Floating Island



A Floating Island is a mass of isolated 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 location makes them susceptible to Harpies in normal mode, Wyverns in Hardmode, and Arch Wyverns in the console version's Hardmode. Being at high altitude, players usually experience reduced gravity when navigating them.

Floating Islands consist of masses of ordinary surface blocks resting atop Cloud and Rain Cloud blocks with background Cloud Walls.

One structure sits atop each Floating Island, containing one Skyware Chest each, along with Floating Island Furniture. They are constructed from Sunplate Block, Disc Wall, and Glass Wall.

Each Skyware Chest contains either a Lucky Horseshoe, Starfury, Shiny Red Balloon, or Sky Mill, along with other typical Forest chest loot. Unique items are chosen at random, with the restriction that all three unique items must be spawned at least once before truly random unique items spawn on any remaining Islands.

Floating Islands are randomly placed somewhere in the upper sixth of the map, but cannot occur within the center 160 lateral tiles. They also don't seem to spawn above oceans. The maximum number of Floating Islands is dependent on the map size.

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.

Seeing as how there is suitable housing on floating islands, NPCs will sometimes move into the houses on the islands if you have already discovered them.

Locating



 * In small worlds, fire a long-range, ricocheting weapon up in the air, like Meteor Shot, a Water Bolt, or in late-game, the Pulse Bow. 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 impact sound may be heard on contact with a Floating Island.
 * In small or medium worlds, using Wings lets you fly high enough to see parts of an Island. The Ice Rod can extend Wing or Rocket Boots range by letting the player land temporarily in midair.
 * 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 generate). If you have access to a gravitation potion, it can be used in a similar way.
 * Building a one block-thick column 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.
 * 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 character.
 * Strange Dirt and Dirt Wall formations at the surface, and/or surface Ores, are good indications of Floating Islands above.
 * Wide surface areas that never seem to collect Fallen Stars are likely places where a Floating Island is located above.
 * Once you have located an Island, an easy way to access it is to use Rope. You can rapidly place the rope above you while you climb.
 * You can also find islands by building a walkway in the sky and then destroy it behind you. When you return to the ground, anywhere the ground is not strewn with blocks is where an Island is.
 * (Tested in Large Worlds) If you're walking along the world and see clouds (background) in the sky that gives hard evidence that there is a floating island there. The cloud block has a kind of effect similar to that of a snow block, meaning it does something to the environment. Artificially placed snow blocks makes snow fall from the sky, and when cloud blocks are present they add clouds to the background.

Trivia
Floating Islands were originally made out of Dirt and Stone Blocks. The house was either made of Gold, Silver or Copper Bricks with a single Gold Chest inside, causing it to resemble a shrine. Grass vines hanging below the island could be used to locate it as projectiles would make noise when destroying them.