Empty Map — Minecraft item

Overview

An empty Map is a blank sheet that becomes a real map the moment you use it. Hold it, press use, and it fills in the terrain around you as a 128×128 image centred on where you were standing at that moment — which is why you should always create a map at the place you want it centred on, not halfway there. The crafted version includes a compass, and that compass is what gives the finished map its white position marker; a map made without one shows terrain but never shows you. Zoom is fixed at creation and changed afterwards on a Cartography Table, which steps the scale out through four levels to a maximum of 2,048 blocks across at 1:16. Fresh sheets are cheap — eight paper is three sugar cane's worth — so most players carry two or three blanks on an exploration trip and fill one per region. Explorer maps bought from cartographer villagers are filled maps with a structure marker already on them, and they are the only reliable way to find an ocean monument or a woodland mansion without wandering.

Recording terrain as you explore, marking a base with a banner, and — through a cartography table — producing the zoomed-out overview maps that a map wall on a base is built from.

In Minecraft, Empty Map is a miscellaneous item. A full stack holds 64. It is crafted from Paper and Compass.

Nothing on the crafting grid is made from it.

How to get it

Craft 1 from 8 Paper and 1 Compass. Paper is 3 sugar cane per sheet, so a single 9-block sugar cane farm supplies more blank maps than an exploration trip can use.

Tips

Create the map standing at the centre of the area you want on it; the image is locked to that position for good.
Zoom out on a cartography table before exploring, because a level-4 map covers 2,048 blocks and saves three map slots.
Name a Banner and place it, then use the map on it — the banner shows on the map with its name.
Copy a map on a cartography table to give friends a synchronised version that updates as either of you explores.