Tutorials/Advancement guide

This guide is intended to show players how to obtain all of the advancements in Minecraft. For a more detailed list of each advancement, see the advancements page.

Minecraft
The heart and story of the game

Get a crafting table in your inventory to get this advancement. This one is easy, but requires some prerequisites. First, just hold down the left-click on a wood block until it breaks, then collect the dropped block by walking over it.

Wood blocks are found on trees, which are very easy to find (as long as you didn't start out in an ocean or desert biome). Just look around.

Alternatively, you can simply pick up any wood log lying on the ground.

Use the wood block you just got from the tree and open your inventory. You will see a grid near the top-right corner, place your wood block in any of those grids.

Then click on the wooden planks that appear to obtain them.

At last put one of the four wood planks you got into each container of your grid (a 2x2 square of wood planks). You can right click to place a single plank into the grid, instead of all four.

Parent of: Stone Age.

Stone Age
Mine stone with your new pickaxe

First, place your crafting table on the ground by holding the crafting table in your hand and right-clicking the ground. Follow the crafting recipe below to make sticks (note that this can also be done in your inventory crafting grid):

Now arrange your sticks and some planks in the crafting table to make a wooden pickaxe:

To get the actual advancement, you must find stone and mine it to get cobblestone. Exposed stone can be found on the sides of hills and in ravines/caves. If there are no hills, ravines, or caves nearby, you can always find stone by digging down.

Parent of: Getting an Upgrade.

Getting an Upgrade
Construct a better pickaxe

You need to make a stone pickaxe to get this advancement. Using your wooden pickaxe, mine three stone blocks so you have three cobblestone blocks.

Now arrange your sticks and cobblestones in the crafting table to make a stone pickaxe:

Parent of: Acquire Hardware.

Acquire Hardware
Smelt an iron ingot.

This advancement is possible only after you've found iron ore. It's easiest to find iron ore in caves, but because caves have monsters in them, they are not recommended to adventure into them until you have some armor and weapons. If you're lucky, you will find an exposed surface with iron ore. Otherwise, you can start a mineshaft. Mine the iron ore with your stone pickaxe, and put it in a furnace like so, yielding an iron ingot:

You will get the advancement once you transfer the iron ingot from the furnace to your inventory.

Parent of: Suit Up |  Hot Stuff  |  Isn't It Iron Pick.

Suit Up
Protect yourself with a piece of iron armor.

You need to collect at least four iron ingots.

Arrange the iron ingots in the crafting table to make at least one piece of the following armor:

You will get the advancement when you put one of the pieces of armor in your inventory.

Parent of: Not Today, Thank You.

Hot Stuff
Fill a bucket with lava

Arrange the iron ingots in the crafting table to make a bucket:

All you have to do is find lava and your bucket to fill it up. Lava lakes can be found in plains biomes or underground. The most lava is found at Y = 11 and below.

Parent of: Ice Bucket Challenge

Isn't It Iron Pick
Upgrade your pickaxe

You need to collect three iron ingots.

Arrange them in the crafting table to make the iron pickaxe:

Parent of: Diamonds!

Not Today, Thank You
Deflect an arrow with your shield

First, you need to craft a shield:

Then you need to find a skeleton, or another player to help you. Holding the shield, hold right-click, as they shoot at you.

Diamonds!
Acquire diamonds

Find a diamond ore. Diamond ore is very rare, but by either branch mining deep down in the world or exploring caves that go very low, you will eventually find one. Mine it, and collect the dropped diamond.

Parent of: Cover Me With Diamonds |  Enchanter

Ice Bucket Challenge
Form and mine a block of obsidian

Use three diamonds to make a diamond pickaxe:

You also need a bucket of water: find water and right-click it with your bucket. Next you need to go down to the bottom of a cave, at below Y-level 12. Find a lava lake, and pour the bucket of water next to the lava. An alternative method is to find a plains biome and search for a lava lake there, and do the same thing. The water should flow onto the lava, turning it into obsidian. Mine the obsidian with your diamond pickaxe, and pick it up.

Parent of: We Need to Go Deeper

We Need to Go Deeper
Build, light, and enter a Nether Portal.

Build a Nether Portal frame with obsidian, light it with a Flint and Steel, and enter it to go into the Nether.

Parent of: Zombie Doctor |  End Spy

Cover Me With Diamonds
Diamond armor saves lives.

Craft and equip any piece of diamond armor:

Enchanter
Enchant an item at an Enchanting Table.

