Talk: Floating Island

Height off the Ground

For the inevitable Floating Island debates that will rage over how low/high you can find them relative to the ground.
We need to begin collecting data on this, it is our job as editors to provide the most accurate information possible. So I suggest we start having people record Floating Islands as they find them, relative to height off the ground and raw elevation, then we can compare this data to find the true locations of them. - Shadowclaimer 18:02, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

There height seems to be relative to the hight of the surface below them, --Thanatos — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thanatos121 (talk • contribs) at 19:00, 25 May 2011 (UTC)

On a small map I found an island with the lowest height being 240 feet, the highest being 306 feet and the ground height below being around 50 feet. --Salamoon 15:30, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

Nope, found a floating island in plain sight from the floor: gallery ‒Flying sheep 15:20, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

How Many Islands

Is the number of Floating Islands set, I'd assume larger maps have more floating islands. Either way I would love any information related to this anyone has been able to gleen and think it more than warrants inclusion. --75.72.124.142 11:25, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Brick type and loot quality

Is there any evidence to support the truth of the claims made in the article? Not stories of people finding rocket boots in gold buildings. Actual code proof. Mapping programs suggest that all islands have gold and silver ores in them as well, making the claim about the wall type being linked to ore types equally dubious. 134.50.218.72 20:24, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

I found a starfury in a copper-brick temple, so at the very least it's not a guarantee. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.83.88.150 at 04:21, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

In general, I have found that Gold buildings have MORE items, not better quality items. In a gold building I regularly find 4 items in the chest, average 2 for Silver, and usually just a Islands loot table item in copper. The wall color does not seem to make a difference in the amount of Gold & Silver ore found on the island. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.55.172.151 at 01:51, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

We can easily set up a research page, if enough people commit to recording their loot we can get some statistics. -- Wynthyst talk 05:56, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

I agree with this and would be more than happy to start contributing data. I have been gathering some already. TNT 08:42, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

I could find no place in the code that suggests that Rocket Boots can spawn in Floating Island Chests. I'll remove them from the loot list for now. It looks like the wall and background types are picked at random when generating the Island House. The generation of the house and island are two separate processes to it is unlikely that the house type affects the island in any way. Olrad 13:33, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

Merged into the Environments page

This article, while well written, is so small that I'd say we merge it - along with all the rest of the biome pages - into the overarching Environment page. MarekkPie 15:01, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

The wiki and the game are a week old. I suggest we don't mass merge pages due to length until the game is at least 6 months old. If by then there isn't enough information to warrant a separate page, then we can merge stuff. This rush to condense when we have barely even started is just silly. -- Wynthyst talk 00:22, 26 May 2011 (UTC)

Recorded Floating Island Loot

Silver Brick House - Starfury Bobb1118 23:08, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

To whoever the ignorant fool who wrote the above comment, Starfury was the ONLY thing I found in that chest. thx Bobb1118 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tmasters (talk • contribs) at 14:43, 25 May 2011 (UTC)

Would be more helpful if you recorded what other stuff you found, and how much raw silver/gold Ore you found on the island. This isn't really helpful at all. The island-specific loot items seems to occur evenly across all building types, but additional items in the chest may be more common with higher quality bricks. I suggest reporting as thus (an excerpt from my own data collection efforts).

Gold Brick/Copper Wall - Starfury, 5 Lesser Healing Potions - 88 Silver Ore + 143 Gold Ore = 231 Ore

Gold/Copper - Horseshoe, 3 Iron Bars, 28 Arrows, 1 Gold Coin - 116 S + 76 G = 192 O

Copper/Gold - Shiny Red Balloon, 16 Torches, 2g - 23 S + 14 G = 37 O

Gold/Copper - Starfury, 46 Arrows, 3LHP, 2g - 21 S + 54 G = 75 O

Copper/Gold - Horseshoe, 4 Silver Bars, 33 Shurikens - 89 s + 18 G = 107 O

Gold/Gold - Balloon, 5 Gold Bars, 25 Shurikens, 2g - 111 S + 70 G = 181 O

Hope this clears some things up about what's expected if you're trying to record anything of statistic value. TNT 10:34, 24 May 2011 (UTC)

I've created Floating Islands/Drop research so you can record your drops and we can get some real numbers generated. -- Wynthyst talk 19:59, 25 May 2011 (UTC)

Excellent Vissith 20:03, 25 May 2011 (UTC)

Strange location of the building

on my most recent map, i found the building on the floating island barely even being ON the island. did anyone else find something similar? --Blue Legion 23:41, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

i have found a silver temple but the chest inside is locked so i dont know what to do about that— Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.49.21.55 at 17:26, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

You need to open it with a Golden Key, which is dropped and found in the Dungeon. • iLiaWneK • T • C • 07:39, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

Floating Islands above dungeons?

