Raid captain

For other uses, see Captain.

Raid captain
Behavior	Does not exist
Spawn	Patrols Pillager outposts Raids
Details
Size	Height: 1.95 blocks Width: 0.6 blocks

A raid captain is the occurrence of an illager spawning with an ominous banner (in Java Edition) / illager banner (in Bedrock Edition) on top of its head, usually a pillager or vindicator, or rarely in Java Edition an evoker.

Spawning

Raid captains spawn in the same conditions and occurrences of any illager, with no special occasions having one spawn, and one spawning being completely randomized. In Bedrock Edition, a pillager raid captain can be spawned using the /summon pillager ~ ~ ~ minecraft:spawn_as_illager_captain command, and a vindicator raid captain can be spawned using /summon vindicator ~ ~ ~ minecraft:spawn_as_illager_captain command.

Additionally, in Java Edition, monster spawners containing a pillager spawn egg have a small chance of producing a raid captain.

Spawnable as raid captain in Java Edition

Type of illager	Illager patrol	Raid	Pillager outpost	Woodland mansion	Commands (With Data Tag)	Commands (Without Data Tag)
Pillager	Yes, multiple times	Yes, multiple times	Yes, multiple times	Never	Always	Rarely
Vindicator	Never	Yes, multiple times	Never	Yes, multiple times	Always	Rarely
Evoker	Never	Rarely	Never	Rarely	Always	Rarely
Illusioner‌	Never	Never	Never	Never	Always	Rarely

Spawnable as raid captain in Bedrock Edition

Type of illager	Illager Patrol	Pillager Outpost	Commands (With Data Tag)	Commands (Without Data Tag)
Pillager	Yes, multiple times	Yes, multiple times	Always	Rarely
Vindicator	Yes, once	Never	Always	Rarely

Patrols

Main article: Patrol

One raid captain always spawns as part of a patrol: either a pillager, or in Bedrock Edition on Hard difficulty, a vindicator.

Raids

Main article: Raid

As part of raids in Java Edition, a raid captain spawns as a part of a group of pillagers, and sometimes spawns riding a ravager. The captain does not cause another raid if killed, but when its banner drops, other illagers rush to grab it. In Bedrock Edition, raid captains are unused and do not spawn naturally during raids, but the code for them is present.

Pillager outposts

Main article: Pillager Outpost § Spawning

Usually, 1–3 pillager raid captains also spawn in a pillager outpost.

In Java Edition, only pillagers and passive mobs may spawn within a pillager outpost spawn area. Pillagers may spawn on any valid opaque block as long as the block light level is 8 or lower.

Drops

General

Upon death, any raid captain can drop:

• 1 Ominous/Illager banner‌, unaffected by Looting and is always dropped.

Pillager

• 0–2 arrows, dropping more with the presence of Looting, up to 5‌.
• Its crossbow (may be loaded or unloaded), which has an 8.5% chance to be dropped (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III). It has a random durability and may be enchanted.

Vindicator

• 0–1 emeralds, with the maximum increasing by 1 for every level of Looting.
• 8.5% chance of dropping their iron axe, which increases by 1 percentage point per level of Looting. It may be enchanted.

Evoker

• 1 totem of undying, unaffected by Looting.
• 0–1 emeralds if killed by the player, with the maximum increased by 1 per level of Looting.

Illusioner

• Its bow, which has an 8.5% chance to be dropped (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III). It has a random durability, and is unenchanted.

Raider

In Bedrock Edition, raid captains that spawn from raids can additionally drop:

• 0–1 emeralds

An additional drop is dependent on difficulty, with a 65% chance of dropping on easy and normal, and an 80% chance of dropping on hard.
They can drop one of the following items:

• 0–1 Emerald (¹⁰⁄₃₉ chance)
• 2–3 Emerald (⁵⁄₃₉ chance)
• 4–5 Emerald (²⁄₃₉ chance)
• 1 Enchanted Book (²⁄₃₉ chance)
• 1 Iron Pickaxe (⁵⁄₇₈ chance)
• 1 Iron Axe (⁵⁄₇₈ chance)
• 1 Iron Shovel (⁵⁄₇₈ chance)
• 1 Iron Sword (⁵⁄₇₈ chance)
• 1 Iron Helmet (⁵⁄₇₈ chance)
• 1 Iron Chestplate (⁵⁄₇₈ chance)
• 1 Iron Leggings (⁵⁄₇₈ chance)
• 1 Iron Boots (⁵⁄₇₈ chance)

