How to Make a Raid Farm in Minecraft

TL;DR

• A raid farm repeatedly triggers village raids to farm emeralds, Totems of Undying, and enchanted loot.
• You need at least 1 villager, 1 bed, and the Bad Omen effect to start a raid.
• Get Bad Omen by killing a pillager raid captain and drinking the Ominous Bottle it drops.
• Build a spawn platform near the villager, funnel raiders into a kill chamber, and collect drops with hoppers.
• Play on Hard difficulty for 7 waves and up to 5 evokers per raid for maximum totems.
• Always keep your villager alive — if it dies, raids stop triggering.

How to make a raid farm in Minecraft is one of the most rewarding builds in the game. Raid farms produce emeralds, Totems of Undying, enchanted gear, saddles, crossbows, gunpowder, and massive amounts of XP — all automatically. Once you have one running, you never need to worry about trading prices again. This guide covers how raid mechanics work, how to get Bad Omen, what you need to build the farm, and how to set it all up step by step.

Why Build a Raid Farm?

Raid farms are one of the best late-game farms in Minecraft. Here is what you get from each completed raid:

• Emeralds — from pillagers, vindicators, and evokers. A well-run farm can produce thousands per session.
• Totems of Undying — dropped by evokers at a 100% rate. This is the only reliable, renewable source of totems in the game. See our guide on how to get a Totem of Undying.
• Enchanted crossbows and iron axes — from pillagers and vindicators.
• Saddles — dropped by ravagers at 100%.
• Witch drops — redstone dust, gunpowder, glowstone dust, sugar, spider eyes, and glass bottles.
• Hero of the Village effect — gives 30–55% discounts on all villager trades for 40 minutes after winning a raid.

In Bedrock Edition, raid loot also includes enchanted books and enchanted iron tools and armor, making it even more rewarding there.

raid farm in minecraft

How Raids Work in Minecraft

A raid is a wave-based attack on a village triggered by a player with the Bad Omen effect. When you enter a village boundary with Bad Omen active, it converts to Raid Omen for 30 seconds, then a raid begins. You can use that 30-second window to position yourself before the first wave spawns.

The number of waves depends on difficulty:

• Easy: 3 waves
• Normal: 5 waves
• Hard: 7 waves

Hard difficulty is strongly recommended for raid farming. More waves means more evokers spawning, which means more Totems of Undying. Up to 5 evokers can appear per raid on Hard — 1 in waves 5 and 6, and 3 in the final wave 7.

How to Get Bad Omen (1.21+ Update)

Since the 1.21 Tricky Trials update, Bad Omen is no longer applied automatically when you kill a raid captain. Here is how it works now:

1. Find a pillager raid captain — this is the pillager wearing an Ominous Banner on its head. Raid captains spawn at pillager outposts and in pillager patrols that roam the overworld.
2. Kill the raid captain. It drops an Ominous Bottle (levels I to V).
3. Drink the Ominous Bottle to gain the Bad Omen effect for 100 minutes.
4. Enter a valid village (at least 1 villager and 1 claimed bed). The effect converts to Raid Omen and the raid starts after 30 seconds.

You can also get Ominous Bottles from Trial Chamber vaults. If you want a steady supply, build your raid farm near a pillager outpost — raid captains there respawn continuously. To find a pillager outpost faster, look in plains, desert, savanna, taiga, and snowy plains biomes.

If you accidentally drink a bottle near your base or need to cancel, drinking milk removes the Bad Omen effect immediately.

Raid Mobs and What They Drop

Understanding each raid mob helps you design your kill chamber properly.

• Pillager — drops emeralds, crossbows (sometimes enchanted), and arrows. On Hard difficulty, 80% chance of dropping an emerald.
• Vindicator — drops emeralds and iron axes (sometimes enchanted). 80% emerald drop chance on Hard.
• Evoker — always drops 1 Totem of Undying. May also drop an emerald. The most valuable mob in the entire raid.
• Witch — drops redstone dust, gunpowder, glowstone dust, sugar, spider eyes, and glass bottles. Very useful for potion brewing.
• Ravager — always drops a saddle. 100 HP and very tough. Often ridden by a pillager or evoker in later waves.

