Since Minecraft is an open-world sandbox game, players have the ability to do whatever they want at whichever time they like. However, one negative is the fact you’re not led through the game and all of its features but have to discover them yourself. Thankfully, Mojang introduced an advancement system, which shows what’s possible in the game. So, we have listed all Minecraft advancements and teach you how you can get each of them.
Editor’s Note: updated on June 13, 2024, to include new advancement added in Minecraft 1.21 and improve readability
Advancements are exclusive to Java Edition and appear as pop-ups when the player accomplishes a certain task. There are a total of 122 advancements, and they are designed to show you every aspect of the game, so you can experience it without researching. By pressing the L key, you can open the advancements UI. Moreover, the type also differs since there are regular advancements, goals, and challenges.
Minecraft Advancements
The “Minecraft” advancement list includes the most basic challenges. They are designed to walk you through all the relevant features and help you progress in the game. Most of these are obtainable by casually playing the game, and there are no secret ones here.
Name Requirements Icon Minecraft This advancement requires you to have a crafting table in your inventory. Grass Block Stone Age You’ll need to have one of the following blocks in your inventory – cobblestone, blackstone, or cobbled deepslate. Wooden Pickaxe Getting an Upgrade Successfully make a stone pickaxe and have it in your inventory. Stone Pickaxe Acquire Hardware Obtain an iron ingot in any way. Iron Ingot Suit Up Have any piece of iron armor in your inventory to get this advancement. Iron Chestplate Hot Stuff Have a lava bucket in your inventory. Lava Bucket Isn’t It Iron Pick Obtain an iron pickaxe. Iron Pickaxe Not Today, Thank You You need to block any projectile with a shield in Minecraft. Shield Ice Bucket Challenge Obtain a block of obsidian in any way. Obsidian Diamonds Find or mine a single diamond and have it in your inventory. Find the level where you can find diamonds in Minecraft. Diamond We Need to Go Deeper Go through the Nether portal into the Nether dimension. Flint and Steel Cover Me with Diamonds Obtain any piece of diamond armor and have it in your inventory. Diamond Chestplate Enchanter Place a tool, weapon, armor piece, or book in the enchanting table and apply a Minecraft enchantment to it. Enchanted Book Zombie Doctor (Goal) Successfully cure a zombie villager by using a splash potion of weakness and a golden apple. Golden Apple Eye Spy First, find a Minecraft stronghold and then enter it. Eye of Ender The End? Make an End portal and go through it to enter the End dimension. End Stone
Nether Advancements
The “Nether” advancements are tied to the Nether dimension. They teach you about various items, blocks, and structures present and used in this hot place. This category includes the hardest advancement called “How Did We Get Here?” It is also a secret challenge, meaning it’s not visible until you actually complete it.
