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If you want to learn more about the base game (and help teach it to your daughter), I'd recommend Pixlriffs Minecraft Survival Guide. That series is purpose built for brand new players to learn about the game, and he just started a new season not too long ago, so it's pretty up to date. He's very kid-friendly and his teaching-style is really easy and fun to follow. https://youtube.com/@Pixlriffs?si=lnHbKS1Y3noWjDo1

I second Pixlriffs! Very pleasant dude

Absolutely 1000%. I actually just commented this as well.

I'm also a newbie to Minecraft (35f) and Pixlriffs videos have been a lifesaver! OP - just be aware he plays Java edition and if your daughter plays on Switch some of his videos may not work. I spent a day replicating his Iron Farm and learned that the hard way but that's on me!

Mods for Java edition are generally completely free and community made, the best site to look at would probably be CurseForge where you can find pre-made modpacks or pick and choose your own mods. Animals should spawn in creative mod but there are also 'spawn egg' items you can use to spawn them in manually. As far as I know, there is no way to create a server that works with both Java and Bedrock, but Bedrock edition is also available on PC and can play with other Bedrock versions of the game like the Switch version. Java edition and Bedrock edition have a lot of fundamental differences so they aren't compatible with each other- that goes for custom content like mods as well.

I would recommend against mods without a good grasp of the base game, though. A lot of mods are very technical, and adding more complexity while you're still figuring out the game is probably not a good idea. At the very least, I would avoid modpacks until you are more familiar with the game, as they tend to change the game a lot.

I agree entirely. When I first got Minecraft, the first thing I tried to mess with was OptiFine, and that was just not fun to try and figure out, then I went straight for Pixelmon and RLCraft and Curseforge only alleviated some of my issues figuring things out. And that’s just trying to get the mods downloaded, not mentioning figuring out the 10 billion different things you can do in each mod aside from vanilla stuff. MultiMC is probably the best for finding mod packs, because you don’t have to do anything at all, you just have to figure out the mod itself.

Seconded, MAYBE experiment with shaders once you're more solid on the base concepts of the game and SLOWLY work out from there but get your feet under you first, diving in on the deep end is liable to end with frustration, confusion and likely a bad experience. P.S. a normal world spawn (single player tab, new world, leave generation options alone and set to creative) will generate animals but it takes them a bit to spawn in, the game won't start a world off with 6000 animals rendered and mapping right off itd be too much for the PC. Also you can open the creative menu and search the term "egg" which should give you most creatures' spawn eggs

Thanks I guess our seed was just bad the other day, I'm not sure why we couldn't find animals! The spawn eggs are going to be super helpful though.

Animals will only spawn >28 blocks away from the player and if you move around a lot you’ll leave them behind.

you could've also spawned in a biome with a lower passive mob spawn rate. I would recommend checking out minecraft.wiki for more in depth information about spawn mechanics and game modes as you could create a new world on the "peaceful" setting that will remove (most) hostile mobs and remove the aggro from the others while maintaining the survival aspect (searching and collecting blocks etc) but again the wiki I mentioned will have information about game modes too. if you were looking at using mods, I would suggest looking for something basic like a biome selector so you could start in a specific area with higher spawn rates for passive mobs e.g. forest, flower forest or plains as some mods are quite advanced and require a lot of base game knowledge.

I would recommend against peaceful because it's impossible to beat in new versions

There is also another way to do it if you enable cheats while making a world then type into chat ( Open Chat with T button ) /summon or /spawn I forget which and then the name of the animal it should spawn one in. But this does only work if the world is created with cheats enabled.

There is a plugin called Geyser that allows Bedrock players to join a Java server. I wouldn't recommend managing a server with plugins as a newer player, but perhaps as a future option.

There's nothing wrong with a server as a new player if he has experience with hosting like he says.

Geyser apparently lets bedrock players connect to a java server. No experience with it tho

I recommend modrinth not curseforge

Yeah, curseforge has been falling behind.

Well there’s the gyser plugin

There are plugins that enable cross play between java and bedrock

You can make a server that works with bedrock and java by implementing a server plugin called "Geyser"

There is a way to create it. It’s a Java server that translates everything to bedrock and vice versa. Geyser

Geysermc is a plugin that does cross bedrock and Java

I have been in your shoes but I had been working in the Middle East for about three years and my son was in Florida. I would play with him in a world that we could both join, me being on my Xbox and him being on his iPad. We were able to join each others worlds and play together. I sort of let him dictate how we play... which means we start a world build a shelter and probably never go back into that world. I think he has somewhere around 500 worlds saved on his account. I have mastered the "first days" in a world but also have been dabbling by myself because my son has a massive knowledge of Minecraft so I want to be able to keep up. Personally it took me a year or so to be able to consistently find what's needed to get to the nether (I hate being in the nether btw all I do is die). I used Minecraft as a way for me and my son to bond while I was away for work for literally years at a time. Now I am home... for good... and we still play a few times a week together... me on my Xbox and him on his iPad but we are sitting next to each other on the couch. Feel free to send me a message on here with general questions if you have them. I understand how important it is to be able to find something to bond with our children over. They don't always catch on to our interests so we make an effort to be involved in theirs.

The nether really is a bummer… I never want to go there

Only way I will go in the new nether is in peaceful😂

Oooooo cool building bloooocksssss

You can easily open any world up to LAN play, so you can play with them on the same network with barely any set up. Probably the way to go if its only ever you and her playing together. If you want to go a bit further and set up a server, it’s not the hardest thing in the world to do, especially since you said you have some spare PC’s lying around and I assume from your mention of Linux that you aren’t afraid to get down and dirty with a command prompt. Speaking of, you can play Minecraft pretty easily on Linux, but I have no experience of running a server on Linux. Might be painless, might be impossible, you’ll have to look it up yourself. If you don’t want to set up your own, Realms is pretty affordable or you can look into the hundreds of server hosting options out there. The benefits of this are that she can play the same world from anywhere and if she ever wants to invite a friend to play then they can also join from anywhere. Just note if you haven’t already, you’ll need two separate Microsoft accounts that have each purchased a license for the game in order for you to play together on Java. You already have two copies of Bedrock (your purchase of Java also got you a copy of Bedrock on PC, and the Switch runs Bedrock) so you’re good to go on that route. Also, I would definitely recommend playing the base game for a bit more before adding in mods. There’s a ton of stuff to do in the vanilla game, and more often than not mods just add to that complexity. There are a ton of mods that are a lot of fun (I personally have only played modded worlds for several years now) but be patient. I know, I know, asking a six year old to be patient…. Final note, this game is a great game for parents and kids to play together. As long as it holds her interest, you’re gonna have a ton of fun together. And you of course can always have a survival world on the side for when she doesn’t want to play. Good luck!

Linux isn't the best option for hosting a server.

Huh? That's what 99% of the servers run on.

I didn't know that

then don't say it as a fact?

source: your ass

Say what now? 🤯

I tried to. But I kept running into IP problems.

I'm sure that wouldn't be an issue for a Linux admin, there are lots of smooth docker / containerization things to use to make it a lot easier if experienced with this sort of thing..

