Illager

"The Illagers were created because we were talking about having some kind of generic, evil soldier mob in the game - slightly more intelligent than skeletons. It felt natural to have an evil villager. We figured they were ill-willed villagers and so from the beginning they were supposed to be "Ill Villagers". And then Tommaso suggested they should be EVIL-agers - and then we cut it down to just Illagers."

- Jens Bergensten

An illager is a type of hostile mob that regularly spawns in woodland mansions, patrols, raids, and pillager outposts.

Illager types

 * &mdash; summons vexes and evoker fangs. Spawns in woodland mansions and raids.
 *  &mdash; attacks with a bow, may inflict Blindness and summon duplicates while becoming invisible.
 * &mdash; the most common illager. Attacks with a crossbow. Passive when unarmed. Spawns in patrols, pillager outposts, and raids.
 * &mdash; destroys crops in village. May be ridden by pillagers or evokers during raids. $$, ravagers can also be ridden by vindicators during raids.
 * &mdash; attacks with an iron axe; breaks wooden doors in normal or hard modes during raids. Spawns in woodland mansions or raids.
 * Sometimes they may spawn in patrols, in Hard difficulty.

Specific Criteria
There are 3 specific criteria for a mob to be considered an illager:
 * 1) "Johnny" vindicators do not attack the mob.
 * 2) The mob cannot be damaged by evoker fangs.
 * 3) The mob does not fight back when hit by a missed arrow shot by a pillager or illusioner.

Monsters that spawn in raids (Non-illager)

 * &mdash; not an illager $$ because "Johnny" vindicators attack them without being attacked by the ravager in return.
 * &mdash; "Johnny" vindicators attack them. They spawn when summoned by an evoker.
 * &mdash; Witches spawn in raids above normal difficulty and splash Potions of Regeneration on illagers. In addition, if a witch is hit by a pillager or "Johnny" vindicator, the witch does not fight back.  However, "Johnny" vindicators attack them, and they take damage from evoker fangs. Witches are also neutral to iron and snow golems.

Occurrences
Illagers spawn naturally in patrols and raids. They always spawn naturally in groups while in patrols and raids, or inside their structures.

Only the pillager, vindicator, and evoker spawn naturally.

Vindicators and evokers that spawn naturally in s do not despawn.

Ravagers spawn exclusively in raids.

Captain
Illagers sometimes have their own leader. Any illager has a small chance to be a raid captain with an (even when summoned by commands, or when using a spawn egg).

Event
Illagers have their own in-game events, led by raid captains:
 * s &mdash; a naturally spawned group of pillagers roaming the landscape. The group can include a vindicator $$.
 * &mdash; a group of illagers spawn and attack a village. It is triggered when a player with the status effect enters a village.

Effect
Killing a raid captain in patrols, in mansion or in an outpost inflicts the player with the effect, which triggers a raid when that player enters a village with the effect still active.

Java Edition
Vindicators can open doors like villagers and wandering traders during raids. They can also break wooden doors like zombies rarely during raids in normal or hard difficulty. (If they can't open doors successfully, they might try to break down the door.)

All of them can spawn reinforcements when hit. Their reinforcements include other illagers and ravagers.

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

Bedrock Edition
All illagers and vexes ignore baby villagers.

A dispenser can equip an illager with armor. However, only helmets and chestplates are visible on pillagers and vindicators, while evokers never have any armor visible.

Pillagers and ravagers do not purposefully attack other illagers. However, non-pillagers and non-ravagers do attack pillagers who hit them with missed arrows.

Trivia

 * Illager structures are always themed around dark oak wood.
 * The ominous banner / illager banner  is uncraftable. The player can only obtain it by killing a raid captain, either from pillager outposts or through the use of commands.
 * All illagers' eyes are green with the exception of vindicators, which have blue eyes. In the Texture Update, vindicators and illusioners were changed have to green eyes, but in the Java snapshot 18w47b the color of the vindicator's eyes was turned to blue again. This might be a reference to The Shining Easter Egg for the "Johnny" vindicator.