An illager[1] is a type of hostile mob that regularly spawns in woodland mansions, patrols, raids, and pillager outposts. All illagers are hostile towards players, villagers, wandering traders and iron golems. Illagers look like villagers, except that they're grey and pale.
Illager types
- Evoker — summons vexes and evoker fangs. Spawns in woodland mansions and raids.
- Illusioner[JE only][unused mob] — attacks with a bow, may inflict Blindness for 20 seconds and summon duplicates while becoming invisible. They can spawn only using command
/summon. - Pillager — the most common Illager. Attacks with a crossbow. Passive when unarmed[JE only]. Spawns in patrols, pillager outposts, and raids.
- Vindicator — 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.[BE only]
- Ravager only an illager in Bedrock Edition — attacks by ramming with its horns and sticking its head forward. Roars after its attack is blocked by a shield, knocking back nearby mobs, and dealing damage. Spawns in raids, sometimes ridden by another illager.
Specific criteria
There are three specific criteria for a mob to be considered an Illager:
- "Johnny" vindicators do not attack the other mob.
- The mob cannot be damaged by evoker fangs or ravager's roar.
- The mob does not fight back when hit by a missed arrow shot by a pillager or illusioner[JE only].
Non-illager monsters that spawn in raids
- Ravager — not an illager in Java Edition because "Johnny" vindicators attack them without being attacked by the ravager in return.
- Vex — "Johnny" vindicators attack them. They spawn when summoned by an evoker. In a raid, they are not counted in the bossbar.
- Witch — Witches are not considered illagers, nor are they hostile to villagers.[2] A villager transforms into a Witch if they're struck by lightning. However, they can join patrols or spawn in raids above normal difficulty and splash Potions of Regeneration or Healing on illagers.[JE only]. Witches can also spawn in swamp huts or rarely at night. "Johnny" vindicators attack witches, and they take damage from evokers' fangs and ravagers' roars. If a witch's negative splash potion hits another illager by accident, all the illagers in the area attacks the witch, starting a fight. Any witches that are damaged by a ravager's roar, evokers' fangs, pillager's arrow or a illusioner's arrow throws negative potions on that illager that hit it. Witches are also neutral to iron and snow golems. Suck my big tit.[JE only]
Ravager Jockeys
A ravager jockey is an illager that spawns riding a ravager. The riders are illager especially pillagers, vindicators, and evokers.
Java Edition
A ravager ridden by pillager spawn at raids in Wave 5. Ravagers ridden by vindicators and evokers spawn at Wave 7.
Bedrock Edition
A ravager ridden by pillager spawn at raids in Wave 5 and 7, ravagers ridden by evokers spawn at Wave 7. The ravagers ridden by vindicators do not spawn on raids, but can be spawned via commands.
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 Woodland Mansions do not despawn and respawn. They are also passive on peaceful difficulty.[BE only]
Ravagers spawn exclusively in raids.
Raid captain
Illagers sometimes have their own leader. Any illager has a small chance to be a raid captain with an ominous banner (even when summoned by commands, or when using a spawn egg[JE only]).
Event
Illagers have their own in-game events, led by raid captains:
- Patrols — a naturally spawned group of five pillagers roaming the landscape. The group can include a vindicator on hard difficulty in Bedrock Edition.
- Raid — a wave after wave of illagers and witches spawn and attack a village with ominous horn blares. An Illager captain spawns in each wave with other illagers, mostly with a vindicator being the captain. It is triggered when a player with the Bad Omen status effect enters a village. Raiders and villagers usually have different behavior in a raid. In Bedrock Edition, any killed raiders drop special loot. Raiders celebrate after defeating a village.
Effect
Killing a raid captain in patrols, in a mansion[JE only], or in an outpost inflicts the player with the Bad Omen effect, which triggers a raid when that player enters a village with the effect still active.
Java Edition
Vindicators can open doors like villagers during raids. They can sometimes break a wooden door in normal or hard difficulty, if they cannot open the door successfully.
Illagers, ravagers, and witches 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.
Illagers pick up ominous banners dropped by raid captains during raids.
All illagers, ravagers, and witches gain 3 seconds of Glowing themselves when the bell rings.
Illagers and ravagers come to the aid of another illager of the same type to defeat mobs who attack it. For example, pillagers attack a skeleton that injures another pillager, but pillagers do not aid a vindicator hit by a skeleton.
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.[3]
A "ravager with vindicator rider" is unused in Bedrock Edition. It can be summoned by a spawn event command without raid configuration.
After Texture Update, illagers still use the java 1.14 snapshot texture, including some of the marketplace textures (for example, vindicator's eyes and pillager's arms).[4] [5] Also Ravager's legs texture is different that Java edition.
A vindicator sometimes retaliates against a pillager if the pillager accidently hits the vindicator with an arrow.
Trivia
- Illager structures are always themed around dark oak wood.
- All illagers' eyes are green[BE & edu only] with the exception of vindicators,[JE only] 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.
Gallery
A pillager celebrating after defeating a village in Java Edition.
A pillager celebrating after defeating a village. Pillagers raise their arms when celebrating in Bedrock Edition.
A poster by Mojang Studios of the Village and Pillage update.
An illager patrol looking at a villager secretly at night.
- Vindicator Mobestiary.jpeg
A vindicator from Minecraft Mobestiary.
An illusioner, an unused mob in Java Edition.
- Illagers attacking a villager.jpeg
Three Pillagers and Two Vindicators attacking a Nitwit Villager.
References
- ↑ "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-"Meet the Vindicator" – Minecraft.net, June 20, 2017
- ↑ MC-182733 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
- ↑ MCPE-42373
- ↑ MCPE-43198 INVALID
- ↑ MCPE-70509