| Name | Requirements | Icon |
|---|---|---|
| Nether | Enter the Nether dimension for the first time. | Red Nether Brick |
| Return to Sender (Challenge) | You need to reflect a ghast’s fireball back to it and kill it. When it shoots, spam the left mouse button or shoot your own projectile like an arrow to send it back. It’s not easy as the ghast moves around, but you can do it! | Fire Charge |
| Those Were the Days | Enter a bastion remnant structure. | Polished Blackstone Bricks |
| Hidden in the Depths | Mine an ancient debris block with at least a diamond pickaxe and obtain it in your inventory for the first time. | Ancient Debris |
| Subspace Bubble | This advancement may seem complicated, but it’s really not. All you have to do is have the Nether portal entrance and the exit over 7000 blocks away from each other. It may seem like an extremely long distance, but one block in the Nether equals 8 blocks in the Overworld, so make sure you are at least 875 blocks away from the portal you exited in the Nether. | Empty Map |
| A Terrible Fortress | Find a Nether fortress and enter it. | Nether Bricks |
| Who is Cutting Onions? | Obtain a block of crying obsidian, one of the various light source blocks in Minecraft. | Crying Obsidian |
| Oh Shiny | Distract an angry piglin by giving them (throwing an item with the Q key or right-clicking with the item selected) one of the following items: gold ingot, block of gold, block of raw gold, raw gold, any piece of gold armor, tools or weapons, any of the three gold ores, gilded blackstone, and various golden items like bells, glistering melon slices, clocks, golden horse armor, light weighted pressure plates, golden carrots, regular and enchanted golden apples. | Gold Ingot |
| This Boat Has Legs | This Minecraft advancement requires you to saddle a strider mob and boost it using a fungus on a stick. | Fungus on a Stick |
| Uneasy Alliance (Challenge) | Kill a ghast in the Overworld. This is much harder than it seems as you first need to transport a ghast from the Nether to the Overworld and that’s going to take a lot of time and effort. | Ghast Tear |
| War Pigs | Open a naturally generated chest in the bastion remnant for the first time. | Chest |
| Country Lode, Take Me Home | After you craft a lodestone using one netherite ingot and 8 chiseled stone bricks, place it in the world, and right-click it with a compass selected. It will now point to that block at all times. | Lodestone |
| Cover Me in Debris (Challenge) | Make a full set of netherite armor and have it in your inventory. | Netherite Chestplate |
| Spooky Scary Skeleton | Obtain a wither skeleton skull for the first time. You need to locate a Nether fortress and kill black skeletons with stone swords. Skull drops are fairly rare, so you’ll probably need to kill a few before you can get your first skull. | Wither Skeleton Skull |
| Into Fire | Obtain a blaze rod for the first time. While hunting wither skeletons in the fortress, look out for fiery bright mobs – blaze. They will drop the blaze rods. | Blaze Rod |
| Not Quite “Nine” Lives | After you make a respawn anchor with 6 crying obsidian and 3 glowstone, you can right-click the respawn anchor with 4 more glowstone blocks to charge it fully. | Respawn Anchor |
| Feels Like Home | Bring a strider to the Overworld and ride it for 50 blocks on lava. You need to travel in a straight line too, and not in a circle. | Fungus on a Stick |
| Hot Tourist Destinations (Challenge) | Reach every single Nether biome type in Minecraft. Those include – basalt deltas, crimson forests, Nether wastes, soul sand valleys, and warped forests. | Netherite Boots |
| Withering Heights | Be relatively near a Wither when you summon it. Follow our guide to spawn the wither if you need assistance. | Nether Star |
| Local Brewery | Take out an item out of a brewing stand‘s UI slot. Luckily, this doesn’t need to be a potion but just a water bottle. | Potion |
| Bring Home the Beacon | Be relatively close to a beacon in Minecraft after you’ve placed it and it got activated. | Beacon |
| A Furious Cocktail | Have every single potion effect applied at the same time. This includes fire resistance, invisibility, jump boost, night vision, poison, regeneration, resistance, slow falling, slowness, speed, strength, water breathing, and weakness. Follow our potions guide for all the recipes. | Milk Bucket |
| Beaconator (Goal) | Be relatively close to a beacon when it gets powered by a full-size pyramid with 164 blocks of precious material. | Beacon |
| How Did We Get Here? (Challenge) | Have every single status effect applied at the same time. This is probably the hardest advancement in Minecraft and also a secret one. The status effects necessary are all the ones mentioned in the “Furious Cocktail” advancement above, along with absorption, bad omen, blindness, conduit power, darkness, dolphin’s grace, glowing, haste, hero of the village, hunger, levitation, mining fatigue, nausea and wither. | Bucket |
The hidden “How Did We Get Here?” advancement alone takes a lot of preparation, as you will need to have different Minecraft mobs in one place, as well as all the items and blocks ready to provide you with the rest of the effects.
The End Advancements
“The End” advancements focus on the End dimension. They help you understand what you can find and do there, so you don’t get lost in this scary void-full dimension.
