Minecraft: How to Make a Map

The map can be one of the most useful tools in Minecraft, as it not only encourages exploration but also allows players to record points of interest.

It's easy to get lost in Minecraft, but thankfully, there is a rather simple solution to that problem: by crafting a map, players can track their location and feel a bit more secure about venturing out into the world.

In order to make a map in Minecraft, players will need eight sheets of paper and one compass. However, as most of Minecraft's recipes require a crafting table, they should create one of those first by placing four of any wood plank into their starting crafting grid. After that, crafting a map is as easy as finding the necessary materials to do so.

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The first item Minecraft players will need to craft in order to create a map is paper — specifically, eight sheets of it. Lining up three sugar cane in a row on the crafting table produces three sheets of paper, so players will need to find at least nine sugar cane to produce the amount of paper they will need to craft a map. Sugar cane looks like a tall green stalk, and players can usually find it near water in swamp and river biomes. It is, however, most abundant in desert biomes along river banks.

Harvesting sugar cane doesn't require any special tools, so players can simply use their hand or any tool of their choice to gather it. Depending on the height of the stalk, it will produce anywhere from one to three sugar cane, so it shouldn't take long to collect enough of it to craft the amount of paper needed for a map. Once players have gathered enough, they should use the sugar cane to make nine sheets of paper, and then move on to gathering the materials for the next item — the compass.

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To craft a compass in Minecraft, players will need four iron ingots and a redstone dust, as well as a pickaxe to mine the materials with. Redstone dust can be mined from gray blocks with red spots on them and these blocks are typically found from Layer sixteen and below, so players will have to dig pretty deep to reach them.

Iron ingots, on the other hand, are smelted in a furnace using iron ore and a fuel source of some kind, like charcoal or coal. Iron ore appears underground or in most caves and ravines as a gray block with brown-orange spots. Additionally, players can find iron ingots in shipwrecks on the ocean floor, but this is a bit lengthier process because it relies almost entirely on chance.

When mining iron ore, players will obtain raw iron, which can then be smelted into iron ingots in a furnace. Each raw iron can produce one iron ingot, so players will need to gather at least four raw iron for the ingots required to craft a compass. While mining for iron, it's likely players will happen upon coal organically, but they should still be sure they pick up enough to fuel their furnace when they begin smelting iron. Coal appears as a grey block with black spots and is usually located underground and in caves.

Crafting a furnace requires eight cobblestone, which players can mine almost anywhere in Minecraft, as it is one of the most abundant building materials in the game. Once players have gathered eight cobblestone, they'll simply need to place each one in the outer boxes of the crafting grid on their crafting table to create a furnace.

Then, they can add coal to the bottom box in a furnace and four raw iron to the top box to produce the iron ingots required to craft a compass. Finally, placing a redstone in the center box of the crafting grid on a crafting table and four iron ingots on each side of it to resemble a plus sign will produce the compass players need to create a map.

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Once players have crafted eight sheets of paper and a compass, they can finally make a map. On the crafting table, creating a map requires the compass to be in the middle box of the crafting grid with all eight sheets of paper in the spaces surrounding it. This will produce what is called a "locator map," as it reveals an entire subsection of the Overworld to the player. Filling the crafting grid with only paper will create an empty map, which can then be filled out by exploring.

To use a map, players will need to first move it to their inventory hotbar, make sure it's selected, and then right-click. Their avatar will then hold up the map, allowing players to get a general overview of the surrounding area.

Players can also increase the size of their map by placing it into the center box of the crafting grid on their crafting table and placing 8 more sheets of paper in the boxes surrounding it. This will expand the map to reveal even more of the world around them.

Josh Cotts is a Gaming Features and Lists Writer at CBR. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Arizona State University in 2019 with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Media Studies. Currently residing in Oklahoma, Josh is also an Elementary Music teacher, a singer/songwriter, and he enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter. When he's not spending time with his family, he can appreciate and find fun in almost any game, but he primarily enjoys playing Destiny 2 in his downtime. When writing, he takes pride in doing his own research, and often designing his own images using his skills in Photoshop.