Make a Map in Minecraft

In Minecraft, a map is used to view a specific area of explored terrain. You start with a small map and gradually increase its size to fit the terrain you're exploring. You can also gift a map to another player, if you'd like them to explore something cool you've made, like a complex maze you've made. With item frames, you can create a map wall in your settlement that covers massive portions of your world.

Steps

Getting Paper

  1. Find sugarcane in your world. Paper is crafted from sugarcane, and sugarcane can be found growing naturally along the edges of bodies of water. Sugarcane is fairly common, and you should be able to find some without too much effort if you're exploring your waterways.
    • In the console editions of Minecraft, the player starts with a map item in their inventory.
  2. Harvest the sugarcane. Sugarcane is very easy to harvest, and you can simply run through it to knock them down.
    • If you intend to create a lot of maps or expand your map significantly, it may be beneficial to create a sugarcane farm. Sugarcane needs to be planted directly adjacent to water blocks. Bonemeal does not speed up growth like it does many other crops. See Build a Basic Farm in Minecraft for more details on creating a farm.
  3. Collect at least 9 sugarcane pieces. 1 Sugarcane will create 1 paper. You'll need 8 pieces of paper, but paper is crafted in batches of 3, so you'll need 9 pieces of sugarcane.
    • If you're playing Pocket Edition, you can create a map with 9 pieces of paper and no compass, but it will not have a position marker on it.
  4. Place 3 sugarcanes across the center of your crafting grid. This will result in 3 pieces of paper, which you can add to your inventory.
  5. Repeat the previous step until you've made 9 total pieces of paper. Place another 3 sugarcanes in the crafting grid to get another 3 pieces of paper. After grabbing the paper, do it one for time for a total of 9 pieces.

Making a Compass

  1. Decide if you actually need a compass. If you're playing Pocket Edition or the Windows 10 Edition, you don't need a compass to create a map. Maps created without a compass will not have a position marker on them, so you may want to get a compass anyway to make the map more useful.
    • Compasses are required to create a map if you are playing the original computer or console versions of Minecraft.
  2. Try finding a compass instead of crafting one (optional). You don't have to go through the process of mining and crafting to get a compass, if you're lucky. There is an 11% chance that it will appear in a Stronghold Library chest. You can also trade for a compass with a village librarian for 10-12 emeralds.
    • Trading is not available in Minecraft Pocket edition.
  3. Mine some Iron Ore. Iron ore is one of the most common metals that you'll find while mining. You'll need a stone pickaxe or better in order to mine iron ore from the ground. Iron ore blocks are gray with flecks of brown, and take about 1 second to mine when you have a stone pickaxe (less with more advanced pickaxes). You'll need 4 iron ore blocks to create the ingots required for the compass.
    • You can find iron ore anywhere from bedrock to slightly above sea level, though you'll increase your chances by mining deeper. You'll find the most iron ore in layers 5-54, and no iron ore at all above layer 68.[1] Sea level is layer 62. The biome you're in does not affect iron ore generation.[2] This means the best way to find iron ore is to start mining downwards at sea level.
  4. Create a furnace if you don't have one. You'll need a furnace in order to smelt your iron ore into iron ingots. You can create a furnace by placing 8 cobblestone blocks around the edge of the crafting grid. You can also find furnaces in the blacksmith's hut in many villages.
  5. Add a piece of fuel and your iron ore to the furnace. Fuel is anything in the world that is flammable, such as wood blocks and wooden creations. You can use any type of fuel to create an ingot from your iron ore. If you are making a lot of ingots, you may want a more efficient fuel source such as charcoal.
  6. Remove your iron ingot from the furnace. Once the smelting process is complete, you'll have an iron ingot. Remove it from the furnace interface and place it in your inventory.
  7. Create 4 iron ingots. You'll need four ingots in order to create the compass.
  8. Find redstone ore. This will likely be the most difficult part of creating your compass. Redstone ore only generates in the bottom 16 layers of the world, which means you'll need to mine deep in order to find it. You'll only need one pile of redstone dust, and a block of redstone ore usually drops 4-5 piles.
    • You can also find redstone dust by killing witches or disabling jungle temple traps. You may also find the dust in dungeon chests.
  9. Craft your compass once you have your materials. Once you have 4 iron ingots and a pile of redstone, you can make your compass. Open your crafting table window and place the redstone in the center of the grid. Put an iron ingot above, below, to the left, and to the right of the redstone. This will create a compass.[3]

Creating a Map

  1. Gather your materials. You'll need 8 pieces of paper and your compass in order to create the map. If you're playing Pocket Edition, you can create the map with 9 pieces of paper, but it will not have a location marker.
  2. Open your crafting table window. Use your crafting table so that the crafting grid appears.
  3. Place the compass at the center of the grid. If you're playing Pocket Edition, you can substitute the compass for another piece of paper, but the resulting map will not have a location marker.
  4. Surround the compass with pieces of paper. Place 8 pieces of paper around the compass. You should see the map appear in the result box.
  5. Add the empty map to your inventory. Drag the empty map from the crafting window to your inventory. Place the map in your hotbar so that you can quickly access it. You can now use the map like an item by holding it.

