Hooks

This article is about the tool class. For the crafting material, see Hook (crafting material).

Using a Topaz Hook to Climb a cliff.
Multi-Hooks, like this Slime Hook, afford more versatile movement.	The Grappling Hook used on a platform.

Hooks are a class of tools that aid the player in traversing terrain. When used, a chain is fired that latches a surface and hoists the player towards it. A Hook becomes an essential tool, as it offers significant freedom from terrain height restrictions, and will often be the first major mobility aid a player acquires. Hooks are acquired in various ways depending on their type (see table below).

The Grapple hotkey activates the equipped Hook in the player's equipment slot, or the first Hook from the inventory (reading it from left→right, top→bottom) without requiring that the Hook be in the player's hotbar. On the  Mobile version, dragging from the player outwards casts the Hook in the drag direction. On the  3DS version, hooks can be fired with A.

Several higher-tier Hooks, like the Ivy Whip, allow the player to grapple multiple surfaces simultaneously. If the character grapples one surface, then fires the Hook a second time, another chain extends from the player without dislodging the first. Upon grappling a second surface, the player will be suspended in midair at a point midway between the two surfaces. This allows players more freedom during construction, or for navigating hazardous areas, such as those above lava.

When the player first acquires a hook on  Mobile or , a small tutorial box will pop up telling the player how to use it.

Types

Hooks vary in their range, velocity, number of deployable hooks, and number of hooks that can remain latched simultaneously.

• All crafted Hooks are crafted at the Iron Anvil or Lead Anvil, with the exception of the Lunar Hook, crafted at the Ancient Manipulator.
• Single Hooks dislodge immediately when firing again while already latched to a surface.
• Multi-Hooks without simultaneous latching (Dual Hook; also the Fish Hook prior to 1.3) can fire a second chain, but will dislodge the first chain when the second latches a surface.
• A Multi-Hook can be fired again only after the previous chain latched a surface or fully retracted. The Fish Hook, Dual Hook, Web Slinger, and Lunar Hook are exceptions, and can be fired very rapidly; nearly as fast as the player can press the button.

Pre-Hardmode

Item	Source	Reach (tiles)	Velocity	Hooks	Latching	Sell	Rarity	Notes
Grappling Hook Internal Item ID: 84	Crafted: 3 + or bought from Goblin Tinkerer (2 )	19	11.5	1	Single	40
Amethyst Hook Internal Item ID: 1236	Crafted: 15	18	10	1	Single	40
Topaz Hook Internal Item ID: 1237	Crafted: 15	20	10.5	1	Single	40
Sapphire Hook Internal Item ID: 1238	Crafted: 15	22	11	1	Single	40
Emerald Hook Internal Item ID: 1239	Crafted: 15	24	11.5	1	Single	40
Ruby Hook Internal Item ID: 1240	Crafted: 15	26	12	1	Single	40
Diamond Hook Internal Item ID: 1241	Crafted: 15	28	12.5	1	Single	40
Web Slinger Internal Item ID: 939	Web Covered Chests	16	10	8	Simultaneous	40		Can fire 8 times in rapid succession.
Skeletron Hand Internal Item ID: 1273	Skeletron (14.29%)	22	15	2	Simultaneous	90
Slime Hook    Internal Item ID: 2585	King Slime (14.29%)	20	10	3	Simultaneous	40
Fish Hook Internal Item ID: 2360	Angler (1%)	25	13	2	Simultaneous	40		Can fire 3 times in rapid succession.
Ivy Whip Internal Item ID: 185	Crafted: 12 + 3	25	13	3	Simultaneous	40
Bat Hook Internal Item ID: 1800	Goodie Bags	32	15.5	1	Single	2		Pulls in the user faster than any other pre-hardmode hook.
Candy Cane Hook    Internal Item ID: 1915	Presents	25	11.5	1	Single	4

