How To Get Leather In Minecraft [Explained]

New to the game? Don't know how to get the items for your first armor? Then you should check out our how to get leather in Minecraft guide.

If you’re new to this game and don’t know how to protect yourself, you must quickly learn how to get leather in Minecraft. This resource can not only be used to craft one of the earliest sets of armor in the game, but it is also essential for a number of other useful items like books for enchanting.


Key Highlights:

  • Leather is one of the Most Vital resources in Minecraft if you want to level up your game.
  • Leather is acquired when you kill/butcher a Leather producing animal in Minecraft.
  • Cow, Donkey, Fox, Hoglin, Horses, Llamas, Mooshroom, and Mule are leather-producing animals.
  • To acquire great quantities of Leather, you will have to make an Animal Farm.
  • Apart from Fox and Mule, all of the above-mentioned animals are good sources of Leather.
  • Horses and Donkeys need Golden Apples, Wheat is loved by Cows and Moohrooms, whereas Llamas need Hay Bales, and Hoglins require Crimson Fungus to breed.
  • Cows are easiest to breed, and they only require one Wheat each to breed, making them the best choice to get Leather.
  • To breed cows, get a pair of Cows in a fenced area and breed them.
  • Once there is a large herd, kill most of them while making sure you keep the babies alive to continue the process later on.
  • Leather is used in making Books which eventually helps get better enchantments.

Leather is extremely easy to come by if you know how to properly look for it. It can also be generated in large quantities if you’re willing to create an animal farm. Of course, this takes up a lot of time, but the rewards are usually worth it.

So with this ‘How To Get Leather In Minecraft‘ guide, we’ll show you exactly how to gather large quantities of this resource.

How To Get Leather In Minecraft?

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To start with, I’d like to mention that this guide is not intended for veterans of Minecraft. By this point in time, knowing where to find leather is not a problem that any of them will face. So this article is aimed mostly at the more casual or newer players of the game.

How To Get Leather In Minecraft
Leather

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at every source of Leather in the game. You have to kill each of these to get their drops.

Animals

Spawn Location

Cows Can spawn on any grass blocks in the world, except those found in the Snowy Tundra and Wooded Badlands Plateau biomes.
Donkey A limited number of these animals may spawn in the Plains and Savanna biomes.
Fox Although Foxes don’t actually generate leather, they may drop some from their inventory when they die.
Hoglin The only mob on this list that is native to The Nether. Players can find them in the Crimson Forest biome.
Horses These can also spawn in the Plains and Savannas biomes.
Llama Pack animals that can spawn on any grass blocks in the Savanna and Mountain biomes. You can read more about them in our Llama guide here.
Mooshroom This rare variant of the Cow can only be found in the Mushroom Fields biome.
Mule They do not spawn naturally in the world, but players can cross-breed a Horse and a Donkey together to get one.

Even though all of these mobs are potential leather sources in Minecraft, the most abundant animal on this list is Cow.

These can be found almost anywhere in the world, so we recommend that you leave valuable creatures such as Horses and Llamas as a last resort. They have other uses that can benefit the player greatly.

How To Get Large Amounts of Leather?

How To Get Leather In Minecraft
Create An Animal Enclosure.

How to get leather in Minecraft in large amounts? For this, you have to pick a mob from the list above that you have easy access to, then trap at least two members of them in an enclosure. This excludes Foxes because they aren’t a guaranteed source of Leather, and Mules because they cannot be bred.

You can easily create a simple pen using wooden fences, but an automated one requires knowledge of the Redstone system. Once trapped inside, however, you have to get the animals to breed by using their relevant foods. There are a few different types of these:

  • Golden Apple – Horses and Donkeys.
  • Wheat – Cows and Mushrooms.
  • Hay Bale – Llamas.
  • Crimson Fungus – Hoglins.

Eating their preferred food will send the animals into ‘Love Mode,’ which is indicated by hearts flying all around them. So feed two animals, after which they will walk toward each other and mate. A baby should spawn near them almost immediately.

From here, the baby will take around twenty minutes to grow into an adult. This new animal can then be used for breeding again, allowing the player to repeat the whole process until a giant herd has been assembled.

How To Get Leather In Minecraft
Kill Cows For Leather.

So when you require any Leather, all you have to do is kill a few animals to get it. You can then breed some other members of the herd to replenish your stock. It’s that simple.

This has been eXputer’s ‘How To Get Leather In Minecraft’ guide. While you’re here, why not also check out our How To Tame A Parrot guide for the same game?

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Huzaifa is eXputer's Review Editor, who’s all about RPG games. He’s got several years of experience critically judging games and writing his unbiased thoughts on them. You can also find his content published on sites like Twinfinite & GearNuke. Huzaifa has been gaming for 23+ years, during which he managed to amass 400+ hours on Elden Ring! You can follow his gaming activity on his Xbox and Steam Profiles.

Experience: 5+ years || Previously Worked At GearNuke & Twinfinite || Mainly Covers RPG Guides & Latest Games Reviews || Education: Bachelors in Hospitality.

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