When you’re out exploring Minecraft, it can be pretty easy to get lost. There is an infinite number of biomes in each world and it’s all really hard to remember where you’ve been. Luckily Mojang thought of that and implemented a way to map out the entire layout of your worlds. You will need a map and the ability to expand it to do that. Here is how to craft, and expand, a map in Minecraft.
Crafting your map
Crafting a map in Minecraft requires two materials: paper and a compass. You won’t normally find these materials spawning in the world, so you need to craft them. Just play the game until you get some Iron Ingots, Redstone and Sugar Cane, all pretty easy to get.
Now you need a steady supply of paper. This means you will definitely want to pursue a full-sized Sugar Cane farm. You will need a few pieces of paper for the map itself, but also much more paper if you want to expand that initial map. All you need for three Paper is to place three pieces of Sugar Cane in any row of a crafting table. Get a bunch, for starters, you’ll need eight pieces of it to craft a map.
The final piece of the puzzle is a Compass. First, you’ll need four iron ingots, which can be smelted from iron ore in a furnace. Once you have the iron, you will also need some Redstone. You need one Redstone and four Iron Ingots for one Compass. Place the Redstone in the center slot, and place the Iron in the four cardinal directional slots around it. That means one Iron Ingot above, one below, one left and one right.
Once you have the Compass, it’s time to make the Map. Take the Compass, place it in the center slot in the crafting table. Surround the Compass with eight pieces of paper to make a blank map.
Expanding your map
You will need to open the new map once to trigger it. As you go out and explore the world, the original map will feel in with a visual representation of the world around you. But if you want to explore more of the massive world, you will need to expand your map in Minecraft via two methods.
Crafting Bench method
You can go about expanding your map in Minecraft via two methods. You can expand your map with the crafting bench, you will have to surround your map with 8 pieces of paper. This will only work for short-term solutions though, as it takes a ton of paper to expand to a larger map. If you’re just expanding a map once, this method is fine though. There is now a new method though, the Cartography Table.
Cartography Table method
The best way to expand your map is through the cartography table. You could even create a new space inside your base that creates the maps and has all the tools you need. Once you’ve gathered all of the other tools and empty maps together, it’s time to stitch the whole thing together. A cartography table is crafted the same way as a crafting bench, only with two pieces of paper on top of the four wood. That means you need the map and one additional piece of paper to expand a map in the game.
You will need to go back and uncover previously explored territory, as expanding a map will reset the explored territory. So it’s best to decide ahead of time if you want to commit to that.
