Operation Manual

CHAPTER 3: Gathering Resources
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FIGURE 3.1 The HUD provides key status indications. Health is all important,
but low hunger also leads to low health, so keep a close eye on both.
1
3
5
2
4
6
1. Armor bar
2. Health bar
3. Experience bar
4. Oxygen bar
5. Hunger bar
6. Inventory quick access
Each section of the HUD provides a key nugget of information about the health or status of
your avatar:
Q Armor bar—The armor bar appears when you’ve equipped your avatar with any type of
armor and shows the current damage absorption level. Each armor icon represents an
8% reduction in the damage you’ll take, so a 10/10 suit of armor reduces the damage
you take by 80%, whereas a 1/10 suit absorbs only 8%. Armor becomes less effective the
more damage it absorbs, although the rate at which it deteriorates also depends on its
material—leather being the weakest and diamond the strongest.
Q Health bar—You have up to 20 points of health available, represented by the 10 hearts
shown. Each heart disappears in two ticks. Health and hunger have a complicated rela-
tionship. You can read more below starting at “Hunger Management.”
Q Experience bar—The experience bar increases the more you mine, smelt, cook, kill, and
fish. Your current level is shown in the middle of the bar. When it’s full, you move to
the next experience level. Experience isn’t generally important until you start enchanting
and giving additional powers to items such as swords (see Chapter 10, “Enchantments,
Anvils, and Brewing”). Unlike other role-playing games, experience in Minecraft is more
like a currency that you spend on enchantments, so it waxes and wanes. But all experi-
ence gained counts toward the final score shown on the screen when you die. Killing
a mob drops experience orbs that either fly directly toward you or float to the ground
waiting for you to collect them, and you can also gain experience by smelting certain
items in the furnace and carrying out other activities such as finding rare ores. Dying
causes a substantial drop in your current experience level.
Q Oxygen bar—The oxygen bar appears whenever you go underwater and it quickly starts
to drop. You can probably hold your own breath for longer! As soon as your oxygen
level hits zero, your health starts taking a two-point hit every second, but it resurfaces
for just an instant if you hold down the jump key until you’ve reached air once more.
Diving isn’t that big of a deal in Minecraft, at least not for completing the core game,