How to Make a Map in Minecraft

Getting lost is a classic Minecraft problem, right? The worlds are huge and randomly generated, so knowing where you are is really important. The game creators want us to explore, so they haven't put a mini-map on the screen. Some people write down the coordinates, which works, but it's kind of a pain. Others might search online for outside help. But making a map inside the game is way easier than all that. Maps are useful for everyone who plays, from beginners to pros. The good thing is that making a map is pretty straightforward, almost as easy as playing right in your web browser. So, let's jump right in and see how it's done.

Making and Leveling Up Your Map in Minecraft

Just so we're clear, the maps we're talking about here are items you create within the game. You don't have to download anything extra. You can get them sometimes by trading with a cartographer (he's a type of villager) or finding them in treasure chests. But here’s how to craft one yourself.

What You'll Need

Like almost everything in Minecraft, maps need a few basic things, combined at a crafting table. To create a basic map, you'll need a compass and eight pieces of paper. Let's break down on how to craft the materials needed.

• Sugar Canes: Nine of these are needed to make paper.
• Iron Ingots: Four of these.
• A Piece of Redstone Dust
• A Crafting Table

Making a Crafting Table

If you're just starting and don't have a crafting table yet, here's how to get one fast: Chop down any tree to get wood, turn the wood into planks. Then, put the planks in your character's inventory crafting section to make a crafting table. Now, with that sorted, let's focus on other stuff needed

How to Craft a Compass

To craft a compass, you're going to need iron, and some Redstone. Iron can be found by digging down into the earth.

Once you have the raw iron, smelt it in a furnace (blast or regular) to create iron ingots. To mine the Redstone, you'll need a pickaxe. Here’s how to make the pickaxe:

Iron Pickaxe Recipe

You can usually find Redstone around lava. Once you have the iron ingots and the Redstone, head to your crafting table and arrange the materials like this:

• Put the Redstone dust in the very center square.
• Put the iron ingots on all four sides of the Redstone, leaving the corner squares empty.

Now you can grab your compass and put it in your inventory!

How to Craft Paper

Making paper is even easier than making a compass. All you need is sugarcane. Sugarcane grows near water in swamp, desert, and even forest areas. Once you have some, put three pieces of sugarcane in a line in the crafting area. This will give you three pieces of paper. Take note of the image below for reference.

Since we need eight pieces of paper for a map, gather at least nine sugarcanes. If you don't have enough, plant one and wait for it to grow. It's like farming any other crop in the game.

Putting It All Together: Making the Map

Now that you have everything you need, go to your crafting table. Put the compass in the center square. Then, fill all the empty squares around it with paper. If you did it right, the map will be ready to move to your inventory.

One thing to keep in mind: If you're playing the Bedrock version of Minecraft, you can craft a map without a compass; doing so will create a map without a location indicator. So, I suggest putting in the effort to get the compass.

Using Your New Map

Once you have the map in your hand, right-click (or use whatever the secondary action button is on your device) to make it start mapping the area around you. If you crafted the map with a compass, a little white indicator will show your location on the map.

Also, you can quickly equip the map from your inventory by pressing “F”. The Minecraft world is massive, so a single map only covers a tiny piece. You'll need to create more maps if you want to explore far and wide. Or, you can make your existing map bigger.

Making Your Map Bigger

To make your map bigger, you’ll need more paper. Eight pieces of paper will expand a map. You can expand a map four times, so you'll need a total of 32 papers if you want to expand it all the way. Place your existing map in the very center, then fill the rest of the crafting table inventory with the paper. Grab your new expanded map and continue your journey.

Doing this a few times will give you a much larger mapped area. It's useful for knowing where you're going, and you can mark locations on it too.

Marking Locations

Your map shows the layout of the world, like structures and general areas. But it's not super precise. To make it more useful, you can add your own markers to keep track of spots.

1. First, create banners. Banners require six pieces of wool (all the same color) and one stick. Get wool from raising or shearing sheep.
2. Put the wool in the top two rows of the crafting area, and the stick in the center of the bottom row.
3. Place the banner where you want to mark the location. Then, hold your map and use it on the banner. This will put an icon on the map. If you rename the banner using an anvil, the name will also appear on the map.

Isn't that more useful than a blank map? There’s one more thing that will take maps to another level.

Cartography Table

Cartography tables are like crafting tables, but they're just for maps and map-related stuff. These tables can be found in villages.

If you don't have one, you can also craft one. You'll need two papers and four wood planks.

Using the table only requires a few materials to make the things that you need. Crafting a map with a single piece of paper on the Cartography table, while it needs 8 paper pieces on a crafting table.

You can also add map pointers or rename a map using this stuff. The cartography table only has two slots, so the recipes are easy to remember.

Go Explore!

Now you're ready to go explore the world of Minecraft with your maps in hand. You can explore everything without worrying about getting lost. Plus, if your computer has RTX, be sure to mark down where the pretty scenery is located.