Pillager

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Pillager

Health points	24 × 12
Behavior	Hostile, Neutral (Patrol)
Classification	Illager
Attack strength	Ranged Easy: 3 - 4 Normal: 4 Hard: 4 - 5 Melee ‌^{[BE only]} Easy: 2 Normal: 3 Hard: 5
Hitbox size	*In Java Edition:* Height: 1.95 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks In Bedrock Edition: Height: 1.9 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks
Spawn	Patrols Pillager outposts Raids

Pillagers are Illagers armed with crossbows that patrol the Overworld, guard their outposts, and participate in raids, sometimes spawning on ravagers in later waves of a raid. They are the weakest and most common of the illagers.

Spawning[]

Patrols[]

In Java Edition, the number of pillagers spawning in each patrol depends on the local difficulty, with one spawning as a patrol captain. Patrols occur after 5¹⁄₂ in-game days, any time and independently of structures, which means they still spawn in worlds without generated structures. A patrol spawns 24 to 48 blocks away from a random player, on the highest solid block. The individual pillagers of a patrol can spawn only at block light level 7 or lower, regardless of sky light.

In Bedrock Edition, each patrol spawns 2 to 5 pillagers. One of these pillagers is a patrol captain. After 5¹⁄₂ in-game days, patrols appear 24 to 48 blocks away from the player, at a light level of 7 and below on Easy or any light level on Normal and Hard difficulty.

Patrols seek villages, wander around the world, and attack nearby players, adult villagers, iron golems, snow golems‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} and wandering traders.

Outposts[]

Pillagers continually spawn in a 72×54×72 block volume centered on the top floor. They may spawn on any valid opaque block as long as the sky light level is 11 or lower, and the block light level is 8 or lower, but can also spawn on grass blocks or sand regardless of sky light level. There can be unlimited pillagers that spawn in outposts naturally, limited only by the natural spawning rules.

In Bedrock Edition, pillagers continually spawn at or below a particular location in the outpost, choosing the highest opaque block with a non-solid block on top and spawning on the northwest corner. There can only be a maximum of 8 pillagers spawned naturally in an outpost.

Some pillagers here spawn as outpost captains.

Raids[]

In a raid, pillagers are more common in the earlier waves, and decrease in number as the waves progress, except during bonus waves. Despite this, they still constitute the majority of raiders in total. The pillager is also the most common raiding mob in a raid. One pillager spawns riding a ravager in the fifth wave. In Bedrock Edition, one of the ravagers is ridden by a pillager instead of a vindicator on the seventh wave.

Pillagers have the largest chance of being the raid captain in the first wave, but in the second wave and onwards, vindicators have a greater chance than pillagers of being the raid captain.

Java Edition[]

In Java Edition, a pillager spawned by a player using a spawn egg or command can be a captain, meaning it has an ominous banner sticking out of its head.

A villager attracts the patrolling pillagers and causes the patrol to look at the villager.

A large group of pillagers together, with some riding on ravagers.

Behavior[]

A pillager turned passive, holding an ominous banner in the right hand.

Pillagers are hostile toward players, iron golems, wandering traders and villagers, but not toward baby villagers. In Bedrock Edition, pillagers are also hostile toward snow golems. They attack by shooting arrows from their crossbows every 3 seconds up to 8 blocks away, and pursue their targets for up to 64 blocks‌^{[Java Edition only]}or 16 blocks‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}. Because of their fast walking pace, they are extremely difficult to shake off.

Pillagers move slowly around when idle and loading crossbows in Java Edition. In Bedrock Edition, pillagers move from one place to another as fast as when they're provoked, although they stop and look around, pointing their crossbows along.

A pillager stares at the player and points its crossbow toward the player when the player is in creative mode. — A pillager stares at the player and points its crossbow toward the player when the player is in creative mode or when the player has the invisibility effect.

Patrols spawn as a group of 1 to 5 pillagers in Java Edition or 2–5 illagers in Bedrock Edition, one of which is the patrol captain. The patrol captain wears an ominous banner, known as the illager banner in Bedrock and Education Editions, on its head. The other illagers follow the captain around. If pillagers are part of a patrol, they do not attack immediately. The patrol members' heads turn to follow the player's or of the villager-like mob who attracted their attention. If the player or villager-like mob attacks or approaches within 10 blocks of the patrol members, then this provokes them into loading their crossbows and attacking. This is intended behavior.^[1]

If raiding pillagers kill all the villagers in a village, they celebrate their victory by jumping and laughing. In Bedrock Edition, pillagers wave their arms while holding their crossbows in their main hand when cheering. Unarmed pillagers also cheer.

