It Takes a Pillage

Overview

It Takes a Pillage is a combat and exploration mod that dramatically expands the Pillager faction in Minecraft. The mod adds three new illager mob types, each with distinct combat behavior, and introduces two new structures where they've established permanent outposts. Villages also face a new threat in the form of nighttime Pillage Sieges, where groups of illagers spontaneously attack settled areas.

On the defensive side, the mod introduces the Clay Golem, a weaker but more accessible alternative to the Iron Golem that naturally replaces some Iron Golem spawns in villages. You can also build Clay Golems yourself using Clay Blocks and a Pumpkin. Two new items round out the mod: the Ravager Horn, which triggers the Bad Omen effect on demand, and the Bastille Blues Music Disc. You can browse all items the mod adds using the Items tab on this page.

New Illager Mobs

It Takes a Pillage adds three new illager types that appear in structures, Raids, and Pillage Sieges. Each fills a distinct combat role, and together they make encounters with the Pillager faction far more dangerous than vanilla.

Archer

The Archer is a ranged illager that wields a Bow instead of the Crossbow used by standard Pillagers. With 24 HP (12 hearts), 5.0 base attack damage, and a movement speed of 0.36, they're about as durable as a regular Pillager but have an impressive follow range of 40 blocks, meaning they'll spot and start shooting at you from much farther away than most hostile mobs. Archers appear in Pillager Camps, Bastilles, Raids (starting at wave 2 with 2 spawning, scaling up to 4 in wave 8), and Pillage Sieges.

Skirmisher

The Skirmisher is a melee illager armed with an Iron Sword. They have 24 HP (12 hearts), 5.0 attack damage, and the same 0.36 movement speed as the Archer. What makes Skirmishers particularly dangerous is their ability to break down doors on Normal and Hard difficulty, similar to Zombies during a Zombie Siege. During Raids, they can also ride Ravagers, gaining the reach advantage of the Ravager's wider hitbox. Skirmishers appear in Raids starting at wave 4 and show up in both Pillager Camps and Pillage Sieges.

Legioner

The Legioner is the mod's elite illager and the most dangerous new mob. Equipped with an Iron Axe and a Shield, the Legioner has 40 HP (20 hearts), 6.5 attack damage, 6.0 armor points, and a slightly slower movement speed of 0.275. Their defining feature is active Shield use: when a player draws a Bow or charges a Crossbow, the Legioner detects this and raises its Shield to block incoming projectiles. The Shield has a warmup period of 3 to 5 ticks and a stagger cooldown of 15 to 39 ticks after lowering. You can disable their Shield by hitting it with an Axe, which puts it on a 60-tick (3-second) cooldown, just like disabling a player's Shield. Legioners are the primary defenders of the Bastille and appear in Raids starting at wave 5.

Structures

Pillager Camps

Pillager Camps are medium-sized structures that generate on flat terrain throughout the Overworld. They serve as forward outposts for the Pillager civilization and contain a diverse roster of enemies. The mob roster draws from a weighted list: standard Pillagers (weight 15), Skirmishers (12), Archers (8), Vindicators (5), Evokers (3), and rarely a Ravager (1). This means you'll encounter mostly Pillagers and Skirmishers, with Evokers and Ravagers being rare but dangerous surprises.

Camps also feature prisoner cages holding captive Villagers (weight 4), Wandering Traders (3), and Clay Golems (3). Freeing these prisoners can give you allies for the fight, as the Clay Golems will immediately begin attacking nearby illagers. Livestock pens contain Chickens, Sheep, Pigs, Horses, and Donkeys.

Bastille

The Bastille is the mod's premier structure, a large, imposing Pillager fortress that represents the most challenging combat encounter the mod offers. Unlike Pillager Camps, the Bastille's garrison is heavily weighted toward Legioners (weight 15), with Skirmishers (12), Archers (8), standard Pillagers (7), Vindicators (5), Evokers (4), and the occasional Ravager (1) rounding out the defenders. This means the majority of enemies you'll face are shield-wielding Legioners with 40 HP and 6 armor.

The Bastille holds captive mobs as well: Wandering Traders (weight 5), Clay Golems (3), and Villagers (2). The Bastille Blues Music Disc can be found as loot within the structure.

The Clay Golem

The Clay Golem is a new utility mob that functions as a budget version of the Iron Golem. It has 40 HP (20 hearts), which is less than half of the Iron Golem's 100 HP, but it deals the same 8.0 attack damage per hit. The Clay Golem has 0.28 movement speed (slightly slower than Iron Golems) and a high knockback resistance of 0.8, making it hard to push around despite its lower health.

