Introduction to Leads
Welcome to the Minecraft Bedrock Lead Guide. In Minecraft Bedrock Edition, the lead is a versatile tool that allows you to control the movement of various mobs. Often referred to as a leash, a lead lets you guide passive and neutral creatures—as well as certain other mobs—throughout your world. You can also tether these mobs to fences or walls to keep them from wandering off. Whether you’re running a farm, moving animals across long distances, or keeping a favorite pet nearby, mastering the use of leads can make your gameplay smoother and more efficient.
How to Obtain Leads in Bedrock Edition
There are three primary ways to get leads: crafting them, finding them as loot, or collecting them from Wandering Traders.
Crafting Leads
The most reliable method to obtain leads is by crafting them at a crafting table. Each crafting session yields two leads, making it an efficient way to stock up once you have the necessary materials.
To craft a lead, you’ll need four strings and one slimeball. String can be obtained by killing spiders, which spawn frequently at night, breaking cobwebs with a sword (commonly found in abandoned mineshafts and strongholds), fishing (especially with a Luck of the Sea enchanted rod), bartering with Piglins in the Nether, or receiving morning gifts from tamed cats.
Slimeballs are dropped by slimes, which appear in two main ways: spawning in swamp biomes during the night—especially during a full moon, when spawn rates are at their highest—or appearing in underground slime chunks below Y-level 40. These slime chunks can be identified using seed analyzers or through testing in Creative mode.
Once you have gathered your materials, open a crafting table and place the items using the following pattern: string in the first two slots of the top row, string and slimeball in the first two slots of the middle row, and a single string in the first slot of the bottom row, leaving the remaining three slots empty. This will produce two leads.
While this is the standard layout, Bedrock Edition often allows slight flexibility in the recipe. Alternative arrangements—such as placing three strings vertically or horizontally with the slimeball adjacent, or positioning a string in the bottom-right corner opposite a top-left string cluster—may also successfully produce leads. The crafting interface often autofills the recipe when items are close enough, especially on touchscreen and controller-based devices.
For efficiency, consider setting up spider and slime farms near your base to automate the collection of string and slimeballs. Use hoppers and observer-based kill chambers to streamline the process. Tamed cats can also passively generate string over time, and loot chests in bastions or jungle temples may contain additional string. To increase slimeball drops, it’s helpful to use weapons enchanted with Looting.
Looking ahead, future updates or modded additions may introduce colorable leads using dyes, alternate materials like vines or copper for themed rope variants, or even enhanced utility items such as reinforced or glowing leads that offer durability or aesthetic effects during nighttime.
With just a few farmable ingredients and some experimentation, mastering lead crafting can become second nature and open up countless possibilities for mob management, aesthetic designs, and functional builds across your Minecraft world.
Finding Leads as Loot
In addition to crafting, leads can occasionally be found as loot in various generated structures across the world. These structures often contain chests or other containers where leads may spawn. Woodland Mansions are one such location where you can find leads in chests. These rare structures are scattered throughout the forest biomes, and while exploring them, be sure to check each chest, as some may contain a lead among other valuable items.
Ancient Cities, which are found deep beneath the surface in the deep dark biome, are another place where leads can be found. The chests within these cities can occasionally hold leads, along with enchanted books, resources, and other treasures. These cities are particularly difficult to explore due to the dangerous Warden lurking nearby, so it’s best to be prepared for a challenge when searching for leads here.
Buried Treasure is another source where leads can be obtained. As you dig up treasure maps and follow their coordinates to find chests buried beneath the sand or gravel, keep an eye out for one to three leads within the loot. While the treasure typically contains other valuable items like gold, diamonds, and emeralds, leads are a nice bonus when you happen upon them.
Trail Ruins, a more recent addition to Minecraft, also provide a chance to find leads. When you brush suspicious gravel blocks in Trail Ruins, there is a small chance that you’ll uncover a lead among the hidden loot. These ruins, often found in the overworld, are an excellent source of various resources, and finding a lead here can be a pleasant surprise while exploring.
