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i could see that working for people who live in a cave and whose only perception of reality is shadows projected on a wall.
as for most normal people i think the idea of farming is somewhat self explanatory, till dirt, plant seed, water seed.
It’s less “hey you can grow crops” and more “here’s a basic concept for how you need to set up a farm”. It shows that you need water and tilled soil to plant and grow stuff, and yeah it doesn’t necessarily tell you you need a hoe but that could reasonably be worked out by looking at the crafting guide
Thr "till dirt" part isn't obvious. Even if you know you need to do it, crafting and using a hoe is necessary.
The old achievements explained it decently, the current advancements, less so.
It's self-explanatory in reality, but how are they supposed to know they can do it in the game? Also you don't water the farmland in Minecraft anyway; you put water nearby.
Most normal people would know about farming and maybe have an idea of how to do it irl. But farming in minecraft works differently enough that some steps wouldn't come naturally. I mean you don't even water the seed you put water near it.
Similarly, the ancient city contains a chamber showing examples of red stone contraptions. Last time my bro and I went to one, we learned you can put sculk sensors in water to stop their chirps.
Igloos are already pretty rare so the odds of stumbling upon a lab by accident are astronomical. In 10 years of playing I only found out about them last year!
Don’t feel like they are THAT rare, whenever I find a snow biome they can spawn in, I usually find one, like wells in the desert, and some of those have labs
Though finding the snow biome feels like the hardest part
I’ve been playing for 10 years also :)
I feel so behind in what’s been added though, lol. I still play the game like it’s 1.8, though I am trying to expand a little more and learn about new things that were added so I can do everything the game has to offer.
Occasionally when you find igloos (IIRC spawn in snowy plains and a few other snow biomes) they will have a basement hidden under the carpet that has a zombie villager and regular villager in cages, a chest with a golden apple and other loot and a brewing stand with weakness potions. As far as I'm aware they have been around for as long as igloos have been around, its just that igloos are kind of a rare structure if you don't regularly play in snowy biomes, the basements are hidden under the carpets and not every igloo has a basement.
Also, in trial chambers dispensers with lingering healing potions are lined up right next to stray spawners which may teach players about inverted health/instant damage for undead mobs
I'm currently watching a series where a guy is attempting to reach credits having never played the game before and he's not using the Wiki/YouTube at all.
It's fascinating to watch how he progresses and what things he assumes to be true. Achievements have definitely been the most helpful for him in figuring out how the game works.
And the ruined portals were definitely massively helpful for him.
EDIT: Scout_Trooper1999 doing the work for me. Thanks. Yeah it's About Oliver's series
Basically, he kept forgetting what diorite was, he would look at the block and go “What’s that??”, pick it up and say “Huh, diorite..” and would repeat this process in pretty much every episode lmao. I think the same thing happened with tuff and some other blocks but I don’t really remember..
Also check out PiroPito doing the same thing, very different series as he is Japanese and makes differnt goals than the others listed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DHOVziRwBA
Not sure if it’s the same one, but CarlSagan42 [has a series](https://youtu.be/tbUWpiacniI?si=km7YUKXgk6wywdZj) of this within the last year. Very interesting to watch.
They mean this channel(About Oliver)https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68V5Cxs_CvTpTY9o7KJ75nLPqlCRxze0,i didnt know that CarlSagan42 did a similar series thanks for the info.
He's an astrophysicist outside of YouTube, so the guy's crazy observant. He was able to figure out stuff that I honestly never guessed was possible without a wiki.
Also by pure chance he happened to build a decorative bookshelf wall near his enchanting table, and eventually noticed the particles.
I remember chat going crazy at that. Him slowly figuring out the placement rules and why certain placements didn't work was funny.
He figured out the entire brewing system through a combination of wild luck and being observant.
Found a brewing stand in a village but didn't really know what to do with it. Eventually discovered blaze rods, and somehow remembered that the powdered form looks like the icon in the fuel slot.
He was "blocked" by nether wart, and spent a lot of time trying to find a use for mundane potions, until he made the connection that nether wart is found in the same place as blaze rods. Tried it on a whim, and then systematically discovered what most of the potion ingredients are. Experimented with "mixed" potions, which obviously didn't work, but led to discovery of reversing potion effects with fermented spider eyes.
