How to Make a Map in Minecraft and Turn it Into an Item? 6 Simple Steps

Minecraft is pretty big. Not infinite, but just big. And that’s why maps could come in handy. They are great for providing guidance and can even serve as decoration pieces. Put it up on your wall or use it to find your way back from an exciting adventure. A map could be a game-changer when you are playing in the survival or multiplayer mode. But making a map in Minecraft is not as easy as it sounds. So how would you craft it?

Maps are of two types. Empty map and empty locator map. You need to have eight pieces of paper and one compass to make an empty locator map. Open your crafting table and place the compass in the center of the grid. Place the eight pieces of paper around it on the grid. That will craft a locator map. To make an empty map, fill the nine boxes of the grid with paper. 

Mapmaking in Minecraft is a bit advanced. But you can still make it if you have a bit of knowledge and the required ingredients. Maps show the terrain and the landmarks that you have explored, so they are pretty useful. The two types of maps require some specific ingredients that you may also need to craft first. Let’s get to know how to craft both types in detail.

How to make a locator map in Minecraft

To begin with, you would need some ingredients. Some of them are easy to find, some of them aren’t. You will probably need to craft some as well. So let’s begin.

Make a crafting table

To make maps, you need a crafting table. If you do not have a crafting table initially, you can make one. Making a crafting table requires wooden planks. The crafting table is the backbone of Minecraft. You can use it to create a plethora of important and valuable items.

The raw material for a crafting table includes four wooden planks. To make planks, place a piece of wood on the crafting grid in your inventory. That will give you four wooden planks. 

Place those four planks in four grid boxes again. And that will give you a crafting table.

Finding & collecting sugarcane

The most important ingredient to craft the maps is paper. How do you craft paper? From sugarcane. 

Sugarcane is sometimes frustrating to find and collect. Three pieces of sugarcane make three pieces of paper. So I would suggest you grow it on your farm so that you may never end up running out of paper. Paper is also an essential ingredient to make several items.

Sugar cane is a reed and is normally found near the coastline, marshes, or water bodies. Make sure that you are looking for it near the warm waters and not frozen waters.

Better yet, grow it on your farm if you intend to craft more books, make a library, or want to decorate your place with bookshelves. All of such items will require paper as a basic ingredient.

Crafting paper

Once you have collected three pieces of sugarcane, go to your crafting table and place the sugarcane pieces in a row one by one.

This will get you three pieces of paper. To make a locator map, you must have at least eight pieces of paper. To craft an empty map, you will have to use nine pieces of paper.

Making a compass

To make a compass, you require iron and Redstone. You can get these two items through mining. To mine these items, you need an iron pickaxe. Redstone starts at layer 16, so you may have to dig pretty far below to find it. Iron is mined from grey iron blocks with orange dots.

Once you have the required ingredients, four iron ores, and one Redstone, place them all in the crafting grid of your crafting table in a way that the iron ores are in the squares covering the four sides of the Redstone. 

Crafting a locator map

Now you have all the paper pieces you need along with the compass. Go to your crafting table. Place the compass in the center of the crafting grid and surround it with eight pieces of paper. No squares should be empty. 

Congratulations, you have crafted a locator map now. Move it to your inventory, and you’ll see the light green paper icon now.

Crafting an empty map

To make an empty map, place nine pieces of paper on your crafting table. Remember, an empty map crafted without a compass will not show any location markers. You can add them by combining the empty map with a compass on the crafting table.

How to turn an empty map into a map Item

At first, your map will be completely blank. To transform it into a map item and fill it with information, hold the empty map and select “use item”.

How to make different sized maps in Minecraft

You can make five different sizes of maps in Minecraft. Your basic locator map made from 8 pieces of paper and one compass is a level 0 map. 

To make a level 1 map, open your crafting grid and place your level 0 locator map in the center square. Surround it with eight pieces of paper. This will give you a level 1 map. It would cover more area than your initial basic map.

Similarly, you can make level 2, level 3, and level 4 maps by placing the previous versions of the maps in the center of the rafting grid and using eight pieces of paper each time. Level 4 map is the largest map in Minecraft and takes a very long time to update all the information.

And that how you make maps in Minecraft. Keep an eye on your friends in your world through your maps, and enjoy traveling around the world.