Enchanted Sword Shrine

Desktop/Console/Mobile-Only Content: This information applies only to the Desktop, Console, and Mobile versions of Terraria.

Sword in Stone
Background Object

This background object is at the center of an Enchanted Sword Shrine.

The Enchanted Sword Shrine is a terrain feature that generates as a small cave below the surface. It has a 1/3 (33.33%) chance to generate with a 1-tile wide shaft leading into the top of the cave. The cave's background is made of Flower Walls and features a small hill with pools of water on either side. Atop the hill rests a sword in stone as a background object, which, when destroyed, has a 1/50 (2%) chance to drop a Terragrim and an Enchanted Sword otherwise.

The Enchanted Sword Shrine generates in the surface or underground layers in the outer two-thirds of the map, in dirt or stone terrain. Multiple shrines may generate in a world, with larger worlds having a slightly increased chance to generate more, although not guaranteed to generate any.

Generation chance

The world will attempt to generate 1 to 2 shrines in small worlds, 1 to 3 shrines in medium worlds, and 2 to 4 shrines in large worlds, with each shrine having a 1/2 (50%) chance of being placed. The following tables represent the odds of having a certain amount of shrines generate in a world, depending on its size.

Small worlds
# of shrines	Chance
0	2/6 (33.33%)
1	3/6 (50%)
2	1/6 (16.67%)
Average: 0.83

Medium worlds
# of shrines	Chance
0	3/14 (21.43%)
1	6/14 (42.86%)
2	4/14 (28.57%)
3	1/14 (7.14%)
Average: 1.21

Large worlds
# of shrines	Chance
0	3/28 (10.71%)
1	9/28 (32.14%)
2	10/28 (35.71%)
3	5/28 (17.86%)
4	1/28 (3.57%)
Average: 1.71

Notes

Although practically guaranteed in normal gameplay, the shaft can only generate with a height of up to 1000 tiles.
The shrine will only rarely spawn below the surface layer and will only ever reach a maximum of 100 tiles in the underground layer.
While Enchanted Sword Shrines only generate on the Desktop version, Console version, and Mobile version, Enchanted Swords can still appear scattered throughout the world in all versions.
Enchanted Sword Shrines may generate in uncommon ways at times:
- The shaft can go all the way to the surface, making it very easy to notice. It can even go to the top of a Living Tree.
- The shrine itself can occasionally spawn on the surface, without a shaft.
- In rare cases, the top of the shaft spawns more than 10 tiles under the ground.
- The shrine itself can generate partially or completely Corrupted/Crimson. However, at least part of the shaft will always be dirt and uncorrupted grass.
- If generated under an overhang on the surface, the shaft will cut through midair.

Tips

The shaft can be revealed by light particles that fall downwards through blocks.
- There are many weapons which spawn projectiles of this kind, for instance, the Dark Lance, Starfury, Jester's Arrow, Meteor Staff, Solar Eruption, Zenith, Flying Dragon, Flamelash, or numerous explosives.
- Some enemy projectiles can also reveal the shaft, e.g. those fired from the Goblin Sorcerer.
- Additionally, some mount provides a short burst of light particles when summoned, and if timed correctly, activating/deactivating a mount just before landing can send the light particles downwards 5–7 tiles.
- Some light pets that move when the player presses a direction (such as the Wisp pet, shown in the gallery below) can be used to find the shafts by holding ▼ Down.
- The Clentaminator can also be used to provide light, though players should be careful not to spread biomes in locations they did not want.
The background object will generate an item upon its destruction. Therefore, the player can force-close the game to reload a previous save and continue doing this until the desired item is obtained.
World Seeds with Enchanted Sword Shrines found before the current version of Terraria will not be guaranteed to contain a shrine in the same location despite the rest of the world being the same. If looking online for a seed that contains a shrine make sure that the seed was not discovered in a past update.

Gallery

Map view of a shrine.
Finding the vertical shaft using a light pet.
An Enchanted Sword Shrine on the surface, without a shaft.
An Enchanted Sword Shrine next to the bottom of a Living Tree.
A view of the Enchanted Sword Shrine.

History

Desktop version

Desktop 1.4.1: Made twice more likely to generate in a world.

Desktop 1.4.0.1:
- Arkhalis drop replaced with the Terragrim.
- The background object will always be the enchanted sword in stone and drop a sword.
- A fixed number of shrines is no longer guaranteed per world.
- Cave shaft opening is no longer guaranteed and reduced to 33% chance to generate.
- Shrines can no longer generate on top of containers and can no longer have other structures generate on top of them.