Illager

Illagers^[1] are a type of hostile mob that regularly spawn in woodland mansions, patrols, raids, and pillager outposts.

Illagers are hostile toward players, adult villagers, wandering traders, snow golems,‌ and iron golems. Illagers come in three (or four‌) classes: pillager, vindicator, evoker, and unused illusioner.‌ In Java Edition, all of these mobs are also part of the illager entity tag.

Properties

All illagers share the following properties:

• "Johnny" vindicators do not attack the mob.
• The mob is immune to the Raid Omen effect.
• The mob cannot be damaged by evoker fangs.
• The mob cannot be damaged by a ravager's roar.
• The mob does not fight back when hit by an arrow shot by a pillager or illusioner.
• The mob attacks villagers but ignores baby villagers, unlike zombie variants.
• The mob flees from creakings.
• Witches heal the mob in raids.
• The mob can join patrols.
• The mob can join raids.

List of mobs

Illagers

Evoker	Illusioner ‌	Pillager	Vindicator

Affiliated mobs

Ravager	Vex	Witch

Occurrences

Illagers spawn naturally in patrols and raids:

• Pillagers (including one patrol captain) spawn in patrols.
• Pillagers, vindicators and evokers spawn in raids.

They will also spawn in their respective structures:

• Pillagers spawn in pillager outposts.
• Vindicators and evokers spawn in woodland mansions when they are generated.

The vindicators and evokers that spawn naturally in woodland mansions do not despawn. They also do not respawn when killed.

Illusioners‌ do not spawn naturally and can be summoned only through commands.

Raid captains

Illagers sometimes have their own captain. All illagers have a small chance to be a raid captain wearing an ominous banner when spawned using a spawn egg‌ or when summoned by commands.

Raid captains naturally spawn in raids‌. One raid captain is spawned during each wave as the “leader” of that wave. When the raid captain is killed and drops its ominous banner, other nearby illagers attempt to pick up the banner to become the new raid captain.

One pillager raid captain (also called a patrol captain) spawns in patrols.

In Java Edition, other illagers, ravagers and witches follow the orders of the raid captain, attacking any target the raid captain attacks.

In Java Edition, the ominous banner equips on the illager's helmet slot. In Bedrock Edition, the ominous banner equips on the illager's chestplate slot.

Ravager jockeys

An illager can spawn riding a ravager, creating a ravager jockey. The rider can be a pillager, vindicator, or evoker. In Java Edition, illusioners can also be summoned as a ravager jockey through commands.

They naturally spawn only in certain waves during raids. In Java Edition, the rider can also be a raid captain.

Java Edition

A pillager-ravager jockey spawns in wave 5. A vindicator-ravager jockey and an evoker-ravager jockey in wave 7. 1-2 vindicator-ravager jockeys and an evoker-ravager jockey also spawn in the extra wave (wave 8) in Hard difficulty.

Bedrock Edition

A pillager-ravager jockey spawns in wave 5. A pillager-ravager jockey and an evoker-ravager jockey spawn in wave 7. Vindicator-ravager jockeys do not spawn during raids, and can be spawned only with commands.

Events

Illagers have their own in-game events, led by raid captains‌:

• Patrol — a naturally spawned group of several pillagers led by a patrol captain roaming the landscape.
• Raid — an ominous event in which waves of illagers, ravagers and witches spawn and attack a village while an ominous horn blares. In Java Edition, a raid captain spawns in each wave alongside the other illagers, usually with a vindicator as the captain. A raid is triggered when a player with the Bad Omen status effect enters a village, where it transforms into Raid Omen and starts the raid if not removed after 30 seconds. Raiders and villagers both have unique behaviors during a raid. In Bedrock Edition, any killed raiders drop special loot, such as armor and enchanted books. The raiders and villagers celebrate after defeating or saving a village, respectively.

Effects

Killing a raid captain drops an ominous bottle of a random level (I-V), which when drank gives the player the Bad Omen effect of the same level. When that player enters a village, it becomes Raid Omen. If the Raid Omen effect is not removed, after 30 seconds a raid begins where the player obtained the Raid Omen. The level of the effect increases the enchantment power of pillagers' and vindicators' crossbows and axes, respectively, and omens with a level higher than 1 cause an extra wave of raiders to occur ‌. When all waves have been defeated in a raid, the Hero of the Village effect is given, which decreases prices when trading with villagers. The level of the effect scales with the level of the omen that triggered the raid.

Rune

Illagers have an alphabet called illageralt, a rune font from Minecraft Dungeons. This font is currently usable only in Java Edition via commands.

Java Edition

All illagers ignore baby villagers, but may still hit them by accident.

Illagers do not retaliate when hit by a missed arrow shot by a pillager or illusioner.

