Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
A piece of flint, a stick, and a feather will create a stack of four arrows.
This isn't a lot, and you're going to need a lot of arrows to make a bow worth-
while—probably several dozen on any significant expedition.
A few techniques make this quite easy. The easiest is to go for a quick scout around in the
morning when the sun comes up. Here's why:
Skeletons often drop arrows when they burn up in the morning, so there's no craft-
ing required there.
Zombies sometimes drop feathers at the same time.
Chickens can die during the night, a victim of wolves or cacti. You can also kill
any random chickens you find during your travels to get both meat and often 1-2
feathers per chicken.
Sticks are almost always readily available, but what about flint?
Every gravel block mined with a shovel has a 1 in 10 chance of dropping a piece of flint
instead of a block of gravel. It's completely random, meaning that every block of gravel, if
mined, placed, and mined again will eventually yield the flint. That changes everything!
Gravel usually seems to be a bit of an annoyance in mines because it's so common, keeps
falling down, and for best results usually requires that you change from a pickaxe to a
shovel. But from now on consider it a benefit. Gather all the gravel you can because each
and every one contains flint, just requiring a bit ofgentle encouragement to give upits pre-
cious yield.
