Finding the Pillagers Wilhelm Arcturus I mentioned at the end of the last Minecraft post, where I was searching for freshly generated villages, that there was something interesting on the map I rendered with Minecraft Overviewer. What I saw was a tower. From the map Naturally I was keen to run out and check out that tower in person, unconcerned about what function the tower might serve. So I got on my horse and rode out to see what I could see. As I got within sight of the tower I noticed that there were a few pillagers in the way. I had seen pillagers wandering about already, so this was nothing new. I had slain some before, avoided others. Just another hostile mob. I dismounted and left the horse to wander… we’ll get to that… to go pick off the pillagers. The tower is just over yonder, a pillager band in between I stormed in and started killing off the pillagers only to find more arriving. I ran towards the tower when things started to get a little overwhelming, finding even more pillagers as I got closer. I ran in one of the openings in the base of the tower and quickly filled it up with some cobble stone to keep the pillagers out. The I ran to the far side and did the same to the other opening, then filled in the window opening along the other two sides of the base to stop the crossbow wielding pillagers from shooting me. I used to be an adventurer like you… So for the moment I was safe, but I seemed to be in deep with the pillagers. It was about then that I went to the wiki to see what might be up with this tower only to find that it was a Pillager Outpost, literally the place where pillagers spawn. I went up through the tower, checking out each level. There was a chest up at the top with a few items in it, but not much else. Night was also falling, so I went to one of the lower levels that was enclosed… exposing yourself only draws more arrows from the pillagers… and built myself a bed. However, it was already night and there were already zombies and skeletons spawning around the place, so I spent the night awake and sniping at the pillagers. Come the morning I was still firing away at pillagers whose numbers seemed to replenish and remain above my ability to run out and solo. And they all had eyes for me In my inventory I have a stack of a dozen units of TNT. I considered how best to use this to cover my escape. I leaned out the second floor and placed some above where the pillagers were congregating, then some more lower down, and one right in the center where the door was. I then hit one of them with a fire arrow to detonate them while opening up a hole on the other side of the building through which to make my escape. I did seem to have thinned out their ranks as I ran to where I left my horse. However, try to form, it had wandered off beyond line of sight. Meanwhile, the remaining hostile pillagers were giving chase, so I headed back north to the village, turning to fight… or to drop a block of TNT to detonate amongst them… every so often. The pillagers are persistent and would not give up the chase, but I was able to knock off the last of them by the time I got back to the village. However, on entering the village I learned about the bad omen curse. When you kill the pillager captains, the guys with the banners, you get the bad omen and as soon as you walk into a village it triggers a raid. The bad omen effect stacks, and the more you have the more waves you get in your raid. So it was a further fight, during which most of my villagers were wiped out. Pillages go straight for them if they can. They also open normal doors, so just being inside is no safety. That also introduced me to the ravager, the pillage beast/mount, which has a lot of hit points and hits like a truck. Fortunately it is too big to fit through a single door, so I was able to find a spot from which to fire away at the one that spawned during one of the raid waves. Eventually I prevailed, though I was close to death a few times… and, as I said, most of my villagers died. But I got the achievement for defeating a raid. Hero of the Village also gets you a discount on buying items from villagers and makes giving them things to increase their level more effective. This would have been useful had I had many villagers left. Meanwhile, there were still pillagers lurking about on the route to the pillager camp, though no captains, so I could knock them down without having another raid hit. Pillager lurking by my village – Also, Hero of the Village effect icon at upper right That done I headed back to find my damn horse. I found him up the hill overlooking the pillager camp. The horse could pretty much see me the whole time From up there I could also move around to get a look into how much damage I had done. The tower after my first run I blew a pretty big chunk out of the side of the tower, and a tree that was there, against which I had placed some of the TNT, had gone completely missing. But I saw that at least one block of TNT remained. That seemed like an invite to return. So I went back in, placed the last of my TNT at various points around the tower, all while avoiding pillagers who began to chase me yet again, and started blowing things up. Releasing the iron golem they had caged up helped some, as they fought with him for a while. Then I set the tower on fire, just for good measure before running off again. Again, a bunch of pillagers were following me. Not happy with me I managed to kill off the followers and avoid the captains, leading them into the ocean and out swimming them. No bad omen this time. Then it was back to the village to start fortifying it against pillagers, first by building a wall around it. I also found a few of the pillager banners in my inventory from my fights. Banners of my defeated foes I decided to hang some of those up on my defensive structures. Fortifying my village Later, I went and rendered a fresh copy of the map to see what was left of the tower. Tower after the TNT and burning There are still two blocks of unexploded TNT around the tower, so I might have to go back. We’ll see if pillagers stop spawning there if I tear the whole thing down. http://bit.ly/2WtN2zT

I mentioned at the end of the last Minecraft post, where I was searching for freshly generated villages, that there was something interesting on the map I rendered with Minecraft Overviewer.

