Skyblock has been around for about 10 years and it’s one of the biggest terms when you talk about Minecraft. Normally when you create a new world, you will likely spawn in a super gigantic world with around 60.000.000 blocks wide. And it would take you around 162 days in real life to walk across the Minecraft world!
But since Skyblock has been out, it creates a huge impact on how people play Minecraft. Without further it does, let’s get straight into Minecraft Skyblock mode!
Related: Best Blocks to build in Minecraft
What is Skyblock?
Basically, Skyblock brings the player to an island high up in the sky, you need to make progress through a lot of challenges with limited resources:
- A lava bucket and 2 ice to make a cobblestone generator
- A tree
- Melon and pumpkin seed
- Red and brown mushroom
- A bone
- A bread
- And a full starter leader armor
Skyblock history
Back in the time, people were just exhausted from Minecraft’s primary content. Minecraft plugins and mods in the past also have not grown strong for the time being. So there is only one way to do it, create a Minecraft custom map!
Minecraft community start to create and contribute a lot of custom maps, they are divided into popular categories like Action, Adventure, Parkour, Puzzle, and Survival. They all have great content and freshness for Minecraft players to start with.
Dig deeper into the Survival category, we discovered a really simple map called Skyblock, with the following simple thumbnail display an L-shape island floating in the sky. Because of its simplicity and the addictive grinding/explore new things, Skyblock was exploded!
How to Basically play Skyblock?
Skyblock in a Nutshell
Since it just a custom map, you just need to download it and place the save world in your Minecraft saves folder. Then start the Minecraft game and choose Skyblock world.
You spawn on a lonely island with only a tree and a chest to start with. You punch the tree to get wood and hopefully to get any saplings from the leftover leaves. I swear I have to reset the world so many times because I don’t get any saplings 😀
Things start to be tedious at the beginning since you need to make a cobblestone generator, mine a lot of cobblestone in order to expand your island, make yourself a farm for food and later animals, build a mob farm and even go to the nether to get more resources!
How is it Interesting then?
Yes, you’re absolutely right when asking this. Since you play alone with no tangible goals or achievements. You just play, right?
Actually… no!
There are a bunch of achievements which you need to do and meet their requirements to beat the map. Even it’s only the map’s rules but it will get you on track if you don’t know what to do next. You can see the list of goals here!
Skyblock Nowaday
While the game grows, Minecraft servers become more popular. People looking for a place where they can play with their friends, or random people on the internet. What can be more fun than playing your favorite game with people, right?
Some people love to play on a survival world for a larger space, where they can build their own mega builds or mining for days. Some just love the simplicity and choose Skyblock.
When it comes to the Server level, Skyblock in Minecraft is much more addictive than before! If you play Skyblock in Single mode, you pretty much get your fate stick with only Cobblestones and so on.
But Skyblock on a server level has a lot of features and plugins added to the game, which make you have endless goals and objectives. First of all, there is a thing called “Island level”, which is the level of your island. Island level is calculated by how big your island is, and how valuable the blocks you’re using to build the island.
Usually every month, there is an island level competition, where it picks the 3 highest level islands. The winners will receive a bunch of custom overpowers in-game items or even money in cash.
Remember when I said, you only stick with Cobblestone to the end of your Minecraft life in Singleplay? Well, no more in this case!
You do grind for Cobblestone, but you can trade them for a lot of different items through Traders. You can also sell Cobblestone for in-game currency, then use that currency to buy another item.
About the achievements or goals, Skyblock with plugins offers a lot more tangible objectives, where you can take a look and see their requirements, then giving in the required items to complete it.
Each challenge completed will unlock new things and give you specific blocks/items so that you can continually make progress further.
Not stop there, you can even visit other’s islands and vice versa. That’s where all of the motivation comes in, you just not to build it big to reach a certain level, but you also need to make it beautiful. Who would like an island fully made out of Cobblestone, right?
With that in mind, check out these best blocks to build in Minecraft!
Another popular feature is the chest crates or as know as loot crates. Basically, you receive keys with different rarity based on your activities. (It may require a vote for the server, play for a specific time, top-ranking in specific aspects, or donate with real money)
Other Variations
Skyblock One Block
One block has been invented recently in the past 1-2 years. Like Minecraft Skyblock, you will spawn on an island up in the sky, but with just only 1 block to survive.
Breaking that block will give you a random Minecraft item, in a progressive order. So you will likely get woodblock, make your way through the stone age, iron age, and diamond age!
The fun thing is it’s 100% completely random and starts with only 1 block make this mode grow fast. There is also a mod pack for One Block, so check that out if you need to start a totally new experience!
Acid Island
Another variation of Skyblock is Acid Island or Castaway Island. Instead of being up in the sky, the island is now in the middle of the ocean. The water surrounding you is poisoned, so stay away from it or you will get the annoying poison status.
The idea here is just very similar to normal Skyblock, instead of the void now you must face the water. So the overall strategy is to expand your island, and slowly making progress and hopefully, you can return to the motherland. 😀
Conclusion
Skyblock has come a long way and it continually grows, whenever you play alone or with friends, it worth a try! Believe me, if you have a day off, let’s get yourself a coffee cup, listen to some music and chill out while breaking the cobblestones!
