Nov 29 Second attempt with 1.16.1, in honour of Pat's birthday

 Since nobody will ever read this, I can honour whatever I want to here.  And my brother is awesome and turning 52.

Shipwreck, buried treasure

Lava pool at 279,,-974.  Lots of animals and a nice easy biome.

nether 40,41,-116

I'll head for pos/neg aka northeast.

Found a bastion there quickly.  Dug up some gold block under snout blocks.  Decided to use them up right away and let the legs of the piggies come down into my hole, but I broke the wrong block and the whole piggies came in and killed the whole me.  

next time - quickly find 36 gold nuggets again and go retrieve.

too many bad deaths to describe.

checked pos/pos.  nothing.

check neg/neg.  I got as far as the warped forest again and am collecting pearls.  not dead yet, and have 9.

dead.  neg neg has nothing I can see.

check neg/pos: nothing 

I made the giant loop through all four quadrants.  And actually found my portal.  I went to base and will leave it for tomorrow.

Next plan:  I still need pearls and blaze rods.  I guess I'll travel pos x and try to find another bastion or a fortress.  I would like to have fire res before fighting blaze.  

I'm on my way along the x axis, at 229,,172.  I have a gold helmet, some food, and a lot of blocks.  Next time, travel straight east, give or take.  Look for a bastion or fortress.  But don't enter the fortress until finding a bastion.  

Keep the Z around 200 ish.  Collect nugget and make some gold armor so I'm not just fragile soap bubbles.

Oh my goodness. 

I travelled about 1200 blocks to find a bridge bastion.  Found it.  Got the chalice in hand.  Had piglins in a hole.  Broke a gold block to get one more guy in there.  He pathfound his way to me and smacked me into nether-nether land in three hits.  

Will i ever find this place again?

I found it!

I didn't get my stuff.

I got new stuff!

I put on my soul speed boots and ran off a cliff into a lava lake.

Now I don't know if I should try again or start over.

I'm gearing up and trying again.  this time I'll head along the other side of X axis, starting at pos/neg where the first bastion was, then go east, keeping z at -200 and following pos x. 

Well that worked, kind of.  I found one gold block in the bastion I raided earlier.  I continued east and quickly spotted a fortress.  I decided to go for it, without fire res.  Died with my gold armor on.  

Geared up lightly to go try to retrieve it.  Found my way nicely almost to the fortress, but a hoglin was on my bridge!  I blocked him and started hitting him from the side.  And somehow he tusked me and threw me into the lava sea.  I have no time or heart to try again tonight.  

I did try again.  Another agonizing 5 times.  My skill level is too low to recover quickly, and I don't have patience to gather everything up.  

I think I will stop thinking I'm like Couriway and can recover every seed and finish it.  

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!

26.7 degrees from portal.

.7 diff between throws.  is about 1500 blocks away.  Aiming for Z coord of about 1775, then recheck.

got killed in a desert temple at 72,,1692.  arg.

im in stronghold at 97,,2143

end portal at 65,23,2139

but I ran out of blaze powder and it was a zero eye!

got blaze rods, took the goofy portal back.  it's at -1366,,1843.  so it might not save any time.

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.