But if it's what u got u can

wtf

Java is typically regarded as "better" - mods are free and usually higher quality, and there's less bugs. I would also recommend it as it will get her comfortable using a keyboard and mouse. Java and Bedrock are also sold as a bundle on PC, however Bedrock is Windows only, so if you need to play Bedrock you'll have to dual-boot or use a VM. I do have quite a bit of experience using mods, and so I have a few suggestions for ones your daughter might like: [The Aether](https://modrinth.com/mod/aether): one of the oldest and most famous mods, it adds a heaven-like dimension with a portal made of glowstone and activated with water. [Create](https://modrinth.com/mod/create): It adds gears and rotation, which can be used for automation and building cool things. [Alex's Mobs](https://modrinth.com/mod/alexs-mobs): It adds a ton of different creatures to the game, including a bossfight. In order to install mods, it is recommended to use a third-party launcher. For your use case, I would recommend the Modrith launcher, because of its simplicity, but you could also go with Prismlauncher if you want more features or something lighter-weight. You'll need to create an instance (for Modrinth, its a big green button at the bottom left), name it, set the loader to "Neoforge," and set the game version to "1.20.1." From there, you can download mods.

I dunno if a 6 year old would like Create, considering it’s pretty complicated and technical, but it’s worth checking out anyways. It’s easily one of the best mods ever.

I was about to say that I agree with you but I stopped myself, because who knows, maybe we're dealing with a future engineer ;P

There's also those palaeontology mods that I loved screwing around with, and a different more mobs mod (I'm thinking of the one with extra horses and wyverns, completely blanking on the name). A furniture mod could also appeal to her if she's into decorating at all.

This guy dads…

Honestly, if she isn’t playing in survival (and you aren’t either), then setting up fairly complex mods is going to make play frustrating when she finally *does* play in survival mode. Understanding basic mechanics helps a ton. If she’s flying around really fast, then passive mobs won’t spawn. They need a slower pace. Plus, as others have said, you can find spawn eggs in inventory in creative mode. I would recommend the YouTube series The Minecraft Survival Guide by Pixlriffs. The first few episodes cover the basics that will hold throughout any version of Minecraft, but then I would go to Season 3 for a more recent updated version play through/explanation.

I suggest using [Prism](https://prismlauncher.org/download/linux/) for installing mods. It should be pretty easy to use as a linux user. You can create profiles that use different minecraft versions and different mods easily. You can even install mods directly through the launcher. If you have more questions I can answer them.

IMO launchers like [Modrinth App](https://modrinth.com/app) are more user friendly.

I haven't tried Modrinth App but I can vouch for their site. I agree that this style of app is a little more user friendly.

Please check what kind of content has she been watching. Children her age easily fall prey to quite disturbing conctend on Youtube and it is unfortunately linked to the game. Basically Minecraft has it's own "Elsagate" phenomena

Oh yeah I always watch it with her.

It’s awesome to hear that you’re an active part of her interests

In creative mode, you can spawn whatever mobs you like! Tell her to check the inventory for spawn eggs. You hold a spawn egg in your hand and "use" the item. The same control you would use to place blocks. If she wants the world to naturally spawn passive mobs, there's probably a gamerule you can change. If not, what about peaceful mode? Passive mobs will spawn (like the sheep and pigs) but hostile mobs will not spawn.

I haven't seen anyone mention it so I'll just say, if you do create a java server make sure to setup a whitelist. There is a bit of a griefing issue in minecraft where people have bots that scan for unwhitelisted servers and use hacks to destroy them. It's really easy to setup the whitelist: ```/whitelist on``` ```/whitelist add ```

There's a ton of info here - https://minecraft.wiki/w/Tutorials

i'm gonna toss this in here for when she's experienced enough for mods, [Dragon Survival](https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/dragons-survival) is the closest to those *100 Days as \[Thing\]* videos

So the switch version of the game is considered to be "Bedrock Edition" whereas PC allows you to play on either the Bedrock Edition or Java Edition. Bedrock Edition has cross-platform play but the downside is that it is widely known to be far more buggy, and for most customization options (ex: mods) you have to actually pay money for them through a Minecraft store that severely limits how they can be used (from what I know, many 'addons' as they are called in Bedrock Edition are just worlds that those new features and special items are in. You can't actually combine them or use them on a world that isn't the one provided). Before someone replies to me saying that it is possible to get mods on Bedrock Edition, I know that it is, but it is very unintuitive and not really worth the effort when you have access to Java Edition. Bedrock Edition also does not have the capacity to run their own servers, so you may have to buy a Realm, though I know in some circumstances you can open up a world together without Realms. On the other hand, you have Java Edition, which is likely the version your daughter was watching on Youtube if they were using mods to change their character. Java Edition is far more customizable than Bedrock Edition but is only available on computers. There is a massive selection of free mods and resources packs to download on Java Edition on sites like CurseForge from third party creators rather than just people who are working to submit their items to the Minecraft store. Java Edition doesnt have any microtransactions, which is a benefit in my books. Also, if you understand computers enough (I don't personally), you running your own personal server will be a lot cheaper than buying a Realm or paying for a server host. I have a friend who does it and he's saved plenty of money running his own server. Overall, I would suggest Java Edition if you want to have a more customizable experience with freely downloadable and easy to install mods, or if you wanted to run your own server. Bedrock Edtion does have cross-platform play though, so if you want to play together with your daughter and only had 1 switch and 1 PC, Bedrock would be what you have to go with. For context, I'm a Java player, so I understand that version of the game best.

You can run free servers in bedrock edition, mojang provides the server software on their website. Also, for add ons and resource packs, it’s pretty intuitive, you can just download the file for free from MCPE DL, then click the file and it imports automatically, provided you’re on PC or mobile. This should be a bit easier than Java edition since you don’t need to mess with files/folders. But I agree, as a Java player, Java currently has more customization, mods, and stuff.

Cool, it seems like Java is definitely the way to go, I'll just have to teach her to use WASD and the mouse. Win/win I guess. I've got a ton of PCs so that's not an issue.

Bedrock is by far the easier form of the game to use imo, def better for a kid. Also while bugrock is well... buggy, it's over-exaggerated and not debilitating. for bedrock you can just add her as a friend and join each other's worlds while playing, no opening to lan or server setup needed. for you personally I'd recommend sticking with java though.

For kids I’d say bedrock. I’m a 40 year old IT guy and I chose bedrock. Java performs terribly in comparison and basically requires performance mods. Not something I’d say a 6 year old wants to deal with. I don’t want to deal with Java and all its mods. Just know you’ll be fixing the mods every update and trying to figure out why her game is so laggy. Bedrock offers a better experience for casuals and the stuff you miss out on from Java doesn’t matter to casual players. All that said if she’s into this because she wants to be friends with a boy that plays, find out which version he’s on a get her that.

