Research Guide — March 2026

Minecraft Speedrun
Ranked Guide

Everything you need to understand the modern Minecraft speedrunning meta — MCSR Ranked, bastion routing, new technology since 2021, and a searchable glossary of 60+ terms.

6:50
Current WR (lowkey, Jun 2025)
13,000+
MCSR Ranked Players
S10
Current Season
Section 01

MCSR Ranked

A Fabric mod that turns Minecraft speedrunning into a competitive 1v1 esport. Two players race on identical worlds to kill the Ender Dragon first.

MCSR Ranked is a Fabric mod for Minecraft: Java Edition created by RedLime and team, currently on Season 10 (started January 2026). Unlike solo speedrunning where you race a clock on a random world, Ranked matches you against another player on the exact same seed with standardised RNG.

This means piglin trades, blaze drops, flint rates, and dragon behaviour are synchronised between both players. The 2nd eye throw never breaks. The dragon force-perches after 2:50. Skill matters far more than luck.

How to install: Download the official modpack from mcsrranked.com/download and import the .mrpack file into Prism Launcher, MultiMC, or the MCSR Launcher. Requires a legitimate Java Edition account. No modified clients (Lunar, Badlion) allowed.

How a Match Works

Queue → Same Seed Loaded → Overworld → Nether → Stronghold → Kill Dragon → Win

Queue times are typically 1–3 minutes. Seeds are filtered to guarantee nearby structures — the available structure types expand as you rank up. Both players experience the same barter RNG, blaze drops, and dragon behaviour.

Rank Tiers

Rank ELO Structures Available What It Means
Coal 0–599 Village, Desert Temple, Shipwreck Entry level. Learning the basics
Iron 600–899 + Ruined Portal Can complete runs consistently
Gold 900–1199 Same as Iron Average active player tier
Emerald 1200–1499 + Buried Treasure (all 5 types) Strong fundamentals
Diamond 1500–1999 All 5 types Top ~5% of players
Netherite 2000+ All 5 types Top ~0.5%. World-class

RNG Standardisation

B

Piglin Barters

6 obsidian + 3 ender pearl trades guaranteed in first 72 barters. Both players get identical trades in the same order.

D

Entity Drops

Blaze rods, enderman pearls, iron golem iron, animal food — all synchronised between players.

E

Dragon & Eyes

2nd eye throw never breaks. Dragon force-perches after 2:50. Perch nodes limited to 0–15 (vanilla: 0–20).

Game Modes

Ranked

Core competitive mode. Filtered seeds, standardised RNG, affects your ELO. 1v1 format.

Primary

Casual

Same filtered seeds and RNG but does NOT affect your ELO. Good for practice without pressure.

Practice

Private Rooms

Play against specific friends with all 5 structure types regardless of ELO. Great for practice and community events.

Social

Top Players (2025–2026)

Player Notable
hackingnoisesWon Season 8 & 9 Playoffs back-to-back. Dominant force
lowk3y_Current RSG WR holder (6:50). Season 6 Playoffs winner
FeinbergTop player since S1. Commentator/analyst for broadcasts
CouriwayProminent speedrunner, content creator, commentator
doogileS9 Playoffs runner-up (lost to hackingnoises 4-2)
InfumeS8 Playoffs runner-up. Consistent top performer

Ludwig effect: The streamer Ludwig started playing MCSR Ranked in late 2025, streaming it as his main game for months. He joked about being "literally last place" out of 10,000 players. His involvement brought significant mainstream attention — MCSR hit 1,000 concurrent players for the first time in mid-2025.

Section 02

Bastion Guide

Bastions are the most important structure in modern speedrunning. They provide gold for piglin bartering (ender pearls, obsidian, string), fire resistance potions, and more.

Bastions generate in all Nether biomes except basalt deltas. Each has 25% spawn chance. All bastions have ramparts — large tower-like walls containing chests and sometimes gold blocks. The specific chest configuration across ramparts ("rampart combinations") determines your optimal route.

