Minecraft wiki entry for Beginner%27s_guide, associated text: Pressing the left button hits whatever you are focused on. This is also how you attack animals or monsters later. Holding down the button on a block continues hitting it, eventually breaking it. This is generally how you collect materials from the world. Some blocks require particular tools to collect them, but the first two sorts of blocks you collect are likely wood and dirt (grass blocks count as dirt), and both of those can be gathered with your bare hands. However, even these can be collected more efficiently with proper tools (such as an axe for wood and a shovel for dirt), and soon you can make some for yourself. Generally when you start a world, the first thing you should do is to find some trees and break a few blocks of wood out of their trunks ("punching wood"). Once broken, the blocks drop as loose items, which you can move toward to collect. Holding something that isn't a tool (say, the block of wood or dirt you just picked up) still counts as "bare hands". Other things seen around you, such as tall grass or flowers, still count as blocks despite not being square, but they don't necessarily "drop themselves" when hit. For example, tall grass usually drops nothing, but sometimes drops seeds, which you can later plant to grow wheat for making bread to eat.