Minecraft wiki entry for Beginner%27s_guide, associated text: Players are greatly affected by light in Minecraft. Any underground space is dark, and half of the time the game is at night. It is possible to see a little better by altering the same settings to raise the brightness level of the display, but this only goes so far, because it's not just about visibility -- monsters spawn in the darkness. Specifically, any space further than 24 blocks from a player that isn't lit up well enough (about 7 blocks in taxicab distance from full sunlight or a light source) is a potential spawning ground for monsters. Accordingly, a player "claims" territory by lighting it up so that monsters cannot spawn. From the first day, a player can createtorches, a basic light source that remains useful throughout the game. Torches (and any other light source) need to be placed in the world to give off light. They can be placed on the side or top of any solid block, and some that aren't entirely solid (for example, you can put a torch on top of a fence). Unlike in real life, a torch remains lit forever, allowing the player to use torches as a cheap and permanent light source. One stick plus one coal or charcoal, crafts into 4 torches. At the very beginning of the game, you should make torches 4 at a time as you need them, once you have a reasonable supply of coal and/or charcoal you can keep a stack of torches handy.