Vindicator

Health points	24 × 12
Behavior	Hostile Passive (Peaceful difficulty) ‌^{[BE only]}
Attack strength	Armed Easy: 7 Normal: 13 × 6.5 Hard: 19 × 9.5 Unarmed Easy: 3 Normal: 5 Hard: 7
Hitbox size	*In Java Edition:* Height: 1.95 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks In Bedrock Edition: Height: 1.9 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks
Spawn	Woodland mansions Raids Patrols‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

A vindicator is an illager equipped with an iron axe. Vindicators appear in woodland mansions and participate in raids, as well as pillager patrols.‌^{[BE only]}

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 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 with mansions do not naturally despawn unless the world is switched to Peaceful difficulty.

Vindicators are sometimes neutral if naturally spawned in a woodland mansion, which means that the vindicator does not attack the player on sight. Only when the vindicator is attacked it will fight back.

Patrols[]

Patrols consist of 2–5 Illagers, with all Illagers always being Pillagers on Easy difficulty and Normal difficulty. On Hard difficulty, 80% of them are pillagers and 20% of them are vindicators.‌^{[BE only]}

In Java Edition, any vindicators can join a patrol if sufficiently near a patrol captain.

Raids[]

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

Vindicators can spawn riding Ravagers.‌^{[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 a 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 percentage point 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 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[]

Vindicators are hostile toward players, iron golems, adult villagers, baby villagers ‌^{[JE only]}, wandering traders, and snow golems.‌^{[BE only]}

In Java Edition, vindicators attack the player regardless of distance, 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".

When attacking, a vindicator raises its main hand brandishing an iron axe. It sprints, moving faster than villagers. When not attacking, a vindicator crosses its arms similar to a villager and does not hold its axe.

If the vindicator has no weapons (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. A vindicator's axe can break, just like pillager crossbows.‌^{[JE only]}

When idle, the vindicator prefers to stand in dark corners,^[verify] moving around occasionally.

A mob hitting a vindicator would provoke not only that vindicator, but also all vindicators nearby, similar to piglins, piglin brutes, or zombified piglins.‌^{[JE only]}

During raids, vindicators can open doors, just as villagers do.‌^{[JE only]} They break wooden doors on Normal^[verify] and Hard difficulties when attacking.

If raiding vindicators kill all the villagers in the village or all the beds are destroyed, vindicators celebrate by cheering.

Like shulkers, and evokers, vindicators are passive in Peaceful difficulty.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Like most hostile mobs, vindicators despawn in Peaceful difficulty in Java Edition.

In Bedrock Edition, if a pillager arrow accidentally strikes a vindicator, the vindicator retaliates against the pillager and the pillager fights back. This does not occur in Java Edition, as all illagers are friendly to each other, even when accidently hit.

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.

Damage[]

Vindicators are tied with piglin brutes for being the mob that does the single highest amount of raw melee damage in the game, dealing an alarming 19 × 9.5 damage on Hard difficulty. This poses a serious threat even to well-prepared and heavily armored players. Due to the fact multiple vindicators spawn in a location, they make mansions, raids, and also patrols 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:

Illagers
- Evokers
- Illusioners ‌^{[Java Edition only]}
- Pillagers
- Ravagers ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}
- Other Vindicators
Ghasts ^[1]
Players in Creative or Spectator ‌^{[Java Edition only]} mode

The hostility even extends to armor stands‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}, baby villagers, Vexes and Ravagers.‌^{[JE only]}^[2]^[3]^[4]

All hostile or neutral mobs, except for Endermites, Elder Guardians, Phantoms, Guardians, 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[]

Subtitles	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	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	Namespaced ID	Entity tags (JE)	Translation key
Vindicator	`vindicator`	`raiders`	`entity.minecraft.vindicator`

Bedrock Edition:

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

Entity data[]

Vindicators 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
- 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 (PS)
		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)	Namespaced ID
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.	`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.	`adventure/kill_all_mobs`

History[]

This section would benefit from the addition of more images.

Please remove this notice once you've added suitable images to the article.
The specific instructions are: Unarmed vindicator attacking in bedrock edition

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.
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.
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.
1.16.100		beta 1.16.100.50			Vindicators now despawn in peaceful mode.
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 blue eyes,‌^{[JE only]} unlike other illagers, who have green eyes. During the Texture Update, the eyes of vindicators and illusioners were changed to green, but in 18w47b, the color of the vindicator's eyes were changed back to blue.
- The eyes on Bedrock Edition remain green.
Vindicators have an unused hat layer in their texture file, similar to the illusioner's hat.
- The hat layer is also seen in the witch and evoker's texture file but unused.
- The hat models also used to exist in the nitwit, librarian, and priest's texture before the Village & Pillage update.

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

A vindicator in a mineshaft.
Raid captain vindicator.
A vindicator riding a ravager.
A sitting vindicator.
A vindicator celebrating.
A Johnny vindicator attacking an armor stand, although they do no damage as armor stands can only be broken when quickly attacked twice.
A vindicator chasing a villager.

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 version of the Vindicator
Model of the Vindicator in Minecraft Dungeons
A Vindicator, along with a Piglin, a player, two Baby Ghasts, and the Arch-illager in the promotional artwork for the Anniversary Event of Minecraft Dungeons
A Vindicator, along with a Piglin and a Baby Ghast in the promotional artwork for the Anniversary Event of Minecraft Dungeons