Vanguard

Vanguards belong in the Combat Unknown tier. They are extremely unique and proficient mobs.

Spawning

• Spawned when a linked Infected Pillager Raid Captain variant gets an evolution point by killing a mob and its evolution timer begins. If the evolution succeeds, they will become a Vanguard.

Unique Behavior

• Vanguards will always spawn with a crossbow enchanted with Quick Charge III, which they'll use to rapidly fire arrows at targets within 8 blocks that the Vanguard has a direct line of sight to. The arrows inflict Mycelium Infection II for 20 seconds.

  • Additionally, there is a 20% chance for them to load a firework into their crossbow instead. Fireworks result in a large explosion and high damage.

  • Vanguards always attempt to run towards their current target to deal melee damage while continuing to shoot their crossbow.

• When first spawning, Vanguards will search in a 128 chunk range for a village structure. If finding one, it will set it in its memory and begin to travel to the nearest one. Additionally, they will search in a 256 block range for Villagers. If finding one, it will begin to travel to the nearest one. Vanguards will only check for village structures and Villagers once.

  • If the target location or mob is over 200 blocks away, instead of traveling to the location, the Vanguard will teleport in a random place within 100 blocks of the target.

  • Loads the chunk it is in when traveling to a target. Will check every 30 seconds if the Vanguard is still in the chunk. If it is, the timer restarts. If it isn't, the chunk is unloaded.

    • When reaching the desired location, the Vanguard will play a loud, distorted raid horn sound.

• If the Vanguard spawns underground, it will instantly teleport to the surface. This is so it's capable of reaching villages.

• If its target is a sapient mob (players, Villagers, Illagers, etc.) or has 100+ HP, the Vanguard will call allies to help it. This ability has a cooldown of 5 minutes. A distorted raid horn sound will play when a Vanguard performs this ability. The horde it summons consists of 8 mobs picked from a list, the mobs being randomly spawned in an 8 block range. List of mobs the Vanguard can summon:

  • Infected Pillager (Spawn weight of 60)

  • Infected Witch (Spawn weight of 30)

  • Volatile (Spawn weight of 20)

  • Mephitic (Spawn weight of 20)

  • Stalker (Spawn weight of 20)

  • Brute (Spawn weight of 20)

  • Infected Vindicator (Spawn weight of 40)

  • Infected Evoker (Spawn weight of 50)

    • The mobs spawned will share the same target as the Vanguard and have Speed for 10 seconds.

• Every 2 seconds, when not having a target, Vanguards will check in a 10x6x10 block area for a Bed or Furnace that have at least 1 flammable block in an 3x2x3 block range around the Bed/Furnace. If finding one, the Vanguard will maneuver towards the Bed/Furnace. Once in range, it'll break the Bed/Furnace and set fire randomly to flammable blocks in the 3x2x3 range around the Bed/Furnace. This is accompanied by a loud screeching noise, meant to notify a player that a Vanguard is setting fire to stuff. Once the Vanguard has set fire to the blocks, it will quickly sprint away to avoid catching on fire.

• Vanguards take 50% less fire damage.

• Is immune to firework damage.

• Its melee hits ignore immunity frames, though it doesn't hit you any faster than its delay on slashing. It's so it can hit targets that have just been hit by its arrows or Mycelium Infection.

• 25% of the Vanguard's damage pierces through armor, meaning it ignores it.

• The Regeneration granted by kill points for Vanguards lasts 20 seconds instead of 10 seconds.

• Vanguards have 1.0 knockback resistance, meaning they can't be knocked back by attacks.

• The Vanguard has very high knockback, having 10x the knockback of a basic infected, with a value of 3 for knockback.

• Vanguards have a step up height of 1, meaning they don't have to jump to go up one block.

• Can fall from up to 18 blocks before taking fall damage.

• Is completely ignored by the despawning system.

Behavior

• Vanguards are melee combatants and ranged combatants, attacking mobs with Infected forms, golems, and most hostile mobs.

• Vanguards inflict Mycelium Infection for 30 seconds when dealing melee damage.

• Has a follow range of 48 blocks.

• Can perform low leaps/dashes to chase prey quickly through water.

• Able to use kill points to give themselves buffs, such as strength or speed if the target is running away. They can also give themselves regeneration if they are low on health.

• Capable of breaking blocks with a hardness of 3 or below.

• Present a weakness to the cold, like all spore mobs.

Related Advancements

• Meet the Team

• Pillage and Spillage

Drops

• Armor Fragment

• Claw Fragment

• Innards

• Mutated Fibre

• Mutated Heart

• Tendons

• Tumor

• Arrow

• Block of Emerald

Lore

• The Vanguard has the abilities it does because of its Ominous Banner and previous status as an Illager Raid Captain. It retained some of its memories and behaviors.