When a player is in creative mode or applied with the invisibility effect, getting near a pillager still causes it to take notice and stare at the player. If a pillager notices a target while staring at the player, the pillager stops staring and attacks the target. If a player with the invisibility effect attacks a pillager, the pillager still retaliates.

In Bedrock Edition, a pillager that accidentally shoots a vindicator or evoker causes it to retaliate and attack the pillager, while this never happens in Java Edition. In Java Edition, pillagers do not retaliate on vindicators or evokers that attack them.

Java Edition[]

When a pillager finds a target, it chases the target first, then it locks the target in its attack range and loads its crossbow.

Pillagers, unlike evokers or vindicators, attack on sight, not regarding distance, although attacking a pillager, vindicator, or evoker far away causes the attacked illager and the same type of illagers around the attacked illager to attack the player, regardless of distance.

Pillagers never retaliate against other pillagers or illagers. They always seek an assailant regardless of distance, unlike most other mobs.

Pillagers’ crossbows eventually break with repeated use, unlike weapons wielded by other mobs.^[2] Unarmed pillagers are passive toward the player, iron golems, and villagers, but they still frighten villagers, and iron golems are still hostile toward them. This also includes pillagers that don't have a crossbow, which means any pillagers with a sword or any weapon other than a crossbow are still passive.

A pillager charging and then aiming its Crossbow.

Unlike other illagers, pillagers always aid for other pillagers attacked by other mobs like zombified piglins or other neutral mobs.

Pillagers can use their crossbow in their off-hand, but the loading animation still uses the main-hand loading.

Non-raider pillagers are not attracted to ominous banners.

Bedrock Edition[]

The different of the pillagers texture in Java(Left) and Bedrock(Right) Edition.

Pillagers use the outdated attacking AI in Bedrock Edition, which has been fixed in Java Edition.^[3]^[4] They also have broken arm textures, which has been confirmed as a bug.^[5]

When a pillager finds a target, it loads its crossbow first, chases the target and attacks upon in range. Pillagers are not hostile to players before their crossbows are loaded, so sometimes they don't look at players or run away while loading their crossbows.

A dispenser can equip a pillager with armor. However, armor isn’t rendered on pillagers.

If a player summons a pillager without a crossbow by spawn event command, it still shoots arrows to attack targets, like other arrow-shooting ranged mobs. This is due to the fact that in the pillager.json and ranged piglin.json files, the component_groups have both minecraft:behavior.ranged_attack and minecraft:behavior.charge_held_item, so if a pillager does not have a crossbow, the "charge_held_item" behavior cannot trigger and it continuously shoots arrows due to the "ranged_attack" behavior.

Pillagers use a melee attack whilst underwater, unlike pillagers in Java Edition that maintain using crossbows underwater, although the shot arrows travel slower underwater and sink after a short distance.

Pillagers load their crossbows upon spawning, or if their crossbows are unloaded. This allows them to have their crossbows ready for attacking their next potential target.

Pillagers cannot use their crossbows in their off-hand, as mobs cannot use weapons in their off-hand, just like players.

Pillagers can pick up and equip illager banners within 3 blocks.

Pillagers with Multishot or Piercing crossbows don't have these enchantments’ effects, this bug is fixed in Java Edition.^[6]

Drops[]

8.5% chance for a crossbow (loaded or unloaded, depending on the crossbow's state when the pillager dies) when killed by a player or tamed wolf; drop chance increases by 1% per level of Looting. The crossbow is of a random durability and has up to a 10% chance of being enchanted at level 5-19, depending on regional difficulty.
5 and an additional 1–3 per naturally-spawned equipment when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
1 ominous banner‌^{[JE only]}/illager banner‌^{[BE only]}, if spawned as a captain.
0–2 arrows ‌^{[BE only]}. Each level of Looting increases the maximum number of arrows dropped, up to 5.

In Bedrock Edition, pillagers spawned in raids drop:

0–1 Emerald

In Bedrock Edition, raiding pillagers also have a 65% chance on Easy and Normal, or 80% chance on Hard difficulty, to drop these:

0–1 Emerald (¹⁰⁄₃₉ or 25.6%)
2–3 Emerald (⁵⁄₃₉ or 12.8%)
4–5 Emerald (²⁄₃₉ or 5.1%)
1 Enchanted Book (²⁄₃₉ or 5.1%)
1 Iron Pickaxe (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4%)
1 Iron Axe (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4%)
1 Iron Shovel (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4%)
1 Iron Sword (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4%)
1 Iron Helmet (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4%)
1 Iron Chestplate (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4%)
1 Iron Leggings (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4%)
1 Iron Boots (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4%)

Pillagers do not drop extra raid loot in Java Edition. Instead, they drop their normal loot. They also do not drop emeralds upon death in Java Edition.

