Minecraft: How To Make A Map Bigger

When someone is asking how to make a map bigger in Minecraft, it can mean one of two things. Either you might be looking to increase the blocks in the map thus aiming for a larger world, or you mean to zoom more in the map you hold in Minecraft. Whichever it is, don’t worry, they essentially would mean the same thing depending on what you are aiming for. Today we will focus on ‘Expanding’ the map in your hand in-game. So let’s get right into it.

How to Make Map Bigger in Minecraft

To make a map bigger in Minecraft, combine your Map with Paper in the Cartography Table to upgrade it to Level 4 Map (1280 blocks). Now the Minecraft world scaling ratio will go from 1:1 to 1:16 by map level 4. This means your map will cover an area of 128×128 blocks, 256×256 blocks, 512×512 blocks, 1024×1024 blocks, and 2048×2048 blocks for Zoom Level 0/4, 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 respectively.

So to zoom out you need to add paper to Map in the cartography table for each zoom level. Let’s look at this in a step by step manner below:

1. Combine any 4 Planks to create Crafting Table
2. Combine any 4 Planks with 2 Paper to create Crafting Table
   • ie, x4 Planks + x2 Paper = x1 Crafting Table
3. Now combine 4 Iron Ingot with 1 Redstone Dust to get Compass
   • ie, x4 Iron Ingot + x1 Redstone Dust = x1 Compass
4. Now combine 8 Paper with 1 Compass to get an Empty Map
   • ie, x8 Paper + x1 Compass = x1 Empty Map
5. Maps created without a compass will not have location markers
6. This is a blank map
7. Now hold this empty map in your hand
8. Press right click on the mouse or LT on the controller
9. Now this will convert into a Map item
10. Go to Cartography Table
11. Combine map with paper to upgrade a map level
12. You can do this up to 4 times

Here’s a video from Stingray Productions explaining all these steps clearly:

That’s all about how to make a map bigger in Minecraft. While you are here, don’t forget to check out the list of the best 1.18 Texture Packs, best Minecraft 1.18 shaders, how to make a private server, 1.18 Ore Distribution Guide, and how to download Minecraft Forge for mods, and much more.