Survival Mode for Beginners

For beginners it is recommended that you start on easy, or even peaceful mode. In the options menu you may enable starter chests so beginning your new adventure won't be too hard. Starter chest or not, one of your first priorities is to gather some wood. You can't really do anything with wooden blocks; press "E" to go into your inventory.
 Place the wooden blocks into any one of the four squares and on the side you will see wooden planks appear. Grab all of the wooden planks (holding SHIFT and LEFT CLICKING the planks) and the first thing you will make with it is a crafting table. The difference between a crafting table and your regular inventory is that the crafting will have more slots for you to make items. Inventory crafting is only 2x2, while crafting tables are 3x3. Your first priority is to make a wooden pickaxe.
find a nice spot and dig a stair case. Break the surface dirt with your hands, and when you hit stone, use your wooden pickaxe. Mine approximately 6-9 stone. It should appear in your inventory as 'cobblestone.' Now go back to your crafting table and right click it. Click and drag two planks so that one is above the other, forming a short vertical line. Turn it into sticks. Now stack up the sticks the same way you did to the planks, except this time fill in the top three slots with cobble. Congratulations! You made your first stone tool, a pickaxe.
Now, to make an axe, not a pickaxe, but an axe. Use your remaining two sticks the same way used for the pickaxe. Now, fill in: Top left corner, Middle top, and middle left, forming a right angle. Go find some trees and turn the logs into planks. You have three choices: make an underground home, a house of wood/cobblestone, or digging a cave. You may also want to get some wool from sheep to make beds. It is essential to have a bed at your house so you don't respawn in the wild (unless your house is really close to the original spawn). Crafting recipes will be posted on the bottom: Swords, torches, doors, etc.

Transportation recipes

Name	Ingredients	Input » Output	Description
Minecart	Iron Ingots		Used to transport the player or a mob along rails.
Minecart with Furnace	Furnace + Minecart		Used to push other Minecarts along rails using fuel.
Minecart with Chest	Chest + Minecart		Used to transport goods along rails.
Boat	Wooden Planks		Used to travel on water faster than swimming.

Tool recipes

Name	Ingredients	Input » Output	Description
Axes	Sticks + Wooden Planks or Cobblestone or Iron Ingots or Gold Ingots or Diamonds		Used to chop wood-related blocks and pumpkins faster than by hand.
Pickaxes	Sticks + Wooden Planks or Cobblestone or Iron Ingots or Gold Ingots or Diamonds		Required to mine stone-related blocks, iron-related blocks and ore.
Shovels	Sticks + Wooden Planks or Cobblestone or Iron Ingot or Gold Ingot or Diamond		Used to dig dirt, grass, sand, gravel and snow faster than by hand. Shovels are required to dig snowballs.
Hoes	Sticks + Wooden Planks or Cobblestone or Iron Ingots or Gold Ingots or Diamonds		Used to till dirt and grass blocks to prepare for crops (carrots, melons, potatoes, pumpkins, wheat).
Flint and Steel	Iron Ingot + Flint		Used to create fire.
Bucket	Iron Ingots		Used to collect and transport water, lava and milk.
Compass	Iron Ingots + Redstone Dust		Points to the player's original spawn point.
Maps	Paper + Compass		Will create an image of an area explored while held. This can be used for path-finding.
Clock	Gold Ingots + Redstone Dust		Displays positions of the Sun and Moon.
Fishing Rod	Sticks + String		Used to catch fish. Can also be used to pull mobs and otherentities.
Carrot on a Stick	Fishing Rod + Carrot		Used while riding pigs to direct them.
Shears	Iron Ingots		Used to collect dead bush, leaves, tall grass, vines andwool from sheep. Also breaks leaves, wool, and cobweb faster than by hand. Shears can be used to collect tripwire without triggering a redstone pulse.
Fire Charge	Blaze Powder + Coal/Charcoal + Gunpowder	3	Can be shot out of dispensers. Also can be used to createfire and to light blocks and entities on fire.

[edit]Weapon recipes

Name	Ingredients	Input » Output	Description
Swords	Stick + Wooden Plank or Cobblestone or Iron Ingots or Gold Ingots or Diamond Gems		Deals mobs more damage than by hand.
Bow	Sticks + String		Allows for ranged attacks by using arrows.
Arrows	Flint + Stick + Feather	4	Used as ammunition for bows.

Armor recipes

Name	Ingredients	Input » Output	[Collapse]Description
Helmets	Leather or Gold Ingots or Fire* or Iron Ingots or Diamond Gems		Leather Cap gives  Golden Helmet gives  Chain Helmet gives  Iron Helmet gives  Diamond Helmet gives
Chestplates	Leather or Gold Ingots or Fire* or Iron Ingots or Diamond Gems		Leather Tunic gives  Golden Chestplate gives  Chain Chestplate gives  Iron Chestplate gives  Diamond Chestplate gives
Leggings	Leather or Gold Ingots or Fire* or Iron Ingots or Diamond Gems		Leather Pants give  Golden Leggings give  Chain Leggings give  Iron Leggings give  Diamond Leggings give
Boots	Leather or Gold Ingots or Fire* or Iron Ingots or Diamond Gems		Leather Boots give  Golden Boots give  Iron Boots give  Diamond Boots give  Chain Boots give

* Fire is only obtainable via inventory hacking.

Mechanism recipes

Name	Ingredients	Input » Output	Description
Doors	Wooden Planks or Iron Ingots		Wooden doors are activated by clicking or with redstone. Iron doors are similar but can only be opened by Redstone, Switches, or Pressure Plates and things close to that.
Redstone Torch	Redstone Dust + Stick		Constantly sends an electrical charge, or can be used as a receiver/transmitter when connected the side of a block. Can also be used for low-level lighting.
Lever	Cobblestone + Stick		Used to send an electrical charge by being turned on or off. Stays in on or off state until clicked again.
Redstone Repeater	Stone + Redstone Dust+ Redstone Torch		Used in redstone circuits as repeater, a delayer, and/or a diode.
Tripwire Hook	Iron Ingot + Stick +Wooden Plank	2	Used to send an electrical charge whenever a player or entity steps on a tripwire connected to it.

Food recipes

Name	Ingredients	Input » Output	Description
Bowls	Wooden Planks	4	Used to hold mushroom stew and to milk a Mooshroom.
Mushroom Stew	Red Mushroom + Brown Mushroom + Bowl		Restores . Bowl is re-usable.
Bread	Wheat		Restores .
Sugar	Sugar Cane		Used when crafting Pumpkin pie, Cake and brewing aPotion of Swiftness.
Cake	Wheat + Sugar +Chicken Egg + Milk		Restores  on every use. Can be used 6 times, for a total of  restored. Returns empty bucketswhen crafted.
Cookie	Wheat + Cocoa Beans	8	Restores .
Golden Apple	Red Apple + Gold Nuggets		Restores , and regenerates health temporarily. It is one of two foods that can be eaten with a full Hunger bar.
Enchanted Golden Apple	Red Apple + Gold Blocks		Restores , and regenerates health rapidly for 30 seconds, and gives resistance and fire resistance for 5 minutes. It is one of two foods that can be eaten with a fullHunger bar.
Melon Block	Melon Slice		Can be used for compact storage of melon slices. Each slice restores . However, breaking a single melon block yields 3-7 melon slices.
Melon Seeds	Melon Slice		Plantable on farmland. Will produce one Melon Block each harvest.
Pumpkin Seeds	Pumpkin	4	Plantable on farmland. Will produce one Pumpkin each harvest.
Golden Carrot	Golden Carrot		Restores . Usable in potions.