What you need from a bastion: 16+ ender pearls, 21 obsidian, 48+ string (16 beds), fire resistance potions. In Ranked, standardised barter RNG guarantees 6 obsidian + 3 pearl trades in the first 72 barters (8 gold blocks), making success rates dramatically higher.

#1

Housing

"The GOAT" — Best bastion for speedrunning
S Tier
12
Gold Blocks
2
Ramparts
81.5%
Success (double triple)
5/10
Difficulty (Topdown)

Structure

2 adjacent ramparts with housing units around a central area. Right rampart always has triple chest; left has 50% chance. 12 gold blocks total: 3 in middle chamber, 9 in main chamber.

Why It's Best

  • Consistency: 12 gold blocks with little luck involved
  • Predictable layout: Gold chambers are in known locations relative to ramparts
  • Multiple route options: Top-Down, Manhunt, Manhunt Lava, Backside
  • Manageable mobs: Fewer dangerous encounters than Stables or Treasure

Route: Top-Down (Most Common)

Start from top of ramparts, work downward. Break triple chest to aggro piglins, find the flat wall on the left, bridge out, mine to the 3 gold blocks in middle chamber, use gold drops to distract piglins, continue to 9 gold blocks in main chamber. Yields 9–12 gold blocks across 5–8 chests.

Route: Manhunt Housing (Advanced)

Find centre chest, determine direction to ramparts, break chest to aggro piglins, bridge across, block piglin paths with lava/blocks/fire, create a "hole setup" for trading. Multiple hole variants: Standard (19 blocks, 5.15s), Fast (18 blocks, 3.00s), Twice Elevated (15 blocks, 2.50s).

#2

Bridge

Simplest for beginners, 4 rampart combinations
A Tier
~25
Gold Blocks
2
Ramparts (separated)
79.2%
Success (single triple, ranked)
4
Rampart Variants

Structure

2 separated ramparts (unique among bastions). Central bridge resembling a piglin head with quartz-gold chalice. 16 gold blocks in the chalice are exposed and away from piglins — easiest gold access of any bastion.

The 4 Rampart Combinations

Each rampart has a 50/50 chance of Single or Triple chest, creating 4 variants:

  • Right Triple — Best. Sub-1-minute bridge possible. Triple chest on right = most efficient routing path
  • Left Triple — Good but slightly less optimal routing
  • Double Triple — Max chest access. More loot but may not be fastest
  • Double Single ("Manhunt") — Worst. Fewer chests, requires specific workaround route

Why Only A-Tier

Despite being easiest for beginners with exposed gold, Bridge is considered "only for beginners" at competitive level. Housing's consistency and route optimisation make it faster for skilled players. Bridge success in RSG is only 33.7% (vs 79.2% in Ranked) due to barter RNG.

#3

Treasure

High risk, high reward — magma cube spawner
B Tier
13-19
Gold Blocks
2
Ramparts (adjacent)
62.4%
Success Rate
High
Risk Level

Structure

2 adjacent ramparts with a massive treasure room separated by lava. Ring hallways with bridges suspended above a lava floor. Magma cube spawner hanging from chains (cannot be disabled with light). Most elaborate bastion type.

Why It's Risky

  • Highest concentration of piglin brutes
  • Magma cube spawner creates constant hazard
  • Piglins harder to collect at bottom for efficient bartering
  • Lava pools everywhere

Many experienced runners prefer to route through the ramparts rather than descend into the treasure room. Route variants: Right Boomer, Ninjabrain, Lower Treasure, Top Treasure.

#4

Stables

"The Worst" — Most luck-dependent
C Tier
0-12
Gold Blocks
3
Ramparts (unique)
27.2%
Success (triple-to-gap, RSG)
~50
Mobs Present

Structure

The only bastion with 3 ramparts (all others have 2). Largest bastion type with damaged hoglin stables on either side. Random structural holes create fall hazards. Gold is ONLY found underneath triple chest ramparts (4 per triple).