What You Need to Build a Raid Farm

• 1 villager (minimum) — must stay alive at all times
• 1 bed — the villager must claim it to create a valid village
• Building blocks — cobblestone or stone for the platform and kill chamber
• Water buckets — to funnel raiders into the kill zone
• Hoppers and chests — for automatic loot collection
• Ominous Bottles — to trigger raids repeatedly
• Sword with Looting III — for extra emeralds from kills. See best sword enchantments
• Good armor — raids are dangerous on Hard. See best armor enchantments
• Totem of Undying in your offhand from the very start

How to Build a Raid Farm Step by Step

Step 1: Choose Your Location

The ideal location for a raid farm is above an ocean biome. Raiders cannot spawn on water, so building over the ocean dramatically reduces spawn-proofing work. You do not need to cover every surface — the water does it for you automatically. Avoid building over frozen oceans since raiders can spawn on ice.

Build your farm at least 7 chunks (112 blocks) away from any natural village or other structures that could interfere with the raid trigger zone.

Step 2: Set Up the Villager and Bed

This is the most important part of the whole farm. The villager and bed create the village that triggers and anchors the raid. Here is how to do it properly:

1. Transport a villager to your farm location. Use a boat or minecart to move them. Learn how to breed villagers if you need more.
2. Place a bed in a small enclosed box — 3x3x3 is enough. Put the villager inside and let it claim the bed.
3. Seal the villager in completely with solid walls. Raiders pathfind toward villagers. If they can reach it, the villager will die and your raids will stop permanently.
4. Add a workstation inside the box too. This keeps the villager active and the village valid.

Never let your villager die. If it does, raids can no longer be triggered at that location. Keep a spare villager in a protected backup location just in case. You can learn more about managing them in our villager trades and jobs guide.

Step 3: Build the Spawn Platform

Raiders spawn on valid solid blocks within range of the village center. Build a large flat platform — at least 9×9 blocks, ideally larger — around 50 to 80 blocks from the villager. This is where all the raid mobs will appear each wave.

Spawn-proof everything around the platform that you do not want mobs to appear on. Over the ocean, this is mostly handled already. On land, cover surrounding surfaces with slabs, buttons, or carpet.

Raiders cannot spawn on leaves, scaffolding, glass, or liquids. You can use these materials strategically to block unwanted spawn locations and force all raiders onto your platform.

Step 4: Build the Kill Chamber

The kill chamber is where raiders go to die and drop their loot. The most common and effective design uses a combination of water funnels and fall damage:

1. Place water streams on your spawn platform that push mobs toward a central drop hole.
2. Build the drop hole to be at least 3 blocks wide. Raiders, especially ravagers, are large mobs and need space to fall through.
3. Drop them down at least 30 blocks. This brings most mobs to 1 HP from fall damage.
4. Add water at the bottom to catch them safely — this keeps them alive at 1 HP so you can hit them for XP and get Looting III drops.
5. Alternatively, use lava or magma blocks at the bottom to kill them automatically. Lava is good for ravagers since they are too large for many small openings.

If you want to collect XP and use Looting III for extra emerald drops, you need to land the killing blow yourself. Position yourself at the bottom of the drop where you can hit mobs as they arrive, with easy access to the collection system.

Step 5: Set Up Loot Collection

Place hoppers underneath the kill floor pointing into chests. Hoppers automatically collect every drop and store it for you. Set up multiple rows of hoppers to cover the full area where items can land.

Totems of Undying are the most valuable drop — make sure your hopper system cannot miss them. Consider sorting the storage with separate chests for emeralds, totems, and witch drops to keep things organized.