A vindicator can disable the player's shield with its iron axe attack, even when riding a mob. If a player fails to land a melee attack on a vindicator that rides a ravager during a raid in Hard difficulty, the vindicator rider can deal great damage to a player without protection from a shield.

All illagers, ravagers, and witches within 48 blocks of a bell that has been rung gain three seconds of the Glowing effect, effectively highlighting them through walls.

Reinforcements

On all difficulty levels, damaged illager mobs call all other illagers of their respective type within an area centered on the attacked illager to target the attacker, as long as the attacker is a non-illager. For example, nearby pillagers will attack a skeleton that injures another pillager, but pillagers do not aid a vindicator hit by a skeleton.​

Raids

During raids, vindicators can open doors like villagers. They can also break wooden doors in Normal or Hard difficulty, if they cannot open the door successfully.^[2] Evokers and illusioners gain high movement speed without any effect.

A raid captain spawns in each wave with other raiders, usually with a vindicator as the captain.

Illagers pick up ominous banners dropped by raid captains and become the new raid captain. If the raid captain is still alive, they do not pick up a banner dropped from a previous wave or thrown by the player.

Patrols

All illagers, ravagers, and witches actively join nearby patrols. If a "Johnny" vindicator joins a patrol, all patrol members assume the "Johnny" vindicator's aggressive behavior.

Bedrock Edition

All illagers and vexes ignore baby villagers, but pillagers may still shoot them by accident, But if a vindicator is named Johnny, then they kill them.

A dispenser can equip an evoker, vindicator, or pillager with armor. However, no armor is visible on them and no armor drops upon death.

Pillagers and ravagers do not purposefully attack other illagers. However, non-pillagers and non-ravagers do attack pillagers who hit them with missed arrows.^[3] Vindicators and evokers retaliate against a pillager if the pillager accidentally hits the vindicator or evoker with an arrow, although the evoker fang deals no damage to pillagers. Vexes summoned by an injured evoker can still attack the pillager.

A "ravager with vindicator rider" is unused in Bedrock Edition and can only be summoned with the following command below:

/summon ravager ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ minecraft:spawn_with_vindicator_rider

After the Texture Update, illagers still use the Java Edition 1.14 snapshot texture, including some of the Marketplace textures (for example, the pillager's arms).^[4] Also, a ravager's leg texture in Bedrock Edition is different from that in Java edition.

Video

History

Issues

Issues relating to "Illager" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• During the development of Minecraft Dungeons, Mojang decided that the game needed a significantly larger number of hostile mobs than existed at the time. This lead to the creation of a generically evil faction in the illagers that could be used in any sort of spin-off media.^[5]
  • Jeb stated that illagers could have any agenda or skills necessary to fuel a story's plot. However, these skills should lean more toward being magic-oriented than technical.^[5]
• According to Minecraft: Mobestiary, illagers were "expelled" from villages due to their "unspeakable activities."
• Witches ally with the illagers during raids. Cory Scheviak jokingly explained that witches spawned in raids are just along for the ride.^[6]
• According to Jeb, illagers were originally called "ill-willed villagers" or "illvillagers", but "evillagers" and "illagers" were also suggested. The lattermost option was chosen as it was the shortest.^[5]
  • Following that, "illager" is "fybo" (bad villager) in Swedish, from "bybo" (villager), since it creates the same pun and meaning as the English term.^[5]

Gallery

• 
  An evoker.
• 
  An evoker raid captain.
• 
  An evoker raid captain riding a ravager.
• 
  An evoker riding a ravager.
• 
  An evoker summoning evoker fangs.
• 
  An evoker summoning vexes.
• 
  An illusioner.
• 
  An illusioner aiming.
• 
  An illusioner casting a spell.
• 
  An illusioner raid captain.
• 
  An illusioner raid captain riding a ravager.
• 
  An illusioner riding a ravager.
• 
  A pillager.
• 
  A pillager aiming.
• 
  A pillager raid captain.
• 
  A pillager raid captain riding a ravager.
• 
  A pillager riding a ravager.
• 
  A ravager.
• 
  A vex.
• 
  A vex attacking.
• 
  A vindicator.
• 
  A vindicator attacking.
• 
  A vindicator raid captain.
• 
  A vindicator raid captain riding a ravager.
• 
  A vindicator riding a ravager.
• 
  A witch.
• 
  A witch drinking a potion.

Screenshots

• 
  A patrol near a village.
• 
  Three pillagers and two vindicators chasing a nitwit villager.
• 
  A ravager destroying leaves.
• 
  Every illager in Minecraft: Java Edition, a vex, and a ravager, prior to version 1.19.3.

In other media

• 
  An official promotional artwork for the Village & Pillage update, by Mojang Studios.
• 
  The entry on the vindicator in Minecraft: Mobestiary.

References

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