Using the Map

  1. Hold the map in your hands. The map will be blank when you first create it. In order to fill the map, you'll need to hold it as you move around the world.
    • The map will not fill itself unless you are holding it as your active item while moving through the world.
  2. Use the map while holding it. Press the Use key or button to start using the map. The map needs to be used in order to begin filling up.
    • It may take a few moments for the map to fill the first time you use it.
    • Your map will begin filling in the direction you are currently looking. North will always be at the top of the map.
  3. Walk around while using the map. You'll see the world begin to appear on your map from a top-down perspective. The first map you create is a 1:1 representation of the world, so each pixel on the map represents a single block in the world.
    • As you walk while using the map, you'll see the edges of the map start to fill with data.
    • Your initial map will only fill until the space is taken up. Maps do not scroll to show more space, so you'll need to expand your map to see more.
    • Maps are created based on the current "chunk" you are occupying. This means that when you start to fill a map in, your location indicator will likely not be in the center of the map. Instead, the map generates based on the chunk, which is how the world is divided when being generated.
  4. Find your player indicator. Your location will be noted by a white oval on the map. If you constructed your map without a compass (Pocket Edition only), there will be no indicator.[4]

Expanding the Map

  1. Expand your map by zooming out. While you can't merge two maps together, you can zoom the current map out using your crafting table. You can zoom a map out up to four additional times. Each time you zoom, the map will be able to show double the amount of content.
  2. Open your crafting table. You can zoom out the map by crafting additional paper onto the map. Open your crafting table to do so.
  3. Place the filled map at the center of the crafting grid. This is the "base" of your new zoomed-out map.
  4. Surround the filled map with 8 pieces of paper. Fill the rest of the crafting grid with 8 pieces of paper. You'll see a new map object in the result grid.
  5. Use your new zoomed-out map. When you zoom out on a map for the first time, it will show double the original content. This means that each pixel represents a 2x2 set of blocks in the world.
    • Since the map has been zoomed out, you'll likely need to do a fair bit of walking to get it filled in with content, since the map still fills at the same rate as the original (128 blocks from the player position).
  6. Zoom out the map again. You can repeat the crafting process with your new zoomed-out map to zoom it out again. You can do this four times total, resulting in a map that covers four times the area of the original. At the highest zoom, 1 pixel represents 16x16 blocks in the world, and covers an area of 2048×2048 blocks.

Cloning a Map

  1. Clone maps to give to other players. Cloning a map will create a perfect copy of the original, which is great for distributing maps to other players in your game.
  2. Open the crafting grid from the crafting table. You can clone maps by crafting them on the crafting table.
  3. Place the original map in the left-center box. Place your original map in the middle of the left column of the crafting grid.
  4. Add pieces of paper to the empty spots on the grid. Each piece of paper you add will create an additional clone, for up to 8 clones and the original.
  5. Remove the finished clones from the results grid and place them in your inventory. Each clone is an exact duplicate of the original, and all the clones will update at the same time while exploring.
  6. Give your cloned maps to friends. You can place the clones in chests so that they can pick them up, or simply drop them in the world.

Making a Map Wall

  1. Create your frames. You can place maps on a wall if the wall is covered in frames. This allows you to create a massive map of your world using multiple map items.
    • Create a frame by placing a piece of leather in the center of the grid, and then surround it with 8 sticks.
  2. Place frames on a wall. Create a grid of frames on your wall. Each frame will hold a different map. For starters, try a 2x2 set of frames on your wall.
  3. Create a map. After making your frame wall, create your first map using the methods outlined above.
  4. Place the map on one of the frame. Face one of the frames an use your map. It will be attached to the frame, and expand to cover the entire block. This allows your map pieces to be seamless.
  5. Create a second map based on the location of the first. In order to create a seamless map, you'll need to create new maps based on where the original ends. Move outside of one of the edges of the first map and use your second map. This will generate a map based on the next region of the world.
  6. Place the second map next to the first. Place the map in the frame that lines up with the correct border of the first map. If you created your second map correctly, the two should seamlessly transition along the matching edge.
    • The maps will need to be the same zoom level in order to be seamless.
  7. Continue creating and placing maps. Repeat the steps above to keep making more maps. Always move off the edge of the previous map in the direction that your next map needs to be. You can do this as many times as you'd like to create a massive map of your world.[5]

Recipe

Tips

  • If the maps are the exact same map, they will stack. If they're two different maps though, they won't stack.
  • Maps can be used in rain or underwater; they're innately waterproof.
  • Maps use both hands to hold them, unlike most items in the game.
  • You can only use maps in the Overworld. They do not work in The Nether or The End.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. Jump up ↑ http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Iron_Ore
  2. Jump up ↑ http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Altitude
  3. Jump up ↑ http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Compass
  4. Jump up ↑ http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Map
  5. Jump up ↑ http://omgcraft.com/106/
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