Find the sky layer first
In Sky Islands, everything happens above your world. Get some height and explore your surroundings: that is where the floating islands are, scattered among the clouds. They will not come to you, so simply start climbing and go find them.
Islands come in six themed types: Forest, Jungle, Cold and Mountain, Snow, Desert and Savanna, and Mesa and Badlands. Each theme has twelve variants, covering almost every base biome you already know. Their location is unique to each world, so your first island is truly yours to discover.
Mine the ores that matter
Once on an island, look for ore deposits. There are five of them: Leaf, Ancient, Frozen, Fire, and the one everyone is after, Adamendite.
The four biome ores let you craft the matching armor sets, which is where most players start. Adamendite is the rarest ore and unlocks the items that change how you move around, so pick up every piece you find, even if you are not ready to use it yet.
Do not ignore the villagers
Fifteen sky villagers live on the islands and run a full trading economy, with 204 trades in total. There are two currencies: biome fragments and adamendite. If you are short on a specific resource, trading is often faster than mining. New players tend to skip this step, and it slows them down for hours.
Tame your first Sky Cloud
Sky Clouds are the mounts of Sky Islands, and this is often the exact moment the add-on clicks for players. Use adamendite shards to tame one and it becomes your personal flying mount.
They also work as a bouncy platform when you are not riding them, which is handier than it sounds for hopping from island to island. They will switch to storm mode if they get angry.
Get ready for the endgame
Progression is linear. Start by forging the four biome armor sets. Then fuse each set with Adamendite, which grants a permanent double jump. Finally, you will earn the Fusion armor, sixteen endgame pieces that stack every effect.
Along the way, the adamendite tools are worth it: the vein miner, the tree feller, the path maker, the 3x5 tiller and the Strike Launch. And once you have several islands in play, build the adamendite elevator so you never have to pillar up through the clouds with blocks again.
Read the guidebook
Sky Islands ships with a built-in guidebook covering every system in the game, updated for the version 2 overhaul. If you are unsure how something works, the answer is in there.
What comes next?
Updates are in development, with new systems and rebalancing on the way, so some of the details above may change. Sky Islands is available on the Marketplace for 830 Minecoins and runs on Windows, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, iOS and Android.
And if you like worlds that run themselves, take a look at our best seller Cute Golems: its 15 little helpers feel right at home on a floating island.