If the black hole badges are continually updated... the other mastery badges should be updated too!

Every one of the mastery badges up to Da Vinci are clustered together in a 500-skill area, while the Black Hole badges are placed as outliers far beyond the cluster - leaving a 4500-skill gap that users will have to pass through to get from Da Vinci to Atlas. This is making many of the mastery badges easier than they appear to be.

Take Kepler for example. Right now, it requires mastery in 300 unique skills, but that is the same number of skills needed to reach the Torrent badge:

"Your progress flows like a powerful torrent! Learning 300 skills has brought you to Level 25!"

This would actually make Kepler, as currently designed, a Moon Badge.

So, to get every badge to their right level and fill in the 4500-skill gap between Da Vinci and Atlas, instead of making new badges to add to the clutter, the easier mastery badges should be updated so that they require much more skills!

Here's how each badge should be updated:

The new version of Just Getting Started will require mastery in 10 unique skills. It will be earned at a minimum course level of 5 (10 - 15 skills).

Making Progress will require mastering 50 unique skills, replacing the old Work Horse. It will be earned at a minimum course level of 10 (45 - 55 skills).

Being Productive will soon mean mastery in 100 unique skills, replacing the old Magellan. It will be earned at a minimum course level of 14 (91 - 105 skills).

Mastery in 250 unique skills will signal that when it comes to learning, you're Hard at Work. A minimum course level of 22 (231 - 253 skills) will be required to earn it.

A replacement of the old Da Vinci, being a Work Horse means that you have mastered 500 skills and have reached a minimum course level of 32 (496 - 528 skills).

Ferdinand Magellan was the famous Portuguese explorer who organized the Spanish expedition to the East Indes that resulted in the first circumnavigation of the Earth. To earn the badge named after him, you must achieve mastery in 1000 unique skills, bringing you to a minimum course level of 45 (990 - 1035 skills).

A minimum course level of 55 (1485 - 1540 skills) will bring you to Sally Ride, which will soon require mastery in 1500 unique skills. Sally Ride, the famous American physicist and astronaut, is the first woman and still remains the youngest American astronaut to travel to space.

Mastery in 2000 unique skills will earn you the Copernicus badge. Nicolaus Copernicus was the famous Polish mathematician and astronomer who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at its center. A minimum course level of 63 (1953 - 2016 skills) is obtained before earning the badge named after him.

A badge named after Johannes Kepler - the famous German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer - will require mastery in 3000 unique skills. Kepler is best known for his laws of planetary motion. These works provided one of the foundations for theory of universal gravitation. His badge is obtained at a minimum course level of 77 (2926 - 3003 skills).

Hypatia of Alexandria was the famous Greek mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who made significant contributions to math, mainly in the areas of geometry. Her badge will require mastery in 3500 unique skills, and a minimum course level of 84 (3486 - 3570 skills).

Mastery in 4000 unique skills will give you the badge named after Sir Isaac Newton - the famous English physicist and mathematician who formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, which dominated scientists' view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. A minimum course level of 89 (3916 - 4005 skills) is a great indicator of his knowledge and thinking.

To earn Da Vinci, you will have to achieve mastery in 4500 unique skills, bringing you to a minimum course level of 95 (4465 - 4560 skills), and signaling that a Black Hole badge is somewhere nearby. Leonardo da Vinci was the famous Italian genius who is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.

I will suggest no changes to the Atlas badge. A minimum course level of 100 (4950 - 5050 skills) is obtained before earning it. The badge is named after Atlas - the primordial Titan who held up the sky in Greek mythology. He is also the titan of astronomy and navigation, and the titan general in the titan war.

And the Artemis badge will also have no changes. The badge is named after Artemis - the Greek virgin goddess of the hunt, the Moon, chastity, animals, and the wilderness. She and her twin brother Apollo, the god of the sun, are known as the "Twin Archers". Earning this badge means you have achieved a minimum course level of 122 (7381 - 7503 skills).

Through this change, each of the Sun badges I listed will actually become a true challenge, and the enormous 4500-skill gap between Da Vinci and Atlas will be significantly shortened.

And it will be worth the effort.