Day one of Survival Island, Michael Deering's March 2016 Minecraft Hardcore Challenge. This month's special rule: don't leave the island vicinity. Basket plays alone, in hardcore on Minecraft 1.9, and calls this "my attempt number 2," now on the right seed with large biomes turned on and structures off. The MHC rules still apply, which for Basket means "I can't eat meat." Not that it matters much here. There are no animals on the island anyway.
A small green island
The world opens on a patch of grass in the middle of the ocean, with a few oak trees and some sugar cane at the water's edge. "This one is much more like a survival island challenge." Basket chops wood, makes a crafting table, pulls seeds from the grass, and replants the saplings. A hoe follows, and a small farm goes in by the water. It will take a while to grow, but food is the precious resource here, and Basket is hoping the trees drop an apple.
Down into the stone
Basket digs a shaft straight down, makes a stone pickaxe, and breaks into a cave with water running through it. There's coal everywhere. "All this coal, lots of coal. I'm glad I didn't waste wood on making charcoal." Iron ore turns up too. The trip back up is through a column of water, and it's slow. Basket looks for a "sweet spot" to swim up faster, then remembers that trick was from 1.8.
Lighting up the island
It's almost night when Basket gets back to the surface. The plan is to light up the whole island with torches so nothing can spawn on it, then leave "a controlled area where monsters will spawn that we can kill and get their goodies." Wood is short but coal isn't, so torches go down all over the grass. A furnace smelts the iron, and slabs go in "so we can kind of get around a little easier without having to jump." Hunger is already dropping. "Something to keep in mind."
A dark room that stays empty
For the monster spot, Basket digs a dark pit and closes it off from the light. Then the stone pickaxe breaks. "There goes the pick." The pit stays empty. The only things spawning around the island are squid. "The small cave thing didn't really work out." The iron gets put to use instead: an iron pickaxe, a bucket, and iron armor.
A creeper before sunrise
The sky is going red when a creeper finally walks up across the grass. In 1.9 there's an attack cooldown, Basket notes, so each hit has to be timed. Basket hits it, backs off, and hits it again, but the creeper blows up and leaves a hole by the shore. Basket is still at full health. "We have failed to kill it, 'cause I think I missed with my attack."
Basket starts digging into the dirt by the sand to look for a cave, and the timer goes off. "Oh, and there's the end of the episode." Day one ends with Basket alive, at full health, in iron armor, with the island lit up. The credits roll after that, with no gameplay after them.