Xaero's Minimap | Vanilla-Style Map & Waypoints

Load a world with Xaero's Minimap installed and a small live map appears in the corner of your screen. It tracks nearby terrain, marks compass directions, and draws players, mobs, and dropped items as dots or icons. Everything is styled to match vanilla Minecraft, so it reads like part of the game rather than an overlay bolted on top. With around 93 million downloads, it is one of the most established map mods for the game.

Waypoints, Deathpoints, and Waypoint Sets

Press B to drop a waypoint at your feet and it shows up both on the minimap and as a marker in the game world. Press U to open the waypoint list, where you can add, edit, and sort entries in batches, hide specific markers, and view waypoints saved in other dimensions and sub-worlds. If your server grants permission for it, a chat command lets you teleport straight to a waypoint.

There are two kinds. Global waypoints stay visible at any distance, good for marking a main base or portal hub. Local ones respect the Max WP Draw Distance setting and only render while you are close by, so a common setup is one global marker per region plus local ones for points of interest inside it. You can also sort waypoints into sets, swap sets with a key binding, and share individual waypoints into the chat.

Deaths get their own marker. Every death automatically places a skull-shaped waypoint where you fell, so retrieving your gear is not a guessing game.

Cave Mode and Map Display Options

The map works above ground and below it thanks to automatic cave mode. When the mod detects a solid roof over your head, it switches to mapping the caves around you, and it should also trigger inside large buildings. You control the required roof size, and setting it to 3x3 or larger should stop the mod from treating every log block you stand under while chopping wood as a cave ceiling.

Shape and rotation are up to you. This was the first rotating square minimap for Minecraft, and it still offers both square and circle shapes. A separate setting locks the rotation and shows a direction arrow instead, and there is an option to lock north entirely. Size choices include an automatic mode, plus multiple zoom levels.

Colors come in two modes. Vanilla uses the palette of vanilla Minecraft maps, while Accurate pulls colors from block textures and biomes. Terrain Depth and Terrain Slopes handle the shading, and a key binding (Z by default) temporarily enlarges the map. Settings control how that enlarged view behaves, such as centering it on screen or fully zooming out.

The Change Position screen moves the map anywhere on screen, down to single pixels, which helps when you run other HUD overlays. If you also use Xaero's World Map, the minimap reuses the textures that mod already generated instead of creating its own, which improves performance with both installed.

Entity Radar and Server-Side Controls

The entity radar draws surrounding players, mobs, and items as dots with a custom color, or as icons, which are usually mob heads.

The mod is mostly client-sided. Installing it on the server is optional and mainly adds features like world identification, plus server-sided configs with an in-game UI that apply in real time. Enforcement can be tied to ranks or permissions through the xaero.minimap.enforced_server_profile option, with support for FTB Ranks, Odyssey Roles, LuckPerms, and general permission APIs.

Custom potion effects such as xaerominimap:no_minimap, xaerominimap:no_entity_radar, xaerominimap:no_waypoints, and xaerominimap:no_cave_maps each disable one part of the mod. Appending _harmful to the end of an effect ID marks it as harmful instead of neutral. You can also bind the minimap to an item. Adding minimapItemId:minecraft:compass to the config means the map only appears while a compass sits in the hotbar or is equipped.

For players who need to follow strict server rules, the mod comes in two editions: a full edition and a fair-play edition designed for fair PVP.

How to Install Xaero's Minimap

1. Install a mod loader first. Xaero's Minimap runs on Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, and Quilt. New to modding? Start with our guide on how to install Minecraft mods, then follow our Fabric install guide or our NeoForge walkthrough.
2. Download the mod file that matches your loader and Minecraft version from the official project page.
3. Drop the file into your mods folder inside your Minecraft installation directory.
4. Launch the game with that loader profile selected. The minimap shows up as soon as you load into a world.
5. Open the vanilla controls menu to review the key bindings, then press B in a world to place your first waypoint.

A warning from the developer: do not use XaeroPlus with this mod. It is not affiliated with Xaero, causes critical untrackable bugs and crashes, and is allegedly tied to a server griefing group, which can put your server builds at risk.

FAQ

Is Xaero's Minimap client-side or server-side?

Mostly client-sided. You only need it on your own game, and server installation is optional, mainly for extras like world identification.

Can server admins limit what the minimap shows?

Yes. Server-sided configs with an in-game UI apply in real time, and custom potion effects can disable the map, the entity radar, waypoints, or cave maps.

Does Xaero's Minimap hurt FPS?

The developer states it runs smoother than a lot of minimap mods, and size options include an automatic mode.

Is Xaero's Minimap still maintained?

Yes. It is actively maintained, with the latest update released in July 2026.

Once your map is up, adding Entity Culling is an easy way to keep frame rates steady in crowded areas. After that, it is just you, the terrain, and a growing trail of waypoints.

Screenshots: thexaero · via Modrinth