At first or second glance, The Blockheads [Free] might strike you as just another one of those 2D Minecraft games. And while that's kinda true, The Blockheads has a lot more to share outside of punching trees and ore. It has its own secrets and style, as well as a neat party component that has you recruiting and using other avatars to hollow out your own place in the game.

If you've been kinda struggling with learning everything The Blockheads has to offer, we got your back. Earlier this week, we talked with the game's creator David Frampton about some of the basics of The Blockheads, as well as some high-level strategies. Here's some of the things we discussed.

Create Your Own Goals

There is no "end game" in The Blockheads, and that's a big part of the fun. You have to set your own goals. At the start of the game, you'll want to start small. Build all the work benches, start planting trees, and keep an eye out for caves, which generally have some of the more precious ores you'll need to up your crafting game.

Crafting Lets You Do Special Stuff

"Often the things that you craft will allow you to do special things, like riding a donkey with a carrot on a stick, or getting a caffeine fix from a cup of coffee," Frampton tells us. "But in order to craft those things you'll need a carrot and some coffee beans, so you'll need to go exploring."

Get Another Blockhead

It's a good idea to start building towards your second Blockhead -- available via the teleport -- as soon as possible because as you start crafting bigger and better stuff, the wait times increase, too. Having a second dude around helps your deal with that.

And Get Him Fast

As for how to do this the quickest, Frampton says planting is a good idea. Plant as much as you can near your spawn. When the trees start spewing delectables, you'll get part of the food required for another Blockhead. Digging with a quality pick axe is the fastest way to find a good cave.

Nothing Can Kill You

You can't die in Blockheads, but there are a few dangers. Drop Bears, for example, fall out of trees when provoked and can hurt you. They also attack at night. A good spear or a solid sword can take them out "easily," Frampton says.

But Pain Is Bad

If you take damage and lose energy and happiness, your avatar will take much longer to perform regular tasks. Fight against this with eating, sleeping, and caffeine. Frampton notes that Blockheads gain more energy faster when sleeping in beds. A cup of coffee is great for this, too, but you'll have to refine your own. Coffee trees are "very rare."

Use Gem Pick Axes

Gem pick axes are kind of a big deal. "An amethyst pick axe gives a 2x bonus when you mine, and a sapphire pick axe gives you 3x, right up to a diamond pick axe which gives you 6x," Frampton says. "This is particularly useful when mining time crystal blocks." If you hold off on mining all the crystal at the beginning, you'll get a lot more with a gem axe.

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One of the coolest things about The Blockheads is the amount of discovery that happens as you play, the not-so-subtle learning experience as you start punching more and more stuff. These tips are a good starting point, but there's a lot more game here than what we've discussed so far. Dive in, soak it up. It's fun.

Also, if you're looking for more ideas, hints, tips, anything, a good place to look is our forum thread. The Blockheads's official message board is a good knowledge-building base, too.

Images in this story via our thread.

Mining

See also: Caving

Mining is the removal of objects from caves. Supplies such as food and light source are typically needed for a mining trip.

Contents

 [hide] 

• 1 Ore
• 2 Gems
• 3 Time Crystals
• 4 Mining Styles
  • 4.1 Spelunking
  • 4.2 Grid Mining
  • 4.3 Strip Mining
• 5 Gallery

Ore

Mining ore can be done by hand, but is much more efficiently done with a pickaxe (yielding three ores of that type instead of one). Mining speed is increased with each successive pickaxe upgrade (with the exception of the gold pickaxe which is slower than steel, but has other benefits).

Using gem pickaxes increases the yield. Like normal pickaxes, these benefits increase with progressively more expensive gem pickaxes (a diamond pickaxe yields six times the usual amount). The life of gem pickaxes can be extended by only using them for the final strike; a normal pickaxe can be used until the block is nearly mined, then a gem pickaxe for the multiplier.

Gems

Gems are found in caverns. There are five types of gems, diamond, ruby, emerald,sapphire and amethyst. They are picked up by hand, not mined using a pickaxe with the exception of theGOLD pickaxe which has a chance to randomly produce gems, ores, ortime crystals with each strike. Since theGOLD pickaxe may produce bonus resources for each strike, using it only for the final strike (like with gem pickaxes) is only beneficial in prolonging its life, as it will not increase the yield.

Time Crystals

Mining with a pickaxe yields more time crystals. The yield multiplier for gem pickaxes applies to time crystals, so the best gem pickaxe available should be used to maximize yield.

Mining Styles

Selection of a mining style is up to the player, but may be influenced by in-game resources or available play time. Simpler styles can be quicker and produce ready rewards. More thorough methods require more time and use up tools, but usually insure maximum results. Note that most ores are more abundant as depth increases and some are only found at deep levels.