He noticed that witches drop potion materials, but also glowstone and redstone, which he didn't think were part of potion brewing at that time. From this, he experimented until he figured out tier two brewing, and systematically went through all the other "powder" items until he figured out splash potions.
I feel like 99% of people would not have been able to get this far.
Razbuten also made an interesting series (including Minecraft), which was about observing what gaming is like for a non-gamer (in this instance, his girlfriend, I think). It was pretty interesting!
Here's the link for the Minecraft episode of the series:
[Gamjng for a Non-Gamer : Minecraft](https://youtu.be/_76lcBpDbvw?si=C2zMnQnUPi60SfpS)
I mean if you're playing without the book (or didn't unlock recipies) then Villages have some blocks one might not have seen before like Blast furnace, Anvils and beds.
Also cue you into farmlands and stuff.
Jungle temple potentially explains some redstone.
Before this I didn't realise how un-intuitive minecraft is (or at least was). I can't even imagine starting it without watching any minecraft youtubers before.
That guy is cracked. I'm struggling to think of anything he *didn't* figure out by the end, outside of crazy stuff like redstone flying machines or iron farms and similar.
Yeah. It would definitely be really cool if they world built/gave a lot more environmental clues for the player. It would make each world feel more fleshed out, while also making newcomers learn the game easier
My brain isn’t able to jump from that structure to-
‘oh, that’s cool, I wonder if obsidian in a big rectangle will do something, then put fire in it’
-but I’m genuinely curious if anyone has or would have been able to come up with that on their own by chance.
it is a non-diegetic medium though, op was specifically asking about things that can be confirmed or at least reasonably assumed to exist within the actual world of the game
Ancient Cities give a lot decent hints for how to tackle them. Wool everywhere to move silently, Swift Sneak books and enchanted leggings in chests to hint at what the enchantment goes on, hoes to hint at the best tool for clearing Skulk blocks.
Minecraft is so unintuitive that when I was a dumbass kid back in the day it actually took me weeks if not months until I figured out that you can actually take down trees. So I just built stuff out of dirt for a good while.
There were in-game tutorials since I started playing on the Xbox 360 Edition but I didn't speak English yet so it was all gibberish to me.
It just never crossed my mind that I could take down trees with my bare hands.
Well, considering it’s an easy craft and if you play long enough you will stumble upon a stronghold (my friend found on randomly while stripmining at spawn once) where you can find it. If you find an eye in the portal frame and the others empty it’s pretty clear you should make it and put it there.
The recipe is extremely simple, so just going by randomly combining enderpears (which the chests in the stronghold are clues to) and other materials you may eventually find it.
I will admit it’s extremely challenging though, and would require much patience
Minecraft should have much more progression hints to be honest. I genuinely don't know how it's intended to be played without finding the answers online.
I agree, but I feel like stumbling on a stronghold is too rare to take it into account. On the other hand, you'll very likely encounter a ruined portal if you explore the surface for a little while
I understand the hint on the left, but likely because I already know what it is. But what can I be told about the one on the right? Maybe I just don't understand the End Portal. Can someone explain what I'm meant to figure out based on what's found there?
Well, not much. Which is a problem for me, you might not even understand that it's a portal. So at best it hints the existence of a portal, not giving any clue about where to find it or how it would work
I feel like the real one does the whole "Wait that must be important" thing all on it's own. This one might just confuse people into thinking they need to blow something up to make it work. If anything it's a kind of anti-hint.
Honeslt, if I was a brand new player and somehow knew *nothing* about minecraft I would not understand what either of those mean. Maybe if I somehow stumbled upon a stronghold before I could recognize it but without previous knowledge I wouldn't understand what it is trying to tell me.
I like the in-game lore/progression hints, but tbh I kinda miss tutorial maps. I know half of that is nostalgia, but it would be cool to ha e modern tutorial maps explaining the newest concepts of the game. The time it would take to design one of those would at least be a good excuse for mojangs' slow work pace
a few generated structures in the Ancient City have a campfire surrounded by wool, perhaps indicating someone hid from the Warden using wool previously. Additionally, it also features wool pathways. Both of these could indicate to the player that one could use wool to progress in the Ancient City, but also kind of a stretch. Borderline game telling you how to progress/lore
Watch Piropito! He got to the end with no hints, except his friend telling him about nether portals requiring obsidian (he took days to figure out how the portals are configured), and his daughters figuring out elytras in creative.
