Health

Player Health

New player: (100 Health)
1 Life Crystal used: (120 Health)
15 Life Crystals used: (400 Health)
1 Life Fruit used: (405 Health)
20 Life Fruits used: (500 Health)

Health is the character's life count, represented by a meter of heart icons at the top-right of the screen. Each red heart shown represents 20 health, and each gold heart represents 25 health.

Taking damage causes health to drop, signified by the meter fading from right to left. Health regenerates when the character stops taking damage, and occurs at ever-increasing rates the longer the character avoids further damage, with a further rate boost if the character stands still. Regeneration can also be boosted using various equipable items, potions, and placed furniture items that cause area-effect buffs (Heart Lantern, Campfire).

New characters begin with 5 red hearts, or 100 health. Health capacity can be increased using Life Crystals, which add a single red heart each to the health meter permanently, increasing health capacity by 20 each. This can be done until the health meter reaches 20 red hearts (400 health).

Later in the game, the character can use Life Fruit to increase the capacity of their hearts by 5 health each, signified by permanently turning the color of each heart gold. With 15 Life Crystals and 20 Life Fruits used, a character can reach 20 gold hearts, which equals 500 health capacity. A further temporary boost to 600 health capacity can be achieved using a Lifeforce Potion.

On the  Desktop version,  Console version,  Mobile version, and  Legacy tModLoader version, Hearts will decrease in size and fade away if they are "empty". On the  Old-gen console version and Nintendo 3DS version, hearts will lose pieces of themselves to reveal a darkened "empty" heart. Each red piece represents 5 health, and each gold piece represents 1 1/4 health. The gold hearts are also on a separate layer than the red hearts.

• On the Nintendo 3DS version, hearts are also larger prior to getting over 10 hearts.

Taking damage

Empty heart

Damage occurs from attacks, environmental hazards, falling, drowning, or by debuffs. Taking damage causes a brief period of invulnerability while the character visually "flashes". When a character's life reaches 0 and all hearts are completely faded, death occurs.

• Enemies, such as Slimes, Zombies and Skeletons typically deal damage by touching the character. Other more powerful enemies like Fire Imps or Harpies can also damage the character via projectiles. Damage from enemies typically inflicts knockback on the character in addition, sending them flying through the air away from the source of the damage.

• Environment objects can cause damage, such as Spikes and thorns that grow in Corruption and Jungle areas, which hurt the character when touched. Hellstone and Meteorite blocks also deal damage via Burning debuff, and Lava causes a high rate of damage via the On Fire! debuff.

• Fall damage occurs from falling more than 25 tiles (50 feet) onto blocks, and causes more damage the further the fall. A single fall from an extreme height can kill a character.

• Drowning occurs when the character's Breath meter is depleted from remaining under water or other liquids for too long.

For a complete list of things that can reduce health, see causes of death.

Preventing damage

Main articles: Defense, Armor

By wearing armor and equipping certain accessories, characters can increase their defense which decreases damage taken. In addition to simply decreasing damage, some items can mitigate or eliminate certain forms of damage. All accessories can have modifiers that grant up to 4 defense in addition to their other bonuses and functions.

Item	Type	Notes
Shackle	Accessory	Gives the character 1 extra defense.
Obsidian Skull	Accessory	Grants immunity to fire-based blocks and gives the character 1 extra defense. This includes Hellstone, Meteorite and Hellstone Brick, but not lava.
Cobalt Shield	Accessory	Prevents knockback from damage and gives the character 1 extra defense. By preventing knockback this allows the character to have full use of the brief post-damage invincibility time.
Obsidian Shield	Accessory	Combines the functions of the Obsidian Skull and Cobalt Shield. The Obsidian Shield gives the character 2 extra defense.
Lucky Horseshoe	Accessory	Negates all falling damage.
Obsidian Horseshoe	Accessory	Combines the functions of the Obsidian Skull and Lucky Horseshoe. It does not, however, give any defense.
Ice Skates	Accessory	Prevents the character from slipping and falling through ice in ice caves, making getting stuck underneath much less of a possibility.
Cloud in a Bottle / Sandstorm in a Bottle / Blizzard in a Bottle / Tsunami in a Bottle / Rocket Boots	Accessory	These and the accessories made from them allow the character to prevent fall damage by using them before hitting the ground.
Frog Leg	Accessory	Along with increasing jump height, allows character to fall from a greater height before taking damage.
Black Belt	Accessory	Allows the character to dodge 10*1/10 (10%) of attacks and hazards.
Cross Necklace	Accessory	Doubles the brief duration of invulnerability after a character takes damage.
Worm Scarf	Accessory	Reduces damage taken by 17%.
Brain of Confusion	Accessory	Allows the character to dodge 16.67*1/6 (16.67%) of attacks and hazards.
Grappling Hook	Item	Shoots out a hook that pulls the character to distant ledges. By grappling to a wall or the ground right before landing after a long fall, you can prevent all falling damage. (For more items that perform the same purpose, see Grappling hooks.)
Hallowed armor	Armor	Provides invincibility after striking an enemy.
Ironskin Potion	Potion	Increases defense by 8 for 5 minutes.
Food Items	Potion	Increases defense by 2-4 for various time periods.
Frostspark Boots	Accessory	Basically Lightning Boots and Ice Skates combined. You won't fall through ice, which can save you from a fall damage death.
Terraspark Boots	Accessory	Basically Frostspark Boots and Lava Waders combined. You won't fall through ice, and you won't take damage from fire blocks.
Obsidian Water Walking Boots	Accessory	Basically Water Walking Boots and Obsidian Skull combined, which prevents a player from taking damage from fire blocks.
Lava Waders	Accessory	Basically Obsidian Water Walking Boots, Lava Charm & Obsidian Rose combined, which negates damage from fire blocks and provides temporary lava immunity.