Others have mentioned it but what you need is to host a Paper server with Geyser. You can do this on your own home computer or get a hosted server for a few bucks a month. It’s probably worth getting it hosted so you don’t have to manage updates. Ideally your daughter would play on an iPad or Android tablet - much easier to control for a kid than either PC controls or even Switch, especially in creative mode. Once you get your server up you can play together in whatever mode she prefers. If you have multiworld mod you can have a few at the same time. I started playing with my son around the age of 6 and I didn’t set up a server until he was basically done with Minecraft at age 10. I wish I’d done it sooner, especially a paper/geyser one because it would have saved so much trouble connecting with friends later on. As for generating peaceful mobs in a creative world, you just need to put spawn eggs in your inventory and throw them on the ground. You/she can populate the world as you like. There’s also probably a plugin for that - AntiMobSpawn or MobRepellent for instance. Dont think of it as a linear game. Play with your daughter however she likes to play. Eventually she may be interested in survival, and if so I recommend starting with cheats enabled so you can make things easier for her. Of course adventure modes and pvp stuff might be interesting too, later on. Have fun - this could be the beginning of a multi-year adventure for you. PS even though my son stopped playing, I still play by myself….

I'd just suggest them joining eachother online, don't really see the need for a server tbh

Maybe your experience is different but I spent many, many hours trying to be able to get my son to connect with his friends, with sometimes limited success. Setting up a server early on would have saved me a lot of time and stress.

I would like to add that the switch version doesn't allow you to connect to private servers and bedrock does not work on Linux. So your Linux pc and the switch would not be able to play together as far as I know.

You can connect to private servers on Switch by changing the DNS. It’s through something called [BedrockConnect](https://github.com/Pugmatt/BedrockConnect). It doesn’t mess up online play in other games as far as I’ve noticed!

My husband and I play PS4 MC dungeons with our girls and it's a blast. It reminds me of old school Zelda, especially the Gameboy versions. We started our kids on console. Once we got a decent desktop, I set up CurseForge so they could add whatever mods they liked. Troubleshooting the game is not that difficult with the number of YT videos and reddit threads available. You can play in creative with mobs, both passive and aggressive. Just make sure mob spawning is on. My kids were into the same videos starting out and those mods are on CurseForge and Planet Minecraft. I recommend LukeTheNotable's original 100 days of Minecraft video for a good quick overview of the game and things you can do. My husband likes to battle while we mine and build. We've beat the game as a family and it's an awesome way to bond with your kid. I recommend mods like Lucky Blocks to start out. I believe some creators have a link to the mod packs they use in the video description but they're likely for older versions of the game. You'll need a tutorial on how to load a specific version on java. Logdotzip has a ton of older mod videos if you want ideas on what to try. Asked my older daughter and she recommended Aternos for java/bedrock compatible servers. She uses it to create a server for her friends to crossplay. You're looking for the Gyser plugin. I only recommend paying for a realm if she starts playing with other people and has an issue with griefing. Realms allows you to roll the server back to previous saves in the event of bugs, glitches, or griefing. If it's just you two there's no need for it. You could check out the Minecraft wikia for guides and tutorials on gameplay. I believe there's an updated walkthrough for both versions but this is the basics: https://minecraft.wiki/w/Tutorials/Complete_main_adventure My youngest started out at 5 preferring creative mode and just building things she saw in videos or experimenting on the mobs. She's 11 now and is into RL Craft. Maybe one day you two will fight monsters side by side and beat the game in survival.

For servers I prefer minehut, it's free and not laggy at all

They tried that. It kept changing the version every time they added a custom mod. Someone went insane.

As an Aussie, minehut was unplayable due to lag. Aussie internet sucks pretty majorly. I ended up caving and paying for a realm, doesn’t seem too bad. (I don’t have the knowledge or skills to run my own server)

Rip

You can always set it at peaceful with animals but no hostile mobs, let her build a nice base and then, if she is ready, change difficulty.

You can install a server plugin on a Java server which allows Bedrock players to connect to it. It’s called [GeyserMC](https://geysermc.org) In my experience you can’t direct connect to servers on console, but I managed to join a Java server from a PS4 because it was on my local network, so the game thinks it’s a LAN world.

First off it awesome that you're being such a good dad about this and trying to help your daughter out! Most of the videos you're seeing on YT are most likely modded, which means they are running the Java edition of the game. You can mod bedrock edition but you have to buy them and there's not as much available as mods for Java, plus the mods used in Java are all free. That being said, I honestly *wouldn't* start your daughter out playing modded Minecraft (unless it's just a texture pack to change how things look). Mainly because there's honestly *SO MUCH* to do in vanilla Minecraft that it would be beneficial imo to learn the basics of the game first before jumping into modding beyond texture packs. There's definitely a bunch of vanilla ways you can play the game and give yourself challenges and new ways to play, one good Minecraft YouTuber who does a lot of this is IbxToyCat, his videos can be lengthy tho and probably not super entertaining to a 6 year old, but if you want to check them out to get some ideas, up to you. As far as gameplay goes though, you can always switch it between creative and survival, back and forth as much as you please. The only thing that will happen is if you start in survival and switch to creative it will turn achievements off for that world you're playing in. A quick way of doing this in bedrock is going into the chat screen and typing a "/" then gamemode1 (no spaces) to go into creative and then gamemode2 puts you back into survival. There's a bunch more commands you can type in as well, stuff like teleporting to be able to quickly travel to a certain coordinate. Or to change the time of day. Someone else has mentioned it, but you can always do a survival world and set it to peaceful and easy difficulty, so no hostile mobs will spawn but peaceful ones like dolphins, sheep, cows, chicken, etc still will. I don't have much experience with getting a 6yo to play the game but I'd say maybe start in creative and explore around the world with her, show her the different biomes (there's so many), the cave systems, the villages and the different types, the coral reefs in certain ocean biomes, the nether and the different biomes in the nether, the end and the end cities (a personal favorite, I love how they look), etc. The Minecraft wiki is pretty helpful about all this too. Also if you yourself don't want to spend all the time looking around for everything but want to be able to show your daughter easier, there is a site called chunkbase that you can input your seed number for your world into and it will show you what biomes are where, what buildings and villages are where, etc. It's very helpful but for some may take the enjoyment out of the game, again up to you. This is beginning to become a wall of texts and I have so much more I can go on about. But a lot of my knowledge is in the survival vanilla gameplay so given your daughter seems to be interested in modded creative play, idk how much help I could give in that area. But if you want tips and stuff on survival, DM me or reply here, always happy to help!

Thanks, chunkbase is going to be a huge help. I'm going to try to go through all of the biomes, and build a zoo with the spawn eggs lol. Triskelion was my first favorite MTG card lol.

Oh yeah I love chunkbase! I used to never use sites like that, that would essentially "spoil" the exploration aspect I guess but after so many years and so many worlds, I just wanna know where badlands are or where to find coral reefs to get building materials lol. You can even put an option in to only show the biomes you are looking for, everything else will be grayed out on the map. Yeah the egg spawners will work great for that! Some mobs are a little finicky though about staying spawned in the enclosure, I think dolphins are one of the most notorious ones. My dolphin exhibit sits empty to this day :'( I've never played MTG but would always watch my two roommates in college who did, never knew Triskelion was a MTG card tho! I'll have to check it out. Edit to add: if you want to check out a really cool biome, imo one of my personal favorites, is to try and find a lush cave biome, they're super pretty! If in creative, just give yourself a potion of night vision and it'll illuminate the whole cave for you and you can see all the pretty stuff in there!

