Minecraft Legends is one of the more interesting games released this year so far, but it stumbles into a similar pitfall as other strategy games — It can be tough to first learn how to play. While more approachable than many other titles in the genre, Minecraft Legends is still full of twists and turns that could make completing it challenging for some players.
If you're easing into the latest Minecraft game, then take advantage of our ultimate Minecraft Legends beginner's guide for all the tips and tricks you need to succeed. Whether you're playing on your own or with friends, this info could give you the edge you need to conquer the mighty Piglins and save the Overworld. Still on the fence? Read Windows Central's Minecraft Legends review for a full breakdown of what this game is and why you should play it, then come back here when you're ready.
1) Explore the Overworld for helpful secrets, resources, and chests
Minecraft Legends' world is entirely procedurally generated, meaning every game is guaranteed to be different. All the same ingredients are used, including varied biomes, plenty of passive life, and lots of secrets to discover. That's why it's important to explore the Overworld as you fight back the Piglin invaders, as you can find plenty to help you in your quest.
In Minecraft Legends, exploring the Overworld can help you find Allay chests, which can contain valuable resources like prismarine (for upgrades) and even new gather and build Allays. You can find powerful allies like the First Golems; there are four of these behemoths, and each one possesses a unique ability. You can also find Power Towers, which are massive defensive structures that can blast, shock, or freeze your opponents. You'll need to purchase upgrades in order to collect First Golems and Power Towers, but it's always helpful to know where they are in the Overworld.
Keep an eye on your surroundings as you explore, and use your map to see which areas of the map you've already been to (unexplored areas will be dark, while explored areas will be highlighted). Secrets like First Golems, Power Towers, and alternative mounts will appear on the map as giant question marks until you get close enough to discover them. Allay chests don't appear on the map, though, so don't rely entirely on it when exploring the Overworld.
2) Build defenses around every village and settlement
Scattered around the Overworld are various friendly villages and settlements, the latter occupied entirely by pacifist Villagers. While it can be easy to flit through these villages on your way to bigger stops, it's important to adequately protect these towns every time you come to one.
Villages are major fast travel points, allowing you to quickly traverse the map, and contain resource chests that are filled automatically over time and can greatly help you. Both of these things are worth protecting, and protecting they need. Piglins don't sit idly in the Overworld or just rest at their bases — they're constantly expanding, and no one is safe. At night, Piglins may attack nearby villages, killing their inhabitants and destroying the fast travel points and resource chests.
You can't always be there to defend a village yourself, so be sure to build walls, gates, and defensive towers around these valuable locations before you leave them. Successfully protecting a village from an attack nets you extra resources as a reward, too, giving you even more incentive to make sure everyone is safe.
3) Return to the Well of Fate to purchase important upgrades
The Well of Fate at the center of the Overworld is your hub, your one ultimate safe haven away from the invading Piglin armies. It's also where you can improve your capabilities and that of your own armies, better equipping you to challenge the most powerful Piglins from the Nether. The game does a fair job of explaining how these upgrades, dubbed Improvements, work early on, but it's important to remember to return to the Well of Fate regularly to build them.
Save up prismarine by defeating Piglins, destroying Piglin structures, and opening Allay and Piglin chests around the world, then invest that Prismarine in increasing the size of your army, increasing the number of units you can spawn, improving your ability to collect resources, and much more. You have a total of 32 Improvement slots across four upgrade hubs (some Improvements take 2-3 slots, though), so place each Improvement wisely to maximize your space. The average Improvement takes 100 prismarine to build, although there are a few that take 200-400, instead. You can use the Songbook to see available Improvements to plan what you want to build next.
4) Use the Songbook to research everything you discover
It's easy to forget, but one of your most valuable tools in Minecraft Legends is the Songbook. Assigned to the right joystick button by default (on controller), the Songbook is a hub of everything you've seen and can do in Minecraft Legends. Here, you can see all the buildings, mobs, and improvements you have access to (and customize your hot bars for those categories), which is vital to your success as you become stronger throughout the game.
However, the unsung wonder of the Songbook is a running list of everything you've discovered in Minecraft Legends and the Overworld. Encountered a new Piglin mob or building that decimated your units or dashed your conquest hopes? Open the Songbook to see what you encountered, and obtain some useful information to help you overcome the newfound threat. It's not just the dangerous stuff, either; everything pertinent you find will be recorded in the Songbook for future reference. The knowledge is there, so use it!
5) Return to villages to collect resources from their chests
Winning in Minecraft Legends relies on a lot of factors, but one of the most important is your resource management. Resources are how you build, spawn, and upgrade, and running out of resources in the middle of a fight can make the difference between conquering your foe and having your base overrun. Collecting resources from the Overworld can be very useful, especially when you're already exploring, but it's not always quick or efficient.
Fortunately, every village you visit and protect automatically accumulates resources over time. Wood and stone are collected in every village, as well as unique special resources like iron, coal, Redstone, and diamond. You can see the resources each village collects and when their chest is full from the map. Fast travel to those villages, open the chests at the center and never worry about being strapped for supplies ever again.
