ideas. Hopefully I'll remember
11:57 to put it in the cards or in the description so you can check it out if you'd like to.
12:01 Banners are a wonderful block when it comes to adding in detail. Something I find myself
12:06 doing quite a bit is placing a button down with an item frame over it. I'm not exactly
12:11 sure what it's meant to be but I'm a big fan of how it looks. If you happen to have some
12:15 horizontal logs in your build, try sticking a button at the end of it. Whether it's the
12:20 same wood type or something different, it's just that added bit of extra detail that can
12:24 improve the look of the overall build. Specifically stone buttons are great to pose as pebbles
12:29 in a pathway for example. Another detail you can add to your pathways is by using slabs
12:34 and stairs to create some divots, making the road seem more worn and walked on.
12:39 This next tip is something that can be applied to most types of natural building in Minecraft
12:43 and we briefly touched on it earlier, which was to try and build realistically. Meaning
12:48 whatever it is you're making, think how it would look if this were the real world. Take
12:52 pathways again as an example. You would want to have most of the blocks and texture in
12:57 the middle of the pathway as that's where most people would be walking, in the centre,
13:02 not right on the edge. However, you would maybe want the edge to slowly transition outwards
13:07 and be mixing with the dirt beside the path.
13:09 And this nicely leads me onto my next point, which is the idea of transitional blocks.
13:14 We've obviously spoken about doing this for pathways but there's other situations too
13:18 where this could be helpful. Say you're building a barn or a stable. The inside is man-made
13:23 out of wood, the outside just grass or dirt. Instead of having a solid line as a cut-off
13:29 point, try transitioning the two blocks to show how the outside has been traipsed inside
13:34 and there's no longer that definitive line. Of course you could use transitions in your
13:39 building in other cases, it's a little bit like the gradient I mentioned earlier in the
13:44 video, you just have to find some blocks to help you bridge from one to the other.
13:48 Open or even closed fence gates can look like some nice added support to a beam for example.
13:54 If you put something like a fern, bamboo or dead bush inside of a flower pot and then
13:59 put some leaves above it, you can make yourself a large indoor plant.
14:03 And if you have fences in your build like this one does here, maybe stick a wall block
14:07 at the bottom of it, giving it the look of extra support due to the fact a wall is a
14:12 bit wider than a fence.
14:14 There are tons of different blocks and items that emit particles which can be awesome for
14:18 animating a build. One of my favorites is to add fire under a block to create a smouldering
14:24 sensation. There's actually a fantastic video I watched a few years ago showcasing some
14:28 of the uses of particles in survival Minecraft and I'll do my best once again to remember
14:33 it in the cards but if not, check the description down below and it should be listed there somewhere.
14:39 When making custom trees, try mixing up the leaf types and creating your own species of
14:44 tree.
14:45 A custom tree tip is when making smaller trees, use fences instead of full log blocks. Sometimes
14:50 the full logs are just a bit too chunky. A very simple addition you can add to your builds
14:55 is to put some stairs above and/or below your windows. This just adds, once again as I've
15:01 mentioned many times in this video, a tiny amount of depth and it just looks slightly
15:05 better than using full blocks all of the time.
15:08 If you want to make them look even better, you can try adding in even more depth. I do
15:12 this by placing the window and the blocks surrounding it back by an entire block and
15:17 then adding some extra bits of detail to almost slope your way back out to the rest of the
15:22 wall.
15:23 The utility blocks are always helpful to have on hand in survival but they don't always
15:27 look the best just grouped together ready to use. So what I like to do sometimes is
15:32 display them in a way that makes sense. Take my anvil and stone cutter for example. I've
15:37 got them blocked off mostly using iron bars so you don't accidentally walk right over
15:41 the spinning blade or bump into the heavy piece of metal. Sometimes that's not the
15:45 easiest thing to incorporate into a build though. And in that case I like to just cover
15:50 them up, turn them into a table and it can still be flipped up and easily accessed.
15:54 For all of you non-Java players, unfortunately this next trick is not for you. Placing ladders
15:59 on trapdoors. For whatever reason it's not a feature in any other version. I don't
16:05 know why because it's awesome and allows you to make some really cool vertical ladders
16:09 without having to use four blocks.
16:12 A very old school building trick here. Place rails over some laid down logs to look like
16:16 lumber being held in place. If you're making a pond or a lake you could maybe add in some
16:21 rock protrusions coming out of the ground using slabs, stairs and walls. Perhaps you
16:26 could also build a custom stream leading to this body of water. If you want to make it
16:31 a bit narrower at points you can use waterlogged stairs.
