Wow, it has been an INSANE month for Minecraft speedrunning. The community managed to break sub-14 minutes. Not only that, but sub-12 was achieved. Can you imagine beating Minecraft (see also ‘What Is Looting In Minecraft?‘) in under 14 or even 12 minutes?
If beating the game in under 12 minutes is possible, then is beating Minecraft in under 10 minutes possible?
Let’s take a look at the past four world records (all in the same month) to see if it is. Please note that speedrun.com looks at the in-game time rather than real-time.
Illumina’s 13:53
YouTuber and speedrunner Illumina managed to pull off a sub-14 right at the beginning of the month. This was the first sub-14 run of Minecraft ever.
How did he do it? Illumina started out about a hundred or so blocks away from a village. He ran his way over to the village and got straight to it. At about 2:30, he was able to get into the Nether with 9 obsidian blocks he found in the two blacksmith chests. It’s pretty lucky to have two blacksmiths in one village.
Something very unique about this run is that Illumina doesn’t use F3. The F3 button shows useful information about location, entities, and world generation. F3 is becoming increasingly more meta in the speedrunning community. Illumina found his way to the Nether fortress by tapping blocks. He’s able to pick up the rough ideas of where quadrants are located through the breaking animation. Quadrants indicate where fortresses and bastions are likely to spawn.
More fun results in more runs
Arguably, this whole run would have been a lot easier if Illumina used F3. Why doesn’t he, then? The man himself says, “Honestly, just cause I have more fun not using it.”
After great blaze rod drop rates and getting a few pearls, he decides that it’s time to go. Illumina then blind travels, or builds a portal back to the Overworld, pretty far away from the stronghold. He has to run and use ender pearls on his way there. After a pretty solid dragon fight, he secures the 13:53.
Illumina’s dedication to learning everything about Minecraft was bound to get him a world record at some point.
What does this run mean for the hypothetical sub-10? First of all, it means that a no-F3 world record is possible. Had Illumina spawned in the village and blind traveled closer to the stronghold, it’s safe to say he would have gotten a 10 or 11-minute run. The sub-10 world seed would have to be luckier than this one.
TwoLetterName’s 12:09
TwoLetterName starts the run with a standard spawn. He makes a break for the ocean to use pirate strats. This means no village – only shipwrecks. He uses lava from a nearby magma ravine to make his Nether portal. He enters at about 3 minutes in.
The bastion is in sight, a fortress isn’t too far, and he’s out in about 6 minutes. The Nether world generation was very lucky.
Not much can be said about this run, besides the fact that it was very cleanly executed. TwoLetterName did a great job and can definitely snag the WR again. Great first sub-13.
A better spawn in the Overworld would have definitely gotten him a sub-12. Maybe even a sub-11. Insane world generation would be needed for the hypothetical sub-10.
fe666’s 11:50
First off, there’s a bit of a discussion in the Minecraft community right now. TwoLetterName has a real-time of 12:15 as opposed to fe666’s real-time of 12:37. Why does fe666 have a better time, then? He spent more time in Minecraft’s pause screen. Pause lets players still see F3 menus and their surroundings.
Do you think time spent in pause should be counted as in-game time, too? Leave your thoughts and let’s spark a discussion in the comments. Maybe we can change the rules if we feel like it’s unfair!
Regardless, both runners are incredible at the game and deserve all the hype they’re getting.
Now to the run itself:
fe666 spawns about 2 dozen blocks away from a village. This start is amazing. He grabs no beds to kill the dragon and no food. He grabs only the bare necessities from chests: four diamonds, an iron pick, and wood.
A ruined portal structure spawns inside the village. The chest there has 5 obsidian and enough iron for a bucket.
fe666 is in the Nether only a minute into the run.
With no time to spare, he starts looking for structures. He uses a complex F3 tactic to see how many entities are loaded in an area and runs there immediately.
Unfortunately, the Nether spawn wasn’t as lucky as the Overworld spawn was. It was still great, but not incredible. fe666 pulls off an awesome 7 minute Nether and returns to the Overworld.
He gets into The End at 10:55 and beats the game at 11:50.
For our ideal sub-10, the Overworld is just as is in this run. I can’t think of any real improvements. However, the Nether would have to be a whole lot better. If the Bastion and Fortress spawn next to each other, then a 5 or 6 minute Nether could be possible.
TheeSizzler’s 11:10
This run just happened two days ago, so the mods are still retiming it and have yet to verify it. However, TheeSizzler is a reputable runner in the community so it’ll be verified. No matter how the mods time it, it’s still going to be a world record.
It starts out with a great village ransacking and a Nether entry 3 minutes in. The Nether spawn is a bit rocky but the Fortress and Bastion spawn next to each other, so he’s out at 8:30. Sizzler spawns above an ocean monument. Soon after, he sees an exposed stronghold in the ocean.
He hilariously has to kill himself with all of his ender pearls to get rid of the mining fatigue from the ocean monument. He has no pearls but he’s ready to break the world record.
He’s in the end at 10 minutes in and beats Minecraft a minute after.
This run has great RNG. The execution was amazing. The Nether and Overworld could have been better but the blind travel and end fight were perfect.
What would the sub-10 look like?
So after all of these great runs, is a sub-10 possible? Short answer: ya. Long answer: yeah!
We can use these speedruns to see how far we can push Minecraft’s limits.
If an Overworld has fe666’s spawn, and the Nether spawn has a Bastion/Fortress next to each other and in sight, and the blind travel is akin to Sizzler’s run, then a sub-10 could happen. Assuming the execution is great, of course.
Are we going to see a sub-10 by the end of this year? Who knows. Some say it’s impossible. But at one point in Minecraft’s history, we thought a sub-12 was impossible, too.
Adrian is an American writer who loves playing/speedrunning Minecraft, Celeste, browser games, and more. In his free time, he loves to hop on Hypixel and play BedWars.
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