Minecraft’s world invites not only building but also exploration. There are numerous structures to discover, new biomes to find, and new animals to tame. Therefore, sooner or later, you’ll need to embark on journeys to find unique blocks in your world. Even just a few hundred blocks away can lead to losing your sense of direction. To prevent this, you should prepare adequately and know the essential tools for successful navigation in Minecraft. Today, we’ll show you how to use a compass, a map, and other tools effectively!
Integrating Natural Orientation Methods in Minecraft
If you want to explore your world completely without items, there are still some useful tips that can help you find your way. These can be organically integrated into your world, so they don’t stand out too much. Thus, you can naturally orient yourself from the early hours of gameplay.
Environmental Features: It’s best to become familiar with your surroundings. Look closely at mountains, landscapes, and biomes to remember from which direction you originally came.
Own Constructions: You can also set up some markers that you can recognize from hundreds of blocks away. These were also used in real life in the past, such as larger towers or signs. These elements can be better integrated into your world, for example, in medieval worlds.
Sun and Moon: Just like in our world, the sun always rises in the east, providing you with a good sense of direction. The moon follows the same pattern.
Campfire and Hay: The smoke from a campfire is a good signal and can be seen over long distances. The smoke is even higher with a hay bale underneath.
Navigating with the Compass: Returning to the Spawn Point
A compass allows you to orient yourself most effectively if you’ve built your base near your spawn point. This is the location where you first load into your world and where you return if you die without an active bed. The compass always points to the spawn, unless you use it on a lodestone. This is extremely useful in the Nether, as maps don’t work there.
Maps for the Grand Exploration
Maps are an upgrade from the compass and one of the best tools to orient yourself and view your world from a different perspective. They are incredibly flexible and have received a significant update with the cartography table. Especially for large worlds, maps are extremely practical to overview your progress and avoid relying on tools outside the game.
You craft a map using a compass and eight pieces of paper. You then receive a blank map, which you need to unfold first. Depending on where you open the map for the first time, a specific map section is created. Maps always orient themselves according to the world’s coordinates, so you won’t find overlaps with the same map size. Standard maps have a size of 128x128 blocks and pixels, meaning one pixel corresponds to one block. This covers 8x8 chunks of your world.
You can enlarge the map at the cartography table or in your crafting field. The subsequent levels are:
- 256x256 blocks
- 512x512 blocks
- 1024x1024 blocks
- 2048x2048 blocks
The further you zoom out, the larger your map becomes, but the fewer details you can recognize. And the largest map format takes quite a while to fully complete. The map grid remains the same, so four maps of one level correspond to one map of the following enlargement level. As mentioned, maps don’t work in the Nether, but amusingly, they do in the End.
You can copy maps to share them with other players or lock them with a glass pane to prevent further changes. In your world, you can display maps using item frames. It’s best to use illuminated item frames so your map is always readable!
Markings on Maps and Special Villager Maps
Together with banners, maps are extremely practical because you can use them as markers on the map. This can be done with a regular banner, but you can also rename them in an anvil to leave direct markers on the maps. Place the banner in your world and then click on the banner with the map. However, this feature is only available in Java, not in Bedrock.
Not only can you craft maps, but villagers are also helpful in finding certain things in your world. The cartographer can offer you various exploration maps as your relationship with them grows, which you can purchase with emeralds and compasses.
There are:
- Ocean Map: Leads to an ocean monument
- Woodland Map: Leads to a woodland mansion
- Trial Map: Leads to a trial chamber
Soon to be added (or already available) will be:
- Jungle Map: Leads to a jungle temple
- Swamp Map: Leads to a swamp hut
- Village Map: Leads to another village of a specific biome (savanna, taiga, snow, desert, and plains)
These maps can help you find various new places in your world. They work like regular maps, but you often need to find the right area to actively follow the map. Additionally, you can find treasure maps in sunken shipwrecks that lead you to buried treasures.
Advanced Tools: Coordinates & Mapping Programs for Precise Navigation
The coordinates displayed via the F3 menu in Java or natively in Bedrock can also be used for precise navigation. However, some consider this cheating, despite the feature being directly included in Minecraft. How you handle it is up to you, of course. Coordinates are, however, the best method to always find the exact spot again. Additionally, with the “/locate” command, you can find virtually any biome and structure. This is particularly useful in creative mode!
If you want an even better overview, external programs are your best friend. There are now many, but the website Chunk Base and the programs uNmINed and Mapee are definitely recommended. However, this also falls under the category of cheating for some players, so you need to decide how precisely you want to navigate and discover new things in Minecraft.
Conclusion
With millions of blocks in every direction, navigation in Minecraft can be challenging. Nevertheless, the game itself provides many tools to help you orient yourself more easily. The compass and a map are a good starting point, but certain landscapes and your own constructions also aid you. Rent your own Minecraft server and embark on a journey with friends! With copied maps, you can each have a copy and explore the surroundings together. And perhaps a villager will provide you with a map to another structure that you can then explore together.
