5 most foolish mistakes in Minecraft

Most of the time, it's new players that find themselves in the unfortunate situation of making a huge and very easily avoidable mistake in Minecraft. Not to worry though, making mistakes is natural and happens to even the best Minecrafters.

Some mistakes are much more common than others, and keeping them in mind can give players a great advantage, especially within Minecraft servers where there is less room for players to slip up or make beginner-level mistakes.

The mistakes highlighted in this list are well known by most long-term players. In fact, most players with serious time invested into the game are almost definitely guilty of falling prey to at least one of these embarrassing mistakes.

Note: There are no objective, most foolish mistakes in the game; however, some have been picked out based on the writer's sole opinion.

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Top 5 silliest mistakes to make in Minecraft

#5 - Death by explosives

Too much TNT can be a death sentence if lit too close

A very foolish mistake to make in Minecraft is not realizing the blast radius or the knock-on effect of TNT.

This happens in particular to new players who are trying to clear out a large area quickly with explosives. They may not realize TNT bounces off each other once lit, sending it flying in all directions.

In order to avoid this, players should be sure to keep a vast distance after lighting TNT. If, by chance, a lot of TNT must be lit at once, players can set-up a simple redstone circuit to trigger TNT from afar.

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#4 - Straying too far from home

Lost in the vast world of Minecraft

Now, this is a mistake likely to be made by an adventurous type of player who often gets a bit carried away while exploring, perhaps straying a bit too far from home in the process. Before they know it, it's night time and the wicked mobs of the night come out to trouble players.

However, a very common method players can use to remember where their base is located is simply to note down or screenshot their base coordinates.

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#3 - Death by drowning

Drowning in Minecraft is an avoidable tragedy

Drowning underwater is a sad but common mistake many new Minecraft players make because they simply don't notice the air bubble meter above the hunger bar. This can occur, particularly while venturing out deep into the ocean, perhaps to explore a monument or something of the sort.

Drowning really is a very embarrassing way to die, though, especially if the player doesn't have the excuse of being new to Minecraft. Water is a common sight indeed within the game, so there aren't many excuses for this one.

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#2 - Accidentally starting a forest fire

A raging forest fire can easily accidently be started in Minecraft

A very common accident many new players fall victim to in Minecraft is simply setting a tree on fire and forgetting about it.

This is an especially bad practice because if done inside a dense forest, it may just cause a forest fire. Wildfires occur due to the spread of fire on certain blocks, which many new players may be unwise to.

Accidentally setting a wooden house on fire is just as bad too, many ex-homeowners have learned this the hard way. Just like in real life, players shouldn't play with fire around flammable objects.

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#1 - Digging straight downwards

Digging downwards, moments before death

Now we have the absolute cardinal sin when it comes to Minecraft, the number 1 rule that should never be broken: digging straight downwards.

Minecrafters have been given a rude awakening countless times by a pool of lava or a deep cave after assuming it would be just fine to take the easy route of digging straight down.

What makes this problem worse is that sometimes players will get away with it just fine, so they do it again and again until it finally happens - a pool of lava swallows their gear that took hours to obtain.

The funny thing is that it is very simple to avoid all this drama. All players need to do is build a sort of staircase whilst traversing downwards, such as to avoid constantly destroying the block they are directly standing on.