Unleash your imagination

Leads have existed in Minecraft for a while now – but today we’re happy to share an update to their functionality! Now you’ll be able to leash multiple mobs together. Does that mean I can finally gallop across the tundra with an entire herd of horses leashed behind me? Yes, it does! But the fun doesn’t end there. You’ll also be able to leash herds of mobs to boats, chest boats, and even fences. And with the happy ghast in testing already – that means you’ll be able to test leashing a chest boat beneath your happy ghast as you soar through the skies!

Let’s look at all the unbe-leash-able ways you can use this updated feature – available for testing today in snapshot for Minecraft: Java Edition, and coming soon to preview and beta for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition!

 

Leash multiple mobs together

 

Now, I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve long been nicknamed the “multiple-horse walker” on my Realm. This isn’t just because I like to take my horses on long, relaxing walks through meadow biomes, but because when I see a cute new horse, I can’t resist bringing them back to my base! Of course, it can become a little confusing once you’ve leashed yourself to more horses than you can count – not to mention the chaos of trying to unleash a specific horse out of the entire herd.

Well, good news for my fellow horse-collecting enthusiasts! With the new leashing features, you can leash the horses together, and remove yourself entirely from the chain! That’s right, as you can now create a chain between mobs, your herd of horses can move in one, chaotically-leashed clump while you’re unleashed to go and gather important resources. Or, if you’re me – gather more horses!

If you want to leash multiple mobs together, but not to yourself – the trick is to crouch when leashing! That’ll leash the mobs to one another, but not to you. The exception here is baby mobs – baby mobs can only be leashed to players directly. Because they’re babies! And you need to give them your full, undivided attention.

Leads will still snap if they’re stretched too far – so be careful when unleashing your creativity on leashing mobs together. Also – for those of you already planning a host of leash-based pranks, please note that you cannot leash other players together, no matter how fun you might think this would be…!

Leash mobs to entities like boats

 

Now comes the really exciting bit! You can tie any leashable mob to boats, chest boats, and of course – fences! And because happy ghasts have become leashable entities, that means you can now soar through the skies with your chest boat safely leashed beneath your cheerful mount! 

But don’t let your imagination stop there! You could also air-lift your favorite horse to your sky base, keep your happy ghast grounded by leashing it to a fence atop a clifftop, or leash a regular boat to a happy ghast, and travel through the skies with two extra friends!

Fence knots have also gotten an update to their functionality – making it easier for you to remove a leashed mob while keeping it leashed. Now if you crouch before interacting with a fence knot, you’ll remove the leashed mob from the fence and leash it to you instead! It’ll also be easier to add more leashes to leash knots – and you’ll be able to remove leash knots using shears!

 

Steal Borrow leads easily!

I would personally like to apologize to every wandering trader and delightful llama in every world I’ve ever spawned into, because my standard method of acquiring leashes isn’t defeating spiders, finding slimes, and crafting them myself. No! It’s brazenly stealing them from every unsuspecting merchant that wanders up to my base. So, I am delighted by the new feature which means I’ll be able to er… borrow leashes without harming any llamas!

 

Simply right click on the lead you wish to “borrow”, and as long as it’s not owned by a player, it becomes yours! If it IS owned by a player, you’ll just have to ask them very very nicely.

 

Remove ghast harnesses with shears

You will also now be able to use shears on ghast harnesses – letting you remove them easily. Snazzy!

 

Help! I’ve leashed too much!

 

If your caravan of camels is starting to become unwieldly, you can now also remove leashes using shears! This also means you can unleash specific horses from your herd and keep the rest of the herd leashed together!

Test this new functionality

 

You can test these features by enabling snapshots for Minecraft: Java Edition, and they are coming soon for previews/beta on Minecraft: Bedrock Edition. 

To install a snapshot, open up the Minecraft Launcher and enable snapshots in the "Installations" tab. To enable preview/beta for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition once these features are available to test, follow these instructions. 

If you are a Realm owner, you will also play the new snapshots, betas*, and previews* on your Realm! Any player who has an active Realms subscription is eligible to create a free testing Realm, so you can try out the new features with friends. Find more information on how to enable snapshots for Java Realms, and how to enable betas/previews on Bedrock Edition Realms*! These features are available NOW on Java snapshot and will be coming soon to Bedrock beta and preview.

 

*Preview is available for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Realms on Xbox, Windows 10/11, and iOS. Betas are available on Android (Google Play). 

Important note: Testing versions can corrupt your world, so please backup and/or run them in a different save folder from your main worlds. 

We hope you have fun unleashing chaos! As usual, we’re releasing these features into testing so we can iterate on them based on your feedback, so please give us your feedback on these new features here and report bugs at  bugs.mojang.com!