Foreword (READ THIS)
First off. This guide has been made for normal mode, squads and duo. (Solo is too diffrent). Second, if you are already playing in a p of 4 and win without any issue, this was not made for you. A short, more winfarmer game, while destroying everyone in 3 mins would need a very diffrent guide. This guide wont tell you an exact order of when to buy items. This helps you make informed purchases, and will have reccomendations, but ultimately, it comes down to your exact game state to which item you need the most. And note that this might depend on playstyle, and will contain some biases, though I will try my best to stay objective. With that being said, I hope it helps!
(sidenote: I am still unsure about the two new items, so I will update it with those when I used them more)
BLOCKS
Wool 16x
Cost: 10 iron
Not much to say here. The most basic block. Early I reccomend getting 32x, than later carry around a stack if you can. Ussually not suitible for bed defenses.
Wood 8x
Cost: 15 iron
I see sometimes ppl use it as the first layer of bed defense. It's not suitible for that. Fireballs instantly destory it, and can be mined with hand in reasoneble time too. Use it on the second layer, since it's cheaper than terracotta, and if someone spent all their gold on a pickaxe, they won't have the fireball for it.
I hope I don't have to say, that it's really not suitible for briding. Cost 3x as much as the same amount of wool.
Terracotta 4x
Cost: 5 gold
Explosion immune. If I don't play in a party/don't expect to rush everyone, I always put of one layer of this, since breaking it with bare hands takes 6.25 seconds, so it's really hard to break without a pickaxe, since respawn time is only 5 seconds. To cover your bed, it takes 10 gold. During that time, you can even get 32x wool, and have 10 iron spare.
Using it for bridges is really unsuitable, though it could be justified if you lost your bed, have a ton of spare gold, and you really fear of fireballs. I still don't reccomend it though.
Glass 4x
Cost: 5 iron
Never defend your bed with theese. Wool is cheaper, and better. This has only a single use case. You can put it around totems, and the totems can still work. Sadly it's really fast to break, and I don't see why you would use it, yet I still see it used every once in a while. Remeber, just because it cost's more, that does not makes it better. For those curius, x glass = 4X wool in cost.
Blast Proof Glass 2x
Cost: 6 gold
Don't ever use it for bed defense. Really, dont use it, like, ever. It serves the same reason as normal glass (so totems can see) but this costs an insane amount, and can be breaken really fast without tools too. I guess now your totems will be protected by explosion.... But... this costs more than your totems soo... dont use it!
Enderman builder
Cost: 10 gold
The bane of my existance. One of the worst items in the whole game... I have yet to find a usefull use case for it. What it does is it places a nice looking, long 5 block wide (the sides are one block higher than the middle 3 blocks. But it's really slow. It places wool. Soo... using this, is a terrible idea, yet it is used in 95% of the games I play. First, it's return cost is terrible. (it's around 3x more (compared to wool) if you swich the gold cost to iron, but gold is more valueble so really it can't be compared well). So you create a nice wide bridge, only so now your enemies can charge in all at once, without you being even able to knock them down. The endernan is also slow, and can be downed in a single hit by the enemy, wasting all your gold. You are better of holding sneak and placeing blocks manually than using this.
WEAPONS
Swords
Cost: 10 iron/gold/diamond
I merged the swords into one category. Stone is really cheap, and with sharpness it's pretty good. Iron sword is a really good sword, and will carry you, and while it costs plenty, it's also really powerfull. Diamond swords are allows you to tear trhough enemies really fast, but early on, it doesn't really matters wheter you use diamond or iron.
Note: You should always get sharpness over diamond sword. It really makes me mad seeing my teamate drop their iron sword into the void and just buy a diamond sword.
Bow
Cost: 10 diamonds
Mostly a waste of diamonds. You can get any upgrade or a diamond sword for 10 diamonds, it's really, really overpriced. And you also have to buy arrows for it, it's damage is negatible, and only usefull for a bit of knockback, but it's too slow for that, so really, I don't see a reaon to buy this.
