Nov 23 Testing out MC 1.16.1

 Everyone mainly speedruns 1.16.1.  I'm going to give it a go.

Found lava pool in the desert at about 813,,750.

There's also a village in sight northeast of here.

NETHER portal location 112,53,103 (over:813,,750)

Wow.  1.16.1 is so easy compared to 1.21.  I went into the bastion nearby and once I had some gold armor, it was a little walk in the park.  I traded and got 18 pearls in one round.  And 5 fire res!  

I now need to find a fortress and pick off some blazes.  tomorrow.

I did it! I did it! 

I tried E-raying for the fortress but that seemed useless.  So I aim for -200,,200, just to be in the middle of a quadrant (not the bastion one).  and lo and behold there was a fortress.  I used the fire res to get 6 blaze rods from strays, then threw a splash potion away and didn't get any.  arg.  I wish I would pay more attention to the bottle.  anyway I killed a couple more strays and found my way back!

funny thing on the way.  I found a ruined portal in the nether, and had enough obsidian to light it up.  I appeared in midair about 10 blocks above the middle of an ocean.  about 2000 blocks from my target!  So I went back through the portal and it only took a couple of minutes nether travel.  

tomorrow, find the stronghold and attack!

Nov 16 Speeeeedruuuuuuunnnnnn

 I'm just going to punch a bit of wood before I have to get going to Winnipeg this afternoon.

village at -413,,290.  I got bales there and 6 iron.  Onward to look for lava pool and shipwrecks.

shipwreck provided enough iron.  

found a desert temple at -917,,-1303.

lava pool -1095,,-1582. (nether -140,,-200)

got gold from temple, shipwreck, and mesa cave.

found a corner of a buried fortress right nearby.  First I traded 50 ingots to a local piglin.  got 2 pearls and 2 fire res potions.  Among other dreck.  

Went to the fortress, used the fire res for most of the 9 blaze rods I got.  

They are stashed in a chest at my camp.  (lava pool1)

Next time: Find endermen or gold for bartering.  maybe I should just mine for the gold here in the mesa.  Safer.  I want at least 16 pearls.  Got 3 so far.

The plan:  take only some stacks of cobblestone or netherrack and explore for warped forest.  It's hard to traverse sometimes, but I'm going to include crossing lava seas on bridges this time.  

I went forward (?) from my portal first.  long bridge over lava, nothing but red forest and nether wastes and soul sand.  

Then I went behind, toward the lava fall.  Left a gravel trail.  Leads to a bastion not too far away.  It's unfortunately located in a lava sea with no surrounding surfaces.  I got into it though, and sneaked into a triple chest room and got some gold and good food.  I neglected to bring an iron pick though, so next time i will take on along and use it in that little tunnel I made to attract the piglins, then do trading from the safety of my tunnel.  Not a great long term solution since I usually die over and over in bastions, but I'm here for fun and exploration, right? right??

Remember to bring a bunch of torches next time, and it will make exploring the bastion safer and not repeating areas so much.  Make safe escape routes wherever I go.  And prefer to be killed in a solid area where the detritus that scatters won't go to lava.  

and also remember that I already threw 9 ingots into the little trading hole by the chest.  Maybe collect nuggets on the way there next time?

next day: those 9 were gone.  I broke the gold block but no piglins were able to access my location.  So I've been roaming the bastion avoiding death for the most part, killed three or four brutes, and need to go do some trading asap.  I left Steve in the far corner of the low section, blocked in safely.  

Well Steve died to a Brute almost immediately and I couldn't find his remains.  

Then he gathered a bit more gold and died.  I couldn't find his remains again.

And I went looking with no blocks, so I had a hard time getting out of the housing units after giving up on salvaging.  Eventually I got lucky and broke through the wall in a good place with my fists.  

Long story short, I found the gold blocks in the bottom of the right rampart, and traded them moderately successfully to a hole full of piglins and one nasty brute that keep smacking me.  I got a lot of stuff, but no pearls, which is what I actually needed.  

