Minecraft Dungeons just released on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PS4, so everyone is diving in for the first time. Here are some pointers about camp, money, inventory, combat, souls, enchanting, and difficulty levels to help get you started:

Camp

The camp is the location that you load into after the tutorial. This is your home base between all levels, and there are no enemies to worry about here.

At camp you can:

• Party up with your friends (for online co-op, one player "hosts" the game, and others can join)
• Find chests filled with money (emeralds)
• Purchase random weapons and armor (from the Blacksmith)
• Purchase random artifacts (from the Wandering Traveler)
• Try out your weapons and abilities on training dummies
• Select and begin your next mission
• Enter the church (which is unlocked after you beat the game on Default difficulty

Emeralds

Emeralds are the currency of Minecraft Dungeons

Where to spend Emeralds

The only place to spend emeralds is at the 2 vendors at camp. They will sell you a random weapon, armor, or artifact appropriate for your power level.

If you've found yourself needing different gear, this is a great way to quickly pick up level-appropriate gear.

How to get Emeralds

• You'll find emeralds in chests and breakable jars while in missions
• You can find emerald chests around the camp between missions
• You occasionally get emeralds when killing enemies
• You get emeralds when you salvage (recycle) any unwanted pieces of gear
• You can get additional Emeralds with certain gear and enchantments

Read more about how to gain Emeralds.

Inventory

Your inventory can be accessed at any time. It includes:

• Your equipped melee weapon
• Your equipped armor
• Your equipped ranged weapon
• Your 3 artifacts (gear that provides you with abilities)
• All of your unequipped gear (up to 180 slots)

I'm a horrible person who doesn't keep any spare equipment.

You'll want to be nimble with switching around your gear as you find upgrades, or to work for the specific mission/difficulty you're playing. A lot of items are complimentary to each other, such as armor that collects souls plus an artifact that uses souls.

Souls

Some weapons, armor, and artifacts have "soul" modifers. Souls are required as the power source for certain artifacts. A lot of gear allows you to gather souls when you kill enemies (you'll notice little white faces floating towards your character).

For example, the Soul Healer artifact will heal proportionally to the amount of soul meter you've built up. It gathers souls from enemies you kill.

You can see your soul meter filling up just below your artifacts in your character's toolbar:

Power level

Your power level is the average of your 6 equipped pieces of gear. A higher power level on a piece of gear means higher DPS, protection, or ability. In your initial runthrough, it's generally good to equip the highest powered gear that you have, unless you have a very favorite piece of gear that's only a bit lower than what is dropping for you.

Read more about increasing your power level.

Combat

In missions, you'll toggle between using your ranged weapon (with limited ammo), melee weapon (unlimited use), and artifact abilities. Also don't forget to utilize your roll ability to dodge getting hit.

Experiment with different inventory combinations to make combat work for your playstyle.

Enchanting weapons and armor

As you level up, you'll be granted purple enchantment points. You use these points to apply special properties to your weapons and armor. Enchanting makes a huge difference in your ability to defeat enemies and stay alive, and you should always spend your points, since the points are returned to you when you salvage a piece of gear.

Read more about enchanting your gear.

Difficulty levels

Your first runthrough? Default

Your first runthrough of the 9 stages (and 5 other optional hidden levels) is set to Default difficulty. You need to defeat the final stage's boss, the Arch-illiger, to progress the the next level of difficulty.

After you beat Default? Adventure

Once your beat the 9th level (by defeating the Arch-illiger), you can choose to replay the levels on a harder difficulty: Adventure.

This difficulty introduces occassional enchanted enemies, who have unique properties that make them more difficult to defeat. It also has new and better rewards for your character.

After you beat Adventure? Apocalypse

If you manage to beat the Arch-illiger on Adventure difficulty, you can move up the the hardest difficulty level: Apocalypse.

Apocalypse is the highest difficultly meant for serious players, with more powerful enchanted enemies. Succeeding in this mode will reward you with the best gear in the game.

Mission-specific difficulty levels

At camp, interact with the map to choose your mission.

Every mission, whether you're playing in Default, Adventure, or Apocalypse, has a difficulty option from 1 (easiest) to 6 (hardest).

The game will auto-select a recommended difficulty level for you based on your item power level, but you can choose to set the difficulty even higher in order to find higher level gear.

Changing the difficulty will show you the change in gear level drops, as well as the difficulty multiplier. Even playing on the recommended difficulty, the gear you recieve will trend your item level upward, so you're never wasting your time.

Casual players would be most comfortable on the recommended difficulty for their power level, but more serious players can increase it for a bigger challenge and faster item level progression.

On most levels, you cannot select a difficulty that is too low for your current item power level.

Finding specific gear

Right under the difficulty selection in mission select, notice that the level will show you the exact items and artifacts that can drop from the mission. So, if you're looking for one item in particular, make sure it's a possible drop from the level you're playing.

I hope these tips will help you in your first runthrough of Minecraft Dungeons!

Read more

• How Minecraft Dungeons Enchantments Work
• Minecraft Dungeons: Controller or Mouse and Keyboard?
• How to Get More Emeralds in Minecraft Drungeons
• How to Increase Your Power Level in Minecraft Dungeons

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