What I saw was a tower.

From the map

Naturally I was keen to run out and check out that tower in person, unconcerned about what function the tower might serve.  So I got on my horse and rode out to see what I could see.

As I got within sight of the tower I noticed that there were a few pillagers in the way.  I had seen pillagers wandering about already, so this was nothing new.  I had slain some before, avoided others.  Just another hostile mob.

I dismounted and left the horse to wander… we’ll get to that… to go pick off the pillagers.

The tower is just over yonder, a pillager band in between

I stormed in and started killing off the pillagers only to find more arriving.  I ran towards the tower when things started to get a little overwhelming, finding even more pillagers as I got closer.

I ran in one of the openings in the base of the tower and quickly filled it up with some cobble stone to keep the pillagers out.  The I ran to the far side and did the same to the other opening, then filled in the window opening along the other two sides of the base to stop the crossbow wielding pillagers from shooting me.

I used to be an adventurer like you…

So for the moment I was safe, but I seemed to be in deep with the pillagers.  It was about then that I went to the wiki to see what might be up with this tower only to find that it was a Pillager Outpost, literally the place where pillagers spawn.

I went up through the tower, checking out each level.  There was a chest up at the top with a few items in it, but not much else.  Night was also falling, so I went to one of the lower levels that was enclosed… exposing yourself only draws more arrows from the pillagers… and built myself a bed.

However, it was already night and there were already zombies and skeletons spawning around the place, so I spent the night awake and sniping at the pillagers.  Come the morning I was still firing away at pillagers whose numbers seemed to replenish and remain above my ability to run out and solo.

And they all had eyes for me

In my inventory I have a stack of a dozen units of TNT.  I considered how best to use this to cover my escape.  I leaned out the second floor and placed some above where the pillagers were congregating, then some more lower down, and one right in the center where the door was.  I then hit one of them with a fire arrow to detonate them while opening up a hole on the other side of the building through which to make my escape.

I did seem to have thinned out their ranks as I ran to where I left my horse.  However, try to form, it had wandered off beyond line of sight.  Meanwhile, the remaining hostile pillagers were giving chase, so I headed back north to the village, turning to fight… or to drop a block of TNT to detonate amongst them… every so often.

The pillagers are persistent and would not give up the chase, but I was able to knock off the last of them by the time I got back to the village.  However, on entering the village I learned about the bad omen curse.

When you kill the pillager captains, the guys with the banners, you get the bad omen and as soon as you walk into a village it triggers a raid.  The bad omen effect stacks, and the more you have the more waves you get in your raid.

So it was a further fight, during which most of my villagers were wiped out.  Pillages go straight for them if they can.  They also open normal doors, so just being inside is no safety.  That also introduced me to the ravager, the pillage beast/mount, which has a lot of hit points and hits like a truck.  Fortunately it is too big to fit through a single door, so I was able to find a spot from which to fire away at the one that spawned during one of the raid waves.

Eventually I prevailed, though I was close to death a few times… and, as I said, most of my villagers died.  But I got the achievement for defeating a raid.

Hero of the Village also gets you a discount on buying items from villagers and makes giving them things to increase their level more effective.  This would have been useful had I had many villagers left.

Meanwhile, there were still pillagers lurking about on the route to the pillager camp, though no captains, so I could knock them down without having another raid hit.

Pillager lurking by my village – Also, Hero of the Village effect icon at upper right

That done I headed back to find my damn horse.  I found him up the hill overlooking the pillager camp.

The horse could pretty much see me the whole time

From up there I could also move around to get a look into how much damage I had done.

The tower after my first run

I blew a pretty big chunk out of the side of the tower, and a tree that was there, against which I had placed some of the TNT, had gone completely missing.  But I saw that at least one block of TNT remained.  That seemed like an invite to return.  So I went back in, placed the last of my TNT at various points around the tower, all while avoiding pillagers who began to chase me yet again, and started blowing things up.  Releasing the iron golem they had caged up helped some, as they fought with him for a while.

Then I set the tower on fire, just for good measure before running off again.  Again, a bunch of pillagers were following me.

Not happy with me

I managed to kill off the followers and avoid the captains, leading them into the ocean and out swimming them.  No bad omen this time.

Then it was back to the village to start fortifying it against pillagers, first by building a wall around it.  I also found a few of the pillager banners in my inventory from my fights.

Banners of my defeated foes

I decided to hang some of those up on my defensive structures.

Fortifying my village

Later, I went and rendered a fresh copy of the map to see what was left of the tower.

Tower after the TNT and burning

There are still two blocks of unexploded TNT around the tower, so I might have to go back.  We’ll see if pillagers stop spawning there if I tear the whole thing down.

from The Ancient Gaming Noob http://bit.ly/30VvQCy