How to make a Lead in Minecraft

Keep that pesky horse from wandering off.

Screengrab via Mojang

Minecraft has been a fan-favorite game for nearly two decades now. Whether you’re an avid player or just come back every few months to play a mod pack, the coveted Mojang title has been proclaimed by many as the greatest video game ever created.

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One of the leading factors in Minecraft being enjoyed by so many is its beloved crafting system. You can create anything from building blocks to weapons in a simple Crafting Table, but what about a Lead?

A Lead can be extremely helpful for transporting animals or keeping them in one place in Minecraft. So if you’re interested in making this item for yourself, here’s everything you need to know.

How to make a Lead in Minecraft

Here’s everything you’ll need to make a Lead in Minecraft:

  • Four String
  • One Slimeball

String can be acquired in a plethora of ways within Minecraft. You can get the item by killing Spiders or Cave Spiders, breaking Cobwebs or Tripwires, fishing, bartering with Piglins in the Nether, or looting it from chests in Jungle Temples, Desert Pyramids, and Dungeons. You can even receive String as a gift from a Cat you’ve tamed.

On the other hand, you can only get Slimeballs by slaying a Slime. The act of killing a Slime is a relatively easy process in Minecraft; finding the mob is the difficult part. Slimes only spawn in two locations: Swamps and Slime chunks. Slime chunks are randomly generated sections of Minecraft‘s world that will spawn Slimes. But without the use of third-party programs, finding a Slime chunk can be extremely tedious, so you’ll basically just have to search the world until you find a Swamp or a Slime.

Related: The 7 best Minecraft animal farm ideas

Once you’ve gotten your Slimeball and four Strings, place them all into a Crafting Table grid in the following order to create two Leads in Minecraft:

Screengrab via Mojang

To make use of your newly acquired Lead, put it in your hand and right-click (or left-trigger on controller) on any applicable mob to place the Lead on it. Once done, you’ll be able to walk around and the mob will follow you. Just don’t run too fast or the Lead might fall off. Also, once you’ve attached it, you can swap to any other item in your Hotbar without breaking the Lead.

You can also right-click on a fence to wrap the Lead around it, which will keep whatever mob you have on the other side of the rope from wandering off.

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Payton Nash
Freelance writer for Dot Esports. Washed-up Immortal VALORANT player and one-tap aficionado. Wanted to be a streamer once, and now he writes about them.