Good Gap vs Bad Gap

Critical concept unique to Stables:

  • Good Gap: Contains up to 10 gold blocks. Traditional tell: 1-wide gap on outside
  • Bad Gap: Contains NO gold. Traditional tell: 2-wide gap on outside
  • Modern identification: Mine specific blocks, check for air (air = good) or solid (solid = bad)
  • 25% chance of "double bad gap" — both gaps bad, forcing top rampart check

Why It's Worst

  • Routes fail 7.4% of the time from unfavourable generation
  • Highest mob density (~50 mobs), hoglins cause knockback
  • Random structural holes — easy to fall into hostile territory
  • Sprawling layout, easy to get lost
  • Could have 0 gold blocks if no ramparts roll triple (rare but devastating)

Quick Identification

Feature Housing Bridge Treasure Stables
Ramparts 2 (adjacent) 2 (separated) 2 (adjacent) 3
Gold Blocks 12 ~25 13-19 0-12
Triple Chest Y y73 y73 Always 2 chests y72
Best For Consistency Beginners Fast if skilled Avoiding
Ranking S Tier A Tier B Tier C Tier
Section 03

Modern Meta & Technology

What's changed since 2021 — from hypermodern routing to zero-cycling, the speedrun scene has been transformed by new techniques and tools.

The hypermodern route has completely replaced the classic bartering strategy. Almost every competitive run now starts with a coastal/ocean spawn. The record has dropped from 9:08 (2022) to 6:50 (June 2025) — the first sub-7-minute RSG run.

Key Innovations Since 2021

E

E-Ray / Microlensing

Find bastions using F3 entity count. Set FOV to 30, rotate slowly — entity spike reveals bastion direction. Discovered by k4yfour.

~2022
P

Pie-Ray / Piedar

Find fortresses using Shift+F3 pie chart. Look for "spawner" in Block Entities while incrementing render distance with F3+F.

~2022
N

Ninjabrain Bot Legalised

External stronghold triangulation tool using eye of ender angles. Made precise stronghold finding accessible to all. Legalised Nov 2021.

Nov 2021
Z

Zero Cycle

Kill dragon mid-flight on obsidian pillar. Eliminates perch luck entirely. Used in lowkey's 6:50 WR. Much harder than one-cycle but more consistent.

Post-2021
M

Mapless Treasure

Find buried treasure without a map. Treasure always spawns at chunk coords 9,9. Use pie chart + F3 coordinates. Invented by TheTalkingMime.

~2022
H

Hypermodern Route

Shipwreck + magma ravine + buried treasure. Requires ocean spawn. Faster but higher reset rate. Now the dominant meta for competitive play.

2022-2023

Modern Speedrun Flow

Spawn Assessment → Shipwreck → Buried Treasure → Magma Ravine Portal
Microlensing → Bastion → Pie-Ray → Fortress
Blind/Educated Travel → Stronghold → Zero/One Cycle

Route Hierarchy (Beginner → Expert)

Route Level Description
Structureless Beginner Cave mining, basic portal. Simple but slow
Village Intermediate Village loot, iron golem, beds. More consistent
Pirate Advanced Shipwreck + ravine without full hypermodern optimization
Hypermodern Expert Full optimization — mapless treasure, E-Ray, pie-ray, zero cycle

The modern Nether flow is Microlensing → Bastion → Pie-Ray → Fortress. This replaces the old approach of wandering until you found structures.