To get this advancement, you must build an Enchanting Table and enchant an item:

Zombie Doctor
Weaken and then cure a zombie villager

Throw a splash potion of weakness at a zombie villager and give it a golden apple (by facing the zombie and pressing the use key with a golden apple in your hand). Then wait a few minutes. Don't let the zombie burn in the daylight (splash potion of fire resistance may be useful here).

If you don't have an igloo near your spawn, your best bet to gather these supplies would be to go in the Nether and gather ingredients for a brewing stand and then for a splash potion of weakness. If you have igloos near your spawn, about half of them have a basement underneath them, supplying not only all the ingredients needed to cure a zombie villager, but also a zombie villager itself.

Eye Spy
Follow an Ender Eye

Enter a stronghold to get this advancement. Strongholds can be found by using eyes of ender. Throw eyes of ender up in the air and following which direction they go. When you throw them and they go into the ground, dig where they went underground, until you reach stone bricks, which is the stronghold.

Parent of: The End?

The End?
'''Enter the End portal. '''

Jump into an End portal, which is found in End portal rooms in strongholds. You will get the advancement before the actual terrain loads. Once the End's terrain loads, you will get "The End" advancement (the difference is the question mark). Make sure you come prepared before going to the End, because the only way out is to either defeat the Ender Dragon, or die in the attempt.

Nether
Bring summer clothes

To get this advancement, you will need to enter the Nether dimension. Do this by walking into a Nether portal, and then you will appear in the Nether.

Parent of: Subspace Bubble |  A Terrible Fortress  |  Return to Sender

Subspace Bubble
Use the Nether to travel 7km in the Overworld.

To get this advancement, you will need to use the Nether to travel between two points in the Overworld with a minimum horizontal distance of 7000 blocks between each other.

Horizontal distances are scaled down in the Nether by a ratio of 8:1 for travel in the Nether. This essentially means that for every one block you travel in the Nether, you travel eight blocks in the Overworld. This also means that you must travel at least 875 blocks in the Nether in order to travel 7000 blocks in the Overworld.

Completing this advancement will reward the player 100 experience.

A Terrible Fortress
Break your way into a Nether Fortress

Enter a Nether fortress to get this advancement. Look for a dark structure with many rooms and hallways, made of Nether brick. Sometimes one may have to travel a long ways in order to find a Nether fortress.

Parent of: Into Fire |  Spooky Scary Skeleton

Return to Sender
Destroy a Ghast with a fireball

Kill a ghast using its own fireball to get this advancement. When a ghast shoots a fireball at you, left-click it to send it flying back to the ghast and kill it.

Completing this advancement will reward the player 50 experience.

Parent of: Uneasy Alliance

Into Fire
Relieve a Blaze of its rod

Acquire a blaze rod in your inventory to earn this advancement. Killing a blaze may drop a blaze rod when killed by the player.

Parent of: Local Brewery

Spooky Scary Skeleton
Obtain a wither skeleton's skull

Get a wither skeleton skull in your inventory. Wither skeletons, found in Nether fortresses, have a small chance of dropping one upon death.

Parent of: Withering Heights

Uneasy Alliance
'''Rescue a ghast from the Nether, bring it safely home to the Overworld... and then kill it.'''

This advancement is rather difficult. However, it is possible. The hardest part is getting the ghast through the Nether portal. There are three main ways of doing this.

The first way is to use a ginormous Nether portal. What you need to do is first of all, when you find a ghast, build a giant Nether portal, the bigger the better. Then, stand on the other side of the portal, and lure the ghast into the Nether portal. However, this method costs a lot of obsidian, and is very difficult in Creative mode.

Another way is to use a fishing rod to lure a ghast through a Nether portal. This requires a Nether portal big enough for a ghast to fit through, but it does not have to be ginormous. Basically, launch a fishing rod towards the ghast repeatedly, and when it hits the ghast, move to the other side of the Nether portal, causing the ghast to go through. This method is cheap, but if the ghast starts exploding fireballs, the fishing rod will break. If you choose to complete this advancement this way, you must fish for the ghast very quickly.

Something to keep in mind is that ghast explosions can destroy Nether portal blocks, so always have flint and steel with you.

(If anybody has any better ideas of how to lure a ghast into the Overworld please write them down in this section. Also, delete any method that is outdated.)

Completing this advancement will reward the player 100 experience.

Local Brewery
Brew a potion

Before beginning, you will need blaze powder (made from a blaze rod), glass bottles (made with 3 glass), and of course, a brewing stand, made like so:

In the inside of a brewing stand, there are three slots on the bottom with the outline of a glass bottle, and another slot on top, which is for the actual potion ingredient. In the Java edition and Legacy Console edition, there is also a slot in the top left with the outline of blaze powder.

