Anna "Anomaliya" Gordeeva
It’s easy to get lost in the cubic world, especially in the early stages of the game and during long journeys. A compass will help you find your way back to familiar places where you first spawned. In this guide, we’ll look at how to make a compass in Minecraft and why it might come in handy.
How to get a compass in Minecraft?
Image: planetminecraft.com
There are three main ways to acquire this item in the game: craft it by hand, find it in chests, or buy it from a villager. The easiest method is to craft it yourself, but sometimes you can find a ready-made one—if you’re lucky.
❓ Where to look:
✅ In villages, in cartographer houses—these buildings are easy to recognize by the map on the table. The chance of finding a compass in a cartographer’s chest is about 26%.
✅ In strongholds, in library chests—the chance of it appearing is 10.9% in the Java version and 10.5% in Bedrock.
✅ In ancient cities, it appears with a probability of about 16%.
✅ In shipwrecks, it’s rarer, but it can drop with a 7.7% chance along with a treasure map.
An alternative way is to buy it from a cartographer villager when they level up to apprentice. You’ll need one emerald for the trade, but the desired item doesn’t always appear, so you may need some patience (and luck).
How to make a compass in Minecraft?
Image: minecraft.net
If you don’t want to rely on luck, you can craft it by hand—this is a simple and reliable way to get the item at any point in the game.
You’ll need the following to craft it:
- 4 iron ingots obtained from iron ore found in caves and mines. Just smelt the ore in a furnace to get the ingots for the recipe.
- 1 redstone dust drops when you mine redstone ore, which is found deep underground starting at level Y=16 and below. You need at least an iron pickaxe or stronger to mine it.
Once you have all the materials, you can start working at the crafting table:
- Place the redstone dust in the center.
- Arrange the iron ingots on all four sides—above, below, left, and right of the center slot.
- Move the finished item to your inventory.
No rare materials are required for its creation, so it can be made in the early stages of survival. It’s a very useful tool to always have on hand, especially if you plan to travel far from your base.
How to use a compass in Minecraft?
Image: digitaltrends.com
The needle always points to the spawn point—the very place where the player appears when the world is created. Even if you’ve gone far away or changed your respawn point with a bed, the needle will still lead you to the original location. This helps you orient yourself and return to a familiar place, especially if you’re lost.
It works in different situations: you can hold it in your hand, look at it in your inventory, place it on a crafting table, or put it in an item frame—the needle will still point in the right direction. It turns depending on where the player is facing: to get to the spawn point, just walk in the direction the needle indicates.
🔸 In addition to navigation, you can use it when crafting other items:
- Empty map created from a compass and paper; it shows the surrounding world and your location.
- Recovery compass shows where the player last died. To craft it, you need a regular compass and eight echo shards.
You can also sell it to an apprentice-level cartographer villager for 1 emerald. Considering how easy it is to make, this can be a profitable way to trade in the early stages of the game.
Features of compass operation in the Nether
Image: sportskeeda.com
In the Nether and End worlds, a normal compass doesn’t work—the needle starts spinning in different directions and won’t show you where to go. This is because there’s no fixed spawn point in these dimensions, unlike the normal world, so there’s nothing for it to "lock onto."
To make it point to a specific place anyway, you can use a special block called a lodestone. It’s crafted from one netherite ingot and eight chiseled stone bricks. If you click on it with a compass, the compass will link to it and begin pointing precisely to where the lodestone is located—even if you’re in the Nether or End.
This method is especially useful if you often visit the Nether or have built a base there. It makes it much easier to navigate and find your way back, even in the most confusing areas.
Compass in Minecraft is especially helpful at the beginning of the game, when the map is not yet explored but you have to walk through unfamiliar locations. With it, you can get out of even the most remote places and find your way back. And when it’s no longer necessary, you’ll easily find another use for it—for example, creating a map or a lodestone compass linked to a specific spot.
Main image: ensigame.com
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