Guide:Enemy farming

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This is a Guide page.
This means the page will walk you through a specific task, strategy, or enemy/boss fight.
Status: Subject to revision (This Guide does not meet certain quality standards and may be heavily outdated.)
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     • Most likely outdated since 1.4(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions). Remember not to delete pre-1.4 content; use {{eicons}} and {{eversions}}!
  • There are many rare drops from enemies that are vital to progression. Farming for some of these items can take a long time, but there are many different methods that can make it a significantly simpler task.

    Basics

    An essential part of enemy farming is knowing the basics of NPC spawning.

    • Hostile and friendly NPCs can only spawn in a 168x94 tiles area around the player, and there is a limit to how many enemies can exist in an area at the same time.
    • Spawn rates are different depending on the Biome, depth, Weather and the time of day. These factors also change what type of enemies spawn, so you will need to pick the right location and time.
    • Various special events can increase the spawn rate and limits. Additionally, they offer their own list of enemies. Most of these events can be manually summoned by the player with an appropriate item. The Blood Moon warrants special mention, as it increases the universal spawn limit, meaning that it increases spawn rates anywhere in the world.
    • Enemy spawns are suppressed near friendly NPCs, including not only the "town" NPCs, but the Traveling Merchant and the Skeleton Merchant. If there are three friendly NPCs on screen, no enemies will spawn. Friendly NPC presence does not affect spawning during events such as the Blood Moon or invasions.
    • Use of a Water Candle and/or a Battle Potion will increase spawn rates. Contrarily, a Peace Candle, Calming Potion, and Sunflower will reduce spawn rates. Invasions are not affected by these items, but Blood Moons and Solar Eclipses are.
    • Many biomes can be artificially created by placing blocks pertaining to that biome. This allows the player to farm biome-exclusive enemies and their drops in a single convenient location.

    It's also important to know the limits on dropped items: while they do not expire, there is a worldwide limit of 400 such items that can exist at once. If more items are dropped into the world, the oldest item will despawn. This becomes particularly important when large numbers of enemies are being killed and dropping items.

    Methods

    Farming area

    The basic idea of farming enemies is to find or build an area where they can be easily gathered and killed in one place. When looking for a good place for farming, wide and open areas are preferred. Examples include a large section of a Cavern, or a big room in the Dungeon. Once found, the location can then be modified further to improve its efficiency and reduce the enemies that spawn outside of it, for which Explosives and Mining Potions can help. A farm can also be built from scratch, which can be remarkably efficient once the initial time and effort are put in.

    Any monster farm should also include a safe zone which is protected from enemies, allowing the player to recover health and make use of weapons that can attack through walls. While Doors prevent most enemies from coming in, some can also break them down or simply phase through them.

    The farm can be improved with Campfires, Heart Lanterns, and Honey to increase health regeneration, and Water Candles increase enemy spawns. A Star in a Bottle (or few) will help with mana recovery.

    One thing that makes mob farm making so hard is that you almost always have to fight enemies when making the farm.

    The farming process itself can be automated with Minions or other methods.

    Lava pits

    See also: Lava and Liquids

    The simplest way to keep most enemies contained is with a pit filled with Lava. It can deal effectively with most basic grounded enemies, as well as some flying ones, however it is ineffective against Casters and those that can phase through blocks. A common design is the "Volcano farm": a Lava Pit between two ramps, made with hammered Blocks. When the player is standing below the pit, enemies that spawn will climb up the slopes and fall into the lava pit. The pit should be at least 8 tiles deep so grounded enemies cannot jump out. Note that flying enemies will usually avoid the Lava (if the player is underneath the lava pit, that can lead some flyers to their death), but they can still be killed by other methods, such as Minions or Traps. Many enemies also lack the ability to drop down from Platforms, which can be exploited to effectively trap them in a certain part of the farm.

    Lava depth

    This content is transcluded from Lava § Lava depth.Lava will destroy any item of Rarity level: 0 rarity (other than Obsidian, Fireblossom and its seeds, Living Fire Blocks(Desktop, Console, Old-gen console and Mobile versions), and Grates(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)) including coins, if it is deep enough for the item to sink past its midpoint. As a result, items with larger sprites can survive deeper lava. This allows making pits with lava just deep enough to burn Copper Coins, but (almost) nothing else:

