Goblin Army

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BiomeBannerGoblinArmy.png
Bestiary Goblin Invasion.png"A goblin army has arrived!"Bestiary Goblin Invasion.png
Goblin Army Icon.png
Progress bar icon

The Goblin Army (also known as the Goblin Invasion) is an event when unique goblin enemies spawn in large numbers in place of regular enemy spawns. A Goblin Invasion has a random chance of occurring at any particular dawn if the criteria stated below are met. It can also be triggered manually using a Goblin Battle Standard.

Defeating at least one Goblin Army fulfills the criteria for the Goblin Tinkerer NPC to make his initial appearance in a random Cavern area.

Criteria

The criteria for a Goblin Invasion to occur naturally are as follows:[1]

  • It must be daytime (4:30 AM is when it triggers).
  • At least one Shadow Orb or Crimson Heart must have been destroyed.
  • At least one player must have 200 health or more. (If this is not met the Goblin Battle Standard will not work)
  • There must be no Goblin Invasion already in progress.

A Goblin Battle Standard can be used to manually summon the event if a player meets the health requirement, even if no Shadow Orb or Crimson Heart has been smashed.

Chances

  • After the spawn criteria have been met, there will be a 1/3 chance every day for the army to first invade.
  • Further invasions (after the first has been defeated) have a 1/30 chance of occurring each day before Hardmode begins, and 1/60 chance afterwards.
  • The Goblin invasion takes a higher priority than the Pirate Invasion, which can only occur when the Goblin Invasion fails to do so.

On average, a random Goblin Invasion will occur about every 12 real-world hours of playing in pre-Hardmode, and every 24 hours of playing in Hardmode.

Initial event

Goblin Army.png
Goblins.

When a Goblin invasion is approaching, one of the two following status messages will appear: "A goblin army is approaching from the west!"/"A goblin army is approaching from the east!"

The message repeats a few times (one time on a small- or medium-sized world, and twice on a large-sized world). The direction specified in this message only pertains to the initial wave of Goblins, which spawns at the world's edge and travels to the player's original spawn point. Additional waves spawn immediately near the player's original spawn point, when the player is in that area.

If the message says "west", the initial Goblins will come from the left. If the message says "east", they will arrive from the right. Note that these directions are not related to the apparent motion of the sun and the moon, which, in Terraria, appear to move from left ("west") to right ("east").

When the Goblin Army is about to begin spawning around the player's spawn point, another status message appears: "A goblin army has arrived!" and the theme music will switch to the (Desktop, Console, Mobile and 3DS versions) "Goblin Invasion" / (Old-gen console version) "Boss 1" track.

Completing the event

The event is completed when the player defeats all goblins in the army.

The size of the army is based on the number of players currently in the world, and their health capacity:

  • There will be 80 base goblins.
  • There will be an additional 40 goblins for each player that has a maximum health of 200 or more.

This means that in single player, the army will consist of 120 goblins, while in an 8-player game, with each player having 200 health or more, it will spawn 400 goblins. The maximum number of goblins in an invasion is 10,280 (255 players above 200 health).

When the final wave of goblins is on the screen, the status message "A goblin army has been defeated!" will appear; and goblins will stop spawning. Even after the message is displayed, the event theme will keep playing until the last remaining goblin is dead.

Contents

Characters
Unique Drops
From all goblins: (except for Goblin Warlock)
From Goblin Warlocks(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions):
Music

Other Goblins

These goblin characters are not part of the Goblin Invasion:

  • Goblin Tinkerer: A town NPC that appears randomly, only after at least one Goblin Invasion has been defeated. He initially appears bound in a random area of the cavern layer.
  • Goblin Scout: An enemy Goblin that drops Tattered Cloth and spawns near the edges of the world. Tattered Cloth can be collected and used to craft a Goblin Battle Standard, which is used to trigger an invasion manually.

Notes

  • Completing this event at least once can be essential to game advancement, as it makes the Goblin Tinkerer available, which provides the reforge function, the Tinkerer's Workshop, and the Rocket Boots.
  • Dying will not end the invasion or cause any goblins to despawn.
  • There must be no other enemies on screen for the goblins to begin their attack.
  • Goblins override the current biome's enemies in the same way as Meteor Heads.
  • The invasion will not prevent most other events, so it is possible to fight a Goblin Army and a boss at the same time. A Blood Moon or a Solar Eclipse may begin during a Goblin Invasion, but their related enemies only spawn after the Goblin Army has been defeated.
  • Goblin Peons will break doors instead of opening them. If the door belonged to a house containing the player's bed or an NPC, this will cause the spawn point to reset or the NPC to move out, respectively.
  • A Goblin Invasion will prevent dead NPCs from respawning for their duration.
  • Using the Goblin Battle Standard when a Goblin Army is already approaching will have no effect.
  • If all the goblins appearing on the screen are killed, the music will switch to normal, the progress bar will vanish and goblins will stop spawning. After about a minute, the invasion will continue again.
  • Although it says this event will swarm the world spawn, in reality, it swarms the area nearest to the player as long as NPCs are nearby. Example: If a player is in the Ocean while an invasion event is happening, the invasion will swarm spawn. While if the player has an NPC with a beach-side house at the Ocean, the invasion will swarm that area instead.
  • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) If a Goblin Army invades shortly before summoning the Wall of Flesh and is not dealt with, it will immediately transfer to its Hardmode version after the boss is defeated.
  • Once the initial status message pops up, there is no way to prevent the goblins from invading, as leaving the world and coming back will just redisplay the message and the goblins will proceed to invade anyway.

Achievements

Achievement Goblin Punter.png
Goblin Punter • Triumph over a goblin invasion, a ragtag regiment of crude, barbaric, pointy-eared warriors and their shadowflame sorcerers.
Defeat a Goblin Army for the first time. (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)
Category: Slayer Slayer
Achievement Crowd Control.png
Crowd Control • “You have defeated the Goblin Army!”
Defeat a Goblin Army for the first time. (Old-gen console version)

Tips

For more elaborate strategies on defeating Goblin Army, including weapon and arena recommendations, see Guide:Goblin Army strategies.
  • Piercing items like spears and flails can take out several goblins at once.
  • The Spiky Balls dropped during the invasion are effective in fighting off further goblins, as the majority of them follow the basic Fighter AI and will mindlessly walk through them.
  • Goblin Peons cannot break doors that are already open.
  • Mediumcore players should be careful (as with all events), since if they die close to their spawnpoint, retrieving items may be close to impossible due to enemies that have already spawned in the area. This is made worse in Hardmode as Goblin Warlocks fly fast, shoot through walls, and deal high contact damage; making collecting items after respawn extremely difficult.

History

  • Desktop 1.4.0.1: Updated the sprite of all Goblins. Previous sprites were: Goblin Peon (1.3.0.1).png Goblin Sorcerer (1.3.0.1).png Goblin Thief (1.3.0.1).png Goblin Warrior (1.3.0.1).png Goblin Archer (1.3.0.1).png Goblin Warlock (old).png
  • Desktop 1.3.0.1:
    • Updated the sprite of all Goblins. Previous sprites were: Goblin Peon (old).png Goblin Sorcerer (old).png Goblin Thief (old).png Goblin Warrior (old).png Goblin Archer (old).png
    • Added Goblin Summoner that spawns during Hardmode Goblin Invasions, along with its drops and banner.
    • Now has its own music.
    • Now shows a progress bar.

References

  1. Information taken from the Desktop version Desktop 1.4.3.6 source code, method UpdateTime_StartDay() in Terraria.Main.cs. There may be inaccuracies, as the current Desktop version Desktop version is 1.4.4.9.