How to start a raid in minecraft with commands

Raids are a new mechanic in Minecraft, introduced with the 1.14 Village & Pillage Update. A new enemy type, called Pillagers will attack Villages, killing all of its inhabitants if you don’t stop them.

Annoyingly, raids can be very difficult and use up a lot of armor, food and weapons to complete. If your raid has glitched or it’s too difficult, you might be better off just ending it using commands so you can return your village to normal.

Below, we have a quick guide for preventing and disabling raids in Minecraft. For more guides and best of lists including seeds, check out our area Minecraft area here! 

Ending Minecraft Raids

Firstly, you can prevent raids by not entering Villages with the Bad Omen Effect. If you have recently killed a Pillager Captain (who carries a banner above their head), it’s likely you’re carrying Bad Omen. 

You can check by opening your inventory. If you are, entering any village will automatically cause a raid to start. You will need to drink milk to remove it. Now, if you are already in the middle of a Minecraft raid, they are difficult to end. Obviously, you can end it by killing all of the enemies that come in waves. 

If your raid has glitched and you can’t find enemies, then you can try ringing the bell which will make them glow and be visible through walls. If you just want to end the raid, there are a few ways of doing so, and none are very survival friendly. 

Firstly, you can set your game mode to peaceful. You can change your difficulty in the settings, or do /difficulty peacefulcommand. This will cause mobs to de-spawn, essentially ending the raid. You can change your game difficulty again once you have removed the Bad Omen effect.

Another method to stopping raids is to turn them off completely in Minecraft. Again, you can do this with a command. Enter /gamerule disableRaids true as a command. This will end the current raid and prevent anymore from happening. This command will require cheats enabled. If you’re on a survival single-player mode, open to LAN and allow cheats.

Phillip Anderson

Hey, I'm Phillip Anderson! After studying Video Game Design at University, I began writing articles at PwrDown in my free time. I currently play my games on PC, but also own a PS4 & Nintendo Switch. I'm also a VR enthusiast, owning an Oculus Rift S where you might find me playing Beat Saber or Skyrim VR!

This Minecraft tutorial explains all about Raids (also known as Village Raids) with screenshots.

Steps to trigger a Raid

1. Find a Pillager Outpost

First, you need to find a Pillager Outpost in Minecraft. A Pillager Outpost is a structure that spawns naturally in the game near a village. Because the Pillager Outpost generates near a village, it can appear in any biome that a village can.

Here is a picture of what a Pillager Outpost in the Taiga biome looks like:

TIP: Try using the /locate command to quickly find a Pillager Outpost!

2. Kill the Pillagers and find the Leader

The Pillager Outpost is protected by a new mob called the pillager. Once you enter the Outpost, the pillagers will begin attacking you. Kill the pillagers and find the Patrol Leader. The leader is easy to spot because it wears an illager banner on its head.

3. Kill the Patrol Leader and Get Bad Omen

Next, you must kill the Patrol Leader. Once you kill the leader, you will be cursed with a new status effect called Bad Omen. The Bad Omen effect is a new status effect that causes a group of hostile mobs to spawn and attack when a player with the Bad Omen effect enters a village. This event is called a Raid.

4. Enter a Village to Trigger a Raid

Next, find and enter a village to trigger a Raid. Upon entering the village, you should see a Raid progress bar appear on the screen (similar to the Ender Dragon or Wither Boss progress bar). This bar will initially be empty and then will start to fill.

Once the Raid bar is full, the Raid will begin. Listen for the sound of the Raid horn. This horn means that the first wave of Raiders is coming. The Raiders must run to the Village from the nearest Pillager Outpost, so this could take a while!!

TIP: The waves of pillagers can sound a war horn (or Raid horn) that will indicate to the player the direction of the group of pillagers, and it will be sounded every 1-2 minutes to alert players of the location of any remaining mobs. Though the direction would be hard to distinguish without using stereo headphones or surround speakers.

5. Kill the Raiders

Next, you should see a group of Raiders consisting of pillagers, ravagers, vindicators, evokers and witches rush toward the player with Bad Omen.

As the player kills these hostile mobs, the Raid progress bar will decrease indicating how many remaining mobs must be killed to end the Raid.

When you've killed all of the Raiders, the Raid bar will disappear and the Raid is over!

6. Trade with Villagers at a Discount

After the Raid is over, the player will be given the Hero of the Village status effect.

This status effect allows the player to trade with villagers at a discounted price.

Congratulations, you just learned about Village Raids in Minecraft.