Tutorial:Mapping

The map page explains how to craft maps and how they automatically draw themselves as you move through the world. That page also explains maps' limitations and pitfalls. For example, crafting a batch of maps all at once (using shift-click) is generally not helpful because they'll all be duplicates of one another.

Before you learn the mechanics of how to map, you need maps, and for that you need paper. Paper is made from sugar cane, which can commonly be found on the edges of lakes and rivers. For every three sugar cane you have, you can use your crafting table to make three paper. It is best to make a lot of paper before you get started on maps, so you may want to gather a lot of sugar cane first, or start farming it.

The details of crafting maps will depend on if you are using the Java Edition or Bedrock Edition of Minecraft. For Java Edition you will need some compasses, which aren't easy to make early in the game or for a beginner. Compasses are not required for the simplest - non-locator - maps in Bedrock edition, and the amount of paper needed is reduced.

These instructions will give you a map that will show your pointer on it when you hold it in your hand, and will be the largest possible size so you have plenty to explore before you have to make another. It is assumed here that you are a new player, did not choose the option to start with a map and do not have coordinates on.

1. Use your crafting table to create a cartography table
2. Use 1 piece of paper in the cartography table to make 1 empty map.
3. Use an empty map and a compass in the cartography table to make an empty locator map.
4. Use the empty locator map right now. This will give you a small map of where you are right now. It will be filled in with your immediate surrounding area, with a white marker being you.
5. Put the locator map which you just made in the cartography table and put a stack of paper in the other slot. Pick up the end product and put it in the input four times until your map is zoomed to 4/4.
6. Now put the 4/4 locator map you just made into the cartography table with an empty map. This will create two copies of the same map.
   1. Put one copy in a chest. Keep that copy safe in your base.
   2. Keep the other copy on you to see where you are as you explore.

Now you have a map you can hold in your hand as you explore - it will only update if you actively hold it in your hand. As you explore, the map back at base will be updated with your explorations. If you die and lose the map you were holding, you will not lose your mapping progress. When this happens, make another copy of your map before going out again!

If you are near the spawn point of your world (where you started out the game and where you return to if you die without usung a bed), that point will be in one corner of your map. If you turn on coordinates in settings, it's the corner of your map where the first and last numbers of the coordinates are at 0.

You can limit yourself to exploring the map you have now. When you're ready to explore a new area next to your current map:

1. Walk off the edge of your current map so there is a white dot on the edge of your map where you walked off, instead of the normal white pointer.
2. Walk a little farther past the very edge because if you do step 4 in your original map area you’ll end up with two identical maps, not a new map.
3. Make sure you are safe and place a cartography table.
4. Use a new empty locator map to activate it.
5. Now use paper to zoom the new locator map to 4/4.
   1. Note: you can do all this zooming back at base, however zooming clears the map, so this way you'll be certain you are in the new area and will map the way back to your first map when you return to base.
6. Return to base and make a copy of the new map. Put it with the other original to keep it safe, like the first map.

Be careful exploring. A new world is dangerous, that's why the above tutorial suggests keeping a copy of your locator map somewhere safe, so if you die your progress isn't lost with your map.

In addition to all the normal suggestions for exploring (armor, weapons, food) consider these:

• Make a boat and use it to explore the oceans and rivers. They are fast and when night falls you're generally safe when far from the coast.
  • You can follow the coastlines, giving you an idea of the land you'll have to explore.
  • Note: use a boat with chest for this because in shallow water monsters can enter boats - even with you in it - and attack you from the seat behind when you can't turn around to hit them.
  • If you're new to the game and sailing across the ocean, you might suddenly hear a strange noise, see a ghostly being appear and disappear and get an effect. No reason to panic - you sailed over an ocean monument. The effect will make you mine more slowly for a bit and will expire in a few minutes.
• Explore land during the day. Take a bed with you to sleep the moment the sun is low enough and the game will let you so mobs can't spawn.
• One benefit of exploring by night is villages are much easier to spot because they have torches.
  • The same applies to ruined portals.
• Mapping always maps the surface of the ground, even when underground. Because of this:
  • If you have explored some caves already and they well-lit and are safe, walk through those with your map. They will map the land above you as you explore underground.
  • You can tunnel safely through hills and the land above you will map as you go. You'll go through pickaxes quickly though, and beware of discovering monsters or falling into a cave.

If you die while exploring, make a copy of your original before going out looking for your gear. You don't want to lose the original.

There is always more to explore in minecraft, so it's healthy to assume you will always have unexplored parts of your maps, such as in places like the middle of the ocean where it's unlikely you'll find anything. It's also understandable to want to complete maps and fill them entirely - just know you will never be "finished" unless you set boundries for yourself.

Videos on Youtube on getting around fast suggest getting elytra to fly around, which speeds up mapping, but that requires being very advanced in the game to get.