Fill 3 glass bottles with water (from any water source or cauldron). With just 3 water bottles and a certain ingredient, you can brew awkward potions, mundane potions, or thick potions. Thick potions and mundane potions have no use, so it is better in the long run to brew awkward potions, because they are the basis potion for nearly all other potions.

To make an awkward potion, first put the 3 water bottles in the water bottle lined slots. Then, put 1 nether wart, which can be found in Nether fortresses, in the top potion ingredient slot, and if you are playing the Java or Legacy Console edition, put 1 blaze powder in the top left slot. This should give you 3 awkward potions in replace of the water bottles and nether wart. Once you get the bottles into your inventory, you will get the advancement.

Awkward potions can further be used to make many other potions that can effect the player and/or other entities. Note that in multiplayer you can also get this advancement by obtaining a base potion from another player, and then brewing it into another potion.

Parent of: A Furious Cocktail

Withering Heights
Summon the Wither

Create the wither boss mob. Place 4 soul sand on the ground in a T shape, and place 3 wither skeleton skulls on the top 3 soul sand. The wither will immediately spawn, but cannot deal any harm nor be done any harm for 10 seconds, until it explodes into its full self with full health. At this point, as long as you're within a 100.9 x 100.9 x 103.5 cuboid when the wither explodes, you will get the advancement.

For more information on the wither, what to except, what to prepare, and how to fight the wither, see "Wither" and "Tutorials/Defeating the wither".

Parent of: Bring Home the Beacon

A Furious Cocktail
Have every potion effect applied at the same time.

To get this challenge advancement, you will need to brew and use these 11 potions:

Optional: Tip: So that you don't have to spend a long time drinking every potion, turn each potion into a splash potion using gunpowder, and continuously throw each splash potion at the ground below you, to get all 11 effects quickly.
 * Extend using Redstone.
 * Use Beacons.

Completing this advancement will reward the player 100 experience.

Parent of: How Did We Get Here?

Bring Home the Beacon
Construct and place a Beacon

This advancement requires being near a beacon when it is activated. First, you must craft the beacon, which requires the rare and precious Nether star.

However, when you place a beacon by itself on the ground, it will not do anything. You need a pyramid of certain blocks, which include blocks of iron, gold, diamond, or emerald. When activated, beacons can give you special powers if you are a certain number of blocks from the beacon. Placing a beacon on top of the center of mineral blocks on a 3 x 3 layout will give the beacon a power level of 1. If you place mineral blocks in a 5 x 5 manner with the 3 x 3 layout and a beacon on top of that, the beacon with have a power level of 2. You can continue adding bigger pyramid layers up to level 4, of which the beacon and pyramid should look like this:

Layer 1 (highest): Beacon Layer 2: 3 x 3 layout of iron, gold, diamond, or emerald blocks Layer 3: 5 x 5 layout of mineral blocks Layer 4: 7 x 7 layout of mineral blocks Layer 5: 9 x 9 layout of mineral blocks

To get this advancement, it doesn't matter what power level the beacon as on. As soon as the beacon is activated, it will shoot a beam of light to the sky, and you will get the advancement. Also, if you right-click on a beacon, you can give the beacon iron ingots, gold ingots, diamonds, or emeralds to get a special powers. The higher-level beacon you have, the better powers you can get.

Parent of: Beaconater

How Did We Get Here?
Have every effect applied at the same time.

To get this challenge advancement you will need to consume many potions and/or foods in a short amount of time. This is one of the most difficult advancements in the game. Completing this advancement will reward the player 1000 experience, which is the equivalent of 6 1/2 levels if the player previously had no experience.

Beaconater
Bring a beacon to full power

Be near a beacon when it is powered by a full-size level 4 pyramid. To create this, place blocks of iron, gold, diamond, and/or emerald on the ground in a 9 x 9 layout. Place another layer of minerals blocks on top of that in a 7 x 7 layout, and another on top of that in a 5 x 5 layout. Finally, your final layer should be 3 x 3, and you can place your beacon on top of this. Once the beacon shoots its beam to the sky, you will get the advancement. A level 4 beacon can also give special and rare powers to the player, if opened and given a type of mineral.

The End
Or the beginning?

To get this advancement, you will need to enter the End dimension.

Parent of: Free the End

Free the End
Good luck

To get this advancement, you must kill the ender dragon. See here for a tutorial.

'''Parent of: The Next Generation |  Remote Getaway  |  The End... Again... | You Need a Mint'''

The Next Generation
Hold the Dragon Egg

To get this advancement, you must get the dragon egg into your inventory. This is achievable after defeating the ender dragon. However, when you punch the dragon egg, it will only teleport. The easiest way for the dragon egg to drop as an item is to place a piston facing the dragon egg, with a lever behind it. Flip the lever to push the piston, which will make the dragon egg drop as an item.