Notes:

Iron equipment drops have a 50% chance to be enchanted at level 5-19. Said equipment may also have enchantment combinations that cannot be normally obtained, such as Blast Protection and Fire Protection on the same pair of boots.
Iron equipment drops are always of 30 to 90% durability.
These drops are affected by the Looting enchantment.
Enchanted books have level 30 enchantments, which can also be treasure enchantments.

Bad Omen[]

If a player kills a pillager captain (a pillager wearing an ominous banner ‌^{[Java Edition only]}/illager banner ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} on its head), they receive the Bad Omen status effect. The effect lasts for 100 minutes (5 in-game days) and can be removed by drinking milk. When a player afflicted with Bad Omen enters a village, a raid commences in that village, bringing about waves of illagers that seek and try to eliminate all villagers in the village.

Each patrol spawns one pillager captain. While outposts can continually spawn pillager captains, each captain inflicts the player who killed it with one level of Bad Omen upon death. Raid captains do not inflict Bad Omen when defeated in a raid. In Java Edition, killing multiple captains in succession raises the Bad Omen level to a maximum of V, increasing the chance of pillagers and vindicators in the resulting raid wielding enchanted weapons. As long as the Bad Omen level is higher than I, the resulting raid includes an additional wave with a raider composition identical to that of the last wave.

Sounds[]

Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Pillager murmurs	?	?	`entity.pillager.ambient`	`subtitles.entity.pillager.ambient`	1.0	?	16
Pillager cheers	?	?	`entity.pillager.celebrate`	`subtitles.entity.pillager.celebrate`	1.0	?	16
Pillager dies	?	?	`entity.pillager.death`	`subtitles.entity.pillager.death`	1.0	?	16
Pillager hurts	?	?	`entity.pillager.hurt`	`subtitles.entity.pillager.hurt`	1.0	?	16

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags (JE)	Translation key
Pillager	`pillager`	`raiders`	`entity.minecraft.pillager`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Pillager	`pillager`	`114`	`entity.pillager.name`

Entity data[]

Pillagers have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Java Edition:

Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
- Tags common to all mobs spawnable in raids
- Inventory: Each compound tag in this list is an item in the pillager's inventory, up to a maximum of 5 slots. Items in two or more slots that can be stacked together are automatically be condensed into one slot. Pillagers don't change their inventory automatically or drop items from it upon death. The inventory is currently unused.^{[more information needed]}
  - An item in the inventory, excluding the Slot tag.
    - Tags common to all items

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements[]

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other platforms	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
		Monster Hunter	Attack and kill a monster.	Kill a hostile mob or one of the following neutral mobs: an enderman, a piglin, a zombified piglin, a spider, or a cave spider.	15G	Bronze

Advancements[]

Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
Adventure	Adventure, exploration, and combat	—	Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity.	`adventure/root`
Voluntary Exile	Kill a raid captain. Maybe consider staying away from villages for the time being...	Adventure	Kill an entity in the `#raiders` entity tag wearing an ominous banner. Note: This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless if one or more of its child advancements have been completed.	`adventure/voluntary_exile`
Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Adventure	Kill one of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs, if any, may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement. Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement.	`adventure/kill_a_mob`
Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Monster Hunter	Kill each of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs, if any, may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement. Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement.	`adventure/kill_all_mobs`
Who's the Pillager Now?	Give a Pillager a taste of their own medicine	Ol' Betsy	Kill a pillager with a crossbow.	`adventure/whos_the_pillager_now`

History[]

This section would benefit from the addition of more images.

Please remove this notice once you've added suitable images to the article.
The specific instructions are:

Pillagers before Bedrock Edition Beta 1.9.0.2.
Renders of unarmed pillagers before and after 20w29a (MC-158735)