Preventing drowning

These items are specifically for the purpose of avoiding getting stuck and drowning in water/other liquids.

Item	Type	Notes
Breathing Reed	Item	Allows the character to breathe near the surface of water, and makes the breath meter decrease over a period of 44 seconds (Instead of 22, without equipment). By placing this item on your action bar and selecting it, you will be able to breathe if the top of the reed is above the surface of the water.
Diving Helmet	Armor	Greatly extends underwater breathing (1 minute and 34 seconds instead of 22 without equipment) and gives the player 2 defense.
Flipper	Accessory	Allows the character to "swim" by jumping while in the water as though standing on a surface. This makes it much easier to avoid drowning.
Diving Gear	Accessory	Combines the functions of the Diving Helmet and Flipper. It is equipped in an accessory slot rather than an armor slot, allowing the character to equip a more defensive helmet.
Jellyfish Necklace	Accessory	Provides light while in water, making the escape from dark areas in water possible without Glowsticks.
Jellyfish Diving Gear	Accessory	Combines the functions of the Diving Gear and the Jellyfish Necklace, making escaping from dark areas in water much easier without Glowsticks, especially deep areas.
Arctic Diving Gear	Accessory	Combines the functions of the Jellyfish Diving Gear and Ice Skates, making escaping from water in ice caves much less treacherous.
Water Walking Boots	Accessory	Allows the character to stand on the surface of water when equipped, removing the chance to fall in.
Neptune's Shell	Accessory	Transforms the player into a Merfolk when entering water, allowing them to breathe and swim underwater.
Gills Potion	Potion	Allows the character to breathe underwater.
Flipper Potion	Potion	Prevents movement alteration in liquid.
Water Walking Potion	Potion	Allows the character to stand on the surface of water, removing the chance to fall in.
Moon Shell	Accessory	Combines the functions of the Moon Charm and Neptune's Shell. Allows breathing underwater, removes speed movement penalty in water, and allows swimming. Turns the player into a werewolf at night.
Frog Flipper	Accessory	Combines the functions of the Frog Leg and the Flipper, allowing you to swim using space.
Frog Gear	Accessory	Combines the functions of the Frog Leg, Flipper and the Tiger Climbing Gear, allowing the user to swim using the spacebar.
Obsidian Water Walking Boots	Accessory	Combines the Water Walking Boots and the Obsidian Skull, allowing the user to walk on water and honey.
Lava Waders	Accessory	Combines the Obsidian Water Walking Boots, Lava Charm and Obsidian Rose, allowing the user to walk on water, honey and lava.
Terraspark Boots	Accessory	A combination of the Frostspark Boots and the Lava Waders, allowing the user to walk on water, honey and lava.

Lava safety

These accessories are specifically for the purpose of mitigating or negating the effects of falling into lava.

Item	Type	Notes
Lava Charm	Accessory	Provides several seconds of lava immunity when equipped. Does not work if equipped while in lava unless the character is already immune.
Obsidian Rose	Accessory	Reduces the immediate damage of touching lava.
Lava Waders	Accessory	Allows the character to stand on the surface of lava, reduces lava damage and provides seven seconds of lava immunity when equipped.
Obsidian Skin Potion	Potion	Provides six minutes of complete lava immunity.
Terraspark Boots	Accessory	Basically Frostspark Boots and Lava Waders combined. Which means you can stand on the surface of lava, reduced lava damage and provides seven seconds of lava immunity.

Restoring health

Lost health can be regained in many ways. If the character has access to a Nurse then they can ask her to heal them to full by paying her a fee based on how much damage has been taken. There are also several items that can be used to heal the character. The character will automatically start regenerating health after a short period if no damage has been taken, and it will do it faster while standing still.

Healing

Most items which heal the player also grant the Potion Sickness debuff for 60 seconds (45 with the Philosopher's Stone or Charm of Myths). While under the effects of this debuff, the player cannot consume other items which grant the debuff.

