Debuffs

Debuffs are negative status effects inflicted on a player or enemy during combat or through various items or the environment. Active debuffs are shown as icons below the hotbar, along with their remaining duration. Debuffs are almost universally negative or at least malign effects, in contrast with buffs, over which the player has much more control.

In general, damaging debuffs will stack: If a player is both Poisoned and On Fire!, they will take damage from both debuffs. However, Poisoned and Acid Venom do not stack, and Poisoned will take precedence over Acid Venom. Death always cancels any active debuffs.

Unlike buffs, debuffs cannot be canceled by right-clicking their icons. The Nurse can cancel debuffs at a cost of 750 per active debuff. This does not apply to the Potion Sickness debuff, because when trying to cancel the Potion Sickness debuff, the Nurse will not charge for recovery of the debuff and the debuff will not be canceled, but the Potion Sickness icon will disappear.

From enemies

Icon	Name	Effect	Tooltip	Duration
	Bleeding Internal Buff ID: 30	Prevents the player from regenerating life naturally. Since enemies cannot regenerate life naturally, they will lose life instead when they have the debuff.	Cannot regenerate life	3–45 seconds 6–90 seconds
	Poisoned Internal Buff ID: 20	Players turn green, slowly lose life over time, and cannot regenerate life.	Slowly losing life	3–10 seconds 2–20 seconds
	On Fire! Internal Buff ID: 24	Players are engulfed with flames, lose life over time, and cannot regenerate life.	Slowly losing life	7–10 seconds 14–20 seconds
	Acid Venom Internal Buff ID: 70	Players turn purple, lose life over time, and cannot regenerate life.	Losing life	8 seconds 16 seconds
	Darkness Internal Buff ID: 22	Players turn blue, and light brightness is lowered.	Decreased light vision	15 seconds 5–30 seconds
	Blackout Internal Buff ID: 80	Severely lowers the brightness of light, making it nearly impossible to see.	Light vision severely reduced	3 seconds 6 seconds
	Silenced Internal Buff ID: 35	Prevents the player from using anything that requires mana.	Cannot use items that require mana	7 seconds 2.5–14 seconds
	Cursed Internal Buff ID: 23	Prevents the player from using anything.	Cannot use any items	4 seconds 1.25–8 seconds
	Confused Internal Buff ID: 31	Game controls are switched.	Movement is reversed	7 seconds 2.5–14 seconds
	Slow Internal Buff ID: 32	Slows down the player's speed.	Movement speed is reduced	5–16 seconds 0.5–32 seconds
	Oozed Internal Buff ID: 197	Player speed is severely reduced.	Movement is significantly reduced	14 seconds 14 seconds
	Weak Internal Buff ID: 33	Causes the player's physical abilities to decrease.	Physical abilities are decreased	1–5 minutes 18.75 seconds – 10 minutes
	Broken Armor Internal Buff ID: 36	Halves the player's defense.	Defense is cut in half	10 seconds – 2 minutes 16.25 seconds – 4 minutes
	Withered Armor Internal Buff ID: 195	Halves the player's defense.	Your armor is lowered!	5 seconds 10 seconds
	Withered Weapon Internal Buff ID: 196	Reduces all player-inflicted damage by 50%.	Your attacks are weaker!	5 seconds
	Horrified Internal Buff ID: 37	Causes the player to die if they escape the Underworld.	You have seen something nasty, there is no escape.	While fighting Wall of Flesh
	The Tongue Internal Buff ID: 38	Pulls the player, through tiles, directly in front of the Wall of Flesh.	You are being sucked into the mouth	While in contact with The Tongue
	Cursed Inferno Internal Buff ID: 39	Ignites the player with cursed flames that deal damage over time. Cursed flames can not be extinguished by water.	Losing life	7–8 seconds 14–16 seconds
	Ichor Internal Buff ID: 69	Causes the player to glow yellow along with the loss of 15 / 20 defense.	Reduced defense	15 seconds 30 seconds
	Frostburn Internal Buff ID: 44	Affected entities lose life over time and cannot regenerate life.	It's either really hot or really cold. Either way it REALLY hurts	1–8 seconds
	Chilled Internal Buff ID: 46	Slows down the player's speed.	Your movement speed has been reduced	10–45 seconds 20–90 seconds
	Frozen Internal Buff ID: 47	Prevents the player from moving or using any item.	You can't move!	1–1.5 second 2–3 seconds
	Webbed Internal Buff ID: 149	Causes the player to be stuck in the spot where they were hit. Players are still allowed to use items while this effect is ongoing.	You are stuck	1 second
	Stoned Internal Buff ID: 156	Prevents the player from moving horizontally or using any item. The player will take increased fall damage, which will not be negated by wings or the Lucky Horseshoe.	You are completely petrified!	1–4 seconds
	Distorted Internal Buff ID: 164	Causes the player to float upwards and downwards based on their position.	Gravity around you is distorted	6–12 seconds 5–9 seconds
	Obstructed Internal Buff ID: 163	Darkens the screen almost completely, except for a small area around the player and causes the player to bleed.	You can't see!	While being attacked by a Brain Suckler
	Electrified Internal Buff ID: 144	Causes the player to take significant damage when moving and a smaller amount of damage when not moving.	Moving hurts!	4–8 seconds
	Feral Bite Internal Buff ID: 148	Increases player damage but decreases health regeneration and applies other random debuffs.	Increased damage, Decreased life regen, Causes status effects	3–90 seconds
	Moon Bite Internal Buff ID: 145	Prevents the player from healing via Vampire Knives or Spectre Hood.	You are unable to absorb healing effects	14 seconds 16 seconds