Step 6: Trigger the First Raid

1. Kill a pillager raid captain near a pillager outpost.
2. Pick up the Ominous Bottle it drops.
3. Drink the bottle to gain Bad Omen.
4. Walk into the village boundary of your farm. The Raid Omen countdown starts — 30 seconds.
5. Position yourself at your AFK or kill spot before the first wave spawns.

Stay within 128 blocks of the farm during the raid. Going further than this causes raiders to despawn. Between waves, ring a bell if you have one — it highlights any hidden raiders nearby so the wave can finish and the next one can begin.

Step 7: Repeat the Raid Cycle

After winning a raid, you receive the Hero of the Village effect. Use this time to trade with villagers at discounted prices. Then head back to the pillager outpost, kill another raid captain, collect a new Ominous Bottle, and trigger the next raid. A well-built farm can cycle through raids quickly and produce a steady stream of emeralds and totems.

Important Tips for Raid Farming

Always Play on Hard Difficulty

Hard mode gives you 7 raid waves instead of 3 on Easy. More waves means more evokers and far more total drops. The extra difficulty is manageable with good gear. The trade-off in loot is massive.

Use Looting III on Your Sword

Looting III increases emerald drops from pillagers and vindicators. It does not affect the Totem of Undying drop rate — evokers always drop exactly one regardless of enchantments. But for emeralds, it makes a significant difference over time. Check the best sword enchantments guide for full details on Looting and similar enchantments.

Never Let the Villager Die

If your villager dies, the village stops being valid and raids no longer trigger there. Keep the villager completely sealed off from all raid mobs. You can even name-tag it to prevent despawning. Learn how to craft a name tag and use it to protect your villager.

Keep a Totem in Your Offhand

Raids are dangerous, especially on Hard. Evokers summon Vexes that fly through walls and deal constant chip damage. Vindicators deal 13 damage per hit on Normal. Always carry a Totem of Undying in your offhand from the first raid onward. You will be farming more than enough of them to never run short.

Build Near a Pillager Outpost

Raid captains at pillager outposts respawn continuously, making it easy to grab an Ominous Bottle before every raid cycle. Building your farm within 200 blocks of an outpost saves a lot of travel time and keeps the cycle smooth.

Raid Farm vs Other Farms

A raid farm is different from most other Minecraft farms because it requires active engagement — you trigger each raid manually. It is not a fully passive AFK farm like a slime farm or a gold farm. But the loot quality per session is unmatched. Totems of Undying cannot be obtained any other way at scale. Emeralds from raid farms make villager trading essentially free once the farm is running.

If you also want passive XP and emeralds, pair your raid farm with an XP mob farm for a well-rounded late-game setup.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Villager dying during a raid — the single most common reason raid farms stop working. Protect it completely.
• Bad Omen triggered in the wrong location — do not drink an Ominous Bottle near your main base if it is close to a village. Raids can damage villager housing and kill traders.
• AFK spot too far from the farm — stay within 128 blocks while the raid runs or mobs will despawn.
• Drops disappearing — items despawn after 5 minutes in Java Edition. Make sure hoppers are collecting everything before that happens.
• Not ringing the bell between waves — a hidden raider can stall a wave indefinitely. Ring the bell to find and kill stragglers.
• Building on land without spawn-proofing — other mobs can interfere with the raid and fill the mob cap. Build over ocean or spawn-proof all nearby surfaces.

Gear Checklist Before Your First Raid

• ✅ Sword with Looting III and Sharpness
• ✅ Full enchanted armor — Protection IV recommended
• ✅ Totem of Undying in your offhand
• ✅ Golden Apples for emergencies
• ✅ Shield — blocks crossbow bolts and ravager charges
• ✅ Ominous Bottles stocked up and ready
• ✅ Netherite armor if possible for maximum protection

Frequently Asked Questions

You can get Minecraft from the official Minecraft website, on Google Play Store, or for Xbox via the Xbox Games Store.