Finding the Bastion (E-Ray / Microlensing)

  1. Enter the Nether, open F3
  2. Check if E: value is ~30 lower than M:+C: sum — indicates bastion in render distance
  3. Set FOV to 30, slowly rotate 360° watching the Left E: value
  4. When entities spike, that's the bastion direction
  5. Travel to bastion

Bastion Looting Goals

ItemTargetPurpose
Ender Pearls16+End portal + nether travel
Obsidian21+Blind travel portal + end setup
String48+16 beds for dragon + blaze fight
Fire Res Potion1+Blaze fight safety
Crying Obsidian + GlowstoneBackupRespawn anchors if low string

Finding the Fortress (Pie-Ray)

  1. Press Shift+F3 to open pie chart
  2. Navigate to Block Entities section
  3. Incrementally increase render distance with F3+F
  4. Look for "spawner" entries (blaze spawners)
  5. When spawner appears, decrease render distance by 1 to gauge distance
  6. Use F3+G (chunk boundaries) to determine direction

Fortress tip: Go upstairs without netherwart, go downstairs with netherwart, always run away from balconies. Drink fire resistance before engaging blazes. Need 6 rods (kill 6-7 blazes). Blazes fire 3 shots then cooldown — learn the rhythm.

The hypermodern overworld phase requires a coastal/ocean spawn with shipwreck and magma ravine nearby. Most competitive runs start this way.

Hypermodern Overworld Priorities

  1. Spawn assessment: Look for coastal/ocean spawn
  2. Shipwreck: Need 7+ iron (ideally 11+). Loot all 3 chests: food, iron, treasure map. Mine wood from the ship itself
  3. Buried treasure: Either use map or mapless technique (chunk coords 9,9). Always at those coordinates within the chunk
  4. Magma ravine: For quick Nether portal. Find upside-down L formation in magma, use bucket to create lava-cast portal frame
  5. Ocean monument (optional): 8 gold blocks (72 ingots). Approach at 2-chunk render distance to avoid Elder Guardian mining fatigue

Terrain Reading Techniques

F3+B Hitboxes

Show entity hitboxes to spot faraway kelp, indicating magma ravines. Also helps locate endermen and mobs behind walls.

Render Distance

Lower to 2 chunks at ocean monuments to prevent elder guardians loading. Increase gradually for pie-ray fortress detection.

Structure Spotting

Look for shipwreck masts above water, bubble columns from magma, and biome patterns that predict nearby terrain.

Village Strategy (Alternative Route)

Villages are an intermediate strategy — not fastest but more consistent. Key approach:

  • Blacksmith (grindstone building) is most valuable — chest has iron pickaxes, ingots, armour
  • Iron Golem kill: Hit and pillar up 3 blocks. Drops 3-5 iron for a bucket
  • Iron budget: Bucket (3) + Flint & Steel (1) + Shears (2) + Axe (3) = 6-9 iron
  • Pie chart check: Shift+F3, if furnace in Block Entities = village has a blacksmith

The end fight has seen the biggest innovation: zero-cycling removes perch luck entirely, making it more consistent than the traditional one-cycle approach.

Zero Cycle

Kill the dragon mid-flight before it perches. Build explosive setup on an obsidian pillar (End spike). Dragon spawns in predictable positions relative to pillars. Eliminates perch luck entirely.

Variants: OG, Bridge, Modern. Extremely difficult but more consistent than one-cycle. Used in lowkey's 6:50 WR.

Expert — The new standard

One Cycle

Kill dragon in a single perch using bed explosions. Place beds on the bedrock fountain, detonate as dragon lands. Each bed does 1/4 to 1/3 of health. Top runners use 4-5 beds.

Downside: Depends on dragon perching quickly — "perch luck" is major RNG. If perch is slow, significant time lost.

Intermediate — Standard approach

Notable zero cycle moment: On May 13, 2025, Priffie entered the End at 5:50 — massively ahead of WR pace — but failed the zero cycle. This illustrates both the technique's power and risk. A month later, lowkey successfully zero-cycled for the 6:50 WR.

Three Travel Methods

Blind Travel

Travel to approximate Nether coordinates without Eyes of Ender. Based on stronghold ring spawning 1,280-2,816 blocks from origin. Fastest but least precise.

