Island Settings are the options that belong to one island: its clock, its weather, its biome and twelve on/off rules for fire, explosions, crops, mobs and fluids. They are stored on the island, not on a player, so every member and every visitor sees the same time, weather and biome, and the rules apply in the island's Overworld, Nether and End.
Overview#
- Open the settings menu with
/is settings(alias/is setting), or from the Island Settings compass in the island menu. - The menu has 15 entries: Time, Weather, Biome and 12 on/off rules. Clicking an entry changes it immediately and saves it. There is no confirmation, no cost and no cooldown.
- Time, Weather and Biome cycle to the next option on every click. The 12 rules flip between on and off.
- Any island member can open the menu and look. Changing anything needs the Set Island Settings permission, which is held by Officer and above unless the owner changed it in the permissions menu. A member without it gets "You don't have permission to do that!".
- The
/is setbiome <biome>command does the same job as the Biome button and needs the same permission.
Opening the menu#
/is settings works on the island you are standing on if you are a member of it. Off an island it uses your only island, or asks you to pick one if you belong to several. If you have no island it tells you to create one.
The menu is a two-page list. A Go back button sits in the top-left corner, and arrows in the bottom corners turn the page. Each page holds 14 entries, so the 15th entry (Wither Spawning) is on page 2.
| Entry | Icon | Click to |
|---|---|---|
| Time | Cycle the island's time of day | |
| Weather | Cycle the island's weather | |
| Biome | Cycle the island's biome (alphabetical order) | |
| Fire Spread | Toggle fire spreading | |
| Explosions | Toggle explosions | |
| Crop Growth | Toggle crop growth | |
| Natural Animal Spawning | Toggle animal spawning | |
| Natural Mob Spawning | Toggle hostile mob spawning | |
| Egg Laying | Toggle chickens laying eggs | |
| Enderman Griefing | Toggle endermen moving blocks | |
| Ghast Fireball | Toggle ghast fireballs | |
| Lava Flow | Toggle lava flowing | |
| Water Flow | Toggle water flowing | |
| Tree Growth | Toggle tree growth | |
| Wither Spawning | Toggle building Withers |
Time, Weather and Biome show their current value on the first line of the item. Each of the 12 rules shows Enabled: YES or Enabled: NO and the line "Click to toggle this setting".
Time#
The Time setting freezes the island's clock at a fixed moment. With Default the island follows the normal day and night cycle. With any other choice the island's Overworld is held at that time of day, and the setting is re-applied every second, so the sun and moon do not move.
| Option | Clock tick | Looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Default | Normal cycle | Time passes as usual |
| Day | 1000 | Early morning |
| Noon | 6000 | Midday |
| Sunset | 12000 | Dusk |
| Night | 13000 | Start of night |
| Midnight | 18000 | Darkest point |
| Sunrise | 23000 | Just before dawn |
Each click moves to the next row in this order and wraps from Sunrise back to Default. Time only affects the Overworld. The island's Nether and End have a fixed sky and ignore it.
Weather#
| Option | Result |
|---|---|
| Default | Normal weather |
| Clear | No rain and no thunder |
| Rain | Constant rain (snow in cold biomes) |
| Thunder | Constant rain and thunderstorm |
Each click moves down this list and wraps from Thunder to Default. With anything other than Default, natural weather changes are cancelled and the chosen weather is re-applied every second, so it never ends and never changes on its own.
Biome#
The Biome setting paints a biome over your island's Overworld. It changes the grass, foliage and water colours, the sky and fog, and anything else the game ties to the biome, such as rain versus snow. It is free, has no cooldown and does not need any unlock.
Set it from the menu (the button cycles through the biomes in alphabetical order, which is slow) or by name with /is setbiome <biome>. Type the biome in lower case with underscores, for example /is setbiome cherry_grove. Tab completion lists the options. Choosing a name that is not on the list answers "<biome> is not an island biome you can choose!". The command confirms with "Your island biome has been updated to <biome>!" (the menu button changes the biome without a chat message).
New islands start on default, which means no biome is painted and the island keeps the biome it was created with.
How the biome is applied#
- When the setting changes, every loaded chunk of the island's Overworld is repainted straight away and re-sent to nearby players.
- Chunks that are not loaded are repainted the next time they load.
- Blocks you place later take the island's biome at their position.
- The island's Nether and End are never repainted.
- Default only stops painting. It does not undo an earlier biome, because chunks that were already painted keep their biome. To return to a plain look, choose a concrete biome such as
plains.
Available biomes#
There are 54 biomes plus default.
| Group | Biomes |
|---|---|
| Plains and forests | plains, sunflower_plains, meadow, forest, flower_forest, birch_forest, old_growth_birch_forest, dark_forest, pale_garden, cherry_grove, grove |
| Taiga and snow | taiga, snowy_taiga, old_growth_pine_taiga, old_growth_spruce_taiga, snowy_plains, ice_spikes, snowy_slopes |
| Mountains and hills | windswept_hills, windswept_gravelly_hills, windswept_forest, windswept_savanna, jagged_peaks, frozen_peaks, stony_peaks |
| Desert and badlands | desert, savanna, savanna_plateau, badlands, eroded_badlands, wooded_badlands |
| Jungle and swamp | jungle, sparse_jungle, bamboo_jungle, swamp, mangrove_swamp |
| Shores and rivers | beach, snowy_beach, stony_shore, river, frozen_river |
| Oceans | ocean, deep_ocean, cold_ocean, deep_cold_ocean, frozen_ocean, deep_frozen_ocean, lukewarm_ocean, deep_lukewarm_ocean, warm_ocean |
| Caves and other | lush_caves, dripstone_caves, deep_dark, mushroom_fields |
The Nether and End biomes (such as nether_wastes, crimson_forest, the_end) and the_void cannot be chosen. An island that still holds one of them is moved to plains the next time its settings are saved.