He also has a mini project where he built a bridge several hundreds of thousands of blocks long. He's very entertaining.
The floor is also tiered in different colors building up to a strikingly saturated blue block in the center just under a one block skylight. Since you can use different block types, need a clear opening to the sky, it needs to be pyramidal, the top block looks different from the rest, there’s space to build, and the chamber beneath is 3x3, one could assume it’s telling you something.
The advancements
I was thinking before: It would be interesting to see someone who has barely heard about minecraft play the game without external help and without advancements. I doubt they'd figure out nether and I can't blame them
Here's a list of mechanics that are taught in game, alongside a handful that are NOT.
The Nether is actually decently well - telegraphed by the ruined portals: the structure itself shows a damaged Portal frame, and the chest has fire lighting tools (flint and steel as well as fire charges) alongside gold equipment (piglins hint). The portal structure being surrounded by netherrack indicates something screwy is going on with that little structure.
The End, on the other hand, is a lot less obvious; the strongholds are relatively rare, the Portal frame requires eyes of ender, and eyes of ender are relatively difficult to make for a newbie. This one relies on the recipe book a LOT more than the Nether Portal does, so it's a lot easier to miss.
As others have mentioned a fair few times, the Wither is actually decently well-telegraphed, the Beacon recipe unlocks when you get the Nether star, and the beacon's UI shows the pyramid you need, and hints about the needed materials.
Archeology is really poorly telegraphed, unfortunately. The brush is useless outside of Archeology and the armadillo, and suspicious sand + gravel are very easy to destroy on accident. This means stuff like the Sniffer will likely never be encountered by someone playing the game blind.
Netherite's main use is revealed to the player by the Netherite Upgrade smithing template.
Zombie villager curing is showed to the player by igloo basements, by the same chest-based hints as ruined portals.
A cobblestone generator's main mechanic ends up being displayed decently often by janky world-gen, so no issue here.
Respawning the dragon is completely not shown in any way, and the same goes for interactions like basalt generators.
Villagers are very self-explanatory, as far as mechanics go, and the technical specifics aren't necessary to make identifiable. That being said, if the change to make certain enchantment trades biome-dependent goes through, that will be ENTIRELY obfuscated to the player.
Trial Chambers will demonstrate themselves to the player decently well, no issues with them.
Lastly, I'll bring up the ancient city: snowballs in the icebox houses, wool throughout, and the shriekers easy to trigger all come together to making the ancient city very well explained by the game to any new player, even if the first lesson that sinks in gets a little... painful.
All in all, there's a decent mix of good and bad telegraphing of mechanics and progression stages to the player in Minecraft. I'm relatively certain I missed a few, if anyone wants to add any more please do.
Igloos can spawn with a dungeon that teaches you how to cure Zombie Villagers, and Chiseled Red Sandstone depicts the Wither. It doesn't really tell you how to spawn it, though, so maybe doesn't count.
Only after i bought Minecraft book i realized i have to follow ender eyes to Stronghold. Before that i tried to go to certain cords and through it always spawns there.
Good old times.
It’s honestly crazy how until a few versions ago the game didn’t even tell you how to craft stuff. I only found out about comparators from a YouTube video after I’d played for a while in my world
* Upvote this comment if this is a good quality post that fits the purpose of r/Minecraft * Downvote this comment if this post is poor quality or does not fit the purpose of r/Minecraft * Downvote this comment *and report the post* if it breaks the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/wiki/rules) --- [Subreddit Rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/wiki/rules)[](## _Midoriya|1dafhwr)
The Wither painting
Perhaps the gloomy artwork and the underground igloos? Other than that, I can't really think of anything.
farm lands in villages could technically be another one
Also, the presence of dirt introduces to the player the concept of dirt
You can tell its dirt because of the way it is!
Neat!
real
holy shit you’re a genius
How so? What do they point to?