Remote Getaway
Escape the island

To get this advancement, you must throw an ender pearl through your walk into an End gateway. This will teleport you to one of the outer islands in the End, which is the only place where End cities can be found.

Parent of: The City at the End of the Game

The End... Again..
Respawn the ender dragon.

To get this advancement, you need to respawn the ender dragon. This is possible by placing ender crystals on certain blocks of bedrock that surround the exit portal in the End. The exit portal is surrounded by three bedrock blocks on each side, with blocks connecting each of the sides, for a total of 16 blocks. Place an ender crystal on the middle block of each of the sides. This will respawn the obsidian towers, as well as the ender dragon herself.

You Need a Mint
Collect dragon's breath in a glass bottle.

To get this advancement, you must collect dragon's breath. To do this, right-click the dragon's breath particles with a glass bottle, and you will get the advancement as soon as there is a bottle of dragon's breath in your inventory.

The City at the End of the Game
Go on in, what could happen?

To get this advancement, you must walk into an end city. The only place in the game where you can find end cities are on the outer islands of the End, accessible through an end gateway portal, which generates when the ender dragon is killed. End cities contain lots of valuable treasure, along with many other things.

Parent of: Sky's the Limit |  Great View From Up Here

Sky's the Limit
Find an Elytra

To get this advancement, you must get an elytra in your inventory, which can be found in end city chests.

Great View From Up Here
Levitate up 50 blocks from the attacks of a Shulker

To get this advancement, you must levitate at least 50 blocks vertically under the levitation effect, which is achieved by getting hit by a shulker's projectile. It is strongly recommended to have iron or diamond boots enchanted with a high feather falling level, so that when you fall down, you won't take lots of damage or die.

Completing this advancement will reward the player 50 experience.

Adventure
Adventure, exploration, and combat

This advancement is easily achieved; either by killing any entity or being killed by any entity.

'''Parent of: Monster Hunter |  What a Deal! | Sweet dreams'''

Monster Hunter
Kill any hostile monster

You must kill a hostile mob to get this advancement. Neutral mobs, with the exception of iron golems and wolves, also count. You can use any type of weapon, block, or your bare hands to kill the monster, but it is recommended to have a sword or an axe, to decrease your chances of being killed yourself.

Parent of: Take Aim |  Monsters Hunted  |  Postmortal

What a Deal!
Successfully trade with a Villager

To do this, gather the item that the villager wants, and put it in his/her trading slot. Then, put the item that he/she gives you in return in your inventory.

Parent of: Hired Help

Sweet dreams
Change your respawn point

This advancement is achieved by sleeping in a bed. Beds can be made with 3 wool and 3 wood planks, which is easy if you have sheep nearby. Sleeping in a bed will reset your spawn point, so that when you die, you will respawn next to your bed. Note that this advancement can only be done at night or during a thunderstorm.

Parent of: Adventuring Time

Take Aim
Shoot something with a bow and arrow

This advancement requires a bow and one or more arrows to be crafted beforehand.

Once your bow and arrow is crafted, shoot any entity to get the advancement.

Parent of: Sniper duel

Monsters Hunted
Kill one of every hostile monster

Kill every type of monster in the Minecraft world at least once. This includes every type of hostile mob, and every neutral mob except for wolves and iron golems.

Completing this advancement will reward the player 100 experience.

Postmortal
Use a Totem of Undying to cheat death

Before attempting this advancement, you must go to a woodland mansion and kill an evoker, which will drop 1 totem of undying. Then, if you "die" while holding the totem of undying, you will not actually die; instead, your health will regenerate, and you will get the advancement.

Hired Help
Summon an Iron Golem to help defend a village

As stated in the in-game description, you must summon an iron golem to get this achievement. However, it does not have to be for the purpose of defending a village. The first thing you must do is gather 36 iron ingots and a pumpkin. Use the iron ingots to make 4 iron blocks, and place them in a T shape on the ground. Place the pumpkin on top of the top middle block of the iron blocks.

This should spawn an iron golem; therefore, you will get the advancement. Iron golems will kill any nearby monsters.

Adventuring Time
Discover every biome

This advancement is achieved by setting foot in nearly every biome in Minecraft. This includes oceans and rivers, but not the Nether or the End. The hills variants of biomes must be visited as well in order to get the advancement. However, some other variants of biomes are not required to be visited. For example, any type of biome that has the letter "M" after it does not have to be visited in order to get the advancement, because these biomes are very similar to what the biome would be without the "M."

