Survival Mode tips

• When traveling to the End in Survival Mode, always bring a pumpkin and a bucket of water. If you wear your pumpkin on your head, endermen will not attack you if you look them in the eye as they usually do. If, however, you need to take your pumpkin off for whatever reason, build a base out of end stone or obsidian (the Ender Dragon cannot destroy either one) and put water inside to protect yourself from Endermen. Be warned, if you use water but don't build a base around it, the Ender Dragon can dive-bomb you.

• Endermen cannot teleport if you hit their legs, so when fighting an enderman, back yourself up against a wall (as a precaution so that they can't teleport behind you if the attack fails) and attack their legs.

• Husks and Strays are two variants of zombies and skeletons respectively. Husks spawn only in deserts and don't burn in daylight, Strays spawn only in snowy biomes and do burn in daylight. When hit by a Husk, the player will not only take damage, but will recieve hunger as well. Strays shoot arrows of slowness. Watch out for both of these mobs, as they are far more dangerous than their zombie and skeleton counterparts, and especially watch out for the baby husk. [Shudder]

• Don't hit a creeper with a splash potion, as any creeper that is inflicted with a status effect will affect any nearby mobs or players within its blast radius with that status effect.
  For example: A player throws a splash potion of weakness at a creeper, however, the creeper attacks the player and explodes, damaging the player and affecting him with weakness.

• Eating raw chicken has a 20% chance of giving you hunger, so make sure to cook your chicken before eating it.

• Cobblestone is immune to ghast fireballs, so when first entering the Nether, use cobblestone to create a base around your nether portal.
  You can also use cobblestone to create safehouses throughout the Nether.

• Feeding an animal prevents it from despawning, and if you feed a baby animal, there is a chance it will turn into an adult on the spot.

• "He needs some milk!"
  When drunk, milk clears all status effects in Minecraft, which makes it extremely handy when fighting witches, who throw splash potions, cave spiders, whose bite inflicts poison, and even other players, who can inflict status effects with spalsh potions and enchanted swords.
  However, DO NOT drink milk if you are using a helpful status effect such as strength, as it will get rid of that as well.
  The notable exeption to this rule is if the benefit outweighs the cost, for example, drinking milk when you are affected by poison and night vision.

• Most Minecrafters will tell you that when dealing with a witch, it is best to use a bow and arrows. I, however, disagree. You see, a witch drinks a potion of healing whenever it is damaged. By the time you've aimed your next bow shot at the witch, the witch has already regained her health.
  So what should you do instead of using a bow and arrows? I would recommend firing a bow shot at the witch only once, and then dashing in with a sword while she's still drinking a potion of healing. She won't be able to retaliate when drinking a potion of healing, so as long as you keep up a continuous barrage of hits, you'll be able to defeat the witch without even taking any damage.
  

• When dealing with a dungeon in survival mode, don't rush straight in. Instead, block off the entrance if necessary, and tunnel around the dungeon and break a single block in the wall.

  Now, if the dungeon is a skeleton dungeon, make sure you destroy the block just above the floor so that the skeletons can't shoot you. If it's a zombie dungeon, destroy the block closest to the ceiling so that baby zombies can't walk through your hole. If it's a spider dungeon, it doesn't matter, just so long as you destroy only a single block so that the spiders can't get through.

  After you've broken the block, pour lava in the dungeon, which should both disable the spawner and kill any existing monsters in the dungeon. Once you've done that, you can carefully enter the dungeon, destroy the spawner, remove the lava, and walk away with your loot.

• When building your shelter for the first night on survival mode with the difficulty set to hard, use a fence gate instead of a door. Zombies can break through wooden doors when the difficulty is set to hard. Though they cannot break through iron doors, iron doors require a lot of iron to craft, and until you get enough iron to make one, I would reccomend using a fence gate, which is easy to craft and 100% zombie-proof.