Several factors can influence allocentric navigation in the Morris water maze (MWM), including the number of available distal visual cues. Using in-depth analytical measures investigating platform-based and swimming behaviour, we examine and compare animals exposed to either one or three distal visual cues during MWM acquisition. We demonstrate that, although animals exposed to one cue can acquire the task as well as those in a multiple cue condition, several subtle differences between the groups’ swimming behaviours are noted. Both groups actively use cues to guide them to the platform, but changing the number of cues alters the animals’ patterns of behaviour, wherein exposure to a single cue leads to a simpler strategy in which the cue appears to act as a beacon for navigation.