Building things in Minecraft is something that every player does in some way or another. Whether you are building a temporary shelter to weather the night, a mob grinder to harvest resources, a farm for food or a vast stone fortress, re-shaping Minecraft’s game world should be a familiar concept. In this article, we will go over the steps to build a basic Minecraft tower, as well as some other helpful tips and tricks that can be useful in your future Minecraft projects.

Introduction to Minecraft

If you are reading this article, then the odds are good that you’re already plenty familiar with Minecraft already and don’t need a fancy introduction to it. As video games go, Minecraft is one of the most popular games, not just in the last few years but of all time. And the game is getting better and better as time goes on.

In July of 2018, the 1.13 version of the game was released. Dubbed ‘The Update Aquatic,’ this latest update overhauled several aspects of Minecraft, most notably the game’s oceans. In addition to the seas, there were many technical improvements and bug fixes as well, showing that despite being in development for almost 10 years, the game is still being maintained by dedicated developers.

Much of the game’s popularity can perhaps be attributed to its free-form and open-ended gameplay. Beyond a basic goal of reaching the End and defeating the Ender Dragon, Minecraft as a whole leaves gameplay objectives solely in the hands of the player.

Benefits of Building a Tower

Back on topic, building a Minecraft tower (or any defensive structure for that matter) has several benefits, both tactically and appearance-wise. Keeping a degree of separation from your player avatar and the ground is a good idea, especially in Survival Mode.

Most of the game’s numerous hostile Mobs spawn on the ground, in poorly lit or unlit areas of the world. Therefore, having a measure of security in the form of distance and strong walls is a good thing. And this is best represented in the form of a tower made of stone bricks.

A Minecraft tower also looks good when designed properly. Through careful use of cosmetic blocks and greebles (the technical term for fine details that make something more visually interesting), you can transform an otherwise plain-looking tower into something visually striking and impressive.

How to Build a Minecraft Tower

What Tools You Will Need

Before we go out and get started, there are different items you are going to want in your inventory, especially if you are playing on Survival Mode:

1. Weapons. Minecraft’s world is treacherous, so having a weapon to fend off those dangers should be common sense at this point. Bring an enchanted sword of you can.
2. Armor. For the same reason as above, having a good set of armor protecting you can be the difference between life and death. We recommend iron armor or stronger.
3. Tools. Pickaxes, lumber axes and shovels will all probably be necessary to some degree. Bring spares just in case your tools break.
4. Food. It wouldn’t do you any good to starve to death while laying the groundwork of your next construction project, so bring along a stack of food. We recommend pork chops.
5. Potions. If you can spare them, having a few Potions of Healing in your quick bar can be useful in many situations, especially combat.
6. Torches. As mentioned above, Minecraft’s hostile Mobs spawn in poorly lit areas. So be sure to light your build area with plenty of torches.

What Blocks You Will Need

Understandably, your building materials are going to be the essential part of building a Minecraft tower. While these are recommended, they are just a guideline. This being Minecraft, feel free to substitute blocks for another kind if you desire it. One tip we can offer you regarding this is replacing sandstone for the stone bricks if you are building in the desert.

1. 5-6 Stacks of Stone Bricks. In this build, Stone bricks will form the majority of the tower, mainly the walls.
2. 1 Stack of Stone Brick Stairs. Stairs can serve not only as stairs, but they can double as decorations in the forms of crenellations and arrow slits.
3. 1 Stack of Cobblestone Blocks. Cobblestone blocks will serve as the base and first floor of the tower.
4. 1-2 Stacks of Oak Wood Slabs. Oakwood slabs will serve as the floor of any levels between the ground floor and roof, as well as the roof itself.
5. Other Blocks. A door, ladders, torches, a trapdoor, and a few other blocks are either necessary or optional. Refer to the instructions below.

With the above said, we can move on.

Step 1: A Flat Place to Start

Before you start your Minecraft tower, you are going to want to find a flat and level place to build on. Preferably, high on a hill or a mountain. The reasoning here is that when your tower is itself high up, it will be harder to reach by both hostile mobs and players alike.

