Island themes

Before your very first minute of play, you pick your world. The theme is how your starter island is dressed: the same island, the same spots, but a whole different setting, with its own sky and atmosphere. Only the look changes: no theme gives you an edge.

The three themes

Classic

Grass, stone and a cherry tree: the island as always. The SkyBlock blue sky and the Forge among the greenery, no frills.

Aether

An island above the clouds. Cliffs of white holystone striped with moss and frost-blue bricks, a keel of ice and frosted rock under the island, sea-green grass dotted with tufts of white and blue cloud. Turquoise crystal and cloud trees, blue and white flowers, a ruin capped with angelic stone, clouds drifting all around. The sky is clear, and chimes drift in the wind over cherry grove music.

The Aether blocks are drawn for the mode. Broken, they give back their plain vanilla counterpart.

Boreal

An island of the Far North. Deepslate and tuff striped with calcite over an ice keel, a snow cornice, icicles under the island. To the north-east, a crown of hexagonal ice crystals; to the south-west, a circle of rune stones around an altar burning with soul fire; to the south-east, a spruce grove, and a frozen pond with its fishing hole. The sky is a pale turquoise aurora, snowflakes fall, and the music is the snowy slopes’.

The Boreal is built entirely from vanilla blocks.

Picking one

• The first time you join, the “Choose your island” screen opens by itself, with its three windows (the Boreal under an aurora). Until you choose, it keeps coming back; with no choice after a while, your island will be classic.
• Each window plays its own arpeggio when you click it, and the build is celebrated with a fanfare in the theme’s style: cracking ice and bells for the Boreal.
• Later on, you pick a theme again whenever you create a new island: with /is create without an island, or when you reset yours. Closing the screen cancels.

What doesn’t change

• The island layout: the Forge, the camp, the farm, the portal islet and the ONE CHUNK are in the same spots.
• The island’s value: all three themes are worth about the same when resold.
• The game: same factories, same upgrades, same island level.

Your border colour is picked separately, in the island rules.

Tip: the theme changes nothing about your progress, so go with your gut. And if you can’t decide, the Aether and the Boreal stand out from afar on the warps board.

What’s next: Getting started.