Expert Mode

  

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

Expert and Master Mode-Only Content: This information applies only to Expert Mode, Master Mode, and worlds with these modes.

Not to be confused with Hardmode, which is triggered by defeating the Wall of Flesh, or Master Mode, which is another difficulty option for world generation.

 “Fortune & Glory, Kid.” 

Selection of Expert Mode on  Mobile 1.3.0.7, showing a Corrupt Bunny instead of a regular Bunny to illustrate the increased difficulty.

Expert Mode is an option that can be selected during world creation. It greatly increases the difficulty of the game, as well as the quantity and quality of drops and the chances to obtain rare items. Furthermore, it offers certain exclusive content. Expert Mode begins the moment the Expert Mode world is created, and cannot be altered after that by the player. In Journey Mode, Expert Mode can be toggled using the Enemy Difficulty Slider.

All Expert Mode changes also apply to Master Mode, including increased drop chances, modified AIs, etc. All Expert-exclusive content is available in Master Mode.

General

• The player's normal respawn time is increased to 15 seconds, while respawn time during boss fights is increased to 30 seconds.
• Slime Rain can occur without its usual criteria, spawn rates are 15% higher, and Green/Purple Slimes have a higher spawn chance.
• The Traveling Merchant has a 50% chance to sell an additional item.
• Classic (Softcore) players drop 75% of their coins upon death instead of 50%.

Enemies

Generic changes

• Most enemies have twice as much health, do about twice as much damage, and receive 10% less knockback.
  • Weaker enemies (e.g. pre-Hardmode enemies), excluding bosses and their minions, may get an additional multiplier to the above stats upon entering Hardmode and another after Plantera has been defeated.
  • Specific enemies (such as bosses) have additional multipliers to their stats.
• Enemies and bosses have new AIs with higher difficulty attack patterns.
• Enemies can spawn near NPCs, although they still will not spawn in front of placed background walls.
• Enemies drop more loot, including higher chances (usually 50% or 100% extra chance) to drop certain items.
• Some enemies inflict additional debuffs, or have an increased chance to inflict a debuff that they already inflict.
• Killing Pumpkin/Frost Moon enemies progress the event twice as fast as they do in Classic Mode.

Coin pickup

In Expert Mode, most enemies can pick up dropped coins. Enemies holding dropped coins emit a sound () upon picking up coins and a sparkle effect based on the color of the best coin they are holding.

When the hitbox of an enemy intersects with the hitbox of a stack of dropped coins, the enemy will try to pick up some coins from the stack. An enemy can only pick up coins if the following conditions are fulfilled:

• The total value of the coins the enemy is already holding is less than the total value of the stack of coins.
• The sum of the value of the coins the enemy is already holding and the value of the stack of coins is less than 999000000, or 999 PC.

The amount of coins picked up by the enemy is then calculated by multiplying the stack amount and a factor, rounded down, with a minimal amount of 1 coin and a maximum amount of the full stack. The factor is a random value in [0.5, 0.75] (with an increment of 0.01), and will be increased with the following conditions:

• If the coin type is a Copper Coin: a random value in [0, 0.5] (with an increment of 0.01) is added to the factor.
• If the coin type is a Silver Coin: a random value in [0, 0.25] (with an increment of 0.01) is added to the factor.

For example, if a stack of 25 SC is dropped, an enemy holding 30 SC will not pick up coins from it. An enemy not holding any coins can take [math]\displaystyle{ [ 25×(0.5+0), 25×(0.75+0.25) ] }[/math] , resulting 12–25 SC after rounding.

Invulnerable enemies will never pick up coins. See below for a list of other enemies that never pick up coins.

Golem Body Golem Head Left Golem Fist Bouncy Slime Dutchman Cannon Free Golem Head Lunatic Cultist Prime Cannon Prime Saw Prime Vice Bubble Shield Dungeon Guardian Martian Saucer Martian Saucer Turret Martian Saucer Cannon Crystal Slime Heavenly Slime Pirate's Curse Probe Moon Leech Clot Tortured Soul Prime Laser Right Golem Fist True Eye of Cthulhu Twinkle Popper Twinkle Moon Lord's Hand Moon Lord's Head Spiked Slime Flying Dutchman Mothron Egg Creeper

Several enemies saved on the minimap.