    • If too many items (over 400) accumulate in the world, the oldest ones will despawn.
    • Copper Coins are among the least valuable objects in the game, but each stack of them still counts as an item. An event or enemy farm can produce huge numbers of Copper Coins, so it is worth discarding them, against the risk of despawning more valuable items. Fortunately they are also among the smallest items in the game (with their sprite being 10 pixels high).
      • A notable exception: The far more valuable Lihzahrd Power Cell also has a height of 10 pixels, and will be destroyed with the Copper Coins.
      • Other notable heights: Silver Coins and Gel share a 12-pixel height, while block items are 12 pixels tall.
    • To check if a lava moat has the exact depth required, a player can throw in one Copper Coin, then one Silver Coin. The Copper Coin should burn, but the slightly taller Silver Coin should not.
    • In practice, this lava depth can be achieved with 1 Bucket of lava for each 6 to 8 tiles of pit length.
      • Thus a moat that is 6–8 tiles wide should have one bucket thrown in, while a moat of 12–16 should have 2.
      • This implies avoiding lengths where this range cannot be achieved: 1–5, 9–11, 17. A moat 18 or more tiles long can always be filled to proper depth.
      • When filling a very large moat, it is best to drop individual lava buckets over the width of the moat, and not throw it on the same spot, due to unreliable liquid physics.
    For a list of the sprite heights of all items, see List of item sprite sizes.

    Mechanisms

    For further info on how to connect traps, see Guide:Wiring and Guide:Logic Gates.

    Once the Mechanic has been rescued, Dart Traps and their improved variants, Geysers or Flame Traps, Spear Traps, or Spiky Ball Traps can all be used to speed up farming. On Desktop version Desktop version, Console version Console version, and Mobile version Mobile version, the Mechanic also sells teleporters, which can be used to create instant and safe entrances to your farm.

    Actuators can also be used to make safer entrances and to improve Lava Pits; covering the top with a layer of actuated Blocks makes it so they can be activated only when in use.

    Once the Steampunker has arrived to the world, the player can buy teleporters(Old-gen console and 3DS versions) to create instant and safe entrances and conveyor belts to more easily collect the loot from enemies.

    Enemies to farm

    Often a desired item can only be obtained from particular enemies, especially in Hardmode. These items can be very useful for game progression, but some of them can be harder to farm than others.

    In some cases a statue farm can be useful; see below for details of statue farming. The question there is whether there is a statue to produce the desired item. This can also produce items for sale, see below.

    In a few cases (coins, souls, biome keys, some yoyos) any enemy in a given biome can produce the target item (but perhaps rarely), so a farm can be set up in the appropriate area, or an artificial biome can be created somewhere convenient; then the farm can be set up to produce an easily killed enemy type, or (more likely) to slaughter all comers. Unfortunately, none of these universal drops are produced by statue-spawned enemies.

    Most often, it is necessary to choose a location (biome and height) where the desired enemy spawns; the problem is that if unwanted enemies are just ignored, they will fill the spawn limit and block out the targets you're especially looking for. In a few cases, the "chaff" enemies are weaker or behave differently so that they can be slaughtered more easily; or they may be exceptions that the player can target while the targets are killed automatically. For example, a trap setup might send ground-based enemies into a lava pit while the player hunts fliers and/or fights the few enemies strong enough to survive the lava. Conversely, traps can take out flying enemies, while the player handles the walkers.

    Pre-Hardmode

    Hardmode

    • Enemies in several different biomes (Jungle, Snow, Desert, Hallowed, and Corruption or Crimson) can drop Biome Keys. Since any enemy can drop them, these are a good target for farms in the respective biomes at any height.
    • Likewise Souls of Night and Light are required for many early Hardmode recipes. They can only be obtained from enemies in the underground Corruption/Crimson and Hallow, respectively, but any variation of the infected biome will do.
      • If you previously made a Hell Bridge with corruptible blocks, you could use converted blocks to farm Underworld enemies for souls. This makes farming easier, as Hardmode enemies don't spawn until a mechanical boss is defeated.
      • Alternatively, you can kill Underworld enemies while standing on the area directly under The Corruption/Crimson or The Hallow and they will drop their corresponding Soul of Night and Soul of Light.
      • Spawn King Slime in the Underground Hallow, Corruption, or Crimson. As Blue Slimes are common enemies, they can drop souls when killed. (This no longer works as of 1.4)
    • Ichor and Cursed Flames are obtained from certain enemies in the Underground Crimson or Corruption respectively. They are used for multiple Ammo types.
    • Unicorns and Pixies from the surface Hallow can be easily farmed and drop useful crafting materials that can also be sold for a decent amount, such as Pixie Dust and Unicorn Horns. (See example farm below)
    • Solar Eclipses spawn many enemies, most of them having distinctive drops:
    • One of the Oceans can be easily turned into an Artificial Jungle biome, with the use of Jungle Grass Seeds on Mud Blocks or Lihzahrd Bricks. (See example below.) This will cause Arapaimas to spawn in the water at a very high rate. When the player stands on a puddle of water built above the Ocean, the Arapaimas will try to attack them, but be unable to do so and instead be stuck just below them, where they can be automatically killed by Minions, Traps and Lava. As of 1.4 this will no longer occur through solid blocks. Using bubbles and platforms will still work, but is less safe.
    • Enemy farms have been buffed as of update 1.4, as some enemies drop a lot of gold. Staying AFK for a long time can even give hundreds of platinum coins.