I have been searching for floating islands and the past 3 worlds I have been on have had a floating island above them. Is this a freak coincidence or is there some kind of pattern in the location? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lack5551793 (talk • contribs) at 20:38, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

Floating Islands spawn in random places, To try to find a Floating Island look up what height it should be at for the size of your would then build like a sky bridge accross the map looking for Floating Islands but the sky bridge can also be used for collecting Fallen Stars. ~Josiah 00:42, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

Funny, I've never had one spawn there. --Theothersteve7 03:38, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

I saw group of 3 islands right above the Dungeon. Large map generated in 1.0.6. Gamecreator 12:12, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

I've generated a lot of small worlds and it's not uncommon to have an island or two above the dungeon, but it's not guaranteed or anything. In larger worlds where the size of the dungeon entrance is relatively smaller it's less likely, but in smaller worlds it's almost common. --67.233.107.165 03:27, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

Lies?

You are NOT guaranteed the three items just because you have three islands. Where is this assertion coming from? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Icepick110 (talk • contribs) at 11:57, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

Someone who analyzed the source code found that this is true as of v 1.04.Thursday 18:11, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Ah. That makes sense. My world was generated in 1.01. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.70.188.25 at 11:33, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Surface Clay and Floating Islands

Using a map viewer, I have found that surface clay and floating islands are pretty much unrelated! In twelve instances of surface clay in one world, none of the patches had an island above them. Similarly, islands seem to not be cleft in two now when they are above a chasm: in three separate worlds with a combined total of four islands above corruption, none of them had the ridiculous looking gaps from previous versions. The clay tip may have been useful in the past, but I don't think it applies any more as of 1.05. My testing also indicates that the generation bug that caused dirt walls to behave oddly below floating islands has been fixed as well. Thursday 17:12, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

I've actually noticed that too(with silver and gold too). Another person said to me that if there are uncollectible stars, they also mean a floating island, but I've had about 5 stars which I couldn't collect fall in the same place. Checked the whole area around it - nothing. I don't think we should really rely on these 'surface gold', 'surface pots', 'surface clay' etc stuff. Not too much, at any rate. 7G7 19:53, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Guarenteed 3 Different Items on first 3 islands?

The generator guarantees that for the first 3 floating islands, each will have a different item.
This is not true, as of 1.0.5. today on finding my first two floating islands, I found two lucky horse shoes in a row, before finding either of the other two unique items. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.198.15.215 at 00:11, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

The first three islands the game generates, not the first three you find. It places the items when it generates the islands, not when you open the chests. --GauHelldragon 05:42, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

Capitalization

In order to be consistent throughout the article, we should either make all uses of "floating islands" capitalized as a proper noun (for example Puerto Rico), or leave it non capitalized (except for the beginning of a sentence of course). I am inclined to go with the former, and make it all caps, simply because IIRC, the devs have spoken of these islands as being their own biome essentially. So, if we go with that, which fits with Underground Jungle and [[Surface Jungle]; we would only use lower case when referring to "the islands," but not when saying the proper name, "Floating Islands." I'll go ahead and change it to this, unless others disagree. MayaMayhem 08:40, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

Sounds good! happypal (talk • contribs) 10:01, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

More like Floating SHIPS, amirite?

No, but seriously. These things consistently really look like ships. Are we simply not going to mention this? Is there any deeper meaning? Williham 23:33, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

It's your imagination. --GauHelldragon 02:01, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

Ah, but is it really? The things clearly have a keel, a rudder, masts and a cabin, and depending on how you look at it, it's not a stretch to call the ores cargo. Also, their shape is always fairly consistent. Williham 14:31, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

Locked Gold Chests on Floating Islands

Those are intentionally locked; Blue himself said so. --Lunboks 10:01, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

Personally, I believe locking these chests is a negative feature, as the items found within are earlier-game than dungeon items.--Katkat1010 12:14, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Holes in floating islands

