Are you ready for a new, ultra challenging minecraft survival map? I hope so because 2×2 Square Survival is a Minecraft survival island with a twist – the twist being the almost complete lack of soil in which to grow crops, spawn animals and you know, survive.

In addition to the basic survival challenges there are also hidden areas to investigate and plenty of challenges to complete, over fifty unique challenges in fact! It is compatible with various minecraft snapshots and with the base game, so you can get as deep into minecraft challenge mode as you like, or simply build a little boat and spend your days floating around your tiny island, escaping predators through the art of paddling or sail or magnets or whatever force is supposed to be propelling a minecraft boat.

Download Square Survival, 2×2 Island Survival Map!

Minecraft pigs have been rideable with saddles since the very early stages of the game. Even back in beta one could craft a leather saddle, leap on a pig and find oneself being wandered aimlessly about the place. But in the new minecraft one can actually steer minecraft pigs as you ride them using a carrot on a stick.

How To Craft A Pig Saddle

To ride a pig you’re going to need to saddle a pig. Unfortunately, pig saddles aren’t craftable and they’re not going to become craftable either. You can get yourself a pig saddle by trading with a villager, finding one in a dungeon or using the /gamemode command to switch to creative, crib yourself a saddle and switch back before you lose your sense of immersion.

How To Craft A Carrot And Stick For Minecraft Pig Riding

Take one fishing rod and add a carrot. Simple as that!

Be aware of the fact that carrots on sticks don’t last forever, so you’ll have to craft plenty of carrots on sticks if you want to ride your trusty pig steed all o’er the minecraft plains.

(Please note that unless you are using a recent snapshot you won’t be able to steer pigs with carrots on sticks until the next update, when this article will leap into glorious relevance!)

This humble minecraft command block awaits your commands.

The command block is a minecraft block designed to be used in Adventure Mode. With a command block a map creator will be able to ‘instruct’ a map/block to dispense specific items and EXP points when the block is activated via a redstone current. This means that when a player completes an objective in adventure mode, they can be rewarded. The command block can also be used to change how the game behaves at different stages of the map. Mob spawning, fire spread, block and mob drops can all be controlled via the command block. The command block can also be used in multiplayer server maps (SMP).

Specific information on how to make the minecraft command block work after the jump!
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Don’t just survive, thrive and complete a monument! Olympus was the mythical home of the gods, but the crater like hell valley you find yourself in leaves you feel anything but like a god. The view as you leave the crater of Mt Olympus is awe inspiring, but there are no gentle olive groves or peaceful Greek villages. There’s an awful lot of darkness and lava and an ominous dark cloud floats all o’er the land.

Traps and tricks abound on Mt Olympus, placed there by vengeful gods with a twisted sense of humor, no doubt. In order to survive you’ll need to carve out a little nniche of paradise in among the lava hell, and in order to complete the map you’ll need to collect a bunch of animal eggs and avoid the temptation to use them to get a couple of pork chops or strips of leather because you’ll need them to complete the monument.

This map is compatible both with the current 1.3.2 release and also the 12w38b snapshot, if you’re the sort of person who likes introducing unstable features into your game (and I highly recommend it.)

There be dungeons, there be dragons, there be challenges of all kind in this dangerous and exciting minecraft survival map.

Click here to download Olympus, Minecraft Survival CTM Map!

Wanderlust is a nickname coined by redditor superguh for a specific type of minecraft survival map play that does not involve actually downloading any minecraft survival maps. The rules of Wanderlust are as simple as they are demanding, as complex as they are cheese (which is not at all) and as fun as they are rules (which is 100%.)

When I stumbled across this survival mode of play I thought it quite genius and invigorating, especially for those of us for whom Minecraft has recently become rather confusingly bat-filled. To play a game of Minecraft Wanderlust as laid out by the aforementioned superguh, you must perform the following actions:

• Every night you must sleep in a bed. It can be the same bed but it can not be in the same place twice. You must move your bed to an entirely new area every evening. If you do not sleep, you lose the game. That’s because sleep is important if you want to grow up to be a big strong Steve.
• Every night you must build a new shelter to house you and your bed, Wilson.
• Mining is strictly forbidden in this style of minecraft, that is to say, digging a mine is forbidden. All minerals must be found on the surface of things. Say hello to a lot of fast paced spelunking if you have ambitions of finding diamond.
• Once a structure is built, you must leave it be. You can take only your bed, your furnace and your workbenches. Okay, maybe a torch or two – and that painting you put on the mantelpiece. But that’s all!

And that’s it. Those are all the rules. Pack up your pickaxe and grab a few stalks of sugar cane to nourish you along the way. (Ha! Jokes on you, minecraft sugar is inedible!)