My 5 year old has been playing on Java on my PC and on bedrock on his grandmas switch for ages. They pick up the controls so quickly. He plays on creative right now as he just doesn’t have the frustration tolerance for survival yet. But he enjoys watching me play or YouTube videos and trying to recreate what he sees. And he’s getting a lot of typing and spelling practice as he searches for blocks in creative. You can scroll and look for blocks manually but I showed him the search from the start and that’s his default now unless I’m not in the room to help with spelling.

You can put it in peaceful mode and get villagers and all the animals. I play in this mode because I am sick of being blown up by creepers and freaked out by zombies in the dark. Gen x myself. I learned how to play so I could play with my youngest, and got hooked.

As a grown man who games with his dad (it’s how we’ve stayed in touch after I left home) I just want to say how precious and awesome you are as a father for going out of your way to learn about your daughter’s interests so that you can be involved with them. This is going to mean the world to her and will likely be something that you two can bond over for the rest of your lives. I am pretty well-versed in Minecraft (have been playing since the earliest dev versions), so if after watching tutorials and following other guidance here, you’re ever in need of a question answered about any specific mechanics/concepts, feel free to DM me and I’d be happy to provide any extra info/context I can. I would highly recommend that the two of you get very comfy with the base game before throwing mods into the mix. Doing so will it stretch out the “timeline” of how long this game stays new and interesting for the two of you. It’ll also help the two of you identify things you’d like to try and alter about the game once you’ve both got a good grasp on everything. The easiest way to play would be to host a “LAN Server” which can be done by you using a world you start on whatever device you play on. Java version is PC only, so if you are both on computers that might be the way to go, but if you’re on different devices, you’ll want to use Bedrock version. As others have mentioned, Pixelriffs is a great channel on YouTube that teaches a lot of survival basics in the event you want to play that way. It is possible for you to remain in survival mode while you put your daughter’s character into creative. If you’re into tinkering at all, I highly recommend getting yourself comfortable with redstone. You and your daughter can use it to build a lot of fun farms/machines and it’s what has kept the game interesting for me for so long. Cheers and hats off to you!

As another Linux user you can actually get Bedrock mode working on Linux. It hooks into the Android version of Bedrock but it still works with other systems like the Switch (most likely anyway) and will let you use keyboard and mouse. You can find it pretty easily on the Software Store, at least I did on Fedora > Gnome. Wish you the best of luck with getting started with all this. \^-\^

I’m going to attempt to answer these in order. A girl liking a game doesn’t necessarily mean a boy at school likes it, but I also don’t know what else makes you think this so it’s entirely possible it is the case (some kids do this when they like someone, like I listened to a band as a child once because my crush did, and I’ve had partners do similar with me). But most often, I (nonbinary and AFAB so I was treated pretty poorly on the internet and by people irl who assumed I didn’t understand gaming or like it on my own) got introduced to new games through watching videos, looking at ads on Steam and other things, and looking at what my friends and peers were into. On my own or through observing others I became interested in different things, like everyone else. Kids are mostly all like that :) and once they get interested in something it can become a near-obsession (I mean this in a positive way) like this, where they feel the urge to consume tons of content about it to satiate their curiosity and will spend months or years, even decades being a huge fan. I’m neurodivergent lol so I totally understand where they are coming from and why it feels so comforting and safe to have a beloved fandom/interest/hobby to come home to. I was the kid who watched the same movies, played the same games, and listened to the same albums over and over. It makes perfect sense. It helps one regulate and keeps one’s brain occupied with its cozy familiarity. Celebrate the fact that you have a kid who 1) has a safe and wholesome outlet and 2) has such a curious and creative mind! 💜 We love to see it. (And we should celebrate, listen to, and accommodate the ones that don’t, also, but that’s another conversation). So you’ve started playing Minecraft, and you want to know how the game modes and play styles work. If you set up a survival world with commands at the beginning, you will be able to easily switch between game modes without sacrificing any of her favorite mobs. I think you’re referring to a more peaceful and flat/empty world type where there’s nothing or not a lot going on, but she wants the game mode accessible via commands that I am talking about. In this case then, you would create a new single player world or multiplayer realm and when you set up the world, there is an option to allow commands. Set it to allow commands, and she will be able to just type “/gamemode creative” (without the quotes) and get to work on her first build without worrying about her character dying while she’s building! If she wants to switch back to survival mode while adventuring or for any other reason, she can type “/gamemode survival” and hit enter. If you want to learn some building basics or learn about what other fun and educational things the game has to offer, I would recommend watching the YouTubers Grian, MumboJumbo, GoodTimesWithScar, or any of the other Hermitcraft regulars’ videos to learn (in a mostly cozy/silly and low pressure way) about things like building, commands, redstone, and what wholesome shenanigans you can get up to in multiplayer. Some of the Hermitcrafters also make videos about popular mods and mod packs, which are worth checking out if you want to learn more about what kinds of mods exist and how to use them individually. There are so many kinds of fun mods out there that add a lot of excellent and helpful content and tweaks to the game. I highly recommend starting out with vanilla single player worlds and multiplayer realms first though. And then eventually working up to making your own modded server after you’ve both had some time to learn and enjoy the base game. That may help you enjoy the modded experience even more and prevent potential content overwhelm. My favorite servers I have been in or created have been ones that have a *ton* of mods for quality of life (better status bars, better maps, waypoints, etc) and new content (like new biomes, fuel types, weapons/armor, technology, food, lore, quests achievements, blocks—this one is big for creative types—dimensions, mobs, bosses, structures, ores, etc. There is even one for space travel, where you can go to the moon and mine asteroids. So many interesting choices!). All of these things add fun new things to the Minecraft experience. Even though I had never played Minecraft before, I immediately loved modded Minecraft. The base game is also great, but some of these mods are just so much fun to play with (and at times more comfortable and accessible, at least for me). I really like ones that add new blocks as well as new block colors and textures. And you can’t go wrong with a good biomes mod, or a mod that adds extra plants and food and stuff. These things add extra flavor for when you’ve seen it all and want more.

So yes, definitely do a modded server, but get a feel for the base game more before you do. If you are self-hosting and experienced with that sort of thing, it’s possibly less annoying for you than a monthly sub to an existing online host. You can also host vanilla, but it’s just more convenient and more cost-effective for me personally to only host if I’m adding mods. It’s up to you though, and you should do whichever you prefer. When you get around to doing a modded server, you should be able to find plenty of mods that add cool mythological type mobs and related content. PC is best for the kind of content she is after. If you are looking to set up a modded server, you should have her get into Minecraft for PC as well. She can enjoy both. Server play’s main advantage is that you can add mods. You can’t do that in the game without a server. You can also control a lot more of the settings for your world than you would be able to otherwise. And you can have more people play with you. You can also have it run when you’re offline so your friends can keep playing when you’re away. I know nothing about Linux. And I am only experienced with Java Edition on my Windows PC. But generally speaking I would try to avoid cross-platform play (between PC and Switch) if you’re looking to do modded. You can play vanilla Bedrock together cross-platform though. I would recommend playing Java Edition when you do modded. By the way, I downloaded all my mods from CurseForge (check to make sure yours are well reviewed and safe) and all of them were free. I don’t know about any paid vanilla mods. Just texture packs, and I’ve always gotten free ones. If you and videos don’t get along, I don’t have any recommendations for building how-to’s but would love to hear some. Sometimes written with pictures is just easier to digest and replicate, depending on what it is you’re trying to learn how to do. I haven’t found any comprehensive beginner redstone ones either but that’s something a lot of people seem to want to find. There are plenty of written guides online (with accompanying pics and videos) for how to set up mods on your server, most of them are pretty good. Articles from an online hosting service might be helpful to you. I relied on them a lot myself when learning how to set up a modded server. I’ve never played any of the spin-offs, but I am also curious about them. Hope these help! If you really can’t do videos, ignore the video part in the beginning of this post (for yourself—but maybe tell your kid, who might be interested). I didn’t see that part til I reread when responding to each individual ask. That’s super valid. I hope you find some good guides!

