Floating Island

A Floating Island is a mass of isolated Cloud/Forest land found in the sky, generally well above the world's main land mass. There will always be at least one Floating Island on a map, with most worlds containing two or more. Their altitude and lateral position makes them susceptible to Harpies, and, in Hardmode, Wyverns (and Arch Wyverns in the console version). In 1.2 floating islands were changed dramatically, featuring newly designed sky cabins with new furniture (vs. the brick shrines from before) and new block types. Clouds were also added, surrounding the bottom of sides of floating islands, with small clouds floating above. Rain Clouds are also mixed in.

Sky cabins have a special brick called Sunplate Block as well as unique furniture. The cabins consist of a Disc Wall and Glass Wall background. They are found on top of both Cloud and Rain Cloud blocks.

Contents
Each Floating Island has one Skyware Chest. Each of these Chests contains exactly one of the items above. Unique items are chosen at random, with the restriction that all three unique items must be spawned at least once before the generator makes truly random unique items spawn on any remaining Floating Islands.

Location and characteristics
Floating Islands are randomly placed somewhere in the upper sixth of the map, but cannot occur within the center 160 tiles of the map, laterally. The maximum number of Floating Islands is dependent on the map size. Because the algorithm attempts to place Floating Islands roughly in the top sixth of the map, map size changes the altitude range where they will occur.

Being at high altitude, players usually experience reduced gravity while navigating them.

Upon entering Hardmode, Floating Islands can become Corrupted or Hallowed if they fall within the path of the initial transformation. See Hardmode for more information.

Locating


The easiest method of finding floating islands is to use a map viewer, although most players may count this as cheating. This method will not work for multiplayer maps, where most players do not have external access to the world file.

From within the game: Once you have located a sky island, an easy way to access it is to use vast quantities of rope. You can rapidly place the rope above you while you climb. Be sure to bring some protection from flying enemies when you reach the island, such as blocks you can quickly place around you as a shield until you can dig into the island. Rope can be found in vases and chests while exploring underground or purchased from the merchant.
 * In small worlds, fire a long-range, ricocheting weapon up in the air, like Meteor Shot or a Water Bolt. If it bounces back a few seconds later, a Floating Island is probably above you. Firing a non-ricocheting weapon like the Musket with ordinary Musket Balls can also be useful, as the sound of hitting blocks may be heard on contact with a Floating Island.
 * Likewise, in small or medium worlds, using wings lets you fly up high enough to see, if not the island itself, perhaps the vines or rain effects.
 * Building a skybridge near the top of the world allows you to actually explore the sky area directly (although this can also prevent meteors from hitting the ground causing less meteorite to be obtained). If you have access to a gravitation potion, it can be used in a similar way.
 * Building a one block thick column (block tower) which can be used to climb straight up using a Grappling Hook. Building these once every screen width will allow the player to completely explore the sky pre hard mode. The easiest way to construct block towers is to hold down the place block button and use the grapple hot key repeatedly. If avoiding meteor impacts is a priority then the block towers can be constructed out of sand and then easily de-constructed from ground level to avoid harpies.
 * Creating a hardcore player and then killing yourself will allow you to fly around the sky as a ghost, allowing you to easily locate Floating Islands. The same world can then be entered again with another player.
 * Strange Dirt and Dirt Wall formations at the surface, and/or surface Clay, Silver, or Gold, are good indications of Floating Islands above.
 * Large areas that never seem to collect Fallen Stars are likely places where a Floating Island is located above.
 * If the player has access to an Ice Rod and wings or rocket boots they can easily locate floating islands by flying and landing on blocks created by the rod, allowing them to stay in the sky as long as they like.
 * If you find very small puddles of water, the water may be from a floating island. (Not very effective in wet areas like the Jungle or the Ocean)

History
You can also find islands by building a walkway in the sky. Then backtrack and destroy it behind you. When you return to the ground, anywhere the ground is not strewn with blocks is where an island is.