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Pillager outposts are relatively new structures. They are flooded with pillagers, both inside and in the surrounding area, making it a difficult challenge for any player to conquer it. Note that this can happen early-game, mid-game or post-game.


Finding an outpost

Pillager outposts can be found in any biome that a village can, and usually generate ~300 blocks from a village. It is worth noting the outpost can be in a different biome than the village. Not all villages have a pillager outpost, so a player may have to travel thousands of blocks to find one, though it is also possible for a player to come upon one by accident. Do not think that an illager patrol means an outpost is nearby.

Items needed

Because a pillager outpost can be found anytime it can be hard to prepare. Ideally a player will have:

Optional:

Outpost surroundings

Pillager outposts typically have smaller buildings around it. These can be used for cover. If a cage has an iron golem in it, let it out so it can help you fight. If it survives, do what you want with it, such as using a lead to bring it to a nearby village.

Tactics

Sniper

It's possible to go around with a ranged weapon and pick off all the pillagers from afar. If using a crossbow, don't fire fireworks unless you're sure the fuse time is right and your firing at a large group. Once the coast is clear, go in the outpost, deal with any pillagers inside, kill the outpost captain if you haven't already, and collect your loot. This tactic takes the longest.

Blitzkrieg

With good armor, this tactic can be effective. Run in with your shield and melee weapon, blocking arrows and hitting pillagers nearby as you go. Run into the building, grab what you want, kill the captain, and leave. Once you're at the top of the outpost, you can use the sniper tactic to get rid of the rest if you like, or just leave. Enderpearls can help in this tactic.

Machine gunner

This tactic is expensive and not always reliable but can work. Load your entire hotbar with loaded crossbows, get into relatively close range, and as soon as you fire a crossbow draw your next one. this allows you to fire multiple arrows quickly, but this is ineffective against large groups unless most or all of the crossbows are enchanted with piercing and/or multishot. Also, it takes a long time to reload all the crossbows, even if some or all have quick charge, so you may be able to only do this once. It can, however, be combined with the blitzkrieg tactic as your charging in, as after you unload the crossbows you can just pull out a melee weapon and have a shield in your offhand the whole time. This tactic is ineffective at long range due to the time it takes to range the target is about the same as the reload time for a bow or crossbow or the time it takes for a loyalty trident to return. Overall, this tactic would be better for a single target with a large amount of health, like a ravager, Ender Dragon, or Wither.

Cowboy

Go around the pillager outpost, getting all the pillagers to follow you. Because they will be clumped together, they might friendly fire while trying to shoot you, which can further assist you. Once you have all or most of them behind you, you have several choices as to how to get rid of them all in a short time.

  • You can pour lava down where they are standing, melting them all. Note that the lava will destroy the pillager drops and pillagers have good enough AI to try to avoid lava.
  • If playing in Java Edition and have a weapon with sweeping edge, you can go close the group and damage large amounts of pillagers at once with your sword, raising your shield while your weapon recharges. When the pillagers are about to fire raise your shield to ricochet the arrows back at them. This can work in Bedrock or Legacy Console Edition but not as well since there is no sweeping edge, but as a benefit there is no recharge.
  • You can use a crossbow with piercing arrows or multishot fireworks to hurt and kill several pillagers at a time
  • You can lure a creeper or use tnt to blow up the pillagers once they are together. Multiple blocks of TNT can be more effective but can also destroy the pillager drops.

Aftermath

Most player would consider the outpost conquered once all the pillagers, including the captain, are killed, and the player has taken the loot. You can do the following once you have conquered it.

  • You can just leave. Note that pillagers (though none captains) will respawn [more information needed] (on spawning mechanics)
  • You can use it in a raid farm, to deliberately get the Bad Omen effect to spawn raids to attack a village you have built as a trap, and collect the loot from raids.
  • You can strip the outpost of it's resources: it has cobblestone, which is a useful general use item. It has dark oak wood, which is relatively rare as it can only be found in dark forests and woodland mansions. It has birch wood, which is less rare but still useful. It has eight ominous banners, a rare item. If it is overgrown, there are mossy cobblestone materials
  • You can burn it down. Many players do this with woodland mansions; this is a similar situation.
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