Multipurpose compass instruments became fashionable all over Europe during the second half of the 16th century. One particular variant featured multiple points and is most notably associated with the name of the Italian practitioner Fabrizio Mordente. Although recent scholarship (by F. Camerota, A. Meskens, and others) has done much to clarify the development of this special compass, it seems legitimate to ask whether we really understand how it and related instruments were supposed to work. Looking more closely at several inventions from the Iberian Peninsula and Southern Germany, this paper aims to make some new points about multiple compass points.