To build a Clay Golem, use the same T-shaped pattern as an Iron Golem but with Clay Blocks instead of Iron Blocks. Place a bottom row of three Clay Blocks, one Clay Block on top of the center, and a Carved Pumpkin or Jack o'Lantern on the very top. Clay Golems can be repaired by right-clicking them with Clay Balls, which restores 10 HP per use. They also show cracking textures as they take damage, similar to Iron Golems.

Clay Golems naturally replace some village Iron Golem spawns based on difficulty. By default, the replacement rate is 0% on Peaceful, 20% on Easy, 50% on Normal, and 100% on Hard. This means on Hard difficulty, villages will never spawn Iron Golems naturally; they'll all be Clay Golems instead. This makes village defense more challenging on higher difficulties and gives players a reason to build additional Iron Golems manually.

Raids and Pillage Sieges

Enhanced Raids

The mod integrates its new illagers directly into vanilla Raid waves. Archers first appear in wave 2 with 2 spawning, scaling up to 4 in wave 8. Skirmishers join at wave 4 with 2, appearing in waves 6 and 7 with 1 each, and 2 again in wave 8. Legioners are the latest addition, first appearing in wave 5 with 2, then 2 more in wave 7 and 3 in wave 8. These additions make later Raid waves substantially more difficult, especially waves 7 and 8 where you'll face Legioners, Archers, and Skirmishers all at once alongside the usual Ravagers, Evokers, and Witches.

Pillage Sieges

Pillage Sieges are a new nighttime event similar to the vanilla Zombie Siege mechanic. Each night, there's a 10% chance that a siege will trigger near any village in the Overworld. When it occurs, 4 to 9 illagers spawn in a ring about 32 blocks from the nearest player. The siege mob pool includes Pillagers (weight 8), Skirmishers (6), Archers (6), Legioners (4), and Vindicators (3). Some siege participants may spawn wearing Ominous Banners. A raid horn sound plays to alert the player when a siege begins.

Unlike Raids, Pillage Sieges don't require the Bad Omen effect to trigger. They happen automatically near villages at night, making them an ongoing threat that players need to prepare for through fortification and golem placement.

New Items

Ravager Horn

The Ravager Horn is a unique instrument item that functions similarly to a Goat Horn but with a special effect: using it applies the Bad Omen effect to the player. Each use increments the Bad Omen level by 1, up to a maximum of level 5 (amplifier 4). This lets you deliberately trigger Raids at any level you choose. The Horn has a use duration of 140 ticks (7 seconds) and a sound range of 256 blocks. It has a max stack size of 1 and 1 durability, meaning it breaks after a single use. Bad Omen is applied only when the game rule disableRaids is false.

Bastille Blues Music Disc

Bastille Blues is a new Music Disc added by the mod with Rare rarity. It plays the mod's original soundtrack composed specifically for the Bastille experience. The disc has a play length of approximately 3,968 ticks (about 3 minutes and 18 seconds). It can be found as loot within the Bastille structure.

Configuration Options

It Takes a Pillage provides a configuration screen accessible from the Mods menu in-game, as well as a config file for server-side settings. These options let you fine-tune how much the mod affects your world.

The Replace Iron Golems toggle controls whether naturally spawning Iron Golems in villages are replaced by Clay Golems. When enabled, each difficulty level has its own replacement rate: Peaceful 0%, Easy 20%, Normal 50%, and Hard 100%. You can adjust each percentage individually from 0 to 100. Setting the master toggle to false disables all replacement regardless of difficulty rates.

The Milk Removes Bad Omen option (default: false) determines whether drinking Milk will clear the Bad Omen effect. By default, the mod prevents Milk from removing Bad Omen, which means once you get it from a Pillager Captain or a Ravager Horn, you'll keep it until it expires naturally or you trigger a Raid.

The Enable Pillage Sieges option (default: true) controls whether the nighttime Pillage Siege event can occur. Disable this if you find the random nightly attacks too aggressive for your playstyle.

Mod Compatibility

It Takes a Pillage has built-in integration with several biome mods. Structures from this mod will generate properly in biomes added by Biomes O'Plenty, Oh The Biomes You'll Go, and Terralith. This means you'll encounter Pillager Camps and Bastilles throughout modded biomes, not just vanilla ones. The mod requires no other dependencies and works standalone on Forge for Minecraft 1.20.1.