Having a height advantage against attackers is also advantageous, allowing you to fire arrows or throw potions down at them with ease. Water and lava buckets can also be used offensively from the top of the tower, adding yet another obstacle any would be attackers would have to contend with.

If the place you want to build isn’t flat and level to your liking, you can, of course, level it flat using your shovel and pickaxe, or by adding dirt and cobblestone to create a large and flat area. A roughly 9-by-9 block area should be adequate for this tower.

Step 2: Lay the Foundation

Once you have cleared or leveled out the appropriate area for your Minecraft tower, the next step is to lay the foundation. As outlined above, we are going for a foundation of cobblestone blocks, seven blocks in diameter.

If you are unsure at this part, the following website has a useful tool for checking circle size and shape in Minecraft: (https://www.plotz.co.uk/plotz-model.php?model=Ellipse). Otherwise, you’ll know you’ve got the right shape when the outermost sides are three blocks long, and the total number of placed blocks is 37.

Step 3: The Door and Walls

Next, begin placing stone bricks around the edge of the foundation, leaving a space for a door in the middle of one side of the ring. There are several doors to choose from here. We recommend using the spruce version of the wooden door as it helps to provide a nice medieval aesthetic to a given build. Once the first two ‘rings’ of stone brick blocks are placed, continue adding rings of stone bricks upward. At four blocks high you should have used about 62 blocks, discounting the two blocks unused in place of the door. This means that every four additional blocks of height in our tower will require at the most 64 blocks or one full stack of stone bricks. 

The tower we will be building here will be 12 blocks in height, meaning about three stacks of blocks total. However, feel free to add or remove layers if you feel the need to.

Step 4: Stairs or Ladders?

Now that we’ve completed the lower and central portions of the Minecraft tower, we can work on the upper portion. First, however, we should add a way to reach the top from the ground more easily. You have a couple of options here: You can use a simple wooden ladder that reaches from the ground floor to the top, or you can place a staircase going up and down.

Both of these approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages, but for simplicity’s sake, we recommend using ladders. Placing the ladder is straightforward: simply attach it to any of the interior walls of the tower, reaching up to the top. Add or remove as many ladder blocks as you need to, depending on the height of the tower.

Step 5: Topping it Off

Once you are satisfied regarding the height of the tower, we can now go about topping the Minecraft tower off. First, start by using stone brick blocks to make a 9-block diameter circle around the top of the middle section of the tower. Again, you can refer to the website linked above here. The 9×9 ring should be about 20 blocks in total. Fill the ring in with either up-facing wood slabs (wood slabs placed in the ‘upper’ portion of a block space) or more stone brick blocks, leaving space for either the ladder or the staircase as mentioned previously.

Once you’ve laid down the floor/roof of your tower, you can start to work on the crenelations. I.e., the decorative notches that form the tops of castle walls or battlements. These are easy and simple to do in Minecraft. 

First, add a second 9×9 ring of blocks, forming a low wall around the top. Next, add alternating blocks around the rim of the top of the tower. There are a couple of different layouts, so feel free to experiment here to see what’s more comfortable with you. We recommend placing blocks on the corners of the outermost sides.

Step 6: Finishing Touches

Congratulations! Your tower is complete. Now all you need to do is add the finishing touches. You can add furniture in the form of a bed, chests, furnaces and crafting tables. Add lighting by placing torches on the inner walls. You can even go the extra step and add additional floors inside the tower, dramatically increasing the available space to build on. You can hang custom banners on the sides of the tower’s crown, as a way of giving your personal touch to the building. Finally, if you want to add some variety and uniqueness to the outside, consider using vines or mossy stone brick blocks to give your tower an air of age and weathering. You can also add arrow slits in the walls of the tower by combining stone brick stairs with their upside-down variants.

Conclusion

There are many things to build in Minecraft. Whether it’s a house, a castle or something else, a degree of skill and some effort can make anything look good. With that said, we hope this guide for building a Minecraft tower is of help to you.

