In Minecraft, a game that’s all about exploration, having a compass can be a true game changer. You can keep track of your direction, builds, and even your friends on Minecraft survival servers. But, getting a compass and using it properly can be a challenge for some players. We are here to change that by helping you learn how to make a compass in Minecraft and use it to take your exploration to a whole new level.
How to Make a Compass in Minecraft (2023)
From crafting to uses, our guide covers everything you need to know about compass in Minecraft. But, if you already know how it works, please feel free to skip to its spawn and crafting.
What is a Compass in Minecraft
The compass is a unique functional item in Minecraft. It points towards your spawn point and custom lodestones, making them extremely easy to find. Furthermore, you can also use the compass to create and customize maps in a bunch of amazing ways.
Where Do Compass Spawn in Minecraft
You can find a compass in Minecraft within the chests of these structures:
- Ancient City
- Shipwreck
- Stronghold (library)
- Village (cartographer's chest)
Out of these, villages have the best chance of spawning chests with compasses in them. But, if you consider the rarity of cartographers, Ancient Cities are a much better option. Additionally, you can make a cartography table to turn regular villagers into cartographers and trade emeralds for a compass too.
Items Required to Make a Compass in Minecraft
You need to get the following items to craft a compass in Minecraft:
- 4 Iron Ingot
- 1 Redstone Dust
- Crafting Table
Since the crafting recipe of a compass requires a 3X3 grid, you first need to make a crafting table in Minecraft. To craft it, simply fill up the 2X2 grid in your inventory with wooden planks and the crafting table will spawn. You can use any type of wood for the planks including bamboo wood.
How to Get Iron Ingot in Minecraft
Follow these steps to easily get all four ingots you need to make a compass in Minecraft:
1. The easiest way to get iron in Minecraft is by finding a village and killing its Iron Golem. You can get 3 to 5 ingots from the golem and it can't attack you if you are on top of a 3-block tall pillar.
2. But, if you don't want to harm a golem, you need to make a wooden pickaxe in Minecraft.
3. Then, use the wooden pickaxe to mine stone blocks and get cobblestone.
4. Next, use the mined cobblestone to create a stone pickaxe. Unfortunately, you cannot use the wooden pickaxe to mine iron ore.
5. Once you have a stone pickaxe, find iron ore in Minecraft and mine it to collect raw iron. The maximum amount of iron spawns at the world height of Y=16.
6. Finally, smelt all the raw iron inside a furnace to turn it into iron ingots. You can use any extra wooden planks as the fuel.
Where to Find Redstone Dust
While you can find naturally generated Redstone dust in structures like Woodland Mansions, finding them isn't as easy as finding an Iron Golem. So, it's best to stick with mining Redstone ore to collect its dust. Here's how:
1. First, make an iron pickaxe or stronger in Minecraft. If you mine Redstone ore with a wooden or stone pickaxe, it ends up dropping nothing.
2. Then, search for Redstone ore in the deep caves of Minecraft. As per Minecraft 1.20 ore distribution, it generates most commonly at the height of Y=-64.
3. Once you find the Redstone ore, mine it using your iron pickaxe to collect Redstone dust. Unlike other minerals, you don't need to smelt Redstone to obtain its final form.
Crafting Recipe of a Compass
Once you have all the items you need, it's time to make a compass in Minecraft. To do so, place the Redstone dust in the middle of the crafting grid. Then, put one iron ingot on each side of Redstone, making sure all the corners are empty. With that, your compass is ready!
Uses of a Compass in Minecraft
You can use a compass for the following purposes in Minecraft:
- Village Maps: Thanks to the Minecraft trade rebalance, you can trade with cartographers using a compass to get village maps. These maps allow you to easily find all types of villages in the game.
- Empty Map: You can combine one compass with eight pieces of paper to make an empty map in Minecraft.
- Map Marker: In the Bedrock edition, you can combine a compass with a map to add a location marker to it. This marker shows your current location with respect to the area covered in the map.
- Emeralds: You can sell your compass to cartographer villagers for one emerald.
How to Read a Compass in Minecraft
Now that you know how to make a compass in Minecraft, it's time to read and use it. Here's how:
1. First, hold the compass in your hand to equip it. Just like shields in Minecraft, you can also place it in your off-hand and continue using it. Unlike the compass in the real world which points toward the north, the compass in Minecraft points to the world spawn point.
2. Later, once you sleep on a bed in Minecraft, that bed becomes your spawnpoint. But the compass will still continue to point towards the world spawn point and not your bed.
3. You can also create a lodestone in Minecraft and make your compass point towards it. This allows you to create a set of compasses that point towards specific locations in your world. But, you will have to find Netherite in Minecraft to make it.
Unfortunately, compasses only work in the overworld dimension of Minecraft. If you take them to the Nether or End dimension, the compass will start pointing in random directions.
Bonus: How to Make a Recovery Compass in Minecraft
There is no doubt having a compass allows you to make it to your base in no time. But, in a survival world, you can also teleport to back your bed by simply dying. Unfortunately, when you die, any items you had in your inventory will remain at the location where you died.
But, it can be challenging to retrieve them, and often, items can despawn before you find the location of your death. This is where a recovery compass comes into place. It is a unique variant of the compass that points towards the location of your last death.
Here's how to make and use it:
1. First, search for an Ancient City in Minecraft. This structure only appears in the deep dark biome which generates below the world height of Y=-51.
2. Then, explore the Ancient City and go through all of its chests till you find echo shards. You need a total of 8 shards to make a recovery compass.
3. Finally, place your compass in the middle of the crafting grid and surround it with echo shards. Voila! With that, your recovery compass is ready!
The recovery compass only works when it is in the hands of a player who has died previously. Moreover, you also need to be in the same dimension in which you died. Otherwise, the recovery compass will spin around randomly.
Bonus: Use a Compass Without Crafting It
A major problem with the compass in Minecraft is that most players don't use it more than once. But, once you craft it, there is no way to get the ingredients back. Fortunately, there is a way to use a compass before actually crafting it. Here's how:
1. Before you begin, make sure you are facing towards the side you want to find the direction of. Then, place a crafting table right in front of you.
2. Then, use the above-mentioned recipe to craft a compass in Minecraft. But, don't click on the resulting compass as doing so will consume your ingredients.
3. Thanks to a unique mechanic, the compass works even when it's inside the crafting grid. So, you can use it by placing the crafting table at different spots.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the compass point to the bed?
The compass in Minecraft always points to the world spawn point or a lodestone. By default, your respawn point is the same as the world spawn point, the location where you first spawn. But, when you sleep on a bed in Minecraft, your respawn point gets set to that bed. But, the compass continues to point towards the spawn point of the world.
Why isn't my compass pointing to my bed?
The compasses in Minecraft only point towards the world spawn point and not your beds.
How do you make a death compass in Minecraft?
You can combine a regular compass with eight echo shards to turn it into a recovery compass. This variant of the compass points towards the location of the last spot where you died.
Make and Use Compass in Minecraft 1.20
Once you have a compass to guide you and a camel to ride on, all your adventures will feel like a breeze. But, even this reliable tool can become useless if you are playing on the scary Minecraft seeds. From dangerous spaws to spooky caves, they have it all. However, if you have a friend to invite on the adventure, your survival might become possible. If not, it’s time to join our Minecraft Discord server and start building your excavation team.