    Some more specific targets to focus on:

    • At the beginning of Hardmode, Mimics found underground (including in the Underworld) can be farmed to obtain a large amount of money and very useful drops. The Lifeform Analyzer and Hunter Potions greatly help when looking for them. Later, the Golem Room is an excellent place for farming Mimics.
    • The Wyvern miniboss provides Souls of Flight used for Wings. It only spawns in Space, which can often be reached by a Floating Island. Like many Worm type enemies, it is very vulnerable to piercing weapons.
    • Skeleton Archers drop the Magic Quiver, which increases Arrow damage by 10%, and the Marrow Bow.
    • Many enemies have a small chance to drop various components for the Ankh Shield (see Guide:Crafting an Ankh Shield).
    • Chaos Elementals are found in the Hallow Caverns. They will very rarely drop the Rod of Discord used to teleport. They have some useful traits for farming them:
      • They spawn only on Pearlstone and Pearlsand. (A Crystal farm can double for spawning Chaos Elementals in quantity.)
      • They can only teleport to the ground, and cannot appear on top of a player.
      • They will not spawn if the player is standing in front of player-placed background walls.
      • In 1.4, they will not spawn unless the player has recently moved or jumped. To farm them while AFK, the player can use the Frog Leg or Slimy Saddle to automatically jump indefinitely.
    • The Uzi and Turtle Shells can be obtained from Angry Trappers and Giant Tortoises respectively. Due to the nature of the Hardmode Jungle, these items are hard to obtain before killing a mechanical boss.
    • The Ice Sickle is dropped by many enemies in the Ice biome. Additionally, the Frozen Turtle Shell can be obtained from Ice Tortoises.

    Post-Plantera

    Plantera's death unleashes many new enemies, each with their drops:

    Statue farms

    A multi-target statue farm.

    Statue farms can be used in order to easily obtain special items from a particular enemies, or to gather large numbers of items for sale or supply. They have the advantage of being able to choose a particular enemy to farm.

    The basic setup for statue farming involves connecting one or more statues to a 1/4 second timer (or a Crab Engine). Place a shallow layer of lava (recommended) around the statue, and/or connect a few Dart Traps to kill the spawned monsters. Once you click the switch, all you have to do is wait for drops to accumulate. A tunnel beneath the trap can allow safe collection. Housing a vendor NPC near the farm is convenient for selling the items quickly. Multiple statues in a lava pit can speed things up.

    However, there are limits to statue farming:

    • Statue-spawned enemies do not drop coins and many have reduced drops. An already-rare drop with reduced chances can require considerable amount of time to farm.
    • Some statue-spawned enemies will not drop items at all if they are killed by traps. Using a lava-based setup will avoid this limit entirely.
    • If a statue for a Hardmode enemy is used before Hardmode, it either will not spawn or will not drop loot.
    • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Statue-spawned critters cannot be captured. Critters converted to evil forms by a Blood Moon will not drop coins, but can drop other items.
    • A farm can make use of up to three statues; for most enemies a single timer will do, but for the weakest enemies (those killed in less than a second by lava) staggered timers may improve speed slightly.

    List of spawner statues

    This content is transcluded from Statues.