Name Requirements Icon The End Go through the End portal in the stronghold and enter the End dimension for the first time. End Stone Free the End Kill the Ender Dragon for the first time. Ender Dragon Head The Next Generation (Goal) Obtain the Ender Dragon egg. Dragon Egg Remote Gateway Enter an end gateway by throwing an ender pearl, flying or crawling in it. There’s a bedrock construction in the End that emits a purple beam every once in a while. Ender Pearl The End… Again… (Goal) Respawn Ender Dragon while standing within a 192-block radius from the bedrock portal. End Crystal You Need a Mint (Goal) Right-click the Ender Dragon’s purple cloud with an empty glass bottle to collect dragon’s breath. Dragon’s Breath The City at the End of the Game Find an End city and then enter it. Purpur Block Sky’s the Limit (Goal) Find an elytra and obtain it for the first time. Elytra Great View From Up Here (Challenge) While you have the levitation effect applied, travel for 50 blocks vertically. You also need to be hit by Shulker bullets regularly for the effect to last, so make sure to bring good armor. Shulker Shell
Adventure Advancements
This category of advancements is focused on the exploring, adventuring, and also some combat aspects of the game. Minecraft 1.21 update brought new combat-oriented features, including the trial chambers, so it might become easier to complete these goals. These teach you about certain blocks, mobs, and item mechanics that are relevant in the game. Many hidden advancements in this section will be revealed only once the player accomplishes them.
Name Requirements Icon Adventure Unlocks if you kill an entity or get killed by an entity. Entities are dynamic, moving objects that include: mobs, boats, minecarts, arrows, etc. Empty Map Voluntary Exile This is a hidden advancement and requires you to kill a raid mob (pillagers, indicators, and evokers) wearing an ominous banner. Ominous Banner Is it a Bird? First, you need to craft a spyglass with two copper ingots and 1 amethyst shard. Then, equip the spyglass and zoom in on a parrot. Spy Glass Monster Hunter One of the first advancements you’ll get in the game. Defeat any hostile mob; there are plenty of those in your world, especially in dark places. Iron Sword The Power of Books Place a comparator reading the redstone signal from a chiseled bookshelf attached to the side of this block or vice versa. Chiseled Bookshelf What a Deal! Buy an item from any villager or wandering trader using emeralds. Emerald Crafting a New Look Apply any armor trim smithing template to any armor in the smithing table’s UI. Feel free to check all armor trim locations in our dedicated guide. Dune Armor Trim Smithing Template Sticky Situation Run into the vertical side of a honey block while in the air. This block’s property is that it slows down your fall speed, so shouldn’t take any fall damage. Honey Block Ol’ Betsy Shoot any projectile using a crossbow in Minecraft. Crossbow Surge Protector Save a villager from turning into a witch when hit by lightning. For that, you need to craft a lightning rod using 3 copper ingots and place it relatively near villagers.
Once the thunderstorm starts, the lightning will hit the rod, and you’ll have saved a villager.Lightning Rod Caves & Cliffs This advancement is named after the 1.18 Caves and Cliffs update, drawing attention to tall mountains and deep caves.
To unlock it, jump from the build height (Y: 319) to the bottom of the world right before bedrock generation (Y: -59). You can pre-place water at the bottom to completely avoid fall damage in Minecraft.Water Bucket Respecting the Remnants Reveal a pottery sherd from a suspicious sand or suspicious gravel block using a brush. Brush Sneak 100 Sneak around a sculk sensor or the Warden mob without alerting them. Sculk Sensor Sweet Dreams Lie down in a bed. You don’t need to sleep right away but just wait for nighttime or a thunderstorm to get in a bed in Minecraft. Red Bed Hero of the Village (Challenge) A hidden advancement, it requires you to fend off an illager raid. Kill all raid mobs (pillagers, vindicators, evokers, witches, & ravagers) until the raid bar depletes.
