How To Use A Lead in Minecraft

In Minecraft, an item essential to have early in the game but somehow tough to craft or obtain— is a lead. In real life, leads are like leashes. It is a specific item but can be helpful in many different ways. Unfortunately, they are difficult to craft because of their difficult-to-find core crafting ingredients. As they are one of the most essential items in the game, it is purposefully challenging to craft them, especially for players who are not knowledgeable about leads. But once you acquire a lead, some things in Minecraft will become easier for you, especially regarding leashing certain mobs in the game. There are several ways to use a lead in Minecraft, and we will show you all of them.

How To Craft A Lead in Minecraft

Crafting a lead requires basic materials you can acquire early into the game. But one item, in particular, can be challenging to obtain, and this guide will teach you where to obtain them and how to craft a lead in Minecraft. Firstly, you will need five items, namely four strings and one slime ball. To craft a lead in a crafting table, you must collect these five specific items and use the correct recipe.

Where To Get String in Minecraft

A string is an item often used to craft bows, fishing rods, and leads. It is obtained as a drop or loot from killing mobs like spiders and striders. Killing spiders and cave spiders will drop a maximum of two strings per mob. Each drop is increased by one based on the level of the Looting enchantment equipped on your weapon, with a maximum drop of five strings using a Looting III enchanted weapon.

Striders can also drop up to 5 strings per mob with a maximum of 8 strings at Looting III. Striders can only be located in the Netherlands as they mostly spawn in the lava lakes below, making this mob a bad option if you plan to farm for strings. Another option is to farm strings from cats that spawn inside villages. However, since a cat’s drops cannot be affected by any looting enchantment, it is better not to kill cats. Instead, you can tame cats, and in return, they will provide you with gifts, one of them being a couple of strings. A player who tames cats gets a 70% chance of receiving a gift upon waking up from a bed. Gifts from tamed cats can vary, but there is a 16.13% chance of receiving a string.

Cobwebs are often piled up in mineshafts, stronghold libraries, igloo basements, abandoned villages, and woodland mansion spider spawner rooms. You can also farm for strings by breaking cobwebs with your sword. You can also break tripwire hook traps to obtain a string as they break easily using any tool or when flooded with water. Piglins may barter about 3 to 9 strings for your gold ingots, although this is by chance as they can also barter for other items such as obsidian blocks and crying obsidian blocks.

Where To Get A Slime Ball in Minecraft

A slime ball is a green circular object in Minecraft commonly used as a crafting ingredient to craft items such as slime blocks, sticky pistons, magma creams, and leads. There are only three ways to obtain a slime ball: trading, looting from pandas, or killing slimes for their drops.

Slime balls are naturally dropped by slimes when killed. Depending on the slime’s size, it may or may not drop a slime ball upon death. When killed, the slime’s size should be 1 to drop up to 2 slime balls. Like other drops from mobs, the number of slime balls dropped by slimes can also increase depending on the level of the Looting enchantment equipped with the player’s weapon.

Slime balls can also be obtained from baby pandas as they have a chance of dropping a single slime ball when they sneeze. Although this is not a reliable method to collect slime balls, you can still obtain them in small amounts in this way. When the wandering trader passes by, you can also check out its trade menu items in case a slime ball or two may be available, as they have a chance to sell a single slime ball in exchange for four emeralds.

Recipe For Crafting A Lead in Minecraft

The crafting recipe of a lead is specific and should be followed in its exact pattern; otherwise, the crafting process will fail, and you will not obtain the lead. Once you have collected all of the ingredients—1 slime ball and four strings—you can start crafting the lead. Start by opening the crafting menu of the crafting table by pressing your right-click mouse button while facing the crafting table. When opened, you will see a 3×3 crafting grid, an empty result slot, and your inventory. Following the exact order, first, you will have to place one string on the top-left and top center slots of the 3×3 crafting grid. Next, place another string on the middle-left slot and place the slime ball right at the center of the grid. Then lastly, place the final string on the bottom-right side slot of the grid. You should automatically see the lead pop up in the results slot. A single crafting process will result in obtaining two leads at a time. Claim the leads by clicking on them and dragging them into your inventory to finish the crafting process. Take note that removing one or more ingredients will make you unable to craft the lead.

How To Use The Lead in Minecraft

As its primary purpose, leads are used mainly to leash certain mobs in the game. Here are the top 3 ways to use your newly crafted lead:

1. Using the Lead to Attach a Boat to a Fence Post

Building docks and ports near your base should be necessary as you can freely row your boat anytime you go out exploring. When placing your boat on the water, it will remain in its place unless a mob, a player, or flowing water pushes it away. Using your lead to leash the boat into a fence post helps prevent any of your boats from drifting away. Leads will ensure your boats stay in place unless needed.

2. Using the Lead to Leash Mobs to a Fence Post

This is more effective when used on horses as horses tend to walk around regardless of whether they are tamed, but any mob—mostly passive and neutral—can be attached to a lead and leashed to a fence post. This is a great way, especially when you want the mob to stay in place and prevent it from leaving a specific location or your base.

3. Using the Lead to Transport Mobs From One Place to Another

Typically, you can transport passive mobs by leading them around using their favorite food item, as they will follow any player who holds the food item in their hand. However, this process can be prolonged, and the mob might lose interest along the way and forget to follow you. Hence, this is why the lead was included in the game. Leads will remove the hassle of finding the food item for that specific mob and lessen the effort of making sure the mob will follow you.