There is also a "revenge" mechanic, which saves the info about an enemy that holds coins and respawns it when the player gets near the location. The enemy's health percentage, location, and amount of coin they are holding when they despawn are saved. The location will be displayed on the minimap by coin icons, and hovering the cursor over the icon displays the amount of coins.

When a saved location enters a 163×115-tile rectangular area centered on a player's center, the saved enemy is respawned. However, there are several special circumstances in which an enemy can or cannot respawn. If the player approaches the saved location while the enemy cannot respawn, the saved enemy is removed and the coins are lost forever.

• Enemies can never respawn when the Journey Mode Enemy Difficulty Slider is set to 0×.
• Demon Eyes and Wandering Eyes cannot respawn during daytime, or the saved location is above the surface or not in a Graveyard.
• Certain worms cannot respawn if the saved location is above the surface. This includes the Giant Worm, Bone Serpent, Digger, Leech, and Dune Splicer.
• Tomb Crawlers cannot respawn if the saved location is not in the Underground Desert.
• Reapers can only respawn during a Solar Eclipse.
• Dripplers cannot respawn during daytime.
• Wall Creepers and Black Recluses can always respawn in The Constant and Get fixed boi worlds.
• Certain Fighter AI enemies cannot respawn during the daytime if the saved location is above the surface. See below for a list of these enemies.
  • Additionally, Fighter AI enemies from certain events can only respawn when their respective event is active. This includes the Frost Moon, Goblin Army, Pirate Invasion, and Martian Madness.

Yeti Elf Archer Goblin Peon Goblin Thief Goblin Warrior Goblin Archer Pirate Deckhand Pirate Corsair Pirate Deadeye Pirate Crossbower Brain Scrambler Ray Gunner Martian Officer Gray Grunt Martian Engineer Gigazapper Scutlix Martian Walker Angry Bones Corrupt Bunny Crab Armored Skeleton Mummy Dark Mummy Light Mummy Blood Mummy Skeleton Archer Chaos Elemental Corrupt Penguin Face Monster Snow Flinx Lihzahrd Icy Merman Blood Crawler Spore Zombie Anomura Fungus Mushi Ladybug Blue Cultist Archer Vicious Bunny Vicious Penguin Predictor Stargazer Twinkle Popper Storm Diver Vortexian Alien Hornet Alien Larva Antlion Charger Antlion Larva Giant Antlion Charger Drakomire Selenian Ghoul Vile Ghoul Tainted Ghoul Dreamer Ghoul Light Lamia Dark Lamia Sand Poacher Basilisk

An enemy must fulfill all the following conditions to be saved.

• The enemy picked up more than 10 SC.
• The enemy is more than 41 tiles away from the top and left world border, and more than 42 tiles away from the bottom and right world border.
  • These borders refer to the real-world border that cannot be seen in-game, so as long as the enemy is within the visible world border, it can be saved.
• The enemy is not a boss.
• The enemy's "rarity" is not higher than 0. This makes the following enemies inapplicable.

Pinky Undead Miner Tim Doctor Bones The Groom Voodoo Demon Dungeon Slime Goblin Scout Mimic Clown Rune Wizard Lost Girl Nymph Moth Pirate Captain Cochineal Beetle Cyan Beetle Lac Beetle Sea Snail Squid Ice Golem Rainbow Slime Eyezor Bone Lee Paladin Skeleton Sniper Tactical Skeleton Skeleton Commando Martian Probe Goblin Warlock Corrupt Mimic Crimson Mimic Hallowed Mimic Jungle Mimic Mothron Medusa Tortured Soul The Bride Sand Elemental Zombie Merman Wandering Eye Fish Dreadnautilus Hemogoblin Shark Blood Eel Head Gnome Ice Mimic Golden Slime

Enemy saves do not exist permanently, as they will "expire" and be removed after a certain amount of time, determined by the amount of coins picked up by the enemy.

Note that coin values are converted to raw Copper values (v in the following table) in the calculation (e.g. 1 PC2 GC3 SC4 CC is converted to 1020304).

