How to Start Speedrunning Minecraft

What Is Minecraft Speedrunning?

Minecraft speedrunning is the practice of completing the game as fast as possible, usually measured by defeating the Ender Dragon and triggering the credits screen. The most popular category is Any% Random Seed Glitchless (RSG), where you generate a random world and race to the end credits without using any glitches or exploits.

Speedrunning has grown from a niche hobby into one of the most competitive Minecraft communities. Thousands of runners submit times to speedrun.com, and the world record has been pushed below 10 minutes by the fastest players. But you do not need to aim for a world record to enjoy speedrunning. Beating your own personal best is deeply rewarding at every skill level.

Prerequisites

Before you start, you need Minecraft Java Edition. Bedrock Edition has its own speedrunning scene, but the majority of resources, mods, and community activity center around Java Edition. You should also be comfortable with basic Minecraft gameplay: crafting, mining, navigating the Nether, and fighting mobs.

You do not need a high-end computer, but a machine that can run Minecraft at 60+ frames per second on low settings is recommended. Speedrunning involves rapid inputs and quick reactions, so frame drops can cost you time.

Setting Up Your Mods

Official Minecraft speedruns allow specific mods that do not affect gameplay. The core mods you need are:

• Fabric Mod Loader - The mod framework used by all speedrun mods. Download it from fabricmc.net and create a new profile in your launcher.
• SpeedRunIGT - The official in-game timer. This is mandatory for submitting runs. It displays your time on screen and records your splits.
• Atum - A reset mod that lets you instantly create a new world with a single keypress. Without this, you waste 5 to 10 seconds navigating menus on every reset.
• Sodium - An optimization mod that improves frame rates significantly. Not strictly required but highly recommended for smooth gameplay.

Install these mods by placing their .jar files in your Minecraft mods folder (located at .minecraft/mods with the Fabric profile active). Launch the game and verify the timer appears on screen.

Understanding the Basic Route

Every Any% RSG run follows the same general structure, even though the specific execution varies with each random seed:

1. Overworld (0:00 to 2:00) - Gather wood, craft tools, find food, and locate a way to enter the Nether (ruined portal, village with lava, or direct lava pool for a portal cast).
2. Nether Entry (2:00 to 3:00) - Build and light a nether portal. Enter the Nether.
3. Bastion (3:00 to 5:00) - Find a bastion remnant. Mine gold blocks and barter with piglins for ender pearls.
4. Fortress (5:00 to 7:00) - Find a nether fortress. Kill blazes for blaze rods (you need at least 7).
5. Nether Exit (7:00 to 7:30) - Navigate to exit coordinates and build a portal back to the Overworld.
6. Stronghold (7:30 to 8:30) - Craft eyes of ender, throw them to find the stronghold, and dig down to the portal room.
7. Dragon Fight (8:30 to 10:00) - Enter The End and kill the Ender Dragon using bed explosions.

These target times are for experienced runners. As a beginner, your first completions will likely take 30 to 90 minutes. That is perfectly normal. The goal is to finish runs and learn the flow of the route.

Your First Run

For your first speedrun attempt, do not worry about speed. Focus on completing the run from start to finish. Here is what to do:

Create a new world and start gathering resources. Get wood, make a crafting table, and craft stone tools. Find a village if possible (villages provide free beds, food, and sometimes iron tools). If no village is nearby, find a lava pool and build a portal using the bucket-cast method (use an iron bucket to place lava in a mold, then pour water over it to create obsidian).

In the Nether, travel in one direction until you find a bastion. Mine gold blocks and drop gold ingots near piglins to barter. You need 12 ender pearls minimum. Then find a fortress and kill blazes for at least 7 blaze rods.

Exit the Nether, craft eyes of ender (combine a blaze rod processed into blaze powder with an ender pearl), and throw them into the air. Follow the direction they fly until they hover downward, indicating the stronghold is below. Dig down, find the portal room, fill the frame with eyes of ender, and jump in.

In The End, sprint to the bedrock fountain and use beds to bomb the dragon. Place a bed on the fountain and right-click it to detonate when the dragon perches nearby. 5 to 7 beds will kill it. Congratulations on your first speedrun completion.

How to Improve

After your first completion, improvement comes from three areas:

Game knowledge - Learn what resources each structure provides, how portal math works, and where structures spawn. The more you know, the faster you can make decisions during runs.

Mechanical skill - Practice specific techniques in isolation. Use PeepoPractice to drill bastion routing, blaze fighting, and dragon kills. Water bucket MLGs, crafting speed, and inventory management all improve with repetition.

Decision making - Learn when to reset and when to continue. Know your split targets. If you are behind pace, evaluate whether catching up is realistic. This comes with experience and reviewing your own runs.

Set realistic goals. If your first completion is 60 minutes, aim for 45 next, then 30, then 20. Each milestone teaches you something new about optimizing the route.

Resources and Community

The Minecraft speedrunning community is active and welcoming. Join the Minecraft Speedrunning Discord for tips, route discussions, and feedback on your runs. Watch top runners on Twitch and YouTube to see how they handle different seeds and situations. Study their decision-making, not just their mechanical execution.

Submit your completed runs to speedrun.com to track your progress officially. Even slow times are worth submitting, as having a verified personal best gives you a concrete target to beat.