How Often Do Banner Pillagers Spawn? A Comprehensive Guide
The question of how frequently banner pillagers, also known as raid captains, appear in Minecraft is a common one, and the answer is multifaceted. There isn’t a single, simple answer as their appearance is governed by several mechanics within the game. The direct answer is: banner pillagers spawn primarily as part of pillager patrols and at pillager outposts. Pillager patrols have a 20% chance of spawning every 10 minutes and always have one raid captain, while pillager outposts are guaranteed to have 1-3 captains. Pillagers (including captains) also eventually respawn, which means that these areas can be exploited for illager banner farms.
Understanding the underlying mechanics is key to accurately predicting their appearances. Let’s break down the factors that contribute to the spawning frequency of these unique mobs.
Pillager Patrols: A Chance Encounter
Patrol Spawn Frequency
Pillager patrols are groups of pillagers that roam the overworld. These patrols are designed to add a dynamic element of challenge to the game, and they’re a crucial source of banner pillagers. The game attempts to spawn a pillager patrol every 10 minutes, with a success rate of only 20%. This means that you might find a patrol after just 10 minutes, or you might have to wait as long as 50 minutes or more, depending on luck. This makes finding patrols a bit unpredictable.
Patrol Captains
Crucially, each pillager patrol always includes at least one raid captain. This is your primary source of the illager banner. So, any time a patrol successfully spawns, a banner pillager is also spawned along with it. The number of other pillagers in a patrol can range from one to five, depending on the regional difficulty of the world.
Patrol Spawning Conditions
Patrols can spawn anywhere within the game, as long as it is outside of villages, this includes in any biome and any structure, including those without generated structures. This means that you can encounter these patrols in almost any overworld location, provided the proper spawn conditions are met, such as being an opaque block with a light level of 8 or below.
Pillager Outposts: Guaranteed Encounters
Outpost Generation
Unlike patrols, pillager outposts are fixed structures that generate in the world. These outposts are semi-rare structures that appear every several hundred to a couple thousand blocks, making them rarer than villages but more common than woodland mansions. They generate naturally in any village-generating biome, such as plains.
Outpost Captains
Pillager outposts are guaranteed to have raid captains. Typically, you’ll find 1–3 pillager raid captains within an outpost. This makes outposts a reliable, although fixed, source of banner pillagers. However, only pillagers and passive mobs can spawn in the outpost area, so they wont spawn near by like a patrol might.
Outpost Spawning Conditions
Pillagers may spawn in outposts on any valid opaque block as long as the block’s light level is 8 or lower, they also cannot spawn within 24 blocks of a village, so you should not have a pillager outpost in the middle of a village.
Respawning and Exploitation
Pillager Respawning
It’s important to remember that pillagers, including captains, will eventually respawn, even in areas you’ve cleared previously. This is particularly important for those creating pillager farms. This respawning of pillagers, which also include captains, allows for the constant generation of illager banners.
Raid Farms
This respawning allows for the creation of raid farms. By deliberately triggering the Bad Omen effect, players can spawn raids on villages they have built specifically to trap and collect the loot from those raids. When those raids spawn, they also include new banner pillagers.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. How Do You Get a Banner Pillager?
The primary method to get a banner pillager is to find them either in a pillager patrol or at a pillager outpost. Once found, you must kill the raid captain to obtain the illager banner they carry.
2. Do Banners Make Pillagers Spawn?
No, simply displaying a pillager banner will not attract pillagers to your base. However, having the Bad Omen effect will cause pillagers to raid villages when you enter them. The more raid captains you defeat, the higher your Bad Omen level.
3. How Do You Tame a Pillager?
You cannot tame a pillager in the traditional sense. However, you can use a name tag to prevent them from despawning if you keep them in a boat. The crossbow can be removed, but it requires some patience with a shield.
4. Can You Stop Pillagers From Spawning?
To stop a pillager outpost from spawning pillagers, you need to kill all the pillagers at the outpost, use a bucket of milk to remove Bad Omen, and cover all grass/sand in the area that pillagers can spawn on. For general wild spawns, torches and other light sources should be placed around where you do not want pillagers to spawn.
5. What Happens if You Have a Pillager Banner?
The primary use of an illager banner is to trigger a raid when placed within a village. This will start a pillager raid with a horn sound, the flag will disappear, and a raid will commence on the village.
6. Can Pillagers Pick Up Banners?
Yes, when a patrol captain is killed, nearby pillagers can pick up the illager banner and become the new captain. When that new captain is killed, it can trigger a raid.
7. Can You Tame a Ravager?
While you can ride a Ravager using a saddle, they cannot be tamed. They remain a hostile mob even when ridden. Ravagers are one of the rarest and most dangerous mobs.
8. Can You Leash a Pillager?
Sadly, you cannot use a lead on a pillager. You can, however, move them around using a boat or minecart.
9. What Is the Difference Between Illager and Pillager?
Pillagers are a sub-group of Illagers and are considered the more adventurous of them. They are known for their patrols and outpost activity, whereas most Illagers tend to stick to more isolated areas like huts or woodland mansions.
10. Do Pillager Outposts Have a Secret Room?
Yes, pillager outposts have a secret room that is located under the main structure. It typically contains a ravager and a chest with valuable loot.
11. Can You Make a Pillager Outpost Your Home?
You can, but pillagers will continue to spawn there, which may make it challenging. However, this could be desirable for those looking for a pillager farm or constant battles for XP and loot.
12. Do Torches Stop Pillagers From Spawning?
Yes, torches and other light sources will prevent pillagers from spawning in a specific area, as they need a light level of 7 or lower.
13. Do Ominous Banners Attract Pillagers?
Hanging an ominous banner will not attract pillagers, however, the Bad Omen effect does make it more likely for pillager raids to happen.
14. What Are Banner Pillagers Called?
Banner pillagers are also called raid captains. These are pillagers or vindicators that carry a large ominous banner on their back.
15. Can Pillagers Loot Chests?
Yes, during raids, Pillagers will attempt to loot chests and other storage containers like barrels and shulker boxes.
Conclusion
In summary, banner pillagers, or raid captains, spawn as part of pillager patrols and at pillager outposts. Patrols have a 20% chance of spawning every 10 minutes with one raid captain, while outposts have a guaranteed 1–3 raid captains. Their ability to respawn and the mechanics behind raids make them a recurring feature in Minecraft. Understanding these factors will allow players to better predict, encounter, and even farm banner pillagers.