Fastest

Educated Travel

Two eye throws + math. Throw eye, note angle. Move 17.5 blocks perpendicular. Throw again. Distance = 1000 / angle difference. Now often done with Ninjabrain Bot.

Standard

Divine Travel

Use features at 0,0 chunk (fossils, etc.) to predict stronghold location without any eye throws. Huge timesaver when available, but not always possible.

Advanced

Educated travel formula: Throw eye #1, record angle. Move 17.5 blocks perpendicular to the throw direction. Throw eye #2, record new angle. Distance to stronghold = 1000 ÷ (angle difference in degrees). Ninjabrain Bot automates this calculation using F3 coordinates.

RSG 1.16+ World Record Progression

~2022
9:08

Cube1337x

Feb 2023
8:01

Zylenox

~Dec 2023
7:24

NoFear1337 — Broke Zylenox's long-standing record

Jan 2024
7:01

drip120 — First sub-7:10. Held for ~18 months

Jun 2025
6:50.359

lowkey (lowk3y_) — First sub-7 minute RSG run. Version 1.16.1. Featured a "spectacular" zero cycle. 17 iron from buried treasure within seconds of spawning. Killed exactly 6 blazes for 6 rods (0.015625% odds). ~3.1 million YouTube views.

lowkey's profile: Won MCSR Ranked Playoffs Season 6. Diamond II rank, peak ELO 2419, 75% win rate. Active since March 2022. The sub-7 run has been described as "the beginning of a new era for RSG speedrunning."

Content Creators

CreatorKnown For
Couriway5x WR holder. Free "Ultimate Minecraft Speedrun Guide" on Metafy. Great bastion content
Feinberg2x Rank 1. Multiple All Advancements records. Educational content
k4yfourDiscovered E-Ray/microlensing technique. Hypermodern tutorials
lowk3y_Current WR holder (6:50). Active on YouTube (~24.4k subs) and Twitch
drip120Former WR holder (7:01). Multiple category records
ZylenoxFormer WR holder. Educational RSG attempt content

Guides & Documents

  • Couriway's Ultimate Guide — metafy.gg/@couriway/guides (free, comprehensive)
  • Metacor's Guide — github.com/Metacor/Minecraft-Speedrun-Guide
  • Minecraft Speedrunning Wiki — en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Minecraft_Speedrunning
  • MCSR Wiki — mcsr.miraheze.org
  • speedrun.com Guides — speedrun.com/mc/guides

Practice Maps & Tools

MCSR Practice Map

All-in-one practice map combining important maps into one package.

Essential

Llama's Bastion Practice

Full control over bastion generation. Practice specific types, rampart combos, and routes.

Bastions

Ninjabrain Bot

Stronghold calculator. Uses F3 coords and eye angles for precise triangulation. Legal since Oct 2021.

Tool

Zero Cycle Practice

Dedicated practice maps for zero cycle execution. Mescht's Zero-Practice on GitHub.

End Fight

SeedQueue

Modern replacement for multi-instance. Generates multiple worlds in a single client. Now the standard.

Resetting

SpeedRunIGT

In-game timer mod tracking RTA/IGT across 20+ categories. Auto-start/pause support.

Timer
Section 04

Glossary

Searchable reference of 60+ Minecraft speedrunning terms. Search by term or definition.