While these methods of finding leads as loot aren’t guaranteed, they add an exciting element of discovery to your adventures. Exploring these structures and locations not only provides valuable materials but also a chance to collect leads without having to craft them yourself. Keep an eye out for chests and suspicious blocks in these areas, and you might just stumble upon some extra leads along the way.
Obtaining Leads from Wandering Traders
Wandering Traders are a unique type of NPC that spawn randomly throughout the Overworld. They come accompanied by two llamas, both of which are always leashed to the trader. While these traders offer a variety of useful and exotic items for trade, they also provide an opportunity to obtain leads.
One way to acquire these leads is by killing either the trader or the llamas. If you choose this route, the leads will drop as items, allowing you to collect them for your own use. However, there is a less violent method that can help you obtain the leads without causing harm to the traders or their llamas. If you prefer a more peaceful approach, you can separate the llamas from the trader. This can be done by moving the llamas far enough away from the trader, such as by placing them in boats or minecarts. When the llamas are sufficiently far from the trader, the leads will drop naturally, allowing you to collect them without conflict.
This method offers a way to gather leads while avoiding any unnecessary violence, making it an ideal choice for players who prefer to keep the peace with NPCs. Simply place the llamas in a boat or minecart, and they will drop their leads when separated from the trader. This provides a convenient way to obtain leads without needing to engage in combat, and it allows the trader and llamas to remain unharmed, preserving the integrity of your world.
How to Use Leads in Bedrock Edition
Leashing Mobs
To use a lead, hold it in your hand and interact with a mob. The mob will become tethered and follow you around. Leads work with a wide variety of mobs, including axolotls, allays, bees, boats, cats, chickens, cows, dolphins, donkeys, foxes, frogs, goats, hoglins, horses (all variants), iron golems, llamas, mooshrooms, mules, ocelots, pandas, parrots, pigs, polar bears, rabbits, sheep, sniffers, snow golems, squid, striders, trader llamas, turtles, wolves, and zoglins. Some other mobs—like villagers, tadpoles, fish, and monsters—can only be leashed using external tools or editors.
Camels can be leashed like many other mobs, making it easier to guide them across land. This becomes particularly useful when paired with a boat—such as pulling a villager across water by leading the camel (or another mob) that’s towing the boat behind it.
There is an unusual mechanic involving the Happy Ghast, where leashing a large mob or a boat to it causes the visual effect of the entity floating—similar to a hot air balloon. Players may be able to airlift mobs or even create a chain of boats suspended from a flying Happy Ghast for dramatic sky-bound displays.
Hoglins stand out as the only hostile mob that can be leashed with a standard lead, making them a unique case in mob management.
Attaching Leads to Fences and Walls
To tether a leashed mob, simply interact with a fence post or wall while holding the lead. This creates a leash knot, anchoring the mob in place within about five blocks. You can attach multiple leads to a single post or wall.
Leading Multiple Mobs
You can lead several mobs at once, but each requires its own lead. Leash each mob individually, then walk forward to guide the entire group.
Maximum Lead Distance and Breaking Leads
Leads have a maximum effective length of around ten blocks. If the mob moves too far away from you or a fence, the lead will snap and drop as an item. Leads also break if a mob enters a Nether portal without the player, or if the chunk where the mob is located unloads. Be mindful of this when navigating between dimensions or traveling long distances.
Removing Leads
To remove a lead, interact with the mob again. You can also break the leash knot by destroying the fence or wall, or hitting the knot directly. Using shears on a leashed mob or knot will also work. When a lead is broken or removed, it drops as an item—unless you’re in Creative mode, where it simply vanishes from the mob.
Additional Uses of Leads in Bedrock Edition
Removing Mobs from Boats
You can use a lead to remove a mob from a boat without damaging the boat. Just attach the lead to the mob and guide it out.
Crafting Balloons
In both Minecraft Bedrock and Education Edition, leads are a core ingredient in crafting balloons. Alongside a lead, you’ll need latex, dye, and helium. Balloons are decorative and can even be attached to mobs, making them float.
Mob Despawning
Leads do not prevent normal mob despawning. A mob tethered to a post can still vanish if left outside loaded chunks. To avoid this, name the mob with a name tag or confine it within a small, enclosed area.