Item	Healing	Potion Sickness	Notes
Heart	20	❌	Hearts restore 20 health instantly when collected, but cannot be placed in the Inventory.
Mushroom	15	✔️	Potion Sickness only lasts for 30 seconds.
Bottled Water	20	✔️
Lesser Healing Potion	50	✔️
Bottled Honey	80	✔️
Eggnog	80	✔️
Healing Potion	100	✔️
Honeyfin	120	✔️
Horn o' plenty	120	✔️	Can be re-used limitlessly and is never consumed. Keep in mind that it still applies Potion Sickness.
Greater Healing Potion	150	✔️
Super Healing Potion	200	✔️	Requires Lunar Fragments.
Lesser Restoration Potion	80	✔️	Also restores 80 mana.
Restoration Potion	90 / 80	✔️	Also restores 80 mana. Potion Sickness only lasts for 45 / 50 seconds.
Strange Brew	80	✔️	Also restores 400 mana, but inflicts the Mana Sickness debuff.
Life Crystal	20	❌	Also permanently increases health capacity by 20. Cannot be used if the player's health capacity is 400 or greater.
Life Fruit	5	❌	Also permanently increases health capacity by 5. Cannot be used if the player's health capacity is less than 400 or if it is 500 or greater.
Lifeforce Potion	20% of Max Health	❌	Increases health capacity by 20%. Lasts for 8 minutes / 5 minutes .

Increasing regeneration

The following items and buffs increase the player's natural life regeneration. Most increase it by a static amount per second, therefore allowing the player to regenerate health even while being attacked or moving.

Item	Regeneration (per second)	Trigger	Notes
Band of Regeneration	1 / 0.5	Equip
Charm of Myths	1 / 0.5	Equip	Also reduces the cooldown of healing items from 1 minute to 45 seconds.
Werewolf (buff)	0.5	Equip during night
Sun Stone	1	Equip during day	Also gives minor stat increases.
Moon Stone	1	Equip during night	Also gives minor stat increases.
Celestial Stone	1	Equip	Also gives minor stat increases.
Celestial Shell	1	Equip	Also gives minor stat increases.
Shiny Stone	1	Equip	Slowly increases regeneration rate over time, canceling out when the player moves or uses most items. Expert mode only.
Regeneration Potion	2	Drink regeneration potion	Buff lasts for 8 minutes.
Honey (buff)	1	Stand in honey	Buff lasts 30 seconds after leaving honey.
Dryad's Blessing	3	Near the Dryad	Also increases defense by 8.
Campfire	0.5, 1.1×base healing rate	Stand near Campfire
Heart Lantern	1	Stand near Heart Lantern
Crimson armor	1.5×base healing rate	Equip full set	Heals 1 health per "tick". Like natural regeneration, "tick"s occur more frequently when standing still or when not damaged recently.
Palladium armor	2 / 3	Hit enemy while wearing full set	Buff lasts for 5 seconds.
Solar Flare armor	3 (1 per piece)	Equip
Life Drain	1.5	Damage enemies with weapon	Provides regeneration buff while weapon is damaging enemies
Life Nebula	3 / 5 per level	Collect a Life Booster	Lasts for 8 seconds and can be stacked up to three times. One stack is removed at a time, upon which the timer resets itself.
Valhalla Knight's Breastplate	4 / 8	Equip
Squire's Great Helm	2 / 4	Equip
Chair	2	Sitting in a Chair

Also see the Health Regeneration page for the mechanism of the natural healing rate.

Life draining

Main article: Lifesteal

The following items heal the player by an amount based on the damage dealt to enemies.

Item	Health drained	Notes
Vampire Knives	7.5% of damage
Spectre armor(with Hood)	20% of damage	All magic weapons will allow the player to regain health; however, the player's magic damage dealt is reduced.
Bat Bat	1 health	Drains 1 health on hit at most per swing.

Achievements

Topped Off • “Attain maximum life and mana possible without accessories or buffs.”

Reach maximum health and mana.

Maxed Out • “You have the maximum health and mana!”

Max out your health and mana.

Notes

• The maximum amount of health a player can have at once is 600. It can be achieved by using 15 Life Crystals, 20 Life Fruits, and a Lifeforce Potion.
• Some events require a player to have a certain amount of health before they can happen:
  • More than 100 for the Nurse to spawn
  • More than 120 for Blood Moons to occur
  • More than 140 for Slime Rains to occur
  • 200 or more for the Eye of Cthulhu to spawn and for the Goblin Army to invade on their own
  • 300 or more for the Old Man to stop deeming the player unworthy of fighting Skeletron (though Skeletron can still be fought before that)
  • 400 or more for Life Fruit to become usable.

Note that some of these events may require additional conditions. See the respective pages for details.

• The more health the player has, the faster the health will regenerate.

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.4.0.1: Added two new Health Bar style options.

• Desktop 1.2.3: Reduced the effect of Campfire and Heart Lantern regeneration.

• Desktop 1.2.2: Items which regenerate health per hit now have a cap of 2 hearts per second.

• Desktop 1.2.1.2: Standing near Heart Lanterns will increase health regeneration.

• Desktop 1.2:
  • Can now reach a maximum of 500 with Life Fruit.
  • Standing in Honey will increase health regeneration, along with also providing a 30-second regeneration buff after leaving the Honey.
  • Standing near a Campfire will increase health regeneration.

• Desktop 1.0.6:
  • Character automatically regenerates health when not taking damage for some time.
  • Healing items give Potion Sickness debuff upon use.