🔍
Showing all terms
General Speedrunning
PB (Personal Best)
Your fastest completion time for a given category. Runners also track "segment PBs" for individual sections.
WR (World Record)
The fastest verified time on speedrun.com for a given category and version. Current RSG 1.16.1 WR: 6:50.359 by lowkey.
Sub-X (Sub-10, Sub-8, etc.)
Completing a run in under X minutes. Sub-15 is a beginner goal; sub-10 is advanced; sub-8 is elite/world-class.
Splits
Timed segments within a run tracked by timer software (LiveSplit). Common splits: Overworld, Nether Enter, Bastion, Fortress, Nether Exit, Stronghold, End Enter, Dragon Kill.
Gold Splits
Your personal best time for an individual split segment. LiveSplit highlights these in gold. "Sum of Best" (SOB) = all gold splits combined into a theoretical best run.
Crafting Splits
Optimised sequences for crafting items quickly. Includes "half-splitting" (shift-clicking to split stacks), optimal click patterns for tools and beds. Can save several seconds per run.
Seed
The numerical value that determines world generation — terrain, structures, biomes, and loot tables.
Set Seed (SSG) vs Random Seed (RSG)
SSG: Known seed, memorised route, pure execution. RSG: Fresh seed each run, requires adaptation. RSG is the most popular competitive category and the primary mode in MCSR Ranked.
Reset / Resetting
Abandoning a run and starting a new world. Top runners reset hundreds of times for optimal spawns. "Reset rate" = how selective a runner is.
Any%
Most common speedrun category: kill the Ender Dragon and enter the exit portal as fast as possible with no additional requirements.
Glitchless
Standard ruleset prohibiting bugs, exploits, or unintended mechanics. Almost all competitive Minecraft runs are "glitchless."
IGT (In-Game Time)
Timing method counting only when the game is actively running. Pausing stops the timer. Official timing method for speedrun.com.
RTA (Real-Time Attack)
Wall-clock timing from start to finish, including loading screens and pauses. Not primary for MC speedruns but still tracked.
Pace / On Pace
A run tracking ahead of or close to a target time. "On WR pace" = current splits match or beat the world record. Runners decide to continue or reset based on pace.
RNG
Random Number Generation. The randomness inherent in speedrunning: barter rates, blaze drops, perch timing, loot, world gen. Managing RNG is the core skill difference.
Mods & Tools
Atum (Auto-Reset Mod)
Fabric mod adding hotkey (F6) to instantly reset and generate a new world. Works from any game state. Essential for RSG grinding. Named after the Egyptian creation god.
Wall / Multi-Instance
Multiple MC instances running simultaneously on a "wall" screen. Pick promising seeds, reset bad ones without entering. Requires 6+ instances. Largely replaced by SeedQueue.
SeedQueue
Modern replacement for multi-instance (~2024). Generates multiple worlds within a single MC client on an in-game wall. Better performance. Now the standard for serious runners.
Ninjabrain Bot
Stronghold calculator using F3 coordinates and eye of ender angles. Trigonometry-based triangulation. Legal since October 2021. Gives precise coordinates.
Practice Map
Custom maps for drilling specific skills: bastion routing, dragon fights, portal building, crafting. The MCSR Practice Map is a comprehensive collection.
LiveSplit
Timer software for tracking splits during runs. Shows current time, PB comparisons, and gold splits. Standard across all speedrunning.
StandardSettings
Mod that auto-applies preferred settings (render distance, FOV, difficulty) on each new world creation. Eliminates manual configuration after resets.
Overworld Phase
Terrain Reading
Quickly assessing spawn to determine nearby resources and structures. Includes biome identification, structure spotting, and deciding whether to reset or continue.
Shipwreck
Underwater/coastal structure with up to 3 loot chests. Critical in hypermodern route for iron (7-11+), food, and buried treasure maps.
Buried Treasure
Chest buried at chunk coordinates 9,9 near beaches. Found via maps from shipwrecks or mapless technique. Provides iron, gold, food.
Mapless (Treasure)
