How to Get the Trial Key in Minecraft 1.21

One of the most unique block additions in Minecraft 1.21 is the vault. It rewards every player once, so it’s a rather welcome feature on multiplayer servers. Also, it requires a key called the trial key to open. Today, we’ll be talking about how you can get the trial key in Minecraft 1.21 and how to use it.

Where to Find the Trial Key in Minecraft

You can get the trial key only in trial chambers, which are generated near the deepslate layer in the Overworld. If you wish to learn how to find trial chambers, we already have a guide in place to help you locate them.

Currently, the trial key can be obtained from three sources in this structure underground. You can get the trial key from the chest near the entrance (6.8% chance), decorated pots in the corridor (3.6% chance), and as a reward for completing trial spawner challenge (50% chance). Since you are most likely to get this item from a trial spawner, let’s go over it right now.

The trial spawner is a special spawner that summons a limited number of mobs proportional to the number of players that join the battle. If you’re playing in a single-player world, most trial spawners will spawn 6 mobs at a time. First, three mobs will appear and then once you kill one of them, a new mob will spawn. If you manage to kill two mobs at once, the spawner will spawn two more.

So essentially, you’ll be fighting three mobs from a trial spawner, except when you have killed 4 of them and there are two remaining. The only exception is the Breeze trial spawner. It will spawn two Breezes in total, but you’ll be fighting only one at a time. After you defeat all the spawned mobs, the trial spawner will go into the cooldown state that lasts for 30 minutes.

It won’t spawn any mobs during the cooldown, but after that, it will be ready to throw you another challenge. Moreover, it will give you rewards like precious items on top of itself. One of these items can also be the trial key you’re looking for in Minecraft 1.21.

The game chooses mobs this spawner summons from four categories. Every Trial Chamber has mobs from the melee, small melee, and ranged categories, as well as some Breeze trial spawners. Which mob the spawner will spawn is indicated by the blocks around it. So, the mob trial spawner can spawn and the blocks associated with them are the following:

• Melee
  • Zombie (mossy cobblestone)
  • Husk (chiseled sandstone)
  • Spider (stone and cobweb on top)
• Small Melee
  • Silverfish (stone bricks)
  • Baby Zombie (cobblestone and mossy cobblestone)
  • Slime (moss block)
  • Cave Spider (stone and cobweb on top and podzol with a red mushroom)
• Ranged
  • Stray (packed ice)
  • Skeleton (bone block)
  • Bogged (bone block and podzol with a red mushroom)
• Breeze (chiseled tuff)

Furthermore, every Trial Chamber contains trial spawners for only one mob per category. So, if the first trial spawner spawned skeletons, it means that the ranged mobs of the structure are skeletons. Therefore, you will not encounter other ranged mobs at all.

To sum it up, one Trial Chamber can spawn skeletons, zombies, and silverfish, while another one can spawn strays, husks, and slimes. The rule doesn’t count for the Breeze spawners, since every Trial Chamber 100% has these spawners scattered around.

What Does the Trial Key Unlock in Minecraft?

The trial key doesn’t open any doors in trial chambers, but it opens a block called the vault. Vault is a special Minecraft 1.21 block that looks similar to the trial spawner, but you can tell the difference by the top-side texture and the gray pixels that don’t exist on the trial spawner. Moreover, the vault generates on top of a copper throne, so you can spot it easily.

Once you get close, the mouth of the vault will open indicating you haven’t unlocked it before. Use the key to unlock the vault by right-clicking and the mouth of the face will close and the vault will start spitting out items.

The special feature of the vault is that every player will be rewarded for opening it, not just the first one. But, in addition to that, you cannot farm the vault, as it’ll spit out items for a player only once.

So, while raiding a trial chamber with your friends, you don’t need to worry about being the fastest in looting, as you’re guaranteed to get a reward. That said, how lucky were you in obtaining your first trial key? Let us know in the comments below!