I’m going to start this minecraft survival map review with a warning: do not let the poisoned villager out of the solitary village blacksmith’s house. He is not in his right mind and he will run right off the edge of the world if you’re not careful.*

This simple island style of minecraft survival map is by far and away my absolute favorite. I love the simplicty of these maps, as well as the challenge that comes from having limited space and limited resources. Sky Flat is especially challenging as a quick peek over the edge reveals this map to be but one block thick.
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So there’s like, this Minecraft chunk. And it’s, like, suspended in the sky with nothing around it. As a survival map, its purpose is simple. Just mine the chunk for whatever resources you can find and try to survive without falling off the edge too many times. Cobble generators will no doubt be popular with the ‘eternal expansion’ crowd, but others will be happy to simply sit atop the chunk, growing forests, fighting mobs, farming pigs and contemplating the great blue yonder.

Are there challenges? Are there challenges. Yes. There are challenges. The first challenge is the cobblestone generator I mentioned above. There’s always a cobblestone generator, with all the fleeting possibility of accidentally creating obsidian or melting yourself. For those of you past the cobblestone generation level of challenges, there are more. Like make five bowls of mushroom stew, or build a fortress made of snow. These are all inherently pointless, without even a vague attempt at story to make them somehow coherent, but that’s how minecraft survival map players like it, difficult and highly specific.

Download Sky Chunk, Minecraft Sky Survival Map!

You begin your journey trapped in a pocket of air in the lower corner of the sky aquarium. The sky aquarium is a small place, a place where one tree grows a few meters away and where the constant press of water makes breathing difficult.

What makes this map hard is the relative lack of resources. At first glance there are no animals, no grasses, no wheat farms, no mushrooms, not a whole lot of food of any kind in fact. Small pockets of ore do exist, but they are not easily found and the player will have to create ways to hold back the waters in order to harvest their bounty.

Although this is a tiny map, I found it to be one of the more enjoyable sky survival maps thus far, perhaps because exploring the small reaches of this little map took an awful lot of engineering, and when I found those precious deposits, I felt a glow of achievement difficult to attain in a world where one takes air for granted.

Definitely worth playing for anybody who likes the sky survival / survival island genre.

Click here to download Sky Aquarium Minecraft Sky Survival Map!

Can you survive in a Garden Pot? You’re about to find out! In the vein of Ant Farm Survival and Fish Tank Survival and Survival in a Bottle comes Garden Pot survival, a massive garden pot in which you must survive.

This minecraft map is largely comprised of a massive tree, a tree so large that you’ll probably get a nose bleed trying to climb all the way to the top of it. The top of the tree is dusted with a coating of snow and the ground below is entirely brown dirt. No grass graces the pot at first, so therefore you have quite a task ahead of you cultivating the garden pot into a wilderness that can sustain life.

Click here to download Garden Pot Minecraft Sky Survival Map

You’ve played minecraft sky survival islands before, but have you played sky survival hot air balloons? This unique little minecraft survival map comes with more than 60 challenges – packing a big punch in a very little series of baskets. Each of the hot air balloons contains a resource – and often a surprise. Though you can’t fly these minecraft balloons, you can travel to various realms by harvesting the possibilities locked within these sky borne baskets.

You spawn in the middle of a balloon fleet, surrounded by colorful floating orbs. It’s a very pleasant way to be thrown into a world of harsh survival. From the outset you must start expanding, making your way between the balloons. Though precious resources are scattered in what seems to be abundance, you must first gather the tools to harvest those resources and that is more of a challenge than you might think.

As with many maps of this type, various biomes can be found in various balloons. Some of them might feel a little trite, but when it comes time to make your house in the sky, complete with glass windows, you’ll be glad for that little desert full of sand.

A solid little map, anyone who enjoys classic minecraft survival will enjoy Hot Air Balloon Survival.

Download Hot Air Balloon Minecraft Survival Sky Island Map!