Bad Omen is a player status effect (or debuff) in Minecraft which was added in version 1.14, alongside the Village & Pillage Update. It can be obtained from Pillagers, and when owned, will cause raids to start at any Village you visit.
There are many reasons you might want to obtain Bad Omen. The main reason being that completing a raid successfully will give you access to cheaper trades, as well as gifts from Villagers.
Below, you can read our guide for getting Bad Omen in both Survival and Creative Mode. Here at PwrDown, we’ve got many more Minecraft Guides available just like this one.
How to Get Bad Omen
To get Bad Omen, you will need to head to a Pillager Outpost. There, you will find a Raid Captain who can be found easily as they carry a banner. After killing a Raid Captain in Minecraft, your character will have the Bad Omen effect.
Outposts are new structures which where added in Minecraft 1.14, the Village & Pillage Update. Unfortunately, they are quite difficult to find as they spawn around every thousand blocks or so.
There is no easy way to find them. However, they’re quite tall, so when you are exploring, keep a look out for the structures which should be visible on the horizon. Outposts hold many Pillagers, an enemy mob who you’ll need to fight. There’s also some loot to be had, as a chest will often spawn in the top-most room.
The enemy that you need to kill is the Raid Captain. Raid Captains look unique, as they will carry a banner above their head, like on the screenshot above. Although they will look different, as I’m using a Resource Pack. Once you kill a Raid Captain, you will have the Bad Omen effect.
You can check your inventory to see if the effect is active. If it is, you won’t be able to enter any Village without a raid starting.
How to Remove Bad Omen
Luckily, Bad Omen is simple to remove from your character in Minecraft. All you have to do is drink a Bucket of Milk, which will remove any status effects or debuffs, including Bad Omen.
Buckets can be obtained by placing 3 Iron Ingots inside of a Crafting Table (in a triangular shape). By using a Bucket on a Cow, the Bucket will be turned into a Bucket of Milk which you can then drink.
Obtain Bad Omen with Cheats
If you want to obtain Bad Omen with cheats, you can the command below. You may need to enable cheats first in your Minecraft world.
- Java Edition: /effect give @p bad_omen 99999
- Other: /effect @p bad_omen 99999
