Minecraft Raids: How to Trigger, Survive, and Win Every Raid

As someone who has survived (and failed) more Minecraft raids than I’d like to admit, I can tell you this: raids aren’t just random battles.

They will test your combat skills, strategy, and definitely your patience in dealing with some of the most hostile mobs in the game. If you win the raid, you will be rewarded with emeralds, enchanted gear, Totems of Undying, and the Hero of the Village effect that makes every villager treat you like royalty. However, if you fail, you’ll watch your villagers get wiped out while your “safe” base becomes a ghost town.

But the real question is what triggers these raids and how you can survive them every time. Here is a complete guide that will help you understand every aspect of Minecraft raids. Let’s check them out below.

What Is a Raid in Minecraft?

A raid in Minecraft occurs when the player enters a village with a Bad Omen effect. When this happens, waves of raiders begin spawning around the settlement with one goal: to wipe out every villager and claim the village for themselves.

During the raid, you will encounter some deadly hostile mobs such as Pillagers, Vindicators, Evokers, Witches, and Ravagers. These come in different waves depending on the mode of the game.

Each wave is tougher than the last, adding new enemy types and increasing mob numbers. A raid ends only when either:

• All raiders are defeated (you win), or
• All villagers (or their beds) are destroyed (you lose).

Your only task here is to save the village and its inhabitants.

How to Trigger a Raid (Step-by-Step)

Now that you know the basics of a Minecraft raid and what it actually is, let’s see how you can trigger a raid. Here is a step-by-step, detailed guide.

Step 1: Get Omnious Bottle

In earlier versions of Minecraft, you would have directly acquired the Bad Omen effect by simply killing the Raid Captain. However, since the 1.21+ version, you now need an Omnious Bottle to start the Bad Omen. Here is how you can collect this potion:

• Kill Raid Captain: The most definite way to get the ominous bottle is by killing the raid captain. You can find them wandering about anywhere in the overworld or in an Illager outpost.
• Loot Trial Chambers: Ominous Bottles can also be found in ominous vaults and sometimes normal vaults, too.

Here is how you can use the bottle:

1. Start by drinking from the bottle.
2. Then, the Bad Omen effect starts instantly. It lasts for 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Notes: Ominous bottles come with different levels of Bad Omen. It ranges from I-V. The higher the level, the more difficult the raids get.

Step 2: Head To A Village

Now that you have drank from the Omnious Bottle, the Bad Omen effect will be activated and stays for 100 real-time minutes or 1 hour and 40 game minutes.

To trigger the raid, you now need to enter a village. For the game, a village is considered registered when there is at least one villager and at least one claimed bed within the village area.

When you enter a village with this effect, the Bad Omen changes to a Raid Omen with a countdown of 30 seconds. As soon as this timer ends, the raid will begin, and you will see a progress bar at the top.

Note: During the Bad Omen or the Raid Omen effect, if you feel you are not fully prepared for the raid, you can simply drink a bucket of milk to cancel it.

What is a Wave?

A wave is defined as a single round of enemies attacking the village. Once you defeat or kill all the mobs in a wave, the next wave starts (often from a different direction) with a new set of mobs and a higher difficulty level.

Each wave grows harder, with stronger mobs joining the fight.

1. Easy Mode → 3 waves
2. Normal Mode → 5 waves
3. Hard Mode → 7 waves

The easy mode is still much easier if you are fully prepared. However, in the Hard Mode, the raid feels endless and exhausting. Every mob will be attacking you from all ends, such as Evokers summoning vexes, Ravagers charging through defenses, and witches throwing harmful potions.

Notes: As mentioned above, there are multiple levels of the Bad Omen effect that add another layer of wave to these raids. For example, if you are in the easy mode, there will be three waves, but if you have drank an Ominous Bottle with a higher Bad Omen level, there will be a lot more than just three waves.

Raid Waves and Enemy Types

Each wave comes with a different and much stronger mob every time. While exact counts depend on difficulty and Bad Omen level, here’s the general enemy progression:

1. Early Waves

The first wave you will encounter is with Pillager mobs. They aren’t very difficult to defeat. You simply need to get up close to them and use weapons such as an axe or sword to hit them with.

