Vindicator

Health points	24 × 12
Behavior	Hostile Passive (Peaceful difficulty)‌^{[BE only]}
Classification	Illager
Attack strength	Armed Easy: 7.5 × 3.75 Normal: 13 × 6.5 Hard: 19.5 × 9.75 Unarmed Easy: 3.5 × 1.75 Normal: 5 Hard: 7.5 × 3.75
Hitbox size	*In Java Edition:* Height: 1.95 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks In Bedrock Edition: Height: 1.9 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks
Speed	5.612 blocks/sec
Spawn	Woodland mansions Raids - Wave 2

A vindicator is an illager equipped with an iron axe. Vindicators appear in woodland mansions and participate in raids.

Spawning[]

On Normal difficulty and Hard difficulty, vindicators sometimes spawn with a randomly enchanted iron axe: the chance is 0–25%, and is higher when the regional difficulty is higher.

Woodland mansions[]

Vindicators spawn during the generation of woodland mansions, in groups of 1–3 inside particular rooms, sometimes accompanied by an evoker. Rarely, vindicators can spawn in the corridors and hallways.

They do not respawn after initially spawning. Vindicators generated in mansions do not naturally despawn unless the world is switched to peaceful difficulty‌^{[JE only]}.

Vindicators are sometimes neutral if naturally spawned in a woodland mansion, which means that the vindicator does not attack the player on sight, but only after the player attacks it.

Patrols[]

In Java Edition, any vindicators can join a patrol if sufficiently near a patrol captain, but do not go seeking out for patrols to join.

Raids[]

Vindicators can spawn during raids. They appear more frequently during later waves and at higher difficulties.

Vindicators can spawn riding ravagers, creating a vindicator ravager jockey.‌^{[JE only]}

Java Edition[]

In Java Edition, if a player spawns a vindicator with a spawn egg or using a command, the vindicator has a chance of becoming an illager captain, with a Ominous banner attached above its back.

Drops[]

A vindicator drops loot only when killed by a player or tamed wolf:

5 and an additional 1–3 per naturally-spawned equipment.
0–1 emeralds when killed by the player. The maximum increases by 1 for every level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-4 with Looting III.
8.5% chance of dropping their normal or enchanted iron axe, which increases by 1% per level of Looting.
1 Ominous banner(in Java Edition), or illager banner in Bedrock Edition if they spawn as a raid captain.

In Bedrock Edition, if a vindicator spawns as part of a raid, it drops:

0-1 Emerald

Additionally, in Bedrock Edition, vindicators have a 65% chance of dropping the following on Easy and Normal difficulties, and an 80% chance of dropping them on Hard difficulty:

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 Axe (⁵⁄₇₈ chance)
1 Iron Pickaxe (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)

Notes:

Iron equipment from raid drops always has a 50% chance of being enchanted with a random enchantment at level 5-19.
Iron equipment from raid drops is always damaged.
These drops are also affected by the Looting enchantment.
The enchanted book has a level 30 enchantment, may be treasure enchantment.
Emeralds are both a regular raid drop and an additional raid drop.
With Looting III enchantment, a vindicator has spawned from a raid can drop up to 16 emeralds upon death, but the chance is 3.328% on Easy or Normal, and 4.096% on Hard.
It is possible for a vindicator spawned from a raid to drop both its naturally-spawned iron axe and a second iron axe from its additional raid drops (in Easy and Normal difficulty 0.3536% chance, 0.3952% chance with Looting I, 0.4368% chance with Looting II, and 0.4784% chance with Looting III, while in Hard difficulty 0.4352% chance, 0.4864% chance with Looting I, 0.5376% chance with Looting II, and 0.5888% chance with Looting III).

Behavior[]

A vindicator captain chasing a Villager.

Vindicators are hostile toward players, iron golems, adult villagers, wandering traders, and snow golems.‌^{[BE only]} In Bedrock Edition, vindicators are passive to players on peaceful difficulty.

While idle, a vindicator crosses its arms similar to a villager, with its axe stowed. While giving chase, the vindicator brandishes its axe and sprints. If it has no weapons, it raises an empty hand.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} In Java Edition, a mainhand-unarmed vindicator raises both of its hands when attacking, similar to a zombie.

