Water
Water is an abundant liquid. It is found in nearly any biome in pools of various sizes, and forms the large Oceans on either side of a map. It is less abundant in Deserts, and absent in The Underworld (where it evaporates if made to flow there). Water is only found above a certain depth, beneath which lava pools tend to appear instead. It flows more freely than lava and honey. Each biome has its own unique water color, which can be changed using water fountains.
Candles, most Torches, and Flaming Arrows do not emit light underwater, but Glowsticks and some other light sources do. Most Torches are knocked free when water touches them, with the exception of Cursed, Ichor, and Coral Torches.
Upon submersion, a player's breath meter will display, indicating their remaining breathing time before drowning damage will be incurred. The point where a player is considered submerged, for purposes of the breath meter, is one pixel above the eyes.
If the player's feet are in at least one tile of water, movement is hindered noticeably. Certain accessories or potions can boost player movement through liquids, enable swimming, or even allow walking along its surface. Players cannot swim by default. Projectiles move slower through water than air.
In Expert Mode(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions), entering water in a Snow biome will give the player the Chilled debuff, which slows their movement speed.
A body of water will also break the player's fall upon impact and negate any fall damage. If the player has the Water Walking buff or one of the accessories that allow walking on water, this will also negate fall damage by landing on the water's surface.
Crafting

Like lava and honey, water can be used as a minor crafting station. It works just like those two; in order to use it the player only has to stand nearby. Creation of items from a body of water does not lower the water level at all. A sink may be used in place of a water fluid tile, and similarly offers unlimited water to recipes.
Used to craft
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Water can also be used to make the following items, though not as a crafting station:
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Water colors
Water changes color depending on which biome or event the player is. The color can also be changed with water fountains.
Blue in the Forest and Ocean (Old-gen console and 3DS versions)
Dark Blue in the Underground layer and Glowing Mushroom biome
Yellow in the surface Desert (Old-gen console and 3DS versions) / Underground Desert (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)
Teal in the Jungle
Light blue in the Snow biome
Purple in the Corruption
Pinkish in the Crimson
Magenta in the Hallow
Red during a Blood Moon
Murky purple in the Cavern layer
- (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)
Turquoise in the surface Desert, such as in an Oasis(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)
- (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)
Sky blue in the Ocean
Items interacting with water
- Flippers allow the player to swim upward by jumping repeatedly from any point within the water.
- Gills Potion allows the player to breathe underwater.
- Breathing Reed allows the player to breathe while in shallow water and also increases the breath meter.
- Diving Helmet increases the breath meter.
- Diving Gear increases breath meter and allows swimming.
- Neptune's Shell allows the player to breathe underwater and allows swimming.
- Water Walking Potion, Lava Waders, Obsidian Water Walking Boots, Water Walking Boots, and Terraspark Boots(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) allow the player to walk on the surface of water.
- Pumps and Buckets can move water.
- Flipper Potion, Fishron Wings, Superheated Blood, and the Shrimpy Truffle(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) allow the player to move at normal/boosted speed in water.
- Jellyfish Necklace, Jellyfish Diving Gear, and Arctic Diving Gear emit light when in water.
- Fishing Poles allow the player to fish in water.
Notes
- Underground pools of water may sometimes be spotted via the glowing Jellyfish that spawn there.
- The game occasionally has difficulty leveling out large volumes of liquid that flowed into a new space. Exiting and reloading the world, or relocating the liquid elsewhere, can sometimes remedy the problem.
- If the player already has the Chilled debuff and enters water, it will stay on the player until they leave, where the countdown will start again.
- Water cannot directly spread the Corruption, Crimson or Hallow, as the tints it receives from the player being in such biomes are purely visual.
Trivia
- Water is a liquid substance that covers roughly 71% of the earth's surface. Taking this into consideration, it is unlikely that Terraria takes place on Earth, as water covers little of most worlds, if a Terraria world represents the whole world.
- However, considering that even a large world's landmass is considerably small; massive amounts of land and water can be seen in the world's backgrounds; and each Terraria world is surrounded at the edges by two bodies of water of unknown real length in the Ocean biomes; it is likely that a world in Terraria is only an island that comprises a smaller portion of the entire actual world.
History
- Desktop 1.3.4: Water is now dynamic and has a setting to be more or less dynamic.
- Desktop 1.3.0.1: In Expert mode, water in a snow biome gives the player Chilled debuff.
- Desktop 1.2.4: Actuated tiles no longer remove the water over them on world load.
- Desktop 1.2.3:
- Sped up the Water moving code a bit. 5-10%.
- Fixed a bug where moving very large quantities of water could leave some water floating.
- Fixed issue where the player cannot jump while in reversed gravity in water.
- Running underwater no longer causes flashes of the Suffocation debuff.
- Desktop 1.2:
- When water touches a half block, it will now create a waterfall. Water can also change colors depending what biome it is in, or if it is a Blood Moon.
- Desktop 1.1: Water is in a secondary 'layer' behind the placed blocks, therefore can no longer be removed by placing blocks on it. "Blocked" liquids disappear only after restart of world.
- Desktop 1.0.5:
- Candles, Torches, and Flaming Arrows do not emit light in water (except placed Candle).
- Bats and flying enemies may no longer enter water and slimes float on its surface. All of them don't make a splash sound when hitting water.
- Water evaporates when reaching the Underworld.
- Desktop-Release: Introduced.
- Console-Release: Introduced.
- Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced.
- Mobile-Release: Introduced.
- 3DS-Release: Introduced.