16:34 A pretty well known trick but certainly a helpful one is that string can halt the growth
16:39 of things such as sugar cane, vines or bamboo as well as many more. So if you want to stop
16:44 your vines from spreading like wildfire or just to have some different heights in your
16:48 reeds you can put some near enough invisible string over the top of it and it will stop
16:53 it from growing.
16:54 Another great use for string is to hold up carpet blocks. This is especially useful if
16:59 you're building some sort of canopy, maybe a market stool or an umbrella table perhaps.
17:04 Place a tripwire hook at the end of a barrel and you've got yourself a tap. That's
17:08 something you would maybe add to a brewery or a winery. In my winery I have a mix of
17:13 oak planks as well as crimson planks on the floor. This is to create a wine stained floor
17:19 as though there have been some spillages over time.
17:21 Another great addition to a winery would be a barrel for grape treading. By surrounding
17:25 some netherwark blocks with trapdoors you can make a large barrel filled with grapes
17:30 that could be used to create wine the old fashioned way, by stepping on them.
17:35 Perhaps you could build some super simple cart designs to carry all of that wine around
17:39 or whatever else you're looking to transport.
17:42 When making roofs experiment with some slabs and stairs at the end point to create some
17:46 fancy looking finials. You can make some really cool shapes just by changing the direction
17:51 or rotation of the blocks.
17:53 There are a lot of small detail blocks that may not be so obvious at first such as sea
17:57 pickles or turtle eggs. Although they're not the easiest to get a hold of they do look
18:02 really cool when on display. Of course you can use your imagination to decide on what
18:06 they actually are.
18:07 If you're building somewhere with lots of sand and you want to add a bit of texture
18:11 to the floor, potentially for a pathway, you can use the hidden sandstone block which is
18:16 actually just an upside down sandstone stair and it's the only way to get this specific
18:21 texture in the floor.
18:23 Paintings only come in certain sizes but what if you have a section of wall to cover that
18:27 doesn't have a painting to fit? Well what I like to do is add in multiple right next
18:32 to each other to create this smorgasbord of artwork.
18:36 If you want to have a lantern placed on a wall but there's nothing to hang it from,
18:40 I'd recommend placing a fence with a chain and then a lantern hanging down from below.
18:44 It's probably wise to incorporate a crafting bench somewhere in your build, especially
18:49 if you're in survival, and if you can't find a spot for it but your ceiling is made
18:53 out of oak, then you can actually place the crafting table in the ceiling and it will
18:58 look just like another oak plank from below, as they share the same bottom texture.
19:03 When building a tower, if you want to have a really pointy roof, instead of just going
19:07 straight up with the same block, try making a gradual decrease in width.
19:12 I do this by starting with a full block surrounded with trapdoors, then just a regular block,
19:18 followed by a wall, then a fence and lastly something smaller like an iron bar or lightning
19:23 rod.
19:24 If you're building a dock and you have some log pillars going into the water for support
19:29 beams, you can use a darker log when in the water to make it seem as though it's wet.
19:34 If you're building in a snowy biome, I'd suggest making a snow farm so you can get
19:38 some full snow blocks. As you can see, certain blocks cause snow layers to disappear and
19:44 then show the normal block underneath it. If you then change that for a snow block,
19:48 it's going to look a whole lot better.
19:51 Extended pistons make for a cool table design. To make a chair, place down a stair with signs,
19:56 trapdoors or even item frames on the side of them to serve as an armrest.
20:01 Unfortunately, you cannot sit down in that, but if you would like to, you can piston push
20:05 a stair into a minecart and then hop in and out of your seat.
20:10 When building stairs up to another level, try adding in some sort of railing so you
20:14 won't be able to fall back down. Whether it's fences, walls, trapdoors or even anvils, see
20:19 what works for your build.
20:21 Did you know you can craft log blocks that don't have this texture? By making a 2x2 in
20:27 the crafting table, you can get yourself three of these. They're just a log block with the
20:31 same texture on all six sides basically, and they certainly have their uses. Building large
20:37 custom trees is definitely one of them, but also if you're using logs in a wall and you
20:42 have some glass in that wall, you probably don't want this texture on show. Instead,
20:47 the side texture would most likely look a bit better.
20:50 Here is the last trapdoor tip, and yes, I know there have been quite a few. I love trapdoors.
20:55 So much so I've made an entire video about them before and why I think they're the best.