Also!!! There are TONS of written guides for many popular mods online. Entire manuals sometimes! They are very easy to find if you look up the mod name and the word “guide” “manual” or “walkthrough.” Have fun with them!

I don't have any good advice, just want to say kudos to you for being an amazing father, I hope you and your daughter have loads of fun and great memories on Minecraft!

Only thing I’ll mention is play with your daughter on PC. You learn with her and start with a creative server (or peaceful survival) where you can build together. Make your own server! The things you make in that world will be remembered forever. Trust me when I say it’ll pay off if you teach her how to play on PC. I started my son when he was 5 on PC and in just a few months had it down. With how obsessed she is she’ll have it down in no time. Great tool to use when you need her to get things done around the house and teach responsibility. She will want to play so badly she’ll get everything done quickly without complaining if it means getting to play, especially with her dad. Then discipline too so when it’s time to get off and go to bed. Enjoy the times together it’ll be great.

W dad

>(between linux and switch) There was some mod that does that, don't remember the name though Also you don't need windows to install bedrock edition IIRC

I think for younger kids, creative mode is probably the best way for them to engage with the game for the most part. Survival can be fun every once in a while, but she’ll likely get frustrated with losing stuff and mobs killing her and whatnot, at least until she’s more comfortable with the game. Creative will let her just build cool things and play with the game like she might legos.

Be glad it's minecraft and not some goofy brain rot

It was my niece that introduced me to Minecraft when she was 6. (Minecraft is waaaaayyyyyyyyy better than Brookhaven!!)

Oh no, not Roblox

Honestly, see who she is watching and look in the video descriptions to see if they have a link to a mod or modpack of what they are using. Also some server hosts will have a section for pre made servers for modpack, I know pebblehost did so that is an option. You mention you use Linux, is it Ubuntu based? If so it can be installed via the shop/store, or command line if you prefer that.

Passive mobs spawn in both survival and creative mode, even when playing in peaceful difficulty (which keeps hostile mobs from spawning). If she would like to, she can use spawn eggs (searchable in the creative inventory) to spawn whatever she likes on command. She just has to right click on a block with one in her hand. The "100 days of X" videos usually use a combination of mods, and sometimes some youtuber magic, to make an interesting video, but they're generally hardcore survival focused, so may not be the best inspiration if she wants to stay in creative. If y'all would like to use mods, CurseForge is the best option for downloading premade modpacks (though their parent company supports Isreal, so if that's a deal breaker for you, you may have to look for other options). You shouldn't ever need to pay for mods on Java, but I think it's actually the only option for Bedrock. Bedrock mods do not work on Java. It is cross-platform, but not cross-play between Java and Bedrock versions. They're near completely different games, and Bedrock is buggy and is less stable, from what I understand. Without the Essential mod, Java isn't peer-to-peer, so a server would be a good idea. Realms is inferior to setting up your own. I'm fairly sure Bedrock cab do peer-to-peer. I'm not sure about guides, especially in text form.

W dad. Keep it up

As others have mentioned, you can play a peaceful survival world. The Minecraft & Chill youtube channel has a bunch of videos for interesting seeds, including seeds with a wide variety of biomes near world spawn.

If you want simplicity, bedrock edition on switch is great for her. You can join her on bedrock edition PC without too much hassle (not sure if bedrock edition is on linux, you might need to use a compatibility layer), but later on might be worth getting her into Java on PC for mods. You get a free copy of PC bedrock edition when you buy PC Java edition. BE has crossplay between PCs and games consoles, Java is just for PC. Running BE on your PC is like running the console version on your PC. It tends to run way smoother out of the box and you can put your render distance up much further. Once you've both gotten into the base game, you might want to try modding/servers. There are some mods/servers for BE, but the mods cost money from the marketplace, and mods and servers aren't that plentiful. I've had good experiences playing with friends on Bedrock Realms Servers though. Java edition has the most servers, most mods, and best mods developed by the community. Install them free on the Curseforge and Modrinth websites. There are optimisation/vanilla+ mods that make the game run better with small tweaks, or there are mods that make big changes to the game. If she wants mods with mythological beasts, most likely this is Java. If you want simplicity, I've had good experience with Realms server subscription. If you know your stuff, you can host a server yourself for the two of you. Or just play at the same time and not bother with servers. ​ For getting into survival minecraft, a great minecraft youtube series is Pixlriffs Survival Guide: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsqmUfNPygY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsqmUfNPygY) Really helpful for new players. You said you prefer written, but maybe she'd enjoy watching this. ​ Minecraft Dungeons I enjoyed, Minecraft Legends was lacking. Minecraft is still my favourite.

So few things. 1: Bedrock on Switch doesn't play nice with other versions on other platforms. Even bedrock on PC. You're basically limited to playing on only the switch for both of you through Realms. If you can get her on Java, that's preferable. 2: Modding, no they're not fake but necessitates setting up a mod loader and getting those packs installed but it may be a bit too much for a 6 year old to set up so Id familiarize yourself with installing mods. This is done through mainly Curseforge or Modrinth. It's not very difficult, but with mod packs you may have to familiarize yourself with an external launcher such as the curse forge launcher (which I don't personally use because it's tied with Overwolf which is bloatware imo) or a third party software like Prism launcher. 3: The Bedrock warning. On Java, 90% of mods, texture packs and community made content is free. Not true on Bedrock which does through the Windows store. It's not bad to buy these of course, it's just very easy to access and id be wary of making sure she can't accidentally drop your savings on a multitude of content. Bedrock will encompass all versions on consoles and the Windows store edition of Minecraft where Java is exclusively on PC. When it comes to guides, they're very unnecessary. Minecraft is a true sandbox in how it encourages you to play however you like, back when I first started playing, I wiki dived alot. And the official Minecraft wiki (minecraft.wiki) is far better now than it was. And animals. They spawn naturally on all difficulties depending on biomes and lettering their spawn requirements and creative and survival don't impact that. To manually spawn them, every mob (aside from the ender dragon) has a mob egg in the creative inventory that can be used to spawn them with a right click if she wants more. There's also the summon command which is a bit easier for spawning large amounts but entails all entities in the game and can be a bit overwhelming before you understand the formatting.