Next, from Wave 2, there will be a lot more Pillagers and Vindicators starting to appear in large numbers. Vindicators yield an axe and can be damaging if they hit you, but again, they are not a great threat. You can use both swords and long-range weapons to kill them.

2. Mid Waves

In the next set of waves, you will encounter a lot more Pillagers and Vindicators. You can use the same set of weapons as earlier to defeat them. However, from Wave 3, you might also encounter some new raiders known as the Witches.

These are a bit difficult to defeat, but not impossible. Witches throw Poison, Weakness, and Harming potions along with Splash Healing to heal other raiders. The best way to defeat them is to keep a bit of distance and then attack them using long-range weapons.

You can build towers and a defense system, and then attack them from above. The next set of waves, you might also come across a new raider known as Ravager, which is the most difficult of all. These are giant bull-like mobs that charge at you and deal heavy knockback damage. If you are in Hard mode, they can deal up to 9 hearts of damage.

To defeat them, you must have a shield. And to attack them, make sure to keep a distance and use your bow or crossbow. This most definitely kills them.

3. Late Waves

The raids become even more challenging in the latter part of the raids. Once you cross four waves, you will encounter Evokers. They are considered to be the deadliest and are known as the raid “bosses”.

This mob typically has two types of attacks. They summon Vexes (tiny flying mobs with swords), which fly through blocks, ignore armor, and deal high melee damage. Another attack is what we call as Fangs attack, where they summon a row or circle of fangs that rise from the ground and deal damage.

The further you keep away from them, the better chance of survival you have. You can use ranged weapons to kill them, like a bow or a crossbow. It's best to kill them first in a raid, or they will keep summoning the vexes and fangs.

Now, Evokers are extremely useful when killed since they are the only mob that drops the Totem of Undying. This rare item saves you from death once, reviving you with extra hearts and Fire Resistance for a few seconds. It’s the main reason players actively hunt raids.

By raid 6-7, all the above mobs will spawn together, making it extremely difficult. But with the right strategy and the right order of killing them, you can win the raid in no time.

Hero of the Village Effect (After Winning a Raid)

If you have followed the right strategy and won a raid, you will be rewarded with the Hero of the Village effect.

This effect is triggered immediately as soon as you defeat all the mobs and raids. It lasts for 3 in-game days (about 60 real-world minutes).

Now, let’s see the benefits of this effect.

Discounted Trades

The biggest advantage of the Hero of the Village tag or effect is that the villagers will give you a discounted price on the trades.

Hero of the Village reduces prices by roughly thirty percent. This effect becomes even more powerful when it stacks with other discount mechanics in the game.

For example, if you cure a zombie villager and then trade with them while also under the Hero of the Village effect, the price can drop to rock-bottom levels. In fact, when both systems overlap, trades that usually cost dozens of emeralds may be reduced to just one.

The discount is immediately visible in the trading window, where emerald costs are slashed with a red line, revealing the new, lowered price. In some cases, the items you sell to villagers, such as crops to Farmers, will even yield more emeralds than usual.

Villager Gifts

Apart from the trades, villagers offer you gifts based on their profession. After surviving a raid, villagers will occasionally approach you, throw an item at your feet, and cheer with green particles around them.

Here is a list of all the items you might get for free from these villagers as a sign of gratitude for saving them and the village.

• Farmers: Bread, Pumpkin pie, and Cookies
• Librarians: Books and Bookshelves
• Clerics: Redstone dust and Lapis Lazuli
• Armorers: Iron armor
• Shepherds: Wool
• Fishermen: Cod and Salmon
• Baby Villager: Poppies
• Butchers: Cooked Meat
• Cartographers: Maps and Paper
• Fletchers: Arrows
• Leatherworker: Leather
• Masons: Clay
• Toolsmiths: Stone Tools
• Weaponsmiths: Different Axes (Stone, Iron, and Gold)
• Nitwit/Unemployed: Weed seeds

Apart from this, the villagers will also ring the bell and burn fireworks to celebrate their freedom and your victory over the pillager raids.

What Happens if Villagers Die

If the pillagers and other mobs are successful in killing all the villagers, the raid will end, and you will be defeated. The raid bar will instantly disappear, and you’ll see a message declaring the raid a defeat.

In this case, you will surely not get any Hero of the village effect. In fact, you will see the pillagers and other raid mobs dancing and celebrating their win and capturing the village as their own.