I found a floating island with a huge hole in the middle, splitting the island in half, and leaving the house unsupported, with no dirt island touching the house. Also, the desert under the island was flooded, with all the holes in the desert, filled to the brim with water.
My guess is that the missing middle chunk of the island was made of water, and when the water settled, it flooded the desert, leaving that giant hole.
Seen in version 1.0.6.1 --Patmo98 00:05, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

"Safe"

There's a suggestion in this article that floating islands might be one of the only safe places to build a home in hard mode, because landbound locations are likely to be covered in corruption or hallow.
This strikes me as a rather dubious claim, considering that floating islands are liable to be attacked by wyverns, which fly, move through walls, and strike me as more generically dangerous than any of the corrupt or hallowed monsters. NPCs might suppress them (except during a blood moon), but they suppress corrupt and hallowed spawns, too. Not to mention the inconvenience of getting in or out of a base so high up.
If you're determined to build castles in the air (literally), wouldn't it make far more sense to construct your own floating platform (out of incorruptible block types) somewhere below the sky monster spawn height? It's not like the preexisting blocks in a floating island are going to help you that much anyway. --Manxome 07:55, 8 December 2011 (UTC)

Harpies are NOT hardmode enemies.

They spawn above a certain altitude from the beginning of the game. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Moonlightfox (talk • contribs) at 06:39, 8 December 2011 (UTC)

My dungeon is in floating island territory!

So,I was following the guide to finding islands, that they often spawn at 700-800 feet and above dungeons and jungles. Well, guess what, my dungeon is at 740 feet, and before i could notice it, i was attacked by harpies! Well, at least I got feathers... Did this happen to anyone else? -Rampardos18 18:52, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Random explosion?

I accidentally found one of our map's sky islands via Water Bolt while fighting zombies, got up there with some rope, and was immediately hounded by four harpies.
Safest thing to do seemed to be holing up in the pregenned room, since I'm not really outfitted yet for sustained combat against'em. I was taking out the three that came in with me and suddenly half the room exploded. Background wall, furniture, and the three harpies dropped, and I went from 260hp to 30.
I was using Aqua Scepter at the time. I do have some explosives in my inventory, but all are accounted for. What happened, do sky rooms spawn with traps and I just happened to get one with TNT, or what? Nothing looked out of the ordinary, and the explosion radius seemed pretty small for a TNT blast (the building walls were barely damaged). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.6.78.7 at 22:49, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

NPC's spawning way up there

Well I had just attempted to kill the wall of flesh, day had come, my new guide spawned, but wasn't anywhere in sight, after later searching the map I had found that he spawned all the way up at a floating island, be warned about this if you want your NPCs in a specific location be sure to rule out any other places they could be... like 800 feet in the sky — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thexylis (talk • contribs) at 10:09, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Images of old version Floating Islands

anybody got a picture or world file with the original islands before they were revamped?(with brick ect) --Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.38.217.116 (talk • contribs) 08:53, 27 December 2013

There appears to be many such images on the net, as seen in Google Images. The uploaded image Finding floating islands via dirt walls.jpg also appears to be of the old kind, though it doesn't show very much. NoseOfCthulhu (talk) 19:35, 27 December 2013 (UTC)

Approximate Height

The values listed for "Approximate Height" in the map size chart seem to be too large. For example, medium map size lists "900 - 1,600 ft" but my medium map's top edge (space) is only at 1,000 ft. Is it measuring from the bottom of the map, rather than the height displayed on the depth meter? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.9.9.88 at 00:00, 5 July 2015 (UTC)

It appears that the height values used to be correct (or at least closer to reality) until the following change:

12:49, 19 July 2014‎ Winterous (feet / blocks measures of altitude were mixed up, 1 block = 2 feet, page had it the other way around.)

I think the correct change might have been to set the "blocks" to half of the "feet", rather than the change that was made, which was to switch the numbers for "feet" and "blocks". Can anyone confirm? --24.9.9.88 19:00, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

I've done as you suggested. Thanks for pointing that out :) Equazcion ^(talk) 19:14, 6 Jul 2015 (UTC)

Looks good, thanks! --24.9.9.88 08:34, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Does photo editor trick still work?

