Overview
An Allay is the closest thing Minecraft has to a free employee. Hand it any item and it flies off to gather every loose stack of that exact item within roughly 32 blocks, then returns and hovers beside you holding the haul until you take it back. Hand it something while a note block sits within 8 blocks of where it started and it delivers to that block instead — the single behaviour that makes hopper-free collection floors possible. It has 20 health, cannot be tamed, cannot be bred, cannot pick up placed blocks, and will never attack or defend itself, so treat it as a tool rather than a pet. Two limits shape every build around it: an Allay carries one stack at a time, and it ignores any dropped stack another Allay has already claimed, so a flock will not squabble over the same pile. Wild ones do not exist. Every Allay in a fresh world is a prisoner, held in the dark oak cages beneath a pillager outpost or in a woodland mansion jail cell, and freeing one means breaking the cage open. After that you copy it rather than hunt for more, which is why a steady amethyst supply matters as much to an Allay project as finding the outpost did. See five useful redstone builds for where the note block trick fits.
Automatic item collection without redstone. One Allay sweeps a named item out of a 32-block radius and drops it on a note block, turning any farm floor or mining site into a self-emptying collection point.
Hand an allay an item and it will fly off collecting every matching item stack lying loose within about 32 blocks, then return the haul to you. Play a note block within 8 blocks and it delivers to that block instead, which is what makes automatic sorting farms possible. Allays ignore stacks already claimed by another allay, cannot pick up blocks, and never attack anything.
Allay is a passive mob in Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4. You will need to deal 20 damage — 10 hearts — to kill one. Killing one gives no XP at all.
Properties
Allay has 20 health, which is 10 hearts. It drops no experience when a player kills it. Its hitbox is 0.35 blocks wide and 0.6 tall, which is what decides whether it fits through a gap or a one-block-high opening.
- Health
- 20 (10 ♥)
- Experience dropped
- 0
- Size
- 0.35 × 0.6
- Dimension
- Overworld
- Added in
- 1.19
Spawns in
Never spawns naturally in the world. Generates inside the dark oak cages beneath pillager outposts and in the jail cells of woodland mansions.
It does not appear in open terrain: every Allay comes from Pillager Outpost and Woodland Mansion.
- Dimension
- Overworld
- Only in
- Pillager Outpost, Woodland Mansion
- Added in
- 1.19
Dimension: Overworld · Added in 1.19
How it behaves
The Allay never attacks. The only reason to be careful around one is that killing it is often not what you want: breeding it is worth more than the drop.
It drops no experience however it dies, so there is nothing to farm here.
Command
In a world with cheats on, this spawns one Allay where you are standing.
Summon
/summon minecraft:allay ~ ~ ~Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
Where do you find an Allay?
Only caged: in the wooden cages under pillager outposts and in the jail cells of woodland mansions. It never spawns in the open world.
How do you duplicate an Allay?
Play a music disc in a jukebox, wait for the Allay to start dancing, then hand it an amethyst shard. It splits into two.
How far will an Allay travel for items?
About 32 blocks from where it was given the item, and it returns to you or to a note block within 8 blocks of that point.
Do Allays drop anything?
Nothing at all, and no experience. There is no reason to kill one.
How much health does the Allay have in Minecraft?
The Allay has 20 health points, which is 10 hearts.
What does the Allay drop?
It drops no items, only 0 experience.
Where does the Allay spawn?
Never spawns naturally in the world. Generates inside the dark oak cages beneath pillager outposts and in the jail cells of woodland mansions.
Related pages
How to get it
Break the dark oak cages under a pillager outpost, which usually hold 1 to 3 of them, or free one from a woodland mansion cell. Then duplicate it by giving an amethyst shard to an Allay dancing beside a playing jukebox.
Tips
- Put a jukebox down, play any music disc, and feed an amethyst shard to the dancing Allay to duplicate it.
- Site the note block one block above a hopper so every delivered stack falls straight into your storage system.
- Give each Allay a different item and the output arrives pre-sorted, because none of them will ever pick up anything else.
- Leave a clear flight corridor back to the note block; an Allay paths around walls and will stall in a maze of them.