Tutorial:Defeating a village raid

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This tutorial will show you how to defeat a village raid.

Raid basics

Raids are events during which pillagers, vindicators, ravagers, and evokers (which can summon vexes) invade a village to kill as many villagers as possible (witches also spawn but they are passive to villagers, but still attacks iron golems and the player and heal other illagers with beneficial potions). They can be really difficult to handle in any stage of the game and can result in many villager deaths if not properly handled.

Equipment

As one of the most difficult events of the game (even against the wither fight or the ender dragon's), raids must be handled with powerful protection and high-damage weapons. Below are some of the gear recommendations for the defense. Take note that this may not be enough on higher difficulties with raids triggered by high-level Raid Omen effects.

A diamond sword at minimum, enchanted with Sharpness V and optionally Fire Aspect and Looting to increase raider drops.
A full set of diamond armor with Protection IV and possibly with Unbreaking or Mending. Vindicators and vexes have notoriously high damage and can very easily kill off iron-geared players.
Iron tools or better, which may be useful to hide villagers underground if blocking doors is not a feasible option. This also enables you to mine and hide away to heal if things get south.
A shield is good to guard against attacks and stun ravagers, except for vindicator blows, as their axes can disable shields.
A powerful bow (at least with Power) with a lot of arrows(one or two if you have Infinity) or a good crossbow with powerful ammunition (like starred firework rockets) as your ranged weapon to take out (a group of) raiders from a distance, especially from ravagers as they deal a lot of damage and has a lot of health. Take note that the Instant Damage effect from Arrows of Harming does not stack with arrow damage. Killing a pillager using a crossbow will also give you the Who's the Pillager Now? advancement.‌^{[Java Edition only]}
Plenty of nutritious food, the best being Golden Carrots, to regenerate health. Bread and steak are weaker, though good options.
Several golden apples to quickly heal in case the player goes low on health.
A water bucket for getting up or down easily; necessary for all missions regardless of difficulty! Using a water bucket can also push vindicators away from you, and they can't go against the flow of the water, allowing you to take down the vindicators quicker.
A stack or more of expendable blocks to barricade village houses.
Iron blocks and carved pumpkins. This can summon iron golems providing additional reinforcements to the village. Unlike golems that are spawned by villagers, they won't attack you even if you hurt them.
A bed to set your spawn point at or near the village, in a safe house where you can regroup after getting killed.

Optional equipment

Some ender pearls for quick escapes.
Milk bucket, or honey bottle to remove negative status effects from the witches that could affect your performance.
Negative splash potions such as Slowness to hinder groups of raiders.
Positive potions such as Strength II, Fire Resistance +, Swiftness II, Regeneration II and Instant Health II to buff you up against the raiders.
Enchanted golden apples can be used if players goes critically low or have to encounter a large group without any escape paths.
cobwebs or powder snow to trap raiders.
A lava bucket for quickly eliminating and immobilizing ravagers (as they get stuck in lava) and other mobs (excluding witches, which drink Fire Resistance potions). Beware of fire hazards, which can destroy village houses and likely reveal your villagers to the raiders.
Any expendable blocks (such as cobblestone, netherack or dirt) for utility purposes (such as pillaring up or blocking up enemies).
A boat or minecart to trap any melee raiders (preferably vindicators or ravagers) to trap them so you can kill them without them chasing you (you can also do this with pillagers, but try to block or dodge the arrows).
Bells to reveal where the raiders are if you can't find them.‌^{[Java Edition only]}
Several totem of undyings in case you take fatal damage. The player can also get this during the raid killing evokers.

Note: If you play Java Edition and is on hard difficulty, think twice before starting a high-level raid, especially when you are not confident with your combat capabilities. Even with a full set of enchanted netherite equipment, you will likely get killed by the overwhelming amounts of powerful raid mobs if you don't have sufficient preparation or being careless while defeating the raid. It is recommended that you test this in a creative world before guessing your real ability to defend such a raid. In Bedrock Edition this is usually not as big a problem since it still uses older combat mechanism, but can still be very risky.

