If you’ve mastered Minecraft and feel like going beyond, you can try a speedrun playthrough. This playstyle is for brave players that want to beat the entire game’s campaign in a few minutes — or even seconds.
Speedrunning in Minecraft is a worldwide “sport.” Pro gamers see this challenge as an opportunity to break records and hop into the game’s speedrun ranking and championships. Minecraft even partakes in charity speedrun championships for Summer Games Done Quick.
In addition, many players go for medals and online certifications by submitting their speedruns to speedrun.com. This site analyzes user-submitted speedruns from almost any game. For Minecraft, this site requires that the submission follows a few rules beforehand.
A Minecraft speedrun isn’t a walk in the park, though. So, for people interested in beating the game lickety-split, we’ve created this article to teach the basics of how to speedrun in Minecraft.
Speedrun
As mentioned above, you’re a speedrunner when you beat a game in an inhumanely short time. For Minecraft, this is achieved when you slay the Ender dragon quickly while using a few items you gather during the run.
The essential things that’ll help you achieve this are luck, agility, and planning. Typically, most speedrunners can beat Minecraft in less than an hour.
But before cutting to the chase, let’s review the three types of Minecraft speedrunning that exist.
- any% – The type of speedrun that requires you to beat the game as fast as possible by any means available, including taking advantage of bugs and glitches.
- any% glitchless – Similar to the above, but the player must not take advantage of any glitches.
Note that speedrunners typically use Minecraft version 1.16.1 to get better drop rates from items essential for the speedrun.
Now, let’s cover a brief tutorial on how to speedrun in Minecraft with the methods above.
Any% Speedrun
This type of speedrun uses glitches and bugs. The glitches that are allowed for a speedrun are listed on speedrun.com, while those that are not listed are considered banned.
The most common method of trying an any% speedrun is by inserting a world seed that has every item you’ll need near the spawn point. Doing this makes the start of the speedrun much easier.
Use Seeds Close to Villages and Nether Portals
So, try a few world seeds that contain a nearby village; they’ll be useful to gather basic items and resources from chests. Also, a ruined Nether portal near the location you’ll spawn is essential; make sure the ruin has treasure chests with obsidian blocks inside.
You can browse through speedrun world seeds on the Internet. Also, create the world on the “easy” difficulty level.
Then, try to take vital items from village chests as quickly as possible and head towards a ruined Nether portal. Complete the portal and set it on fire with a fire charge. You can get a fire charge inside the ruin’s chest since they have a high chance of spawning there.
In the village you’ll probably get a few diamonds; create at least a shovel and an axe with them.
You’ll also find the obsidian to complete the portal inside the ruin’s chest. Hop in the portal and access the Nether. Some players prefer to increase Minecraft’s FOV to have better peripheral vision during the run.
Up to this point, you must have gathered plenty of solid blocks; they’re useful to help you move around since you can stack them below you to reach higher places quickly.
In The Nether
You’ll need to carry gold in the Nether. Piglins will fly off the handle after seeing you and dropping gold bars on the ground is a safe way of distracting them. Moreover, when you find the Nether Fortress, you can clean it from piglins by digging a hole and throwing plenty of gold ingots in it.
You can get gold by mining gold blocks that appear inside the Nether. Then, use the mined gold nuggets on your crafting panel, converting them into plenty of gold ingots.
Consequently, all piglins in the surrounding area will chase the gold, ending up stuck in the hole. Also, they’ll throw stuff in exchange for the gold; pick everything up because these dropped items are vital for the speedrun.
At this point, piglins will probably have dropped a few ender pearls; take it all. Keep moving and slay any food-providing animal on your way; kill these animals with fire if you can, so their meal drops are already cooked. Make sure they die burning; there are no humane speedruns.
The best way to do this would be by using any leftover fire charges you have from the ruins.
You can put the food in your offhand to save time.
Among the items that you acquire from piglins in exchange for gold is the potion of fire resistance; you must grab one.
Now, while still in the Nether, throw the ender pearl to move quickly by teleporting to it.
Drink the potion of fire resistance, throw the ender pearl, and teleport to it. If it gets you in lava, you’ll need to stack some blocks up until you reach the surface. Also, eat food to restore health. Then, on the lava’s surface, throw another ender pearl and teleport to it again.