The easiest way to fly around at mid-game is when you get access to the Nether and have obtained a Happy Ghast. This allows you to fly above everything and map as you go, but understand ghasts are also very slow and can take ten minutes to cross the largest map. Flying back and forth across one can take over an hour to explore completely, so consider setting something on your forward key and reading a book or something.

If you have your locator Map inside a Shulker Box or an Ender Chest (both late-game inventory items) which is in your inventory, they will not update. They must be placed in your immediate inventory to update with your travels.

If you would like to put your map out in the world so you can look at it in game without putting it in your hand, all you need is a frame.

You put the frame on a wall or the floor and then use your map on it. You can use multiple frames to put a large map on a wall or the floor.

Maps always go into frames with north facing up (if on a wall) or north itself (if on the floor). If you want to to face a different direction, use the map in the frame to rotate it.

Displayed maps do not show your pointer (or other player's pointers if playing multiplayer). However a green marker will show up on the map where the map is displayed.

When crafting sets of maps, there are two approaches. The first is to travel well outside the current map's edge before crafting a new map, which will conserve map-crafting resources and keep confusingly redundant map space to a minimum. The other method is to deliberately ensure an overlap so that it's easier to find the same landmarks on multiple maps.

The zoom-levels introduced in the Pretty Scary Update make the 'overlap' technique of little benefit on any map at zoom level 0 (none) through 3, because an overview map at the next zoom level 'stitches' the maps together.

Regardless of which technique is used, it's helpful to be systematic in the order you craft the maps. For example, you might make Map #0 (prior to the Pretty Scary Update this was designated "map_0") at the center of the area you want to cover. When maps are crafted (eight paper surrounding a compass) they are initially "Empty Maps" (data value 395). Holding an empty map and right clicking with it will activate it (data value 358) and draw the current terrain to a radius of 100-120 blocks. The map will be centered on a block that is a multiple of 128 on the x & z axis and will cover an area of 128×128 blocks. Thus, if you are at or near the center block, a zoom-level 0 map is nearly complete when crafted from an empty map.

If you want to keep that map, you should duplicate it at that point by placing it and an "Empty Map" on your crafting area or table. If one of those is then placed in the center of a crafting table and surrounded by eight paper, a zoom-level 1 map is crafted. This map will cover an area 256×256 blocks and would be labeled "Map #1" (assuming no other maps were created in the meantime).

This "zoom-out" step can be repeated three more times with each resultant map, yielding Map #2 (512×512), Map #3 (1024×1024), and Map #4 (2048×2048).

(The numbering below assumes that you create only the maps discussed here and that no one else is creating maps.)

To start, move to a spot within 64 blocks of 0,0 (x and z coordinates should each be between -64 and 64) and activate an Empty Map (Map #0). Duplicate it and use the duplicate to craft a zoom-level 1 (Map #1). Use Map #1 to create a zoom-level 2 map (Map #2), and use that to craft a zoom-level 3 map (Map #3). Duplicate Map #3 and use one to craft a zoom-level 4 map (Map #4) which will provide you with an overview map. This zoom-level 4 map will provide you with a good general orientation—there is a lot of territory to explore within a 2048×2048-block area.

To create a set of zoom-level 3 maps which will better show structures you should then move north to a spot approximately (within 64 blocks) of 0,y,1024. Here, craft a new zoom-level 0 map (Map #5) from an Empty Map. Zoom it out to a zoom-level 3 map (Map #8) which will be retained. Then travel east to a spot within 64 blocks of 1024,y,1024. Craft a zoom-level 0 map (Map #9) and zoom out to a zoom-level 3 map (Map #12) which will be retained. Continuing clockwise, you would proceed south repeat the craft-and-zoom process at:

You will now have nine zoom-level 3 maps which cover completely the territory shown by the zoom-level 4 overview map. The set of 9 zoom-level 3 maps actually cover 512 blocks beyond the zoom-level 4 map. Each will be centered on the border of the zoom-level 4 map (and four of which will be centered on the corners of the level-4 map). You can, of course, retain any of the intermediate maps by duplicating them before you zoom them. If you don't duplicate before zooming, you won't be able to obtain them again without using server commands (e.g., "/give <player> 358 1 <map#>", where "358" is the data value for a map and 1 is the number of maps to give) or inventory editors.

It's helpful to keep track of the relative positions of the maps. A useful method of displaying the map set is to craft 10 item frames and place them on a wall in a 3-by-3 square with the tenth atop or beside the square. Place the zoom-level 4 overview in the tenth item frame. Place the nine maps in their appropriate positions in the 3×3 square. A sign can be added which identifies the origin and perhaps the corner coordinates. You could also duplicate any of these which you wish to carry with you while fully exploring an area. Information added to one copy will be automatically updated to all other copies. (Note that crafting a second map of the same area—not duplicating, but crafting anew—will create a map that is NOT linked to the original version, and it will thus NOT be updated even though it covers exactly the same area.)

