PixlBit

It always seems like I die in Minecraft for the dumbest reasons. It's usually not dying at the hands of a ghast or wither skeleton but just backing into a pool of lava, falling off a cliff, or drowning. My deaths are a long list of accidents. The Three Stooges theme should be playing at all times. Aside from those recurring and very annoying moments, I did a lot of things in this game over the last few days.

First I created my own beacon using lava. It's always tricky to find your way home after coming out of a natural cave some distance from the village. You need some kind of guide since you can't make marks on your map. I could have built the actual beacon the game provides but that is very expensive. Much easier is to make a high tower of blocks, set a source of lava at the top and let that waterfall of orange liquid rock light the way. You can see that sucker from a long way off, and thanks to XBO, the extended draw distance makes it visible even farther than the X360 version. 

I love the lava. No one appreciates the versatity of the stuff. Yes it's a natural hazard. Yes, I have been killed by it many times. But its uses outweigh its down sides. I have only scratched the surface of the things I plan to do with the stuff. 

Then I discovered that waterfalls are excellent elevators. In my fort, I did away with spiral staircases and just dug straight down to my several underground floors and set a source of water at the top. Now I can just enter the waterfall and glide down. To get back up, I just enter the waterfall again and hold "A" and glide right back to the surface. I just have to watch that my breath doesn't get used up or let myself be forced out of the stream by its current and fall to my death. No prob. 

Finally, I spent a long time in the Nether fighting for wither skulls. Mark and I finally built the complete enchantment table again in this XBO version, and I got a Smite V, plus Loot III diamond sword made. I managed to get two very rare wither skulls after everthing. I also enchanted my bow and was then able to take a ghast down with one shot.

The particular Nether fortress we found in this seed world is a wonderful place. There are so many enemies, and they respawn so frequently, that it's easy to farm for XP and other matterials. It's no walk in the park though. Certain spots bring out the hoards and you can get surrounded pretty quickly. Take a health draining hit from a wither skeleton, add a fireball from a blaze, and you are certain to soon become a pile of dust. 

Mark and I are basically chasing the new set of achievements we don't have in the XBO version of the game. I'm not paying attention to such things all that much though. I'm of a new mind about achievements. If they happen, great, but I'm not looking them up or doing special things to get them. I'm just having fun now. 

Happy July 4th!