Altars

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This article is about Altars in the Corruption or Crimson. For the altar located in the Jungle Temple, see Lihzahrd Altar.

Demon Altars and Crimson Altars are naturally-occurring crafting stations found mainly in and around Chasms in The Corruption or The Crimson, and more rarely in other areas underground. They are used to craft boss-summoning items and the Night's Edge. Altars emit some light, making them easy to spot. They cannot be freed, picked up, placed, or crafted. After a world enters Hardmode, they can be destroyed with Hardmode-tier hammers, but attempting to hit them with a hammer before that causes the player to lose half their health, and the Altar will not be affected.

File:Demonaltars.jpg

Eight Demon Altars.

A world after smashing a large number of Crimson Altars leaving the Crimson and Hallow to spread.

Hardmode

After the Wall of Flesh has been defeated in a world, Altars can be destroyed with the Pwnhammer or any superior hammer. Each destroyed Altar causes one type of Hardmode ore to appear in the world, with the appropriate message displaying in the player's chat: "Your world has been blessed with (ore)". If a player attempts to destroy the altar with a lesser hammer, or in a world in which the Wall of Flesh is not yet defeated, the altar will be unaffected and the player will lose half their current health, as stated above.

1. First Altar: Cobalt Ore or Palladium Ore, chosen randomly.
2. Second Altar: Mythril Ore or Orichalcum Ore, chosen randomly.
3. Third Altar: Adamantite Ore or Titanium Ore, chosen randomly.

• Destroying a fourth Altar spawns another round of whichever type spawned for the first Altar (Cobalt or Palladium). A fifth spawns more of whichever type spawned for the second Altar (Mythril or Orichalcum), etc.
• Destroying more Altars will never spawn Hardmode ore types beyond the three that were randomly assigned to your world during the initial round of destroyed Altars. A world with Palladium Ore deposits will never spawn Cobalt Ore deposits, or vice versa.
• Each time an Altar is destroyed, one or two Wraiths spawn, regardless of the time of day. When destroying multiple Altars in rapid succession, the resulting Wraith swarm may become difficult to deal with.
• Which ores are generated is not determined until you smash an Altar. For example, it is not determined which ore your world has cobalt or palladium, until the first altar has been smashed. The same goes for Mythril/Orichalum with the second altar, and Adamantite/Titanium for the third.
• In addition to spawning new ore, a small patch of Corruption, Crimson, or Hallow have a chance to be seeded at a random world location.
• Additionally, smashing an altar will start spawning mechanical bosses randomly at night, and will start to trigger Pirate Invasions.

Crafting

Used to craft

Demon Altar or Crimson Altar

Result	Ingredients
only: Abeemination	Honey Block5 Stinger Hive5 Bottled Honey Crispy Honey Block3 Obsidian2
Ancient Hallowed Greaves	Hallowed Bar18
Ancient Hallowed Headgear	Hallowed Bar12
Ancient Hallowed Helmet	Hallowed Bar12
Ancient Hallowed Hood	Hallowed Bar12
Ancient Hallowed Mask	Hallowed Bar12
Ancient Hallowed Plate Mail	Hallowed Bar24
only: Bloody Spine	Vertebra15
only: Bloody Spine	Vicious Powder30 Vertebra15
Deer Thing	Flinx Fur3 Crimtane Ore5 Lens
	Flinx Fur3 Demonite Ore5 Lens
only: Night's Edge	Light's Bane Muramasa Blade of Grass Fiery Greatsword
	Blood Butcherer Muramasa Blade of Grass Fiery Greatsword
only: Night's Edge	Blood Butcherer Muramasa Blade of Grass Volcano
	Light's Bane Muramasa Blade of Grass Volcano
only: Slime Crown	Gel99 Gold Crown
	Gel99 Platinum Crown
only: Slime Crown	Gel20 Gold Crown
	Gel20 Platinum Crown
Suspicious Looking Eye	Lens6
Void Bag	Bone30 Jungle Spores15 Shadow Scale30
	Bone30 Jungle Spores15 Tissue Sample30
Void Vault	Bone15 Jungle Spores8 Tissue Sample15
	Bone15 Jungle Spores8 Shadow Scale15
Worm Food	Vile Powder30 Rotten Chunk15

Hardmode Ore locations

File:Alter in snow.png

A Crimson Altar in the snow.

