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.