Island rules (toggles)#
The 12 on/off rules decide what is allowed to happen on the island. Their defaults are shown below. A rule switched off simply cancels the matching event on your island.
| Rule | Default | What switching it off does |
|---|---|---|
| Fire Spread | On | Fire stops spreading to new blocks and blocks stop burning away. Lighting a fire by hand still works. |
| Explosions | Off | Explosions from any source (TNT, creepers, fireballs and so on) do no damage to blocks, players or mobs. |
| Crop Growth | On | Crops stop growing. |
| Natural Animal Spawning | On | Animals, villagers, golems, squid and other water mobs stop spawning, except from spawn eggs, commands and server-scripted spawns. Baby animals from breeding also stop appearing. |
| Natural Mob Spawning | Off | Hostile mobs stop spawning, except from spawn eggs, commands and server-scripted spawns. Because the default is off, natural hostile spawns are off on every new island. |
| Egg Laying | On | Chickens stop laying eggs. |
| Enderman Griefing | Off | Endermen cannot pick up or place blocks (this is the default state). |
| Ghast Fireball | Off | Ghasts cannot shoot fireballs (this is the default state). |
| Lava Flow | On | Lava stops flowing and spreading. |
| Water Flow | On | Water stops flowing and spreading. |
| Tree Growth | On | Trees stop growing from saplings. |
| Wither Spawning | Off | Building a Wither is cancelled (this is the default state). |
Seven rules start on (Fire Spread, Crop Growth, Natural Animal Spawning, Egg Laying, Lava Flow, Water Flow, Tree Growth). Five start off (Explosions, Natural Mob Spawning, Enderman Griefing, Ghast Fireball, Wither Spawning).
How the spawning rules interact#
- Only spawn eggs, commands and server-scripted spawns bypass the two spawning rules. Every other cause follows the rule, including natural spawns and golems or Withers built from blocks.
- Natural Mob Spawning controls hostile mobs. Natural Animal Spawning controls animals, villagers, golems, squid and other water mobs.
- A Wither is a hostile mob, so with Natural Mob Spawning off no Wither can be built even when Wither Spawning is on. To allow Withers, turn on both Natural Mob Spawning and Wither Spawning.
- Iron golems and snow golems built from blocks count as animal spawns, so they need Natural Animal Spawning on.
- Mob farms that depend on natural hostile spawns need Natural Mob Spawning on, which is off by default.
Tips#
- Leave Explosions off unless you want TNT and creepers to damage your build.
- Test any water- or lava-based farm after switching Water Flow or Lava Flow off, because placed fluid stays where it is.
- Crop and tree rules only stop growth. They do not remove anything already grown.
Crop rules#
Two island rules about crops are not toggles in the settings menu.
Waterless and Lightless Crops#
Crops on an island normally follow the vanilla rules: farmland needs water nearby and crops need light to grow. Two unlocks remove those requirements for the whole island.
| Unlock | What it allows | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Waterless Crops | Crops grow without nearby water and farmland stays hydrated | Island upgrade, level 2, $250,000 |
| Lightless Crops | Crops grow without light | Island upgrade, level 2, $250,000 |
Both are bought in the island upgrades menu, see Island Upgrades. The island also counts as unlocked when any island member holds a rank that includes the perk. The menu shows each one as "Locked" or "Unlocked".
Which dimension a crop grows in#
Island crops are tied to a dimension. Planting, growing, spreading, bone-mealing or villager-planting a crop outside its dimension is refused. Harvested produce is not restricted, and trees and decorative plants are free.
| Dimension | Crops |
|---|---|
| Overworld | Wheat, carrots, potatoes, beetroots, melons, pumpkins, sugar cane, bamboo, cocoa, cactus, kelp, cave vines (glow berries), sweet berries, red and brown mushrooms |
| Nether | Nether wart |
| End | Chorus plant |
A refused planting answers "<crop> can only be planted in: <dimension>" and the seed is not used up. The Nether and End must be unlocked first, see Island Dimensions (Nether and End).
Other island rules#
- Obsidian pickup. Right-click an obsidian block with an empty bucket and it turns back into lava: the obsidian disappears and you get a lava bucket. You need permission to break blocks on the island (Break Blocks, Co-Op and above by default). When lava turns into obsidian on an island, players within 16 blocks get the message "Your lava turned into obsidian! Right-click it with a bucket to get lava back." at most once every 30 seconds each. The feature is on by default and can be switched off per player with the Obsidian Pickup option in your Options menu.
- Members cannot hurt each other. Players who are members or co-ops of the same island cannot damage each other while on that island. See PvP for combat elsewhere.
- Villager trading is off. Villagers on Skyblock do not acquire trades.
- Teleport prevention. Players banned from an island cannot teleport onto it, and a banned player who is standing on it is sent to spawn. A closed island refuses
/is visitfrom non-members, but teleports made by other commands are only refused for banned players. Details are on Island Warps and Visiting.
See also#
- Island Permissions for who may open and change each part of an island
- The Island Menu for the island menu that links to the settings
- Island Upgrades for the Waterless Crops and Lightless Crops unlocks
- Island Dimensions (Nether and End) for the Nether and End and their crop rules
- Island Warps and Visiting for public and private islands, warps and bans
- Island Block Limits for the hopper limit