Minecraft Basics
Crafting Recipe
Lead

How to Make a Lead in Minecraft - Easy Guide

Mobs are undoubtedly a useful part of Minecraft, but transporting them can be a hassle. That’s where a lead comes into the picture.

This popular item allows you to leash animals and move them around. You can even fly with them if you have an Elytra in your toolkit. With that said, let’s learn how to make a lead in Minecraft! 

What is a Lead in Minecraft?

Leads are special utility items you can use to create decorations and leash mobs and move them to different locations.

How to Get a Lead in Minecraft

There are a variety of ways to collect lead in Minecraft. Let's explore them all.

Where Does Lead Spawn?

If you are a fan of exploring, you can find lead within the chests of the following structures:

If you are on the Bedrock edition, you can also find lead within buried treasure in Minecraft. They have the best spawn rate for leads, closely followed by the mansions.

Leads From Mobs

If you stumble upon a Wandering Trader in Minecraft, getting a lead is easy.

All traders spawn with two trader llamas, each attached to a lead. You can kill the llamas, kill the trader, or separate them from one another to break the lead and collect them.

Items Required to Make a Lead in Minecraft

Collect the following ingredients to craft a lead:

  • 4 Strings
  • 1 Slimeball
  • Crafting Table

Combine four wooden planks inside your inventory to turn them into a crafting table. This recipe works with all types of wood, including bamboo wood

For making a large amount of leads, it's better to use a crafter in Minecraft.

How to Get Strings

The easiest way to get strings in Minecraft is by killing spiders or cave spiders. Both have a chance of dropping strings upon dying. Easily find spiders by just roaming around the overworld at night.

But, if hunting spiders doesn't go as planned, it's time to trade. You can barter with Piglins for 3-9 strings for a single gold ingot.

Best Way to Collect Slimeballs

Slimeballs are a green and sticky crafting material you can get by killing small slimes. The problem often lies in finding the slimes. These uncommon mobs spawn in the dark areas of only specific chunks of your world.

The only locations where they constantly spawn are the swamps and mangrove swamp biomes. Thanks to the dense vegetation of these biomes, slimes get the perfect light level to spawn even during the day.

Slimes have a higher spawn rate during a full moon but won't spawn during a new moon.

Crafting Recipe for a Lead in Minecraft

Once you have collected all the items, follow these simple steps to make a lead in Minecraft:

1. Place two strings in the first two slots of the topmost row in the crafting grid.

2. Then, put the slimeball in the center of the crafting table and place a string on its left side.

3. Finally, place the last string in the bottom-right corner of the grid. This crafting recipe gives out two leads in Minecraft.

How to Use a Lead in Minecraft

Equip the lead in your hand and use it on the mob you want to control by right-clicking or using the secondary action key. Once attached, the lead will force the mob to move with you.

The lead can stretch a distance of up to 10 blocks. Move further, the lead breaks, and the mob becomes free to move. But you can use a lead on a fence to tie up the mob.

What Mobs Can You Use Leads on in Minecraft

You can use a lead to move a variety of entities and animals in Minecraft. Let's go over the complete list of compatible options.

Passive Mobs:

  • Allay
  • Axolotl
  • Camel
  • Cat
  • Chicken and Chicken Jockey
  • Cow
  • Donkey
  • Frog
  • Fox
  • Squid and Glow Squid
  • Horse
  • Mooshroom
  • Ocelot
  • Mule
  • Parrot
  • Pig
  • Sheep
  • Rabbit
  • Skeleton Horse
  • Sniffer
  • Snow Golem
  • Strider

Neutral Mobs:

Others:

  • Hoglin
  • Boat
  • Zoglin

Why is My Lead Breaking in Minecraft?

Other than distance, your lead can break due to the following reasons:

  • Breaking the knot or the fence attached to the lead
  • Hitting the lead with projectiles like arrows or tridents
  • Attached mob moving at a much higher speed than the player
  • Hoglin converting into Zoglin
  • Going through the Nether portal or End portal (only when the mob enters before the player)
  • Unloading a chunk due to distance or inactivity

Find, Craft, and Use a Lead in Minecraft

Now that you know how to make a lead in Minecraft, you can move almost every mob you desire. They are a great way to decorate your houses on the best Minecraft SMP servers.

But that’s just the surface of all the unique ways to use leads in Minecraft. Join our Discord server and unlock a fun community of builders beaming with ideas. Happy crafting!

Udayveer Singh

Udayveer Singh is a contributor to our news feed here at Servers-Minecraft and is passionate about all things Minecraft!