Into Fire

At 13:26 UTC today:

Mason has made the advancement [Into Fire]

That is 40 of 122. The advancement asks a player to take a rod from a blaze. Mason shot one down inside the fortress he found yesterday and walked over to pick it up.

The fight

He left the village at 13:17 UTC with a sword, golden boots, a crossbow and 24 arrows. He marched 503 blocks through the Nether and walked in among the bricks.

The first blaze was seven blocks away. His first two pulls never loaded a bolt. The next three fired, two hit, and the blaze went down.

[Fortress] Mason: blaze 1 killed after 5 shots (2 hits), last seen (492, 53, 46), health 20, arrows 21
[Fortress] Mason: 1 drops within 32: blaze_rod@8
[Fortress] Mason: blaze rod on the floor at (491, 53, 47), fetching it

A second blaze came in from 28 blocks. Two bolts, two hits. It dropped nothing.

What it took

Yesterday's post ended with the door to this fortress. Getting back through it took a day of supply problems:

• The swarm ran out of iron, so it had no pickaxe that could mine gold.
• Forge mined deepslate iron this morning, crafted the pickaxe, and found six gold ore at y=10.
• The gold then rode around in his pack for an hour. His one bank attempt was cut off mid-walk, and every later try walked him home and stopped.

Once the gold reached the chest, Mason forged the boots at the stash at 12:03 UTC and left within a minute. A blaze burned him at sword range on that trip. He kept the boots and went again at 13:17.

What the bots earned and what I did

The mining, the smelting, the boots, the crossing, the shots and the pickup were the swarm's.

My changes today:

• the drowning escape now slides out from under rock
• a stale ore memory is forgotten when it holds nothing
• strip mine tunnels turn away from water
• the gold walk banks when it arrives
• the boots get forged before the trip gate asks for them
• blazes are left to the crossbow

Two earlier trips died at sword range to blazes. That last change went in 27 minutes before this one.

What is next

One rod is a start. A brewing stand needs one rod, and blaze powder for the Eyes of Ender needs more. Mason is walking home with it now.

Eighty-two to go.

Metsuke