Totem of Undying: What It Does and How to Get One

A totem of undying saves you from death once. Hold it in your main hand or off-hand, and when you take damage that would kill you, the totem breaks and you live on with healing and fire resistance. You get a totem of undying from evokers: every evoker drops one. Evokers live in woodland mansions and join raids on Normal and Hard.

Below you’ll find what the totem does, where to find evokers, how many come in a raid and how groups farm totems on a server. Checked against Java 26.3 and Bedrock 26.52 (Bedrock 26.60 is planned for 27 October 2026).

What does a totem of undying do?

When you would die, the totem activates instead. It disappears, plays its animation and does the following:

Regeneration II heals enough in those 45 seconds to fill your health bar again if nothing hurts you. Bedrock gave 40 seconds until version 1.21.80 and now matches Java.

A totem has limits. It works only once and doesn’t stack. It doesn’t save you from the void or from the /kill command. In Java, an arrow of Harming can still kill you: the arrow triggers the totem, and the Harming effect follows straight after. In Hardcore, a totem does prevent the game over, just as it prevents death in other modes. Mobs can use totems too: a mob holding one in its hand or mouth survives a fatal hit. Your first totem save earns the advancement Postmortal.

Where do you get a totem?

Only from evokers. Every evoker drops one totem when it dies, and Looting doesn’t add more. You meet evokers in two places:

• Woodland mansions. A fixed number per mansion that never comes back.
• Raids. From wave 5, on Normal and Hard. You can start a raid again and again, so this is the renewable source.

An evoker fights with magic. It summons fangs from the ground that armor doesn’t protect you against, although enchantments such as Protection do. It also summons three vexes at a time. Kill the evoker quickly: the vexes are the dangerous part.

Raids and the evoker

A raid starts when you walk into a village with Bad Omen. You get Bad Omen by drinking an ominous bottle, which drops from raid captains killed outside a raid and from vaults; see the ominous bottle in Minecraft. In the village, Bad Omen turns into Raid Omen, and when that runs out after 30 seconds, the raid starts.

In Java, Raid Omen II or higher adds one bonus wave with the strength of the final wave, which means more evokers on Normal and Hard. Bedrock has no bonus wave. On Easy you never get a totem from a raid.

Woodland mansions

Woodland mansions are huge dark oak buildings in dark forests and pale gardens, usually far from spawn. To find one, buy a woodland mansion explorer map from a cartographer villager, or look in the secret chest of an abandoned camp: since Java 26.3 and Bedrock 26.50 those can hold one too. With cheats on, /locate structure mansion shows the nearest one.

Evokers spawn on the second and third floor, in rooms such as the dining hall, the large gathering hall and the altar room, together with vindicators. Clear the mansion floor by floor. Take a shield, food and, ideally, your first totem in your off-hand. A mansion’s evokers never respawn.

Keep a totem in your off-hand

The totem only works in your hand. In your hotbar it does nothing unless you have it selected. The off-hand is the best place, so your main hand stays free for a sword or a bow.

• Java: drag the totem to the off-hand slot in your inventory, or select it and press F.
• Bedrock: the off-hand only accepts a few items, but the totem is one of them, next to shields, arrows, firework rockets and maps.

After a save, put a new totem in straight away. It is easy to forget, and the next fatal hit will be your last. Want to keep your items when you do die? Read how to turn on keep inventory.

A raid farm for totems on a server

Groups that need many totems build a raid farm. The idea: a small village spot that raiders walk into while they die in a trap, so you can trigger raid after raid in one place. Some facts from the game help with the design:

• Raiders only spawn on valid spawn blocks. In Java you can block spawn spots with blocks like glass, which steers where waves appear.
• A village is just a claimed bed, job site or bell in Java. A raid farm needs at least one.
• Not in the Nether. Java allows raids in every dimension except the Nether.
• Check the game rule. In Java, raids only happen with the game rule raids on, which is the default. In Peaceful, Bad Omen never turns into Raid Omen.
• Play on Hard for up to five evokers per raid, and keep ominous bottles to start the next one.

A raid farm brings many mobs at once, so keep it away from the main base and make sure someone is nearby while it runs: a server only updates mobs close to a player.