Next time: Look farther away for warped forest?  In the nether or find a new lava pool over?  Or trade up in  a village?  that is slow and boring.  My gut says new lava pool.  I'll have to make a trail of beds so I don't lose my stuff.

I did that, and was kinda useless.

nope, I'm going to mine gold in the mesa, then nuggets in my first portal area, then trade trade trade till the cows come home.

I did that and the only pearls I got were from killing random endermen that occasionally strolled by. 

I have 13 and I'm going.  Tomorrow.

Hmm.  I'm still hankering to trade more.  What if I do one more pass through the mesa cave, go to the deep section, collect all the gold I can on one pass, and do one more trading round?  I also really want to try getting a few more piglins together by using boats or a hole in a narrow place.

Thats

-87 degrees from lava portal toward stronghold.  fwiw, .6 degrees difference with 4 sprint jumps.

according to the quick chart, thats around 1500 blocks away, which is only 200 in the nether.  So I'm going to try that method.

aiming for nether coords 39,,-200

which is overworld 317,,-1582.  

new angle: -72

15 deaths

13 hours.

observations:  I used beds a couple of times, but I lost most of them when I got thrown too close to the abyss.  Also lost my bow at that time, so I had to climb extra towers.  Oh, and nether travel is a lot faster, if you don't do it by digging.  Probably smarter to go low for the return portal and hope to appear in the stronghold itself.  

Overall, I wasted a lot of time trying to get pearls in this game.  The blaze rods were ok.  I think: use gold to trade with piglins wherever they are until I get two fire res, then go for 9 blaze rods, instead of trying to outsmart them with tunnels and stuff.  Then try bastion trading for pearls if there is one handy, but otherwise I have had more luck just working the village trades until I got the pearls from cleric (need to use up one blaze rod for the brewing stand).  

Nov 6 Speedrun: The Viking

 Ok that's a random title.

started in a dark oak forest.  Explored a bright cave for iron.

Found lava pool in an open area, at -308,,-174

HAHA my nether portal location (under) is -50,32,-12, in the middle of a lava sea, surrounded by soul sand valley biome!

Well, there's a fortress right there, up the first pillar and across.  Lots of wither skeletons, and exposed walkways.  I'll have to do some reconnoitering.  Didn't see any pigmen yet, but i have a good bit of gold.

I got the 8 blaze rods i wanted.  Trying to find endermen and pigmen.  But i just lost all my gold in lava.  grr.

Leaving it for today.

there was an interesting structure across the way in the basalt delta.  If it's another fortress, I'm not interested, but if a bastion, I'm curious and drawn.  I think I'll pack a bunch of blocks and try to get there.  No valuables though.

gave up on first portal location for trading and finding endermen.  I've made a second portal at a lava pool at 

1928,,-3393

244,,-431 nether

there's a bastion right nearby.  I'll try to carefully pry some loot out of there.  later.

Did it.  I have traded for a lot of stuff, mostly useless, but i have got 9 pearls so far.  I've dug up all the nuggets I can find there, and all the gold blocks I can find in the structure.  So I guess either I find gold in the overworld to trade, or look for warped forest, or hunt endermen in the overworld.  Or find a village i guess, but I don't really want the hassle of getting the cleric levelled up.

oh, and i'm over 8 hours already.  

boats are working ok for brutes.  boats do not work for hoglins.  Best strategy for me seems to be to draw the brute out into the open and boat him.  the boat has to be in his path.  Boat in a narrow path is good.

Decided to mine nuggets and hope for a lucky trade.  No lucky trade occurred.  And...

When I came to the overworld, creepers immediately blew up my camp and chest, and... my blaze rods.

I thought they couldn't destroy items!!!!

Oh, I see.  the first creeper broke the chest.  The second and third creeper destroyed the contents.

I'm tempted to reset and start again.

Decided to stay.  On the way back to my first portal.  I see a village at 1666,,-2096.  Lots of farmers. not many trees.  Lots of beds.

I'll continue on and get the blaze rods first.  Then I'll have to decide between going back to the piglins to barter, or use villager trading.  My pet peeves.