Minecraft is so exciting when you gather resources to build something epic. However, building can also be a little frustrating, especially when you need the structure you are building to survive, but a Minecraft barn is just for storing cattle and various farming tools and items. So, for the sake of survival, the barn is not really something to stress over. In this tutorial, we will just focus on making a basic Minecraft barn. If you are new to Minecraft or just refreshing your memory, making a barn for your cattle and various animals is fairly simple. However, before we jump into the steps, let us briefly overview some basic information about a Minecraft barn and why it is significant in the game.

Why You Need a Minecraft Barn

Minecraft offers worlds upon worlds of pure adventure, along with complete control over the things within each created world. However, survival in the game is entirely dependent on resources found within the world. With these resources, the player will be able to craft and build a shelter, as well as other various buildings. Players can also add crops and collect harvest by planting seeds. Ideally, the barn would be in proximity of where crops are planted and harvested.

The Importance of a Minecraft Barn

A Minecraft barn is a self-made structure where you can keep various animals that produce some kind of resource. This structure protects cattle from zombies, skeletons and spiders, as well as the occasional witch or enderman. It also keeps the animals from spawning and despawning and keeps them in the chosen pens. Barns keep the player stocked with resources like beef, milk, pork, eggs and wool. What is great about having resources nearby is that the less distance you travel, the slower your stamina depletes. There would also be less enemies to fight if you have to travel at night. All the way around, the barn is a necessary structure for survival in the game.

How to Build a Minecraft Barn

Brief Overview

Before the building starts, all the necessary resources must be gathered and crafted into building materials for the planned structure. If you want to build freely with all the items in Minecraft already in your inventory, just change the gamemode from “survival” to “creator” and build away! However, we are sticking to the former for this build to keep things casual and fair.

Prep Materials

Venture out into the wilderness to gather materials of your choice, and put them in a large chest near the area you will build on. You will need some space in your inventory for later. Be sure that you have enough of the right resources. To prepare for building a Minecraft barn, gather as many as desired of the following materials below:

• Logs to craft into wooden planks                
• Fencing Torches
• Wooden doors
• Signs
• Pickaxes
• Axes
• Shovels
• Hay
• Glass/windows

Digging the Floor

Dig one block down and remove blocks in the shape of a large rectangle or square. Fill in the hole with blocks of your choice for the floor. Make this barn as big as you would like in length, width or height. However, do try to keep the base and walls of the barn at an even number of blocks. An odd number of blocks will make your building a bit funky, but if you do not mind it, go for it. It will still be a barn and hardly noticeable once the barn is finished.

Putting Up Some Walls

Now that you have the layout of the floor of the barn, it is time to build walls. Make the walls as tall as you would like the barn to be by adding layers of blocks around the floor. Build the outside walls up at least to where you would like to place the second floor. However, do not add the floor, yet. It will be easier to build the stables inside. Stables will keep the cattle from leaving your farm and protect against the beasts of the night.

Inside the Barn

Make a doorway in the wall by removing two blocks in any wall. This will give you the ability to enter the structure and start on stables for the animals. Each pen should be at least two blocks wide and three blocks long. If the barn is large enough, feel free to make the stables bigger. Make sure that you have a hallway through the middle of the barn for easy access to the stables. If it helps to see exactly how much space is desired for, as well as in between the stables for the animals, set up a stall outside of the structure and place any large animal within it using a lead. Find the perfect stable layout for the barn and the animals.

Time for the Stables

Building stables will be the most intensive part of the barn. Section off each stable by adding wooden fencing between and around each stall and insert a wooden gate in the front. Place hay in the stalls for food, use it to make the floor and in or around each stall, if desired. The layout of the stables is up to the player and can be done in a number of ways. Besides, it is not a complete barn if does not hold a ridiculous amount of hay, which is not only for eating, but for covering the barn floor, and feeding cows and other animals.

Upward onto the Attic

After the stables are done, you can now apply a layer of wooden planks over the top of your fist floor. The attic can be accessible by adding a ladder and making a hole in the floor. It is a normal trait for a basic barn of this style, and it could be used for storage or serve as a second floor of stables. Put a bed up there if you would like to stay close to something you may be working on or establish a spawning point.