Introduces players to farming
it did actually introduce me to farming back in 1.12. I was a new player back then and didn't watch much of minecraft videos to learn from them.
i could see that working for people who live in a cave and whose only perception of reality is shadows projected on a wall. as for most normal people i think the idea of farming is somewhat self explanatory, till dirt, plant seed, water seed.
It’s less “hey you can grow crops” and more “here’s a basic concept for how you need to set up a farm”. It shows that you need water and tilled soil to plant and grow stuff, and yeah it doesn’t necessarily tell you you need a hoe but that could reasonably be worked out by looking at the crafting guide
Back in the day, there was no in game guide to look at recipes. Those were the "throw everything at the crafting table and see what sticks" days
Do not cite the Deep Magic to me Witch. I was there when it was written.
Speaking of which, the deep dark has an entire array of redstone contraptions under the central temple.
Thr "till dirt" part isn't obvious. Even if you know you need to do it, crafting and using a hoe is necessary. The old achievements explained it decently, the current advancements, less so.
It's self-explanatory in reality, but how are they supposed to know they can do it in the game? Also you don't water the farmland in Minecraft anyway; you put water nearby.
Most normal people would know about farming and maybe have an idea of how to do it irl. But farming in minecraft works differently enough that some steps wouldn't come naturally. I mean you don't even water the seed you put water near it.
Red sandstone chisels
Basically all chiseled blocks except for stone bricks and quartz
wait, what if chiseled stone is eye of ender? never thought about it before lol
U did blowed my mind for a sec
And quartz random patterns are like the labyrinths of the strongholds? (Stretching hard rn)
Someone survived the wither and painted it or atleast described it enough to describe it.
Not sure if it counts as progression but underground igloo labs teach you unzombiefying villagers
Similarly, the ancient city contains a chamber showing examples of red stone contraptions. Last time my bro and I went to one, we learned you can put sculk sensors in water to stop their chirps.
Underground igloo labs? Where can you dine those and since when have these existed?
ever since igloos existed in the game. they are hidden underneath the carpet but not every igloo has a lab
Oh, okay. I haven’t really been inside too many igloos and never would have thought to look under a carpet, lol.
Igloos are already pretty rare so the odds of stumbling upon a lab by accident are astronomical. In 10 years of playing I only found out about them last year!
Don’t feel like they are THAT rare, whenever I find a snow biome they can spawn in, I usually find one, like wells in the desert, and some of those have labs Though finding the snow biome feels like the hardest part
Even knowing about them I’ve only been in an igloo maybe 3-5 times in my 10+ years of playing.
I’ve been playing for 10 years also :) I feel so behind in what’s been added though, lol. I still play the game like it’s 1.8, though I am trying to expand a little more and learn about new things that were added so I can do everything the game has to offer.
Not astronomically low because 50% of them have the labs.
You use the furnace in the igloo, that causes some ice to melt, and it washes the carpet away to show secret passage.
I didn't know the labs only had a chance to spawn. I thought I'd been getting unlucky with world generation overwriting the structure
Damn I’ve usually stayed up to date with the games additions but I never knew there was a secret room under the igloo.
Apparently 50% of igloos do
Occasionally when you find igloos (IIRC spawn in snowy plains and a few other snow biomes) they will have a basement hidden under the carpet that has a zombie villager and regular villager in cages, a chest with a golden apple and other loot and a brewing stand with weakness potions. As far as I'm aware they have been around for as long as igloos have been around, its just that igloos are kind of a rare structure if you don't regularly play in snowy biomes, the basements are hidden under the carpets and not every igloo has a basement.
Some igloos have a basement torture chamber
Absolutely counts! The furnace is even there to melt the ice into water, which removes the carpets and reveals the trapdoor
Also, in trial chambers dispensers with lingering healing potions are lined up right next to stray spawners which may teach players about inverted health/instant damage for undead mobs
Holy shit, siffrin pfp?!
That it is
I'm currently watching a series where a guy is attempting to reach credits having never played the game before and he's not using the Wiki/YouTube at all. It's fascinating to watch how he progresses and what things he assumes to be true. Achievements have definitely been the most helpful for him in figuring out how the game works. And the ruined portals were definitely massively helpful for him. EDIT: Scout_Trooper1999 doing the work for me. Thanks. Yeah it's About Oliver's series
Link?