Preparation

Preparing the village

Before the raid starts, a good idea is to prepare the village before the raiders attack. There are multiple ways to do so:

Walling off the village

A solid strategy is to wall off the perimeter of the village using a strong block, such as cobblestone or wood. As there are no ways for raiders to destroy solid blocks, they will not be able to penetrate the wall, and will, therefore, be stuck attempting to pathfind around it. Once you have walled off your village, you can use ladders to scale the wall and shoot the raiders with a bow. You can alternatively use walls or fences to border your village. Be aware that pillagers can still shoot and evokers can summon their fang attack or vexes to attack both the villagers and iron golems. You may also use moats with lava, magma blocks, berry bushes or fire to protect from most hostile mobs.

Setting traps

Once you have walled off your village, you can set traps outside of the perimeter to deal damage. Lava traps and cobweb traps can slow down and damage the raiders, and iron golems can dispatch of them rather quickly. Holes surrounding the outside of the wall can also be used to trap the raiders and prevent them from progressing any further. A moat is also helpful with water, lava or just a deep ditch. Raiders will not walk off edges so an easy way to get them in a hole is to make steps down. Raiders will path-find into the hole but not walk out (to deal damage you can add magma, lava, wither roses, or sweet berries.)

If you're playing in a desert village, try to grab all the cacti in the area around the village and place them around strategic points around the village with a height of 2-3 blocks. Don't worry, the ravagers in the raid cannot break the cacti.

Blocking villager doorways

A very effective strategy is to wall off entrances to villager houses; this way, there is no way for the raiders (other than Vexes) to access the villagers inside the houses, effectively keeping them safe while you deal with the raiders. An easy way to get the villagers into their houses to begin with is to ring a bell. Have some villagers hidden underground. If possible, have a dispenser that splashes them with invisibility.

If the raid is in a desert village, block the windows as well, no matter how high they are since desert village houses don't have any windows for covering but only a thin slot in some and probably a tall window if a potted cactus is there.

Ringing the bell to get all villagers back into their houses

Ring the bell couple times when the raid bar starts generating so villagers that don't hear the first bell can go back into their houses safely. Immediately seal the doors (and windows if you're in a desert village) so the raid mobs cannot open the doors or attack from the windows.

Iron Golems

Build as many iron golems as you can to help you defeat the raid, defend the village and assist you in battle. They can also provide a distraction to the raiders, so you can kill the illagers while they're attacking the golem. Don't worry about accidentally shooting the golems, as they won't fight back since they're player built (unless you have cheats on and summoned the iron golems), but try not to shoot or hit them, as they lose health if you have a strong weapon. You can heal them by iron ingots if the situation allows.

If you have an iron farm, you can convert it to a golem factory by deleting the grinder and rerouting it the village. However, keep in mind that these golems will attack you if you accidentally damage one of these golems.

If you're hurt during the raid, you can find your iron golem (or multiple iron golems if you have more than one) and throw a splash potion of healing at your feet, which heals both you and the iron golem at the cost of one potion.

If you accidentally hit a naturally spawned iron golem (or one you summoned) and the iron golem starts attacking, go find some raid mobs and make the iron golem attack the raid mobs as a distraction. Use the time to calm down the iron golem by staying away from the iron golem for a minute.

Starting the raid

The only way to trigger a raid is through the Bad Omen effect, which is obtained from drinking an ominous bottle, which is obtained from either killing an illager captain or from a vault in a trial chamber. Illager captains wear ominous banners, also known as illager banners on their heads and appear as part of patrols and pillager outposts, the latter of which can spawn several over time. They can also spawn in woodland mansions.

