How to make a compass in Minecraft

Much of what you’ll be doing in Minecraft (aside from, you know, crafting and looking for diamonds) is exploring all the different biomes. But sometimes, it can be easy to get lost in the randomly generated world. You could use the trick of intentionally dying to respawn back at your house (as long as you made a bed and rested there), but then you would lose anything you had on your character. That’s why you should always have a compass on you. It will point you back to the spawn point, without having to stop and look at a map.

In this guide, we’ll run through everything you need to know about the compass — from how to craft one to finding the materials and the benefits of using it.

How to make a compass

Finding the materials required to make the compass isn’t too difficult. The redstone dust is acquired from smelting an iron ore in a furnace with a log of any kind. You’ll find redstone dust beneath the surface, as indicated by a light-gray block with red spots on it. Use your pickaxe to start mining below until you find it. Once you do, place one in the furnace with a log found from chopping any tree and you’ll get one redstone dust.

As for acquiring the iron ingot, it’s similar to the redstone dust. You’ll need to smelt an iron ore with a log of your choice to get an iron ingot. You likely have plenty of iron ore if you’ve been mining and exploring, but if not, use your trusty pickax to traverse below and you’ll find some in no time.

Once you have all the ingredients, follow this recipe:

Step 1: Open your crafting table.

Step 2: Put the redstone dust in the center square

Step 3: Place the four iron ingots above, below, and to either side as shown in the picture.

Step 4: Collect your compass.

The compass in Minecraft has way more functionality than just telling you which direction north is. Instead, it points to your spawn point, which is extremely useful when traveling across the map. Your spawn point should serve as your base or home, where all your precious items are. You can set your spawn point by typing in the /spawnpoint command or by sleeping in a bed. When you set your spawn point and have a compass, you’ll be able to find your way back home. The red needle will always point toward your spawn point, regardless of whether you’re holding the compass, it’s in your hotbar, or it’s in the inventory menu, which is nifty since it means you can free up space in your hands.