
Armed Pillagers
Pillagers trade their crossbows for guns from Vanilla Animated Guns, bringing chaotic (and wildly inaccurate) firefights to your Minecraft world. 🔫
Screenshots

About this Mod
Armed Pillagers
Ever thought Minecraft’s Pillagers felt a bit… under-equipped?
Armed Pillagers changes that by giving them firearms from the Vanilla Animated Guns mod. Instead of the usual crossbows, Pillagers can now spawn carrying proper guns, making encounters feel a bit more chaotic — and a lot more interesting.
By default they wield the Sidehammer, though this can be changed in the configuration if you’d prefer something a little more dangerous (or a little more ridiculous). Despite the upgrade in firepower, they aren’t exactly expert marksmen. In fact, their aim is intentionally terrible — think classic “storm trooper” accuracy. They’ll fire at you, but there’s a fair chance they’ll miss entirely, which keeps fights unpredictable without turning every encounter into instant death.
The mod also introduces a configurable firing cooldown. Out of the box, Pillagers wait roughly three seconds between shots, but you’re free to tweak this to make them slower, faster, or downright terrifying.
All behaviour is configurable through the mod’s config file, including which gun they spawn with, how often they fire, and other balancing settings. The goal is simply to make Pillager encounters feel fresh without straying too far from vanilla gameplay.
Dependencies
This mod requires the following:
- Vanilla Animated Guns
Without it, the firearms used by Pillagers will not exist.
Configuration
Most aspects of the mod can be adjusted through the configuration file, including:
- Which gun Pillagers spawn with
- Their firing cooldown
- Accuracy and hit chance
This allows you to tailor encounters to fit your modpack or preferred level of chaos.
Compatibility
Armed Pillagers is designed to be lightweight and should work alongside most mods that don’t heavily overhaul Pillager AI.
If you run into issues or have suggestions, feel free to report them on the project page.
Available Versions
How to Install Armed Pillagers on Your Server
Order Server
Order a Minecraft Java server with at least 3 GB RAM (4 GB recommended).
Set forge Loader
In the panel under "Egg", select the forge loader and matching Minecraft version (1.20.6).
Install Mod
Open the mod browser in the dashboard and search for "Armed Pillagers". Click "Install" – done! Alternatively, upload the .jar via SFTP to the /mods folder.
Compatibility
Mod Loaders
Minecraft Versions
1.20.6, 1.20.5, 1.20.4 (+3 more)
Server-side
✓ RequiredRecommended RAM
4 GB(min. 3 GB)Frequently Asked Questions
Armed Pillagers server crashes on startup – what to do?
Most common cause: wrong forge version or insufficient RAM. Check the server log (latest.log) for "OutOfMemoryError" or "Mixin" errors. With Mado Hosting: ensure at least 3 GB RAM is allocated and the loader matches the mod version (1.20.6). You can switch loaders with one click in the panel.
Is Armed Pillagers compatible with forge and neoforge?
Armed Pillagers officially supports forge, neoforge for Minecraft 1.20.6, 1.20.5, 1.20.4. The Mado dashboard automatically detects incompatible loader combinations.
Server lagging with Armed Pillagers – how to optimize performance?
Recommended RAM: 4 GB (per 8 players). Use /spark profiler to check if Armed Pillagers consumes the most tick time. Common fixes: reduce server view-distance to 8-10, install "performant" or "starlight" as supplementary mods on Forge. With Mado Hosting, your server runs on NVMe SSDs with dedicated CPU cores for minimal latency.
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