Badges are a record of things you did rather than a currency, and none of them unlocks anything. That is deliberate: the moment an achievement gates content, people chase the badge instead of learning. This article is what the fifty of them are for and which ones are actually worth aiming at.
What there is to earn
Around fifty badges, in groups. Most arrive on their own while you study.
- Streaks — At 3, 7, 14, 30, 100 and 365 consecutive days. The 7 is the one that matters — most people who reach it keep going.
- First steps — Your first lesson, mock exam, grammar point, culture article and flashcard. Five badges for turning up.
- XP volume — 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 XP.
- Checkpoint volume — 25, 100, 500 and 1,000 things completed.
- Vocabulary and grammar — 50, 200 and 500 words; 10 and 50 grammar points.
- Skill counts — 50 listening, 50 reading, 30 writing, 30 speaking. Earning all four means you have not been avoiding one.
- Time of day — Night owl, early bird, weekend warrior, lunch learner. Harmless, and quietly informative about when you actually study.
- Consistency — A perfect week and a perfect month.
- Culture and mastery — Exploring the culture library, covering every category, and mastering 1, 25 and 100 items.
- HSK completion — Finishing a level’s vocabulary, its grammar, or the whole syllabus for that band.
The three worth chasing
- streak-7 — A week of consecutive days. The single best predictor of whether someone is still here in three months, and the only badge worth deliberately protecting.
- The four skill badges together — 50 listening, 50 reading, 30 writing, 30 speaking. Everybody neglects one skill; holding all four is proof you did not.
- An HSK completion badge — Finishing a level’s vocabulary or grammar. Unlike the volume badges, this one corresponds to something the outside world recognises.
Keeping a streak without it owning you
A streak counts days with at least one checkpoint. That is a deliberately low bar: a flashcard review or the Dragon Daily quiz is two minutes and counts the same as an hour.
You also hold a freeze, spent automatically on a missed day so one impossible Tuesday does not undo a month. And if a streak does break, nothing else moves — XP, badges, levels and progress are untouched. It is a nudge, not a debt.
Where to see them
The Stats tab in the red banner has an achievements wall alongside your XP, level and streak. Badges you have not earned are shown too, so you can see what exists rather than being surprised by it.
Common questions
No. They are a record of what you did. What you can access is decided by your plan; nothing on the site is gated behind an achievement.