Tips and Tricks for Bedrock Edition
When using leads in Minecraft Bedrock Edition, there are several practical tricks and important mechanics to keep in mind, especially if you plan on managing mobs over long distances or for extended periods of time.
Chunk loading plays a major role in whether leads stay connected. If a leashed mob’s chunk becomes unloaded—for example, when you move too far away or change dimensions—the lead may break and drop. This can be particularly frustrating if you’re transporting rare or distant mobs. To avoid this, consider using chunk loaders or building pathways that stay within loaded areas, especially when setting up farms or transporting animals.
When moving mobs between dimensions using Nether or End portals, the lead behaves differently depending on who enters first. If you guide a mob through a portal while holding the lead yourself, the connection is maintained when you enter afterward. However, if the mob goes through the portal on its own while leashed, the lead will snap and drop at the portal’s entrance. This mechanic is useful to remember when relocating mobs between dimensions, such as moving Striders or Frogs through the Nether.
Leads can also help mitigate fall damage in certain situations. If you slowly guide a mob down a slope or control its descent using leads and fences, you can reduce or even prevent fall damage. This is especially useful for transporting mobs down cliffs or underground safely.
However, don’t rely on leads to protect mobs from despawning. Leads will not prevent passive or neutral mobs from despawning if the player moves far away and the area becomes unloaded. To keep mobs safe and persistent, name them with a name tag or keep them within a confined area that stays inside loaded chunks. This is particularly important for rare mobs or mobs that spawn under unique conditions, like brown Mooshrooms or frogs of specific variants.
In Creative Mode, leads won’t clutter your inventory since they don’t drop when removed from mobs or leash knots. This makes Creative a great way to quickly test mob movement and placement ideas without having to worry about managing your items.
If you’re leading multiple mobs, remember that each mob requires its own lead. However, you can attach several leads to the same fence post or wall, making it easy to park multiple animals in one place. Just be aware that the 10-block range still applies—if a mob pulls too far away, the lead will break.
In tight spaces or dense forests, leads may occasionally glitch or get caught on terrain, which can cause them to snap unexpectedly. Creating clear paths, using boats for water travel, or even leashing mobs into minecarts can help navigate difficult terrain more easily.
Finally, remember that leads aren’t just for utility—they can be used in fun and creative builds too. From decorative rope bridges and suspended structures to tetherball mini-games and floating contraptions using mobs, leads offer both function and flair for your Bedrock Edition world.
Achievements and Advancements
There are a few in-game goals tied to lead usage. The “So I Got That Going for Me” achievement is unlocked by leading a caravan with five llamas. Another goal, “When the Squad Hops into Town,” involves leading each frog variant, though not necessarily at the same time.
Sounds of Leash Knots
Leash knots produce specific sound effects when placed or broken. These sounds are categorized under the “Friendly Creatures” audio channel and appear with corresponding subtitles.
Data Values
In Bedrock Edition, the item ID for leads is minecraft:lead, with a numeric ID of 547. The entity created when a lead is tied to a fence is identified as leash_knot.
Conclusion
Leads are a simple yet powerful tool in Minecraft that make it easy to move, control, and contain various mobs. Whether you’re transporting animals, organizing farms, or creating fun contraptions, leads give you a lot of flexibility.
You can craft leads using four strings and one slimeball, or find them as loot in places like Woodland Mansions, Ancient Cities, Trail Ruins, and Buried Treasure. Wandering Traders also carry leads tied to their llamas, which you can collect in peaceful or not-so-peaceful ways.
Leads work by right-clicking on a mob to leash it, allowing you to guide it around or tie it to fences and walls. They can stretch up to 10 blocks, break if mobs go too far or through portals, and don’t stop mobs from despawning unless you use other methods like name tags.
Leads also support creative uses, like pulling boats with camels or building floating gondolas with mobs like chickens or happy ghasts. With new updates, even more creative options are possible, including leashing boats and linking multiple mobs together.
In short, leads are not just useful—they open the door to both practical gameplay and imaginative builds.
If you’re looking for more guides, be sure to explore the website for more tips and tricks. Enjoy your adventure, and happy mining!
