NSEW Compass HUD
NSEW Compass HUD puts a customizable compass overlay on screen, marking nearby players, passive mobs and hostile mobs with their direction.
What it does
Markers appear on a compass strip at the top of the screen. Players can be shown as their own face icon, and each mob group gets its own colored marker, with passive entries drawn in green and hostile entries in red. A small number under a marker can show how many blocks away that entity is.
Every group has a separate distance limit, so players, passive mobs and hostile mobs can each be shown only within their own range. A mob list lets the player choose exactly which mobs appear on the compass, and a search field filters that list by name or ID. The update speed setting controls how often nearby entities are refreshed, with lower values refreshing more often and higher values using fewer resources.
Settings are reached from the Esc menu Options screen, under NSEW. The mod runs only on the client, so a server does not need it. It is published for Fabric on 26.2, 26.1.2 and 1.21.11, and is released under All rights reserved, so it is not open source.
Key features
Entity markers
Markers for players, passive mobs and hostile mobs sit on a compass strip, each toggled separately in the settings.
Player face icons
The normal player marker can be replaced with that player's face, making nearby people easier to spot.
Per-mob filters
A searchable list lets the player switch individual mobs on or off for the compass, by name or ID.
Edge tracking and fading
Markers can be pinned inside the compass edge instead of disappearing, and can fade more as they get closer.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Use cases
Tracking nearby mobs
A player exploring at night can keep hostile mobs visible on the compass while hiding passive ones.
Finding other players
On a multiplayer server, the player marker with a face icon shows where nearby players are standing.
Who it’s for: Players who want a compass overlay that marks nearby players and mobs, and who want to choose which mob types show up, will find the settings menu covers that.
How it compares
Compass Bar is a Fabric compass for 1.21.4 – 26.2 that is client-side only and not open source. Tripp's Simple Compass is also client-side only, but covers 1.21.1 – 1.21.4 and is released under the MIT License. Compass Tweaked is open source under the BSD 3-Clause License, runs on client and server, and is published for 1.21.1 – 26.3.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSEW Compass HUD | Fabric | 1.21.11 – 26.2 | Client-side only | 2026-06-18 |
| Compass Bar | Fabric | 1.21.4 – 26.2 | Client-side only | 2026-06-25 |
| Tripp's Simple Compass | Fabric | 1.21.1 – 1.21.4 | Client-side only | 2025-03-15 |
| Compass Tweaked | Fabric | 1.21.1 – 26.3 | Client and server | 2026-09-17 |
Questions
Does NSEW Compass HUD need to be on the server?
Which Minecraft versions does NSEW Compass HUD support?
How can a player limit which mobs appear on the compass?
In the catalog
NSEW Compass HUD is one of 8,016 Management mods on ModsFinder, and one of 5,930 Management mods for Fabric. 13,894 mods support Minecraft 26.2.
Similar mods
What the author says
NSEW (North, South, East, West) Compass HUD adds a customizable QoL compass overlay that shows the direction of nearby players, passive mobs, and hostile mobs. It includes profile-style icons, per-mob filters, separate distance controls, and an in-game settings menu! To get to settings, click Esc, Options, and lastly…
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/nsew
- Owner
- Ballloonkoala560
- Published
- 2026-05-26
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-06-18
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15