How does a pillager raid work in Minecraft?

A pillager Raid is an in-game event in Minecraft that can be triggered by players if certain conditions are met. In this, loads of different illager mobs come into the village to attack the villagers and the players.

Since these hostile mobs spawn and attack in groups, handling and defeating a raid is one of the toughest challenges for new and even intermediate players.

Illagers are a category of hostile mobs that look quite similar to regular villagers. They are not hostile towards any mob other than villagers and iron golems. Since they are connected and have a mysterious and untold history between them, raids occur only in villages.

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Everything to know about pillager raids in Minecraft

How does a raid begin?

If players kill the pillager captain, they will get 'Bad Omen' effect in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

When players explore the world, they might encounter a small group of pillager mobs patrolling certain areas. Since they are the weakest illager mob, they will go down quite easily; however, players will get a status effect called Bad Omen when they kill the pillager captain.

Though it won't affect them directly, the raid will start if players enter a village where villagers and their occupied beds are present. If they want to avoid the raid, they can simply drink a milk bucket from a cow to remove all status effects, including Bad Omen.

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Waves in a raid and types of illager mobs

The fifth wave of a raid in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Once the raid begins, a boss-fight-type health bar will appear on top of the HUD, indicating the number of illagers left in a single wave. The raiders can spawn at the edge of the village and start infiltrating the structure. They will kill villagers and try to destroy all the entities that spawn in the structure. Players need to kill all the illager mobs till the boss fight HUD says Victory.

On easy mode, players will face three waves of illagers, on medium, they will face five waves, and on hard mode, they will face seven waves. As they plow through the waves, the fight will become harder as stronger illagers like Evokers, Vindicators, and Ravagers will start spawning.

Vindicators will be able to open village hut gates and try to kill the villagers even if they're hiding. Hence, players need to act fast before the raiders kill the entire population.

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How raids end

Hero of the village status effect in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

There can be two scenarios in a raid: victory or defeat. If all the villagers are dead or their claimed beds are destroyed, then it's a defeat for players. In this case, the illagers will celebrate their victory by laughing and putting their hands up in joy.

If players kill all the raiders, the boss fight indicator will read Victory. In this case, they will get the Hero of the Village status effect, which will net them a discount on all the villager trades.