| Health points |
24 |
|---|---|
| Behavior |
Hostile |
| Classification | |
| Attack strength |
Armed |
| Hitbox size |
In Java Edition: In Bedrock Edition: |
| Speed |
5.612 blocks/sec |
| Spawn |
Woodland mansions |
A vindicator is an illager equipped with an iron axe. Vindicators appear in woodland mansions and participate in raids.
Contents
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 like evokers and shulkers.
When attacking, a vindicator uncrosses its hands, raises its main hand, and brandish an iron axe and sprints. When not attacking, a vindicator crosses its arms similar to a villager and doesn't hold its axe.
If the vindicator has no weapon (its axe), it still attacks players, iron golems, villagers, wandering traders, and snow golems, except the axe doesn't appear in the vindicator's hand when the vindicator raises its hand.[Bedrock Edition only] In Java Edition, a mainhand-unarmed vindicator raises both of its hands when attacking, similar to a zombie. A vindicator's axe can break, just like pillager crossbows.[JE only]
On Normal and Hard difficulties, Vindicators with raider tag can break wooden doors during raids,[1] in Java Edition, vindicator raiders can breaks doors and open doors like villagers.
Like any illager, if the vindicator while raiding villages, and kill all the villagers in the village or all the beds are destroyed, vindicators celebrate by cheering.
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. This does not occur in Java Edition , as all illagers are friendly to each other, even when accidently hit.[2]
Vindicators look at the player in Creative mode like villagers do, but they might break the line of sight with the player after looking for a while or when it sees a target.
Java Edition[]
Vindicators attack the player regardless of distance like zombies, unlike most other illagers, who attack the player on sight. The vindicator can stare at a player from a long distance away. This also applies for other mobs, if the vindicator was named "Johnny".
A mob hitting a vindicator first time would provoke not only that vindicator, but also all vindicators nearby. Vindicators have "likeliness to call help" mechanics like Zombie reinforcements but without spawn extra mobs, the "likeliness to call help" mechanics make vindicators not always support other injured vindicators as pillagers. Attacking a vindicator does not provoke other illagers, and vice versa.
A vindicator can disable the player's shield with its iron 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.
Vindicators gain three seconds of Glowing themselves when the bell rings.
Bedrock Edition[]
Vindicators can only sprint so they always "run" 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[]
Vindicators are tied with piglin brutes for dealing a high amount of raw melee damage, inflicting 19
× 9.5 damage on Hard difficulty, exceeded only by the iron golem at 21 × 10.5 damage and warden at 45 × 22.5 damage. Multiple vindicators can spawn in a location, making mansions and raids dangerous even for seasoned players.
A vindicator disables the player's shield for 5 seconds with its iron axe attack, even when riding a mob.[JE only] For this reason, a player may not survive trying to land a melee attack on a vindicator that rides a ravager during a raid in Hard difficulty.
"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 baby villagers[Java Edition only], evokers, illusioners[Java Edition only], pillagers, ravagers[Bedrock Edition only], other vindicators, ghasts,[3], and players in Creative or Spectator[Java Edition only] mode.
The hostility even extends to armor stands[Bedrock Edition only], baby villagers[BE only], NPCs [BE only], vexes, and ravagers.[JE only][4][5][6]
All hostile or neutral mobs, except for ender dragons[verify], endermites, elder guardians, phantoms, guardians, goats[verify], slimes, magma cubes, and ravagers try to attack the "Johnny" vindicator in return.
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[]
| Sound | 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[]
| Name | Identifier | Entity tags (JE) | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vindicator | vindicator | raiders | entity.minecraft.vindicator |
| 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.
- 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.
Achievements[]
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other platforms | |||||
| 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[]
| 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
|
| 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
|
History[]
The specific instructions are: Render in Java Edition 22w17a.
| 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. | ||||
| Vindicators can now sometimes spawn as a patrol leader in illager patrols. | |||||
| 18w47a | Vindicators can now spawn as part of raids. | ||||
| 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. | |||
| Pre-release 5 | Changed the texture, to remove its hood. | ||||
| Upcoming Java Edition | |||||
| 1.19 | 22w17a | 32px Changed its model and texture. | |||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | Added vindicators.
| |||
| 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.
| |||
| 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]
| |||
| Changed the texture, to remove its hood. | |||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU54 | CU44 | 1.52 | Patch 24 | 1.0.4 | Added vindicators.
|
| 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.
In other media[]
A vindicator in the promotional artwork for the Exploration Update.
Vindicators in the promotional artwork for the Village and Pillage Update.
The vindicator page in the Mobestiary.
LEGO Minecraft minifigure.
