How to Get Heavy Cores for the Mace in Minecraft 1.21

Heavy cores are a major Minecraft 1.21 Tricky Trials reward because they are needed to craft the mace. Getting one requires a trial chamber, ominous keys, and luck.

Step 1: Prepare Before Going Underground

Do not walk in with a wooden sword and optimism. Bring at least diamond armor and weapons, a pickaxe, torches, plenty of food, milk, and healing potions.

Trial chambers are combat-heavy, and ominous encounters are tougher. Preparation keeps the loot run from becoming an inventory donation.

Step 2: Find a Trial Chamber

Trial chambers generate in the Overworld between layers -20 and -40. They have no surface marker, so most players find them by caving or strip mining.

If underground searching fails, cartographer villagers can sell trial explorer maps that point to a nearby trial chamber, making the search far less random.

Step 3: Loot Regular Trial Chambers First

Heavy cores come only from ominous vaults. Before opening those, you need ominous trial keys.

Clear trial spawners and loot regular vaults until ominous bottles appear. These bottles trigger the harder trial chamber encounters needed for ominous keys.

Step 4: Activate Trial Omen

Drink an ominous bottle to receive Bad Omen. Inside a trial chamber, Bad Omen becomes Trial Omen.

Trial Omen transforms nearby trial spawners into ominous trial spawners. These can reward ominous trial keys, but they also spawn better-equipped mobs, fire projectiles, and drop harmful potions near players.

Step 5: Open Ominous Vaults

Use ominous trial keys on ominous vaults. They are rarer than regular vaults, with only a few in each trial chamber.

The heavy core has a 7.5% drop rate from ominous vaults, so several may be needed. Each player can loot an ominous vault once, so bringing others improves the group's chances.

Getting Heavy Cores in Minecraft 1.21

Some players get a heavy core quickly. Others need several vaults. Keep collecting ominous keys and opening ominous vaults until the mace plan becomes reality.