Lately, Minecraft has gained a ton of popularity within the speedrunning community. As a result, it has attracted more fans to learn the art of speedrunning games, and more specifically speedrunning Minecraft by defeating the Ender Dragon as quickly as possible.
The trend has highlighted a lot of cool features that used to be less well-known in Minecraft, such as using beds to slay the Ender Dragon and trading with Piglins quickly to get Ender pearls. Runs are typically done on Easy difficulty on 1.16.1, and many runners use an officially accepted performance mod called CaffeineMC, which helps the game run better. Here are the ten quickest runs with the former conditions, according to the official speedrun website on which players must submit recorded evidence.
10 Shell_Guy - 16:27
In 10th place, there's Canadian speedrunner Shell_Guy. He was able to complete the game within 16 minutes and 27 seconds. His strategy is based around ocean structures, as he's able to collect his early items from a shipwreck and an underwater ruined portal.
Once inside the Nether, he spawned right next to a Nether fortress, which really facilitated the run. His trades with Piglins also allowed him to get eight Ender pearls right off the bat. After leaving the Nether he began tracking down the stronghold and came across a village. There, he was able to collect the beds that would help him seal the deal with the dragon.
9 TheBlazer97 - 16:14
On the 9th spot, there's speedrunner TheBlazer97, who comes from Argentina. They were able to finish the game at 16 minutes and 14 seconds. The main strategy here also revolved around ocean structures, and one of the biggest advantages was finding an ocean monument with plenty of gold for the Piglin trades.
Using some of the extra pearls he gained from trading with the Piglins, he was able to cross a large space in the Nether and reach the closest fortress quickly for Blaze rods. Once out of the Nether, he was lucky enough to find a village while looking for a stronghold to collect the beds needed to defeat the Ender Dragon.
8 Dylqn - 16:10
Although Dylqn's actual PB is 15:50, the time was unfortunately denied by the speedrunning community due to the nature of the evidence. That being said, his officially accepted PB is still very impressive, at 16 minutes and 10 seconds in-game.
His strategy also revolves around an ocean monument, which gave him the majority of his trading gold. In the Nether, he was fortunate enough to find a fortress fairly close by, along with two Piglins within the same vicinity.
7 Ninjabrain1 - 15:57
Ninjabrain1's run of the game is a bit more traditional compared to some of the newer runs that use ocean strategies. He spawned right next to a lava pool and a village, which gave him the chance to collect his necessities and to quickly make a Nether entry.
In the Nether, he ended up finding a Bastion very close by, which gave him a ton of gold for trades. Using pearls, he was able to find the nearest fortress, which fortunately was nearby as well. This type of village run is rarer these days, but it still managed to get him his 15 minute and 57 second time.
6 Dowsky - 15:44
Dowsky's run is undoubtedly one of the craziest and most interesting ones on the list, mainly due to how incredibly lucky he is. After starting off by raiding an ocean monument for gold and finding a village for beds and food, he actually came across a stronghold very close by at the bottom of the ocean.
This allowed him to use the lava from the stronghold's portal room to create a Nether portal and save an enormous amount of time by not looking for a stronghold later on. In the Nether, his portal spawned right next to a fortress, and with a Piglin not too far off, this run was a sealed deal in no time.
5 Maljack - 15:18
Another insane performance comes from Maljack, who was able to finish the game within 15 minutes and 18 seconds. The run begins as a regular ocean strategy, with extra gold from an ocean monument and the starting items from a shipwreck and a ruined portal chest.
However, as he entered the Nether, he spawned straight inside a Bastion. This allowed him to collect a ton of pearls from Piglin trades, thanks to additional gold as well. With these additional pearls, he crossed huge distances in the Nether and found a fortress faster than expected. The extra pearls also helped him in finding the stronghold much faster.
4 Hamazon - 15:16
Sometimes, even the most average world seeds can yield great results, and that's exactly what Hamazon proves with his 15 minutes and 16 seconds run. After he spawned next to a village and was able to get his starting gear and six beds, he was forced to dig down through a cave to find lava. Not the most convenient of ways, but it's the last resort for many runs.
In the Nether, he found a Bastion very close by to his portal, and with extra gold blocks from a ruined portal, he was able to trade quite a bit for some additional pearls. With these pearls, he quickly crossed lava lakes to find a fortress. Through calculating Ender pearl angles and chunks, he also efficiently predicted where the stronghold would be.
3 G4v1ng72 - 15:12
G4v1ng72's speedrun of 15 minutes and 12 seconds is another one that's hard to believe, just because of how everything just seems to align perfectly. It's a wonder to watch how it all starts from a ruined portal he was able to complete with the obsidian found in the chest. As he spawned into the Nether, he was right next to a Bastion and a fortress.
In order to save time with finding the stronghold, he decided to travel through the Nether for a few hundreds blocks, since one block in the Nether equals eight blocks in the Overworld. This was also possible since he got so many pearls and obsidian from his trades within the Bastion. Better yet, the stronghold was visible underwater in an ocean biome, making entry into the portal room even easier. The string from his Piglin trades also made it possible for him to make beds without finding a village.
2 Zylenox - 14:07
Getting into the 14-minute mark is not an easy task at all, but zylenox actually pulled it off at 14 minutes and 7 seconds. After a pretty normal start with a village, zylenox dug down to a cave to get more iron and set up a portal, which is usually a last resort technique in an age of ocean strategies.
The portal actually ended up working well, since zylenox's Nether spawn not only had a Bastion, but also a fortress almost right next to one another. After making trades, zylenox was able to determine the location of the fortress through impeccable triangulation, which was closer than expected.
1 Reignex - 14:07
Currently holding the number one position jointly with zylenox, reignex received an identical in-game PB at the end of his run. Reignex started off with a very basic spawn as well, but after finding a village and a ruined portal he was able to complete it with the obsidian found in the chest. In the Nether, his spawn had both a fortress and a Bastion very close by.
Thanks to all the obsidian he got from his trades, he was able to make a portal out of the Nether on the spot. It also turned out that the closest stronghold was right by him, and through showing chunks he managed to deduce its location and score his 14 minutes and 7 seconds time.