Put a Roof over Their Heads

The roof is a little tricky. To achieve an A-frame style roof, place an extra layer of blocks on the surrounding walls. Then, place another layer on the outside of that addition and on top of the blocks for the walls. Delete the first layer you added, as this will provide a somewhat stair-like result. Repeat until the blocks meet in the middle of the roof. Fill in various open spaces in the front and back of the barn with blocks, stairs or slabs. This gives the roof a more realistic trim and shingles. Another option is creating a roof all your own. A flatter roof can be achieved in the same fashion, as you can simply add a smaller amount of layers.  The roof could also feature small side windows or patios, so get as fancy as your heart desires.

Rein in the Cattle

Add additional blocks to finish the details of the barn like the doors and windows, chests for storage, and torches for light inside and out to keep the monsters away at night. Add anything that achieves the desired look of your barn. The last thing to do is to move your cattle inside and let them provide you with sustenance. Cows, sheep, chicken, eggs, pigs, fish and rabbits are all sources of energy that you can cook to perfection in the brick oven. Catch fish nearby, or make a source of water and craft a fishing pole to catch a variety of fish from source water.  

Conclusion

Once you have finished the barn and brought in all the animals, you can get back to fighting for your survival. Hopefully, this tutorial was helpful for new players, parents, and even all the devout Minecraft players. While building can get confusing at times, the more you build, the more you learn. Dozens of reliable Minecraft video tutorials are available via YouTube for just about everything you can think of and every problem that you could run into.

However, not only is it just really cool to build a barn, but it is very important for the players’ chances of survival. The barn is meant to provide resources like milk, eggs and various meats. Having the barn makes finding food much less stressful, and a lot less time and stamina can be spent on wandering to find animals to kill for meat, eggs and milk. Tame wolves and horses to venture onward and upward, and you can have them carry items and wear armor. The wolves, when tamed, will attack hostile mobs to protect the player. However, they can only sustain so much damage before they inevitably die and you are out a furry friend.

When building and exploring in the endless possibilities of Minecraft worlds, it can be very inspiring and helpful to see what others have created. This provides a sense of motivation to create and share your creations. It also helps to practice some building before starting on a large project. Get to know the materials and all of their possibilities for crafting, cooking and mining. Journey deep into the darkness of caves to mine gemstones. Building a Minecraft barn will become second nature, and soon, all of your builds will be epic!

Minecraft is one of the most versatile games ever created. The simple block-built world makes creative control easy, giving designers and game architects the perfect sandbox to play in. Because of this open world and free control, we can find thousands of free maps ready for download for the Java version of Minecraft. There are maps for every genre, so there is always something for everyone, even fans of scary movies. Today we want to discuss some of the best Minecraft horror maps available for the game and hopefully show you how much fun it can be to be scared in this boxy world.

Product FAQ

Before we get into the top ten horror maps available for download, we want to talk about some of the most common questions people have about these types of user-generated maps. Minecraft is a simple game at face value, but when you get into multi-player settings like this, you can find new and more difficult challenges to face.

1. What Are Minecraft Maps?

One reason Minecraft has remained so popular is the creative aspect of the game. This is because the developers included a creative mode which enables limitless building without having to worry about constraints like mining, farming, or gravity. These open and free games allow creative designers to create new worlds from scratch. Each of these different custom designed worlds can be converted into maps, a format that enables sharing between users.

There are endless types of maps, with different users bringing their own creative flair to the worlds. The Minecraft horror maps are just one of the different genres of worlds you can encounter in this diverse realm. People are always adding new designs to the mix, so the diversity of map types continues to grow every day.

2. How Do Minecraft Maps Work?

Each map is a file, or a series of files, that you can download and run through your Java version of Minecraft. Each file contains everything needed to generate the custom map as designed by the game programmers. The basic vanilla version of Minecraft contains all the basic building blocks needed for these custom maps, so there is rarely a need for more than the basic map download.