21:00 I'll link that somewhere too if anyone is interested. But the tip is very simply, you
21:05 can double up on trapdoors to make a thicker trapdoor. This is especially useful alongside
21:11 other blocks of the same wood type.
21:13 You can create a display case by pushing some glass blocks into an armor stand using a piston.
21:19 I've spoken about this quite a bit in the past and you're probably very aware if you've
21:23 watched my tutorials before, but when it comes to building a house, I have a specific order
21:28 I usually like to go in. I will start with the corner blocks and walls and get a good
21:32 idea of the size and shape of the build. I then bring the corner blocks up to the height
21:37 I want the roof to start at and begin work on the outline of it. Then fill it in, most
21:42 of the time with a different block. And after that, I will go around and build my walls
21:47 and pick out spots for windows and doorways. And at this point I have the base build, but
21:52 it's lacking detail. So now is where I go around adding in lots of things I've previously
21:57 mentioned in this video.
22:01 As for the interior, I also have a system for that and it's very similar. I start by
22:06 smoothing out the ceiling and the walls and then I will add in my floor. Now I have a
22:10 nice looking home, but an empty one at that. So same as what I did for the exterior, I
22:15 go around and add in all of the details and items of furniture. Sometimes there'll be
22:20 a little bit more planning involved, but that really is the simplified idea and I personally
22:26 think it works very well.
22:27 If you have a staircase made of oak blocks, it could be very nice to add in some book
22:32 shelves below it. Because bookshelves are oak colored, aside from the books themselves
22:36 of course, it means they blend very well with the oak blocks. When making a map display,
22:41 put some sort of lighting behind the item frames. You're going to be able to see your
22:45 maps a whole lot easier that way.
22:47 When it comes to building fences, for an animal pen as an example, don't just use fences.
22:53 Every now and again, place in a full block to break up the repetition a little bit. A
22:57 slab or something may be needed on top so nothing can jump in or out. You can use strip
23:02 blocks of the same wood type in a roof outline instead of full planks. Having layers of glass
23:07 with an air block in between each of them allows you to create a really cool fog effect.
23:12 The deeper you go, the more convincing it is. Having some white stained glass and glass
23:16 panes at the bottom of a waterfall can resemble a splash and the mist that you would see.
23:21 If you're looking to spruce up your surroundings without having to do any actual landscaping
23:25 or terraforming, I would suggest bone mill. Place a bunch of this on your grass and it
23:30 will sprout lots of tall grass and plenty of flowers. However, it's usually a bit much
23:35 so you may have to go around afterwards and break some of what has been grown.
23:39 The last tip I'm going to give you guys is probably the most helpful thing you can do
23:43 to improve your building. If you don't do this and you find yourself struggling to come
23:47 up with builds that you're happy with, please take my advice here. And that is to use creative
23:52 mode. And no, I don't mean change your game mode in your survival world, spawning in lots
23:57 of different items, that would be cheating. I mean get yourself a separate creative world
24:02 where you can practice your building. If you're trying to do everything in the shackles of
24:07 survival Minecraft, you are going to feel so free once you can try it out in creative
24:11 mode. You have access to all of the items in the game, meaning you can experiment with
24:15 what looks good and what doesn't. You can also fly, so building itself is easier. Plus
24:21 you don't have to gather resources or spend ages tearing down a build if you don't like
24:25 it. You just move somewhere else and try again.
24:28 Building in Minecraft isn't something you suddenly get good at after watching one video
24:32 of a guy on YouTube telling you 100 tips and tricks. I'm sorry if you thought that was
24:37 going to be the outcome of this video. No, it's something that takes time. You pick up
24:42 ideas from people along the way and you also find things out yourself. It's not a popular
24:46 saying for no reason. Practice makes perfect. And even then, perfect is what you make of
24:52 it. Building is an entirely subjective part of the game. There are no good builds and
24:57 there are no bad builds. The only thing that matters is if you like it. Not anybody else,
25:04 just you. So build whatever you want, take on my ideas if they're helpful, but at the
25:08 end of the day, if you're happy with the outcome of something you've created and you've had
25:13 fun whilst making it, then you've done very well. And that, I think, is the beauty of
25:18 Minecraft.
25:19 So there we go everybody. That was probably over 100 building tips and tricks with what
25:24 I think is a very important message at the end. So I really hope this has helped you
25:28 out. Thank you so much for watching and once again, a massive thank you for 100,000 subscribers.
25:34 I'm kind of struggling to wrap my head around that idea, but nonetheless, I'm happy to be
25:39 here and ever so grateful for your support. Thank you and I will see you in the next video.
25:44 Bye for now.
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