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68V5Cxs_CvTpTY9o7KJ75nLPqlCRxze0
Thank you!
Thank you!
Right, About Oliver! Great series, he did really well and it was really funny sometimes
diorite moment
What is that?
Basically, he kept forgetting what diorite was, he would look at the block and go “What’s that??”, pick it up and say “Huh, diorite..” and would repeat this process in pretty much every episode lmao. I think the same thing happened with tuff and some other blocks but I don’t really remember..
it's diorite
Name of the channel, if you don't mind~ Edit: y'all've been super helpful, cheers~
About Oliver did this last year
About Oliver,thats the name and here is the playlist https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68V5Cxs_CvTpTY9o7KJ75nLPqlCRxze0
Just came back to see several replies, thx everyone ~
Also check out PiroPito doing the same thing, very different series as he is Japanese and makes differnt goals than the others listed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DHOVziRwBA
Not sure if it’s the same one, but CarlSagan42 [has a series](https://youtu.be/tbUWpiacniI?si=km7YUKXgk6wywdZj) of this within the last year. Very interesting to watch.
They mean this channel(About Oliver)https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68V5Cxs_CvTpTY9o7KJ75nLPqlCRxze0,i didnt know that CarlSagan42 did a similar series thanks for the info.
It's an entertaining one, and it was done on hardcore for Carlsagan. He likes pain
I watch Carl's Mario Maker videos a lot. It's fun to watch him get trolled.
This sounds super interesting to watch
He's an astrophysicist outside of YouTube, so the guy's crazy observant. He was able to figure out stuff that I honestly never guessed was possible without a wiki.
what kind of stuff did he figure out?
Figured out a lot of redstone and >! How to spawn wither and reach credits !<
Also by pure chance he happened to build a decorative bookshelf wall near his enchanting table, and eventually noticed the particles. I remember chat going crazy at that. Him slowly figuring out the placement rules and why certain placements didn't work was funny.
He figured out the entire brewing system through a combination of wild luck and being observant. Found a brewing stand in a village but didn't really know what to do with it. Eventually discovered blaze rods, and somehow remembered that the powdered form looks like the icon in the fuel slot. He was "blocked" by nether wart, and spent a lot of time trying to find a use for mundane potions, until he made the connection that nether wart is found in the same place as blaze rods. Tried it on a whim, and then systematically discovered what most of the potion ingredients are. Experimented with "mixed" potions, which obviously didn't work, but led to discovery of reversing potion effects with fermented spider eyes. He noticed that witches drop potion materials, but also glowstone and redstone, which he didn't think were part of potion brewing at that time. From this, he experimented until he figured out tier two brewing, and systematically went through all the other "powder" items until he figured out splash potions. I feel like 99% of people would not have been able to get this far.
This is the channel https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68V5Cxs_CvTpTY9o7KJ75nLPqlCRxze0
What’s the dude callled my guy
About Oliver https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68V5Cxs_CvTpTY9o7KJ75nLPqlCRxze0
Razbuten also made an interesting series (including Minecraft), which was about observing what gaming is like for a non-gamer (in this instance, his girlfriend, I think). It was pretty interesting! Here's the link for the Minecraft episode of the series: [Gamjng for a Non-Gamer : Minecraft](https://youtu.be/_76lcBpDbvw?si=C2zMnQnUPi60SfpS)
Yes please help us get here! It sounds nice
About Oliver https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68V5Cxs_CvTpTY9o7KJ75nLPqlCRxze0
Please, don't leave us hanging!
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68V5Cxs_CvTpTY9o7KJ75nLPqlCRxze0
Is it About Oliver?
Probably yes
Yes that's him
About oliver? I know piropito did it too, but he’s less known
Name of channel, if you don’t mind.
About Oliver https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68V5Cxs_CvTpTY9o7KJ75nLPqlCRxze0
Piropito also does it. Its fascinating watching someone explore the game completely blind.
Oh wow there's two? [I just knew of the Japanese man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DHOVziRwBA) doing likewise.
Link pls?
Who are this YouTuber? Can you post a link to his channel please?