Crossbow
Cost: 20 diamonds
I said the basic bow was overpriced. This costs 2x as much. I really don't have anything to add here sorry, the only use case for this, is you can pre-charge it and than suddenly shoot someone off a bridge, but there are fireballs for that. The fact that both this and the normal bow is lost on death is the final kick into this already dead horse.
Arrows 8x
Cost: 32 iron
Used only for the bow. And also, just like the bow, it's overpriced. 32 iron takes the same time to get as 10 gold. And it's also useless without a bow. I really hope I dont have to say, don't use this. There are sooo many more things you could spend 32 iron on. (see later)
Fireball
Cost: 5 gold
Very usefull. First off, it's fast, and cheap. If someone placed down a wood defense, you can just walk right next to it, throw the fireball, and it's more efficent than the axe. It can be used to throw ppl off the bridges. It can be even used for a fireball jump. Damage wise it's deffinetly not worthwhile, though. I suggest getting a few of theese if you want to rush, it makes your life a lot easier.
For surviving such an attack: Either use explosion immune blocks, or spam wool. If you want to cross an unsafe bridge, than while sprint jumping and spamming block below yourself can greatly improve your odds of survival. Alternatively hold an enderpearl in your hand. Most of my deaths while not having a bed came down to getting fireballed off.
Turret
Cost: 10 gold
A mediocre item. While with skill the skeleton can be ussually evaded, and has a rather bad aim, many players, espesially those on controller, (at least in my experience) find it harder to evade, so if well placed, can doom many players to fall into the void. They cant be placed too close to eachother, you can still fill out your island it with them, which can be annoying the get through, though well geared up players won't find it hard, just annoying. I don't suggest getting more than one or two.
ARMORS
Armor Sets
Cost: 20 iron/gold/iron
Leather provides early advantage over armorless players, but falls of quickly. Chain is somewhat affordeble, but I prefer to skip it, since out of 20 gold I rather get a pickaxe. Iron armor costs 20 diamonds, but is nearly a must have by late game, due to how damage scales/works. All armor is permanent. Though remember, if you don't get hit, you don't need armor (though you are going to get hit, especially in a 1v2+)
Skeleton hat
Cost: 10 gold
Reduces the agro range of skeletons. Not worth it. The reduction is quite small, and the two other hats are far superior. It's also removed on death, so it only creates a money sink. Anti kb hats are much better against skeletons. In fact, using this can even buff them, since the closer you are, the more accurate they get. (or at least the angle in which you knock back is more likely to lead to the void.
Anti-knockback hat
Cost: 20 gold
Reduces knockback taken. I really hope I won't have to explain how good is this, though if you do get comboed, it's much harder to get out of it, or run away, so it's not the best if you are chased. It's a really sharp double edged sword. If you are unsure which hat to get, than get regen hat over this. Or if you got enugh gold, and deathmatch is near, you can get both, and quickswap them in a fight (I reccomend placing it into slot 5 and using a hotkey like side mouse button or Alt, than just right click)
Regen hat
Cost: 20 gold
You can even regen health mid combat. It's really powerfull, though with basic hp regen speed it won't do a lot. Combied with the faster regen upgrade and if you are carefull, you will lose health really slowly. If unsure, get this hat. Sidenote: If you don't have any armor, or only leather, than don't get this hat yet, since it's more valuable in longer fights.
TOOLS
Sheers
Cost: 10 iron
I think the most underrated tool/item. Wools blocks are really common, and sheers mine them fast. It makes wool bed defenses really non-existant, can be even used to spleef ppl (and it happens more than you think), and if someone tries to block your way, than it won't really work. If someone blocks in next to your bed, than it won't matter. It's the cheapest item (tied with blocks), but it's also permanent.
Axe
Cost: 20 iron
Still relativly cheap, but even with an axe, it takes more time to mine the wood with your axe than mining wool with sheers. Against wood, I prefer fireballs. After some testing I realized that my games are not really diffrent when I don't even buy this, while the games were harder without sheers. Than again, it depends on playstyle too.