Spelunking

The simplest form of mining is to explore caves and look for visible ores. By opening passages where natural caves narrow, it is possible to expose long, winding paths through extensive areas. Water, magma, and cave trolls are typical hazards.

Grid Mining

A more thorough process is to dig regular passages vertically, horizontally, diagonally, or in some combination through the bedrock. This allows both the exposure of areas not accessible by natural caves and, with careful placement, visual examination of unmined stone for ore deposits. Planning is still required to overcome underground hazards.

Strip Mining

The most thorough mining method is to remove everything, although occasional platforms may be left or constructed for ease of travel. Water, if not left in place, can be relocated with planned draining into prepared basins. Strip mining produces large quantities of basic stone, which can be used for crafting, construction, or processed into gravel and ores using an electric press and sluice.

Gallery

• 

  Blockhead performing extensive horizontal strip mining near magma
 
• 

  Blockhead performing extensive vertical grid mining between cave regions
 
• 

  Blockhead performing basic horizontal grid mining
• 

  Blockhead performing basic horizontal grid mining through caves

Camera

Camera
Category	Tool
Use	Photography
Stackable	Yes (99)

"Take and share photos."

A camera is a special tool for taking pictures of a world.

Contents

  

• 1 Appearance
• 2 Where Found
• 3 Using
• 4 Gallery

Appearance

In a blockhead's inventory, a camera appears as a brown, box-like oblong with a dark cylinder at the center representing a lens.

Where Found

A blockhead can create a camera at a level 2 craft bench using one wood and one glass.

Location Input Item 1 Input Item 2 Crafted Output + = Lvl. 2 Craft Bench Glass Wood Camera Quantity 1 1 1

Rush Cost 8 TC Double-Time 4 TC

Using

To take a picture, a blockhead must have a camera in its inventory. Selecting the camera will cause a "Take Picture" button appear over the blockhead. Tapping that button will put the game into picture-taking mode.

In picture-taking mode, most user interface features disappear, leaving the world display, a pair of buttons, and some text across the top describing how to set up the picture. The view can be scrolled around and/or zoomed in and out until the desired picture is set up. Tapping the larger "camera" button saves a picture of the current display (without the buttons or text) to the device's photo storage. Tapping the smaller "Cancel" button takes the game out of picture-taking mode.

One feature of picture-taking mode is that time "stops" in single player. Animals don't move and the sky doesn't progress.

Pictures taken with a camera instead of a screen capture do not include any user interfacebuttons, icons, menus, or windows. They can also be adjusted to a wider range of zoom levels, not just the three standard display levels, as well as being able to zoom in farther. They seem to have the same maximum zoom out.

Cameras do not wear out.

Gallery

• 

  Buttons for "picture mode"
 
• 

  Instruction text

BLOCKHEADS

Game Hints

Useful Tips

• Don't place a campfire in your wooden house. Results: house on fire. Dont place it near any wooden items, actually.
• You cannot die, just move incredibly slow.
• Using spears or swords on animals will get you either leather, meat, fur, or feathers.
• Replant every tree you chop down in order to have a reliable source of food. You can plant things by tapping some fruit or veggies and tap in the ground.
• Cactuses damage your blockhead, but not as much as you would think.
• Feed blockheads 1-2 times a day in order to keep them from starving.
• Don't walk under trees at night or sunset.
• Chillies areHOT. If you eat too many they can damage your blockhead.
• HOTtubs can be made by putting campfires under a pool of water.
• Start from the top branch of chopping trees. You will get more wood, sticks, and debris this way.

Gameplay[edit]

The player can 'warp in' a Blockhead through a portal, which is the only thing visible at the start of the game. There is a choice between male or female, with various unique features such as different hair styles or facial hair. There are no differences aside from the randomly generated name (which can be changed) and appearance.

Upon warping in, the player is given the choice of whether or not to accept a tutorial. The Blockhead, which appears as a slightly 3-D blocky version of a human wearing a tank top and trousers, is completely controlled by the player unless wearing a tin foil hat. Movement is controlled by tapping desired destination on the screen, and if the Blockhead is able to access it, will traverse to that point. Tapping on blocks will cause the Blockhead to hit them repeatedly with bare hand or equipped item in hand, until the block breaks or action is manually stopped by tapping again on said block.

The Blockhead has six statistics: Health, happiness, hunger, energy, environment, and when the health bar is depleted, death. The hunger and energy bar will constantly decrease, and the Blockhead must eat items to prevent the hunger bar from entirely depleting and affecting the health bar. The energy bar, when depleted, will result in the Blockhead walking slowly and 'collapsing from exhaustion' (sleeping on the spot). This can be filled by sleeping, which can be done via the Blockhead menu, opened by tapping the Blockhead icon.

