Minecraft Advancement: How Did We Get Here? Guide 1.21.9

We already looked at the toughest Minecraft achievements in an earlier post, but one of them stands above the rest in terms of complexity (Minecraft’s toughest achievements: How to unlock them) . For “How Did We Get Here?” you must have every available status effect active at the same time, which the advancement’s name sums up perfectly. No normal player would ever try this if not for the achievement. Still, it’s a monumental hurdle that can be a ton of fun to plan. And in the end you’ll have something very few players can claim. We’ll take a closer look at how to get every effect and how to trigger the achievement precisely.

All required status effects for the Minecraft advancement “How Did We Get Here?”

With the 1.21.9 (Java) update, the “How Did We Get Here?” advancement includes 33 different status effects. Keep in mind that new updates can add new effects, which changes the requirements for the achievement. The already announced “Mounts of Mayhem” update is expected to add another effect — so the challenge will get even more complex.

It’s best to split the effects into different categories. That way you can prepare more effectively and won’t forget anything at the end. We list all sources or methods for the status effects you should use.

Effects from food (food-based effects in Minecraft)

• Absorption: Eat a (enchanted) golden apple.
• Blindness: Gained from a suspicious stew made with an Azure Bluet.
• Hunger: Eat a pufferfish.
• Nausea: Eat a pufferfish.
• Poison: Eat a pufferfish.

Effects from potions (splash potions and extended variants)

• Ominous: Drink an ominous potion, obtained from pillagers or in trial chambers.
• Fire Resistance: Use a splash potion brewed with magma cream.
• Infested: Use a splash potion brewed from stone.
• Invisibility: Extended splash potion brewed with a fermented spider eye, night vision potion, and redstone.
• Night Vision: Extended splash potion brewed with a golden carrot and redstone.
• Oozing: Use a splash potion brewed from a slime block.
• Slowness: Extended potion brewed with a fermented spider eye, a speed potion, and redstone.
• Slow Falling: Extended potion brewed with a phantom membrane and redstone.
• Water Breathing: Extended potion brewed with pufferfish and redstone.
• Weakness: Extended potion brewed with a fermented spider eye and redstone.
• Weaving: Use a splash potion brewed from cobweb.
• Wind Charged: Use a splash potion brewed from a Breeze Rod.

Effects from external sources (beacon & conduit)

• Conduit Power: Gained from a conduit.
• Haste: With a fully powered beacon.
• Jump Boost: With a beacon.
• Regeneration: With a beacon.
• Resistance: With a beacon.
• Speed: With a beacon.
• Strength: With a beacon.

Effects from mobs (Warden, Shulker, Guardian, Dolphin)

• Dolphin’s Grace: Capture a dolphin and name it with a name tag to reliably receive its grace.
• Darkness: Gained from the Warden or naturally from sculk sensors in the deep dark.
• Hero of the Village: Make sure a villager has a job, then complete a raid.
• Levitation: Get hit by a Shulker.
• Mining Fatigue: Gained from an Elder Guardian in an ocean monument.

Effects from other sources (arrows, Wither Rose, trials)

• Glowing: Shoot yourself with a spectral arrow.
• Raid Omen: Drink an ominous potion near a jobbed villager.
• Ominous Trial: Be near a trial chamber and drink an ominous potion.
• Wither: Step into a Wither Rose or use a suspicious stew made from a Wither Rose.

Step-by-step guide: Order of all effects for “How Did We Get Here?” (1.21.9)

As you can see from the list, the process is anything but simple. Many effects last only a few minutes or even seconds — timing is crucial. To make it easier, here’s a proven sequence.

We recommend preparing practically everything you can. Pick a clear area for your setup. Place all required mobs within range, and set up the beacon and conduit. Fill one dispenser with spectral arrows (all slots full) and another with nearly all potions, then wire both to a lever. Also keep a bucket of milk handy to clear all effects after the ordeal.

1. Find four ominous potions (pillagers drop them, or you’ll find them in trial chamber vaults). The first effect you’ll trigger with them is Hero of the Village. To get it, defeat a raid. This effect lasts the longest — 40 minutes.
2. Drink the second ominous potion next to a trial spawner to get 15 minutes of Ominous Trial.
3. Find an ocean monument and get Mining Fatigue there for 5 minutes.
4. Return to your prepared setup and activate all beacon effects.
5. Splash yourself with all 8-minute potions: Invisibility, Water Breathing, Night Vision, and Fire Resistance. Throw them straight up so they land on your head and you get the full effect.

6. Put the following in your inventory: golden apple, two ominous potions, a pickaxe, the pufferfish, the suspicious stew, one extra potion (if there wasn’t enough room in the dispenser), and a bucket of milk.
7. Eat the golden apple for 2 minutes of Absorption. Now it’s time to focus!
8. Drink the third ominous potion to gain Raid Omen. Kill the villager with your pickaxe, then immediately drink the fourth ominous potion to get Ominous. You’ll have about 30 seconds left.
9. Get into water and start swimming to receive both the conduit’s effect and Dolphin’s Grace.
10. The Darkness effect should trigger automatically if a Warden is nearby.
11. Step into the Wither Rose while still in the water, and keep line of sight to the Shulker.
12. Flip the lever to activate both dispensers. This gives you the remaining potion effects and the spectral arrow’s Glowing. Flip the lever multiple times, as the arrow effect only lasts a few seconds.
13. Eat the pufferfish and the suspicious stew. Splash yourself with the last potion from your inventory.

Voilà! With this order, you should have all effects active simultaneously and unlock the hidden achievement “How Did We Get Here?” — plus 1,000 experience points. If you want a good video tutorial, we recommend Barbar31. The Minecraft Wiki also offers an in-depth breakdown if you’re missing an effect or something’s unclear.

Conclusion: Is the Minecraft advancement worth it?

Minecraft’s achievements help guide your play, but “How Did We Get Here?” is truly wild! For veterans, it’s a fantastic challenge to take on this advancement. The preparation forces you to understand many different game mechanics — and at the end, a real triumph awaits.

Rent one of our Minecraft servers and team up with your friends to earn this rare advancement. Or challenge each other and see who can do it first.