A Gold Brick structure on a Floating Island.
A Floating Island is a mass of Forest land found in the sky, well above the usual land surface. Each Floating Island has a Gold, Silver, or Copper Brick structure with a locked Gold Chest inside that contains at least one item that can only be found on Floating Islands. Various Ores are also usually found within the land mass. The altitude and lateral position of Floating Islands usually makes them susceptible to Harpy spawns.
Most Worlds contain at least two or three Floating Islands. There are various methods for locating them.
Floating Island generation
Floating islands are randomly placed in the upper sixth of the map and cannot be placed within the 80 tiles on either side of the center of the map. The maximum number of floating islands is dependent on the map size. There will always be at least one floating island on a map. Because the algorithm attempts to place floating islands roughly in the top sixth of the map, map size changes the altitude range of floating islands. Also, floating islands are near the top of the map and thus may experience reduced gravity.
| Map size | Maximum islands |
|---|---|
| Small | 3 |
| Medium | 5 |
| Large | 6 |
Finding Floating Islands
The easiest method of finding floating islands is to use a map viewer. This is considered cheating by many players, because you’ll have to access save files outside of the game itself. This tactic will not work for multiplayer maps where the player does not have access to the save file.
Finding Floating Islands via Dirt Walls
Hunting
A quick way to find them easily is to fire a Meteor Shot or Water Bolt up into the air. If it bounces back a few seconds later, it's almost certain that a Floating Island is above you (note the angle that you fire up at).
Alternatively, a Musket can be used. If you fire directly above you and there is a floating island, the sound of cutting vines will play and you will know that there is a floating island.
Another way to actively detect Floating Islands is to fire a Space Gun into the air, because it gives an acoustic signal when hitting a block. (Note: Only works if you are max. 200 ft. below the Island). If you have enough Fallen Stars left, you can fire them from a Star Cannon into the air and wait until you hear it cut the vines.
Another, more thorough way, which is more effort-intensive and is recommended for two players, is to build a skybridge near the top of the world. Player One will take several stacks of sand (or another physics-enabled block) and place them on the underside of the skybridge. Player Two will follow along at ground level to verify that all sand blocks reach the ground. The only way that a sand block will not fall from the skybridge to the ground is if it is blocked by a Floating Island.
Another simple way to find floating islands is to use a gravitation potion. With this potion you can find floating islands by moving left and right while floating in the sky. It may be best to use a featherfall, or a lucky horseshoe with this potion so that you do not fall to your death once you find a floating island.
Alternatively, if you can fly and have an Ice Rod, fly up as far as you can, then use the rod to create an ice block directly under you to land on.
If you are a beginner, you can find floating islands by just walking left or right from your spawn point. If you find a really tall tree standing by itself, there could be a floating island above it.
Searching
If nothing else helps, you can use a Depth Meter to find the floating islands. They can usually be found at these heights:
- Small map - 100-475 ft. (430-475 ft is your best bet, but some have been known to spawn in the high 500's and low 300's 350-375)
- Medium map - 500-700ft (650ft is your best bet).
- Large map - 500-1000ft. (You may be able to see a floating island at 750)
Then dig lots of blocks and go to one side of the map, making a bridge to the middle amount of height suggested above. After that, head towards the other side.
Very often a floating island will naturally spawn above the Jungle biome or the Dungeon of a world.
If you have access to Gravitation Potions, you can search for the floating islands without building a bridge. Simply fly across the map at the appropriate height, alternating gravity to stay at the same level. It is recommended that you have at least four potions with you on large maps. Hermes Boots and Feather Fall Potions make this go smoother.
Many players report that many floating islands were found above strange flying dirt formations near the ground, often near surface clay. It is not yet known if this is just a rumor, particularly because many floating islands are just found above mountains or plain terrain.
If you see a strange dirt formation and/or surface clay, it might be good to look for floating islands near it anyway. And if you find gold on the surface, there is a strong chance there might be a floating island right above the gold.
Also, if you find silver on surface level, there is a very high chance of a floating Island of being there. Keep in mind, it can be ANY amount of natural silver. (Larger amounts of silver tend not to have an island.)
Loot
Loot research going on in Floating Islands/Drop research
Chests on a Floating Island may contain a variety of items, including three unique items exclusively found there:
Each chest has exactly one of these items. 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. The type of wall and brick (copper, silver, gold) is completely random and has no relation with the loot found inside the chest or the quality of the island's ore, despite rumors to the contrary.
Enemies
Floating islands do not have their own types of enemies, but other enemies from existing biomes will spawn. By default, floating islands are a Forest biome, so there usually will be Slimes (in the day) or Zombies and Demon Eyes (at night). If the altitude is high enough these enemies will be overridden by Harpies and, if the world is in hardmode, Wyverns.
Notes
Two Floating Islands next to each other.
- It is usually difficult to get to Floating Islands at a high altitude because of Harpies.
- Despite being made of precious metal, the materials in the houses have no sell value. Of course getting them from the islands is considerably cheaper than making them yourself.
- Floating islands contain a noticeably higher amount of precious ores than the surface.
- Sometimes a Floating Island can be right beside another one, with no blocks separating them.
- It's unusual, but sometimes Meteorites can crash into floating islands.
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History
- 1.0.6: Gold Chests are now replaced with locked chests.
- 1.0.5: Common Chests are now replaced with Gold Chests.
- Pre-Release: Introduced.
- Chasm
- Enchanted Sword Shrine
- Floating Island
- Jungle Shrine
- Living Tree
- Pyramid
- Ruined House
- Underground Cabin