How to Actually Speedrun Minecraft [Complete Guide]

There are a lot of different categories where you can speedrun Minecraft, such as with a set seed, "Any%", and lots more. But here we'll focus more on the basics of the "Any% Glitchless" with a random seed. With that in mind, next up we'll see how you can efficiently speedrun Minecraft! 

Find a Village

The first step to speedrunning Minecraft is to gather some materials and resources you may need. And what better way to get your needed items fast than in a village! So first thing first, you'll want to find a village with an iron golem. 

Some players may even go with the option of finding a shipwreck, as it has lots of ores and other items. But I'd say you'll have a better shot of getting good items like beds in a village as well. 

Loot Chests and Collect Iron, Beds, and Hay from the Village

Next up you'll want to get the most essential items from the village, such as wood from the houses, around 15 beds, food, and even armor and tools if there are any in the chests. If you can't find all the tools, make sure you quickly gather some cobblestone from the houses and use a crafting table to make a stone axe, sword, and pickaxe.

Beating up the iron golem will give you 3-5 iron ingots as well. To defeat the iron golem, hit him once, place and climb 3 blocks upward, make sure the golem can't reach you, and defeat him using a sword. After you defeat him, make sure to break and get the hay bales too. You can use them to craft bread since you'll be needing food on this journey!

Find a Pit of Lava and Make a Nether Portal

With the collected iron we'll need to craft a bucket and fill it up with water. And now comes the hardest part, as you'll need to find a pit of lava. Lava pits can be found rarely in the overworld, or underground between Y levels -55 and -63. Finding a little lake of lava above ground may be harder, but if you find one, the speed run will significantly be faster!

Once you find the pit of lava, make sure you have some dirt blocks in you. Afterward, here's how to make a nether portal using a water bucket:

1. Place a dirt block in the middle of a side of the lava pit
2. Add the water bucket to one side of the dirt block
3. Break the dirt block, you should have the lower basis of the portal
4. Collect the remaining water using the bucket
5. Place dirt blocks on the outside of the basis as shown in the image below
6. Add a water bucket at the upper right dirt block
7. Finish the portal by placing lava buckets on the frame of the portal basis
8. Collect the water and add wood blocks that will catch fire to light up the Nether portal
   

Personally, when I tried to speedrun Minecraft, the lava pit portal tutorial by Reddit user "-ca1um-" helped me out a lot! So I'd say you see it, and practice it a little in a creative world to get the hang of it. 

Find a Fortress and Defeat Blazes

Now that we're in the Nether, what you'll want to do is gather 12 blaze rods by defeating blazes in a Nether fortress. This can prove to be a difficult task since finding a Nether fortress is very rare, and you'll be targeted by Wither skeletons! Blazes can also be unpredictable, so make sure to practice defeating them with a stone and iron sword in a creative world. 

Some speedrunners also use an axe to jump and crit-shot the blazes faster. If you've found more iron in the village, then crafting an iron axe may prove useful as well. 

Collect Ender Pearls and Make Eyes of Ender

Ender Pearls are needed to make Eyes of Ender using the blaze rods to find and complete the End portal. There's 2 ways you can get Ender Pearls in a Minecraft speedrun:

• Defeat Endermen in the overworld (slower, but more secure)
• Trade gold ingots with Piglins (high risk, high reward)

Killing Endermen in the overworld is straight-forward as you'll have to wait for night to fall, find, and defeat Endermen for their pearls. Finding them can be a bit difficult and may take a lot of your time! The best way to defeat Endermen is by building a little roof above yourself so you'll be able to reach them, but they won't be able to touch you.

As for trading with Piglins to get Ender Pearls, the best way to do it is by finding a Bastion in the Nether and getting all the gold from it. Then make yourself some tools, gold ingots, and armor so the piglins won't attack you. Finally, throw the gold ingots at piglins to trade with them, and hope they'll throw in Ender Pearls as the chances for them are very low!

To activate an End Portal, you'll need a minimum of 12 Ender Pearls. While finding the fortress using Eyes of Ender, they may also break, so keep that in mind. There are often pearls already in the End portal frame or around the fortress, so you can also take a gamble with fewer Ender Pearls. 

Find and Activate the End Portal

Now we'll craft Eyes of Ender by placing an Ender Pearl and blaze powder on a crafting table. Right-clicking while holding an Eye of Ender will make it go where the stronghold is located, so find it as fast as possible. Strongholds are located underground, so I'd suggest you prepare a pickaxe to dig down and locate it.

Once you find the stronghold, locate the End portal within it. Place the 12 needed Ender Pearls in the End portal frame to activate it. Make sure you have the beds, bread, and cobblestone from previously as we'll be entering the final stages to defeat the Ender Dragon!

Defeat the Dragon Using Beds

If you were wondering why we collected the beds from the village previously, it's because we'll be using them in this Ender Dragon fight. The quickest way to defeat the Ender Dragon is with bed explosions. If you chose to get each and every Ender Pearl from the piglins, chances are they gave you crying obsidian as well that can be used for defeating the Ender Dragon:

1. Get to the Bedrock center
2. On the side of the middle bedrock pillar, place 2 crying obsidian blocks upward
3. Stand below the bedrock pillar and wait for the dragon to come
4. Place the bed on the top pillar by right-clicking the crying obsidian with the bed in hand
5. Right-click the bed once the dragon's low to deal it damage
6. Wait for the dragon to back up a little bit
7. Once it lowers again, place another bed and explode it

Make sure you practice it right and hard beforehand to hit that world record time. I'd even recommend you see Minecraft speedrunner "thecamo6" and check out their technique using crying obsidian.

If you've got every Ender Pearl by defeating Endermen however, I'd suggest you see how to survive bed explosions. That method uses cobblestone, albeit it's harder to pull off since the damage isn't as guaranteed as the previous method! 

Tips and Tricks to Speedrunning Minecraft

The best tip I can give you is to watch a lot of other speed runs and practice a lot. That's what's helped me most trying to reach that world record, though here are a few other tips and tricks to speed run Minecraft:

• Turn on subtitles in Settings while searching for a lava pit that can tell you nearby lava sounds
• Make fast gold boots when you go through the Nether portal to have fewer issues with the piglins
• Practice using set seeds with villages and strongholds nearby spawn before using a random seed
• In early speed runs, try breaking all the crystals before you master defeating the dragon using beds
• Watch speed runs and download resources from the Minecraft speed-running site

That wraps it up for how to speedrun Minecraft. Time is of the essence here, so make sure to increase the Minecraft FPS so you don't hit any lag while trying your record speed runs!