Pillagers are illagers armed with crossbows that patrol the Overworld, guard their outposts and participate in raids.
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 a world without generated structures. A patrol will spawn 24 to 48 blocks away from a random player, on the highest solid block. The individual pillagers of a patrol can only spawn at block light level 7 or lower, regardless of sky light.
In Bedrock Edition, each patrol spawns 2 to 5 pillagers on Easy and Normal difficulty, whereas on Hard difficulty, 80% of illagers spawned are pillagers and 20% are vindicators. One of these illagers 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.
Outposts
- Main article: Pillager Outpost
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 or sand blocks regardless of block light level.
In Bedrock Edition, pillagers 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.
Raids
In a raid, pillagers are more common in the earlier waves, and decrease in number as the waves progress. 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.
Java Edition
In Java Edition, a pillager spawned by the player using a spawn egg or command can be a illager captain, meaning they have the Ominous banner sticking out of their back.
Behavior
Pillagers are hostile toward players, iron golems, wandering traders and villagers. In Bedrock Edition, pillagers are also hostile toward snow golems, but not toward baby villagers. 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. Taking into account their fast walking pace, they are extremely difficult to shake off. Pillagers never retaliate against other pillagers or illagers. They always seek an assailant regardless of distance, unlike most other mobs. In Bedrock Edition, a pillager that accidently shoots a vindicator makes it retaliate, as this never happens in Java Edition. The pillager does not retaliate on the vindicator that attacks it, even when attacked.
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 crossbow in their main hand when cheering.
In Java Edition, a pillager's crossbow eventually breaks with repeated use, unlike weapons wielded by other mobs.[1] Unarmed pillagers In Java Edition are passive, but still frighten villagers, and iron golems are hostile toward them. Unarmed pillagers in Bedrock Edition still uses melee attacks to attack the player and other mobs.
In Bedrock Edition, pillagers use melee attacks while underwater.
A pillager stares at the player and points its crossbow towards the player when the player is in creative mode.
When a player is in creative mode, any players that goes near the pillager or looks at the pillager makes the pillager stare and point its crossbow at the player. Pillagers that don't have a crossbow stares at the player instead. When a pillager sees a target while staring at the player, the pillager goes to kill its target instead of staring at the player.
Drops
- 8.5% chance for a crossbow (loaded or unloaded) 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 [Bedrock Edition 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%)
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 the player kills a pillager captain, which wears an
ominous banner (or 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 spawn one captain, while outposts can continually spawn pillager captains, both of which beset the player with one level of Bad Omen upon death. Note that 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
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pillager murmurs | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | ? | 10[verify] | |
| Pillager cheers | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | ? | 16 | |
| Pillager dies | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | ? | 16 | |
| Pillager hurts | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | ? | 16 |
Data values
ID
| Name | Identifier | Entity tags (JE) | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pillager | pillager | raiders | entity.minecraft.pillager |
| 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.
- 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
- An item in the inventory, excluding the Slot tag.
Achievements
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | |||||
| Monster Hunter | Attack and destroy 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
| Icon | 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.This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed. | adventure/voluntary_exile
|
![]() | Monster Hunter | Kill any hostile monster | Adventure | Kill one of these 34 mobs:
| adventure/kill_a_mob
|
![]() | Monsters Hunted | Kill one of every hostile monster | Monster Hunter | Kill each of these 34 mobs:
| 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
| 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. | ||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.14 | 18w43a | File:Pillager JE1 BE1.png Added pillagers. | |||
| 18w45a | Pillagers can now spawn naturally during illager patrols. | ||||
| 18w46a | The pillager's AI has been improved. | ||||
| Pillagers no longer drop emeralds. | |||||
| 18w47a | Pillagers now spawn as part of raids. | ||||
| Pillagers now spawn around pillager outposts. | |||||
| 18w47b | Pillagers now spawn less often around pillager outposts. | ||||
| Pillagers no longer cross their arms when not equipped with a crossbow, which has changed the poses from | |||||
| 19w09a | Pillagers can now use tipped arrows and fireworks in their offhand when shooting their crossbow. | ||||
| 19w13a | Pillagers can now open doors during raids. | ||||
| 19w14a | Pillagers no longer open doors during raids. | ||||
| 1.14.4 | pre4 | ||||
| 1.15 | 19w39a | ||||
| 19w45a | |||||
| 1.16.2 | 20w29a | The attack animation of unarmed pillagers has been changed. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.9.0 | beta 1.9.0.0 | File:Pillager JE1 BE1.png Added pillagers. | |||
| 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. | |||
| 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 | |||||
| Pillagers now pick up illager banners within 3 distances from it. | |||||
| PlayStation 4 Edition | |||||
| 1.90 | File:Pillager JE1 BE1.png Added pillagers. | ||||
| 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
- The Pillager was added to Village and Pillage as a means to give the villagers a "true" adversary in order to balance the new village mechanics.[2]
- In Java Edition, an unarmed pillager walks at random similarly to passive mobs, but always faces any player in its field of view.
- In Bedrock Edition, due to a bug, unarmed pillagers can still shoot arrows rapidly, about 1 every 0.75 second.
- The command:
/summon pillager ~ ~ ~ {}summons a passive pillager that does not attack anything. - In the Buzzy Bees trailer, a hidden pillager can be seen watching over the villagers. In the same trailer, a pillager comically flees from the bees.
- Pillagers are the first mobs to wield a crossbow, the second being Piglins.
- Pillagers are slightly taller than their other illagers and other villager like mobs. (Excluding Witches, who have a hat).
- They are the only illagers that do not fold their arms.
- 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.
- In Bedrock Edition, Pillagers run animation runs differently than other illagers because of the mob that was modeled as a player.
- Pillagers have the highest chance of being the raid's head coach.
Gallery
A pillager armed with a crossbow, shown at MINECON Earth 2018.
A pillager outpost inside of a desert temple with pillagers inside and outside of the temple.
A pillager riding a ravager.
A pillager loading up a crossbow.
In other media
Artwork of several pillagers near a Pillager Outpost.
A group of pillagers and illagers shown in the Village & Pillage artwork.
A Pillager in promotional artwork for Education Edition 1.14.50.
A Pillager in promotional artwork for the first Caves & Cliffs update.
Lego Minecraft Pillager.



