On Normal and Hard difficulties, raiding vindicators can break wooden doors. This is controlled by the raider tag.^[1] Like any illager during a raid, vindicators celebrate by cheering if all the villagers are killed or all the beds are destroyed.

Vindicators look at the player in Creative mode like villagers do, but they might stop looking at the player after looking for a while or when it sees a target.

in Bedrock Edition and Legacy Console Edition, if a pillager arrow accidentally strikes a vindicator, the vindicator retaliates against the pillager, but the pillager does not retaliate. All illagers remain friendly to each other in Java Edition, even when struck accidentally.^[2]

Java Edition[]

Vindicators can find their targets regardless of distance, whereas most other illagers attack on sight.

Vindicators are likely to call help from other vindicators when attacked, meaning a mob hitting a vindicator for the first time would provoke not only that vindicator, but also all vindicators nearby. They do not call help from other kinds of illagers, and vice versa.

Vindicator raiders can breaks doors and open doors like villagers.

A vindicator can disable the player's shield with its 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.

A vindicator's axe can break, just like pillager crossbows.

Ringing a bell gives vindicators three seconds of the Glowing effect.

Bedrock Edition[]

Vindicators can only sprint, even when idle.

A dispenser can equip a vindicator with armor. Helmets and chestplates are partially visible due to the irregular shape of the vindicator compared to the player. Leggings and boots render normally, although they do not move when the legs move. Heads can also be applied, however carved pumpkins cannot. In Bedrock Edition, a chestplate's sleeves move as if they were being worn by a player.

Damage[]

Armed vindicators hit for 7.5 × 3.75 to 19.5 × 9.75 damage, depending on difficulty. They tie with piglin brutes for dealing the third heaviest melee hits in the game, following the iron golem at 21 × 10.5 damage and the warden at 45 × 22.5 damage. Multiple vindicators can spawn in a location, making mansions and raids dangerous even for seasoned players.

The vindicator's axe attack disables the player's shield for 5 seconds, even when riding a mob.‌^{[JE only]} Because ravager attacks also disable shields and deal heavy damage, ravager-mounted vindicators are especially dangerous.

"Johnny"[]

A vindicator named Johnny (using a name tag, named spawn egg, etc., or has its Johnny tag set to 1b) is hostile to every mob except evokers, pillagers, other vindicators, and ghasts^[3]. In Bedrock Edition, they further exclude ravagers^[4]; and in Java Edition, they exclude baby villagers, illusioners, armor stands^[5], and players in Creative or Spectator mode. This hostility extends to vexes in both editions.^[6]

All hostile or neutral mobs try to attack the "Johnny" vindicator in return, except for ender dragons^[verify], endermites, elder guardians, phantoms, guardians, goats^[verify], slimes, magma cubes, and ravagers.

The Johnny tag overrides its name; the player can give the vindicator any other name and set the Johnny tag to 1b and it remains hostile in the same way as described. Conversely, the player can name the vindicator Johnny and set the Johnny tag to 0b, causing the vindicator to act as a normal vindicator.

Naming a vindicator spawn egg "Johnny" and using it on a spawner has no effect; normal vindicators spawn rather than vindicators named "Johnny".‌^{[BE only]}

Sounds[]

Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
?	?	Vindicator mutters	`entity.vindicator.ambient`	`subtitles.entity.vindicator.ambient`	?	?	16
?	?	Vindicator cheers	`entity.vindicator.celebrate`	`subtitles.entity.vindicator.celebrate`	?	?	16
?	?	Vindicator dies	`entity.vindicator.death`	`subtitles.entity.vindicator.death`	?	?	16
?	?	Vindicator hurts	`entity.vindicator.hurt`	`subtitles.entity.vindicator.hurt`	?	?	16

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags (JE)	Translation key
Vindicator	`vindicator`	`raiders`	`entity.minecraft.vindicator`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Vindicator	`vindicator`	`57`	`entity.vindicator.name`

Entity data[]

Vindicators also have entities' 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
- Johnny: 1 or 0 (true/false) - if true, causes the vindicator to exhibit Johnny behavior. Setting to false prevents the vindicator exhibiting Johnny behavior, even if named Johnny. Optional.

