Minecraft Speedrunning/Bastion Strats

Being able to get resources from a bastion is one of the most important skills in Minecraft Speedrunning. There are four different types of bastions and they each have random elements to how they spawn and each of them can have multiple different ways to route them depending on how they spawn, how terrain generates and how you approach them. Note that bastions will generate in every nether biome except for the Basalt Delta biome.

What you should be hoping to obtain from a bastion is at least 10 obsidian, one fire resistance potion and 16 ender pearls. Also looking for string can be used to craft wool which can be used to craft beds or glowstone and crying obsidian which can be used to craft respawn anchors. Beds and respawn anchors are useful for the end fight.

There are a lot of useful ways to corral piglins to get them all into one position for quick bartering such as when you break a gold block or chest, all piglins within 16 blocks of you will be aggroed on to you and go towards you but will still be distracted by gold. Note that just opening a chest aggroes piglins with line of sight on you and hitting a piglin aggroes all piglins around you and makes the piglin you hit ignore gold you throw. Understanding piglin mechanics is very useful for efficiently routing bastions.

Note that the guides in these videos are outdated and are missing newer/faster routes/techniques but they will often be better for beginners than the fastest but riskiest routes for top runners. Try seeking out guides to different bastions yourself and practising them and finding out what you're comfortable with in runs.

Hoglin Stables
Often just called "Stables", this bastion consists of three upper ramparts and two lower ramparts as well as the main section. Here is a guide by EleventyBillion on routing stables.

Bridge
Bridge is the simplest bastion for newer runners, since the gold blocks are all exposed away from the piglins. Just make sure you don't die to the hoglins in the middle and try to find a spot to barter with as many piglins as possible.

Housing Units
Housing contains two ramparts and a centre area with housing units around.

Treasure room
Treasure is probably the most distinctive bastion, consisting of two ramparts and a massive treasure room area separated by lava. While the treasure room has a chest with very good loot and lots of exposed gold, it is generally riskier and slower than using the gold hidden in the ramparts, since the piglins are harder to collect at the bottom of treasure room and you can get mobbed by magma cubes.