See those funny PNGs (Formerly SVGs) on my profile? They're badges. I have a lot of them, which looks impressive to some people I'm sure! But badges were created by Discord to do one thing: Incentivise you to to do things. Usually pay them money. Badges can be broken down into 4 categories:

I paid Discord money

Discord Nitro
Everyone knows what this one is. If you pay for Discord Nitro, you get the badge. In 2025, Discord added evolving styles to the Nitro badge to encourage users to retain their subscriptions over long time periods. This badge isn't tied to the bitwise flags object, but rather a premium status & premium since parameter within the user's profile object. Nitro was first introduced in 2018 with one tier ($9.99/month). This tier was later rebranded to 'Nitro Classic' ($4.99/month) in 2020, before being replaced by the introduction of a new tier, 'Nitro Basic' ($2.99/month). Before 'Nitro Classic' gained its Classic moniker, it was the only subscription avaliable, however this changed in 2020 with the introduction of a new tier simply called 'Nitro'.

Server Boosting
Boosting has been a feature since 2019, with an evolving badge at launch. Server Boosts have gone through many changes, and I'm not going to list them all here. You get them for free with the 'Nitro' subscription tier, or you can purchase individual boosts. Users are often incentivised to Boost servers by the managers of those servers, with a Booster role built into Discord & server perks granted for boosting.

Early Supporter
If you bought Nitro before October 10th 2018, you got this badge. It's no longer obtainable.

Anyone can get these

Active Developer
This badge is awarded to users who own a Discord App that has executed a command within the past 30 days. Discord has an article on this badge you can read here. This badge was created alongside Discord's interactions system (Slash Commands) to encourage developers to adopt it & move away from text-based commands (e.g. sending !ban in chat).

Completed a Quest
Discord's Quests system has a lot going on, so I won't talk about it here. But I have written an article about it. If you 'Complete a Quest' (Watch an ad or play a game), Discord will reward you with this badge. Interestingly, this badge (and a few others) is completely divorced from the bitwise flags Discord assigns to users (more on this later).

Orbs Apprentice
Back in the day, Discoin was a running joke in the Discord-meta community. The concept of a microcurrency on Discord. But the joke is real now, and they're awarded for engaging in Quests. Watch an ad, play a game, get some Orbs. You can spend them on several things in Discord's Orbs storefront, one of which is this 'Orbs Apprentice' badge. Discord is heavily promoting the Quests & Orbs program, both to users and potential advertisers. You can read more about them here. This badge is also divorced from the bitwise flags.