What Preparations Are Needed to Go to the End in Minecraft?
Early Game Preparation
In the early stages of a speedrun, the resources you gather and the preparations you make are crucial, as they will be used in various subsequent steps.
- Collect at least five beds (if you find a village)
- Collect at least six iron (to make an iron pickaxe and a bucket)
- Find a lava pool (you can find one by uncovering magma blocks in an underwater ravine)
- Cast a Nether Portal (by placing water next to lava source blocks to create Obsidian)
- Gather enough blocks (for crossing lava oceans, roughly 30+)
- Obtain golden armor and craft a boat (Golden armor prevents Piglins from attacking you, and the 'airborne boat' allows you to quickly traverse long distances)
Traversing the Nether
Traversing the Nether requires quickly finding key locations and gathering materials.
Finding Nether Fortresses and Bastion Remnants
According to information from the official Minecraft community, when you first enter the Nether, heading southeast makes it easier to find a Nether Fortress (walk about 500 blocks). Nether Fortresses generally generate in a straight line. Once found, build up from one of the fortress's five corners (because Blaze spawners are located in the top corners of the fortress) to find a Blaze spawner and farm about 6 Blaze Rods.
Bastion Remnants usually generate in Basalt Deltas biomes or near lava oceans. We need to memorize the fixed locations of the gold blocks within the Bastion. However, while mining the gold blocks, Piglins will be alerted by the sound. You should dig a two-block deep hole next to the corridor (so Piglins fall in when they approach, making trading easier). Then, you can mine the gold blocks while trading with the trapped Piglins for Ender Pearls.
Collecting Obsidian
During a speedrun, there's no time to go back and find the portal you built earlier after entering the Nether. Therefore, we can obtain Obsidian by trading with Piglins (at least 13 are needed, with 10 for the portal frame). The obtained Obsidian can not only be used to build the portal but also to block damage when using bed explosions later.
Quickly Crossing Lava Oceans
The lava oceans in the Nether are wide and vast, making them difficult to cross quickly. This is where the 'airborne boat' technique comes in handy. Find a high point (or build a tall pillar), place a boat on top, get in, and row towards your destination (if the height is 100 blocks, you can glide roughly 66 blocks). Interestingly, a boat on fire can glide even farther.
Swiftly Conquering the End
In a Minecraft speedrun, the most time-consuming parts are finding the Stronghold and defeating the Ender Dragon. Finding the Stronghold is not easy. Here, we recommend a mathematical method to precisely locate the Stronghold coordinates.
Intersection of Two Lines – Locating the Stronghold Coordinates
In mathematics, if you know the coordinates of two points on a linear function, you can determine its equation. The method of using Eyes of Ender to find the Stronghold works on the same principle (because an Eye of Ender always points towards the Stronghold, and it has a throw point and a landing point). Therefore, if we throw two Eyes of Ender, the intersection point of the two linear trajectories formed by their paths will be the Stronghold's coordinates (you'll only know the x and z coordinates). You can use a C++ program to calculate this for you (you just need to input the throw coordinates and landing coordinates of the two Ender Pearls)!
Defeating the Ender Dragon
Once you find the Stronghold, you can enter the End. In a speedrun, there's no need to waste time destroying the End Crystals. We can use a game mechanic to trap the Ender Dragon on a bedrock pillar and blow it up with beds. This is where the remaining three pieces of Obsidian come in. Place two extra Obsidian blocks on the bedrock pillar. This will both block the bed explosion damage and effectively trap the Ender Dragon there.
After these preparations, use the five beds from your inventory. Place them one by one on the bedrock pillar. You can turn on hitboxes. When you see the Ender Dragon's head hitbox get close to the Obsidian, detonate a bed. It usually takes about five beds to kill the Ender Dragon, and then you've successfully completed the speedrun!