Raw value (v)	Expiration time (ticks)
v<10000	[math]\displaystyle{ 54000+72000\times\frac{\text{Raw value}-{100}}{10000-100} }[/math]
10000≤v<1000000	[math]\displaystyle{ 126000+108000\times\frac{\text{Raw value}-{100}}{10000-100} }[/math]
v≥1000000	450000

New enemy attacks

• Bats and Duke Fishron have a chance to inflict the Feral Bite debuff.
• Some Zombies carry a Zombie Arm, causing them to have an extended attack range and higher damage.
• Spiked Slimes can shoot up to 6 spikes at once in a small area around them.
• Some Skeletons can throw Bones.
• Lava Slimes leave behind a block of lava when killed.
• Jellyfish gain a new shock attack in which they move in a straight line and take no damage. Hitting them with a swung melee weapon, whip, or tool will incur damage to the player.
• Black Recluses and Jungle Creepers gain an additional spit attack which renders the player unable to move for a short duration.
• Granite Elementals can shield themselves from attacks, similar to Granite Golems, but will only do so if they have less than 50% health.

Bosses

• Bosses in Expert Mode have increased health. Their health is boosted even further in multiplayer, with more health added for each player.
  • Each boss has their own boost factor, which is a decimal number greater than 1. For example, Skeletron has a boost factor of 2.0 and Plantera has a boost factor of 1.4.
  • In single player, Expert boss health follows this formula: Expert Mode Health = Classic Mode Health × Boost Factor
  • In multiplayer, Expert bosses multiply their health further based on the number of players: ExpertModeHealth = ClassicModeHealth × BoostFactor × MultiplayerFactor
    • The multiplayer factor is increased incrementally for each player: MultiplayerFactor = 1 + HealthAdded[2] + HealthAdded[3] + ...
    • The base amount of health added per player is 35%. That is, HealthAdded[2] = 0.35.
    • Each consecutive player adds more health than the last: HealthAdded[n+1] = HealthAdded[n] + (1 - HealthAdded[n]) ÷ 3
    • If there are ten or more players, the multiplayer factor is modified using this formula: MultiplayerFactor = (MultiplayerFactor × 2 + 8) ÷ 3
    • The multiplayer factor cannot exceed 1,000. This limit is never reached in practice because it requires 1,498 players, and Terraria servers cannot have more than 255 players.
    • The multiplayer factor can mathematically also be summarized as [math]\displaystyle{ f(x) = n - \frac{39}{20} + \frac{39}{20} \left(\frac 2 3\right)^{n - 1}, \textit{MultiplayerFactor} = \min\left\{f(x), \frac{f(x) \cdot 2 + 8} 3, 1000\right\} }[/math]
  • Boss health is determined at the time the boss is spawned. If a player joins the server after the boss has spawned, the boss's health will not update to account for the additional player.
• Most bosses gain a new attack or movement pattern which makes them more difficult. For example, Duke Fishron gains a third stage.
• When defeated, each boss (except for the Lunatic Cultist, Dark Mage, and Ogre) drops an Expert-exclusive Treasure Bag unique to that boss. Each Treasure Bag contains a greater quantity of the boss's usual drops from Classic Mode, along with unique Expert Mode-exclusive items. These items can all be used in non-Expert Mode worlds, with the exception of the Demon Heart. Hardmode bosses' Treasure Bags have an additional 5% chance to contain one random set of developer items (with the exception of Queen Slime). Treasure Bags can be opened in any difficulty.
  • In multiplayer, all players that dealt damage to the boss will receive a Treasure Bag.

Items

• Enemies drop 2.5× as many coins.
• Pots drop more items when broken, and have higher chances to drop rare items.
• Fishing quest rewards give more money, and also have higher chances for better loot.
• Enemy banners offer more powerful buffs when placed.
• Hardmode, post-Plantera Dungeon enemies have enhanced drop tables, and can drop two items at once.
• Pumpkin Moon and Frost Moon mini-bosses start to have a chance of dropping trophies on wave 10.

Player

• Health regeneration is half as effective (three-quarters with Shiny Stone) without the Well Fed buff.
• Vampire Knives and Spectre armor healing is slightly less effective.
• The defense stat is more effective, 50% more effective than in Classic Mode.
• When touching the water in a Snow biome, the player is inflicted the Chilled debuff for as long as they stay in the water, and for five seconds after getting out.
• The following debuffs last twice as long when inflicted on players:

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

• A sixth accessory slot can be obtained by consuming a Demon Heart, which is an Expert-only item. The slot is permanent, but will only be active if a player is in an Expert or Master Mode world.