Pickaxe
Cost: 20 gold
Not cheap, but a must have. Breaking terracotta without this takes 6.25 seconds, and even tnt won't help. With this, it's only 0.5 s. When respawning, I prefer to store my gold for this. As long as the enemies defense is a single layer of terracotta, a pickaxe is often fast enugh, even if there are ppl guarding the island.
MISCELLANEOUS
Enderpearl
Cost: 10 diamonds
Really usefull, though obviusly not before you have any ups or gear. Make sure to always keep it in the same slot, and have a keybind for that slot, since it can save you both from a fight which went wrong, or if you fell off. I actually reccomend even practicing this. If you have two or more, you can safely pearl in to an enemy base, break there bed, and get out, alive. (mostly usefull if you already lost your bed)
Golden apple
Cost: 32 iron
Not that helpfull in a fight, but can help to gain those extra hearts before some harder fight. I often get some, but than never use them. They aren't the cheapest, but later on, you will have a bit more iron than needed. Keeping a few can always help.
TNT
Cost: 10 gold
Insanely usefull, both in fight, and when breaking beds. While I prefer fireballs for breaking the said bed's defense, this is still really good for that. It can one shot any player at point blank range, and even better, you are immune to your own/teamate's tnts. If low on health, drop one at your feet, and let your regen hat heal you. Not mandatory, but really helpfull later on. It isn't cheap though. Get some before deathmatch.
Milk bucket
Cost: 10 diamonds
Removes some nasty effects. Sadly drinking it mid fight is really... not ideal. I dont use it a lot, and most of the effects are manageble, but keeping one backup could help. I really can't say a lot about this.
Regen Totem
Cost: 10 gold
Applies regen to friendly players. Must have a line of sight. This+regen hat+faster regen and you are near immortal. Sadly it can be destroyed quite fast, since it's an entity. I prefer tnt over this, since this totem has a small range, so they can just combo you out of it's radius. You can't really "guard" it like debuff totems, since guarding it means being at full hp/activly comboing someone (eg not getting hit), and if you start getting comboed you are out of radius, so I find it less usefull than the same cost tnt.
Blindness totem
Cost: 10 diamonds
Applies blindness to enemy players. Must have a line of sight. Blindness is a nasty status effect. Placing this on your island, on a hard to reach position vastly improves your defences. Can also be placed down quickly mid fight. While not cheap, it's one of those items which, depending on your game, can be used. Though in most games, you wont have enugh diamonds to get all ups+this+armor+sword, and this is the least important out of theese items.
Mining fatigue totem
Cost: 20 gold
Applies mining fatigue to enemy players. Must have line of sight. A powerfull effect, if you can find a good placemnt, but sadly it costs too much to be worthwhile. This totem has no value though if your bed defense if already good enugh so it can't be blitzed, you dont have a bed, or are about to enter into deathmatch. And early on, it costs way too much to be used. Has some use cases at least.
Compass
Cost: 32 iron
Now this is often looked over. First off, it is the only permanent misc item. It tracks the closes enemy player. Its more helpfull than it first looks. You dont have to constantly go into f5 to check behind yourself, you wont be surprised when that guy with an iron sword jumps suddenly before you, and even better, it atuo aims, and emits a sound effect when the player changes. It also shows their name. Too pricy to get super early on, it can help by midgame more than one thinks! And if someone is playing hide and seek in deathmatch, than you no longer will lose due to running out of time and draw the game.
Return home scroll
Cost: 32 iron
When held, and used, return to your base in 5 seconds. You can't move during this. Still really helpfull. You can sit at mid on the diamond generator, and go home without delay, or if you run out of blocks, this provides a way out. Remeber how breaking terracotta with bare hands is 6.25s? If you use this as soon as the enemy approaching shows up, you can still save your bed. A more niche, but still relevant use case, if someone camps on your base (when it no longer has a bed) you can ambush them.
And thats it for now! I plan to add all ups too, and maybe even some more general advice. I am open to critque/advice/feedback (and I welcome it), though I would ask you the WHY part (by that I mean dont just say I am stupid, but say I am stupid because of x, which works with y like this), and also remember the ppl it is made for. This is all subjective in a way, so keep that in mind. I hope it helps to at least someone. I will add the two new items later on, and try to improve it in general.