Hardmode

Item	Source	Reach (tiles)	Velocity	Hooks	Latching	Sell	Rarity	Notes
Dual Hook Internal Item ID: 437	Mimics (14.29%)	28	14	2	Individual	4		Glowing ends (red and blue). Can fire 2 times in rapid succession. Two hooks can be fired, but only one is latched at a time.
Thorn Hook  Internal Item ID: 3021	Plantera (10%)	30	15	3	Simultaneous	8		Desktop and  Console only.
Illuminant Hook  Internal Item ID: 3022	Hallowed Mimic (25%)	30	15	3	Simultaneous	8		Desktop and  Console only. Glowing ends.
Worm Hook  Internal Item ID: 3023	Corrupt Mimic (20%)	30	15	3	Simultaneous	8		Desktop and  Console only.
Tendon Hook  Internal Item ID: 3020	Crimson Mimic (20%)	31	15	3	Simultaneous	8		Desktop and  Console only.
Anti-Gravity Hook  Internal Item ID: 2800	Martian Saucer (11.11%)	31	14	3	Simultaneous	1		Desktop and  Console only. Suspends user 12 tiles from latch point in any direction. Allows player to orbit around the latch point.
Spooky Hook Internal Item ID: 1829	Mourning Wood (14.29%)	35	15.5	3	Simultaneous	4
Christmas Hook Internal Item ID: 1916	Everscream (5%)	35	15.5	3	Simultaneous	4		Glowing chain & ends.
Lunar Hook  Internal Item ID: 3572	Crafted: 6 + 6 + 6 + 6	35	16	4	Simultaneous	10		Desktop and  Console only. Crafted at Ancient Manipulator. Glowing chain & ends. Each chain glows its respective color. Can fire 4 times in rapid succession.
Static Hook Internal Item ID: 3623	Steampunker (50 )	40	varies	2	Individual	10		Desktop only. Two hooks can be fired, but only one is latched at a time. Latching does not pull the player, unlike other hooks. Players can adjust how far they want to be from latched point. Players will not move when latching to a different point.

Achievement

Hold on Tight! • "Equip your first grappling hook."

Equip a Grappling Hook.  

Notes

The glow provided by certain Hooks: Dual Hook blue end (top), Dual Hook red end (middle), and Christmas Hook (bottom). No light sources other than the Hooks are present in this shot.

As shown is this image here, each hook on the Lunar Hook shines its respective color. Solar (top) shines orange/red, Nebula (right) shines purple, Vortex (bottom) shines teal, and Stardust (left) shines blue.

The Anti-Gravity Hook is unlike any other hook allowing the user to rotate around the grappling point.

The Static Hook in action, keeping the user in place when grappling to a new location and allowing the user to move back and forth at will.

• Grappling a platform or rail with only one hook will pull the player inside the platform, meaning that the player will always hit that platform with subsequent grapples. You must jump to dislodge the hook if this happens.
• Hooks reset a character's flight time when Rocket Boots or Wings are equipped as soon as the hook latches on something. This also applies to items that allow more jumps mid-air like the Cloud in a Bottle or Cloud in a Balloon.
• All Hooks can remain attached to a surface continuously for 10 minutes (10 hours in-game time) before they automatically disengage.
• Players can remove Hooks from their Inventory while clinging to a surface and remain there until they jump, use another Hook, or automatically disengage, even though the Hook is no longer in their Inventory.
• When used via the hotbar, Multi-Hooks can be re-fired more rapidly, requiring only that the previous chain has fully extended first.
•   There is a short in-game tutorial when you obtain the Grappling Hook.
• Attempting to use a grappling hook on a slope will often cause the player to grapple the block they're standing on, as they are technically inside the block.
• If you try to place a hook on an Item Frame and it doesn't attach to the item frame, it will go back into your inventory, unlike other items which goes back into your current Hotbar slot.

Tips

• When sprinting accessories are equipped, the burst of speed provided by a Hook upon latching a surface can be used to accelerate a player to sprinting speed instantly.
• The Ice Rod can provide blocks to grapple while flying with Wings, repeatedly resetting flight time in midair.
• Characters that have hooked to a block are immune to gravity and knockback. Grappling the ground in dangerous locations, such as near lava, can ensure you don't fall in when taking damage from an enemy.
• Players can also exploit immunity to gravity by shooting the hook to the ground to prevent fall damage.
• Simultaneous-latch multi-hooks are more useful for intricate maneuvers. When fast travel is preferred, individually-latching multi-hooks allow faster transit, since they immediately sling the player across gaps, rather than automatically suspending them midway.
• Hooks that can be fired in rapid succession (Dual Hook, Web Slinger, Fish Hook, etc) provide greater security when falling. In case the first hook fails to latch onto a surface, the other fired hooks offer you a better chance at survival.
• If a player grapples onto the middle of a door and opens it while suspended, the player will fly out with immense speed in the direction that he or she grapples onto the door with. The same effect can be achieved with Actuators. When there are Frozen Slime Blocks on the other side of the door, this speed will be kept and can be used for very rapid transportation in a skybridge, etc.
  • However, the Static Hook doesn't seem to apply to this, because it does not pull the player to the latched location directly.
  • On the  Console version,  Old-gen console version, and  Mobile versions, doors are opened automatically when the player gets near one, so this is easier to perform.
• Moving whilst latched with the Anti-Gravity Hook doesn't count as movement with regards to mana regeneration. It also provides a simple way to dodge quickly even when under the effects of reduced movement speed (such as from the Vortex armor's special ability).
• The Anti-Gravity Hook is very effective in avoiding quick enemies like Mothron, provided there is enough space.
• The Anti-Gravity Hook can make traversing maps easier. Throw the hook behind you with a downwards angle and release the hook immediately. If you repeat this method, you can fly at about 54 mph.
• You can climb smooth walls extremely quickly with the Anti-Gravity hook by pressing your grapple key quickly and holding your up key whilst your mouse is in the top and slightly to the right of the middle of your screen.
• If you want to change hooks from your inventory to the Hook slot, right-click the hook in the inventory to quickly equip it.
• As a balance for Web Slinger high number of hooks, it has the lowest range of all hooks (16 tiles).

