Rest In Peace

 I took Kepler caving. Two creeper explosions, a skeleton and a zombie were not enough to stop my faithful companion. My iron sword however, was. Because of the new 1.9 combat mechanisms, swords can now do area damage. Guess what? Kepler was attacking a zombie and a skeleton while I was fending off two zombies in close quarters when I swung at the skeleton, and did area damage to the zombie, and Kepler. Ouch. I made a gravestone for him, but I plan on adding netherrack and light it on fire in the gravestone. Rest in piece, Kepler. I now have six wolves, Osiris, Teplowf, Audun, Ammon, Carson, and Hadohan. I've decided to strip mine for now and leave my wolves be, as I don't need another fallen friend. Once I have enough iron, I'll return to the surface and farm until I have sufficient food and resources to start exploring. But for now, I want charcoal. Lots of it. I'll chop down wood until I have about two stacks. Then I'll go exploring. 

Leader of the Pack

 I've gone ahead and made another hardcore world, and it's going well so far. I went into a desert nearby me, and I managed to find a village with an iron helmet, boots and chestplate, allowing me to finish my set of iron armor.  I finished a full set of iron armor, a shield, and some iron tools before even going caving, which is a nice touch. On the other hand, I got turned around during the night phase, and it took quite a bit to find my way back, but on the bright side, I did tame several wolves along the way. Just for vanity, I went into creative and gave them all name tags; it's not going to affect gameplay much, and it's not like I'm giving myself valuable things, because that just makes the game pointless. I gave my wolves the names of Kepler, Carson, Hadohan, Teplowf, Audun, Ammon, and Osiris. Carson is a character from a very obscure book, Hadohan and Teplowf are names I just made up, Osiris and Ammon are from Egyptian mythology, Audun is a Norse name meaning "affluent friend" and Kepler is a planet.  

Hadohan, one of my many wolves.

Also, I added a wheat farm, a cow farm, and even a sheep and chicken farm. After my brief excursion, into the village, I returned with half a stack of potatoes and some carrots which I made a special far for. I don't know what I'm going to do with all this, I guess the only farms I'm going to be using are the chicken farm, the cow farm, and the wheat farm. I guess my next step is to go mining, but I'm debating on whether or not to take wolves with me. I made lots of improvements to my house, switching all the cobblestone to wooden planks. This world is really nice, and I figure it's a great way to kickstart my hardcore mode adventure. For now, my goal in this world is to complete the game's linear objective of slaying the Ender Dragon and the Wither.

One-Day Misadventure

 I made a new hardcore world, and I had the luck (or maybe not) of spawning inside a forest. Further exploration revealed a large extreme hills area and about a chunk of swampland. It wasn't the best world, and the swamp was hilly, so I deleted it. On my second try, I spawned in a savanna. 

Things where looking up, as savannas are great for building and farming. I looked left, then this happened:

Seed: 3690999670376396222

A desert temple! This meant good stuff. If I could get to that temple, it means a temporary shelter, loot, and overall a good start! But I didn't keep track of the time, so in panic, I dug the three-block-underground emergency shelter. Making a furnace and smelting charcoal kept the light level okay until I made some torches to accompany me. The majority of the time was spent smelting and cooking stuff. All went well until I died. I made my house, a tower design with three floors and was getting ready to collect wood. I cut away the bottom block from me, and no fall damage ensued as I was only 2 block away. Unfortunately, there was a skeleton there. After slaying it, I was recovering and went out again. Once again, I found a skeleton in full gold armor that promptly slayed me. Here's the seed of the world, I'm off to start a new hardcore world, because I won't give up. 

Also, because of the new option to spectate after you die, you can use the open to LAN trick and go back to survival, essentially respawning. But of course, in accordance with hardcore mode, I won't and I'll delete the world. The loot of the temple is actually very valuable. It contains a golden apple, Silk touch and Flame I, with some iron horse armor and a saddle. Nice!