Getting Started

Getting Minetest

Windows

Download Minetest. If you have a 64-bit version of Windows, you should use a 64-bit download.
Extract the file. We suggest c://minetest, c://games/minetest or My Documents. It doesn't matter where, as long as you have read write access. Do not save to c://program files or similar, as it will cause problems.
To run Minetest, open the extracted folder and look for the bin folder. Open bin and run minetest.exe. Bin stands for binary, and contains the Minetest program.

Here is the folder structure you should have:

minetest/
├── bin/
├── builtin/
├── client/
│   ├── serverlist/
│   └── shaders/
│       ├── alpha_shader/
│       ├── leaves_shader/
│       ├── liquids_shader/
│       ├── plants_shader/
│       └── solids_shader/
├── doc/
├── fonts/
├── games/
│   ├── minetest_game/
│   └── minimal/
├── locale/ 
│   └── (lots of language folders)
├── mods/ 
└── textures/
    └── base/
        └── pack/

(As installed by the build for Windows minetest-0.4.9-65d1cb8 compiled by sfan5, 2014-03-30)

OS X

Download Minetest.
Extract the file. It doesn't matter where, as long as you have read write access.
Open the .app file in the extracted folder.

GNU/Linux Installation

If you can, download the version already compiled for your distribution of GNU/Linux. If you can't find one, you can compile it yourself from here. In this case, you should also install a so-called Minetest-Game.

Playing

Now that you have it installed you can either; play singleplayer, play on a local server or play online by connecting to a server.

Some things you may need to know

Mods in Minetest are plugins written in Lua.
Mods in Minetest are on the server side. You do not need to install any mods when connecting to a server.
All the content in Minetest, such as blocks and tools, come from Lua Mods.
Minetest is formed of a game engine and a vanilla 'game'. A 'game' in Minetest is a collection of Lua Mods which provide base content. A 'game' can then be expanded by additional Lua Mods. Minetest comes with a default 'game' called minetest_game.

Play Singleplayer

To play singleplayer, simply create a world and click Play.

You can choose (or install) a Game.

Play Online

File:Password.PNG

The select password screen

To play online you must enter a username, a password for yourself, and the server address (and port). If it is your first time connecting to that server it will create a player for you with your chosen username. Using a password is strongly recommended to stop others griefing your character.

Creating a character is simply done by setting an username and optionally a password. If you set a password when joining a server for the first time, it will be required for further connections on the same server.

Basic Controls

Most of these can be changed in the “Change Keys” menu. For a more complete list of keyboard controls, see Controls.

The default and most important controls are:

W/A/S/D: move
Space: jump
Left mouse button: attack, mine blocks, move an item stack in an inventory
Right mouse button: use (e.g. open chest or furnace), place blocks, move one item or split items in an inventory
Shift+Right mouse button: place blocks
Middle mouse button: move 10 items in an inventory
Mouse wheel: select item in the hotbar
0-9: select item in the hotbar
Q: drop block, item or tool in hand
I: open or close the inventory menu
T: open the chat window
Shift: descend on ladders or sneak (walk slower, prevents falling off ledges)

Gameplay

See this video for the basics about Minetest. It is a bit out-dated, however.

Here is a little tutorial: How to build your first house.

The following wiki pages explain some basic Minetest concepts more or less in-depth:

If you want to play online, you should read the gameplay notes for multiplayer servers.

As soon as you grasped the basics, you may want to look up which blocks and items are available and get an overview about farming.

Just want to build? Try creative mode!

If you want more, consider trying new mods and games.

Advanced topics:

Groups