How to Craft Map in Minecraft
A Map records the terrain around you when activated. Hold it and walk around to fill in unexplored areas.
Overview
A Map records the terrain around you when activated. Hold it and walk around to fill in unexplored areas. Map uses a shaped recipe, meaning the ingredients must sit in the exact pattern shown in the grid above; placing them in the wrong cells will not produce the item. A Crafting Table gives you the full 3x3 grid, which you need for any recipe larger than 2x2. You can craft one from four planks, and most bases keep one near the furnaces.
The recipe was added in Minecraft Alpha and still works the same way in version 1.21. Each craft yields a single Map.
The materials come together from a few sources: you will be working with paper (craft from sugar cane) and compass (craft from iron ingots and redstone). If any of those are not already in your stores, gather them first, because the craft itself takes only a moment once everything is in the grid. With the ingredients on hand and a Crafting Table placed, Map is one of the quicker things to add to your inventory.
Crafting Recipe
MapMaterials Needed
To make Map you will gather 8x Paper (craft from sugar cane) and Compass (craft from iron ingots and redstone). Lining these up before you open the Crafting Table saves a trip back to storage, especially if you plan to craft several at once.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Open your Crafting Table to access the 3x3 crafting grid.
- Arrange the ingredients in the crafting grid following the pattern shown above.
- Place Paper in: row 1, column 1; row 1, column 2; row 1, column 3; row 2, column 1; row 2, column 3; row 3, column 1; row 3, column 2; row 3, column 3.
- Place Compass in: row 2, column 2.
- Collect your Map from the output slot.
Tips & Notes
- If the output slot stays empty, double-check the pattern against the grid above; a shaped recipe fails silently when even one ingredient is in the wrong cell.
Uses for Map
- Mapping explored terrain
- Navigation
How Map Fits Your World
Tools determine how fast you gather and what blocks you can mine at all: a pickaxe of the right tier is required to mine higher ores, since mining diamond ore needs at least an iron pickaxe and ancient debris needs a diamond one. Every tool also carries a durability bar that ticks down with use, so enchantments like Unbreaking and Mending dramatically extend how long it lasts before it breaks. For Map specifically, that means it is most valuable for mapping explored terrain and navigation.
View detailed item stats, durability and properties for Map on the Astroworld Items Database.