Note:

• Raiders drop iron equipment in a damaged state, and the equipment has 50% chance of being enchanted with random enchantment.
• These drops are also affected by Looting enchantment.
• An emerald is both a regular raider drop and an additional raider drop.‌

Behavior

Java Edition

Raid captains usually act the same as if they were a normal illager, but other illagers follow behind them (except for outpost captain), and usually the captain takes the lead ahead of the other illagers. Once a raid captain is killed by a player, the player is inflicted with 1 level of the Bad Omen effect, which can cause a raid to occur if they enter a village (unless the raid captain is currently part of a raid, in which case it does not give Bad Omen). The captain drops its ominous banner as well; another illager nearby can pick it up to become the next captain.

Both patrol and outpost captains grant one level of Bad Omen when killed, but captains found in raids themselves never give Bad Omen.

Bedrock Edition

Raid captains have the same behavior in Bedrock Edition as they do in Java Edition, but the maximum level of Bad Omen raid captains can give is one level, as Bad Omen I is the only level available. If a player with Bad Omen kills another raid captain, the Bad Omen level remains at one and the effect timer does not reset. Vindicator captains in Bedrock Edition currently do not attack unless provoked.

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
		I've got a bad feeling about this	Kill a Pillager Captain.	—	20G	Bronze

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	How Did We Get Here?	Have every effect applied at the same time	A Furious Cocktail	Have all of these 33 status effects applied to the player at the same time: Absorption Bad Omen Blindness Conduit Power Darkness Dolphin's Grace Fire Resistance Glowing Haste Hero of the Village Hunger Infested Invisibility Jump Boost Levitation Mining Fatigue Nausea Night Vision Oozing Poison Raid Omen Regeneration Resistance Slow Falling Slowness Speed Strength Trial Omen Water Breathing Weakness Weaving Wither Wind Charged The source of the effects is irrelevant for the purposes of this advancement. Other status effects may be applied to the player, but are ignored for this advancement. 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.	nether/all_effects
	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: 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 Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement. Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	adventure/kill_a_mob

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Entity	Identifier
Evoker	evoker
Vindicator	vindicator
Pillager	pillager
Illusioner	illusioner
Entity Tag	#raiders

Bedrock Edition:

Entity	Identifier	Numeric ID
Evoker	evocation_illager	104
Vindicator	vindicator	57
Pillager	pillager	114

History

Java Edition
1.14		18w45a			Added raid captains, which spawned as part of illager patrols.
		18w47a			Added raids, which also include raid captains.
		18w49a			Raid captains can now be killed multiple times to stack Bad Omen.
		18w50a			Raid captains can now spawn at pillager outposts.
					Raid captains in outposts grant 1 level of bad omen, while raid captains in patrols can grant 1-3.
		19w13a			Raid captains grant only 1 level of bad omen now.
Bedrock Edition
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Added pillager and vindicator captains.
					Currently do not inflict bad omen on the player after being killed.
		beta 1.11.0.3			Illagers now properly follow captains during illager patrols.
					Pillager captains now properly give a bad omen when killed.
1.12.0		beta 1.12.0.2			Pillager captains now properly drop their illager banners when killed.
					The bad omen is now only received when killing the captain, not when damaging it with a ranged weapon.
					Illagers can now properly be turned into captains via tags.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			When a raid captain is killed, nearby pillagers now rush toward the illager banner to pick it up and become the next raid captain.
1.18.0		beta 1.18.0.20			Vindicators and vindicator raid captain no longer spawn in patrols.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.91					Added pillager and vindicator captains.

Issues

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

Trivia

• Ominous banners equip on raid captains’ helmet slot in Java Edition. In Bedrock Edition, ominous banners equip on illager captains’ chestplate slot.

Gallery

• 

  The Ominous Banner

• 

  A raid captain vindicator, before 18w45a.

• 

  A vindicator patrol captain before beta 1.18.0.20. (Unused mob)

• 

  Illager banner with long pole in Bedrock edition. It equips on pillager captain chestplates slot.

• 

  A raid captain spawned via a monster spawner.