Finding buried treasure without a map. Since treasure always spawns at chunk coord 9,9, use F3 coordinates to navigate directly. Invented by TheTalkingMime. Faster but harder.
Magma Ravine
Underwater ocean ravine with magma blocks at the bottom. Find an L-shape formation, use lava beneath magma to build a portal frame. Fastest portal-building method in hypermodern.
Ruined Portal
Partially-built nether portal in the overworld. If repairable with available blocks, provides the fastest nether entry. Can contain obsidian, gold, flint & steel.
Ocean Monument
Large underwater structure with 8 gold blocks (72 ingots) in treasure room. Approach at 2-chunk render distance to avoid Elder Guardian mining fatigue. Risky but rewarding.
Village
Structure with beds, food, and potentially iron from blacksmith chest. Used in classic/intermediate routes. Blacksmith = grindstone building.
Tall Birch Forest / Mushroom Fields
Rare biomes that serve as indicators of world generation patterns. Their presence (via F3) informs runners about surrounding ocean and continent placement.
Nether Phase
Nether Enter / Nether Exit
The timed splits for entering and exiting the Nether. Also a speedrun.com category extension. Good nether enter = strong run indicator.
Microlensing / E-Ray
Find bastions by reducing FOV to 30 and panning view while watching F3 "E:" (entity count). A spike at a specific angle = piglins in a bastion in that direction. The narrow FOV "lenses" onto entities. Discovered by k4yfour.
Pie Chart / Pie Nav
Shift+F3 debug pie chart showing performance profiling data. Used for navigation: "blockEntities" category reveals structures at various distances. Adjust render distance and read pie chart to detect direction/distance of structures.
Pie-Ray
Using pie chart to locate fortresses. Fortresses contain blaze spawners (block entities). Incrementally increase render distance (F3+F) until "spawner" appears in blockEntities. Primary method for finding fortresses.
Bastion Types
4 types: Housing (S tier, "the goat"), Bridge (A tier, beginner-friendly), Treasure (B tier, high risk/reward), Stables (C tier, "the worst"). Each 25% spawn chance.
Ramparts / Rampart Combinations
Large tower-like walls in bastions containing chests and gold. "Rampart combinations" = the specific chest configurations (single/triple) across ramparts, which determines optimal routing. Bridge has 4 combinations; Stables has 3 ramparts.
Topdown
Most common Housing bastion route. Enter from top of ramparts, work downward. Break triple chest to aggro piglins, mine to gold chambers. 5/10 difficulty. Yields 9-12 gold blocks.
Piglin Bartering / Pearl Trades
Trading gold ingots with piglins for ender pearls (~2.18% chance per barter for 2-4 pearls), obsidian, string, fire res potions. Need ~17-22 gold blocks worth in RSG. "Pearl trades" = the RNG of getting pearls.
Gold Splits
In bastion context: (1) the time spent collecting gold, (2) the technique of quickly distributing gold to piglins. Efficient gold collection/distribution is critical and highly improvable.
Fortress Routing
Navigating a fortress to find blaze spawners. Fortresses have enclosed corridors (netherwart) and open bridges (spawners). Go upstairs without netherwart, downstairs with it, run from balconies.
Blaze Count
Number of blaze rods collected. Target: 7 rods (= 14 blaze powder = 14 eyes, only 12 needed). Beginners aim for 8. Aggressive runners may leave with 5-6 if pearl count is good.
Bed Strats / Bed Bombing
Using beds as explosives in Nether/End (beds explode when you try to sleep). Used to kill blazes at spawners, one-cycle the dragon, and clear piglins. Need a block between you and the bed to reduce self-damage.
Warped Forest
Nether biome where endermen spawn frequently. In classic route, runners sometimes hunt endermen here for pearls. Less common in modern meta since bastion bartering is more reliable.
Travel & Stronghold Finding
Blind Travel
Travelling through the Nether to calculated coordinates, then building a portal — without eyes of ender. First stronghold ring = 1,280-2,816 blocks from origin. Fastest but least precise.
Educated Travel
