Minecraft: Up your game with the official handbooks

With over 202 million sales worldwide, Minecraft is a gaming phenomenon.

Egmont’s highly anticipated publishing programme targets younger Minecraft fans and has something to satisfy both eager beginners and expert fans.

Titles contain tips from developer jeb and creater Notch, as well as other Minecraft experts and celebrities, and are retailing at R120 each.

Here is a quick look at the official Minecraft handbooks:

Minecraft – The Beginner’s Handbook

This handbook is for beginners who find themselves alone, in a mysterious new world, full of hidden dangers, with only minutes to find food and shelter before darkness falls and the monsters come looking for them.

The Beginner’s Handbook might just save their lives, giving novice players the knowledge they’ll need to survive and make it to the next level.

Minecraft – The Redstone Handbook

Handbook two will allow fans to wire up and get connected to one of the most complex areas of Minecraft – Redstone.

In The Redstone Handbook experts will guide players through all aspects of working with this most sought after mineral, including: mining, smelting, using repeaters, circuit components and circuit designs.

Minecraft – The Combat Handbook

The Combat Handbook will teach fans everything they need to know to defend themselves from attacks in Minecraft.

It includes tips from Minecraft experts and step-by-step instructions on building forts, setting traps, crafting armour and weapons, and how to best prepare for one-on-one combat with hostile mobs and enemy players.

Minecraft – The Construction Handbook

The Construction Handbook showcases all the awesome things people have built in Minecraft.

Ranging from building detail like arched windows and spiral staircases in a castle to outstanding rollercoasters and the infamous cow launcher, this book aims to inspire fans with step-by-step tutorials to build particular elements of grander projects.

About Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox-building independent video game that focuses on creativity and building, allowing players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world.

Gameplay in its commercial release has three modes:

• Survival, which requires players to acquire resources and maintain their health and hunger;
• Creative, where the player has an unlimited supply of resources, that ability to fly, and no health or hunger; and
• Hardcore, which is essentially the same as Survival, but the difficulty is locked on the hardest setting and respawning is disabled, forcing the player to delete his or her world upon death.

Minecraft is a game with few boundaries. The single player version has been described as “virtual lego with zombies.”