First off. This guide has been made for normal mode, squads and duo. (Solo is too diffrent). Second, if you are already playing in a p of 4 and win without any issue, this was not made for you. A short, more winfarmer game, while destroying everyone in 3 mins would need a very diffrent guide. This guide wont tell you an exact order of when to buy items. This helps you make informed purchases, and will have reccomendations, but ultimately, it comes down to your exact game state to which item you need the most. And note that this might depend on playstyle, and will contain some biases, though I will try my best to stay objective. With that being said, I hope it helps!
(sidenote: I am still unsure about the two new items, so I will update it with those when I used them more)
BLOCKS
Wool 16x
Cost: 10 iron
Not much to say here. The most basic block. Early I reccomend getting 32x, than later carry around a stack if you can. Ussually not suitible for bed defenses.
Wood 8x
Cost: 15 iron
I see sometimes ppl use it as the first layer of bed defense. It's not suitible for that. Fireballs instantly destory it, and can be mined with hand in reasoneble time too. Use it on the second layer, since it's cheaper than terracotta, and if someone spent all their gold on a pickaxe, they won't have the fireball for it.
I hope I don't have to say, that it's really not suitible for briding. Cost 3x as much as the same amount of wool.
Terracotta 4x
Cost: 5 gold
Explosion immune. If I don't play in a party/don't expect to rush everyone, I always put of one layer of this, since breaking it with bare hands takes 6.25 seconds, so it's really hard to break without a pickaxe, since respawn time is only 5 seconds. To cover your bed, it takes 10 gold. During that time, you can even get 32x wool, and have 10 iron spare.
Using it for bridges is really unsuitable, though it could be justified if you lost your bed, have a ton of spare gold, and you really fear of fireballs. I still don't reccomend it though.
Glass 4x
Cost: 5 iron
Never defend your bed with theese. Wool is cheaper, and better. This has only a single use case. You can put it around totems, and the totems can still work. Sadly it's really fast to break, and I don't see why you would use it, yet I still see it used every once in a while. Remeber, just because it cost's more, that does not makes it better. For those curius, x glass = 4X wool in cost.
Blast Proof Glass 2x
Cost: 6 gold
Don't ever use it for bed defense. Really, dont use it, like, ever. It serves the same reason as normal glass (so totems can see) but this costs an insane amount, and can be breaken really fast without tools too. I guess now your totems will be protected by explosion.... But... this costs more than your totems soo... dont use it!
Enderman builder
Cost: 10 gold
The bane of my existance. One of the worst items in the whole game... I have yet to find a usefull use case for it. What it does is it places a nice looking, long 5 block wide (the sides are one block higher than the middle 3 blocks. But it's really slow. It places wool. Soo... using this, is a terrible idea, yet it is used in 95% of the games I play. First, it's return cost is terrible. (it's around 3x more (compared to wool) if you swich the gold cost to iron, but gold is more valueble so really it can't be compared well). So you create a nice wide bridge, only so now your enemies can charge in all at once, without you being even able to knock them down. The endernan is also slow, and can be downed in a single hit by the enemy, wasting all your gold. You are better of holding sneak and placeing blocks manually than using this.
WEAPONS
Swords
Cost: 10 iron/gold/diamond
I merged the swords into one category. Stone is really cheap, and with sharpness it's pretty good. Iron sword is a really good sword, and will carry you, and while it costs plenty, it's also really powerfull. Diamond swords are allows you to tear trhough enemies really fast, but early on, it doesn't really matters wheter you use diamond or iron.
Note: You should always get sharpness over diamond sword. It really makes me mad seeing my teamate drop their iron sword into the void and just buy a diamond sword.
Bow
Cost: 10 diamonds
Mostly a waste of diamonds. You can get any upgrade or a diamond sword for 10 diamonds, it's really, really overpriced. And you also have to buy arrows for it, it's damage is negatible, and only usefull for a bit of knockback, but it's too slow for that, so really, I don't see a reaon to buy this.