The next step is finding a Nether Fortress. While in the Nether with maximum FOV, keep teleporting until you spot one. You’ll find a Nether Fortress quickly by checking our previous article covering some valuable tips on this topic.
After reaching the fortress, take off to find a blaze spawner urgently; this is where you’ll slay a few blazes and get blaze rods. With enough blaze rods, leave the fortress and reach an open area.
Then, build a Nether portal. You’ll probably have a few obsidians from the piglins.
Finding The Stronghold
Activate the portal and return to the Overworld. There, you’ll mix ender pearls with blaze powder, crafting the “eye of ender.”
During this stage, you’ll have to do a runner and use everything around you in your favor. Use the eye of ender to find the stronghold; don’t forget to burn animals on the way to gather cooked food. If you spot sheep, get their wool; it’s vital to the speedrun.
To find the stronghold in time, get your skates on and start rushing in the direction pointed by the eye of ender. After getting to the stronghold’s spot, dig down blindly straight until falling into the underground structure’s staircase.
Falling into the staircase, rush to find the end portal room as fast as you can. Activate it with the ender eyes, and meet the dragon.
Craft some beds with the wool blocks from the sheep and wood you’ve got during your run. Then, find somewhere high and close to a crystal tower to catch the dragon’s attention, and if you get high enough, the dragon will kind of glitch and hit the crystal.
After the dragon destroys the crystal, return to the battleground’s center. There, place a bed on a tall pillar and wait for the dragon to come near it.
When the dragon is near the bed, try to sleep on the bed. In the “end dimension,” if you attempt to sleep in a bed, it explodes. Therefore, this explosion will damage the dragon; this is a method that %any speedrunners usually do. Eventually, the blasts will defeat the End dragon.
Any% Glitchless Speedrun
Glitchless speedruns are a whole different pickle. This method is pretty similar to the one above, with the exception of using glitches. This means you cannot use in-game glitches or bugs to cut corners and save on time.
Most players learn how to speedrun in Minecraft by attempting this method first.
After spawning, gather basic resources like wood and stone and craft some essential tools like axes and pickaxes. Now, pocket everything and search for a village.
If you’re wandering for too long without finding a village, it might be better to restart the run.
The village is essential for its loots. So, grab everything inside chests, especially iron ingots; killing the village’s iron golem is also fruitful since it’ll drop a few iron bars. If you see a desert temple on your run, loot it for gold and iron ingots.
Craft a bucket and fill it with water. Your next goal is to mix water with surface lava to create the Nether portal. So, find a lava lake and a way of positioning the elements to create a doorway, which you’ll activate later with a flint and steel.
You’ll rely on bow and arrows during the end dragon fight. Find the resources you’ll need to craft them or killing skeletons along the way.
Now, hopping inside the Nether portal, shake a leg and explore the Nether for gold. Try to get at least 40 gold ingots by mining gold from ruins or crafting ingots with gold nuggets; you’ll use the gold on piglins to trade for ender pearls later.
Next, you’ll need to find a Nether fortress and slay a few blazes; get some blaze rods and turn them into blaze powder. Don’t forget to throw gold at piglins to get ender pearls. Then, craft a few ender eyes, and build another Nether portal to go back into the Overworld dimension.
In the Overworld, you’ll need wool again, so look for sheep and get some. Finally, find the stronghold, reach the portal room, and activate it.
Inside the End dimension, you’ll need to jump through hoops. First, try to strike down a crystal with the bow and arrow while surviving the dragon’s blows. After being successful, do the same method from the run before by attempting to kill the dragon with the bed’s blasts.
The main differences between this method to the first one are the techniques used to destroy the end crystal and to craft the initial Nether portal.
Also, as you can notice, success depends on luck and finding the ideal resources during the first minutes if you aren’t using a familiar seed.
Speedrunning is complex, and you’ll need to constantly make up for the lost time when attempting one. However: no pain, no gain. So, stay the course, use the methods above, and freestyle if it’ll make it faster. You’ll even be teaching how to speedrun in Minecraft in no time.
