How to Make a Compass in Minecraft

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Last Updated: August 7, 2025

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Sourcing the Materials

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Making the Compass

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Crafting with the Compass

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A compass is used in Minecraft to direct the player to his or her original spawn point. It will point wherever it is, be it in a chest, on the floor, in your inventory or in the character's hand. However, it won't work when in The Nether or The End worlds. Here is how to make one.

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Sourcing the Materials

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Part 2

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Making the Compass

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1
Consider whether you even need to make the compass first. If you're low on iron ingots and/or redstone, you can save them by simply looking at the compass pointer when the items are placed in the crafting table but then not activating the crafting.
- Note that you can also see the compass on the item statistics page if you've made a compass in the past. This means you can see the direction pointer without having to even use the crafting table.
- If you need a compass to make map paper, you'll need to craft it.
2
Craft a compass. Place the four iron ingots and one redstone into the crafting table as follows:
- Place the redstone in the center grid spot.
- Place the four iron ingots above, below and next to the redstone.
- Wait for the compass to be crafted.
- Shift click or drag the compass to your inventory.

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Crafting with the Compass

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1
Make a map. To make a map using a compass, surround the compass with paper.
- Go to the crafting grid and place the compass in the center.
- Place paper in all of the other empty slots.
Shift click or drag to place the map into your inventory.

Community Q&A

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Question

How do I use the compass?

Community Answer

Click it as if you were to eat it, and it will point you home.

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Question

What's the point of having a compass?

Stephz16

Community Answer

It directs you to your spawn point. If you've set up home at your spawn point, or set your spawn point to home, it will take you home.

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Question

I put the 8 pieces of paper and compass on the crafting table, but it's not showing that it made a map. Anyone know why this might happen?

Gaming_Online

Community Answer

The compass needs to go in the very middle, and the paper has to surround it.

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