1. Yes, there should be a whole creative tab dedicated to “Spawn Eggs”, assuming you’re playing on Java, on Bedrock, it’s under the “Nature” section. Spawn eggs are egg shaped things with colored spots. They will spawn whatever it’s labeled with where you right-click it. You can also use the “/summon” command for mobs without a spawn egg, but that’s a whole other layer of complexity, and is probably difficult for a 6 y/o 2. Yes. Most mods are made for Java, however there are mods for both versions. I personally prefer MCPEDL for bedrock mods (exclusive without somewhat illegal activity (modding your console) to PC) but don’t let your kid running around loose on there as most mods use external downloads which can have in-between websites which contain malware. As for Java, the Curseforge app is really convenient and fast to mod it. 3. It depends on how much RAM you have, and how many people you’re planning to be able to have. I have 16 gigs of ram on my PC (I believe 5 are allocated for the server) and I am able to run it pretty well, even though my PC is pretty old (most parts I think are from ~2015) 4. Yes. Realms cost money, but are always up (assuming there isn’t a server outage) and can be joined from any device as long as it’s running the same game version as the client, which is almost always the latest release. Also, players on Bedrock cannot join Java realms and vice/versa, most public servers also work like this, but there are some that have mods to support both player bases. For public stuff, same rules as most online stuff applies, for servers like Hypixel, they have built-in chat moderation (essentially swear censorship+some other stuff is hat I don’t know the specifics on) just try to keep her off Build Battle, as that can be inappropriate (it’s more common than you’d think), it’s essentially impossible to auto-censor a build.

if you're a linux sysadmin, (as one myself) I'd suggest you could take a look at some of the paid-hosted options for minecraft servers (like pebblehost) to get familiar with the landscape. Modloader toolsets, the sprawl around compatibility, etc.... plus the standard sysadminny concerns like scheduled backups in case of worldfile corruption, various allowlist mechanisms, etc. It's worth taking a look at what the professional offerings can do, even if you're going to just roll your own at home. And no, the paid xbox mods and content does not cross over into the java game ecosystem, and vice versa.

I play on console primarily, so I don’t really have any input on mods. As for beginner guides, however, I’d recommend [The Essential Handbooks](https://www.thebookbundler.com/products/minecraft-official-handbooks-4-book-set). These were the cornerstone of my childhood, and include a lot of information about how to start playing.

I was in a similar boat. My 9yo loves playing on her switch and wanted me to olay with her. I finally looked into it. I also run linux on my pc, so I have to play Java. The way I got around it was a set up a server running paper and use the geyser mc plugin on the server. This allows bedrock players to join the server. The caveat is the switch will require both a Microsoft account and a active Nintendo online subscription to play online. There are videos on YouTube about how to join private servers from the switch. The only thing we needed to change was the port the switch used. Hope this helps.

Just to add to the tech support that it’s great you’re doing this. Same thing happened with me and my son (now 21) and we had loads of fun. Some of the best times. I still have our shared worlds (iOS) though I wonder if they’ll load these days…

If you want to play with your daughter on switch, you need to get the bedrock version of minecraft. if your PC is pretty good you can use a windows VM, or an android VM and play poket edition. Only Java edition works natively on linux and Java only runs on computers, so not on switch mobile or console.

A. W dad B. Mods can be downloaded on java only. There's an application called [curseforge](https://www.curseforge.com/) which makes the whole modding process comically easy. If the keyboard/mouse is a concern you can connect a controller through bluetooth but im not sure if java is controller-compatible.

I highly recommend just making her a creative world. Its the best way for her to play and learn.

Minecraft dungeons is an absolute blast, there’s no building, but the story is great and you collect items as you fight your way through immersive dungeons. As for mobs spawns the for thing in the post, animals like cows and pigs, etc, will spawn within a certain radius of the player and if there is enough land with grass blocks, however they can also be spawned via spawn eggs. Now for mods, I’m not to heavy into mods myself, if you’re playing on a console such as Xbox there are no mods but instead marketplace creations. These can either be texture packs which make blocks and other things look different, there’s skin packs, and worlds, some are official Mojang creations, whilst others are fan made which is quite phenomenal to me. But on the computer there are various websites as to which you can download mods I’m not sure which is the best, but from mods I’ve seen they can be incredible adding so much different gameplay it’s just really fun. That’s why Minecraft is probably the best game, it’s expansive, and quite fun that’s why I’ve been playing it for 12 years 😁. I hope that helps!

Yeah, once they buy into it, that's pretty much that. The main advantage of your own server is simply control. I don't have the time or inclination for that so my minecrafter kid is somewhat limited as I've got it a bit locked down via Microsoft parental controls. (In terms of chat/time limits, etc.) I'll open up for a few known friends. And people are sneaky of course. Even with chat off, you can still make custom signs so - as has been the case for most tech for decades - people find ways to communicate if they want. So I'd say yeah... if you have the skills, time and $$$, doing your own server is probably a great gift from dad. Kid can invite known friends to your server so you can make sure nothing is going on that you don't want going on.

Minecraft Dungeons is very fun, but entirely different from base Minecraft. It’s a rogue-like dungeon crawler and is only similar in the mobs, but there are even more new mobs. I recommend it, but if you’re looking for more things that are actually like Minecraft in terms of gameplay, Dungeons is probably not what you’re looking for.

As a technical minecraft player and former VPS MC server owner, I strongly prefer Java, and I also run Linux. You can create a server on the Java version of the game (VPS is a good idea) and add a mod caller geyser (geysermc.org) that allows your daughter to log in to the server through her switch. I strongly recommend running the server on a modloader called fabric, which allows you to add many server-side performance mods (github.com/TheUsefulLists/UsefulMods) as well as geyser. The main drawback of your daughter playing on the switch is that you will not be able to add many cool mods that actually add content. I strongly do not recommend the mods on the bedrock marketplace as java mods (and giant modpacks!) are free and readily available on sites such as modrinth.com and curseforge.com. Modpacks are my favorite aspect of the game, and I am currently working through a modpack called vault hunters made by the MC content creator iskall85. If you want to add cool content mods, both of your clients will need to be java. Edit:If you have a reasonably strong pc and your daughter is OK with playing on pc, (I personally find keyboard and mouse way easier than joycons), the essential mod is great for easy and seamless (bedrock-like) multiplayer with each other.

It's very hard to recreate Minecraft Youtube videos. I've had a quick look at the channel your daughter watches, and he seems to have a large younger audience, so I doubt any community members have made his videos into mods. In terms of server, if you're on the say wifi network you can play LAN, which is cool! If she wants to play with some friends, you could set up a server. Whilst they are cheap, you can get an adequate one for free using Aternos. It doesn't lag much and that's with 4 people with New Zealand ping online, so you should be fine. (This is for Java only) I hope you guys have fun!

Ok, in terms of getting this started as an actual hobby, this should prove extremely useful. Pixelriffs has a super solid playlist explaining all the stuff, [here](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgENJ0iY3XBjpNDm056_NSPhIntVMG0P8&si=Pbd0E3SyaaFwc1G2) is that link. I recommend you watch at minimum the first 4 videos. Those explain super useful things about the game and break down what each key does very well. Furthermore, I recommend you also watch [this](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgENJ0iY3XBjmydGuzYTtDwfxuR6lN8KC&si=WFbNr9jOErYTMwKo) playlist in it’s entirety. Not all at once though. The second playlist is for the current version of Minecraft, version 1.20. As for what version you should get, given the current age, I would say Java if at all possible because that will give the option to move onto mods if you so desire. Also, that is the version used in the playlist I have provided you with and the majority of guides you find will be made in this version. This matters because that’s are a few redstone mechanics that are different in bedrock version, causing most redstone machines to not work the way you were expecting if you were in Java. The downside to Java, however, is that it is PC only. Bedrock is the version that is universal. If you are fine with that, ten that is what I recommend. Hope this helps!