There's also an Improvement you can install at the Well of Fate that allows you to collect from all village chests simultaneously, making it even more convenient to rely on these villages to keep your resource stockpile full.
6) Don't be afraid to retreat and rethink your strategies
When you're in the middle of an intense battle, it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. However, the Piglins are never sitting still, with more armies spawning all the time. Some Piglin strongholds are even able to build new defenses during battle. New Piglin buildings and units can surprise you and overpower your units, as well. All these unpredictable factors can quickly turn the tide of war against you, especially if you're in the midst of the action.
It may seem like simple advice, but it's easy to forget. Don't be afraid to retreat from a battle to restock your supplies, rebuild your army, and rethink your strategies. Each of the three Piglin Hordes is different, and each requires an alternate approach. If something isn't working, retreat! Sticking with it can set you back even further, if your army is entirely destroyed or if you die (which gives your enemy 10 seconds to retaliate consequence-free).
7) Build Wellhouses near Piglin strongholds and settlements
It's great to be able to fast travel between the Well of Fate and villages, but that's not always close enough to give you the advantage you need to challenge the Piglins at their strongholds. Fortunately, there's a fast-travel building you can build almost anywhere, including near Piglin strongholds and near the settlements of Creepers, Zombies, and Skeletons.
Wellhouses are large buildings that cost a fair amount of resources, including 50 prismarine (which is used for upgrades), so you shouldn't build them everywhere. However, Wellhouses give more options for travel and are invaluable during your time in Minecraft Legends. You can find them in the Songbook alongside all your other buildings, so be sure to use them (and use them wisely).
Also, remember to always build defenses around Wellhouses. As fast-travel locations, Wellhouses can also become a target for Piglin armies. Losing a Wellhouse is a needless waste of valuable resources, so invest in walls and defensive towers to ensure that even Wellhouses right on the border of Piglin strongholds stand strong.
8) Check the map regularly to see what the Piglins are planning
As I mentioned before, Piglins don't just stand still and wait for you to come to them. The Piglins are always plotting and moving, and you have to stay one step ahead of them in order to come out on top. Fortunately, the map helps you do this. Every day, Piglin horns will announce their movements and plans, and the map will translate those plans so you can see what the Piglins will attempt the next night.
Piglins can build new outposts around their strongholds, upgrade their bases with new improvements and defenses, build new strongholds to replace ones you defeated, besiege friendly villages and settlements, and even unleash huge numbers of Piglins onto the whole map (so that nowhere is safe during the duration of the night). Be sure to check the map every day to see what the Piglins may be planning (black banners will appear over affected locations), and plan accordingly.
9) Destroy Piglin buildings and open chests to collect prismarine and gold
Prismarine is used to purchase Improvements to upgrade your abilities, and gold is used to collect powerful tools like First Golems and Power Towers. These two resources are the most valuable in all of Minecraft Legends, so it's vital that you collect as much as possible. That's why you should make an effort to destroy as many Piglin buildings as you can (not just the ones necessary to progress), as these structures have a chance to drop gold and prismarine.
You should also keep an eye out for Allay and Piglin chests. Allay chests can be found throughout the Overworld and can contain Prismarine, while Piglin chests are only found within Piglin outposts and strongholds and mostly contain gold (but can also give you prismarine). Allay chests can be opened without any issues, but you'll need Piglin keys to access their chests. There's no easy way to know how many Piglin keys you have; they're randomly dropped by fallen Piglins. Targeting the most powerful Piglins you see in the Overworld gives you a greater chance of getting Piglin keys, which can then be used to open Piglin chests. If you find a chest, just try to open it and your keys will be used automatically.
10) Build forward bases before assaulting Piglin strongholds
Once you begin amassing powerful armies and become used to commanding them, winning battles against the Piglins can begin to feel like a cakewalk. Don't get too confident, however, as Piglin strongholds are entirely different beasts and can't always be conquered in one sweep. Before storming a major Piglin stronghold, always build a forward base nearby surrounded by defenses.
These forward bases give you a play to regroup and rebuild your army, can protect you during intense battles, and can provide a safe place to construct a Wellhouse if you need a nearby fast travel point. Building a forward base only takes a few minutes, and can save you a lot of time, in the long run, should you be defeated in battle.
Different ways to play
Being a strategy game, there are countless ways to play Minecraft Legends. Every save file will be different, and so will the strategies of every player. The above 10 tips and tricks are a great foundation upon which to build your own playstyle, but the most important thing is to have fun (and Minecraft Legends makes that easy). It's one of the best Xbox games for a reason.
One last tip to maximize the fun to be had in Minecraft Legends... Play with friends. Mojang Studios baked full online, cross-play co-op in Minecraft Legends, and the game shines its best when you tackle the Overworld as a group. Try to play on a higher difficulty, though, as the default "Fabled" difficulty is made a lot easier with more players to help.
As a first-party Xbox Game Studios game, Minecraft Legends is available in every tier of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, including on Xbox consoles, Windows PCs, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Play it to your heart's content, and enjoy a sweet discount if you wish to buy it.
