Vindicator

"The Evoker came first, but Jens wanted another, partly to increase the variety of attackers you’d be facing, deploying long and short range tactics. But also, Jens says, he wanted to give the sense of that the Illagers are a diverse bunch of individuals, each with their own set-up. And so the homicidal rush-mob, the Vindicator, was born - lurching at you from the dark recesses of the mansion, axe raised high."

- Marsh Davies

Vindicators are illagers equipped with iron axes.

Spawning
Vindicators sometimes spawn with a randomly enchanted iron axe, in normal or hard modes: the chances, 0-25%, go up as the regional difficulty goes up.

Woodland mansions
Vindicators spawn during the generation of mansions, inside particular rooms. Some rooms contain 1, others contain 3, some contain 2 accompanied by an evoker, and some can rarely spawn in the corridors.

They do not respawn after their initial spawn point. Vindicators generated with mansions do not naturally despawn (unless the world is switched to Peaceful mode ).

Patrols
Patrols consist of 2–5 illagers, with all illagers always being pillagers on Easy and Normal difficulties. On Hard difficulty, 80% of them are pillagers and 20% of them are vindicators.

Raids
Vindicators can spawn during raids. They appear less frequently during earlier waves and at easier difficulties but are more common in later waves and at higher difficulties. Vindicators can spawn riding ravagers.

Drops
Vindicators drop loot only when killed by a player or tamed wolf. They drop when they die:
 * 5 experience orbs.
 * 0–1 when killed by the player. The maximum increases by 1 for every level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-4 with Looting III.
 * 8.5% chance of dropping their, which increases by 1 percentage point per level of Looting. $$, the tool has a 25% chance to be enchanted.
 * 1 Illager Banner.png Ominous banner, if they spawn as a raid captain.

$$, if a vindicator spawns as part of a raid, it can drop:
 * 0-1

Additionally, vindicators have a 65% chance of dropping the following on Easy and Normal difficulties, and an 80% chance of dropping them on Hard difficulty:

Note:
 * 0-1 ($10/39$ chance)
 * 2-3 ($5/39$ chance)
 * 4-5 ($2/39$ chance)
 * 1 ($2/39$ chance)
 * 1 ($5/78$ chance)
 * 1 ($5/78$ chance)
 * 1 ($5/78$ chance)
 * 1 ($5/78$ chance)
 * 1 ($5/78$ chance)
 * 1 ($5/78$ chance)
 * 1 ($5/78$ chance)
 * Iron equipment from raid drops always has a 50% chance of being enchanted with a random enchantment at level 5-19.
 * Iron equipment from raid drops is always damaged.
 * These drops are also affected by the Looting enchantment.
 * The enchanted book has a level 30 enchantment, may be treasure enchantment.
 * Emeralds are both a regular raid drop and an additional raid drop.
 * With Looting III enchantment, a vindicator spawned from a raid can drop up to 16 emeralds upon death, but the chance is 3.328% on Easy or Normal, and 4.096% on Hard.
 * It is possible for a vindicator spawned from a raid to drop both its naturally-spawned iron axe and a second iron axe from its additional raid drops (in Easy and Normal difficulty 0.3536% chance, 0.3952% chance with Looting I, 0.4368% chance with Looting II, and 0.4784% chance with Looting III, while in Hard difficulty 0.4352% chance, 0.4864% chance with Looting I, 0.5376% chance with Looting II, and 0.5888% chance with Looting III).

Behavior
Vindicators are hostile toward players, iron golems, adult villagers, wandering traders, snow golems $$, and villager children $$.

$$, vindicators that spawn in woodland mansion are neutral to players.

When attacking, a vindicator raises its main hand brandishing an iron axe. A vindicator moves toward its target at the player's walking speed $$ or at the player's sprinting speed $$. When not attacking, a vindicator crosses its arms similar to a villager, and does not show the axe in its hand. A vindicator follows its target from up to 12 blocks away.

A vindicator named Johnny (using a name tag, named spawn egg, etc., or has its  tag set to  ) is hostile to every mob except for evokers, illusioners, pillagers, ghasts, and other vindicators; $$, its hostility even extends to vexes and ravagers. All hostile or neutral mobs, except for endermites, phantoms, guardians, slimes, magma cubes, and ravagers, try to attack the Johnny vindicator in return. The  tag overrides its name; the player can give the vindicator any other name and set the   tag to   and it remains hostile in the same way as described. Conversely, the player can name the vindicator Johnny and set the  tag to , causing the vindicator to act as a normal vindicator.

$$, naming a vindicator spawn egg "Johnny" and it on a spawner has no effect; normal vindicators spawn rather than vindicators named Johnny.

$$, during raids, vindicators can open doors, just as villagers do.

Also, they can break doors in Normal and Hard difficulty.

$$, a vindicator disables the player's shield with its iron axe attack, even when riding a mob. For example, a player may not survive trying a melee attack on a vindicator that rides a ravager during a raid in Hard difficulty.

If raiding vindicators kill all the villagers in the village, or all the beds are destroyed, vindicators celebrate their victory by laughing and raising their arms.

If vindicators have no weapons, they still attack players, iron golems, villagers, and wandering traders.

Like shulkers and evokers, vindicators are passive on peaceful difficulty.

Data values
Vindicators have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob.

Trivia
"He just looks insane – and it made me think of The Shining, when Jack Nicholson breaks through the bathroom door, yelling, "Heeere's Johnny!" So I thought it was funny to add an Easter Egg in which you name him Johnny and he would constantly be in hostile mode and kill everything he sees!"

- Jens Bergensten


 * Naming a vindicator "Johnny" causes the vindicator to become hostile toward every mob, except other illagers; a reference to The Shining.
 * Vindicators have blue eyes, unlike other illagers, who have green eyes. In the Texture Update, vindicators and illusioners were changed to green eyes, but in 18w47b the color of the vindicator's eyes turned blue again.
 * They do the third-highest melee damage of all the non-boss mobs, first being the giant, second being the iron golem and fourth being the ravager.