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This article is about the item used for leashing and leading mobs. For the element, see Element § Lead.

Leads are tools used to leash and lead passive and neutral animals, golems and some monsters.

Obtaining[]

Chest loot[]

Item Structure Container Quantity Chance
Java Edition
Lead Ancient City Chest 1 16.1%
Trail ruins Suspicious gravel 1 2.2%
Woodland mansion Chest 1 28.3%
Bedrock Edition
Lead Ancient City Chest 1 16.1%
Buried treasure Chest 1–3 34.3%
Trail ruins Suspicious gravel 1 2.2%
Woodland mansion Chest 1 27.9%

Crafting[]

Ingredients Crafting recipe
String +
Slimeball

2

Mob loot[]

Wandering traders always spawn with 2 trader llamas, each held with a lead. When a trader llama is detached, either by killing it or the wandering trader, dragging them far apart, or putting the llama in a boat or a minecart, the lead drops at the llama's position.

Usage[]

Crafting ingredient[]

Name Ingredients Crafting recipe Description
Balloon Latex +
Matching Dye +
Helium +
Lead

[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
White Balloon or
Blue Balloon or
Brown Balloon or
Black Balloon
Latex +
Bone Meal or
Lapis Lazuli or
Cocoa Beans or
Ink Sac +
Helium +
Lead

[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]

Leashing mobs[]

SuspendedPigs

One block tall mobs, such as pigs, suspend at 7 blocks above the ground.

SuspendedCows

Two block tall mobs, such as cows, also suspend at 7 blocks above the ground.

Using a lead on a mob ties the lead to the mob, allowing it to be moved by the player. Multiple mobs can be held by leads at once, but each mob held requires its own lead.

It is possible to leash the following mobs and other entities:

Additionally, villagers, wandering traders, and monsters other than the ones listed above, can be leashed using a map editor or NBT editor.

With a mob on a lead held by the player, using the lead on any type of fence (or wall[BE only]) attaches the lead to it with a visible knot, tying the mob to it. To attach it to a wall on Bedrock Edition, the player must hold a lead in the main hand.[1] Multiple leads may be attached to one fence post. A mob tied to a fence tends to stay within 5 blocks of the fence post.

A lead is broken by pressing the use item control on the mob again, hitting the knot, or removing the attached fence post. Leads also break when hit by projectiles. Whenever a lead is removed or broken, it drops as an item at the location of the mob. However, it does not drop when unleashed in Creative mode.‌[Java Edition only][2] A lead does not break if the attached animal dies.

A lead can stretch a maximum of 10 blocks. If the mob is able to move towards the player or fence post, it does so. If not, or if the mob is moving very quickly away from the player, the lead breaks.

When the player or the knot is more than 7 blocks above the ground, the mob being leashed becomes suspended.

Most mobs that can be leashed can still be leashed even if attacking the player leashing them, and any attached leads do not break.

Wolves cannot be leashed after becoming angry. Despite this, if they become angry while already leashed, the lead does not break, but it cannot be reattached when broken through other methods while the wolf is still angry.

A lead attached to a hoglin breaks if it becomes a zoglin.

A lead does not prevent mobs from despawning if they normally would despawn.

When moving downwards and accelerating towards the ground, leashed mobs accumulate fall damage and take it if they hit the ground while still accelerating. When moving up or decelerating (such as when the lead is stretched to its limit), the fall distance is set to one block and the mob therefore does not take any fall damage if it touches the ground.

If the player walks into and back out of a nether portal while holding a lead connected to a mob, the lead remains attached to the mob. However, if a mob attached to a lead walks into a nether portal, the lead breaks and drops as an item in the other dimension.

A lead can be used to remove a mob from a boat without needing to break the boat, if the mob can normally be leashed.

If a chunk unloads while containing a leashed mob (either by the player walking too far away, or traveling to another dimension via a portal), the lead breaks and drops as an item, leaving the mob free to wander around.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:

SoundSubtitlesSourceDescriptionResource locationTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
Leash Knot breaksFriendly CreaturesWhen a leash knot is destroyedentity.leash_knot.breaksubtitles.entity.leashknot.break1.01.016
Leash Knot tiedFriendly CreaturesWhen a leash knot is placed on a fenceentity.leash_knot.placesubtitles.entity.leashknot.place1.01.016

Bedrock Edition:

SoundSourceDescriptionResource locationVolumePitch
Friendly CreaturesWhen a leash knot is broken by interacting with itleashknot.break1.01.0
Friendly CreaturesWhen a leash knot is placed on a fence or wallleashknot.place1.01.0

Leash Knot[]

Leash knot is an entity created when the player right-clicks the fence while having a mob leashed.