Oh, this could be handy!  I found another lava pool at 835, ,-1391.  Maybe I"ll go here after getting blaze rods to look for  warped forest.

And another village at 792,, -937!  Didn't check it out yet.

AND another open lava pool at 626,,-713.  Just straight into the woods from this point.

crap.  I died in a ship at 557,,175.  I wonder where I'll respawn!

Crap.  I got back to the ship and 3/4 of my stuff was GONE!  And I died again trying to break a chest by hand underwater.  double crap.  

I found more of the stuff at the ship  - it was float at the ceiling level in the captain's room.  

But.

I finally got back to my first portal.  Killed and roasted enough fish.  Collected my fire res potions, tools, and weapons to go battle the blazes.  

and.

I can hardly write it.  

I went through the portal, and before I could see anything, I heard a zombie attacking me and heard myself hitting lava, and done.  All burnt to a crisp.  Before I could even defend myself.

argh.

decision time again.  continue on this cursed world?

went looking for meat.  Pretty scarce.  Did find another village, this time at -957,,38.

and another nearby.  I collected lots of bales and meat.  I'm back at portal 1, with iron armor, a stack of bread and some chicken, and next time I'll go in there and get blaze rods.  Then, I will find a new lava pool somewhere else and look for warped forest.  and I found a few lava pools so I think I'll just keep looking until I find one.  This run will be one for the record books I'm sure.

Ok  icame back to that fortress.  lost my stuff.  died about 20 times trying to get it.  I decided to leave this fortress alone.

New portal at the second lava pool.  Nether:74,, -84 (over is near 626,,-713)  Gave up on this one.

New portal at nether 112,,-183.   No use.

next lava pool: 3612,,1960.  nether 443,,236

and there was a corner of warped forest visible!  so i dug to it and patrolled it for endermen for a while, and ended up with 20 pearls!

so i've stashed the pearls in a chest on the surface.  Now.  Blaze rods.  Go all the way back to my og fortress?  or snoop around here until I find a new one?  

Also I have about 30 gold ingots.  I'd like to trade them and see what I can get.  Maybe I should go back to that bastion I had before just for trading.

Bastion is at 244,,-431 (nether), so maybe I'll traverse below instead of over.  

Go 200 blocks neg x, and 600 blocks neg z.  Leave breadcrumbs.

November 2 speedrun: Out of the gate fast

 If anyone ever reads this, I hope you understand sarcasm. 

I'm starting another speedrun today.  Inspired by the 14 hour speedrun I completed yesterday.  I have ideas how to screw up less and speed more.  Let's see how that turns out!

Ok, there's a village with lots of beds here at -716,,-174.  I'll leave a chest here also with a few valuables for after nether.  I see a lava pool across the way.  I'll head there next.

Wow.  

My nether portal location is ... in mid air, high above lava, surrounded on all sides by distant basalt delta!!!

I made a quick cobblestone walkway to the nearest ground.  The coordinates of the end of the walkway (top of the stairs) is 30,85, 2.

fortress is in view at 7,68,140.

Well as per my habit, I collected 8 blaze rods, then got fireballed by a ghast.  I got killed another 8 or so times trying to recover the stash, and when i finally found the spot, it was empty.  

Tomorrow I'll redo the blaze collection, then try to find a blue forest and get pearls.

Got the rods.

Collecting food for the search for Warped Forest.

I searched and did not find.  Traded for 5 pearls along the way.  Went back to the village to do legit trading for another 8 pearls.  Takes quite some time!  But I'm getting a bit quicker.  I'm pretty much set now.  I have 13 pearls and 7 rods.  Tomorrow I'll decide about perhaps buying one more pearl to be sure.  Then off to the strong hold!  

I should collect some of these beds when I leave.  and make a boat.

-153.9 first angle, then 4 leaps right:-154.5

the rough guide says 1000/the difference between the two angles.  1000/.6=1666 blocks!

Since i'm heading northeast, it's a hypotenuse of a right triangle.  1178 in both directions.

target is 456,,-1380

14 deaths, 6.38 hours!

