author: Miriam Moszczynska
Allay is the New Minecraft Mob; Players See Its Potential
Minecraft received another snapshot - 23w13a. It introduced to the game a new location and a mob, which was liked by the players.
Along with the latest snapshot for Minecraft Java version comes a new creature that has the players intrigued. They have found many uses for it and see just as many opportunities to tweak its behavior (to their advantage, of course). Nevertheless, it seems that the new blue friend was received positively.
What's an Allay anyway?
As I mentioned earlier, it is a blue creature, passive towards the player. It can be found near the bandit outposts, where Allay can be found kept in a cage. What's more, Allay has a reflective texture so you can spot him at night.
In terms of how Allay affects gameplay, well... it's meant to be the player's helper, though it definitely prefers the company of a sound block to the presence of Steve. As we read in the description of snapshot 23W13A on the official website of Minecraft:
"If the Allay hears a noteblock play, that noteblock becomes the Allay’s favorite noteblock for 30 seconds. The Allay will stay near that noteblock for that duration and bring its collected items to the noteblock instead of to the player."
As for the other "functions" of the creature, they are as follows:
- Allay will collect all nearby items matching the one it is holding;
- Allay will like the player who hands it the item, and will bring the collected items back to the player.
- Interacting with Allay when the player doesn't have an item in hand will cause the creature to drop whatever he is holding.
- Allay can be found in Wasteland Posts and Forest Mansions.
It is also worth noting that the player whom Allay has liked cannot kill the creature. It can only die at the hands of another person or if it is attacked by monsters.
A new All(a)y for players
Along with the appearance of the new creature, there were also opinions about it. Players draw attention to the solutions used in the design of Allay, suggesting some changes. Overall, however, it seems that the community liked the new mob.
"Some instant feedback; Allays are definitely better in Bedrock rn. Bedrock has an animation for when theyre flying (they lean forward) and their movement in general is faster and more fluid. In java theyre super slow and clunky. Theyre also worse at following the player than they are in Bedrock; definitely hoping the Java Allay becomes much more like its Bedrock version soon.
I will say though that I really like its sounds! Theyre cute and whimsical," wrote DanglingChandeliers
"I think it'd be nice if you could tie an allay to a specific pitch or instrument played on a noteblock. That way you could have multiple allays in one area dropping off things at different noteblocks. Not sure how exactly this would be implemented, though," wrote tezzaract
There were, of course, more suggestions - one of the users created quite a list of improvements that he would like to see in the future for Allay. Time will tell if the developers will take to heart the input.
The new snapshot isn't just about you know what
In addition to the new mob in Minecraft there are also a few other changes.
- The Underground City, which can be found in the Deep Dark biome, has been introduced.
- The recipes for chest/furnace/TNT/oil wagons have been changed.
- After breaking the wagon it lands on the ground as one item instead of splitting into two separate pieces.
- Wool and wool rugs block sounds coming from noteblocks.
- The names of certain events in the game have been changed, and some have been introduced for the sake of grammatical correctness.
These are just a few of the many improvements that the new snapshot introduced. If you want to see the full list of improvements, known bugs or download the update, you can do it here.