How to Make Your Minecraft Construction Look Old - For Dummies

Creating an older-looking structure in Minecraft is a lot of fun. First, you need to decide what type of blocks you want to use. For an old or abandoned building, rough blocks usually look best. Rough blocks such as cobblestone, netherrack, and obsidian are all good choices. Here are the instructions for building a structure that looks old:

1. Make a floor plan.

   Simply think about the size of your building. Do you want it big or small?

2. Make a wireframe of your building and fill it in.

   A wireframe is a block outline of a structure in the game. You fill in the wall by placing blocks inside your wireframe to create a wall.

3. Place your decorations.

Cracked blocks

Cracked blocks such as cobblestone and obsidian are useful for adding age to a building. They help set the mood of an abandoned building. You can also use other cracked blocks such as cracked stone brick, netherrack, bedrock, and bricks.

You can use rough blocks as cracked walls or paths. To build a path, follow these steps:

1. Dig a series of holes where you want the path to be.

   You need the hole to be only 1 block deep, but it can go deeper.

2. Gather the blocks to fill the holes you just dug.

   The blocks should have a rough texture. They don’t have to be the same as the blocks you used to build the walls, but they should be rough.

3. Place rough blocks into each hole until the path is finished.

   

Mossy blocks

Mossy blocks are helpful for decorating and building abandoned structures — they make buildings look truly old and forgotten. Minecraft offers a few types of mossy blocks: mossy stone block, mossy stone bricks, and mossy cobblestone wall. The mossy stone block is the most basic kind of mossy block; you use it to make the other types of mossy blocks.

To make 1 mossy cobblestone block, follow these steps:

1. Gather 1 block of cobblestone by breaking regular stone blocks.

   Stone is extremely easy to find: Just dig down until you find it.

   To break a block, left-click and hold down until the block breaks.

2. Use a shear to get 1 vine from a tree in a jungle or swamp.

   To make a shear, you need 2 iron ingots. Place them both in the crafting table, with one in the bottom box of the left column and the other in the center box. Take the shear in exchange for the iron ingots.

   When you find a tree with vines growing on it, use a shear to break off the vine; it will fall to the ground. Walk over the fallen vine to pick it up.

3. Place the cobblestone in the middle box in the left column of the crafting table, and place the vine in the center box.

4. Take the 6 mossy cobblestone blocks that appear in exchange for the cobblestone and vine.

Now that you know how to make a mossy cobblestone, you can make a mossy cobblestone wall. Follow these steps:

1. Make 6 mossy cobblestone blocks out of regular cobblestone and vines (see the preceding step list).

2. Place the 6 mossy cobblestone blocks on the crafting table, filling the lower two rows.

   

3. Take the mossy cobblestone wall in exchange for the mossy cobblestone. Repeat until you have the amount of walls you need.

Making mossy stone bricks is a little more complicated than making mossy cobblestone blocks.

1. Gather 4 stones and place them on the crafting table.

   Place 1 stone in the lower left corner, 1 in the middle box of the left column, 1 in the center box, and 1 in the lower box of the center column.

   

2. Take the stone bricks in exchange for the stone.

3. Travel to a Jungle or Swamp biome.

4. Walk up to a tree that has a vine growing on it, and use shears to break the vine.

5. Walk over the vine to pick it up.

6. Place the vine and stone on the crafting table.

   The stone goes into the middle box of the left column, and the vine goes into the center box.

7. Take the mossy stone brick in exchange for the stone brick and vine.

   

Damaged walls

To get started, just go to a wall and start destroying random blocks. You don’t need to stick to a pattern when you’re destroying blocks — tear up whatever you think looks right.

Destroying a wall might seem counterproductive at first, but don’t worry — the result is extremely cool.

Vines

Vines are not only decorative but also useful. When vines grow down the structure, you can use them for climbing and hiding from mobs. First, though, you need to start some vines growing. Here’s how to do it:

1. Travel to a Jungle or Swamp biome and find a tree with vines growing on it.

2. Using a shear, break off as many vines as you want and pick them up.

3. Travel back to your building and place the vines on the side of the roof.

   

4. Wait for the vine to grow down the side of your building.

   If you don’t want to wait for the vine to grow down, you can place more vines below it to make it look like it grew down.

Now that you have vines growing down your structure, let’s talk about how useful they are for climbing and hiding.

When you put a solid block next to a vine, you can climb up and down the vine as though it’s a ladder. If there isn’t a solid block next to the vine, you only climb down the vine, not up.

Vines also help you hide from mobs. Vines block the mobs’ line of sight, so you can hide behind them if you’re in trouble at night. As a bonus, you can shoot arrows through vines.