Might be my best.

Funny, I killed the dragon with a piece of iron gate.  It's all i had left after getting blown up by a bed.  For some reason all my loot except a couple of blocks and a piece of gate disappeared.  But I had already shredded the dragon with about 10 beds.  My strategy was to dig a trench around the fountain, and I walked around it to the head of the dragon, hopped and placed the bed, and detonated it.  Pretty quick and not much damage to me.

Oh, first I shot all the pillar things, from on top of two short pillars.  Regular bow.  Used about 41 arrows in total.

Oct 25 New start

 Just a quick start

-700.,-1800 is the fletcher's house in teh village I found.  I don't really need to trade though since I already have a treasure and shipwreck and a bonch of food.

I'll need to find  a lava pool or go digging.  I went digging and only found a large cave so far, with no lava pool.  I will have to go deeper.

found lava.  Portal coords Over:  -664,,-1744   Nether: -83,,-218

Surprisingly, there was a fortress under my portal.  and a blaze spawner 20 blocks away.  I dug a tunnel and killed them in a safe spot.  Only one death in there before getting 9 rods.  I have done a bit of bartering, but no pearls or spiderwebs yet.  I'll have to look for a blue forest.  I also have not got enough obsidian to make a portal somewhere else.  

But.  With this luck I'm going to break a record.  1 death and 1.71 hours so far.

I walked a long way in the nether to find a warped forest.  Did not find.  I did find a bastion, probably Hoglin Stables, but got thoroughly killed before getting inside.  I will not bother going back.  

So I'm in the village above ground, trying to trade with stubborn fletchers (three of them now) to get enough emeralds to level up the cleric to sell me pearls.  I have him ready now, but the value of sticks has gone down to 41 per emerald!!!

Anyway.  Tomorrow's job will be to see if there is clay in the lake.  If so, I'll hire a mason and sell him my clay for emeralds.  and see if the fletchers ease their prices.

I hired another fletcher and this one seemed to have an unlimited stick appetite.  So I traded with him and the cleric to get 13 pearls, and a bunch of arrows.  Now i'm set up to head for the stronghold next time I have time.  

Meanwhile I'm cooking up enough iron ore to make one set of armor.

47.2 says the first eye.  -146 Says the second.

Now i'm in the bottom of a large ocean, throwing pearls back and forth.  hm.

I decided just to dig down.  Just past the deepslate I broke into a giant cave with lots of lava, water, and greenery.  I went in there, planning to throw an eye and dig for the stronghold.  So I went into a corner, planning to kill the monsters from a sheltered spot where I wouldn't get shot.  But I was overrun by zombies and died there in the corner.  and unfortunately respawned at 0!  

Using the coordinates in the notes here, i found the village, and using the angle from before, I went on the ocean and noticed the same ocean monument as before.  I remembered that I could hear the guardians shooting from in the cave, so I decided to dig close to there.  Died by guardian on first attempt.  

-1160,,-1335 is the coords of the hole in the bottom of the sea that i'm using for second attempt recovery mission.  By the way, the stronghold is there.  But not the giant cave where I lost all my ender eyes.  :(  And, I died at the ocean floor now, when I started to search the area for my previous dig. I think there should be a door sitting there from that time.  Or at least nearby.  w

I'm trying again at recovery from deep cave: now at -1206,,-1311.  

Well, that was it.  But, my hard earned stash is absent.  

The plan now?  Should I quit and start fresh?  Or use my blaze factory and find gold in the nether again?

Decided to continue.  I got 8 blaze rods already, and one eye.  All I need to do is find about 20 endermen to kill, and then I can go where I already know the strong hold is.  Tomorrow.

-12,,-308  dead again.  I just realized I can hit f3 after dying to locate my position!

Yesterday was bad!  I had 3 painful deaths.  I searched in -z direction for warped forest.  Found a new fortress but no blue trees.  Died three times in that area.  I collected lots of food twice and lost most of it.  I need to find some pearls and get out of there!

