How can I find the sky islands and beat the harpies?

[sunxxdrop]

I have been tryig to find sky islands and everytime I look I either find harpies, and no sky islands, or I die because of the harpies.

[ShadeDaystar]

Sounds like you need better gear. Sky islands can be located in a number of ways. If you fire Water Bolt or Meteor Shot straight up, then an island will bounce it back. Some islands are below Harpy spawn. Try building a skybridge to find them. You could also wait until Hardmode. Several of the NPCs offer low quality wings to help you explore.
As for Harpies, they have 200 health, but go splat as well as the next thing. The Minishark tends to make short work of them, as do swords such as the Blood Butcherer or the Blade of Grass.

[Daisu]

What I noticed in Terraria is that upon any hump/mountain or something like this there is a high chance of sky island being there. It is never upon the big life tree or what ever you call it and it is never at the edges of the map.

You will most likely see sky islands in the middle of the map. Also, there is a chance of sky islands being so close to each other that when you jump from one sky island you might see another one on your mini-map. Or you can just make a small bridge with blocks on a sky island level and look for the other ones.

[kiwi strawberry]

Originally posted by Mike21Daisu:

What I noticed in Terraria is that upon any hump/mountain or something like this there is a high chance of sky island being there. It is never upon the big life tree or what ever you call it and it is never at the edges of the map.

You will most likely see sky islands in the middle of the map. Also, there is a chance of sky islands being so close to each other that when you jump from one sky island you might see another one on your mini-map. Or you can just make a small bridge with blocks on a sky island level and look for the other ones.

I've noticed this too. If you can, make gravitation potions or use an item such as a water bolt (Found at the top of dungeons) and use it every once and a while. Water Bolt bounces, so if it hits an island, It will come back down.

[Government Hooker]

I think you should just better gear and try harder :D
If you have GPS it's easy to find sky islands by measuring the heigh.
For small world it should be about 430-475 ft.
for medium - 500-700 ft.
and for large - 650-1100 ft.

[kevinshow]

At the early stages, you can use a gravitation potion to fly around in the skies.

You can also use a gun. When it hits something above you,, it will make a certain different sound.

You can make a tall 1-block tower, and when you see harpies, then start building horizontally, but this is not a best way, since you still could be at the wrong elevation and miss a sky island. You'll have to defeat the harpies that live in and around this elevation, though. Doing it before hardmode at least means that you don't have to fight wyverns at the same time.