Tutorials/Defeating a village raid

This tutorial will show you how to defeat a village raid.

Raid basics
Raids are events where, , and  invade a village in an attempt to kill as many  as possible. They can be very difficult to tackle early-game and can result in many villager deaths if not properly handled.

Defending a raid will require strong equipment and proper planning to ensure no villagers are killed. A successful defense of a raid has many benefits such as the status effect, which gives players a temporary discount while trading with villagers.

Necessary equipment
To defeat a raid, you will need strong equipment, such as:


 * A, preferably diamond and enchanted with Sharpness and Unbreaking
 * , preferably iron or diamond armor enchanted with Protection and Unbreaking
 * A, preferably enchanted with Unbreaking III if possible
 * Either...
 * A, preferably enchanted with Power and Unbreaking
 * A, preferably enchanted with Piercing or Multishot and Unbreaking, along with to deal splash damage
 * to regenerate health when necessary

Optional equipment
This equipment is not necessary, but can aid in defending a raid:


 * , to remove any negative status effects obtained
 * , to tank enemy attacks and to quickly heal
 * , to either barricade or protect oneself
 * , to cause fire damage and to temporarily segment off particular areas
 * , to slow down and trap enemies

Preparing the village
First you'll need to prepare a village for the raid, because vindicators can destroy the doors and will kill villagers and if that happens then the player will not receive the hero of the village, but will get bad omen, extending the raid. $$ Whether out of mercy or madness, illagers have a strange quirk in that they will not under any circumstances attack baby villagers, which means that if the village has baby villagers in it, then the raid won't end until said baby villagers grow up, die or all beds in the village are destroyed.

Because raids are player-based events, they can happen in player-made villages, so make sure to also fortify those villages as well. Before getting bad omen, make sure to hide villagers inside their houses and block off doors and windows to not let illagers reach them(note: vex can pass through wall). It will be easier to hide villagers during nighttime because they go to their beds for sleeping, however defeating raid during nighttime can also quite difficult as player may also facing with other hostile mobs such as creeper, skeletons, etc.

Wallington Walls
One of the easiest, yet most effective ways to protect a village against an illager raid is the venerable Wallington Walls strategy. This strategy has worked well against zombies and zombie sieges since the dawn of the villager and will also work equally well against illagers alike.

The Wallington Walls strategy involves simply surrounding the village on all sides with a 3-block tall, 2-block thick wall made out of wood, stone or any other durable material. Place a fence at the top of the wall for additional protection and make sure that there aren't any terrain features nearby that the illagers could possibly use to get over (or under) the wall to the other side. When constructing the wall, make sure that it encompasses the whole village (all buildings) yet build it as close to the village center as possible, to minimize the chances of anything spawning on the inside.

Once you have constructed the wall to the above specifications, make sure that it completely surrounds the village on all sides and does not have any openings anywhere in it as even a single point of weakness will render the whole wall pointless.

if you want to create an additional layer of protection, you could wait until all the villagers have gone indoors, then barricade the doors to their houses with a 1-2-block high stack of dirt or gravel in front of the door to lock them inside. The villagers will not be able to come out (and get into trouble) and zombies and illagers will not be able to get in (and kill the villagers). Since the door is blocked, Vindicators will not be able to destroy it with their axes. You could also create a 3-block wide, (at least) 2-blocks deep dugout around the wall as a moat to further impede the ilagers. If you wish to kill the illages this way and do not care for their drops, you could fill the moat with lava (just make sure that your wall isn't made out of anything flammable) and knock the illagers into it to incinerate them.

Getting Bad Omen
After preparing the village, you need to get bad omen status effect to trigger the raid. The Bad Omen status effect is obtained by killing an illager captain. Illager captains spawn in pillager outposts, woodland mansions and as part of illager patrols.

Triggering the raid
Once you get the bad omen effect, go back to the village. Once you are close enough to the village, you will lose the status effect and a "raid bar" will appear at the top of the screen. The raid bar shows the number of raiders left and $$ each bad omen level will increase the number of raiders spawned as well as improve their equipment. Difficulty also plays a role in that it determines the length of the raid; Easy gives 3 waves maximum, Normal gives 5 waves maximum and Hard gives 7 waves maximum.


 * Java Edition


 * Bedrock Edition

Starting The Battle
Once the raid starts, villagers will start running, sweating nervously and will usually make a run for the nearest house and hide indoors. At the same time, raiders will spawn around 50 blocks (actually depend on render distance and suitable spawning locations) away from the village and here are some instructions:


 * Vindicators deal a lot of damage so make sure to use bows and/or crossbows to shoot at them from a distance.


 * Witches are more dangerous if they spawn in a groups because they will harm you easily regardless of the enchanted armor so use your bows and crossbows to kill them from a safe distance. Witches can also poison you with their potions so bring along some milk to use as an antidote.
 * $$ Witches also serve as "field medics" for the raiders as they will throw potions of healing and regeneration at them to restore their health.


 * If you wish to get some additional help in dealing with the raiders, bring in Iron Golems.


 * If you can't see where the raiders are you can use a bell to reveal them.. In addition to the bell, raiders will sound a horn when spawning and this horn sound is centered directly on them, allowing you to pinpoint their direction of attack. Iron golem spawned naturally the from village can also detect raiders. location; if you see an iron golem that is staring at the ground for no apparent, that means that the Raiders have somehow ended up underground.

If you defeat the raid for your first time you'll get the hero of the village advancement. In addition to that, you will get the Hero of the Village status effect which will cause all villagers to give significant discounts on their trades. On top of all of that, any loot obtained from the raiders is yours for the taking.

It is possible to "jam the raid loop" and thus prevent any further raid waves or raids from occurring. In order to do this, kill all the raiders except for one and then trap him. A new raid cannot occur if one is already underway and since the raid won't end (or progress) if least one raider remains alive, the raid cycle is thus "jammed" and the village will be safe from further raids until the trapped raider either dies or despawns.

The easy way out
Bad omen is a status effect, so you can remove it by drinking milk, however in case you don't have milk then, If you have the Bad Omen status effect but do not wish to fight off a raid, then it is possible to just wait it out. Stay (very) far and away from any villages for 1 hour and 40 minutes (approximately 5 full Minecraft days) and the Bad Omen status effect will eventually dissipate and wear off on its own.