HARD ADVANCEMENTS

What makes them hard

Hard advancements rarely need more skill than you already have. What they cost is time, a trip to the far end of a dimension, a rare drop or the right weather, so it pays to know which of those you are in for.

Rare drops and materials

Wither skeletons drop the skull for Spooky Scary Skeleton 2.5 percent of the time, one point more per Looting level, and only when you land the kill. Three skulls and four soul sand or soul soil summon the wither for Withering Heights, and its nether star with five glass and three obsidian makes the beacon for Bring Home the Beacon, which counts once the beacon stands on a pyramid of at least one level. Ancient debris for Hidden in the Depths is most common at Y 16. Serious Dedication takes a netherite ingot and an upgrade template on a diamond hoe, Careful Restoration four pottery sherds, and Revaulting an ominous trial key, which only ominous trial spawners drop.

The End

Arriving in the End gives The End? and The End at the same moment, and killing the dragon gives Free the End. Four End crystals on the exit portal bring it back for The End... Again..., and a spyglass pointed at it gives Is It a Plane? Out on the islands, walking into an End city gives The City at the End of the Game, the elytra in an End ship gives Sky's the Limit, and shulker bullets have to lift you 50 blocks for Great View From Up Here.

Time

Zombie Doctor only comes when the villager is cured, 3 to 5 minutes after the golden apple. Phantoms only spawn after three in-game days without sleep, and Two Birds, One Arrow needs two of them killed by one arrow from a Piercing crossbow. A tadpole grows into the frog of the biome it is in after 20 minutes, which is how most players get the cold frog for When the Squad Hops into Town and the verdant froglight for With Our Powers Combined!

Weather

Very Very Frightening needs a thunderstorm and a Channeling trident thrown at a villager under open sky. Surge Protector needs lightning within 30 blocks of you, an unharmed villager within about 15 blocks of the strike and not a single block on fire.

Height and distance

Star Trader is a trade at Y 319 or higher, and Caves & Cliffs a fall of more than 379 blocks from there to Y -59 or lower. Subspace Bubble is 7,000 blocks of Overworld distance, 875 on the Nether side, and Feels Like Home a strider ride 50 blocks in a straight line across Overworld lava. Hot Tourist Destinations sends you to all five Nether biomes for 500 experience, the biggest reward on this page.

Fights

Hero of the Village means winning a raid of 3, 5 or 7 waves on Easy, Normal or Hard. Every evoker drops a totem of undying, and being saved by one gives Postmortal. Mob Kabob is five mobs hit by one spear charge, best from a horse or a camel, and It Spreads is any kill that drops experience within 8 blocks of a sculk catalyst.

Challenges, goals and the one hidden advancement

Eight of the 30 are challenges, worth 915 experience together. Hot Tourist Destinations pays 500; Hero of the Village, Serious Dedication and Subspace Bubble pay 100 each; Two Birds, One Arrow pays 65 and Great View From Up Here 50. It Spreads and With Our Powers Combined! pay nothing, the only two challenges in the game without experience.

Six are goals: Zombie Doctor, The End... Again..., Sky's the Limit, Revaulting, Postmortal and Mob Kabob. Hero of the Village is the only hard advancement that stays hidden until you earn it. The tab pages for the Nether, End, Adventure and Husbandry go through most of these step by step.