Crossbow
Cost: 20 diamonds
I said the basic bow was overpriced. This costs 2x as much. I really don't have anything to add here sorry, the only use case for this, is you can pre-charge it and than suddenly shoot someone off a bridge, but there are fireballs for that. The fact that both this and the normal bow is lost on death is the final kick into this already dead horse.
Arrows 8x
Cost: 32 iron
Used only for the bow. And also, just like the bow, it's overpriced. 32 iron takes the same time to get as 10 gold. And it's also useless without a bow. I really hope I dont have to say, don't use this. There are sooo many more things you could spend 32 iron on. (see later)
Fireball
Cost: 5 gold
Very usefull. First off, it's fast, and cheap. If someone placed down a wood defense, you can just walk right next to it, throw the fireball, and it's more efficent than the axe. It can be used to throw ppl off the bridges. It can be even used for a fireball jump. Damage wise it's deffinetly not worthwhile, though. I suggest getting a few of theese if you want to rush, it makes your life a lot easier.
For surviving such an attack: Either use explosion immune blocks, or spam wool. If you want to cross an unsafe bridge, than while sprint jumping and spamming block below yourself can greatly improve your odds of survival. Alternatively hold an enderpearl in your hand. Most of my deaths while not having a bed came down to getting fireballed off.
Turret
Cost: 10 gold
A mediocre item. While with skill the skeleton can be ussually evaded, and has a rather bad aim, many players, espesially those on controller, (at least in my experience) find it harder to evade, so if well placed, can doom many players to fall into the void. They cant be placed too close to eachother, you can still fill out your island it with them, which can be annoying the get through, though well geared up players won't find it hard, just annoying. I don't suggest getting more than one or two.
ARMORS
Armor Sets
Cost: 20 iron/gold/iron
Leather provides early advantage over armorless players, but falls of quickly. Chain is somewhat affordeble, but I prefer to skip it, since out of 20 gold I rather get a pickaxe. Iron armor costs 20 diamonds, but is nearly a must have by late game, due to how damage scales/works. All armor is permanent. Though remember, if you don't get hit, you don't need armor (though you are going to get hit, especially in a 1v2+)
Skeleton hat
Cost: 10 gold
Reduces the agro range of skeletons. Not worth it. The reduction is quite small, and the two other hats are far superior. It's also removed on death, so it only creates a money sink. Anti kb hats are much better against skeletons. In fact, using this can even buff them, since the closer you are, the more accurate they get. (or at least the angle in which you knock back is more likely to lead to the void.
Anti-knockback hat
Cost: 20 gold
Reduces knockback taken. I really hope I won't have to explain how good is this, though if you do get comboed, it's much harder to get out of it, or run away, so it's not the best if you are chased. It's a really sharp double edged sword. If you are unsure which hat to get, than get regen hat over this. Or if you got enugh gold, and deathmatch is near, you can get both, and quickswap them in a fight (I reccomend placing it into slot 5 and using a hotkey like side mouse button or Alt, than just right click)
Regen hat
Cost: 20 gold
You can even regen health mid combat. It's really powerfull, though with basic hp regen speed it won't do a lot. Combied with the faster regen upgrade and if you are carefull, you will lose health really slowly. If unsure, get this hat. Sidenote: If you don't have any armor, or only leather, than don't get this hat yet, since it's more valuable in longer fights.
TOOLS
Sheers
Cost: 10 iron
I think the most underrated tool/item. Wools blocks are really common, and sheers mine them fast. It makes wool bed defenses really non-existant, can be even used to spleef ppl (and it happens more than you think), and if someone tries to block your way, than it won't really work. If someone blocks in next to your bed, than it won't matter. It's the cheapest item (tied with blocks), but it's also permanent.
Axe
Cost: 20 iron
Still relativly cheap, but even with an axe, it takes more time to mine the wood with your axe than mining wool with sheers. Against wood, I prefer fireballs. After some testing I realized that my games are not really diffrent when I don't even buy this, while the games were harder without sheers. Than again, it depends on playstyle too.
Pickaxe
Cost: 20 gold
Not cheap, but a must have. Breaking terracotta without this takes 6.25 seconds, and even tnt won't help. With this, it's only 0.5 s. When respawning, I prefer to store my gold for this. As long as the enemies defense is a single layer of terracotta, a pickaxe is often fast enugh, even if there are ppl guarding the island.
