Minecraft Tips

I haven't been playing Minecraft as long as other people, but I do know some tricks that would make your life easier. I'll update this every time I think of something new.

1. Never ever dig straight down. You could fall in lava or die because you hit the ground too hard. Dig stairs instead. Might take longer, but there's less chance of you burning to death or falling quite far down.
2. It's recommended that you use a bow to attack creepers...but sprinting at them while screaming is so much fun. No, not all of you are insane like Kaye, so don't do what she does and play tag with creepers.
3. When surrounded by blocks affected by gravity (sand or gravel), break the bottom block and quickly place a torch down. This breaks the blocks that fall on the torch.
4. Hide your chests with diamonds under floor paneling. No one will know except you. Unless of course, you make signs that say, "Diamonds under here!" But really, who's stupid enough to do that? Traps, however, are really fun.
5. Sheep will regrow their wool if they eat grass. Don't kill them after you steal their clothes.
6. Don't use redstone for fancy gadgets and doohickeys (I've always wanted to say that word)? Use it to mark your paths when exploring caves.
7. Always put torches on the right side when exploring caves. That way, you just have to keep them to your left when you want to go back. This isn't the best way, since you can cross areas you've already explored and go in circles...
8. You can store metals and gems in blocks (fill all the squares on the crafting table grid) to save space.
9. If you want normal stone instead of cobblestone, you can put it in your furnace and it'll go back to stone. You can also get stone with the Silk Touch enchantment.
10. You can repair tools by putting them together in the inventory crafting grid. Two half-used pickaxes will give you one unused pickaxe. Takes up less space.
11. When mining, I recommend you take a sword (not diamond), a bunch of pickaxes and shovels (iron), a bucket or two of water, a crafting table, at least sixty four torches and some wood. Don't take diamond stuff because you never know when you're going to die. Unless you're mining for obsidian, but you can always take a bucket of lava and bring it to the surface to make your obsidian up there. 
12. Pour water at the edge of a lava pool. You get obsidian and you don't die.
13. It is possible to get diamonds in chests when exploring abandoned mineshafts. It's only happened to me once though, so I'm guessing it's not that common.   
14. For the love of God, do not make a dirt house if you're planning on staying there a long time. I hope I didn't need to say that.
15. You can milk cows by holding a bucket in your hand and right-clicking a cow. Milk cures poison and is used in cakes.
16. You can milk mooshrooms for mushroom stew by holding a bowl in your hand and right-clicking.
17. Shear mooshrooms for mushrooms.  
18. You can also craft mushroom stew right in your inventory. One bowl and the two kinds of mushrooms.
19. Diamonds can be found mostly in between layer ten and sixteen, I believe. Dig all the way to the top layer of bedrock, count up five layers (now at layer zero) and then count ten more. You can start branch-mining or whatever. I just wander around and start digging where the lava's at. 
20. Diamonds are much easier to find around lava pools in layer ten. Says the woman who found 30+ diamonds this way.
21. Dig around diamond ores before mining to check for lava and also to see if there are any connected diagonally.
22. Dungeons are the only place where mossy cobblestone (what's the actual name for it?) can be found.
23. Monster spawners can be disabled by putting a torch on it or simply destroying it.
24. It's very easy to get lost in the Nether, so figure out a way to mark your path. Towers of cobblestone or some other Overworld block?
25. Your portal can be destroyed by ghasts, so build a cobblestone base around it. I've never gotten mine destroyed, but that's apparently possible. They recommend cobblestone because it's resistant to the ghast's attacks. I'm not really sure of this, so correct me if I'm wrong.
26. It's easier to have a mineshaft entrance connected to your house, so you can quickly access it and not get attacked by mobs.
27. If your mouse has a mouse wheel, you can use that to select items from your hotbar instead of the keys. If not, you should probably go torches, sword, pickaxe, food, etc. to make it easy to reach up from W, A, S, D.