To begin the raid, walk into a chunk comprising at least one villager and one claimed bed with the Raid Omen effect. A 30-second countdown will start, allowing you to cancel the raid by drinking milk if you are not sure that you are ready. Once 30 seconds have elapsed, raiding illagers will then spawn within 64 blocks of the registered village.

Defeating the raid

Once the raid starts, your immediate priority should be to locate the raiders and swiftly kill them before they kill all of your villagers, which can wipe out your village easily if they don't get back to their houses in time.

Ring the village bell to alert villagers and afflict any nearby raiders with the Glowing status effect and determine their locations.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

The ominous horn sound effect will occasionally play in the direction of any remaining raiders.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Prioritize ravagers, evokers and witches. Witches heal other raiders, ravagers destroy crops, and evokers spawn vexes which deal heavy damage and pass through solid walls and floors. Dispatch the ravagers by a ranged weapon as they are usually accompanied with a large portion of raiders. Quickly kill evokers and witches by any weapon if you see them to save yourself from vexes and poisoning. Take care of your health and remember escape paths to heal, as vindicators and vexes will drain your health really quickly.

Once the current wave has been eliminated, the next one will start shortly. Take this time to regain position, heal yourself, and refresh your potions if necessary. This process will repeat until every wave has been defeated.

Post-raid

Once the raid has been defeated, any player in the village boundary will be awarded the Hero of the Village advancement and be affected with the Hero of the Village status effect for 60:00 or 3 in-game days.

Villagers will throw gifts at nearby players once the raid has been defeated.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Waves

The number of waves depends on the difficulty. If the Bad Omen level is higher than I, an additional wave spawns with an identical raider composition as the last wave.

There are three waves on Easy, five waves on Normal, and seven waves on Hard difficulty. Depending on the difficulty, up to 2 additional pillagers and vindicators may spawn per wave, and an additional witch may spawn on the third wave onwards.

In Bedrock Edition, Vindicators do not ride ravagers.

Wave 1: There are only pillagers. Simply charge up to them and dispatch them with your sword, blocking any arrows, or snipe at them from a distance if they are still grouped together. If they are in a line or a clump, it's best to use a crossbow enchanted with multishot or piercing, so you can shoot them all from a distance.

Wave 2: There are pillagers and vindicators. Melee tactics are enough for now, but you'll always fall back to ranged combat if you’re facing many illagers at once. You can also pillar jump to kill the vindicators easier or trap them in boats. This allows you to use TNT and a Fire Charge to kill the raiders instantly. Just smash the ravagers with a mace and kill the pillagers and vindicators with TNT and a fire charge.

Wave 3: There is a ravager and some pillagers. You may need to use hit-and-run tactics against the ravager, as he can resist knockback. Alternatively, get to high ground and pelt him with arrows. Using a lava bucket on the ravager might also work, just try to lure him into an open area so that you don't burn any houses down. You should kill the other raiders as per normal. If vindicators come on the screen, you will need to build a landmine with 5 pressure plates, 1 block of sand, and 1 block of TNT. This allows you to hit the vindicators in two hits using your axe or a sword and the vindicators will take one more hit for the landmine you built to kill them.

Wave 4: There are 3 witches, pillagers, and vindicators. Catch the witches by surprise and quickly strike them until they die, such that they don't throw harmful potions that make you vulnerable. Another way to kill the witches is to get the pillagers and vindicators to chase you, and when you run into the witch, quickly move out of the way so the witch will throw the harmful potions into the pillagers and vindicators. The pillagers and vindicators will fight back at the witch, allowing you to shoot the witch without the witch targeting you alone. It's best to quickly locate the mobs in this raid, since they might separate when in the village. Use end crystals and a powder snow bucket when too many raiders spawn at one time (for example, big waves of raiders or the final wave). Be sure to kill the other raiders as per normal with a crossbow. Lastly, burn the pillagers, vindicators, ravagers, and evokers to death with a Lava Bucket.