MISCELLANEOUS
Enderpearl
Cost: 10 diamonds
Really usefull, though obviusly not before you have any ups or gear. Make sure to always keep it in the same slot, and have a keybind for that slot, since it can save you both from a fight which went wrong, or if you fell off. I actually reccomend even practicing this. If you have two or more, you can safely pearl in to an enemy base, break there bed, and get out, alive. (mostly usefull if you already lost your bed)
Golden apple
Cost: 32 iron
Not that helpfull in a fight, but can help to gain those extra hearts before some harder fight. I often get some, but than never use them. They aren't the cheapest, but later on, you will have a bit more iron than needed. Keeping a few can always help.
TNT
Cost: 10 gold
Insanely usefull, both in fight, and when breaking beds. While I prefer fireballs for breaking the said bed's defense, this is still really good for that. It can one shot any player at point blank range, and even better, you are immune to your own/teamate's tnts. If low on health, drop one at your feet, and let your regen hat heal you. Not mandatory, but really helpfull later on. It isn't cheap though. Get some before deathmatch.
Milk bucket
Cost: 10 diamonds
Removes some nasty effects. Sadly drinking it mid fight is really... not ideal. I dont use it a lot, and most of the effects are manageble, but keeping one backup could help. I really can't say a lot about this.
Regen Totem
Cost: 10 gold
Applies regen to friendly players. Must have a line of sight. This+regen hat+faster regen and you are near immortal. Sadly it can be destroyed quite fast, since it's an entity. I prefer tnt over this, since this totem has a small range, so they can just combo you out of it's radius. You can't really "guard" it like debuff totems, since guarding it means being at full hp/activly comboing someone (eg not getting hit), and if you start getting comboed you are out of radius, so I find it less usefull than the same cost tnt.
Blindness totem
Cost: 10 diamonds
Applies blindness to enemy players. Must have a line of sight. Blindness is a nasty status effect. Placing this on your island, on a hard to reach position vastly improves your defences. Can also be placed down quickly mid fight. While not cheap, it's one of those items which, depending on your game, can be used. Though in most games, you wont have enugh diamonds to get all ups+this+armor+sword, and this is the least important out of theese items.
Mining fatigue totem
Cost: 20 gold
Applies mining fatigue to enemy players. Must have line of sight. A powerfull effect, if you can find a good placemnt, but sadly it costs too much to be worthwhile. This totem has no value though if your bed defense if already good enugh so it can't be blitzed, you dont have a bed, or are about to enter into deathmatch. And early on, it costs way too much to be used. Has some use cases at least.
Compass
Cost: 32 iron
Now this is often looked over. First off, it is the only permanent misc item. It tracks the closes enemy player. Its more helpfull than it first looks. You dont have to constantly go into f5 to check behind yourself, you wont be surprised when that guy with an iron sword jumps suddenly before you, and even better, it atuo aims, and emits a sound effect when the player changes. It also shows their name. Too pricy to get super early on, it can help by midgame more than one thinks! And if someone is playing hide and seek in deathmatch, than you no longer will lose due to running out of time and draw the game.
Return home scroll
Cost: 32 iron
When held, and used, return to your base in 5 seconds. You can't move during this. Still really helpfull. You can sit at mid on the diamond generator, and go home without delay, or if you run out of blocks, this provides a way out. Remeber how breaking terracotta with bare hands is 6.25s? If you use this as soon as the enemy approaching shows up, you can still save your bed. A more niche, but still relevant use case, if someone camps on your base (when it no longer has a bed) you can ambush them.
And thats it for now! I plan to add all ups too, and maybe even some more general advice. I am open to critque/advice/feedback (and I welcome it), though I would ask you the WHY part (by that I mean dont just say I am stupid, but say I am stupid because of x, which works with y like this), and also remember the ppl it is made for. This is all subjective in a way, so keep that in mind. I hope it helps to at least someone. I will add the two new items later on, and try to improve it in general.
Redacted…