"Trivia #7: Essentials", "On your journey, there are a few basic, but essential items you'll need to make along the way to progress. A crafting table (4 wooden planks placed in a square), a bed (3 wool of any color under 3 planks) and a furnace (a circle of 8 cobblestone) are a few things you could not live without. Other tools include a sword (a stick under two ores) or a pickaxe (2 sticks vertical with 3 of the same ores on the top). There are many more recipes to discover, but you can figure out those yourself.
