Let’s face it, mobs have an annoying habit of drifting too far from where they’re supposed to be in Minecraft. Whether you have a chicken that somehow got out of a gate or a horse that left you on an expedition, you need a solid way to ensure your mobs can stay near you. Luckily, Minecraft allows you to leash mobs using an item called a Lead, which you can find out how to craft below.
Making a Lead in Minecraft
While Leads are used in a couple of other recipes, specifically for Balloons, their primary use is leashing mobs. You can leash just about every creature in Minecraft, but you’ll find the most use for a Lead when trying to get your livestock mobs to a certain location.
To make a Lead, you only need two ingredients and a crafting table, as shown below.
- Place a Slimeball in the center of a crafting table
- Place four pieces of String, three on the left of the Slimeball and one in the bottom-right corner of the crafting table
String isn’t a resource you can craft in Minecraft, so you’ll have to rely on looting it from mobs, destroying spider’s cobwebs, fishing, or acquiring one from a chest. You can also barter for String and receive the item as a gift from a tamed cat. Cats also have a chance to drop String when they’re killed, so you can go either route with the felines. The easiest way to get String is to kill Spiders or destroy their cobwebs, as both ways reward you with String.
As for Slimeballs, these can be acquired by killing slime enemies. You can also break down a Slime Block to receive nine Slimeballs. Slimes are most commonly located deep underground or in swamps. Swamps are the easiest location to check, but you’ll have to continually kill Slimes to get the Slimeballs, as the Slimes break down into smaller blocks as you attack them.
Once you have the Slimeball and String, combine them together to make two Leads. You can then right-click on any applicable mob with the Lead in your hand and it will leash them. You’re now able to lead the mob in any direction. To remove the Lead, simply right-click again and the mob will no longer be leashed.