From items and environment

Icon	Name	Effect	Tooltip	Duration
	Mana Sickness Internal Buff ID: 94	Magic damage is reduced by 25%, the amount of damage reduced is reduced by 1% every 1/5 second.	Magic damage reduced by	5–10 seconds
	Potion Sickness Internal Buff ID: 21	Prevents the player from drinking healing potions and restoration potions.	Cannot consume anymore healing items	1 minute (45 seconds with a Philosopher's Stone/Charm of Myths)
	Chaos State Internal Buff ID: 88	Causes the player to lose 1/7th / 1/6th of their maximum health if they use the Rod of Discord again while the debuff is active.	Using the Rod of Discord will take life	6 seconds
	Suffocation Internal Buff ID: 68	Players lose life over time while buried in Sand, Slush, or Silt.	Losing life	While in contact with falling Silt/Sand/Slush
	Burning Internal Buff ID: 67	Players burn, losing life, life regeneration speed, and movement speed.	Losing life and slowed movement	While in contact with Meteorite, Hellstone, or Hellstone Brick
	Tipsy Internal Buff ID: 25	Decreases defense, increases melee stats.	Increased melee abilities, lowered defense	2 minutes
	Lovestruck Internal Buff ID: 119	Affected entities emit cosmetic red hearts.	You are in love!	30 seconds
	Stinky Internal Buff ID: 120	Green fumes appear around the player, a purely visual effect.	You smell terrible	30 seconds
	Water Candle Internal Buff ID: 86	Increases the spawn rate and max number of enemies on screen.	Increased monster spawn rate	When near a placed Water Candle
	Shadow Candle Internal Buff ID: 350	Nullifies the enemy spawn reduction benefits of towns in the area.	Dispels the peace of towns	When near a placed Shadow Candle
	Mighty Wind Internal Buff ID: 194	Pushed based on wind direction.	The wind moves you around!	Infinite while in a Sandstorm
	Creative Shock Internal Buff ID: 199	Cannot build or break blocks.	You have lost the power of creation!	Infinite during the Old One's Army event
	Peckish Internal Buff ID: 332	No actual effect.	You could eat, but it's not so bad.	While in the first stage of Hunger, for 5 minutes.
	Hungry Internal Buff ID: 333	Decrease the player's stats.	You are quite hungry and feeling weak.	While in the second stage of Hunger, for 5 minutes.
	Starving Internal Buff ID: 334	Decrease the player's stats. Health is lost equal to 2% of the player's maximum health every second.	You are starving to death! Eat immediately!	While in the third stage of Hunger, until food is eaten or the player dies.
	Cerebral Mindtrick Internal Buff ID: 321	Increases the player's critical strike chance and summon damage by 10%. Cannot use Brain of Confusion to dodge.	Increased critical chance	4 seconds
	Shimmering Internal Buff ID: 353	Causes the player to phase through all blocks until they reach an opening.	You've gone insubstantial!	Lasts until the player has reached an opening or when ▲ Up, ◀ Left, ▼ Down, or ▶ Right is pressed after 20 seconds have passed.

