How to Make a Compass in Minecraft

A compass is a useful tool in Minecraft that helps you navigate by always pointing to your world spawn point. It’s a vital resource for players exploring far-off lands who want to find their way back home. There are many further uses of a compass that make it an extremely useful item in the game to have, such as being used to craft a locator map.

In this article, you’ll learn how to craft a compass, how it works, and ways it can be used in the game.

How to Craft a Compass

The crafting recipe of a compass has a few simple steps. Firstly, you will want to mine for iron and redstone with a pickaxe. Iron that you will mine will have to be smelted with a furnace.

Once you have collected at least four iron ingots and one redstone dust, you are ready to make a compass. In a crafting table, place your iron ingots in a diamond shape around the center index, with your redstone dust being placed in the center. This will make one compass. Make sure to check out the video above if you are confused with the crafting recipe (it is shown in the thumbnail above!).

How Does a Compass Work?

The compass always points to the world’s original spawn point unless you’ve created a lodestone. If you hold the compass or place it in your inventory's hotbar, you’ll see the needle pointing to your spawn location, regardless of how far you’ve traveled. This can be extremely useful if you've started a creation at your spawn point and have wandered off from it for an adventure.

You might be asking, what is a lodestone block? A lodestone block, added to Minecraft in the 1.16 Nether Update, is a special block that allows a compass to point to it instead of the world spawn point. This can be useful if you'd like to set a home base away from your spawn point and would rather use a compass than a map to get back. Lodestones and a connected compass can be used in the Overworld, the Nether, or the End.

A lodestone can be crafted with eight chiseled stone blocks placed around the center index of a crafting table, with the middle index taking one netherite ingot. You will receive one lodestone as a result.

To connect your compass to the lodestone block, simply right-click the lodestone with your compass in hand, and your compass will now always point to the lodestone's location. Note that if you were to break the lodestone block after connecting the compass, and the compass is still in your inventory when the block is broken, the pointer will begin spinning randomly. Placing a lodestone block in the exact same location will revert the compass back to pointing to the block.

What Can be Crafted with a Compass?

A compass allows you to craft a locator map, an item introduced in Version 1.6 that works as a map but allows you to view the locations of other players in your game, which is especially useful in multiplayer servers or when playing with friends.

To craft a locator map, you will need eight pieces of paper and one compass. Place the compass in the middle index of a crafting table with the pieces of paper surrounding it, and you will receive one locator map.

What are Other Uses of Compasses in Minecraft?

There are many ways to utilize a compass beyond its obvious function of direction. For example, consider using multiple compasses with lodestone blocks across your different worlds (Overworld, Nether, End) to create multiple base locations, which might be useful in multiplayer servers when trying to cover a large area of land or wanting to be discreet with the size of your creations, opening yourself up to multiple locations for an overall bigger size of your bases.

Additionally, compasses are a great decorative feature to use for the interiors of houses. Placing a compass in an item frame can symbolize travel and adventure, two very important components of Minecraft! Incorporate a compass in an item frame into your interior design to spice things up.

A compass is a simple yet essential tool in Minecraft, making it easier to explore, locate landmarks, and craft advanced items like maps. With the information from this article, you're now prepared to craft a compass and start exploring your world more freely!