Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
As you craft more items, you need to find somewhere to store those you don't need to use
rightaway.Youshouldalsostoreotherresourcesandfoodyoucomeacrossonyourtravels.
That comes next.
Chests: Safely Stash Your Stuff
Whenever you head away from your secure shelter, there is always a reasonably high risk
of death. Creepers, lava pits, long falls—they can all do you in. Respawning is only a mo-
ment away, but the real danger here is that any items you've collected and carry in your
character'sinventorydropatthelocationofyouruntimelydeathandmayproveimpossible
to retrieve in the 5 minutes you have to get back to them before they disappear forever.
Chests act as an insurance policy. Put everything you don't need in a chest before you em-
bark on a mission, and those things will be there when you get back or after you respawn.
The natural place to leave chests is in your shelter, but you can also leave them elsewhere,
perhaps as a staging point as you work away in a mine, or even outside. Mobs will leave
them alone, and the only real risk you face is leaving them out in the open on a multiplay-
er server or getting blown up from behind by a creeper in singleplayer mode while you're
rummaging around inside.
Chests come in two sizes: single and double. A single chest can store 27 stacks of items.
Create a double chest by placing two single chests side by side. The double chest stores up
to 54 stacks of items. Given that a stack can be up to 64 items high, that's an astonishing
potential total of 3,510 blocks in a crate that takes just 2×1 blocks of floor space. If you've
ever followed the Doctor Who TV series, consider chests the Tardis of storage!
Create a chest at your crafting table with eight blocks of wooden planks arranged around
the outside, leaving a space in the middle.