I tried taking a snapshot of everything above the ground with a photo editor, then increasing the brightness as suggested. However I saw no floating islands. Does this trick still work? Does the player need a specific view or something? Needs to be updated.TheMagnificent42 (talk) 02:57, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Floating Lake within 150 blocks of land

I got floating lake spawned within 150 blocks of land in small wotld, I think this should be considered as verification. (link). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.94.2.16 at 09:36, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Could you use the map, and zoom out a bit? It would be helpful to see more of the ground. --Ferretwings (talk) 17:57, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Of course, but I wasn't sure what you need, so I took 3 screens: map, Zoomed out greatly, Zoomed out less great. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.94.2.16 at 11:46, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

Locating Floating Islands

Is there a specific way for a player to find a Floating Island? If so we should add that to the wiki. If no we should try to find a way, For new players finding one could be a challenge. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CrummyCheeseCake (talk • contribs) at 23:19, 31 October 2016‎ (UTC)

I've now moved all the tips for locating the islands into a Tips section. – Ferretwings ^(talk) 03:49, 1 November 2016 (UTC)

2 Unique Items in One Chest

On my first Skyware Chest, I got both the Lucky Horseshoe and the Sky Mill. Is this supposed to happen? Legendbug21 (talk) 02:14, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

According to the Skyware Chest page, the Sky Mill has to appear alongside one of the other three items (including Lucky Horseshoe) by chance. – ReedemtheD3ad! (talk) 02:21, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

Conflicting Information Regarding Guaranteed Loot

This page states that Sky Mill is guaranteed to exist and that there's 4 guaranteed unique loot, while Skyware Chest says that sky mill is an exception to the guaranteed loot rule, but instead (or because it) can spawn alongside those items. Which one is correct? FunAlways (talk) 16:17, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

(Ping!) As far as I can tell, the pages did not suggest a guaranteed Sky Mill; however, the wording may have been confusing, so I clarified it and changed it a tiny bit to conform with the Skyware Chest page. Feel free to test/verify that just in case, though, as I (and/or the pages) could be wrong —ϟAwesome_Diamondsϟ^「talk」 02:28, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

New 1.3.5 Wyvern sprite?

It looks like the current Wyvern image’s version here is the same as before V1.3.5. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Superwill771 (talk • contribs) at 22:47, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

If you look closely, the outline was colored from grey to various greys and blues. 1.3.5 actually did a bunch of that, there might be a few that we've missed because it's so minor. 4e696e6a6f795844 (talk) 23:11, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Possible easy way to locate these islands

I started a new world, medium size. While building and expanding NPC houses near spawn, I noticed some cloud-like particles falling above my house. So, I began to have suspicions of a floating island being there. I got a gravitation potion after a while and checked, and voila! A floating island just right of above world spawn. The page does not list this particle effect anywhere, so I thought of adding it. I will try to get a screenshot of the cloud particle effect soon. Not sure, but maybe it happens during rain or something like that. In the meanwhile, if someone could verify for themselves, please be kind enough to notify me. P.S.: The particle effect it rather subtle, you may not see it unless you are looking for it. Or maybe i'm just seeing things.

Do Floating Lakes count toward a map's maximum floating island count?

Or is it only a "proper" dirt-and-usually-house Floating Island that runs up the count? 71.15.200.122 11:41, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

They counted but now they don't --Lightg4 (talk) 12:38, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

When did they? Can confirm they don't count in 1.3.? (current Switch version), as there are four islands and two lakes on this one medium world (6 total over max "5") and 3+1>3 on a small. 71.15.200.122 07:08, 4 July 2020 (UTC)

Holed sky lake

I saw a sky lake that had a hole in it, and most of the water had drained out of it. The world was generated in 1.4.0.5. 56KPK (talk) 00:26, 12 October 2020 (UTC)

Found a lucky horseshoe in a sky island on pc.

I recently started playing terraria again and found a lucky horseshoe in a sky island chest even though it states on the wiki that they can't be found. I believe they can be found its just rarer than the other 3 finds. Smileymousse10460 (talk) 22:43, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

Only thing I can think of is the world being generated prior to 1.4.1? Based on the 1.4.2.3 source code, it should be impossible to find a Lucky Horseshoe in Skyware Chests. --Eraloiz (talk) 00:42, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

found a celestial magnet in one floating island and then a lucky horseshoe in another

The version is pc 1.4.4.2, although the world was generated in 1.4.4;

Seed is 2.2.1.1276998562;

I was flying to the right with the gravitation potion and found all of those items.

to1ex (talk) 16:13, 1 October 2022 (UTC)