Expert-exclusive items

See also: Expert-exclusive content

Expert Mode-exclusive items are found inside Treasure Bags dropped by bosses and generally have the 12* rarity. While these items can only be obtained via an Expert Mode world, they still function in Classic worlds, excluding the Demon Heart.

Boss	Items	Usage
King Slime	Royal Gel	Most slimes become friendly and deal no damage to the player.
Eye of Cthulhu	Shield of Cthulhu	Double tap the ◀ Left or ▶ Right keys to perform a dash attack, which deals 30 damage and grants momentary invincibility upon hitting enemies.
Eater of Worlds	Worm Scarf	Reduces all damage taken by 17%.
Brain of Cthulhu	Brain of Confusion	Grants a chance to confuse nearby enemies after being struck, and a 1/6 (16.67%) chance to dodge incoming damage, which increases critical strike chance and summon damage by 10% for 4 seconds if successful.
Queen Bee	Hive Pack	Increases the strength of friendly bees by granting a 1/2 (50%) chance to replace them with larger, more damaging ones.
Skeletron	Bone Glove	Throws ricocheting crossbones when the player attacks, dealing 25 damage each.
Deerclops	Bone Helm	Summons homing Shadow Hand projectiles to damage nearby enemies, dealing 18 damage each.
Wall of Flesh	Demon Heart	Permanently increases the number of accessory slots by one. Can only be used once. Only usable and takes effect in Expert and Master Mode.
Queen Slime	Volatile Gelatin	Fires bouncing Volatile Gelatin balls at nearby enemies, dealing 65 damage each.
The Twins	Mechanical Wheel Piece	Used to craft the Minecart Upgrade Kit.
The Destroyer	Mechanical Wagon Piece	Used to craft the Minecart Upgrade Kit.
Skeletron Prime	Mechanical Battery Piece	Used to craft the Minecart Upgrade Kit.
Plantera	Spore Sac	Summons spores that hover around the player and travel toward nearby enemies before exploding, dealing 70 damage and inflicting the Poisoned debuff for 5–10 seconds.
Empress of Light	Soaring Insignia	Grants infinite flight time while increasing flight speed, movement speed, acceleration, and jump mobility.
Golem	Shiny Stone	Greatly increases health regeneration at an exponential rate from 10 to 40 health per second when not moving.
Duke Fishron	Shrimpy Truffle	Summons a mount with infinite flight time and gains a significant movement speed bonus when submerged in liquid, during rain, or when the rider is below half health.
Mourning Wood	Witch's Broom	Summons a mount with infinite flight time and hovering.
Moon Lord	Gravity Globe	Allows the holder to reverse gravity, which can be toggled in midair.
	Suspicious Looking Tentacle	Summons a light pet that detects nearby enemies, treasure, and ores.
	Celestial Starboard	A wing that allows hovering and quick upward ascension. Highest mobility among wings.

Trivia

• Expert Mode's descriptive text, "Fortune & Glory, Kid.", is a quote from the 1984 American action-adventure film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.4.3: Added Bone Helm, Deerclops's exclusive Expert Mode accessory.

• Desktop 1.4.0.1:
  • Added Soaring Insignia, Empress of Light's exclusive Expert Mode accessory.
  • Added Volatile Gelatin, Queen Slime's exclusive Expert Mode accessory.
  • Added Witch's Broom, Mourning Wood's exclusive Expert Mode mount.
  • Added Celestial Starboard, Moon Lord's third exclusive Expert Mode item.
  • Enemies that picked up enough coins in Expert Mode are now saved to a location when they despawn.
  • 0x33 Aviators no longer drop from Treasure Bags opened by Hardcore characters in Expert Mode, but instead drop from Eye of Cthulhu normally in Master Mode.

• Desktop 1.3.0.4:
  • Fixed hittable enemy projectiles not scaling in Expert Mode.
  • Fixed air items being left over when monsters pick up coins in Expert Mode.

• Desktop 1.3.0.1: Introduced. Bosses now drop special Expert Mode-only items.

 Console version

• Console 1.0.933.1: Introduced. ()

• Console 1.0.750.0: Introduced. ()

 Nintendo Switch version

• Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced.

 Mobile version

• Mobile 1.3.0.7: Introduced.