Xaero’s Minimap is a minimap mod, allowing you to see your surroundings in Minecraft. It’s one of the most flexible map mods available, with it offering tons of features. There’s Enlarged Maps, Cave Views, Mob Radars and more.
We’ve covered many more mods here at PwrDown, as well as lists on our YouTube Channel. Alternatively, you might be interested in looking at some of our Minecraft mod lists currently available here on the website.
Xaero’s Minimap Controls
There’s only a few controls you need to be aware of when it comes to Xaero’s Minimap. The first is Z, which will open a larger version of the minimap, allowing you to see greater distances. To access the mod settings, you should press Y instead. Here is where you’ll be able to configure most features of your minimap, such as the radar, size, shape and more.
By pressing B, you can quickly access the new Waypoint screen. Whereas pressing U will open up the Waypoints menu, where you can see a list of Waypoints, teleport to them or remove them.

There are a lot of other controls in the main menu which you should check and configure yourself. A lot of the settings don’t have any key bindings, so this might be something you want to change too.
Creating Waypoints
To create a Waypoint, you can do so by pressing the B key. In this screen, there’s a lot of options to change. These include the color of the waypoint (which is how it appears in your world), and the first large box is where you can input a name.
Your current coordinates will be placed in the menu, but you can input your own instead. It’s even possible to change the dimension. Once you create the Waypoint, it will be saved and visible on the minimap, as well as in the game world when you’re looking in its direction.

Alternatively, you can very quickly create Waypoints at your current location by pressing +. If you feel the need to edit or delete an already existing Waypoint, then press U instead to head to the Waypoints menu. Only server operators can teleport between the Waypoints.
Minimap Shape & Position
To change the shape and position of the minimap, open the Settings by pressing Y. On this main screen, there’s a Position button, which allows you to select the minimap and drag it to a location of your choosing.
Some players prefer to change the shape of Xaero’s Minimap instead. Currently, it can be set to be a Square or Circle, and the options for this can be found under ‘View Settings’ of the main settings screen.
Entity Radar
One of the best features of Xaero’s Minimap is the Entity Radar, which does need configuring. By default, Minecraft mobs on the minimap will appear as a small yellow circle. Whereas the player will be a white circle, and any drops on the ground will be red circles.

If you want mobs to look like icons instead, open the menu by pressing Y. Select ‘Entity Radar Settings’. Look for the ‘Display Icons’ button, and make sure that it says ‘Always’ and save your changes. There’s also an option to enable nameplates on the minimap.
Download Xaero’s Minimap Mod
The links above go to the CurseForge page, where you can download Xaero’s Minimap. The PwrDown website supports mod creators, and recommends that you only download from CurseForge. Not only are you supporting mod creators, but you’re also ensuring the files you download don’t contain any harmful/infectious content.