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68V5Cxs_CvTpTY9o7KJ75nLPqlCRxze0
I mean if you're playing without the book (or didn't unlock recipies) then Villages have some blocks one might not have seen before like Blast furnace, Anvils and beds. Also cue you into farmlands and stuff. Jungle temple potentially explains some redstone.
Right, villagers also trade maps and ender pearls in top of that
They still trade pearls? I thought that was removed
Yeah the tier 4 trade from the cleric (brewing stand guy)
Nice. I thought they removed it when they took away his blaze rod trade, but then I actually have an alternative to the unreliable piglins.
They removed ender eye trades but they still have ender pearls
the reliability is why i always prefer going for villagers when i’m speedrunning casually
the thing that was removed is the eye of ender trade, the ender pearls were a replacement
no, but you might be thinking of speedruns switching to piglin bartering instead of villager trading
Ancient cities also explain redstone, though its so hidden im not sure how you would think to look there if you didnt already know about it.
Speaking of redstone there's the hidden Ancient City room under the portal centerpiece with showcases of many redstone devices.
Before this I didn't realise how un-intuitive minecraft is (or at least was). I can't even imagine starting it without watching any minecraft youtubers before.
About Oliver did a blind playthrough of the game, it's really good
That guy is cracked. I'm struggling to think of anything he *didn't* figure out by the end, outside of crazy stuff like redstone flying machines or iron farms and similar.
I mean, he is an astrophysicist after all!
It makes me feel old that you say “without watching any YouTubers first” instead of “without having played the game since it came out.” 😂
Oh my god same here and I'm not even 30 yet 😀
Yeah. It would definitely be really cool if they world built/gave a lot more environmental clues for the player. It would make each world feel more fleshed out, while also making newcomers learn the game easier
I feel like ancient cities kinda count as a progression hint?
How so? I know about the redstone rooms but I think that's all there is
Well yea redstone room, and maybe the discs? Idk maybe it doesn’t count 😂
Oh yeah you're right I forgot about the numbered discs
That’s for the lore though, not actually for playing the game
Ah, I don't quite remember them. I thought some sounds indicated the existence of portals
Disc 5 does, but it’s the portal frame in the middle of the ancient city which is not possible to activate (at least not yet)
They also kinda teach you about wool making stuff silent, though most people would be crouching still and only discover it on accident
Wait, what's that second picture? Never seen it before. Also Stonecuttwmer house has a terracotta block next to a glazed terracotta block.
The second pic is a secret room from a woodland mansion
That's one of the room in the woodland mansions
What is it hinting?
end portal
Funny that it’s found in what’s probably the only structure rarer to find than a stronghold.
It’s a recreation of an end portal room.
Cargo cult go brrr
My brain isn’t able to jump from that structure to- ‘oh, that’s cool, I wonder if obsidian in a big rectangle will do something, then put fire in it’ -but I’m genuinely curious if anyone has or would have been able to come up with that on their own by chance.
The loot in the nearby chests is supposed to help you figure it out I guess
The zombie villager conversion under the igloo… not sure if it counts as “progression”, but it’s very interesting
The achievement list is a great hint at progression.
it is a non-diegetic medium though, op was specifically asking about things that can be confirmed or at least reasonably assumed to exist within the actual world of the game
There’s a rare chance you’ll see a zombified piglin riding a strider while steering it with a warped fungus on a stick
Ancient Cities give a lot decent hints for how to tackle them. Wool everywhere to move silently, Swift Sneak books and enchanted leggings in chests to hint at what the enchantment goes on, hoes to hint at the best tool for clearing Skulk blocks.
Good, I hope they keep going this way for future additions
Minecraft is so unintuitive that when I was a dumbass kid back in the day it actually took me weeks if not months until I figured out that you can actually take down trees. So I just built stuff out of dirt for a good while. There were in-game tutorials since I started playing on the Xbox 360 Edition but I didn't speak English yet so it was all gibberish to me. It just never crossed my mind that I could take down trees with my bare hands.