Completing this advancement will reward the player 500 experience.

Sniper duel
Kill a skeleton with an arrow from more than 50 meters

What you need to do in this advancement is kill a skeleton with an arrow that you shot at least 50 blocks away from the skeleton. The best way to do this is to first trap a skeleton into a 1 block area, using fences, so that you don't have to deal with a moving target. Then, make sure you are at least 50 blocks away from the skeleton, and shoot your arrow at about a 45 degree angle towards the skeleton. It may take many tries to shoot correctly. You will get the advancement once the skeleton is killed by the arrow.

If you don't want to waste durability on your bow, you can hit the skeleton with another weapon for a certain number of times, until you can shoot the skeleton with one hit. You will get the advancement as long as when the skeleton is killed it was hit by your arrow. If you have an iron sword, diamond sword, or any type of axe, you can hit the skeleton twice with that weapon before shooting the skeleton with a fully charged arrow in one hit. If you have a wooden, stone, or gold sword, hit the skeleton three times with that weapon before shooting the skeleton.

Completing this advancement will reward the player 50 experience.

Husbandry
The world is full of friends and food

Eat any type of food. It doesn't matter whether it's a pufferfish, golden apple, or bread; as long as it is a type of food, you will get the advancement.

Parent of: The Parrots and the Bats |  Best Friends Forever  |  A Seedy Place

The Parrots and the Bats
Breed two animals together

Right-click on one breed-able animal with the item that they can breed with, and then right-click on another animal nearby with that item, and they will come together and make a baby. Cows, sheep, and chickens are probably the easiest animals to breed, because they don't require very expensive items. Cows and sheep breed with wheat and chickens with seeds.

Also, you can breed tamed wolves with any type of meat and tamed ocelots with any type of fish. However, wolves and ocelots are a little bit rarer than most animals.

See the chart under the advancement "Two by Two" for details on what item each animal needs to breed.

Parent of: Two by Two

Best Friends Forever
Tame an animal

Tame one of the 5 tamable mobs in the game: horse, llama, ocelot, parrot, and wolf. Horses include donkeys and mules.

Parrots and ocelots can be found in jungle biomes. Parrots can be tamed by getting right-clicked with seeds, and ocelots can be tamed with any type of raw fish. Note that ocelots are scared of humans, so you must have the raw fish in your hand and stand still, letting the cat come to you.

Wolves are found in forest biomes, taiga biomes, and taiga variant biomes. Wolves can be tamed with bones. Beware that if you accidentally attack an untamed wolf, it and its whole pack will start attacking you.

Horses and llamas are tamed differently than other tameable mobs. To tame a horse or a llama, keep right-clicking them. The first few times, they will buck you off, but eventually, they will let you stay on and you will see their health. This means that you have tamed them successfully. Horses and its variants are found in plains and Savannah biomes, and llamas are found in extreme hills.

A Seedy Place
Plant a seed and watch it grow

Plant any type of seed on tilled land. The easiest seed to acquire is just regular seeds, which grow wheat, and can be harvested by punching tall grass. However, you do not have to watch the seed grow, unlike the in-game description says.

Parent of: A Balanced Diet |  Serious Dedication

Two by Two
Breed all the animals!

Like the in-game description says, breed all the animals! The advancement "The Parrots and the Bats" tells you how to breed animals. Here is a chart with what all the breed-able animals can be bred with (chart is currently in progress):

A Balanced Diet
Eat everything that is edible, even if it's not good for you

Eat everything that can be eaten in the game, excluding cake and milk. Here is a list of all of the foods needed to get the advancement:
 * Apple
 * Baked Potato
 * Beetroot
 * Beetroot soup
 * Bread
 * Carrot
 * Chorus Fruit
 * Clownfish
 * Cooked Chicken
 * Cooked Fish
 * Cooked Mutton
 * Cooked Porkchop
 * Cooked Rabbit
 * Cooked Salmon
 * Cookie
 * Golden Apple
 * Enchanted (Notch) Golden Apple
 * Golden Carrot
 * Melon
 * Mushroom Stew
 * Poisonous Potato
 * Potato
 * Pufferfish
 * Pumpkin Pie
 * Rabbit Stew
 * Raw Beef
 * Raw Chicken
 * Raw Fish
 * Raw Mutton
 * Raw Porkchop
 * Raw Rabbit
 * Raw Salmon
 * Rotten Flesh
 * Spider Eye
 * Steak

Serious Dedication
Completely use up a diamond hoe, and then reevaluate your life choices

Make a diamond hoe, and keep using it until it breaks. When it breaks, you will get the advancement.