How to Make a Lead in Minecraft (Recipe and Crafting Guide)

Lead can be crafted in Minecraft using 5 strings, and this recipe yields 2 Leads. The strings can be placed on a Crafting Table grid to complete the recipe, and you no longer need a Slimeball for the crafting recipe. Since Lead, a.k.a. Leash, is used for moving animals or keeping them in one place, you’ll need a bunch of these when you want to build a mob farm or transport them through biomes. So, check this guide to learn how to make a lead in Minecraft and all of its uses.

Minecraft Lead Crafting Recipe

The Lead crafting recipe in Minecraft is extremely simple. You only need 5 strings and 1 Crafting Table to produce 2 Leads.

Required Crafting Materials

Thankfully, with the Minecraft Chase the Skies update, you only need 5 strings to make a lead in Minecraft. So, here’s what you need:

String is a drop from the spider mobs. These arachnids can drop 0-2 strings after they are defeated. You also need a Crafting Table in Minecraft, a block used to perform complex crafting actions.

Step-by-Step Crafting Grid Layout

After you have obtained the required items, follow the steps below to learn how to make a lead in Minecraft:

• Place the crafting table or crafter in your world.
• Right-click the block to open its crafting grid UI.
• Place two strings in the first two slots of the top and middle rows.
• Place the fifth string in the bottom right corner of the grid in the last row.

And voila! You will see the lead item in the result slot on the right. Click on the lead and drag it to your inventory.

You can automate this process using the Crafter Block in Minecraft. It’s similar to a Crafting Table but supports only automated crafting using a redstone signal. You can use a button, lever, redstone block, and redstone clock.

How to Get Lead Without Crafting in Minecraft

Learning how to craft a lead in Minecraft isn’t the only way. A lot of players choose alternative methods more often to get this item:

Wandering Traders

Unexpectedly, the most common way to get lead is by buying it from the wandering trader. This special merchant spawns with two llamas near your location now and then. But you might wonder how to get leads from the wandering trader without paying it your precious emeralds?

One convenient method is by killing the llamas or the trader. Another calmer way to “steal” leads is to put the llamas in a boat or a minecart and take them away from the trader. This will instantly break the leads, dropping them as items.

Chest Loot Locations and Archaeology

Apart from crafting, you can obtain a lead in several other ways. The first is by looting chests in the following locations:

• Ancient City in Minecraft (16.1%)
• Woodland Mansion (28.3% in Java, 27.9% in Bedrock)
• Buried Treasure in Bedrock Edition Only (34.3%)

Furthermore, there is a 2.2% chance that you will unearth a lead item while brushing suspicious gravel blocks in the Minecraft Trail Ruins.

How to Use a Lead in Minecraft

Now that you know how to make a lead in Minecraft, you can use it to pull the mobs to your base. So, we have discussed all the uses of a lead in great detail below:

Leashing Mobs and Tying to Fences

An amazing fact about the lead is that you can leash multiple mobs at once. You can even create a caravan of mobs, one after another, using a single lead. This will enable you to transport many mobs across a short distance easily.

To take the lead off a mob, you can either right-click the mob or use a pair of shears in Minecraft. Note that the lead breaking distance in Minecraft is 12 blocks, while for Happy Ghasts, it’s 16 blocks. So, if you get far away from the leashed mob (more than 12 blocks), the lead will break and drop near that mob.

When you reach your destination, you can attach a lead to any fence in Minecraft to keep the mob(s) in a particular area. To do this, you can right-click the fence block. Moreover, you can also tie the lead to a wall in the Bedrock edition, which is impossible on the Java version.

Transporting Mobs on Boats and Water

Using the leads, you can move the Minecraft mobs across the terrain, up and down the ravines, and even climb up mountains. This is not possible using a boat, and you constantly need to create level ground for the boat to pass through.

You can also tie mobs with a leash and lead them on water, but that may sometimes cause them to drown. Instead, place the mobs on a boat, and tie the boat with a lead to drag it through the oceans without worrying about the mobs drowning or escaping.

If you’re moving a Villager, the boat or minecart in Minecraft remains the most practical method. This is because you cannot directly attach a lead to a villager in vanilla Minecraft.

Advanced Lead Uses

You may use a lead to direct Minecraft mobs horizontally and vertically. If the mob is seven or more blocks away from the player holding the lead, it will be suspended in the air.

Finally, if you’re thinking of taking them to the sky, simply attach one end of the lead to a Happy Ghast and the other to any mob or a boat to transport them over larger distances.

Pro Tips and Warnings

Although the process to make a lead in Minecraft is easy and it is excellent at dragging animal mobs, there are a few hidden mechanics that can easily confuse players. One of the most important things to remember is that leads can break if the connecting line gets disrupted.

When the lead is hit by projectiles like arrows or if any block obstructs the connecting line, it can get snapped. This usually occurs when players move too quickly, cross fences, or suddenly change the elevation of the ground. Snapping a lead will drop the item, and as a result, the mob will become free to move.

Complete List of Leashable Mobs in Minecraft

The only use of a lead is to leash mobs in Minecraft. You can do this by having the lead selected on your hotbar and then right-clicking a mob. Not every mob can be leashed, though. So, we have prepared a whole list of the mobs you can leash right here:

Why Does My Lead Keep Breaking? Troubleshooting Explained

If you’re constantly snapping your lead in Minecraft, note that this issue is due to the mechanics rather than any Minecraft bug. If the mobs move too far away from you, who is holding the lead in one hand, it can break. This can also happen if the lead gets hit by projectiles or if it gets obstructed due to blocks in between. Switching dimensions can also break the lead and drop it as an item.

To sum it up, leads are useful items that make time-consuming and frustrating tasks much more manageable. Their crafting recipe is not overly expensive either, but you may just take them from the wandering trader for free. So, what do you think of leads? How often do you use them in your world? Tell us in the comment section below.