published on April 24, 2023 in Tips

Minecraft How to Make A Map or Map Wall

Learn how to make a Map & Map Wall in Minecraft with our easy to follow guide! We'll run you through the step-by-step process of creating Maps and creating a nice Map Wall for decoration. If you want to know where you're going and where you've been, then creating these is going to be important to your adventuring.

How-to Craft a Map

Creating maps in Minecraft is a bit more resource intensive than you might thing. While getting the paper for them is relatively easy, you also need to have a Compass! This can be a bit harder to obtain early on in the game.

Step 1: Create a Compass

Like I mentioned, first we're going to need a Compass. to create one of those, we'll need 1x Redstone and 4x Iron Ingots. You'll likely need to go down into a cave or find both of these, because while Iron Blocks spawn relatively high, Redstone Blocks can only be found pretty close to the bottom of the map (maybe you'll find some Diamond as well!).

Once you've squared away your Iron Ingots and Redstone Dust situation and created a Compass, we'll be moving onto the next step!

Step 2: Find Sugar Cane

We're now going to need Sugar Cane. This can be found naturally occurring near water, or you can possibly buy some from a Wandering Trader for an Emerald each. If you get some, you should probably start a small cane farm. It can only grow next to water, so either find a nearby lake/river to plant it or dig up some terrain and fill it with water and plant next to it!

Step 3: Create Paper

Once you've located some Sugar Cane, you'll need three of them to craft 3x Paper.

Step 4: Create a Blank Map

You'll need nine total Paper to craft, so gather that up and grab your Compass! Here's the recipe to receive a Blank Map (9x Paper, 1x Compass):

Step 5: Set the Location

Once you've got your Blank Map, you'll just need to hit your Use Item/Place Block key to give you a map around the location you are currently in!

Using a Cartography Table

In some versions of Minecraft (Bedrock & PS4), you can also use a Cartography Table to create a map. First, create the table:

Once you've got that setup, just put in a single piece of paper into the bottom slot! That's it, you've now created an Empty Map. Here's some other stuff you can create:

Map + Paper = Expanded Cleared Map
Map + Empty Map = Cloned Map
Map + Glass Pane = Locked Map
Map + Compass = Locator Map‌ (Bedrock)
Empty Map + Compass = Empty Locator Map‌ (Bedrock)
Paper + Compass = Empty Locator Map‌ (Bedrock)

How-to Create a Map Wall

If you want to make an awesome decorated wall with a part of the map of your current seed then this is the way to do it! First, we're going to need some Sticks and Leather to create some Item Frames.

These Item Frames will be used to hold the it in place on the wall. Create as many as you'd like depending on how big you want to make. I recommend sticking with a square, so 2x2 or 3x3 are good sizes. However, don't let that hold you back, feel free to get creative with it! For the purposes of this guide, we're going to be doing a 3x3 wall.

Go ahead and lay it out where you want it to be in your home or base. Now, head to the area you want to be the center. Be sure to pick carefully, because this is going to dictate the look of the rest of the wall. Once you've located your spot, use a Blank Map which will give you the beginning of your wall.

Now that you have your map, you will notice a small white arrow on it. That's you! If you move around, you'll notice the arrow move as well. What we want to do now is travel south until we see on the map that it turns into a dot instead of an arrow. That means we're off of that section. Once we're there, create another map out of a blank. You will need to explore around the area to make sure the map is fully opened up. You should now have the middle and middle-bottom section complete.