How to Prepare for a Raid (Before It Starts)

We know everything about how raids can be triggered and all the different mobs you will have to fight. Now, it's important to understand how you can prepare for the raid and all the kinds of weapons you need to kill a horde of ravagers charging at you.

Gears and Weapons

You need to be equipped with both melee and long-ranged weapons to kill the pillagers and other mobs during a raid.

1. Armor: It's best to have at least a diamond or Netherite armor, especially when you are playing in hard mode. An iron armor might work while playing in easy or normal mode.
2. Weapons: You will need both a melee and a long-range weapon. It's recommended to use an axe or a sword of the highest grade if you can. In addition to this, carry at least a bow or a crossbow to attack evokers and witches.
3. Shield: Absolutely mandatory for blocking Pillager arrows and Ravager charges.
4. Firework Launcher: This is an optional weapon, depending on your preference. But it does help to attack multiple enemies in one go.

Enchantments

You will also need a few enchantments that will work perfectly well with the weapons and gears mentioned above.

1. Infinity or Mending: Ensures your ranged weapon doesn’t run out mid-raid.
2. Protection IV: It is the single best armor enchantment for raids, giving you universal damage reduction against everything: arrows, melee hits, and even evoker fangs.
3. Smite V: This will deal extra damage to the mobs and help kill them faster with only a few attacks.
4. Flame: Something we personally use that sets enemies on fire.
5. Power V: Massively boosts arrow damage. This is critical for sniping Evokers before they summon vexes, or softening up Ravagers from a distance.

These are only a few among the many enchantments you can use to destroy the enemies.

Consumables and Potions

We cannot stress this enough, but the weapons, gear, and enchantments only work when you have enough food in your hands and other potions to back you up. Here is everything you will need.

1. Golden carrots: This is the best food you can carry during such intense raids. They keep your hunger bar full and regenerate health quickly.
2. Cooked steak or pork: Not everyone has Golden carrots in their stock. In such cases, you can carry a lot of cooked meat to quickly increase your health bar.
3. Golden Apples: Another super important food to have in your inventory. Even a single apple grants absorption hearts and short regeneration, giving you an immediate buffer if a Ravager charges or a Vindicators’ axe nearly cuts you down.
4. Milk Buckets: This is something you will need during an emergency. If you are accidentally hit by a witch’s Poison, Slowness, or Weakness effect, drinking milk can clear this instantly.

Other than this, you can also carry Regeneration Potions that restore health for a set duration. They’re especially effective during the final waves when vexes and Ravagers are attacking simultaneously.

Defend the Village (and Yourself)

You do not only need weapons, gear, and enchantments to defend yourself. To ensure the villagers are also safe from the attack, it's best to contain them in a closed space and lock them up till the raid ends.

You already know that if the villagers die, the raid ends, and you are defeated. Hence, it is absolutely must to lock them up so that the raiders cannot reach them.

• Build walls around the village to ensure the raiders cannot reach the villagers.
• Cover the gates or exits of each villager’s room with dirt blocks so that they do not come out, and no mobs can attack them.
• Spawn a few iron golems around the village as your first line of defense.
• Build high walls or areas where you can attack the pillagers and other mobs from a distance.
• Try ringing a bell. This helps villagers who are left outside to see a clear line of path to the nearby room and get inside for safety.

Raid Rewards & Drops

Lastly, let’s talk about all the loot and drops you can collect from each raid. You already know about the Hero of the Village badge and the benefits it can give you.

But there are a lot more rewards and drops from each pillager and mob you would kill. Here are all of them:

1.  Emeralds: Almost every raider type, Pillagers, Vindicators, Evokers, has a chance to drop emeralds when killed. With higher Bad Omen levels, the number of mobs increases, which means even more emeralds pile up by the end of the raid.
2. Weapons and Gear: Pillagers, Vindicators, and Raid Captains often drop their weapons, such as a crossbow, Iron Axes, and the Raid Banner, respectively
3. Saddles: Ravagers drop saddles when killed. Earlier, Minecraft did not allow players to craft saddles; hence, this was an amazing way to collect them.
4. Totem of Undying: Evokers drop the Totem of Undying.

Many players often build a raid farm to collect as many rewards as they can get. In fact, every mob you kill increases your XP, making the entire ordeal highly beneficial.