The environment bar will decrease when a Blockhead's environment is too cold or tooHOT. Wearing a fur coat or other similar items may prevent the Blockhead from being cold. Tapping an animal will result in the animal fleeing (Dodos, fish), or attacking (Sharks, dropbears, cave trolls, scorpions). When the Blockhead's health reaches 0, whether by animals, hunger, or the environment, a death bar will appear. When the death bar reaches 0, the Blockhead will die and drop two items with the option of waiting ten minutes to respawn or pay 100 time crystals to respawn instantly. The player can also "R.I.P" the Blockhead, causing it to drop all items and the player must create a new Blockhead. Broken blocks drop to the ground and automatically go into the inventory when there is sufficient space. Slain animals drop items as well such as clothing materials and food.

The player must craft items to progress in the game. Crafting takes a certain amount of time, but this waiting process can be bypassed by using time crystals. Crafted tools increase the speed of which a block is broken. Using the wrong tool on the wrong block (i.e. Breaking wood with a shovel) will result in the same speed of the Blockhead's hand hitting it, and a red square surrounding the tool's icon on the said block. Crafted items such as a jetpack or fur coat may allow the Blockhead to access areas previously inaccessible.

The Blockhead world has four poles: The West Equator, The South Pole, The East Equator, and The North Pole. At the top of each pole, there is an item that will provide benefits to the Blockhead.

The Blockheads also contains in-app purchases:

• Double-time, which halves crafting time,
• HD textures, which serve as a high-resolution texture pack

 (Although there are many fan-made texture packs, which are not recommended due to the fact that they are not official
 and can only be applied through manual file system edits), 

• and Time Crystals, which may be used to craft 'gem pickaxes' which give either two, three, four, five, or six times the items when mining, speed up crafting time, 'portals', which a player may teleport to by using time crystals as well as a golden bed, which speeds up sleep significantly, portal chests, which allow for transportation of items between worlds, or a multiplayer server.

Multiplayer[edit]

The player can choose to join online servers, and play with other players. They can be hosted in several ways. One, on an iOS device, the player can set up a Local Area Network (LAN) world. The player can also use Gamecenter, if on iOS.

If the player has access to a Mac, there is a free server app, that can be used to host an online server world anyone can connect to if they have the specific connection details. Alternatively, all players can choose to spend Time Crystals to host a server "in the cloud". This includes the ability to search for specific cloud world servers, and the continued hosting of said servers for more Time Crystals.

Server credit costs 100 time crystals for one day, 600 for 7 days, or 2000 for 30 days. A 'Join Random World' function to connect to a randomly selected cloud world is available to the player. When playing multiplayer, other players may choose to engage the player in player versus player (PVP) combat. This can be disabled by a server administrator at any time.

Before the 1.5.1 update (which added Cloud Worlds) was released, players had the option of hosting a server on a Mac or having a server hosting company host one for them.

Game Updates[edit]

Version 1.6 (Updated November 19, 2014)

This update takes your blockheads to the skies with the awesome new JETPACKS. With new ores, workbenches, items, plants and blocks, 1.6 adds a whole load of new stuff to find and do. There’s also a fancy new lighting engine, and it’s now up to 2x quicker to mine and craft, so you can get started in new worlds much faster!

• JETPACKS! You’re going to need a lot ofOIL, titanium and electricity to make one, but then YOU CAN FLY!

• New floating islands in the sky! These will appear in new worlds, and in unexplored areas of existing worlds.

• New hanging vines, and colorful tulips

• Mining/digging speed with bare hands and primitive tools is now faster

• It’s now twice as fast to craft all items!

• New shaders and lighting for an improved look

• Adds platinum coins (worth 100GOLD each), as well as platinum ore, ingots and blocks.

• Adds titanium ore, ingots, blocks, armor, swords and pickaxes.

• Adds carbon fiber blocks and armor

• Adds glass and black glass stairs and columns

• Adds a new electric press which is faster than a normal press, but also allows you to crush stone into gravel and gravel into sand

• Adds the new electric sluice, which sifts through gravel to find ores

• Adds ownership signs, which protect a 31x31 area so that only the assigned player and admins may modify it.

• All columns and stairs are now crafted at the builder’s bench, which replaces the stonemason’s bench

• Plants and trees grown in compost no longer die of old age

• Compost is now created at a compost bin, and can be made out of most organic items

• Ores are now clumped together into larger deposits

• Back walls are now only created if there is another solid block or back wall within 10 blocks below

• Back walls can now be removed by using the correct tool for the block type

• Text now appears black on light painted signs or shops

• Workbenches and portals can only be upgraded by admins or the owner of that workbench.