Achievement

Achievements are a way to gradually guide new players into Minecraft and give them challenges to complete. Achievements were added to Minecraft on the 19th of April, 2011 in the 1.5 update.

Speaking to Gamasutra, Notch said: “I like achievements. I know a lot of people don't, but I like them. I've had the idea to make achievements kind of like the in-game questing. So you'd be able to see the first achievement in a tree of achievements, and you unlock the top ones first before you can unlock the ones further down."

He also said: “So the first one might be to chop down a tree, or kill a chicken, and then these branch into more things you can do. Hopefully it would encourage people to try new areas. It could converge into a big task, like kill a dragon or something, which would put a kind of narrative into the achievement tree.”

Finally, asked if such a move would risk leading players down a preset path, rather than encouraging exploration and invention as Minecraft does in its current state, Notch said: “Definitely. I’d want these achievements to feel like things you can try, rather than these are things you have to do. People can follow them, but only if they want to.”

The Beta 1.4 update was originally intended to include achievements and statistics; However, implementation was pulled from the release because it was not yet functional. It was implemented into Beta 1.5 instead.

March 18th Update
On March 18th, Notch talked about Achievements and Statistics on his Blog. He said the following:



Also, he added that Achievements will not be chores:



Interface
Minecraft's achievement system involves a large tree composed of achievements, some of which must be completed before others can be. Originally the interface showed the achievement tree on the left, and a 'mini-map' of the tree on the right. The mini-map was removed in the final version, which now simply shows the tree. The background of the tree mimics the world with sand at the top with dirt spanning below, bedrock at the bottom, and ores distributed as they would be in the world.

Test achievements can also be found within Minecraft Beta 1.4's source code, and the test video posted by Notch. Among these are opening the inventory, mining wood and building a workbench.

Preview Video
On April 8, 2011, a video was uploaded to YouTube showing weather, statistics and achievements.

Glitches

 * It is possible to simply throw a piece of Leather or Log on the ground and still earn the "Cow Tipper" or "Getting Wood" achievement, respectively.

Trivia

 * The first achievement confirmed by Notch was "When Pigs Fly", although it was more explained than named.
 * "The Lie" achievement is a reference to the promised cake in Portal that is thought to be "a lie", and the Internet meme "The Cake is a Lie" that is of the same promised cake.
 * "On A Rail" is the name of a chapter in the original Half Life.
 * You can reset all of your Achievements by deleting the "stats" folder in the .minecraft app data folder. Beware that it also resets Statistics.
 * Completing achievements without their prerequisites will not count, despite the ability to do so legitimately.
 * There are neither Gold Ores nor Lapis Lazuli ores in the Achievements Menu background.
 * Contrary to popular misconception, "Achievement Get!" is not a grammatical error, but a deliberate reference to a decade-old proto-meme. Early screenshots of Super Mario Sunshine used the Japanese localization, and featured Mario grabbing a "Shine" item with the prominent text "Shine Get!". Due to the prominence of the game and the attention given to these screenshots, "Noun Get!" subsequently became a popular term used on image boards as post count benchmarks, which Notch occasionally visits.
 * If you have a texture pack that edits item/stone textures, they will show up in the achievement screen as those textures
 * On 14 July, Notch tweeted that he had added a new achievement for killing a skeleton using a bow from fifty meters away. The new achievement has been added into 1.8 but it doesn't work so far.