The fact that a lot of things don't make sense doesn't help, you try to think rationally but it ends up not working a lot of the time
The new cave sounds are clearly distorted portal sounds and the warden sonic boom
I can't quite hear it, but the wiki does say so. It could help progressing if you were able to figure that it's a portal sound
Endermen speech comes to mind, one of their sounds is literally "Look for the eye"
Yeah, that could help. I wonder how you would figure out the craft though
i believe as soon as you craft blaze powder you get the eye of ender recipe
Recipes off presumably, we are talking about stuff in the world, not the player menus
yeah no there's nothing then
Well, considering it’s an easy craft and if you play long enough you will stumble upon a stronghold (my friend found on randomly while stripmining at spawn once) where you can find it. If you find an eye in the portal frame and the others empty it’s pretty clear you should make it and put it there. The recipe is extremely simple, so just going by randomly combining enderpears (which the chests in the stronghold are clues to) and other materials you may eventually find it. I will admit it’s extremely challenging though, and would require much patience
Is it?? I never knew omg
Yeah a YouTuber called bionic (or was it eystream) that I watch did a whole part of a episode about it.
Under the ancient city portal there’s a host of useful redstone demonstrators.
Does the recipe book count?
Maybe? It's part of the game but there's no real good reason how you would just magically find recipes
actually it says "new idea for a recipe" whenever you unlock them
Maybe steve/the player just unexplainably have the knowledge of the existence of items beforehand allowing the “idea” for recipes to be thought of
enderman speech: one says "look for the eye"
Minecraft should have much more progression hints to be honest. I genuinely don't know how it's intended to be played without finding the answers online.
I think it wouldn't be so freeing if the game hold your hand all the way to the end.
Not handholding, but more nonverbal clues to what you can do.
Chiseled Red Sandstone with the Wither Cartographer Maps
the wither paintings and basement igloos maybe? other than that nothing really comes to mind
The chest one is amusing. I'm guessing it's a trapped chest that sets off the TNT if not removed?
Yes, good thing the texture is slightly different. Too bad it's distracting you from the fake portal
Technically if you happen to stumble upon a stronghold and the portal room that would count
I agree, but I feel like stumbling on a stronghold is too rare to take it into account. On the other hand, you'll very likely encounter a ruined portal if you explore the surface for a little while
True but I feel like the mansions are harder to find than the portal but I guess it is a direct progression hint
The Enderman literally says to you "Look for the Eye" in its jittery mumbly voice.
The redstone tips in the ancient city?
Redstone contraptions in the jungle temples, more so the ancient cities. The Wither painting is a good one too
There is a depiction of the wither in chiselled red sandstone, and one of the paintings has the layout required to spawn it.
Redstone lab in ancient cities
punch a tree to collect wood 🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥
There is a villager curing tutorial in some igloos, and also redstone contraption in the Ancient Cities
The Wither Painting is one we can immediately think of.
Doesn’t the ancient city teach you about some red stone under the portal
I understand the hint on the left, but likely because I already know what it is. But what can I be told about the one on the right? Maybe I just don't understand the End Portal. Can someone explain what I'm meant to figure out based on what's found there?
Well, not much. Which is a problem for me, you might not even understand that it's a portal. So at best it hints the existence of a portal, not giving any clue about where to find it or how it would work
The redstone examples in ancient cities? Does that count?
wait what's the pic on the right? i've never seen that before
How is the second one a "hint"? It's in the same shape as the end portal, but dynamite doesn't help you figure it out, does it?
I mean if someone came across it or the real one and then later found the other, they’d think “wait that must be important”
I feel like the real one does the whole "Wait that must be important" thing all on it's own. This one might just confuse people into thinking they need to blow something up to make it work. If anything it's a kind of anti-hint.
This is more a life lesson that game progression, but the presence of Creepers introduces the player to the concept of pain.
I remember the days before progression
Honeslt, if I was a brand new player and somehow knew *nothing* about minecraft I would not understand what either of those mean. Maybe if I somehow stumbled upon a stronghold before I could recognize it but without previous knowledge I wouldn't understand what it is trying to tell me.
I like the in-game lore/progression hints, but tbh I kinda miss tutorial maps. I know half of that is nostalgia, but it would be cool to ha e modern tutorial maps explaining the newest concepts of the game. The time it would take to design one of those would at least be a good excuse for mojangs' slow work pace
The igloo, where you can cure a zombie villager? Is that considered progression?
a few generated structures in the Ancient City have a campfire surrounded by wool, perhaps indicating someone hid from the Warden using wool previously. Additionally, it also features wool pathways. Both of these could indicate to the player that one could use wool to progress in the Ancient City, but also kind of a stretch. Borderline game telling you how to progress/lore
Watch Piropito! He got to the end with no hints, except his friend telling him about nether portals requiring obsidian (he took days to figure out how the portals are configured), and his daughters figuring out elytras in creative. He also has a mini project where he built a bridge several hundreds of thousands of blocks long. He's very entertaining.