Wave 5: There are pillagers, vindicators, an evoker, and a pillager riding a ravager (In Bedrock Edition there is an additional ravager). Shoot the pillager mount from a distance or fling the pillagers off the ravager with a fishing rod before closing in on the ravager. Corner the evoker into a small space (while dodging its fangs) for melee combat, or snipe at it from a distance. You should ignore any vexes that spawn since killing the evoker will prevent more from spawning and they will despawn by themselves. Use a Bow enchanted with Flame to kill the other raiders as per normal. When a Ravager comes, use a block of TNT with Fire Charge or a mace enchanted with Wind Burst (if you don't have a TNT block with fire charge) or use the wither roses to kill them instantly. Make sure to also be ready for groups of vindicators that come out if you don't use the TNT block with fire charge.

Wave 6: There is only one evoker, but many pillagers and vindicators. Try to single out the evoker first as vexes can be troublesome to deal with. Use the Crossbow with Quick Charge, or a lava bucket to kill the other raiders as per normal, but be especially careful to not to get swarmed. The end crystals should be mostly used to deal with Ravagers since it is the only explosive item available in this raid which can instantly destroy them.

Wave 7: It’s a massive raiding party consisting of almost all raiding illager types, including an evoker and vindicator riding a ravager each. Vindicators constitute the majority of raiders. Be careful and try to single out illagers to reduce group sizes. Snipe at the mounted evoker with a crossbow first to make the ravager less of a threat and defeatable with melee strategies. As with the third wave, attack the witches quickly, and by surprise, to avoid potion chaos. You can also make the witch throw the harmful potions at the other raiding mobs to pose a distraction. You should use a water bucket or a lava bucket to dispatch vindicators without getting hit by large hordes. You should also use a mace enchanted with Wind Burst to kill the vindicators instantly. Whenever you have a lot of Illagers in a row (preferably on the outside lanes since they are weaker), use a block of TNT with a fire charge to kill them all instantly.

Traps

Using any traps while you're getting chased is a good idea since you know where the mobs are chasing you. Putting traps around the village before the raid is a bad idea as villagers and iron golems can run into them and you can't guaranteed 100% that the raid mobs will pass that location.

Water bucket trap

This is not really a trap, but it slows down mobs since they can't push against the flow of the water unlike the player. Placing a water bucket at the raiding mob's feet slows them down, allowing you to take the raid mobs down using a bow from a safe distance. Pillagers will try to use melee attacks when in water, so you can kill the pillagers with ease.

Be careful of ranged mobs, such as pillagers and evokers (and witches if the water bucket distance is not too big) because they can still snipe you from a distance, even when getting slowed by water.

Lava trap

The best place to use this trap is away from the village houses, since many of them can catch fire from the lava. Putting cobblestone around the village houses allows you to use this trap anywhere. Dump a bucket of lava if you're away from the mobs and stand behind the lava. The raid mobs that see you goes towards you and gets burned in the lava between you and the mobs. Since this trap destroys most mob loot, it's not a recommended trap in Bedrock Edition.

Cobweb trap

Place cobwebs in a line in front of you so the mobs get stuck there. Shoot them safely with a bow or kill them with your axe or sword. This trap won't work for pillagers, since they can still shoot from cobwebs. While in the cobwebs, evokers can also summon vexes or evoker fangs that can still attack the player. Make sure you kill the ranged mobs before moving to melee mobs, as the ranged mobs can still shoot.

Boat trap

Place boats between you and the vindicators to trap them inside. This allows you to focus on the other mobs instead of getting high damage from the vindicators. After the other mobs have been killed, shoot at the vindicators from a distance or get close enough where you can hit them but they can't hit back. Boats also trap other mobs but not the ravager.

Wall trap

This isn't really a trap but it can cause the mobs' AI to mess up, and they'll try to funnel through one place, making them an easy kill. Beware of ravagers and evokers though, since a ravager has a wider range of attack and evokers can either summon their fangs or their vexes to attack you.