Minecraft wiki entry for Beginner%27s_guide, associated text: At night time, the primary danger is hostile mobs (monsters) that spawn only in the dark. These include zombies, skeletons, spiders, creepers, and more. All of these are good reasons to stay put in a well-lit shelter. But if you are really seeking adventure, you could always arm yourself with a sword or an axe and fight some monsters. While you might be able to get some materials for further crafting, it is dangerous, and if you die, all of your items and experience levels drop where you died, and you respawn at your bed (or at your world spawn if you don't have one). So a good idea before adventuring out is to sleep on the bed and leave it, or right click on the bed during the day. When you see "Respawn point set" in the chat message, you can be sure that you respawn in your base next to the bed after dying, instead of in the wild where you first spawned next to a bunch of monsters. However, most of the monsters you can fight at this point either burn (zombies and skeletons) or become less dangerous (spiders) when morning comes, and it is easier to fight them later when you have better equipment. If you must fight monsters this early, be especially wary of skeletons; in the open their arrows can easily get your health quite low or even kill you at a distance, and if they're in the water or on higher ground, it's unlikely you can reach them before being killed at this stage. If you happen to see any of the more powerful monsters, keep well away from them: At this point, an enderman, a witch, or even a creeper can kill you easily.