Pillager

Health points	24 × 12
Attack strength	Easy: 2 - 3 Normal: 3 Hard: 4 - 5
Size	Height: 1.95 blocks Width: 0.9 blocks
Spawn	Patrols Pillager outposts Raids
Drops	See § Drops
Experience	5
Sounds	Celebrate Death Horn Celebrate Hurt Idle
Internal ID	114
Namespaced ID	pillager

	“	Aaah, the village. Once a place of peace, a nexus of happiness, a safe haven for everyone to soothe their souls in a never-ending mantra of “HRMM!”. Who in their right mind would dare to ruin this sanctuary of perfect balance? Now, the easy answer would be the crossbow-wielding Pillagers – the all-new threat of the Village & Pillage update.	„
		— Per Landin^[1]

Pillagers are illager^[2] mobs equipped with crossbows.

Spawning[edit]

Patrols[edit]

5 pillagers spawn in patrols. Patrols spawn naturally throughout the night but after 5 in-game days. They spawn independently of structures, including villages and illager outposts (i.e. they will still spawn in a "no structures" world).

In Bedrock Edition patrols spawn 2–5 illagers; on easy and normal difficulties all illagers are pillagers, while on hard difficulty 80% will be pillagers and 20% will be vindicators, spawning 24–48 blocks away from the player. On easy difficulty, they can only spawn at light level 0–7 while in normal and hard difficulties they can spawn in any light level after 5 in-game days.

Pillager outposts[edit]

Pillagers naturally spawn within a 64×64 block area around pillager outposts.

Raids[edit]

Pillagers are able to spawn as part of raids, as the most common mob in one. Raids start when a player enters a village with the Bad Omen effect.

Behavior[edit]

Pillagers are armed with crossbows and attack by shooting arrows at nearby players, iron golems, villagers, and wandering traders. In Bedrock Edition, pillagers don't attack baby villagers. They shoot an arrow every 3 seconds up to 8 blocks away. This can lead to pillagers battling neutral/hostile mobs due to an arrow hitting the wrong target, though pillagers will never attack each other.

Pillagers will switch to melee attack when fully submerged underwater and do not attack when they don't have any weapons.

Celebrating[edit]

If raiding pillagers kill all the villagers in a village in Java Edition, the pillagers will celebrate their victory by jumping and laughing.

Reinforcements[edit]

In Java Edition, pillagers are able to spawn reinforcements similar to zombies.

Drops[edit]

Upon death, pillagers drop:

0–2 Arrows, dropping more with the presence of Looting, up to 5 in Bedrock Edition.
Its crossbow (can be loaded or unloaded), which has an 8.5% chance to be dropped; this rate increases by 12% per level of Looting (20.5% with Looting I, 32.5% with Looting II and 44.5% with Looting III). It will have a random durability, and can be enchanted at level 5–19 whether or not it was enchanted when it spawned.
5 experience when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
1 Ominous banner, if the pillager is a raid captain. The raid captain will spawn with an ominous banner on its head and will always drop the banner when defeated.

In Bedrock Edition pillagers spawned by raids can drop:

0–1 Emerald

In Bedrock Edition, the following additional drops from pillagers spawned by raids changes depending on difficulty (65% chance on easy and normal, 80% chance on hard):

0–1 Emerald (¹⁰⁄₃₉ or 25.6% chance)
2–3 Emerald (⁵⁄₃₉ or 12.8% chance)
4–5 Emerald (²⁄₃₉ or 5.1% chance)
1 Enchanted Book (²⁄₃₉ or 5.1% chance)
1 Iron Pickaxe (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4%)
1 Iron Axe (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4% chance)
1 Iron Shovel (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4% chance)
1 Iron Sword (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4% chance)
1 Iron Helmet (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4% chance)
1 Iron Chestplate (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4% chance)
1 Iron Leggings (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4% chance)
1 Iron Boots (⁵⁄₇₈ or 6.4% chance)

Notes

Iron equipment from raid drops has a 50% chance of being enchanted with random enchantment level 5-19.
Iron equipment drops will be damaged.
These drops are also affected by the Looting enchantment.
Emerald is both a regular raid drop and an additional drop.
The enchanted book will have a level 30 enchantment, also can be treasure enchantment.