Java Edition
March 27, 2017		Jeb replies to a Reddit post suggesting to add pillagers, saying that they were already planned to be added in the future.
September 29, 2018		Pillagers are announced at MINECON Earth 2018.
1.14	18w43a	Added pillagers.
	18w45a	Pillagers can now spawn naturally during illager patrols.
	18w46a	The pillager's AI has been improved.
	18w46a	Pillagers no longer drop emeralds.
	18w47a	Pillagers now spawn as part of raids.
	18w47a	Pillagers now spawn around pillager outposts.
	18w47b	Pillagers now spawn less often around pillager outposts.
	18w47b	Pillagers no longer cross their arms when not equipped with a crossbow, which has changed the poses from to .
	19w09a	Pillagers can now use tipped arrows and fireworks in their offhand when shooting their crossbow.
	19w13a	Pillagers can now open doors during raids.
	19w13a	If raiding pillagers killed all the villagers in the village or the beds were destroyed, pillagers celebrate their victory by laughing and jumping.
	19w14a	Pillagers no longer open doors during raids.
1.14.4	pre4	The pillager's arm texture has been changed.
1.15	19w39a	Pillagers no longer have arms when they're not armed with a crossbow.
1.15	19w45a	Both of the arms of pillagers now display correctly even if the pillager does not have an armed crossbow.
1.16.2	20w29a	The attack animation of unarmed pillagers has been changed.
1.18	21w37a	Pillagers no longer attack baby villagers.
1.18	Pre-release 1	Pillagers can now spawn on snow blocks.
1.19	22w17a	Changed its model, slightly shortened its coat to match its actual texture.
Bedrock Edition
1.9.0	beta 1.9.0.0	Added pillagers.
	beta 1.9.0.0	Pillagers do not have sounds or animations.
	beta 1.9.0.2	Pillagers now have the crossbow animations and reloading sounds.
	beta 1.9.0.3	The crossbow held in the pillager's hand is now larger.
1.10.0	beta 1.10.0.3	Pillagers now have their own sounds.
		Pillagers are no longer available only through Experimental Gameplay.
		Pillagers now spawn around pillager outposts.
1.11.0	beta 1.11.0.1	Pillagers now spawn as part of illager patrols and during raids.
		Pillagers can now spawn as a raid captain.
		Pillagers no longer attack baby villagers.
		Pillagers can now ride ravagers.
	beta 1.11.0.4	Pillagers in raids may now drop special items when killed.
1.13.0	beta 1.13.0.9	If raiding pillagers killed all the villagers in the village or the beds were destroyed, pillagers celebrate their victory by laughing and raising their arms in the air.
1.13.0	release	Looting now increases the crossbow drop chance for pillagers by 1% per level, rather than 12%, to bring parity with Java Edition.
1.16.0	beta 1.16.0.51	Pillagers no longer load their crossbows after spawning, and now load their crossbows only when they find their target.
		The unloaded crossbow pose of pillagers has been changed to , the same pose as a piglin with a crossbow.
		Pillagers now pick up illager banners within 3 distances from it.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90		Added pillagers.
1.90		Pillagers are available only in creative mode.
1.91		Pillagers now spawn in raids, illager patrols and around pillager outposts.
		Pillagers can now spawn as a raid captain.
		Pillagers can now ride ravagers.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Pillager" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

Alongside crossbows, pillagers were taken from Minecraft Dungeons, even though they were added in the base game first.^[7]
Pillagers were added to Village and Pillage as a means to give villagers a "true" adversary in order to balance the new village mechanics.^[8]
In Java Edition, an unarmed pillager walks at random similar to passive mobs, but always faces any player in its field of view or any mob that attacks it, as this is a typical 'retaliation' characteristic of most hostile mobs, including pillagers.
Pillagers point their crossbows at any player or mob they are looking at, whether their crossbows are loaded or unloaded.
The command: /summon pillager ~ ~ ~ {} summons a passive pillager that does not attack.‌^{[Java Edition only]}
An original design of the pillager appeared like a pirate wearing an orange vest. However, Mojang Studios' mob designers changed the mob's design to look more like brigandine armor because they thought this design looked better.
In Bedrock Edition, a running pillager uses the player's running animation rather than that of other illagers.
Summoning an unarmed pillager in Java Edition that is invulnerable (/summon pillager ~ ~ ~ {Invulnerable:1b}) does not cause villagers to run away from the pillager.
Typing /summon pillager ~ ~ ~ minecraft:calm in Bedrock Edition does not cause the summoned pillager to attack players.
A pillager has a ¹⁄_16,000 chance of dropping a crossbow enchanted with two Piercing I enchantments, a ¹⁄_409,000 chance of dropping one with Piercing I and Multishot, and a ¹⁄_3,500,000 chance of dropping one with Piercing I, Multishot, Unbreaking III, and Quick Charge I. These probabilities were calculated with pillagers spawned from patrols or outposts, because pillagers spawned from higher levels of raids have an increased chance of dropping enchanted crossbows. Also with maximum local difficulty, as this affects the chance of a dropped crossbow being enchanted.

Gallery[]

A pillager armed with a crossbow, shown at MINECON Earth 2018.
A group of pillagers, shown at MINECON Earth 2018.
A group of pillagers.
A pillager patrol leader with a villager (before 18w46a).
A pillager outpost inside of a desert temple with pillagers inside and outside of the temple.
A pillager attacking a villager.
A pillager without a crossbow.
A pillager riding a ravager.
A pillager loading up a crossbow.
A sitting pillager.
A pillager aiming with its crossbow.