A wise Minecraft player once said “you can never have enough inventory space.” That Minecraft player was me. For those of us who don’t have an inventory full of shulker boxes, the newest mob coming to the game somewhat solves that issue. After winning a vote held during Minecon 2021, Mojang has finally added the most popular mob to the game. Here’s how the Allay works in Minecraft, and how you can have this friendly mob work for you.
Where Can Allays Be Found?
As an entirely new mob, don’t feel bad if you can’t find an Allay easily. They don’t spawn in Minecraft’s open world the same way mobs like sheep or pigs do. Instead Allays can only be found in two specific structures: pillager outposts and woodland mansions.
Since they spawn much more frequently, in any biome that regular villages can spawn in, pillager outposts are your best bet for finding Allays. Pillager outposts are small towers, marked by pillager banners. You know you’ve found one when the grey enemies start shooting crossbows at you. While outposts have their own loot to find, cages will sometimes spawn right next to them, either with an iron golem or up to three Allays inside.
Woodland mansions on the other hand are incredibly rare. These structures only spawn in dark forest biomes, and are packed with tons of monsters and enemies, including vindicators and evokers, a pair of threatening pillager types. Allays have a chance to spawn inside the sprawling structure’s prison room.
Before you go hunting for Allays in either of these locations, you’ll absolutely need some decent gear. Check out our guides for finding diamond ore here or iron ore here, and collect some of those for weapons and armor before trying to rescue them.
How Do Allays Work?
While Allays have been shown off as extremely helpful mobs, they’re a bit of a hassle to get working for you. You can’t exactly “tame” these mobs, but instead have to give it an item. Once the mob has an item in its hands, it will follow you around and collect other similar items. Handing one an oak plank block, for instance, will make it pick up any other oak planks around the player. To change the block they’re holding, interact with them using an empty hand to take it from them.
However, Allays aren’t moving backpacks that players can leave items with. When an Allay fills up its inventory or picks up every item it can see, it will then try to give those items to you by throwing them all over the place. If you want it to pick up a different item, you just have to right-click on it with an empty hand to take whatever it has and then give it a different item.
The only way to get an Allays to drop items off at a specific location is with note blocks. Playing a note block around one will mark that location for the mob to drop items off at as they hang out nearby. I found that by creating a simple redstone loop that constantly plays a note block every few seconds, the Allay always recognizes that spot as a drop-off location. Putting a chest with hoppers connected to it from every side on top of the block creates an extremely rudimentary system that automatically stores specific items. You can find a picture of that setup above.
For example, with this setup, you can have a farm wash all of the harvest ready wheat get washed down to one area and have the Allay gather it all up, putting it into the chest for you.