1. try going x axis instead of z

2. go overworld along x axis at least 1000 blocks and reenter nether there

3. go onto the flats near my portal (-z) and mine nuggets like crazy, trade until I get pearls

4. use my fletcher/cleric duo again.  Now the cleric is levelled up, all i would need is to get about 60 emeralds to buy 12 pearls.

I think option 4 might be most efficient in this case.  a bit boring though.  

Also, I could go to the stronghold first, find the portal room and count how many eyes will be needed.  Maybe I don't need 12 eyes.

I will need 9 eyes.

I got one from a chest, and 2 in a cave.  I think there are a couple in the overworld nether portal chest.  Also I got a bunch of clay - maybe I can hire a mason to get emeralds.  

When I come back - need to mark starter staircase location and go back home.

Done.  The stonecutter and fletcher gave me enough emeralds to get eyes.  Including ones in the basement I should have more than 9.  

I need to buy a bunch of arrows, or trade in nether.  Food, then ready to go!

Done!

23 deaths, 0.59 days played=14.16 hours!  

Crazy.  I had blaze rods within 2 hours.  Now, 12 hours later I got my eyes and finished the dragon.  It would have been faster if I didn't lose all my eyes of ender in that cave midway through.  :)

Other observations:  

7 days irl

I used beds on the enderdragon!  about 4 of them.  They are dramatic!  and you can't crouch when you detonate them.  

I climbed straight up the towers this time instead of making stairs.  Went up three of them and from there could shoot all the rest.  I probably could get away with only climbing the caged ones.  

Oct 15 new speedrun initialized.

 Cooking at 451//700.  I'll go for a jaunt around in the dark to find lava.

Lava pool found at 638//411!  And a ruined portal on the trip there!  Now I have a gold block and gold pants.  All set for nether, first night.

Nether location of portal is 90/42/45.

I almost ruined my lava pool with water overflow.  I think it was a glitch - when I placed the water a second time, it didn't overflow.

Nether: -41,70,-25 from here I can see a fortress straight to the  neg z.  also a high number of piglins, so I'm going to get my gold and trade it in on the way to the fortress.

Got the gold.  I'm set with gold ingots to barter, cobble blocks to build/shelter, diamond sword for blazes, lava bucket for brutes if needed, wood, and steak.  

For tomorrow.

Next day:

Fortress entry at 5,64,-85.  Not much food.  I can't burn the nether trees, but if you make them into sticks, they burn.

Shoot.  I got one fire res from trading.  using it fighting blazes.  Doing ok.  Then killed by wither skeleton while fighting them!  Don't know how I'll get my stuff.

107,,223 there's a bastion of some kind.  I got fed up with trying to get my stuff at the fortress and wandered the other way. I'll check what kind of bastion, and save it for tomorrow.

Stables bastion.  I'll need a piece of gold armor, a lava bucket, and blocks. and a boat.

Next day.  I stocked up on some stuff.  I'm in the bastion, killed 3 brutes already.  found 2 chests.  Traded some gold to the piglins here.  tomorrow I'll try exploring some more and try not to die again.

Sunday:  I think I'll stash my valuables in the visible chest in the back here, then explore a bit.  I'll keep a lava bucket, a boat, some blocks, and some food, a pickaxe. and an axe.

-31//314 I found another fortress.  This one is not crawling with exposed blazes.  I think I may be able to get in there and have them in a more controlled environment.  I did get one fire res. from bartering.  This will be my way to the end.  Although, I have no ender pearls yet.  I made a small base at the bottom of the fortress pillar with a chest and crafting table.  

I left myself standing in the lava well room.  I'm exploring the halls to my left hand, and marking with cobblestone and gravel where there is a dead end.  I'm facing to the new area (partly explored to the left).  I think I'll shoot blazes, until I kill 10, then use fire res to collect blaze rods and kill a few more.

I got 9 blaze rods just swinging the sword with 1 fire res!