• Small maps:
  • Cobalt Ore and Palladium Ore spawn below a depth of 760 feet (380 tiles)
  • Mythril Ore and Orichalcum Ore spawn below 1,000 depth (500 tiles)
  • Adamantite Ore and Titanium Ore spawn below 1,400 depth (700 tiles), 100 feet (50 tiles) above the depth at which Lava begins appearing.
• Medium maps:
  • Cobalt Ore and Palladium Ore spawn below a depth of 1,100 feet (550 tiles)
  • Mythril Ore and Orichalcum Ore spawn below 1,400 depth (700 tiles)
  • Adamantite Ore and Titanium Ore spawn below 2,130 depth (1,065 tiles), 170 feet (85 tiles) above the depth at which Lava begins appearing.
• Large maps:
  • Cobalt Ore and Palladium Ore spawn below a depth of 1,270 feet (635 tiles)
  • Mythril Ore and Orichalcum Ore spawn below 2,000 depth (1,000 tiles)
  • Adamantite Ore and Titanium Ore spawn below 2,930 depth (1,465 tiles), 420 feet (210 tiles) above the depth at which Lava begins appearing.

Achievement

File:Achievement Begone Evil.png Begone, Evil! is the achievement you earn when you smash your first Demon Altar or Crimson Altar.

Notes

• Altars cannot be collected as items.
• Altars generate less and less new ores as more are destroyed. The second set of altars create 1/2 as much ore as the first set, the 3rd set creates 1/3 as much as the first, and so on.
• Cobalt(Palladium) is roughly twice as common as Adamantite(Titanium), with Mythril(Orichalcum) halfway between.
• Altars can be destroyed through other phenomena, such as being spawned on top of Sand or being struck by a meteorite landing. If the world is in Hardmode, an altar destroyed by natural causes will spawn ores normally; however, prior to hardmode, an altar being destroyed in this way will have no effect.
• Each time an Altar is destroyed, there is a 66% chance that a single random tile in the rock layer will be converted to ebonstone, crimstone or pearlstone, facilitating the spread of these biomes. Only stone blocks can be converted in this way.
• Altars encountered outside of the Corruption/Crimson on a given map will always be found at a depth of around zero feet.
• Attempting to destroy an Altar with a hardmode hammer before killing the Wall of Flesh will cause the player damage.
• Hardmode ore spawns will never overwrite existing Minerals or placed Wood blocks of any type, only biome blocks (Dirt, Mud, Stone, etc).

Tips

• Players about to enter Hardmode may benefit by mining paths to several known Altars beforehand, as navigating Hardmode Corruption/Crimson is dangerous at first.
• Altars are still needed for crafting certain items, and altars yield fewer ore with every group of three destroyed. Destroying every altar in a world is not recommended.
• On the rare occasion that an altar spawns on top of a Heart Crystal, the bottom two portions of the crystal can be broken for two separate items, while the top two portions remain unbreakable.

Trivia

• The difficulty that new players often face in identifying and determining the nature of Demon Altars, often resulting in forum posts asking about "purple spiky things", has become a notable social phenomenon in the Terraria community. A title message references this with the text Terraria: What's that purple spiked thing?
• In some rare cases a altar can spawn on other altar.
• In some rare cases a altar can spawn on top of a crystal heart, causing the bottom half of the heart to be destroyed during the collection process, while the top half remains underneath the altar while also retaining its animation

History

• 1.2.3.1: Fixed the problem with altars/pots/chests spawning in bugged conditions.

• 1.2.3: Fixed dying by demon altar having no message. Crimson Altar now shows up when you hover over it on the map.

• 1.2: Worlds which have the Crimson instead of the Corruption will have Demon Altars replaced with Crimson Altars.

• 1.1: When smashed with a Pwnhammer during Hardmode, either Cobalt, Mythril, or Adamantite will be spawned in the world. Also, it now has a chance to summon a few wraiths and create additional Underground Corruption or Hallow spreading point somewhere in the world when smashed.

• Pre-Release: Introduced.

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