Achievement

The popup that appears when an achievement is achieved.

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.

List of achievements

Picture	Achievement	Description	Prerequisites
	Taking Inventory	Open your inventory.	None
link= class=pixel-image	Getting Wood	Punch a tree until a block of wood pops out.	Taking Inventory
	Benchmarking	Craft a workbench with four blocks of wooden planks.	Getting Wood
	Time to Farm!	Use planks and sticks to make a wooden hoe.	Benchmarking
	Bake Bread	Turn wheat into bread.	Time to Farm!
	The Lie	Bake a cake using: wheat, sugar, milk and eggs.	Time to Farm!
	Time to Strike!	Use planks and sticks to make a wooden sword.	Benchmarking
	Monster Hunter	Attack and destroy a monster.	Time to Strike!
	Sniper Duel	Kill a skeleton with an arrow from more than 50 meters.	Monster Hunter
	Cow Tipper	Kill cows to harvest some leather.	Time to Strike!
	When Pigs Fly	Use a saddle to ride a pig, then have the pig (and you, as of Beta 1.6) get hurt from fall damage while riding it.	Cow Tipper
	Time to Mine!	Use planks and sticks to make a wooden pickaxe.	Benchmarking
	Getting an Upgrade	Construct a better pickaxe (stone pickaxe).	Time to Mine!
	Hot Topic	Construct a furnace out of eight cobblestone blocks.	Time to Mine!
	Delicious Fish	Catch and cook fish.	Hot Topic
link= class=pixel-image	Acquire Hardware	Smelt an iron ingot.	Hot Topic
link= class=pixel-image	On A Rail	Travel by minecart to a point at least 1 km in a single direction from where you started.	Acquire Hardware

Future Achievements

Picture	Achievement	Description	Prerequisites
link= class=pixel-image	DIAMONDS!	Acquire Diamonds using your Iron tools.	Acquire Hardware
	Enchanter	Use a book, obsidian and diamonds to construct a Enchantment Table.	DIAMONDS!
	Overkill	Deal 8 hearts of damage in a single hit.	Enchanter
	Librarian	Build some Bookshelves to improve your Enchantment Table.	Enchanter
	We Need to Go Deeper	Build a portal to the Nether.	DIAMONDS!
	Return to Sender	Destroy a Ghast with a fireball.	We Need to Go Deeper.
	Into Fire	Relieve a Blaze of its Rod.	We Need to Go Deeper.
	Local Brewery	Brew a potion.	Into Fire
	The End?	Locate the End.	Into Fire
	The End.	Defeat the Ender Dragon.	The End?

March 18th Update

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

“

I worked on the achievement and stats system. One design issue was dealing with offline mode and syncing the achievements once you get a connection again, but that’s been solved. We’ve got a couple of people in the office who don’t like achievements in games at all, so the goal is to design something that they’re fine with.

„

Also, he added that Achievements will not be chores:

“

Achievements will NOT be chores like “cut down 10000 trees”, but rather challenges like “ride a pig off a cliff”. Stats, however, will be used to keep track of how many trees you have cut down. The long term plan is to show achievements and stats from the profile page on minecraft.net as well, in case you want to brag.

„

Interface

The achievement interface with the first achievement done.

Minecraft's achievement system involves a 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, Diamond, or Log on the ground and still earn the "Cow Tipper" "DIAMONDS!"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. Another reference to Valve's game is an achievement name "On A Rail", which is the title of one of the levels in 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.
• The Achievement "Delicious Fish" can be obtained by cooking any fish, even if you didn't catch the fish yourself.

See also

• Tutorials/Achievement Guide