What are Coordinates in Minecraft – Beginners Guide

Have you ever had a hard time understanding the coordinates in Minecraft, and really wanted to find your way back home?

It’s not a joke that coordinates in Minecraft can be really confusing at first, especially when starting, and learning how to survive in the game.

To make things for you as a Minecraft newbie, we will teach you everything about coordinates in Minecraft, and help you utilize them when playing.

What are coordinates in Minecraft

Coordinates are displayed in X, Y, and Z. Each of them represents the distance from the origin point, starting from 0.

When players are usually spawned, they will be either placed on the 0,0 location point or around it. This location will measure the middle point or start of the world.

With the help of X, Y, and Z, players can understand at what height, or distance they are from the origin.

The X indicates the player’s distance by measuring if they are east, or west of the origin point.

The Y indicates if a player is being high, or low below ground.

The Z indicates if a player is south or north from the origin.

For people who wish to find diamonds easily, they should pay close attention to the Y indicator, also known as the Y level. When digging below the surface, the Y level will start to significantly drop, until it starts becoming a negative number.

For those who start building sky bases, the Y indicator will start increasing and continue to move upwards with positive numbers.

To make things simple, the Y and Z indicators are used for East, West, South, and North, just like a compass in real life.

However, the Y indicator will always show if you are above or below the ground.

Relative vs absolute coordinates in Minecraft

When it comes to coordinates, players should note that 2 types of them exist. There are absolute and relative coordinates in the game. Each of these has different uses and can be quite useful depending on the case.

Absolute Coordinates

Absolute coordinates are called the ones, which represent numbers as text, and do not have any special characters next to them.

When using a teleport command in Minecraft, and entering the X, Y, and Z coordinates, players will be teleported to the exact block, which refers to the placed coordinates.

If players try to teleport to 0, 0, 0 coordinates, they will be teleported to the absolute mid of the world, which is always different and depends on the in-game generator.

Relative Coordinates

Relative coordinates are used for teleporting to a certain position. They have nothing to do with absolute coordinates and do not rely on the generated world’s X, Y, and Z coordinates.

Relative coordinates are usually called with a tilde notation and will teleport players differently.

For example the coordinates ~1 ~1 ~1 teleport players 1 block to the east direction, 1 to the south direction, and 1 block up.

Now that we understand how X, Y, and Z coordinates work, we can utilize the relative coordinates, and position is selves away from our current position.

Players can also use negative numbers when providing relative coordinates in the commands section, however, they cannot be used for teleporting to other players.

These types of coordinates are only used to teleport players from their current positions, X blocks away, Z blocks away, and Y blocks below, or upper.

Viewing coordinates

By default coordinates in Minecraft cannot be viewed due to the way Minecraft has been made. The only way to view coordinates in Minecraft would be by entering the debug HUD in Minecraft.

However, the Minecraft HUD bar is filled up with unneeded information, which can confuse newbie players.

Rather than confusing players, it is recommended to install special coordinates plugins or coordinate mods in-game, which look a bit fancier and can be used in a beginner-friendly way.

To view the coordinates, you will need to make sure what Minecraft version you are using, and use the specific keys for Windows, Console, or Java Edition Minecraft.

Viewing Minecraft Coordinates on Minecraft Java Edition

In Java Edition viewing coordinates in Minecraft can happen only by entering the debug screen in-game. To enter the debug screen, you will need to press F3 or Fn+3 if you use Mac to play the game.

From all the screens displayed, you will need to track the XYZ coordinates, which have their respective location numbers.

Viewing Minecraft Coordinates on Minecraft Bedrock Edition

If you are playing Minecraft on Bedrock Edition, you can activate the coordinates inside your world’s settings from in-game.

The coordinates will be shown on the top-left screen as you play, without having any extra information.