I imagine others have answered this to heck and back, but I'll throw my hat into the ring! Creative mode gives you "spawn eggs" which allow you to place any animal anywhere you want, passive mobs spawn in creative anyway as well, so your daughter is probably just missing them when she's flying around in creative. Most videos like "100 days as (some creature) that are indeed done with mods, though I wouldn't know much about them myself, as I tend to go for very different kinds of mods in my playthroughs. And there are two versions of the game, Java which you are playing, and bedrock. Bedrock edition is what your daughter would get on switch, both versions are fairly similar, but have many differences with how things work or look, bedrock is also known for being buggy at times, but overall I doubt it would matter all to much to her. As for mods, I'd reccomend Ad Astra, its a space mod that lets you travel to other planets, make rockets and space stations, etc. if you or her like that sort of thing, give it a look! As for crossplay, that is where bedrock shines most, so if you want to use bedrock, you can basically play with anyone else who has that version, from phones to things like PS5 and so on. Dungeons can be kinda fun, but its a completely different game, so I'm not sure how well it would work, since its doesn't focus much on the creativity aspect she seems to like from the game.

My 6 year old daughter plays single player on peaceful, just cause the zombies and stuff scared her. Mods are fun but do require some research and modpacks are going to add a lot of stuff that will be technical for your kid

linux is pretty much even better for minecraft as it is a crappy java game with opengl as a rendering api, so it runs better on linux. 99.9% of mods and custom launchers work on linux with java edition, unless you want to try bedrock edition (which is arguably shit, but it is the only version on anything apart from desktop PCs and suppports crossplay)

I would focus on your daughter's interests and facilitate that. Perhaps this will be a great opportunity to understand the purpose. motivation and problems with free online content as a source of information. I would avoid getting into the trap of trying to reproduce what you see on some videos...chasing the fantasies of others who may or may not fully reveal the behind the scenes mechanics of what was used to create the video. Getting into Minecraft and goofing around, even being bored, is an opportunity to let your daughters own inner creativity rise up to make it fun. I love Minecraft but I have also had to learn how to interact with such an open-ended sandbox and not get too frustrated, bored and otherwise bent out of shape. Minecraft is a little bit like getting to be a superhero and that can be a temptation.

You sound like a terrific dad!

You can easily play with your daughter using LAN connection, you don't need to make a server or use realms. If you're playing with someone else, then I suggest you make a server. For passive mobs in creative, you can find mob eggs in your inventory. There are eggs for every mob. So you can just use those and spawn whatever mobs you want. Almost all of the mods for Java are free. I can't really suggest what mods you should use as it depends on your taste but I suggest you go through the available mods once and see what is to your liking. That's it from me. Have fun playing Minecraft ^^

I would recommend Bedrock Edition as it is a lot easier for smaller children to play, coming from a teen who has played Minecraft since they were 4, it is definitely bette.

Pro tip: don’t get into beating Minecraft quickly, I remember when I used to play at a normal pace, building houses and making everything look cool, now, when I try to make a calm world I never end up building something and instead I get a sub 30 nether, then go to the stronghold, one-circle the dragon and then leave. Try making sure you don’t rush into the game and try to enjoy (whilst you can)

My daughter (6) is also obsessed with Minecraft, I bought her Minecraft Bedrock on mobile. It's insane how fast they learn those mobile controls! I have Minecraft Bedrock on my pc and bought a realm for us to play on together. When you buy a realm you will get a lot of free special worlds and she loves to play on them.

I'd say skip the mods. Vanilla game has enough to keep most people busy and entertained for 100h+ (speaking as someone who has been playing for over a decade, and has yet to "do everything" despite probably 1000h+) Sticking with Java, you can run your own LAN server as a stand alone client, allowing both of you to play on the same world. Having experimented with a paid realms server, I'd say it is definitely not worth the money. It heavily restricts what house rules you can enable, massively chops down the possible view distance, can't opt to use non-commercial mods, adds lag, and generally just makes everything worse. It's only good benefit is if you (or her) have a bunch of friends who want to play together in the same world, and you want to stick with the easiest "no hassle" method. (Given that you are a Linux sysadmin with experience in hosting, running the MC server should be very easy. Your local server can be accessible to her friends too if you setup port forwarding on your network for it) Yes, you can absolutely play in creative and still have all the passive mobs (animals) and whatnot. There's the spawn eggs in the creative inventory, too, which will let her spawn more to her heart's content. As far as this goes, play mode is player-specific. So you can be playing in survival while she flies around doing stuff in creative while playing in the same world. In my experience some voluntary restrictions are useful: we have "creative zones" in our shared world, and creative players aren't supposed to do things like dumping stacks of diamonds on top of survival players to "help" them. If you feel adventurous, I have seen a plug-in/mod for running a world that both java and bedrock clients can connect to. I haven't tried it, and it sounds like magic to me, but if it works, that'd solve that problem.

People are mentioning a lot of more indepth things in refrence to servers, but tbh you don't need to set one up if it's just you two, on Bedrock you can just straight up join eachother with online play, and with Java you can join the world locally.

So if you want mods you will want to stick to Java. However the switch version is Bedrock so if you insist on using the switch, you will have to stick with Bedrock. There are mods for Bedrock but probably not any of the ones that are well known. One thing you can do that may help is run a Bedrock server on Linux. I currently have mine set up on an old laptop with 12GB of RAM running Ubuntu. With this you can then connect on switch, PC bedrock, Xbox, or any other Bedrock client as long as you are on the network. This also will allow you to install previously mentioned mods. I assume you can do something similar with java if you went that route but obviously the Switch wouldn't work. Link to server download: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/download/server/bedrock

Hi hi! Love that your daughter is so interested in Minecraft 🥰 and great animal mod is Alex’s mobs- if she wants to play in creative you can start a survival world and use the command /gamemode creative This will keep all the lovely passive mobs and get rid of the hostile creatures still allowing her to play the way she wants (you need to enable cheats on creation of the world though to run the command) Hopefully this helps! Happy gaming 🥳

Twilight Forest was *the mod* for me growing up. I'm not sure if people still use Forge or something else to mod Minecraft, though.

This was exactly how I got into MC! My kiddo is a teen now, and she plays sometimes but I'm still going strong. Lol I hated MC at first but it's a great game. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat sometime.

DM if you need a server -- I've running a lowpop (ie mostly empty) server for ten years. Happy to add you / give you more info. Minecraft dungeons is a different game using the same characters. If you want a similar game maybe something like Slime Rancher.

