User:Holroy/How Not to Get Lost

In this user guide we'll explore some of the basic skills needed not to get lost in MCPE. This involves boths maps, compasses, clever usage of lights and other indicators.

Sadly, as of 0.15.0 there are no easy way to get coordinates within MCPE, which leads to some challenges when exploring or travelling in the infinite worlds  available since 0.9.0. This calls for some techniques to help avoiding getting lost and knowing how to get back home. This can involve maps and/or compasses or clever usage of lights and other indicators.

Using Breadcrumb Indicators
Before you're experienced enough to use maps or compasses, it is vital to leave breadcrumbs when exploring or travelling to enable you to find your way back home. Note that most of these kind of dictates a single direction of travel/direction, and I would strongly suggest discovering the main directions firstly. However the same techinque can be used when changing directions, where the indicators then point the way back to one of the main axes indicators.

Another options is that if you're branching of the next indicator should always point back to the previous indicator. This could lead to a slightly longer travel back home, but you're still not lost, and when getting familiar with your surroundings to can start taking advantage of shortcuts.

Light towers

The least advanced way to keeping track of your whereabouts is to build indicators here and there to help keep track of your progress. In it's simples variation you place a single torch somewhere to indicate you've been there. However since this doesn't give any indication of direction, it needs to be extended to be really useful.

I tend to place towers of three dirt blocks with torches around the top block on higher points in the terrain. On one of the sides place more than one torch to indicate the direction back home. By choice I put the two torches on the farther side of the tower. That is, if I'm travelling north, I place two torches on the northern side of the torch. This way when I go home I go in the direction of the two torches. Place the next tower in a distance so that it viewable from the next tower.

Unfamiliar Building Structures
Another indicator is to build structures in a material which is not common to your current biome. Using cobblestone or granite or similar, would pop out in most biomes, and then use these as markers to indicate the way back home. Either by making giant arrows, or some other structure indicating direction.

One simple structure to indicate direction is placing two blocks, one spacer and another block. When travelling back home and you encounter such a structure, go in the direction of the two blocks. This can also be done diagonally, or done using torches.

Natural Structures as Indicators
In some cases you can use natural structures as indicators, or breadcrumbs, to help you keep you on your way. The most natural one is lakes, rivers and canyons. Do however make an indicator at your starting point, so that when you return after exploring in either direction, you know when to get off and look for home.

Oceans (explored by boats) are treaturous stuff, as it's very easy to get loose the sense of directions out there. My suggestion is to not explore these before you have a compass. The only direction indicator you'll have are the sun and/or the moon, and it is harder to place indicators out at the sea.

Track Path in Mines
As a special kind of path when mining here are a few tips to keep track within underground mines. When entering an unknown mine only place your torches on one side, my preference is the left side, so that when you want to return you'll turn around and keep walking as long as you'll have lights on the other side (for me on the right).

In addition, when encountering cross roads or opening into other mines, place marker lights to indicate status of pathways. I tend to place one torch at the ground for an unexamined mine, one torch in a 1x1 hole for an examined mine, and two torches to indicate which pathway is leading back to known territory. When strip mining I also tend to block of completed strips with a dirt block in the upper half of the 2x1 strip.

If encountering a larger area I sometimes add some single torches on the ground of the larger area, whilst exploring the extent going counterclockwise (that is to the left). And if I encounter a path leading back an already explored path, I block of the path so that I don't keep going in circles.

When going up or down along non-natural paths, which does happen in some caves, I also use multiple lights in rows/columns to indicate the way back to safety.

Using a Compass
In 0.8.0 we got the compass, which is a great help not to get lost. It is crafted using 4 iron ingots and 1 redstone. However be aware that it always points to the original spawn point in your world. Not the last place your slept, and not to the magnetic North Pole (as in real life). This can be a litte confusing at first, but since most players place their first few homes recent to the original spawn point, it sure is helpful. If your home is not near the spawn point, you should indicate the track from the spawn point to your home using some of the other tools of this guide.

Compass will show direction when being placed in the hotbar, and does not need to be held (which I by the way find more confusing anyway). When the red needle points upwards (or slightly to the left in your hand), your travelling towards the spawn point.

Do note that the compass doesn't work in the Nether, and here you have to rely on other techniques to keep track of your whereabouts.

Using Maps
To craft maps, you need some resources; 3x 3 sugar canes => 3x 3 paper => 1 map. Maps can afterwards be extended to include a pinpoint using a compass, zoomed out using more paper, or duplicated using another empty map. All these extension is done using an anvil, and does cost some experience points. The usage of maps is either whilst travelling, or they could be an item frame to make a world map in your home.