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

NameIdentifierTranslation key
Leash Knotleash_knotentity.minecraft.leash_knot

Bedrock Edition:

NameIdentifierNumeric ID Translation key
Leash Knotleash_knot88entity.leash_knot.name

Entity data[]

Leash knots have entity data that define various properties of the entity.

Java Edition:

Main article: Entity format
  • Entity data
    • Tags common to all entities

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

NameIdentifierFormTranslation key
LeadleadItemitem.minecraft.lead

Bedrock Edition:

NameIdentifierNumeric ID FormTranslation key
Leadlead547Itemitem.lead.name

Achievements[]

Icon Achievement In-game description Actual requirements (if different) Gamerscore earned Trophy type (PS4)
PS4 Other
So I Got That Going for MeLead a Caravan containing at least 5 Llamas20GBronze

Advancements[]

Icon Advancement In-game description Parent Actual requirements (if different) Resource location
Advancement-plain-rawWhen the Squad Hops into Town
Get each Frog variant on a Lead Bukkit BukkitThe frogs don't need to be leashed at the same time.[3]husbandry/leash_all_frog_variants

History[]

This article is missing information about The history of a lot of mobs be leashed. 
Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.
Java Edition
1.6.113w16aLead JE1 BE1 Added leads.
Leads do not currently have a tooltip and are called “leashes” in the change notes.
13w16bLeads have been given a tooltip.
13w18aLeads have been given a crafting recipe.
1.915w50aAdded a sound for leads: entity.leashknot.place.
1.1116w32aThe entity ID of the knot has been changed from LeashKnot to leash_knot.
16w39aLeads can now be found in woodland mansion chests.
1.1317w47aPrior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 420.
1.1418w43aLead JE2 BE2 The texture of leads has been changed.
19w05aAdded wandering traders, which are naturally equipped with leads.
1.15?Bees can now be leashed.
1.1620w09aSkeleton horses and zombie horses can now be leashed.[4]
?Hoglins can now be leashed.
1.16.220w27aZoglins can now be leashed.
1.1721w19aSquids and glow squids can now be leashed.[5]
?Axolotls can now be leashed.
1.1922w13aLead may now be found in ancient city chests.
?Frogs can now be leashed.
1.19.322w42aCamels can now be leashed.
Mobs no longer accumulate fall damage when dangling on leads.[6]
1.20 (Experimental)?Sniffers can now be leashed.
1.2023w12aLead can now be found in suspicious gravel and suspicious sand in trail ruins.
23w16aLead no longer generates in suspicious sand in trail ruins.
Due to the split of the archaeological loot tables for the suspicious gravel within the trail ruins; lead now is in the common loot.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.15.0build 1Lead JE1 BE1 Added leads.
Pocket Edition
1.1.0alpha 1.1.0.0Leads now have better "physics".
The entity ID of the knot has been changed from leashknot to leash_knot.
Leads can now be found inside woodland mansion chests.
Bedrock Edition
1.4.0beta 1.2.14.2Leads can now be found inside buried treasure chests.
Leads can now be used on boats.
beta 1.2.20.1Leads can now be used to craft balloons.
1.10.0beta 1.10.0.3Lead JE2 BE2 The texture of leads has been changed.
Wandering traders now drop leads after they are detached from trader llamas.
1.14.0beta 1.14.0.1Leads can now be used on polar bears, ocelots, parrots, dolphins and old villagers.
1.19.0beta 1.19.0.20Allays can now be leashed.
Legacy Console Edition
TU19CU7 1.12 Patch 11.0.1Lead JE1 BE1 Added leads.
TU43CU33 1.36 Patch 13Sounds have been added for leads.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90Lead JE2 BE2 The texture of leads has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0Lead JE1 BE1 Added leads.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Lead" or "Leash" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

Steve wearing Lead Alex wearing Lead

  • The lead is named as "leash" in the texture file.
  • If a player goes to sleep while holding a mob on a lead, the lead remains attached.
  • In Java Edition, when using the /item command to put a lead in a player's head slot, the item gets rotated and positioned in such a way that it looks like the player is wearing a monocle.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. MCPE-108078
  2. MCPE-79639
  3. MC-252401 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
  4. MC-166246
  5. MC-136647
  6. MC-14167 — "Mobs build up fall damage when dangling on a lead" — resolved as "Fixed".

External Links[]

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