How long do raids last and how to stop them?

Who this is for: Minecraft players dealing with unwanted village raids and seeking quick solutions.


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Raid Duration in Minecraft

Minecraft raids don’t have a fixed time limit – they’ll continue indefinitely until you either defeat all the raiders or take specific action to stop them. Unlike other game events that automatically expire, raids persist until resolved through player intervention.

Natural Ways Raids End

A raid concludes naturally when you eliminate every single raider in all waves. Easy difficulty spawns 3 waves, Normal brings 5 waves, and Hard difficulty challenges you with 7 waves. Each wave must be completely cleared before the next one arrives.

Raids also end if all villagers in the area die, since there’s nothing left to raid. However, this isn’t ideal if you want to keep your village intact.

How to Stop a Raid Early

You have several options to halt an ongoing raid without fighting every mob:

  • Wait it out: Move at least 128 blocks away from the raid center and stay there. After about 2-3 minutes of being outside this range, the raid will expire and end automatically.
  • Switch to Peaceful mode: This immediately despawns all hostile mobs, including raiders, effectively ending the raid instantly.
  • Drink milk: If you have the Bad Omen effect (which triggers raids), drinking milk removes it and prevents new raids from starting, though it won’t stop a raid already in progress.
  • Die and don’t return: If you die during a raid and respawn far away, staying away from the village will cause the raid to eventually time out.

Preventing Raids

The most effective prevention is avoiding the Bad Omen effect entirely. This effect appears when you kill a pillager captain (the one with the banner). If you accidentally get Bad Omen, drink milk immediately before entering any village with beds and workstations.

You can also build villages without beds or remove all beds temporarily if you need to enter with Bad Omen active, since raids only trigger in areas the game recognizes as valid villages.

Understanding these mechanics helps you maintain peaceful villages while still enjoying all the adventure Minecraft has to offer.

TL;DR

Minecraft raids last indefinitely until all raiders are defeated or you move 128+ blocks away for 2-3 minutes. Switch to Peaceful mode or drink milk to stop them instantly.

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Joyst1ck

Gaming Writer & HTML5 Developer

Answering gaming questions—from Roblox and Minecraft to the latest indie hits. I write developer‑focused HTML5 articles and share practical tips on game design, monetisation, and scripting.

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