Filling the Voids
When first crafted the map is empty, and shows nothing. To start drawing the map, go to the location you want to map and then put the empty map in your hotbar, select it and hit the "Empty map" button (or whatever it reads currently :). The map will now update it self whenever you carry it in your hands whilst travelling in that map section. Shifting your focus up and down will vary how much the map actually obstructs your view.

However, whilst you'll need to carry it in your hand to get updates, you soon get to see a pattern and that it updates a rather large circle whenever you look at it. So when travelling I tend to switch between carrying the map or a torch (or nothing), so as not to be distracted by the map. Especially when going down steep cliffs I find it useful not have my view obstructed.

Zoomed Maps
Note that newer maps in Minecraft in general are locked into a grid, and when zooming out you'll get more of a given grid. As quoted from the gamepedia page on minecraft maps/zoom details:


 * Maps are always aligned to a grid at all zoom levels. That means zooming out any map in a specific area covered by that map will always have the same center, regardless of where the map was originally centered. (with accompanying picture in the gallery)

This means that if you have an empty map of an area, and then goes to the area next to it, and then you decide to go back to zoom out your map they most likely will cover the same areas. In other words, I'll suggest choosing a zoom level and then sticking to it. In my world I chose first zoom step 3 (1024x1024 blocks), but I'm seriously contemplating going down to zoom step 2 (512x512 blocks) to have a little more detail in my maps. The two lower steps (0: 128x128 blocks and 1: 256x256 blocks) are to small for my taste, but this does come down to personal preference.

Note also that the map indirectly indicates chunk boundaries, as the smallest map holds 8x8 chunks, and no chunks are divided in two map segments.

The Map with Indicator
As of 0.15.0 there are two bugs/feature related to maps which you need to be aware of. Firstly the maps are rotated so that the up direction or north on the map is actually pointing to the right when viewing the map. This is confusing. When viewing a map with an indicatior and you are on the actual map, you'll see that the indicator has a pointed end, and this indicates your viewing direction. When you look north the pointed end will therefore point to the right. Verify this behaviour on your first map when in known surrounding so that you are sure you understand it correctly.

The second bug/feature is related to when travelling out of the map. The indicator will now turn into a round indicator not showing your current direction, and in some cases it will flip which side of the map it's located on. The indicator is always present on the edge of the map, and when you move the indicator will move seemingly accordingly to your movement.

As an example of the latter feature, say that you are in the middle of your map, and leave it on the left side (when viewed, so in fact you're travelling southbound). The indicator should now be close to your point of exit with a round indicator on the left edge, but sometimes flips over to the other side. If you know turn eastwards, the indicator does correctly track down on the map, and if you turn back north and enter the map again it should go into the correct place again.

These bugs/features will hopefully be fixed, but until then experiment on the edges of your maps, to get a hang of how to use the indicator to get back to a known part of the map. And to be on the safe side, always carry a compass, so that you can get back if lost outside of your maps.

The World Map on the Wall
Instead of sticking your maps in a chest after exploring your great world, I strongly suggest building a map wall. Craft several item frames, and stick them to a wall of your choice next to each other. Then attach your maps to the item frames. When a map is attached to an item frame, you can rotate by clicking on the map, which will align the maps.

Due to the already mentioned zooming grid, (and your choice of sticking to one zoom level), this will make for a beautiful map of your world. And if you need a map (for travelling or updating) you can easily detach it from the wall by picking up the map.

Final Resort to Get Back to Spawn Point
If all else is lost there are two methods for getting to a known locations, both involving dying and the potential loss of stuff. The first way to return to a known location is to die, and return to  the last placed you slept (or spawn point if you haven't used a bed yet). This might hopefully be a known location, but if you went on a serious exploration trip you might have carried a bed and your not better of at the last location of your bed.

The absolute final resort when begin lost is either to start afresh in your new location, and possibly find your way back in the future when you've built up a new base. Or you could trigger a respawn at the original spawn point by sleeping in a bed in a closed off box.

Build a bed with walls on all sides, and the room at only two blocks high. When you go to sleep in this bed, you'll wake up standing on the bed whilst suffocating as your head is within the block above your bed. This is normally a really bad situation, but this will also trigger that your respawn is back at the original spawn of your world. If you're having problems getting into the bed, an alternate version is to have the room somewhat higher and placing the bed close to the ceiling (with only one block free above the bed). After closing of the room around the bed, go sleeping in the bed from below the bed).