Minecraft speedrunning categories explained

Minecraft is one of the most popular games in existence. Despite being a sandbox, it has an underlying plot where players survive and travel to all three dimensions of the game before finally defeating the Ender Dragon to complete the main story. Thanks to its immense popularity, the title has garnered an entire speedrunning community of its own.

Thousands of players have tried to complete Minecraft as quickly as possible, and have gradually brought down the time to ridiculous numbers. When looking through the game's speedruns, its categories can be confusing at first. Hence, here is a short summary of the different types of speedrunning categories in Minecraft.

Different types of speedrunning categories in Minecraft

Random Seed Glitchless

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The first (and most popular) Minecraft speedrunning category is Random Seed Glitchless (RSG). In this, players try to beat the game as quickly as they can while adhering to certain criteria.

"Random seed" refers to the fact that the player cannot know the spawn location, terrain, structures, or loot because the world is always created from an entirely random seed. Hence, RSG tests the flexibility and quick decision-making capabilities of a player.

"Glitchless" refers to a run that adheres to the game's intended mechanics and does not use bugs, exploits, or glitches to get around certain gameplay elements. Despite this, there are some render distance and FOV techniques that players use to quickly find strongholds and other important structures.

Because the competitors never know what to expect, the RSG speedrunning category is quite intense. Fast speedrunners frequently restart runs dozens or even hundreds of times to get the best world spawns. After that, they rely on quick reflexes, game knowledge, and a little bit of luck.

When it comes to game versions, RSG is usually most popular in the pre-1.8 and 1.16 versions. Both have vastly different speedrunning methods, since they are so far apart in time and features.

Set Seed Glitchless

In the Set Seed Glitchless (SSG) speedrunning category of Minecraft, players try to finish the game as quickly as they can with a preset world seed. "Set seed" refers to a fixed world generation that players are aware of. They usually know the exact locations of all items, terrain, creatures, structures, and loot. This enables speedrunners to aim for perfection by planning and optimizing their path down to the last millisecond.

The "Glitchless" part again means that no bugs, glitches, or exploits can be used in this speed run. Of course, players still can use some render distance and FOV tricks to track down structures.

SSG is all about perfect execution, memorizing movement, optimizing inventory, and making no mistakes whatsoever.

In this category, world records are extremely close, frequently varying by a mere tenth of a second. Under the standard guidelines of Minecraft, it's a real test of accuracy, muscle memory, and mechanical competence.

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About the author

Akshat has been a Minecraft writer at Sportskeeda for almost three years. He has loved gaming since childhood, and the fact that Need For Speed Most Wanted is still installed on his PC is proof that the flame burns strong even today. This love for the racing franchise spilled over to F1 fandom, leading him to cover the sport as well for the company.

Akshat's articles have accrued over 19 million views so far at Sportskeeda. He prefers both solo and multiplayer titles and is a huge admirer of popular gamers Shroud and Philza. Akshat places huge emphasis on accurate, relevant, and ethical content, and does thorough research using social media, videos, and a multitude of websites before writing an article.

Akshat's other hobbies include cars, mechanical keyboards, psychology, and philosophy. He would recommend indie and Slice of Life games to a gaming skeptic because of their ease of play, compelling storyline, and message.

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Edited by Akshat Kabra