Revision - islands - Solarpunk Wiki

Overview

The world of Solarpunk consists of a network of floating islands suspended in the sky. These islands serve as the game's map, with each one offering different resources, terrain, and opportunities for building. The world is a limited set of handcrafted islands spanning two biomes rather than an endlessly generated map. Players travel between islands using their airship, discovering new locations and expanding their reach as they progress.

First-person view from a Solarpunk airship helm, showing the steering wheel, speed dial, battery charge and wind gauges with two other airships and floating islands ahead

World Structure

Islands vary in size and composition. Some are small outcrops with a few resource nodes, while others are large enough to support full bases, farms, and automated production lines. The floating island design means that vertical space matters; players build upward and outward on the available terrain rather than across a flat landscape.

A player standing on the deck of a personal airship at sunset in Solarpunk, with a second airship and forested floating islands drifting through the clouds

Each island contains different distributions of resources. Brown rocks (sandstone) yield Sand, green rocks with moss yield Stone, and small iron outcrops provide Iron. This encourages players to visit multiple islands to gather the full range of materials they need.

Exploration

Exploring new islands is a core part of progression. The Improved Airship Dock, when powered, lets players target and boost toward distant islands. Without the dock upgrade, reaching far-off islands requires manual flight, which takes longer and is affected by wind conditions.

A tethered ducted sky turbine floating above a Solarpunk homestead, with a pole wind turbine, a cable winch and beehives along the fence

Islands may contain structures and machines left behind that need repair, such as the Merchant Platform, Vending Machine, and Fabricator. Repairing these unlocks new functionality, including access to airship upgrades and cosmetic items.

Winter Islands

Not every island is reachable from the start. A separate set of winter islands sits beyond the range of a basic airship and only opens up once the airship has been upgraded far enough. Reaching them is one of the game's achievements, which marks them as a real progression milestone rather than a cosmetic variation on the islands nearer the start.

Loot Chests

Loot chests are placed around the world as a finite, collectable set. Finding every one of them is one of the two rarest achievements in the game, cleared by only a small fraction of players, which suggests they are spread widely across the island network rather than clustered near the starting area. Because the world layout never changes, a chest someone else has found is in the same place in your own world.

Building on Islands

Players can build on most island surfaces. The foundation-based building system allows for multi-story structures on any suitable terrain. The placement indicator shows blue for valid positions and orange for invalid ones, helping players find buildable spots.

Because islands have limited surface area, efficient use of space becomes important as bases grow. Players often spread production across multiple islands, connecting them through regular airship trips or by setting up automation on remote islands to run independently.

A Fixed World Layout

Solarpunk's world is handcrafted and not randomly generated. Every world is the same one, so island positions, resource placement and points of interest are identical in every save and starting fresh does not reroll anything. Directions from another player therefore transfer exactly to your own game.

One consequence worth knowing early: wheat does not grow on the starting island. If you cannot find it near your first base, that is by design and not a bad roll, and the fix is to explore further rather than to restart. See Farming and Plants for the crop list and World Options for the two world types you can choose between.

Lost Cargo Markers

Version 1.3.0 adds Lost Cargo drops during regular gameplay, with map markers, messages and sound effects. Possible contents include selected storage, power and decoration items. The patch does not specify an interval, fixed drop locations or a new island count.

Version 1.3.0-304818 reached Steam on September 30, 2026. The announcement placed the console rollout after platform approval; a matching live version has not been confirmed for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S or Nintendo Switch 2 as of October 8. Check the installed version before relying on these changes on another platform.

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