Some level and map designers take it a step further and add in their own textures and sounds, referred to as “resource packs” in Minecraft terms. These can be downloaded with the maps and included in the basic install. When everything is properly loaded into the Java version of the game, you can run the custom maps whenever you want. Most of these maps even work offline, so you can take them with you to adventure off of WiFi.

3. What Are Minecraft Horror Maps?

There are so many genres of maps it’s hard to keep up. There are custom made adventure maps for fantasy worlds, there are modern-style survival maps, and there are even futuristic space themed maps. There truly is a map type for every type of Minecraft player. The Minecraft horror maps are, as you might guess, designed for fans of being scared. These maps cover the gambit of horror, from zombies all the way to evil ghosts, offering every fear seeker something to scream about.

4. Where Can I Get Minecraft Horror Maps?

There are dozens of different repositories of custom made maps, so finding the maps can be easy. If you’re looking for something of quality, you might need to dig a little deeper and look into more review based sites for your leads. Since it’s free to download and play any of these maps, it is also free to peruse any of these online map archives. Each of the ten maps below includes a link to one of the source sites you can visit to download the files needed to play that custom scenario.

5. Are There Other Types of Maps?

There are hundreds of different game types and map styles for Minecraft. Since there are no preset limits on world generation or block combinations, designers have taken the core game to new heights. You can find maps for every genre you can think of, be it a game, movie, or sometimes even music. It’s surprising how much versatility can come from a game made of plain old textured blocks.

How We Reviewed

We played each of these maps and looked for the playability, design, rule functionality, and difficulty. Each map had different strengths and weaknesses, which we have taken care to call out with detail. These ten maps were the most popular and best reviewed Minecraft horror maps available on the most popular user networks, and we think they are all worth a play or two.

Overall Price Range of This Product (and Similar Products)

Most user-created content for this game is free, and these Minecraft horror maps are no exception. The developer is adamant about keeping this community free and open for all the public, so we don’t expect there to be maps-for-money anywhere in the near future. That being said, many of these maps have been designed by experienced and educated build teams.

Some of these maps even contain advanced plug-ins and mods that could only be built by educated programmers. All of that means quality maps take a lot of time, skill, and sometimes out-of-pocket money. Because of this, these developers offer donation options to players that wish to support their time and effort.

If you enjoy any of these free Minecraft horror maps, especially with other friends, we urge you to donate to these build teams. Every couple of dollars encourages these programmers to develop more great content for the most popular game in the world.

What We Reviewed

• Late
• The Orphanage
• No Words
• Asleep
• Zombie Apocalypse
• Deep Space Turtle Chase
• Five Nights At Freddy’s
• Slender Escape
• A Long Walk
• Deadly Orbit

Late

Features

You have awoken at your desk. You fell asleep at work, again, and this time there’s no making up for it. A corpse is next to you and a screeching monster is running afoul in your great city. You must fight to solve the mystery and relearn your lost memories. With an original voice cast and a narrative story, this immersive level is one of the most detailed Minecraft horror maps on the internet.

Pros

• Resource packs are included in the map
• Great cast of voice actors

Cons

• Only one hour of immersive play

Where to Download

You can find all the Late Minecraft horror maps at this link:

The Orphanage

Features

Out of gas and in the middle of nowhere, you must find your way back home before dark. Welcome to the world of the Orphanage, where this dark and foreboding manor holds terrible secrets. You must follow the story and see where the clues lead you, hoping that every step takes you closer to home and further from the terror inside this place, a home for wayward children.

Pros  

• Great texture pack
• Fun and engaging storyline

Cons

• Buggy after effects

Where to Download

You can download and play this map at the following link:

No Words

Features

This is one of the more simple Minecraft horror maps, bringing a streamlined single-player story to the world of blocks. A finely designed level brings jump scares galore, so be sure to turn out the lights and turn up the volume on your headphones. Everything is included in one Zip file, so there is no need to install added plug-ins or resource packs for the No Words map.

