Minecraft - The Escape Route

After months of working on the Link to the Past Castle and other areas of my world, an update was finally released that added Pistons (among other things) to the Xbox 360 Edition of Minecraft. With these in hand, it was time to move onto the next phase of my build and create a hidden exit out of the throne room and into the Sewers. But first, I would have to find some slimes.

I did some reading on the best way to hunt slimes and the most common answer was to hollow out a large chamber about 6 levels above bedrock and wait for them to spawn there. Sounded like a good enough plan to me. I went down to the bottom of my world and began the process of hollowing out a large chamber just off my big staircase. It didn't take long for me to realize just how much time it was going to take, even with Diamond tools. I wanted a faster way. The answer was simple really. I needed TNT. A quick switch to Easy and I was off hunting Creapers in the night and digging in the day.

After a few cycles of this, I had acquired enough gunpowder to create about 10 blocks of TNT and proceeded to hollow out the cave much faster. Unfortunately, they didn't last long and were quickly used up. The funniest part of the whole thing is that after blowing up my last TNT block and breaking another pickaxe, I started to head out of my room and guess what came bouncing towards me: a medium slime. I smacked him with my sword and the bastard died without dropping anything. My first slime, and I messed it up. Frustrating, but oh well.

I returned to my house and created a new pickaxe and grabbed some more food. I then returned to the bottom of my shaft and ran smack dab into the middle of a good sized mob of slimes. This time, I killed them with a shovel and they split and started dropping slime balls. After all the time I spent hollowing out that chamber, the stupid things appeared on bedrock at the bottom of the shaft under my house. Oh well. At least I got to play with TNT and blow stuff up!

The secret door.

What all that boils down to is the fact that I could now create sticky pistons and build a real hidden doorway in the throne room, which is exactly what I did. It was a 1x2 door that pulled back and to the side revealing a staircase down underneath it. I tried to figure it out myself, but again, I'm still not that good with Redstone circuitry. A quick youtube visit and I had a nice working door. It requires a redstone torch to be placed on a certain block in the throne room in order to active the whole contraption.

When I later created the actual thrones and the platform they sit on, I had to raise the entire door up one block. It wasn't too difficult to do and it now is even more seamless.

The chest under the throne contains extra redstone torches.

Here, you see the torch on the wool block which has opened the door.

Once I had the door working, my next task was fairly straight forward at first. I started digging out the sewer levels one room at at time. I didn't put a whole lot of planning into the scale of the rooms, or at least not as much as I had previously, so the scale of some rooms feels off while others feel just right.

I'm digging along, working away at getting these rooms carved out, and guess who decided to pop their ugly head in again; the natural cave. This time, I'm towards the back entrance of it. I just can't get away from this thing! I tried to look at the bright side though and tell myself that I just didn't have as much to dig out anymore. That made me feel a little better. By the time it was said and done, and I was digging back up towards the surface at the end, I had ran into this thing a total of 4 times. Oh well. At least it was rich with resources.

In the final room, I had thought about putting in another piston door into the Sanctuary, but opted instead for an Iron door connected to a switch. This was much simpler as all I had to do was run redstone wire under the wall like I had done previously in the dungeon. Piece of cake. For the other switch, the one that's supposed to drop snakes on you, I created a "boxing glove" with a piston so that when you flip the switch, you're smacked in the face with the block above. I thought it would be funny.

Aside from adding any water, the sewers were complete. Next came time to begin working on the Sanctuary. Unfortunately, that also meant tearing down a ton of ground to get it back on level with sea level. That was a lot of digging too and I wound up covering up the back entrance to my cave completely in order to create the front yard of the Sanctuary.

Nothing really special went into the building of the Sanctuary. It was a basic wood structure with big glass windows. I created a platform and made a golden altar to conceal the door behind. The pews were made with steps and capped with Glowstone for lighting. I even put torches on the inner part of the ceiling for added lighting. I think it looks really good myself.

I was playing with my brother and showing off the world to him when he made the suggestion that I show this off and post it online. That was when this very blog was born and I began doing just that. With the Sanctuary and Castle complete, all that was left was the final decorating touches and to take the screenshots. That's when I started with the castle moat and courtyard. I finished the decor in the dungeon next and then the throne room and finally finished it up in the tower all within the past several weeks.

This also brings us almost up to the present in my grand Minecraft Timeline. I have started my next Hyrulian project which has already proved to be a challenge due to it's size as well and the lack of flat ground in my world. Lets just say I have another dirt platform floating on top of ocean similar to my house... I'll get into that new project next time. For now, I'll leave you with the Photo Tour of the Sewers and Sanctuary. Thank you for reading!

Photo Tour

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After entering through the doorway, you head down a flight of steps and into the first room.

Bottom of the steps looking into the room.

From here, you go forward and down a flight of stairs into a narrow hallway.

Sorry, no snakes in this version. It's lighter too.

Down another flight of steps and into the next set of rooms.

Time to head back up the stairs and into the back rooms of the Sanctuary.

The room with the two switches. The switch on the right opens the door
behind you, the one on the left hits the "boxing glove".

My silly "boxing glove" in action. Usually good for 1/2 heart damage and a chuckle.

Into the Sanctuary through the hidden door behind the altar.

Standing in front of the Altar looking out onto the Sanctuary.

Looking back at the altar in the Sanctuary.

Finally we exit the Sanctuary into the "overworld".

The front yard.

Standing on the back of the roof of the Sanctuary looking back at
Hyrule Castle.

Thus ends the first phase of my Hyrulian project. Hope you enjoyed the photos and my story so far. It's only the beginning of my journey, so please comment and keep reading. I'd love to hear from you.