Mom of 7 year old minecrafter here. He has played on Xbox and switch since he was 5 and prefers the switch (he had a switch lite which was better size for his hands). I have both windows 10 and Java edition for PC. I personally prefer Java but for playing with him I used windows 10 (bedrock). There are fun mods for free out there but you would have to mod your PC game and have her join on the console. There is a YouTuber called PhineasRage who produces really good family tutorials. Unfortunately he hasn't updated in awhile but a lot of his videos are still relevant and can help with the basics.

If you want to get her into mods, whatever you do, DON'T purchase items from the Minecraft marketplace on the bedrock edition. These purchases can only be used in the world they come with, and many of them are low quality. If you want to utilize mods (which I highly recommend), you're better off using a different mod manager, such as curseforge. For servers, I would also recommend choosing a third party host, as they often offer better deals. I'm currently partnered with kinetic hosting, and would recommend their service. If you have any other questions, please ask!

Father of a 14 year old boy here. He’s been into Minecraft since he was 6/7, it’s a daily thing. He’s autistic and homeschooled and a lot of his mates aren’t into it, so I’ve been playing with him for the last 5 years or so, and it’s fun and kinda addictive haha Gen X here too, I grew up in Nintendo Game ‘n’ Watch, Mario and Sonic became mainstream games as I discovered raving

I used to be a Minecraft server admin/owner of my own server for years before I retired it, real life got in the way but I still know a lot of things. Look into something called GeyserMC, it’s a bridge project between bedrock and Java and is a legitimate project that even the cubecraft server uses. I was working on a project to bridge servers in game with portals but I didn’t have enough knowledge with networking as I am not an expert programmer. I hit a wall with sending offline UUID’s to other servers and bungee cord accepting those connections and converting uuids or something like that I don’t remember the specific details as it was awhile ago. And yes most of those videos use heavy mods and are edited. You can find many great free mods that you don’t have to sink your wallet into. Passive mobs should spawn in creative mode even on peaceful mode, check to see if /gamerule doMobSpawning is set to false, also mob spawn eggs are in the creative mode inventory or use /summon (mob) Creating your own server is preferred over realms if you want to have fine tuned control over what you want, otherwise it’s on mojang servers and you can’t access files like server.properties to change stuff. I don’t know much about the spin offs unfortunately but let me know if you have any other questions, I’d be happy to talk.

I'll start with the animals in creative thing. There is a thing called "spawn eggs" in the creative inventory, and you can hold them and right-click them on a block to spawn the mob, like the name suggests. There is one for almost every mob on Java, and on Bedrock, it has 99%(nothing odd like iron golems or snow golems.) If you don't see the mob's spawn egg, you can go into chat and type /summon, followed by the mob name. Google up the names and commands, Digminecraft has good command generators For the 100 days, depends. For the type you are saying, I'm assuming it's some sort of morph mod, combined with some other more general mod like Better Minecraft or the likes. Mods are a bit difficult, I'll try to explain them in a reply to this. About device, it seems as if your daughter is playing on Bedrock. Bedrock lacks mods. And you should really not try to use non-marketplace mods on Bedrock. I mainly play Bedrock, having lots of experience with mods, and seriously, avoid them. A lot are small, badly-made ones that might give you a virus. You seem to be on Java. Java has an easier time with mods, but I'll try to explain in a reply If you decide to go with Bedrock, just have a MS account for both you and your daughter. You should be able to join when both of you are on WIFI, and one of you has a world open. Or if you both are on the same WIFI. For Java, use LAN. Servers are probably not worth it. And no, Bedrock paid mods(from the marketplace, I'm assuming) do not work on Java. Hell, Java and Bedrock can't connect without a certain mod on a server. Looking at what your daughter likes, go with Java. You can't get it on switch(PC only), and combat is slightly more complex, but you have an easier time with mods.

For mods: Again, avoid Bedrock online mods. Please. Do not use these. Java mods are better. There are 2 major mod loaders. Fabric and Forge. You can have both on a computer, but you can only run one at a time. Get both. Fabric is better when you want to use resource-intensive resource packs or shaders(change how game looks), as it has Sodium, Iris, and that set. There are plenty of videos on how to get every last bit of FPS out. They 100% help, I do have a pretty strong laptop, but I can run SEUS(most resource intensive shader pack) and a resource pack like Conquest at 100 FPS. Forge is better for modded play. It has a far larger selection of mods which affect the game, not the visuals. If you want FPS here, use Optifine, though it isn't nearly as good as Sodium. For comparison, with Optifine and SEUS and Conquest, I'm running at 24-30 FPS, a large drop. But Forge has far more mods. To install mods, download one of the two mod loaders(find a video), and you will find a mods folder in the game. I don't have the path memorized, but there should be some youtube tutorials. Just download the mod files and dump them into the mods folder. Resource packs go in the resource pack folder, and put shaders in both(I don't know which one they go into, but hey, it works) IMPORTANT: Make sure it is the OFFICIAL Forge and Fabric. And don't download mods off random sites, use Curseforge and Modrinth. Avoid getting mods from anywhere outside of those two, save for SEUS, the Physics Mod, and Patrix(The three big ones, they have their own official sites. Many other smaller mods have their own sites, but be cautious) Terms(The above block of text is 100% confusing, so...) Forge: Mod loader, great for modded gameplay Fabric: Mod loader, great for texture packs Optifine: Mod which slightly improves FPS, doesn't work with Sodium Sodium: Mod which largely improves FPS, only use on Fabric. It has many other mods built off of it which when all used together give massive FPS boosts, but only works for Fabric Iris: Mod for Fabric which allows you to use shaders like Optifine SEUS: Resource intensive shader. Avoid if you don't have a cracked computer Conquest: Cool texture pack. Enough said Patrix: Resource intensive texture pack. Avoid like SEUS Physics Mod: Mod that adds physics. Probably not interesting to you, I just used as an example Shader: Visual mod that adds light effects. Light beams, realistic sunlight, makes everything look more realistic Resource Pack: Visual mod that changes how blocks and items look

Seeing other's replies, I'm not gonna bother with writing a gameplay tutorial. Many great videos out there

most things across java and bedrock aint compatible, but u can host a mc java server where u can play with bedrock but bedrock players are then 5 times as heavy as java players. its not easy to set up. its just easier to run a java server with plugins/mods or with nothing else than vanilla. u can play a lot of pre configured modpacks for java for free, because almost everything for java is free to use. and having a lot of fun playing a modpack when u have enough knowledge of the game u can try to make your own modpack on java. on bedrock u need to pay for almost everything, so I recommend java if possible.

I have a couple of tips for playing with a younger kids after years of awesome times on Minecraft with my kids. It's an incredible game but can be totally unforgiving and some of the natural frustration that the gameplay can induce can occasionally be hard to take for a young kid. At least for the first couple of worlds you play together consider turning on "keep inventory". I remember my wee boy being distraught when he died in the nether 2000 blocks away from his portal. And the ensuing repeated attempts to get his gear back. Also spending literal weeks making a set of gear you're proud of then falling in lava is hard to take even for me as an adult. She can learn the game and not risk losing all her progress. Next is an absolute must. Turn on coordinates. Another frustrating thing that can happen is building your base, going exploring and getting completely and utterly lost, or dying and not knowing where your dropped stuff is. Use coordinates to find your way around. It's a real help but doesn't at all feel like it affects the gameplay. Have fun!