Other debuffs

Icon	Name	Effect	Tooltip	Duration
	Midas Internal Buff ID: 72	Causes affected enemies to drop more coins than usual on death.	Drop more money on death	15 minutes
	Oiled Internal Buff ID: 204	Fires are more effective.	Taking more damage from being on fire	4–9 seconds
	Stunned Internal Buff ID: m200	Completely immobilizes affected enemies.	Paralyzed by love	5–7 seconds
	Wet Internal Buff ID: 103	Player drips water, a purely visual effect.	You are dripping water	30 seconds
	Slime Internal Buff ID: 137	Player drips blue goo and gains a blue tint, a purely visual effect.	You are slimy and sticky	30 seconds
	Sparkle Slime Internal Buff ID: 320	Player drips pink goo and sparkles, a purely visual effect.	You are slimy and sparkly	30 seconds
	Shadowflame Internal Buff ID: 153	Deals 15 damage per second to the target.	Losing life	5–8 seconds
	Betsy's Curse Internal Buff ID: 203	Defense reduced by 40.	Defense is lowered	5 seconds
	Penetrated Internal Buff ID: 169	Causes affected enemies lasting damage for up to 15 seconds.	Bleeding Out	15 seconds
	Daybroken Internal Buff ID: 189	Causes affected enemies lasting damage for up to 15 seconds.	Incinerated by solar rays	15 seconds
	Celled Internal Buff ID: 183	Causes affected enemies lasting damage.	being eaten by cells	6–9 seconds
	Dryad's Bane Internal Buff ID: 186	Causes affected enemies lasting damage.	The power of nature compells you	While in Dryad's leaf shield.

Unobtainable debuffs

Icon	Name	Effect	Tooltip	Notes
	Dazed Internal Buff ID: 160	Move at one third speed horizontally. Reduced jump height.	Movement is greatly slowed	Unobtainable during normal gameplay

Notes

• The duration of the following debuffs, if inflicted on players, is increased by 100% in Expert Mode (i.e. doubled) and by 150% in Master Mode:

• Poisoned
• Darkness
• Cursed
• On Fire!
• Bleeding
• Confused
• Slow
• Weak
• Silenced
• Broken Armor
• Cursed Inferno
• Frostburn
• Chilled
• Frozen
• Ichor
• Acid Venom
• Blackout

• Furthermore, players in Expert worlds are inflicted with the Chilled debuff when they enter water in a Snow biome. The Chilled debuff lasts for as long as the player is in the water plus 5 seconds after getting out.

• Players can inflict the Acid Venom, Betsy's Curse, Bleeding, Blood Butchered, Confused, Cursed Inferno, Daybroken, Frostbite, Frostburn, Hellfire, Ichor, On Fire!, Penetrated, Poisoned, Shadowflame, and Stinky debuffs on most enemies. An enemy is limited to 20 / 5 active debuffs at any one point. The following weapons inflict these debuffs:

