How to Make a Raid Farm in Minecraft

Raid farms are one of the best sources of emeralds, totems of undying, and experience in the game. They exploit Minecraft's raid mechanic to spawn waves of illagers in a controlled environment where they are killed automatically. This guide explains how raids work and walks you through building a practical farm.

How raids work

A raid triggers when a player with the Bad Omen effect enters a village (defined as an area with at least one villager and one claimed bed). The raid spawns waves of hostile illagers, Pillagers, Vindicators, Evokers, Witches, and Ravagers, that try to kill the villagers. Harder difficulties spawn more waves (Easy: 3, Normal: 5, Hard: 7).

Each wave spawns at a random location 0-112 blocks from the village center at the same Y level or higher. When all raiders in a wave are killed, the next wave spawns after a short delay.

Getting Bad Omen

Kill a Pillager Captain (the pillager carrying a banner) to receive the Bad Omen effect. Captains spawn at:

• Pillager Outposts, the easiest source. Outposts generate in most biomes and continuously spawn pillagers, including captains.
• Patrols, groups of pillagers that spawn randomly in the overworld at night. One always carries a banner.

Bad Omen lasts for 100 minutes (1 hour 40 minutes). You can stack it up to level V by killing multiple captains, but the level only affects the chance of raiders carrying enchanted gear, it does not change the loot table or wave count.

Core farm design

The basic concept of a raid farm is:

• A single villager in a confined space (the "village"), this creates the village center.
• A killing mechanism that dispatches raiders as they spawn.
• A collection system that funnels dropped loot and XP to the player.
• The player stands near the village with Bad Omen to trigger the raid, then stays in range while the farm handles the rest.

Step-by-step build

This is a straightforward overworld raid farm design:

• Step 1: Isolate a villager. Place a villager in a small enclosed space (2x1x2 is enough) with a bed and a workstation. This creates a village. The villager must be unable to escape and safe from raiders.
• Step 2: Build a spawn platform. Raids spawn mobs on valid solid blocks within range of the village center. Build a large platform (at least 9x9) around 50-80 blocks from the village center, at the same Y level. Clear all other spawnable surfaces nearby by removing blocks, placing slabs, or building in an ocean.
• Step 3: Build the kill chamber. Use a combination of water streams and fall damage or lava to funnel raiders off the platform and into a kill zone. A drop of 30+ blocks (with water at the bottom to leave them at 1 HP) followed by entity-cramming or a player hit is effective.
• Step 4: Add collection. Place hoppers under the kill zone feeding into chests. If you want XP, position yourself where you can hit the mobs as they fall or use a trident killer (Java only).
• Step 5: Trigger the raid. Stand near the villager with Bad Omen. The raid bar appears at the top of the screen. Mobs spawn on your platform and funnel into the kill chamber.

Dealing with problem mobs

Some raid mobs need special handling:

• Ravagers, large beast mobs with high health (100 HP). They need a bigger drop or a lava blade. They cannot fit through 1-block gaps, so your funneling channels need to be at least 2 blocks wide.
• Witches, they drink fire resistance potions in lava and healing potions when damaged. Kill them with fall damage or instant kill methods (entity cramming, trident killer). Avoid lava-only designs because witches survive them.
• Evokers, summon vexes that fly through walls. Your villager must be fully enclosed so vexes cannot reach it. Evokers themselves die easily to fall damage.

Loot from raids

A raid farm on Hard difficulty produces per cycle (7 waves):

• Emeralds, Vindicators and Pillagers drop 0-1 each, plus their gear can be sold. Expect 10-20 emeralds per raid from drops alone.
• Totems of Undying, each Evoker drops exactly 1. Hard difficulty spawns 2 Evokers total across waves 5 and 7. This is the primary source of totems in the game.
• Crossbows and Axes, often enchanted, these can be disenchanted on a grindstone for XP or used directly.
• Iron gear, from Pillagers and Vindicators. Smelt in a furnace for iron nuggets or disenchant.
• Saddles, Ravagers always drop a saddle.
• Redstone, Glowstone, Sugar, Gunpowder, Sticks, from Witches.

Resetting the raid

After a raid ends (either victory or defeat), you need a new Bad Omen to start the next one. Most efficient farm setups include:

• A nearby Pillager Outpost where you can quickly kill a captain between raids.
• Or a separate Pillager captain farm that traps outpost captains for easy killing.
• Drinking milk cancels Bad Omen if you need to pass through villages without triggering raids accidentally.

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Performance and server considerations

• Raid farms spawn a lot of mobs quickly. On multiplayer servers, check with admins about farm rules and mob limits.
• Build in a location away from other players' bases to avoid lag complaints.
• AFK at the farm only when needed, active raid spawning causes more server load than passive farms.
• Clear items from the kill chamber regularly to prevent item entity buildup.

Raid farms are complex to build but produce some of the most valuable items in the game. Totems of Undying alone make them worth the effort since each totem is essentially a free life. Combined with the emerald and XP output, a raid farm is a mid-to-late-game project that pays for itself quickly.