What is the Almost There advancement in Minecraft?

While most Minecraft: Java Edition snapshots provide content previews and bug fixes, one, in particular, stands out among the rest. Specifically, this snapshot is known as Java Edition 20w14∞, and it yielded plenty of strange features.

Released as an April Fool's joke by Mojang in 2020, the so-called "20w14infinite" snapshot featured randomized dimensions players could travel to with strange procedural generation unlike much of what Minecraft implemented in traditional gameplay. However, the dimensions were only the tip of the iceberg, as the snapshot also offered many strange changes and implementations for April Fool's Day. One example was the "Almost There" advancement, which required players to pass through a portal a billion times.

Suffice it to say advancement isn't obtainable through ordinary Minecraft gameplay, but players can still technically acquire it with one command.

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Granting a Player the "Almost There" Advancement in Minecraft

Minecraft Java snapshot 20w14∞ is required to receive the "Almost There" advancement in vanilla (Image via Minecraft Wiki)

Put plainly, the "Almost There" advancement was a prank by Mojang and was never intended to be acquired in traditional gameplay. As such, the advancement was never added to the official build of Minecraft and remains solely within the infinite snapshot. This means that without mods or add-ons, the only way players can acquire this advancement is to play within Java Edition 20w14∞. Fortunately, doing so isn't too difficult with the advent of the game's official launcher, allowing players to play earlier snapshots of Java without manually downloading .jar files.

Getting the "Almost There" Advancement

1. Open the official game launcher and select Java Edition from the sidebar.
2. Select the installations tab and then "new installation."
3. Enter a name for your installation, then select the version "snapshot 20w14infinite" from the drop-down menu. Press the create button in the bottom-right of the screen.
4. Back at the installations list, hit the play button on the new installation you made for the snapshot. The snapshot should download automatically via the launcher.
5. At the main menu, create a new world and enable cheats in the settings.
6. Once you've spawned into the world, open your chat console and enter the command "/advancement grant @s only minecraft:adventure/almost_there" without quotations. This should bestow you the advancement. You can also use targeters in the command syntax like @p or @username to give specific players the advancement if desired.

Since passing through a portal a billion times is not even remotely plausible, using commands is one of the lone methods to acquire the "Almost There" advancement in this particular Java Edition snapshot. Sure, there are certain ways to mod the game or manipulate its code to receive the advancement otherwise, but this wasn't exactly intended by Mojang. It wasn't intended to be received at all, in truth, which is why it was part of a joke snapshot in the first place. In all reality, the advancement merely serves as a fun Easter Egg for players who enjoy toying with the game and its hidden features.

For players who love odd jokes and Easter Eggs from Mojang, however, there is much more to discover in the infinite snapshot than a simple advancement. It may be fun to boot up the snapshot's installation to see what else can be found by playing around with the game and its randomized dimensions.