Weapon	Debuff
Venom Staff Internal Item ID: 2188	Acid Venom
Betsy's Wrath Internal Item ID: 3870	Betsy's Curse
Tizona Internal Item ID: 5010	Bleeding
Blood Butcherer Internal Item ID: 795	Blood Butchered
Bee Keeper Internal Item ID: 1123	Confused
Dao of Pow Internal Item ID: 389	Confused
Clinger Staff Internal Item ID: 3014	Cursed Inferno
Cursed Flames Internal Item ID: 519	Cursed Inferno
Daybreak Internal Item ID: 3543	Daybroken
Solar Eruption Internal Item ID: 3473	Daybroken
Amarok Internal Item ID: 3289	Frostbite
Cool Whip Internal Item ID: 4911	Frostbite
Elf Melter Internal Item ID: 1910	Frostbite
Flower of Frost Internal Item ID: 1264	Frostbite
Frost Staff Internal Item ID: 726	Frostbite
Frostbrand Internal Item ID: 676	Frostbite
Staff of the Frost Hydra Internal Item ID: 1572	Frostbite
Flower of Frost Internal Item ID: 1264	Frostburn
Ice Boomerang Internal Item ID: 670	Frostburn
Wand of Frosting Internal Item ID: 5147	Frostburn
Brand of the Inferno Internal Item ID: 3823	Hellfire
Firecracker Internal Item ID: 4912	Hellfire
Flameburst Cane Internal Item ID: 3819	Hellfire
Flameburst Staff Internal Item ID: 3820	Hellfire
Flamethrower Internal Item ID: 506	Hellfire
Hel-Fire Internal Item ID: 3290	Hellfire
Inferno Fork Internal Item ID: 1445	Hellfire
Phantom Phoenix Internal Item ID: 3854	Hellfire
Waffle's Iron Internal Item ID: 5382	Hellfire
Bladetongue Internal Item ID: 3211	Ichor
Golden Shower Internal Item ID: 1336	Ichor
Cascade Internal Item ID: 3282	On Fire!
Elf Melter Internal Item ID: 1910	On Fire!
Flamarang Internal Item ID: 119	On Fire!
Flameburst Rod Internal Item ID: 3818	On Fire!
Flamelash Internal Item ID: 218	On Fire!
Flamethrower Internal Item ID: 506	On Fire!
Flaming Mace Internal Item ID: 5012	On Fire!
Flower of Fire Internal Item ID: 112	On Fire!
Inferno Fork Internal Item ID: 1445	On Fire!
Molotov Cocktail Internal Item ID: 2590	On Fire!
Sunfury Internal Item ID: 220	On Fire!
Volcano Internal Item ID: 121	On Fire!
Wand of Sparking Internal Item ID: 3069	On Fire!
Bone Javelin Internal Item ID: 3378	Penetrated
Blade of Grass Internal Item ID: 190	Poisoned
Poison Staff Internal Item ID: 1308	Poisoned
Poisoned Knife Internal Item ID: 287	Poisoned
Snapthorn Internal Item ID: 4913	Poisoned
Thorn Chakram Internal Item ID: 191	Poisoned
Tonbogiri Internal Item ID: 5011	Poisoned
Toxikarp Internal Item ID: 3210	Poisoned
Dark Lance Internal Item ID: 274	Shadowflame
Shadowflame Bow Internal Item ID: 3052	Shadowflame
Shadowflame Hex Doll Internal Item ID: 3053	Shadowflame
Shadowflame Knife Internal Item ID: 3054	Shadowflame
Flymeal Internal Item ID: 5129	Stinky

Trivia

• The maximum possible DPS that can be inflicted on an enemy with damaging debuffs is 1331. This can be achieved by consuming a Flask of Cursed Flames, switching between wearing Frost armor and Huntress armor/Red Riding armor and a Magma Stone, and using the Daybreak, Shadowflame Knife, Venom Staff, while having a Imp Staff, a Hornet Staff, a Stardust Cell Staff minion, and an Explosive Trap active, against a target that has been Oiled (due to the Explosive Trap) and within the range of Dryad's aura in a world with all bosses defeated.

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.4.4:
  • Player buff/debuff maximum increased from 22 to 44.
  • Enemy debuff maximum increased from 5 to 20.
  • Shadow Candle introduced.

• Desktop 1.4.1: Hellfire and Frostbite introduced.

• Desktop 1.3.4: Betsy's Curse, Creative Shock, Withered Weapon, and Withered Armor introduced.

• Desktop 1.3.3: Mighty Wind introduced.

• Desktop 1.3.0.5: Fixed bug that caused Distorted to freeze players instead of changing their movement pattern.

• Desktop 1.3.0.1: Stoned, Shadowflame, Distorted, and Feral Bite introduced.

• Desktop 1.2.3.1: Mana Sickness introduced.

• Desktop 1.2.1.2:
  • Added Chaos State debuff.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing monsters to only show one debuff on multiplayer.
  • Monsters that transform now correctly keep their debuffs.

• Desktop 1.2.1.1: Water Candle introduced.

• Desktop 1.2: Burning, Blackout, Chilled, Frozen, Venom, Frostburn, Ichor Debuff and Suffocation debuffs introduced.

• Desktop 1.1: Bleeding, Broken Armor, Confused, Cursed Inferno, Horrified, Silenced, Slow, The Tongue, and Weak debuffs introduced.

• Desktop 1.0.6: Introduced.

 Console version

• Console-Release: Introduced.

 Nintendo Switch version

• Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced with changes up to Desktop 1.3.0.1.

 Mobile version

• Mobile 1.3.0.7: Damaging debuffs no longer deal percentage-based damage.

• Mobile-Release: Introduced.

Nintendo 3DS version

• 3DS-Release: Introduced.