Into The Netherworld

On 07/14/2015 at 01:15 AM by KnightDriver

I was going to play Sid Meier's Civlization Revolution today but I had to wait for the download, so I tried to find someone online to play Ticket To Ride. I waited a while in Quick Match hoping someone would pop up, but no one did, so I jumped back in my Minecraft game from yesterday. Well, that got pretty obsessive, and, after a while, Mark joined my game and then things got really crazy. I never did get back to Civ Rev.

I played Minecraft with a mission to get to the Netherworld as soon as possible playing on hard difficulty. The main thing you need for that is obsidian, and to mine that you need a diamond axe. So at least three diamonds are needed. So Mark and I rushed to find diamonds as fast as possible. Eventually we did, mined obsidian, built the netherworld gate, and jumped into the Netherworld. Initially my plan was to then build the brewing stand. It requires a blaze rod from a Blaze only found in the Netherworld. On hard difficulty this is no easy task. The Blaze throws fire balls at you and it's tricky to not burn to death once you're on fire. I did several times and so did Mark, but we got the blaze rod, and built the brewing stand. Then it was almost time to stop for the night, so I just mined for more diamonds and didn't find any.

Playing Minecraft on hard difficulty is interesting. Zombies break down wooden doors, spiders and witches remain active during daytime, nether monsters persue you into the real world, and just about anything can spawn right behind you down in a mine. I watched Mark get blown to pieces by a Creeper that snuck up on him. Oh my eyes. I'll never be the same. The trickiest issue, though, with all this, is poison. Cave spiders have it and so do witches. Once you're poisoned, there's nothing you can do but wait for it to wear off, but it will kill you if you keep doing things, so you have to get to a safe place and stop everything and watch your health reduce to a half a heart before you recover. It's a real pain. I almost rage quit after losing a bunch of equipment fighting poison cave spiders around a monster spawner, but I laughed it off and kept going.

I'm thinking of trying to speed run Minecraft next week; and by that, I mean starting from scratch and playing until I beat the Ender Dragon. I'm sure it can be done in a day especially on Easy or Normal difficulty. Hard would take longer because you need lots of enchantments to get through it, and that means lots more items to craft. I'm hoping it can be done in six hours or less. I'm gonna try it.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

07/14/2015 at 10:21 AM

I need a Blaze Rod. Is that anything like the magic wand from the original Zelda? Loved that thing.

KnightDriver

07/15/2015 at 01:53 AM

It enables the Blaze creature to throw fireballs. It kinda turns them into swirling flames though, so maybe it alters you to use it. That's a neat idea - a magic wand that has its mortal costs.

goaztecs

07/14/2015 at 10:41 AM

I currently have a copy of Minecraft sitting on the shelf. I don't think the younger cousins are going to ever touch it because of Lego Movie and Rocket League so at some point I too will be sucked into the Minecraft Universe.

07/15/2015 at 02:17 AM

I try to stay focused and have a plan in Minecraft because I don't want to let it eat up all my time. It's so easy to just mess around there.

Super Step Contributing Writer

07/14/2015 at 12:08 PM

I didn't even realize Minecraft had any kind of story to it. I've only played the demo and figured it was only about building stuff.

07/15/2015 at 02:48 AM

There's not really a story, but when you do the crafting, it does seem to be preparing you to fight the Endor Dragon. You craft all you can craft in the world and then there's an item you need that's in the Netherworld. So you go there. Then you're able to enchant weapons, armor, make potions, and make an eyeball that shows you where a stronghold is, and low and behold, there's the gateway to the world holding the Endor Dragon. What do you do there? There's nothing to do there really except battle the dragon. So you do that. Then you realize you've just completed an old fashioned kill-the-dragon quest.

Ranger1

07/14/2015 at 07:03 PM

Several of the younger nephews and almost-nephews are really into Minecraft, but it just never really grabbed me. Proobably just as well, considering my addiction to Animal Crossing.

07/15/2015 at 02:52 AM

I avoided Minecraft for a long while thinking the graphics were aweful. Then, I don't know, it came to Xbox 360 and I tried the free demo just for the heck of it. Oh did I not know what I was getting into.

PixlBit