How do treasure maps work in Minecraft?

Minecraft’s early game can be pretty boring. Every time players go through these early stages, they are the same: break wood to make some starter tools, then use them to get stone to make some better tools. If the player is lucky, however, they can skip through much of this early-game monotony by either spawning near a village or a shipwreck.

If players spawn near a village, they can probably skip straight to iron tools. If they are lucky enough to spawn near a shipwreck, they can potentially find a buried treasure map, which can give them iron, gold, food, and even diamonds to make their start even faster.

---

Tips and tricks for using Minecraft treasure maps

Water vs land

Orange water vs tan land, though this map is not very accurate (Image via Minecraft)

There are two types of terrain on an unexplored treasure map: land and water. These two are very distinctly marked. Water is orange in coloration, featuring horizontal stripes through it, whereas land is denoted as flat, tan coloration.

The shapes and areas drawn on the map may not be entirely accurate, with land existing where the map marks water, and water existing within the area notated as land. So, players should use the types of terrain found on the map as more of a guide than a hard rule.

---

Directions

The player's location is to the south east of the treasure (Image via Minecraft)

Whenever a player first looks at a buried treasure map, there will be a dot on one side of the map. This represents their current location, which they can use to know which direction to move in. Thankfully, up on a map is North, left is West, right is East, and down is South.

This means that players with a dot on the bottom border of the map need to move North to find the treasure, with those on the top should go South. If they are to the left, they should move East, but go West if the dots are reversed.

Java edition players can use the F3 menu to find the direction they are facing, and Bedrock users can employ the sun to find their bearings.

---

Player dots

The player's position dot being tiny due to their distance (Image via Minecraft)

Another important clue for players looking to find the treasure found on a map is their previously mentioned player dot. While the cardinal direction is undoubtedly the most important clue, there is a second piece of information that they can gain from their player dot: the rough distance away there are from the treasure.

If the player’s dot is a normal size, it means that they are less than 1027 blocks from the edge of the map. If they are further away than this distance, the dot will be much smaller. This means that they can get a rough idea of their distance based on the size of the dot on the map.

---

Exact treasure location

The orientation to position the player directly above the treasure (Image via Minecraft)

There is a very easy way for players to quickly position themselves directly on top of a treasure, after which they will simply need to dig straight down to find it in Minecraft.

When they get close enough to the X to have their arrow appear, players can use its position as a shortcut to locate the treasure. They need to face so that the point of the arrow is pointed upwards, and then position it so that exactly one row of white pixels of the arrow is visible below the center of the X.

Then, assuming the player is lined up properly in the horizontal direction, the treasure should be directly below them, very easy to access via mining downwards.