Vindicator (2024)

Not to be confused with Pillager.

A vindicator is an illager equipped with an iron axe. Vindicators appear in woodland mansions and participate in raids. It sprints towards its targets to attack them with its axe.

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 woodland 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 in mansions do not naturally despawn unless the world is switched to peaceful difficulty.‌^{[JE only]}

Vindicators are sometimes neutral if naturally spawned in a woodland mansion, which means that the vindicator does not attack the player on sight, but only after the player attacks it.

Patrols[]

In Java Edition, any vindicators can join a patrol if sufficiently near a patrol captain, but do not go seeking out for patrols to join.

Raids[]

Main article: Raid

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

Vindicators can spawn riding ravagers, creating a vindicator ravager jockey.‌^{[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 an 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% per level of Looting with random durability.
• 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 has 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, wandering traders, and snow golems.‌^{[BE only]} In Bedrock Edition, vindicators are passive to players on Peaceful difficulty but will still attack other mobs.

While idle, a vindicator crosses its arms similar to a villager, with its axe stowed. While giving chase, the vindicator brandishes its axe and sprints. If it has no weapons, a mainhand-unarmed vindicator raises both of its hands when attacking.

On Normal and Hard difficulties, vindicators that are part of a raid can break wooden doors. This is controlled by the raider tag.^[1] Like any illager during a raid, vindicators celebrate by cheering if all the villagers are killed or all the beds are destroyed.

In Bedrock Edition, if a pillager arrow accidentally strikes a vindicator, the vindicator retaliates against the pillager, but the pillager does not retaliate. All illagers remain friendly to each other in Java Edition, even when struck accidentally.^[2]

Java Edition[]

Vindicators are likely to call help from other vindicators when attacked by mobs or players (except for illagers and goats, or if they were killed in one hit), inciting them all to attack the aggressor. They do not call help from other kinds of illagers.

Vindicator raiders can break doors and open doors like villagers.^{[needstesting]}

Ringing a bell gives all vindicators within 32 blocks the Glowing effect for 3 seconds.

Bedrock Edition[]

Vindicators can only sprint, even when idle.

A dispenser can equip a vindicator with armor, but it is invisible and does not show on its model.

Damage[]

Armed vindicators hit for 7.5 × 3.75 to 19.5 × 9.75 damage, depending on difficulty. They tie with piglin brutes for dealing the third most melee damage in the game, following the iron golem at 21 × 10.5 damage and the warden at 45 × 22.5 damage.

The vindicator's axe attack disables the player's shield for 5 seconds, even when riding a ravager.

"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 evokers, pillagers, other vindicators, ghasts^[3] and players in Creative or Spectator mode. In Java Edition, they also do not attack baby villagers, illusioners or armor stands^[4]. This hostility extends to vexes, ravagers and witches in both editions.^[5]

"Johnny" vindicators will also attempt to attack the ender dragon, but it will not take damage.

All hostile or neutral mobs try to attack the "Johnny" vindicator in return, except for ender dragons,^[verify] endermites (as they die in one hit), guardians, elder guardians, phantoms, goats (apart from their usual ramming behavior), slimes, magma cubes, and ravagers.

Since raid captains can instruct nearby pillagers to attack their target, naming a vindicator raid captain "Johnny" will cause other raiders to attack Johnny's target, even if they wouldn't usually. This can cause witches, vexes and ravagers to target one another, and can even cause ravagers to attack themselves. If this causes a witch to target a ravager, the witch will instead throw Splash Potions of healing, since ravagers are raid mobs.

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 "Johnny" vindicator something else using a name tag will not set its Johnny tag to 0b, and it will continue to exhibit "Johnny" behavior.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

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[]

Java Edition:
Vindicators use the Hostile Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Entity data[]

Vindicators also have entities' data associated with them that contains various properties.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements[]

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	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 Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsem*n are counted in this advancement. Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	adventure/kill_a_mob
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Monster Hunter	Kill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Axolotl Bee Blaze Camel Cat Cave Spider Chicken Chicken Jockey Cod Cow Creeper Donkey Dolphin Drowned Elder Guardian Enderman Endermite Evoker Fox Frog Ghast Goat Glow Squid Guardian Hoglin Horse Husk Llama Magma Cube Mooshroom Ocelot Panda Parrot Phantom Pig Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Polar Bear Pufferfish Rabbit Ravager Salmon Sheep Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Skeleton Horse Skeleton Horseman Slime Sniffer Stray Spider Spider Jockey Squid Strider Trader Llama Tropical Fish Turtle Vex Vindicator Warden Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Wolf Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.	adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst
	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 may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement. Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsem*n are counted in this advancement.	adventure/kill_all_mobs

History[]

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.
					Vindicators can now sometimes spawn as a patrol leader in illager patrols.
		18w47a			Vindicators can now spawn as part of raids.
					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.
1.18		21w37a			Vindcators no longer attack baby villagers.
		Pre-release 5			Changed the texture, to remove its hood.
1.19		22w17a			Changed its model and texture.
Pocket Edition
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Added vindicators.
					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.
					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 during raids.
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.
?					Armor is no longer visible on vindicators.
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.
1.18.0		beta 1.18.0.20			Vindicators no longer spawn as part of illager patrols.
1.18.10		beta 1.18.10.22			Vindicators now have blue eyes again.[6]
					Changed the texture, to remove its hood.
Legacy Console Edition
TU54	CU44	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	Added vindicators.
					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 a troubled man possessed by evil spirits in an isolated, haunted, labyrinthine, mansion-like hotel attacks his family with an axe, and says the iconic line "Here's Johnny!" while breaking a door down.
• According to the Mobestiary, while a vindicator is stronger than a zombie, it still has low intelligence, 'a little smarter than a skeleton' (note that vindicators cannot use bows in-game).

Gallery[]

Renders[]

• 

  A vindicator.

• 

  An attacking vindicator.

• 

  An unarmed attacking vindicator in Java Edition.

• 

  An unarmed attacking vindicator in Bedrock Edition.

• 

  Attacking (unarmed; BE)

• 

  A vindicator riding a ravager.

• 

  A sitting vindicator.

• 

  Green eyes vindicator attacking pose.

Screenshots[]

• 

  A vindicator raid captain.

• 

  A vindicator named Johnny attacking an armor stand, although they do no damage as armor stands can only be broken when quickly attacked twice.

• 

  A vindicator equips an item in off-hand only by command.

• 

  A few vindicators chasing some villagers during a village raid.

In other media[]

• 

  A vindicator in the promotional artwork for the Exploration Update.

• 

  Vindicators in the promotional artwork for the Village and Pillage Update.

• 

  A vindicator within Minecraft Dungeons.

• 

  The Mobestiary page on vindicators.

• 

  A LEGO vindicator.

Textures[]

• 

  The texture file of vindicators.

References[]

External Links[]

• Meet the Vindicator – Minecraft.net on June 20, 2017