Coming into this, I "beat the game" maybe three times ever before. I've been playing for over a decade--I think I started on a cracked version of Beta 1.8--so that number is maybe startlingly low. I just never really felt any push to.
Of course, this being the first post here, we just gotta start the game.
I mined a bunch of resources--using copper picks to save my iron--until I felt like I had enough to enter the nether.
For the first time ever I built a portal with a bucket, which is a little unintuitive, and entered into the middle of a Soulsand Valley, nabbing some bone blocks for some later-wheat.
I ran around, aimless, until I found a fortress in a Warped Forest. The forest was fantastic because I had literally no wood and my pickaxe was long-broken.
A Terrible Fortress and then panic! I hit a Piglin instead of the trying-to-kill-me Wither Skeleton and now there were Problems. Picking flight over fight, I ran away, boxed myself in, and dug out through a wall.
After getting my bearings, and approximately 700 false starts, I was able to convince the piglins I was not a threat and start gathering my blaze rods.
It was a battle, boy was it! I'm not good in the Nether, and especially not against blaze, so I was only able to leave after 10 in game days. That's over three hours from world start! Certainly no speedrunner.
I only got 8 blaze rods! I'll need (assuming 2 eyes per portal on average) 704 before this challenge is over, so I better learn to battle the blaze.
It was after that, while I was exploring caves looking for more resources, that I obtained my first death.
I got mobbed by Zombies and Skeletons and nearly won. It was, of course, the baby zombie that got me. So much for no deaths.
The cords are on my screen, out of habit really, so I knew where to get back to. And my stuff was still there! Loosing it all would be really punishing since I carry everything important on me. We'll get back to that.
Eventually, I got everything I need to enter the end. Boat Enderman work really well it turns out.
The portal was a zero eye. I entered and was greeted by what was actually some stunning end generation. There was a squatty ravine between the spawn platform and the main island.
I disabled the crystals. Most by shooting, some by pearl-and-pray (wherein I throw a pearl and try like hell to place blocks under me before gravity wins).
The next 15 minutes was waiting for the dragon to return to center, and throwing a pearl in at the last moment. I think every single time she flew off I got launched into the air. I'm not sure I took damage, though? It seemed to be that my thrown-directly-downwards pearls did not damage me. Was it immunity? No, it seemed too long sometimes? Unsure! The magic of the end, perhaps.
With the dragon defeated I entered the outer islands. And then it all went wrong.
The second death; the big death.
"I'm always a little scared trying to pearl onto the end islands. They're floating above the void and their shape leaves nothing to build on if you hit a side."
"Just try to overthrow! There's space, you'll make it!", I urge myself, overconfident.
And so, I threw. And uh, I very much did throw. The game, all my items into the void; my Written Book titled Diary I'd been keeping through the first 22 days.
Alas, we mourn what once was but must press ever onwards.
And here we arrive, at present day. I spawned back at the bed I setup in the portal room, after almost being mauled by silverfish, and then logged off.
We'll see what happens. I think I need to gather some basic tools before looting the end. I miss my apple. It was named "First Apple" and I was going to carry it through all 128 ends. And my bundle labeled "treasure" with my 3 dried ghast.
Till next time.