Now to find ender pearls.  Pearls before swine, as they say.  I've got blocks, food, sword and axe, boat.  I'll go hunting for endermen in the nether.  If that's not productive, I'll start traveling to the stronghold and hope for a village to trade at and get pearls from the cleric.  Maybe arrows too.

I'll have to grab some glowstone dust to multiply my meager arrow supply.

Ender eye (i had just one) pointed me toward -107 degrees.  I'll head that way and hope to find a village for trading.

I'm working the village for emeralds.  Going to hire a cleric to get pearls.

Wow this village sucks.   Or I the village patron/guardian suck.  My fletcher and cleric combo got zombified because I stayed up too late.  My new fletcher and cleric don't restock very often.  I have only 3 pearls so far.  

I built another portal.  I guess I'll have to go enderguy hunting again and hope for a warped forest.  But, that's a story for another day.  

Village is at 2881,,-854.  in case I get lost or something.

367,,-105 is my new portal's nether coords.

That worked pretty well.  Found a warped forest near the new portal.  Got 9 more pearls for  a total of 12.  Stocked my inventory for stronghold and end.  Next day I'll travel, find the stronghold, search for the end portal, tower up to smash a beacon, put up some barriers so I can stand there and shoot other ones, test the bed exploding idea, blow myself up more than likely, and have fun.

37.6 degrees to stronghold.  But i forgot to grab a bed.  

2404,,-107 is where the eyes took me.  I lost about 3 eyes while looking.  Hope 9 is enough!  Need to get some water for my bucket!

Done it!

18 deaths, 12.48 hours.  btw when you take more than 12 hours, the statistics are given in days.  ie 0.52 days in this case. 

I went back in and blew up one bed to see what it felt like.  Pretty dramatic actually.  blows up a good hole in the end stone.  I used one crying obsidian to block the blast and that stayed put.  I think it would be good to place the bed on one as well, so the platform would stay there for a second blast if I survived the first. 

Also, I waffled between towering straight up to get up the pillars and making a spiral staircase.  Probably more effective to tower, and then pearl down or use water.  or a boat.  and if needed, I could tower back up to collect my inventory like I did today once.  And if I use end stone to make little mini pillars at the top, it's hard for endy to end me.

Speedrun #3, Oct 12, 2025

 I've just started up with a new world after my triumph beating the enderdragon yesterday.  In less than 24 hours playing time, I might add.  And only 82 deaths.

So far I've harvested sweet berries and a bunch of meat, started them baking at a broken nether portal (326,63,1) and I'm about to go raid an outpost and look through the ocean for light areas (portals, lava pools aboveground) and shipwrecks.  I'll do the rowing in the dark first.  and I will make a bed to respawn at before doing the outpost.  There's thinking.

Success in the outpost.  no death.  Found two separate treasure maps and chest within 200 blocks or so, and the good half of a shipwreck.  And I got diamonds, so I fixed the broken portal and am in the nether already, with extra gold armor and food stashed at my island base!

Portal in nether location is 35,73,7, in netherrack, in sight of a Crimson Forest.

AND a fortress right nearby at 96,70,32!

Ok doing good with 5 blaze rods already.  I'm needing more food so I need an escape route but there's blazes everywhere.  haven't died in here yet!

I got out nicely with 8 blaze rods.  Realized I had no pearls yet so I'm hunting in the blue forest.  out of food, so at -95,93,-42 is a chest with ender pearls.  have to go find food before I lose this batch.

Now my eye is telling me to head for 70.7, from the Pillager/portal base.  

now, after the swamp, it's 34.1 degrees.  Must be close ish.

Stronghold starter staircase appears to be at -1435,,612.  I'm digging down and hit a cave.  I decided to wait until tomorrow lest I rush in and scatter my valuables to the monsters denizens.

next day:  I think i'll unload all my stuff and go down and check it out.  I think I'll run a bit, look for a low spot, dig in, and then tunnel for the coordinates I wrote above.

THat worked.  I'm in.  I found the portal room.  I threw away two eyes of ender when i didn't aim straight at the portal frame!  but i brought enough to make two more.  phew.

I'm about  to go in....