In the illustration, the sign provides the map # of each of the maps shown. Map #127 is the center map. Map #185 is the map to the north, #189 to the right of that, and the numbering continues clockwise.

As another option, use a chest, and store the maps in slots in the chest that correspond with their in-world positions. If you use this trick, be careful to put them back in the right place once done with them.

You could also craft a Book & Quill (data value 386) in which you can write descriptions of what the map-set covers. This is a useful place to make notes of interesting spots found on those maps. That Book & Quill can be placed in an item frame next to the map set.

Another trick is to name maps on an anvil. You can name a map for its center or its position relative to other maps, i.e. (0,0) at the origin of your mapping, (0,1) one map east of the origin.

This section applies to pre-1.8 games. See the following section on the bountiful update for versions 1.8 and above.

Following the Pretty Scary Update, zoom-level 0 maps will not overlap—they are created with each center 128 blocks from each other center. Since the center-most map has an origin of 0,y,0, each zoom-level 0 map has an x-coordinate and z-coordinate which are each a multiple of 128. All maps created within 64 blocks of a particular pre-defined center will be identical.

Higher zoom-level maps can overlap one another because they can be crafted from zoom-level 0 maps that are centered only 128 blocks from each other. A zoom-level 1 map, for example, covers 256×256 blocks. So if you create a zoom-level 1 map from a zoom-level 0 map centered on (128,y,128)--which would cover a square bounded by the points (64,y,64)-(192,y,64)-(192,y,192)-(64,y,192)--the zoom-level 1 map will cover a square bounded by the points (0,y,0)-(256,y,0)-(256,y,256)-(0,y,256). The zoom-level 0 map adjacent (to the east) would be centered at (256,y,128) and described by the four points (192,y,64)-(320,y,64)-(320,y,192)-(192,y,192). A zoom-level 1 map crafted from this second zoom-level 0 map would be described by the points (128,y,0)-(384,y,0)-(384,y,256)-(128,y,256). The left half of this second zoom-level 1 map will overlap the right half of the first zoom-level 1 map. The illustration on the right may help.

To keep zoom-level 1 maps from overlapping, ensure that each is built from a zoom-level zero with x- and z-coordinates that are multiples of 256. To keep zoom-level 2 maps from overlapping, build them from zoom-level 0 maps with x/z coordinates that are multiples of 512. Zoom-level 3 maps should only be crafted from zoom-level 0 maps centered on x/z coordinates that are multiples of 1024; and zoom-level 4 maps should be crafted from zoom-level 0 maps with x/z coordinates that are multiples of 2048.

Tip: Mark the center of maps by placing a sign labeled it with the map number, and light it up or mark it in some way so that it's easier to find again. Additionally, craft a duplicate map and place it in a frame at that spot. The map (or its duplicate) will display with a green pointer shown at the location of the item frame.

Tip: Surface lava pools make good landmarks as they show up as red dots on zoomed-out maps. The higher the zoom-level, however, the larger the pool must be before it shows up. You can, of course, make your own lava pool, just be sure it is open to the sky. To be safe, you can cover the lava pools with glass to keep players, mobs, and drops from falling in.

Tip: While attempting to create a new map adjacent to an existing map, make sure to move 10-15 blocks beyond what appears to be the border of the existing map before creating the new map. There a band where the player marker seems off the map, but it's still technically inside the mapped area. Creating a new map just after crossing the "border" of the current map frequently results in the same map.

Tip: The Time-Saving Tips page has some extra suggestions for making mapping quicker and safer.

As of Minecraft 1.8 the mapping system changed considerably. Overlapping maps are no longer possible to create at all. Each zoom level of maps has a grid that all maps now align to. The top left corner of each map now aligns to the (x,z) coordinate (-64, -64) +- (m,n)*size. Where m and n are any integer numbers and size is the map size (128 for zoom level 0, up to 2048 for zoom level 4). The most notable change is that maps no longer zoom out from the center as in version 1.7 but snap to the grid.

Assuming one wants to make maps which cover the origin (0,0) and surrounding area, 4 maps are required. Follow these steps:

1. Create 4 blank maps and put them into your inventory
2. Travel to coordinates (-80, -80) initialize one map (Map #0)
3. Travel to coordinates (-50, -80) initialize one map (Map #1)
4. Travel to coordinates (-50, -50) initialize one map (Map #2)
5. Travel to coordinates (-80, -50) initialize one map (Map #3)
6. Note: -50 and -80 are simply locations on either side of the -64 boundary.
7. Zoom these four maps out using the normal process
8. Regardless of the zoom level, maps generated from this initial set will always align properly.

This will create 4 perfectly aligned maps covering the origin with the least amount of traveling. The map numbers will cover the area clockwise from "top left" (i.e. NW-NE-SE-SW).