Trivia

• The Fish Hook is a play on words, using the term for the real-life fishing tool for a grappling hook with the same appearance.
• The tooltip for the Grappling Hook, "Get over here!", is a reference to Scorpion's catchphrase in Mortal Kombat.
• The tooltip for the Lunar Hook "You want the moon? Just grapple it and pull it down!" is a possible reference to It's a Wonderful Life's famous quote from George Bailey: "You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down."
• The Bat Hook is most likely a reference to DC's Batman, who uses a grappling hook that reels in very quickly, usually launching him up onto ledges.
• The Web Slinger may be reference to Marvel's Spider-Man, who is often referred to as the "Web Slinger" due to his ability to sling webs and attach them to enhance movement.
• When you use the Lunar Hook, the color fired always follows this order: First orange (Solar), second green (Vortex), third pink (Nebula), and finally blue (Stardust).
  • Because the Lunar Hook always follows this pattern, it's possible to cycle through the different hooks and latch onto objects with whichever color you want. Therefore it's also possible to have four of the same type of hook out (four Solar, Nebula, Vortex or Stardust hooks) at a time.
• The Candy Cane Hook has the same sell value as the Hardmode hooks, although it can be obtained Pre-Hardmode. It is also one of the few items with Lime rarity that can be obtained Pre-Hardmode.
• The Thorn Hook resembles a miniature version of Plantera's Hooks.
• If a player switches Hooks while already hooked, the existing hook will keep the previous hook's sprite. However, reshooting the hook will update the sprite.
• When switching hooks from a older hook that has more ends to a newer hook with less ends, the new hook will initially replace the first hook shot out, but then will subsequently always replace the older hook. This is extremely buggy and can allow strange effects such as two static hooks latched at the same time.
• The Static Hook is a Tier 10 (Red rarity) Item despite being acquirable after only one of the Mechanical Bosses has been defeated. It is also the only item with this rarity that can be bought.

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.3.1: Introduced Static Hook.

• Desktop 1.3.0.5: Fixed Lunar Hook not allowing you to use the hooks freely unless at least 1 is placed.

• Desktop 1.3.0.4: Fixed controls being reversed for Anti-Gravity hook when used in reverse Gravity.

• Desktop 1.3.0.1: Introduced Worm, Tendon, Illuminant, Thorn, Anti-Gravity, and Lunar Hooks, tweaked mechanics:
  • Hooks given a dedicated equipment and dye slot, and can no longer be fired from inventory.
  • Fish Hook changed to Simultaneous latching.
  • You can no longer grapple while frozen.

• Desktop 1.2.4: Introduced Fish Hook and Slime Hook.

• Desktop 1.2.3:
  • Fixed a bug where hooks would break if they tried to attach to blocks with liquid in them.
  • Using a Rod of Discord releases all grapples.
  • Using a teleporter tile releases all grapples.

• Desktop 1.2.2: Introduced Candy Cane Hook and Christmas Hook.

• Desktop 1.2.1.2: Bat Hook now correctly drops from the Goodie Bag.

• Desktop 1.2.1: Introduced Bat Hook and Spooky Hook.

• Desktop 1.2: Introduced Gem hooks, Web Slinger, Skeletron Hand.

• Desktop 1.1: Introduced Dual Hook, the Grappling Hook can now be bought from the Goblin Tinkerer for 2 .

• Desktop 1.0.6: Grapple hotkey added. Removed 60-second auto-disengage.

• Desktop-Release: Introduced Grappling Hook and Ivy Whip.

 Console version

• Console-Release: Introduced.

 Mobile version

• Mobile-Release: Introduced.

 3DS version

• 3DS-Release: Introduced.