But, there’s an easier way to complete this. If you kill at least one raid mob (use iron golems to help you) and wait for the raid to end in victory, you’ll unlock it.Ominous Banner Is It a Balloon? While a ghast is looking at you, take out your spyglass and zoom in on it. Spy Glass A Throwaway Joke Throw a trident at a mob and successfully hit it. Make sure to use the loyalty trident enchantment so it returns to you. Trident It Spreads (Challenge) Let the sculk catalyst spread the sculk blocks by killing any mob that drops XP near it. Sculk Catalyst Take Aim Shoot an entity with any arrow using a bow or crossbow. Bow Monsters Hunted (Challenge) Kill one of every single hostile mob. Diamond Sword Postmortal (Goal) Equip a totem of undying in your main or off-hand when you’re about to die. Totem of Undying Hired Help (Goal) Spawn an iron golem by making a T shape with 4 iron blocks and placing a carved pumpkin on top in the center. Carved Pumpkin Star Trader Bring a villager or a wandering trader to the build height and stand anywhere above the Y = 318 while trading with them. Emerald Smithing with Style (Challenge) Apply every one of the following armor trim smithing templates at least once: spire, snout, rib, ward, silence, vex, tide, and wayfinder. Silence Armor Trim Smithing Template Two Birds, one Arrow (Challenge) Enchant a crossbow with piercing and manage to kill two phantoms with a single shot. To make this challenge easier, put the phantoms in a boat and slightly damage them, so one arrow can finish them off. Crossbow Who’s the Pillager Now? Kill a pillager with a crossbow. Crossbow Arbalistic (Challenge) Enchant a crossbow with piercing and successfully kill 5 different and unique mobs with a single shot. Follow steps similar to the Two Birds, one Arrow advancement in Minecraft. Crossbow Careful Restoration You’ll need to make a Minecraft decorated pot with 4 pottery sherds. Decorated Pot Adventuring Time (Challenge) Visit every single Overworld biome. You can go through our Minecraft biomes guide to see the complete list. Diamond Boots Sound of Music Play a music disc in a jukebox while you’re in a meadow biome. Jukebox Light as a Rabbit Equip leather boots and walk on powder snow. Leather Boots Is It a Plane? Look at the Ender Dragon using a spyglass. Spy Glass Very Very Frightening Instead of protecting a villager from lightning, you should do the opposite. Enchant a trident with channeling and strike a villager with lightning. This will turn them into a witch. Trident Sniper Duel (Challenge) Kill a skeleton with an arrow while you’re at least 50 blocks away horizontally. Arrow Bullseye (Challenge) Stand at least 30 blocks away horizontally from a target block and shoot it in the center with an arrow.
This challenge is quite difficult, so people usually cheat a bit using redstone.Target Block Isn’t It Scute? Use a brush on an armadillo to get a scute. Armadillo Scute Minecraft: Trial(s) Edition Reach and enter a trial chamber. Chiseled Tuff Crafters Crafting Crafters Let a crafter make a crafter. Crafter Lighten Up Scrape a copper bulb with an axe to make it brighter. Copper Bulb Who Needs Rockets? Use a wind charge to launch yourself upwards 8 blocks. Wind Charge Under Lock and Key Use a trial key on a vault. Trial Key Revaulting (Goal) Use an ominous trial key on an ominous vault. Ominous Trial Key Blowback (Challenge) Kill a Breeze with a deflected Breeze-shot wind charge. Wind Charge Over-Overkill (Challenge) Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the mace. Mace
Husbandry Advancements
These advancements are geared towards all the food and mob mechanics in the game, from planting seeds and growing crops to breeding and taming different animals. There are even some hidden advancements in this section, to make it more fun to explore.
