Heavy Core in Minecraft — Complete Guide (Mace Crafting, Trial Chambers, Damage)

Quick Answer Table

Question	Answer
Where to find a Heavy Core?	Ominous Vaults in Trial Chambers, nowhere else
Drop chance	7.5% per Ominous Vault opening
Used for	Crafting a Mace (Heavy Core on top of a Breeze Rod)
Can each player loot the same vault?	Yes, once per player per vault
Tradeable?	No, it has to be looted
Added in	1.21 (Tricky Trials), Java and Bedrock

How to Get a Heavy Core (Step by Step)

1. Find a Trial Chamber. The entrance room generates between Y -40 and Y -20, usually in deepslate caves. See our Trial Chambers guide.
2. Get an Ominous Bottle. Kill a Pillager captain (the one carrying a banner) outside a raid and it always drops one. Vaults and reward chests inside Trial Chambers can also hold them.
3. Drink the Ominous Bottle to get Bad Omen, then walk up to a Trial Spawner. Bad Omen turns into Trial Omen and nearby spawners switch to their ominous form (darker look, tougher mobs).
4. Clear the Ominous Trial Spawners. Each has a 30% chance to drop an Ominous Trial Key for every player in the fight.
5. Use each Ominous Trial Key on an Ominous Vault. Each opening has a 7.5% chance to give a Heavy Core, alongside other loot.

Crafting the Mace

Place the Heavy Core on top and a Breeze Rod directly below it. Breeze Rods drop from Breezes (1–2 each), which only spawn in Trial Chambers. The result is one Mace with 500 durability (Java). See our full guide to getting a Mace.

Mace Damage Mechanics

A normal Mace hit deals 6 damage, one less than a Diamond Sword. Hit a mob while falling and it becomes a smash attack with bonus damage for every block you fell:

• +4 damage per block for the first 3 blocks
• +2 damage per block for the next 5 blocks
• +1 damage per block after that, with no cap

So a 5-block fall gives 6 + 12 + 4 = 22 damage, a 10-block fall gives 30, and a 20-block fall gives 40 (critical hits add 50% on top). A smash that lands also resets your fall height, so you don't take the fall damage you built up.

Mace Enchantments

Enchantment	Effect
Density I–V	+0.5 smash damage per block fallen, per level. Density V on a 10-block fall adds 25 damage
Breach I–IV	Armor blocks 15 percentage points less per level
Wind Burst I–III	Launches you upward after a smash that lands, so you can chain hits
Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Fire Aspect, Unbreaking, Mending	Work as usual

Density, Breach, Smite and Bane of Arthropods can't be combined with each other. Wind Burst works with any of them.

Common Questions

Can I get Heavy Cores from regular Vaults?

No. Heavy Cores only drop from Ominous Vaults. Regular Vaults give iron, emeralds, diamonds and other loot, but never a Heavy Core.

How rare is the Heavy Core?

7.5% per Ominous Vault opening, so about 13 openings per Heavy Core on average. Some players get one on the first try; an unlucky run can take more than twice the average.

Can Heavy Cores be duplicated?

Not in vanilla survival. In Creative you can take them from the inventory.

For more 1.21 guides, see our Vault block guide, Breeze guide, and Crafter guide.