Ores

Ore	Value
Copper Ore	50
Tin Ore	75
Iron Ore	1
Lead Ore	1 50
Silver Ore	2
Tungsten Ore	3
Gold Ore	4
Platinum Ore	6
Demonite Ore	8
Crimtane Ore	9
Meteorite	2
Obsidian	n/a
Hellstone	n/a
Cobalt Ore	7
Palladium Ore	9
Mythril Ore	11
Orichalcum Ore	13
Adamantite Ore	15
Titanium Ore	17
Chlorophyte Ore	50

Ores are primary crafting materials. They generally must be crafted into bars at a Furnace, after which they can craft several essential tools, weapons, armor, and other items. Some items require raw Ores themselves, most commonly bricks and potions. Raw Ores can also be used as plain blocks for construction.

Ores are generally found as veins of placed blocks Underground and below, and are mined with a Pickaxe. Lower-tier Ores can be found among Dirt near the Surface, or within Floating Islands. Some Ores are also dropped by bosses, namely Eye of Cthulhu, Eater of Worlds, Brain of Cthulhu, and Template:Console icon Ocram.

An Extractinator, or Wooden Crates (from Fishing), may also provide Ores as random rewards.

A world will only contain one Ore type from each tier naturally, which are chosen at random (see tables below). The alternate Ore types that don't generate naturally in a world can be obtained from Crates, an Extractinator, or from other worlds. Hardmode Ore types are chosen at random when players destroy Altars.

Pre-Hardmode

Tier	Possible Ore Types		Minimum Tool Required	Ores Per Bar	Source
1	File:Copper Ore placed.png Copper Ore	File:Tin Ore placed.png Tin Ore	Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2	3	Surface, Underground, Cavern
2	File:Iron Ore placed.png Iron Ore	File:Lead Ore placed.png Lead Ore	Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2	3	Surface, Underground, Cavern
3	File:Silver Ore placed.png Silver Ore	File:Tungsten Ore placed.png Tungsten Ore	Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2	4	Underground, Cavern, Floating Islands
4	File:Gold Ore placed.png Gold Ore	File:Platinum Ore placed.png Platinum Ore	Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2	4	Underground, Cavern, Floating Islands
5	File:Demonite Ore placed.png Demonite Ore	File:Crimtane Ore placed.png Crimtane Ore	Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2	4	Eye of Cthulhu, Underground, Cavern, Eater of Worlds (Demonite), Brain of Cthulhu (Crimtane)
6	File:Meteorite placed.png Meteorite		Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2	3	Meteorite Biome
7	File:Obsidian placed.png Obsidian		Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2	n/a	Contact between Water & Lava
8	File:Hellstone placed.png Hellstone		Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2	3 + 1 Template:Item link2	Underworld

Hardmode

Tier	Possible Ore Types		Minimum Tool Required	Ores Per Bar	Source
9	File:Cobalt Ore placed.png Cobalt Ore	File:Palladium Ore placed.png Palladium Ore	Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2	3	Underground, Cavern
10	File:Mythril Ore placed.png Mythril Ore	File:Orichalcum Ore placed.png Orichalcum Ore	Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2	4	Cavern
11	File:Adamantite Ore placed.png Adamantite Ore	File:Titanium Ore placed.png Titanium Ore	Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2	5	Cavern (roughly at Lava depth), Template:Console iconOcram (adamantite)
12	File:Chlorophyte Ore placed.png Chlorophyte Ore		Template:Item link2 Template:Item link2	6	Underground Jungle

Spawning the first three tiers of Hardmode Ore requires the destruction of Demon/Crimson Altars. This requires a Hammer with 80% hammer power or higher, e.g. the Pwnhammer. Each destroyed Altar spawns deposits of one of six new Hardmode Ores, replacing natural world blocks below the underground layer:

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

• 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 Orichalum), etc.
• Destroying more Altars will never spawn Hardmode ore types beyond the 3 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.
• Chlorophyte Ore spawns on its own once Hardmode is triggered, and is not affected by destroyed Altars.
• Ore spawns will never overwrite existing Mineral deposits or placed Wood blocks of any type, nor any form of Brick, only Biome blocks (such as Dirt, Mud, Stone, etc).

Tips

• Each hardmode ore is chosen at the moment you break the first three altars in the world. You can choose the ores you like by quitting your world without saving (by ending the task or killing the process) after smashing your first altars. It is easier done with a server.
• Almost all ores are highlighted via the Spelunker buff, allowing you to gather them in large amounts (this requires a tier 4 ore, but they can be found again with this). Hellstone is not lit up by this, although it is by a Dangersense Potion.
• Using a Crate Potion will improve the chances of obtaining crates, and as such the ore-bearing wooden crates.
• If you fill in caves with spare natural blocks such as dirt, Hardmode ores can spawn in them. They can then also be seen on the minimap, presenting an easy way to convert extra blocks into ores and know their exact location.

Trivia

• Many ores' item sprites are modified versions of other ore sprites:
  • Demonite Ore sprite is a recolor of Iron Ore.
  • Meteorite is a recolor of Gold Ore.
  • Obsidian is a recolor of Copper Ore.
  • Hellstone is a recolor of Silver Ore.
  • Adamantite Ore is a reversed, 90-degrees-rotated and recolored version of Cobalt Ore.
• Most of them in placed form also appear to be a modified stone texture, these being the ones released before 1.2, plus platinum and possibly palladium. Tin and lead also seem to share a base texture.
• Hellstone is the only ore that cannot be created infinitely within one world. The 8 pre-Hardmode Ores can be obtained from an Extractinator; these plus the Hardmode Ores that spawn from destroying Altars can be obtained from Crates, Chlorophyte can be grown, Meteorite can fall infinitely onto replenishable blocks, and Obsidian can be created using liquid bugs.
• Iron, lead, meteorite and chlorophyte are the only ores not to have bricks.
• Despite being the end-game ore, Chlorophyte Ore only sells for 50 copper coins per ore; the same as Copper Ore. Titanium sells for the most, being 17 silver coins per ore.

History

• 1.2.3: Ore now stacks to 999. Chlorophyte is slightly more rare and grows slower. New hardmode ore spawns slightly less and is slightly harder to craft.

• 1.2:
  • There are 9 new ores.
  • Your world has a chance to get alternative ore as a replacement for Copper, Iron, Silver, Gold, Cobalt, Mythril, Adamantite..
  • Added Chlorophyte Ore.

• 1.0.2: Mining stone and other hard ores make a 'tink' noise now.

• Pre-Release: Introduced.