The Speedrun That Broke the Dropper

Bigre's the Dropper Map for Minecraft 1.5 has been a popular extension to Minecraft speedrunning, as one of the most popular and influential downloadable Minecraft maps of all time. It was to be expected that Dropper speedrunning would span into many categories for the many different ways of playing it.

Any% is a popular speedrunning category that asks for a player to try to get from the start of the game to the end any means necessary. It typically allows for users to skip levels, missions and items as long as they end up at the finish. They also normally allow the player to use glitches and bugs to their advantage. The Dropper any% speedrun requires for the player to get from the start area to the end area in the shortest amount of time possible. Timing starts as soon as you enter the door, and ends as soon as you enter the end area.

So how exactly do you get from the start of the game to the end area as quickly as possible? Do you have to play all 17 levels to beat the game, or only the first 16 to get to the end area? There aren't any level skips in the Dropper are there? Well, no there aren't. There are no points in the games where you can find a way to skip a level or go to a level later on. It's always one level at a time.

Remember when I said that any% normally allows for you to use glitches? Well, while there may be no official level skips available, glitches can be used to skip levels. After you complete a level, and before you attempt the next dropper, your spawn point automatically changes to above the next dropper in order to allow you to automatically spawn above that dropper if you fail there. There is no need to even use the set spawnpoint buttons on the walls. This automatic spawn setting can be used to your advantage, or at least where your spawn is originally set can be.

Although when you start you spawn in the water out the front of the starting area, your spawnpoint isn't actually set there. You can test this by digging a hole in the wool under the water and drowning yourself. Whether from Bigre testing the game before going to the start for the release version, or for some other reason, your spawn point is actually at the final checkpoint before level 17. This means that if you are able to die before your checkpoint gets set elsewhere, you can travel straight to the last level. From here, you can simply run backwards to get to the end area. So this means that if you are able to die pretty much straight away, this would be the fastest way to speedrun the game. But how do you die at the start? There is no way to die in the water area outside of the first dropper, and if you fall down the first dropper but die, your spawn has already been reset meaning that you will instead respawn at the first level.

The thing is though, that you actually can die in the first level before your spawn point is set. If you die pretty much straight away in the first dropper, you can die before your respawn point is set. By going to the side as soon as you drop, you can gain just enough momentum as you hit the side of the dropper to die. From here, after you respawn, you can just run backwards and as soon as you reach the end of the tunnel and start falling down, you have finished the speedrun. In version 1.5, you can reliably do this in around 25 seconds for a complete run. This run completely breaks the game and takes away any challenge from playing. This has resulted in the speedrun.com leader boards for the map delisting the any% category, although for many other games strats that trivialise beating the game don't justify delisting a category, it would make sense regardless to keep the run in order for people to learn about this strategy.