Two eye throws + math. Throw eye, note angle. Move 17.5 blocks perpendicular. Throw again. Distance = 1000 / (angle difference). Now often automated with Ninjabrain Bot.
Divine Travel
Using features at 0,0 chunk (fossils, etc.) to predict stronghold location without any eye throws. Cross-reference placement against known generation tables. Huge timesaver when available.
Stronghold Triangulation
Mathematical process of determining stronghold location using two eye throws from different positions. The intersection of trajectories gives coordinates. Done manually or with Ninjabrain Bot.
Eye Spy
In-game advancement for entering a stronghold. Used colloquially as a mental checkpoint — getting "eye spy" means you've successfully navigated from nether exit to stronghold entrance.
Portal Room
Stronghold room containing the end portal frame (12 blocks, each 10% chance of already having an eye). Spawns 5-8 rooms from the starting staircase. Finding it fast requires knowledge of stronghold layout patterns.
End Phase
Dragon Perch
When the dragon lands on the bedrock fountain at the centre of the End. Primary opportunity for one-cycling. Timing is somewhat random — "perch luck" is major RNG.
One-Cycle
Killing the dragon in a single perch using bed explosions on the fountain. Top runners use 4-5 beds. Standard dragon kill but depends on getting a fast perch.
Zero-Cycle
Killing the dragon mid-flight before it perches. Build explosive setup on obsidian pillar. Dragon spawns predictably relative to pillars. Eliminates perch RNG. Variants: OG, Bridge, Modern. Harder but more consistent.
End Crystal Cycle
End crystals atop obsidian pillars heal the dragon. In zero-cycle setups, crystal destruction timing is incorporated into the damage sequence. Destroying crystals is normally a priority.
Perching
The dragon landing on the fountain, or the strategy built around exploiting it. "Perch luck" = how quickly the dragon lands. Fast perch = good. This RNG is why zero-cycling gained popularity.
Routes & Meta
Classic Route
Traditional pre-hypermodern approach: gather resources, find village/cave for iron, build portal via water+lava, barter in bastion, kill blazes, triangulate stronghold, one-cycle dragon. Simpler but slower.
Hypermodern Route
Current meta (dominant since ~2022). Coastal spawn, shipwreck, buried treasure, magma ravine portal. E-Ray to bastion, pie-ray to fortress, blind/educated travel, zero/one-cycle dragon. Faster but higher reset rate.
Filtered Seed
Seeds guaranteed to have favourable characteristics (nearby structures, close bastion/fortress). Used in MCSR Ranked to reduce variance. Structure types available depend on rank tier.
MCSR Ranked Specific
MCSR Ranked
Competitive matchmaking Fabric mod for 1v1 races to kill the dragon. ELO rating, seasonal rankings, standardised RNG. Primary competitive platform for RSG speedrunning in 2025-2026.
ELO / Rating
Chess-style skill rating. Win vs higher-rated = more points. Lose vs lower-rated = more lost. Determines matchmaking. Ranks: Coal (0-599), Iron (600-899), Gold (900-1199), Emerald (1200-1499), Diamond (1500-1999), Netherite (2000+).
RNG Standardisation
MCSR Ranked's system ensuring both players get equivalent random outcomes: same seed, synced barter RNG (6 obsidian + 3 pearl trades guaranteed in first 72 barters), synced blaze drops, 2nd eye never breaks, dragon force-perch at 2:50.
Technical
F3 Debug Screen
Debug overlay showing coordinates, facing angle, biome, entity counts, chunk info. Essential for navigation: XYZ (triangulation), facing angle (eye throws), E value (microlensing).
F3+B (Entity Hitboxes)
Toggle entity hitbox outlines visible through blocks. Used to spot kelp (indicating ravines), find endermen, locate mobs behind walls.
F3+F (Render Distance)
Change render distance by 1 chunk. Used strategically: lower at ocean monuments (avoid elder guardians), increase for pie-ray fortress detection.
F3+G (Chunk Boundaries)
Show chunk boundary lines. Helps determine structure direction when combined with pie-ray readings.
Icarus
A speedrun category where the player starts with an elytra and firework rockets. Enables faster travel. Named after the mythological figure.
ai gen