Bad Omen[edit]

If the player kills the pillager wearing a banner on its head, the player will receive the Bad Omen status effect. These pillagers are patrol/outpost captains.

Patrols spawn a single captain, while outposts can spawn 1-3 captains. Those captains will give the Bad Omen effect at level 1, whereas Illager captains in raids do not give Bad Omen. The effect lasts for 100 minutes (5 days in-game) and will stack to a maximum of level 6 (without using commands), but can be removed by drinking milk.

The higher the Bad Omen effect, the more additional waves will appear in a raid.‌^{[JE only]}

Data values[edit]

Advancements[edit]

Main article: Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Internal ID
	Who's the Pillager Now?	Give a Pillager a taste of their own medicine	Ol' Betsy	Kill a pillager with a crossbow.	`minecraft:adventure/whos_the_pillager_now`

History[edit]

Java Edition
March 27, 2017		Jeb replies to a Reddit post suggesting to add pillagers, saying that they were already planned to be added in the future.
September 29, 2018		Pillagers are announced at MINECON Earth 2018.
1.14	18w43a	Added pillagers.
	18w45a	Pillagers can now spawn naturally during illager patrols.
	18w46a	The pillager's AI has now been improved.
	18w46a	Pillagers no longer drop emeralds.
	18w47a	Pillagers now spawn as part of raids.
	18w47a	Pillagers now spawn around pillager outposts.
	18w47b	Pillagers now spawn less often around pillager outposts.
	18w47b	Pillagers will no longer cross their arms when they don't have any held item.
	19w09a	Pillagers can now use tipped arrows and fireworks in their offhand when shooting their crossbow.
	19w13a	Pillagers can now open doors during raids.
	19w13a	If all villagers are killed during a raid, pillagers now laugh and wave their arms in the air.
	19w14a	Pillagers no longer open doors during raids.
1.14.4	pre4	Changed the pillager's arm texture.
Bedrock Edition
1.9.0	beta 1.9.0.0	Added pillagers. Pillagers do not have sounds or animations.
	beta 1.9.0.2	Pillagers now have the crossbow animations and reloading sounds.
	beta 1.9.0.3	The crossbow held in the Pillager's hand is now larger.
1.10.0	beta 1.10.0.3	Pillagers now have their own sounds.
		Pillagers are no longer only available through experimental gameplay.
		Pillagers now spawn around pillager outposts.
1.11.0	beta 1.11.0.1	Pillagers now spawn as part of illager patrols and during raids.
		Pillagers can now spawn as a raid captain.
		Pillagers no longer attack baby villagers.
		Pillagers can now ride ravager.
	beta 1.11.0.4	Pillagers in raids may now drop special items when killed.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90		Added pillagers, which are only available in creative mode.
1.91		Pillagers now spawn in Raids, Illager patrols and around Pillager Outposts.
		Pillagers can now spawn as a raid captain.
		Pillagers can now ride Ravagers.

Issues[edit]

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

Trivia[edit]

If the player allows a pillager to shoot at them for long enough, their crossbow will eventually break, leaving them with no method of attacking. This causes their behavior to change as well; they simply walk at random similarly to passive mobs, but always face the player if they are in the pillager's field of view. The pillager will also always hold its arm up, similarly to an attacking vindicator.

Gallery[edit]

A pillager armed with a crossbow, shown at MINECON Earth 2018.
A group of pillagers, shown at MINECON Earth 2018.
A render.
A group of pillagers and illagers shown in the Village and Pillage artwork.
A group of pillagers.
A pillager patrol leader with a villager.
A Pillager Outpost inside of a desert temple with pillagers inside and outside of the temple.
A Pillager attacking a Villager.