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`
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`

History[]

Java Edition
1.11		16w39a			Added vindicators.
		16w40a			The vindicators' axes are now one of their `HandItems`, whereas before it was a visual effect. This means their attack now disables shields.
					Vindicator can be unarmed, raise one arm when attacking.
					Vindicators have been heavily buffed - their attack damage on Easy has been increased from 3 to 7, on Normal 5 to 13 × 6.5, and on Hard, 7 to 19 × 9.5. On normal and hard difficulties, a vindicator can kill an unarmored player in just 2 hits. This makes vindicators the strongest illager, and one of the hardest-hitting mobs in the game.
					"Johnny" vindicators are now activated by a custom tag in addition to a custom name.
1.13		pre5			The entity ID for vindicators has been changed from `vindication_illager` to `vindicator`.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of vindicators has been changed. The eye colors are now same green as the evoker.
		18w45a			Vindicators can now spawn in illager patrols.
		18w45a			Vindicators can now sometimes spawn as a patrol leader in illager patrols.
		18w47a			Vindicators can now spawn as part of raids.
		18w47a			Vindicators can now break doors.
		18w47b			The texture of vindicators has been changed. The eye colors have been changed to blue as before again.
		19w05a			Vindicators are now hostile toward the new wandering traders.
		19w13a			If raiding vindicators killed all the villagers in the village or the beds were destroyed, vindicators celebrate their victory by laughing and raising their arms in the air.
1.14.3		Pre-Release 2			Vindicators no longer spawn as part of illager patrols.
1.15		19w41a			Vindicators now have a fifth idle sound (known as "idle5"). The sound had been in the game files since 1.11, but was never heard in-game until this update.
1.16.2		20w29a			The attack animation of unarmed vindicators has been changed.
1.18		21w37a			Vindcators no longer attack baby villagers.
1.18		Pre-release 5			Changed the texture, to remove its hood.
1.19		22w17a			Changed its model and texture.
Pocket Edition
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Added vindicators.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Vindicator can be unarmed, raise one arm when attacking.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of vindicators has been changed.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Vindicators are now hostile toward the new wandering traders.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Vindicators can now spawn as part of illager patrols and raids.
					Vindicators can now spawn as raid captains.
					Vindicators no longer attack baby villagers.
		beta 1.11.0.4			Vindicators that spawn from raids now have special drops upon death.
		beta 1.11.0.7			Vindicators can now break wooden doors during raids.
1.13.0		beta 1.13.0.9			If raiding vindicators killed all the villagers in the village or the beds were destroyed, vindicators celebrate their victory by laughing and raising their arms in the air.
1.16.0		beta 1.15.0.55			Vindicators in woodland mansions are no longer neutral toward the player. They are now hostile toward the player again.
1.16.20		beta 1.16.20.54			The attack animation of unarmed vindicators has been changed.
1.18.0		beta 1.18.0.20			Vindicators no longer spawn as part of illager patrols.
1.18.10		beta 1.18.10.22			Vindicators now have blue eyes again.^[7]
1.18.10		beta 1.18.10.22			Changed the texture, to remove its hood.
Legacy Console Edition
TU54	CU44	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	Added vindicators.
TU54	CU44	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	Vindicators deal 6 on Easy, 10 on Normal, 15 × 7.5 on Hard.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
1.9.19					Added vindicators.

Issues[]

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

Trivia[]

The "Johnny" Easter egg is a reference to the movie The Shining, where the main character says "Here's Johnny!" while breaking a door with an axe.
Vindicators have an unused hat layer in their texture file, similar to the illusioner's hat. Its removed in 1.18.
- The hat models also used to exist in the nitwit, librarian, and priest's texture before the Village & Pillage update.
According to the Mobestiary, while a vindicator is tougher than a zombie, it has low intelligence, 'a little smarter than a skeleton'. Cory Scheviak also said that vindicator’s AI may be a bit "derpy".^[8]

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Raid captain vindicator.
A vindicator riding a ravager.
A sitting vindicator.
A Johnny vindicator attacking an armor stand, although they do no damage as armor stands can only be broken when quickly attacked twice.
Green eyes vindicator attacking pose.
Vindicator equip an item in off-hand only by command.