    Spawn enemies
    Statue Enemy Factor[1] Notes
    Armed Zombie Statue placed Armed Zombie StatueArmed Zombie Statue(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)Internal Item ID: 3719 Armed ZombieArmed Zombie(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) 0.2
    Bat Statue placed Bat StatueBat StatueInternal Item ID: 443 Cave BatCave Bat (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) 0.2
    (Old-gen console and 3DS versions) n/a
    Blood Zombie Statue placed Blood Zombie StatueBlood Zombie Statue(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)Internal Item ID: 3720 Blood ZombieBlood Zombie(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) 0.05
    Bone Skeleton Statue placed Bone Skeleton StatueBone Skeleton Statue(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)Internal Item ID: 3712 SkeletonSkeleton(Expert Mode variant) 0.2
    • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Can appear in statue traps.
    • Does not drop items when killed by traps, NPCs, and/or lava.
    Chest Statue placed Chest StatueChest StatueInternal Item ID: 463 MimicMimic 0
    • Does not drop loot.
    • Spawned Mimics resemble the appropriate Chest type for the current biome.
    • Chest Statues can still spawn Mimics in pre-Hardmode.
    Corrupt Statue placed Corrupt StatueCorrupt StatueInternal Item ID: 466 ((Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)) Eater of SoulsEater of Souls 0.05
    • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Does not drop items when killed by traps, NPCs, and/or lava.
    Crab Statue placed Crab StatueCrab StatueInternal Item ID: 454 CrabCrab n/a
    • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Can appear in statue traps.
    • Does not have items to drop.
    • Useful for making a Crab Engine.
    Drippler Statue placed Drippler StatueDrippler Statue(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)Internal Item ID: 3710 DripplerDrippler(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) 0.05
    Eyeball Statue placed Eyeball StatueEyeball StatueInternal Item ID: 471 ((Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)) Demon EyeDemon Eye 0.05
    • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Does not drop items when killed by traps, NPCs, and/or lava.
    Goblin Statue placed Goblin StatueGoblin StatueInternal Item ID: 441 ((Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)) Goblin ScoutGoblin Scout 0.01
    • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Does not drop items when killed by traps, NPCs, and/or lava.
    Granite Golem Statue placed Granite Golem StatueGranite Golem Statue(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)Internal Item ID: 3718 Granite GolemGranite Golem(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) 0.2
    Harpy Statue placed Harpy StatueHarpy Statue(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)Internal Item ID: 3715 HarpyHarpy 0.05
    Hoplite Statue placed Hoplite StatueHoplite Statue(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)Internal Item ID: 3717 HopliteHoplite(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) 0.05
    Hornet Statue placed Hornet StatueHornet StatueInternal Item ID: 452 ((Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)) HornetHornet 0.05
    • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Does not drop items when killed by traps, NPCs, and/or lava.
    Imp Statue placed Imp StatueImp StatueInternal Item ID: 449 ((Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)) Fire ImpFire Imp 0.05
    • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Does not drop items when killed by traps, NPCs, and/or lava.
    Jellyfish Statue placed Jellyfish StatueJellyfish StatueInternal Item ID: 459 Blue JellyfishBlue Jellyfish (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) 0.2
    (Old-gen console and 3DS versions) n/a
    • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Does not drop items when killed by traps, NPCs, and/or lava.
    Medusa Statue placed Medusa StatueMedusa Statue(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)Internal Item ID: 3714 MedusaMedusa(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) 0.05
    Pigron Statue placed Pigron StatuePigron Statue(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)Internal Item ID: 3716 PigronPigron(Any) 0.05
    • Does not drop Bacon.
    • Spawnable in pre-Hardmode but will not drop loot.
    • Needs an area 6 tiles wide and 3 tiles high to spawn (otherwise produces merely a puff of smoke).
    • Spawns in a random color.
    • Does not drop items when killed by traps, NPCs, and/or lava.
    Piranha Statue placed Piranha StatuePiranha StatueInternal Item ID: 478 PiranhaPiranha (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) 0.2
    (Old-gen console and 3DS versions) n/a
    • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Does not drop items when killed by traps, NPCs, and/or lava.
    Shark Statue placed Shark StatueShark StatueInternal Item ID: 2672 SharkShark (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) 0.2
    (Old-gen console and 3DS versions) n/a
    • Needs an area 7 tiles wide and 3 tiles high to spawn (otherwise produces merely a puff of smoke).
    • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Does not drop items when killed by traps, NPCs, and/or lava.
    Skeleton Statue placed Skeleton StatueSkeleton StatueInternal Item ID: 446 SkeletonSkeleton (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) 0.2
    (Old-gen console and 3DS versions) n/a
    • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Does not drop items when killed by traps, NPCs, and/or lava.
    Slime Statue placed Slime StatueSlime StatueInternal Item ID: 440 Blue SlimeBlue Slime n/a
    • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Can appear in statue traps.
    • Useful for creating an invulnerability mechanism to shield against heavy damage attacks.
    • Will drop items when killed by traps, NPCs, and/or lava.
    Undead Viking Statue placed Undead Viking StatueUndead Viking Statue(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)Internal Item ID: 3713 Undead VikingUndead Viking 0.25
    Unicorn Statue placed Unicorn StatueUnicorn Statue(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)Internal Item ID: 3709 UnicornUnicorn 0.05
    • Spawnable in pre-Hardmode but will not drop loot.
    • Needs an area 6 tiles wide and 3 tiles high to spawn (otherwise produces merely a puff of smoke).
    • Does not drop items when killed by traps, NPCs, and/or lava.
    Wall Creeper Statue placed Wall Creeper StatueWall Creeper Statue(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)Internal Item ID: 3708 Wall CreeperWall Creeper n/a
    • Does not have items to drop.
    Wraith Statue placed Wraith StatueWraith Statue(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)Internal Item ID: 3711 WraithWraith 0.05

    Examples

    1. Drop chance reduction factor. The actual item drop chance can be calculated via multiplying the original chance by this factor. If there is no factor, then the drop chance is unchanged. Information taken from the Desktop version Desktop 1.4.3.6 source code, field Sets.StatueSpawnedDropRarity in Terraria.ID.NPCID.cs. There may be inaccuracies, as the current Desktop version Desktop version is 1.4.4.9.