Pros  

• All-inclusive download
• Full of good jump scares

Cons

• Short and simple game story

Where to Download

No Words can be downloaded at the following link: †††

Asleep

Features

What happens when it gets dark, we lie in bed, and allow ourselves to drift off into sleep? Discover and explore your wildest dreams in this creative series of Minecraft horror maps, simply called Asleep. These maps take you through a dream world where your worst nightmares have come to take you away. Fight your way across this hellish and infinite landscape and reclaim your sanity along with your wildest dreams.

Pros  

• Immersive storyline
• Gorgeous design and build

Cons

• Need a powerful computer to run the map

Where to Download

You can download this and other Minecraft horror maps at:

Zombie Apocalypse

Features

This is the end of days as you have always wanted it to be: bloody, explosive, and with a friend to watch your back. This is one of the few Minecraft horror maps designed for a minimum of two players, so finding a scary jump is harder than if you were alone. Adventure through this crumbling world and try to survive against the wandering hordes of the undead. This is a great map that includes new textures and animations that add in a real explosive element to the game.

Pros  

• Fun two-player game
• Lots of new features

Cons

• Heavy load for RAM

Where to Download

You can download and play the Zombie Apocalypse map at: https://hypixel.net/threads/zombie-apocalypse-minecraft-adventure-map.662/†

Deep Space Turtle Chase

Features

The name cannot prepare you for what is inside the world of Deep Space Turtle Chase. This is a standout entry on this list because it is not your traditional type of “scary” map. The space-based world relies on creating constant tension and rising stakes to make game-play fun, engaging, and at times, frightening. This space trek to find the missing turtles while evading the pursuing hunters is a great addition to the fear-generating-game library.

Pros  

• Engaging characters and story
• Cool style and design

Cons

• Hard to follow

Where to Download

This map can be downloaded at:

Five Nights At Freddy’s

Features

This faithful recreation of the popular horror game comes to us with stunning detail. You wouldn’t think a game with blocks could create the same brooding rooms seen in the original Five Nights at Freddy’s, but the level designers here have done it. Wander the dark halls of this dilapidated children’s restaurant and pray that the evil animatronic creatures don’t end you before sunrise.

Pros  

• A faithful remake of the original
• Very scary most of the time

Cons

• Not for all ages

Where to Download

You can find and download this map at the following link:

Slender Escape

Features

This is a small but elegant map, giving the beginning horror player a chance to dip their toe into the scary waters. This mob-riddled map will only allow escape once you have braved the wilderness and discovered the six missing rune pages. Fight through the jungles and make your way to the safe zones, being careful not to draw the attention of the vengeful spirits that wander the land.

Pros  

• Quick and easy game-play
• Good level design

Cons

• Bland texture design

Where to Download

This map is valuable at the following link: †

A Long Walk

Features

This is not the longest walk you will ever take, but it might be the scariest. You awaken in a dark room with nothing but your wits—can you escape this haunted space before you lose everything, including your own soul? This is a map designed for quick play, somewhere between two and five minutes, so the scares are packed in pretty tightly.

Pros  

• Dark and brooding themes
• Good jump scares

Cons

• Way too short

Where to Download

You can download a copy of this map at:

Deadly Orbit

Features

Your space station is damaged, possibly because of some escaped monster, and you must now fight to survive. As the sole survivor of a disaster on a space station orbiting Earth, it is your responsibility to secure the craft, stop the monster, and save yourself from the cold depths of space. This is a vast and detailed map with great textures and added resources for more ambiance and mood lighting.

Pros  

• Super detailed level design
• Great floating mechanics

Cons

• Difficult game-play

Where to Download

You can find more information about this map and download it at:

The Verdict

These were all terrific Minecraft horror maps, so choosing a favorite is difficult for us. We would love to call out Zombie Apocalypse and The Orphanage as both were above and beyond what we expect from user-generated maps. Zombie Apocalypse was engaging, exciting, and just the right level of difficulty to keep it entertaining. The Orphanage was scary, above all else, giving us the best frights out of all the maps in this article. For these reasons we highly recommend downloading these maps and giving them a scream or two.