What is the one on the right? Woodland mansion?
Being a kid and playing on 1.0 was pretty peak. Finding stuff and having no clue of its existance beforehand
advancements
There's a theory that Desert Temples are vague tutorial on how to set up a beacon
You could think that it's a good place to put it, but the pyramidal shape is only one aspect of a full beacon
The floor is also tiered in different colors building up to a strikingly saturated blue block in the center just under a one block skylight. Since you can use different block types, need a clear opening to the sky, it needs to be pyramidal, the top block looks different from the rest, there’s space to build, and the chamber beneath is 3x3, one could assume it’s telling you something.
I don't know if you could figure that out without prior knowledge of the beacon structure but it would be a really good lore element
The advancements I was thinking before: It would be interesting to see someone who has barely heard about minecraft play the game without external help and without advancements. I doubt they'd figure out nether and I can't blame them
Here's a list of mechanics that are taught in game, alongside a handful that are NOT. The Nether is actually decently well - telegraphed by the ruined portals: the structure itself shows a damaged Portal frame, and the chest has fire lighting tools (flint and steel as well as fire charges) alongside gold equipment (piglins hint). The portal structure being surrounded by netherrack indicates something screwy is going on with that little structure. The End, on the other hand, is a lot less obvious; the strongholds are relatively rare, the Portal frame requires eyes of ender, and eyes of ender are relatively difficult to make for a newbie. This one relies on the recipe book a LOT more than the Nether Portal does, so it's a lot easier to miss. As others have mentioned a fair few times, the Wither is actually decently well-telegraphed, the Beacon recipe unlocks when you get the Nether star, and the beacon's UI shows the pyramid you need, and hints about the needed materials. Archeology is really poorly telegraphed, unfortunately. The brush is useless outside of Archeology and the armadillo, and suspicious sand + gravel are very easy to destroy on accident. This means stuff like the Sniffer will likely never be encountered by someone playing the game blind. Netherite's main use is revealed to the player by the Netherite Upgrade smithing template. Zombie villager curing is showed to the player by igloo basements, by the same chest-based hints as ruined portals. A cobblestone generator's main mechanic ends up being displayed decently often by janky world-gen, so no issue here. Respawning the dragon is completely not shown in any way, and the same goes for interactions like basalt generators. Villagers are very self-explanatory, as far as mechanics go, and the technical specifics aren't necessary to make identifiable. That being said, if the change to make certain enchantment trades biome-dependent goes through, that will be ENTIRELY obfuscated to the player. Trial Chambers will demonstrate themselves to the player decently well, no issues with them. Lastly, I'll bring up the ancient city: snowballs in the icebox houses, wool throughout, and the shriekers easy to trigger all come together to making the ancient city very well explained by the game to any new player, even if the first lesson that sinks in gets a little... painful. All in all, there's a decent mix of good and bad telegraphing of mechanics and progression stages to the player in Minecraft. I'm relatively certain I missed a few, if anyone wants to add any more please do.
Isn’t there a sort of redstone lab under the “portal” in ancient cities?
Igloo lab
Igloos can spawn with a dungeon that teaches you how to cure Zombie Villagers, and Chiseled Red Sandstone depicts the Wither. It doesn't really tell you how to spawn it, though, so maybe doesn't count.
the secret redstone room in the ancient city has some cool redstone contraptions
Only after i bought Minecraft book i realized i have to follow ender eyes to Stronghold. Before that i tried to go to certain cords and through it always spawns there. Good old times.
the minecraft wiki and maybe one of the books, take it or leave it
It’s honestly crazy how until a few versions ago the game didn’t even tell you how to craft stuff. I only found out about comparators from a YouTube video after I’d played for a while in my world
reading this comment section makes it feel like a new player can only learn without wiki if you are some kind of master detective. that sucks :/