How to Get a Totem of Undying in Minecraft: Evokers, Raids and Woodland Mansions

The Totem of Undying is Minecraft's get-out-of-death-free card: hold one when you take a fatal hit and you survive instead. You can't craft it – the only way to get one is to kill an Evoker, the robed illager that summons fangs and Vexes. Evokers only show up in two places: village raids and Woodland Mansions.

This works the same in Java and Bedrock Edition and is correct for the current versions (Java 26.3 and Bedrock 26.30).

Quick answer

Every Evoker drops exactly one Totem of Undying, every time.

Requirements

• Decent gear: at least iron armor (diamond is better), a good sword or axe and a shield.
• Food and healing: golden apples or Healing potions help a lot.
• For raids: an Ominous Bottle (or a Pillager captain to kill) and a village you don't mind defending.
• For mansions: a Woodland Explorer Map from a Cartographer villager, or a lot of patience exploring dark forests.

Method 1: Start a raid (the fastest and renewable way)

Raids are the reliable way to farm totems, because you can start one whenever you have Bad Omen.

1. Get an Ominous Bottle. Since the Tricky Trials update, killing a Pillager captain – the one wearing the illager banner on its head – drops an Ominous Bottle instead of giving you Bad Omen straight away. Ominous Bottles also turn up in Trial Chambers.
2. Drink the bottle to get the Bad Omen effect. You can carry bottles and drink them when you're ready, which is the big advantage of the new system.
3. Walk into a village with at least one bed and villager. Bad Omen turns into Raid Omen, and after a short delay the raid begins. A raid bar appears at the top of the screen.
4. Defend the village wave by wave. Pillagers, Vindicators, Witches and Ravagers arrive from one direction each wave. Kill everything to clear the wave.
5. Wait for the Evokers. They join in the later waves – from around wave 5 on Normal, and in several waves on Hard, where raids are longer. Each one you kill drops a totem.
6. Win the raid. Clearing the last wave gives you the Hero of the Village effect, which makes villagers trade with you at lower prices.

How to fight an Evoker

• Close the distance fast. Evokers keep away from you and cast spells instead of attacking in melee.
• Watch for fangs. Rows or circles of evoker fangs pop out of the ground. Sidestep them or keep moving.
• Kill the Vexes or ignore them. The Evoker summons small flying Vexes that phase through walls. They die on their own after a while, but they hurt in groups – a shield helps.
• Kill the Evoker first when it appears with other illagers. Every second it lives means more Vexes.

Method 2: Raid a Woodland Mansion

Woodland Mansions are huge illager houses in dark forests. Several Evokers live inside, so one mansion can give you multiple totems – but they're a one-time source, because those Evokers never respawn.

1. Find a mansion. The easiest way is to buy a Woodland Explorer Map from a higher-level Cartographer villager. Mansions are rare and are often thousands of blocks away, so bring a horse or boat and plenty of food.
2. Light up the entrance and clear room by room. Vindicators hit very hard in melee, so fight them with a shield up.
3. Hunt down the Evokers. They're spread across the mansion's rooms. Listen for the casting sound and look for flying Vexes.
4. Check every floor. Mansions have three floors and many hidden rooms. Note which rooms you've cleared so you don't miss one.

How to use a Totem of Undying

A totem only works when you're holding it in your main hand or offhand. Sitting in your inventory – or in the hotbar but not selected – it does nothing.

When you would die, the totem is used up and instead:

• you're left at 1 health (half a heart),
• all your current status effects are removed,
• you get Regeneration II for 45 seconds, Absorption II for 5 seconds and Fire Resistance for 40 seconds.

The offhand is the best spot, because you can still fight and mine with your main hand. On Java, press F to swap an item into your offhand; on Bedrock, put it in the offhand slot in your inventory.

Tips and common mistakes

• Leaving it in your inventory. This is the classic mistake. If the totem isn't in a hand, it won't save you.
• Killing villagers or letting them all die. If no villagers are left, the raid is lost. Build a few walls and light up the village before you drink the bottle.
• Drinking the bottle too early. Raid Omen only triggers once you enter a village, but don't wander into one by accident while it's active.
• Fighting on Easy for totems. Easy raids are the shortest, so aim for Normal or Hard when you want Evokers.
• Not swapping in a new totem. Once a totem pops, your offhand is empty. Put the next one in straight away – the 1 health it leaves you on goes fast.
• Staying in the fight. The totem buys you a few seconds, not a full recovery. Back off, eat and heal before you re-engage.
• Wasting mansion Evokers. Since they never come back, use mansions for your first few totems and switch to raids for farming.