Lead

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

Lead
Rarity	Common
Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)

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		‌
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		‌

Leashing mobs

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

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:

• Allay
• Axolotl
• Bee
• Boat
• Camel
• Cat
• Chicken
• Chicken Jockey (only the mount)
• Cow
• Dolphin
• Donkey
• Fox
• Frog
• Glow Squid
• Goat
• Hoglin
• Horse
• Iron Golem
• Llama
• Mooshroom
• Mule
• Ocelot
• Parrot
• Pig
• Polar Bear
• Rabbit
• Sheep
• Skeleton Horse
• Skeleton Horseman (only the mount)
• Sniffer
• Snow Golem
• Squid
• Strider
• Trader Llama
• Wolf
• Zoglin
• Zombie Horse

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) 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. 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.‌ 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:

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Leash Knot breaks	Friendly Creatures	When a leash knot is destroyed	entity.leash_knot.break	subtitles.entity.leashknot.break	1.0	1.0	16
	Leash Knot tied	Friendly Creatures	When a leash knot is placed on a fence	entity.leash_knot.place	subtitles.entity.leashknot.place	1.0	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Friendly Creatures	When a leash knot is broken by interacting with it	leashknot.break	1.0	1.0
	Friendly Creatures	When a leash knot is placed on a fence or wall	leashknot.place	1.0	1.0

Leash Knot

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

Leash Knot
Behavior	Does not exist

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Translation key
Leash Knot	leash_knot	entity.minecraft.leash_knot

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Leash Knot	leash_knot	88	entity.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:

Name	Identifier	Form	Translation key
Lead	lead	Item	item.minecraft.lead

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Lead	lead	547	Item	item.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 Me	Lead a Caravan containing at least 5 Llamas	—	20G	Bronze

Advancements

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

History

Java Edition
1.6.1		13w16a			Added leads.
					Leads do not currently have a tooltip and are called “leashes” in the change notes.
		13w16b			Leads have been given a tooltip.
		13w18a			Leads have been given a crafting recipe.
1.9		15w50a			Added a sound for leads: entity.leashknot.place.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID of the knot has been changed from LeashKnot to leash_knot.
		16w39a			Leads can now be found in woodland mansion chests.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 420.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of leads has been changed.
		19w05a			Added wandering traders, which are naturally equipped with leads.
1.15		?			Bees can now be leashed.
1.16		20w09a			Skeleton horses and zombie horses can now be leashed.
		?			Hoglins can now be leashed.
1.16.2		20w27a			Zoglins can now be leashed.
1.17		21w19a			Squids and glow squids can now be leashed.
		?			Axolotls can now be leashed.
1.19		22w13a			Lead may now be found in ancient city chests.
		?			Frogs can now be leashed.
1.19.3		22w42a			Camels can now be leashed.
					Mobs no longer accumulate fall damage when dangling on leads.
1.20 (Experimental)		?			Sniffers can now be leashed.
1.20		23w12a			Lead can now be found in suspicious gravel and suspicious sand in trail ruins.
		23w16a			Lead 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
v0.15.0		build 1			Added leads.
Pocket Edition
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Leads 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
1.4.0		beta 1.2.14.2			Leads can now be found inside buried treasure chests.
					Leads can now be used on boats.
		beta 1.2.20.1			Leads can now be used to craft balloons.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of leads has been changed.
					Wandering traders now drop leads after they are detached from trader llamas.
1.14.0		beta 1.14.0.1			Leads can now be used on polar bears, ocelots, parrots, dolphins and old villagers.
1.19.0		beta 1.19.0.20			Allays can now be leashed.
Legacy Console Edition
TU19	CU7	1.12	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added leads.
TU43	CU33	1.36	Patch 13		Sounds have been added for leads.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90					The texture of leads has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added leads.

Issues

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

Trivia

• 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

• 

  Many animals can be tied to one fence post.

• 

  A horse wearing golden horse armor that is leashed to a fence post.

• 

  Three sheep tied to the same fence.

• 

  A shot of all the mobs that could be tied with leads as of 1.6.1, except donkeys and mules.

• 

  With the use of the leash, it is possible to suspend animals in the air by tying the leash on high-up fence posts.

• 

  A donkey with the Grumm/Dinnerbone name tag easter egg tied to a fence with a lead to make a yo-yo.

• 

  Several sheep hanging in the air in Creative mode.

• 

  First image of a lead in Bedrock Edition.

External Links

• Taking Inventory: Lead – Minecraft.net on April 8, 2022

Items 

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Entities 

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