Name Requirements Icon/Type Husbandry Consume any food or drinking item in the game. Hay Bale Bee Our Guest Make a campfire and place it underneath a beehive or a bee nest. Then, select an empty glass bottle and right-click the bee block to extract honey without disturbing the bees. Honey Bottle The Parrots and the Bats Breed any of the animal mobs in the game with their favorite food. Wheat You’ve Got a Friend in Me Once you rescue an Allay from a pillager outpost or a woodland mansion, give it an item. Then, throw more of that item on the ground, so the Allay can pick it up and deliver it to you. This is a hidden advancement, so you won’t see it initially. Cookie Whatever Floats Your Goat! Get in a boat when a Minecraft goat is inside it. Oak Boat Best Friend Forever Tame any of the following animals: cats, donkeys, horses, llamas, mules, parrots, trader llamas or wolves. Lead Glow and Behold Make a regular or a hanging sign and place it in the world. Then, write something and use a glow ink sac to make the text glow. Glow Ink Sac Fishy Business Catch a fish using a fishing rod. Those fish are cod, salmon, tropical fish, and pufferfish. Fishing Rod Total Bee location Successfully break and collect a bee nest with 3 bees inside using a silk touch tool. Bee Nest Bukkit Bukkit Catch a tadpole in a water bucket. First, you need to breed frogs and wait for them to lay frogspawn. After some time, the tadpoles will hatch. Bucket of Tadpole Smells Interesting Obtain a sniffer egg and put it in your inventory. If you don’t know how to find this item, follow our linked guide. This advancement is also one of the hidden ones. Sniffer Egg A Seedy Place Plant a seed for the first time in your world. This includes beetroot seeds, melon seeds, nether wart, pumpkin seeds, wheat seeds, torchflower seeds, and pitcher pods. Wheat Wax On Apply wax on a copper block by right-clicking the block with a honeycomb. Honeycomb Two by Two (Challenge) Breed every single breedable animal in the game. Golden Carrots Birthday Song First, give Allay a cake in Minecraft, then drop cake blocks around you. Next, right-click a note block so that the allay collects and drops them off at the note block. This is a hidden advancement. Note Block A Complete Catalogue (Challenge) Tame every single cat variant in the game. Raw Cod Tactical Fishing Select a water bucket and right-click on a fish. This will allow you to catch a live fish that you can then move. Bucket of Pufferfish When the Squad Hops into Town Have every frog variant on a lead. Also, they don’t need to be leashed at the same time. Lead Little Sniffs Right-click a snifflet (baby sniffer) with torchflower seeds in your hand. This is a hidden advancement. Torchflower Seeds A Balanced Diet (Challenge) Eat every single edible item in the game. Apple Serious Dedication (Challenge) Upgrade a diamond hoe into a netherite hoe in a smithing table and place it in your inventory. Netherite Hoe Wax Off Right-click a waxed copper block with an axe to remove the wax. Stone Axe The Cutest Predator Collect an axolotl in a water bucket by right-clicking it. Bucket of Axolotl With Our Powers Combined! (Challenge) Have all three froglights (pearlescent, ochre, and verdant) in your inventory at the same time. Verdant Froglight Planting the Past Plant a torchflower seed or a pitcher pod. This is a hidden advancement and can only be seen once you complete it. Pitcher Pod The Healing Power of Friendship! Let a tamed axolotl help you in a fight against a hostile aquatic mob, such as drowned or guardians. The axolotl can attack once or kill the monster, but both of you need to attack. Bucket of Tropical Fish Good as New Repair a damaged wolf armor using armadillo scutes. Wolf Armor The Whole Pack (Challenge) Tame all nine wolf variants. Bone Shear Brilliance Remove wolf armor from a wolf using shears. Shears
So, there you have it folks. Now you know everything about advancements in this lovely blocky game. What is your favorite advancement in Minecraft? Is there any advancement you don’t want to go for? Let us know in the comments below!
By Pressing L on your keyboard you can view advancement categories in-game, but you can also click on Advancements in the pause menu to view them.
No, advancements are there t lead you through the game and also provide a sense of accomplishment when you manage to complete a difficult challenge.
Yes, some categories have hidden advancements that you can only view once you complete them.
