Since the humongous world of Minecraft is bursting with biomes, caves, and villages, it is pretty easy to get turned around and forget what biome, cave, or village one is in.
Though coordinates are nice, nothing replaces a Minecraft compass in figuring out how to get where one wants to go.
One can easily retrieve his original spawn point when he needs it. Perhaps the best way would be to learn a way of producing and using Minecraft compass for gameplaying purposes.
This guide takes you through everything about it, ranging from making a compass to the application of using a compass up to advanced navigation tips for doing it perfectly with your navigation procedures in Minecraft.
What is Minecraft Compass?
While an actual compass may always point toward magnetic North, your compass will always point you toward your original spawn location.
This is helpful for players who tend to wander far from the spawn point and need a reliable way back. Compasses are also part of the crafting of locator maps and other navigation tools in the game.
How to Craft Minecraft Compass?
Making a Minecraft compass is easy and requires only two basic resources:
Materials Needed:
- 4 Iron Ingots
- 1 Redstone Dust
You can get those pretty easily when you have mined. Let’s see now how you produce them:
How to Get Iron Ingot?
- Mining – Go to the cave and find there the iron ore blocks underground. You can get the iron ores by mining the stone pickaxe, which is higher than that.
- Smelting – Smelt these iron ores at the furnace while using some sort of fuel- coal or wooden.
How to Get Redstone Dust?
- Mining – Redstone ore can be mined in caves, from Y: -64 up to Y: 16. To be able to do this you’ll need an iron pickaxe or higher.
- From Villagers – Some of the librarian villagers will sell redstone dust for emeralds.
Making the Minecraft Compass
Now that you have everything you need, here is how to make a Minecraft compass:
- Open your Crafting Table (3×3 crafting grid).
- Add Redstone Dust to the middle slot.
- Next, add 4 Iron Ingots in slots on each side of the Redstone Dust.
- Open your inventory. Take your compass from the crafting table.
Congratulations! You now have a working Minecraft compass.
How to Use a Minecraft Compass?
1. Find Your Spawn Point
A Minecraft compass essentially points to the spawn point of the world. Just ensure you keep the compass handy and the needle will guide you home.
It is generally useful for the following:
- You have been travelling a distance and would love to go back home now.
- You lost your house but started your base near Spawn.
- You want to relocate to the place where you first started the game.
2. Use Compass in the Nether and End
By default, a Minecraft compass does not function in the Nether or End dimensions. It simply spins at random and serves no purpose to help navigate. However, it is possible to craft a Lodestone Compass to bypass this problem; see below.
3. Locator Map Crafting
A Minecraft compass is also needed to create a locator map which indicates your current location on a map. To make a locator map, you will require the following materials:
- 1 Compass
- 8 Sheets of Paper
You place them on a crafting table and voilà; you have a map showing where you are in real time.
4. Lodestone Compass
The Lodestone Compass is the upgraded version of the standard Minecraft compass. A compass always points towards a place but not to the spawn point necessarily.
Make a Lodestone using the following instructions:
- Take 8 Chiseled Stone Bricks and use it with 1 Netherite Ingot.
- Can be placed anywhere on Earth.
- Permanent placement.
- Right-clicking on a Minecraft compass at a location puts a Lodestone.
This comes in handy especially for the multiplayer servers, as you will have waypoints at your bases or strategic locations.
How to Use a Minecraft Compass Like a Pro? Tips and Tricks
- Maps and Locators: Getting lost will be fully prevented using a Minecraft compass and a locator map in the real-time tracking of movement.
- More Compasses: You can just keep making some number of Minecraft compasses and place them at various places when you travel over a long distance several times. Then you would never have navigation problems.
- Treasure Hunts: The use of a compass is also invented for treasure hunting. Because you mark the essential places using Lodestones.
- Trading with Villagers: If you do not want to make one, there is a small possibility that Librarian Villagers sometimes sell Minecraft compasses in exchange for emeralds.
- Find Spawn Point in Multi-player: This means that in multi-player servers, a Minecraft compass can be used to go back to the spawn area which would be very helpful to group up with friends.
Final Thoughts
One of the most basic yet really powerful navigation tools any player must learn to craft and use efficiently is the Minecraft compass.
This is about getting your way back to spawn, making locator maps, or setting up custom waypoints on a Lodestone Compass.
Mastery of the Minecraft compass enhances navigation skills as well as improves the overall gameplay experience for players.
As long as you know the right techniques and tricks, you can use your Minecraft compass like a pro and never be lost in the vast, blocky world of Minecraft again!
