Pillager Outpost structure in Minecraft
Pillager Outposts are dark oak watchtowers where pillagers keep spawning around the clock. They hold one loot chest at the top, sometimes caged allays or a caged iron golem, and eight Ominous Banners you can take home. Expect a crossbow fight from the moment you get close.
Game data
- Dimension
- Overworld
- Biomes
- 12 biomes
- Spacing
- 32 chunks
- Separation
- 8 chunks
- Best loot
Sentry Armor Trim
How to find a Pillager Outpost
/locate structure minecraft:pillager_outpostCheats on, in the right dimension. It gives the coordinates of the nearest one.
Map by Chunkbase, shown as a companion to this guide. Without your seed, it shows an example world. Results depend on the edition and version you pick.
Found in these biomes · 12
Pillager Outpost in numbers
- Nearest from spawn
- ~1,460 blocksaverage, 1,000 worlds
- Within 500 blocks
- 10.4%of worlds
- Density
- 0.13per 1,000 × 1,000 blocks
Plains39.4%
Savanna14.7%
Taiga13.4%
Snowy Plains11.1%
Desert9.6%
Meadow4.5%Grove2.7%Snowy Slopes1.5%// 1,000 random seeds, normal world. Positions from the placement rules and a biome check (cubiomes, Java 26.2 generation, plus the 26.3 Dappled Forest rule and Abandoned Camp). Terrain is not simulated. Estimates, not exact 26.3 values.
Mobs in a Pillager Outpost
Pillager Outpost loot
chance per item drawn · 1 loot tablesBest finds
25%Sentry Armor TrimWatchtower chest
31.8%Bottle o' EnchantingWatchtower chest All 13 items · chance per item drawn
Bottle o' EnchantingWatchtower chest31.8%
Sentry Armor TrimWatchtower chest25%
What a Pillager Outpost is built from
Dark Oak Log12.8%
Share of the structure’s own blocks, terrain excluded. Example: Pillager Outpost.
How to find a Pillager Outpost
Outposts are much rarer than villages. The game picks one spot in each 32 × 32 chunk region of the Overworld, at least 8 chunks from the next, but only builds there about one time in five. They also never appear within 10 chunks of a village, so you usually meet them out in the open: in Plains, deserts, savannas, taigas and meadows, but also high up on a Grove, snowy slopes or mountain peaks.
The tower is easy to spot from far away: a tall block of dark oak and birch planks on a cobblestone base, with two patterned Ominous Banners on each side. Some outposts use the overgrown version, with mossy cobblestone and vines all over the walls.
What's around the tower
/execute in minecraft:overworld run tp @s 173.5 64.3 -3.5 0 0The game scatters a few extras on the flat ground around the base: tents, piles of logs, archery targets and cages made of dark oak fence. Not every outpost gets them, and the mix changes each time. One cage type holds an iron golem, another holds two allays, and some cages are empty.
The only chest sits on the top floor of the tower. Its best rewards are a crossbow, Bottles o' Enchanting, a Goat Horn and, in one chest out of four, two copies of the Sentry Armor Trim smithing template. The rest is crops, arrows, string, iron ingots and dark oak logs.
How to raid an outpost safely
/execute in minecraft:overworld run tp @s -5444.5 66 -1741.5 29 2Pillagers spawn continuously anywhere inside the outpost's area, by day as well as by night, so the fight never really stops while you are there. They shoot crossbow bolts from range and hit hard in groups.
- Bring a shield. It blocks the bolts, and you can push forward behind it towards the tower door.
- Free the golem first. Break one fence of its cage and the iron golem goes straight for the pillagers, which takes a lot of pressure off you.
- Use the tower as cover. Inside, the stairs and walls break the line of sight. Clear each floor before climbing to the next.
- Don't stay long. New pillagers keep appearing around the base. Grab the chest, take the banners and leave, or come back with better gear.
Captains, Bad Omen and raids
A pillager with an Ominous Banner on its head is a captain. They lead the pillager patrols that roam the Overworld. Killing one drops an Ominous Bottle. Nothing happens until you drink it: you then get Bad Omen, which turns into Raid Omen as soon as you enter a village, and a raid starts 30 seconds later. Keep the bottle until your village is ready for a fight, with walls, light and a few iron golems.
What to do with an outpost
- Collect the banners. The eight Ominous Banners drop as items when you break them, a nice trophy for your base.
- Recruit the allays. Once out of their cage, give an allay an item and it will collect matching items for you and bring them back.
- Keep your golem. A freed iron golem keeps fighting hostile mobs around the place. Lead it home with care, or leave it guarding the area.
- Use the trim. The Sentry template comes in pairs, so you can duplicate it at a smithing table with diamonds and cobblestone before you use it.
✓ Checked in Java Edition 26.3 · updated 1 November 2026
Pillager Outpost — FAQ
Do pillagers respawn at outposts?
Yes. They keep spawning inside the outpost's area, day and night, as long as you are nearby. Clearing it once is never enough.
How do you get Bad Omen?
Kill a pillager captain, the one wearing an Ominous Banner, and drink the Ominous Bottle it drops. The effect becomes Raid Omen when you enter a village.
How do you free the allays or the iron golem?
Break one of the dark oak fences of the cage. The allays then follow a player who gives them an item, and the golem attacks the pillagers.
Can an outpost spawn next to a village?
No. An outpost never generates within 10 chunks of a village, so raids don't come from the tower itself but from the Bad Omen you bring.
How do you find a Pillager Outpost?
Use /locate structure minecraft:pillager_outpost with cheats on, or look in 12 Overworld biomes, for example Cherry Grove, Desert and Frozen Peaks.
Abandoned Camp
Ancient City
Buried Treasure
Desert Pyramid
Igloo
Jungle Pyramid
Mineshaft
Ocean Monument
Ocean Ruins
Ruined Portal
Shipwreck
Stronghold