Ores

Ores

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Statistics

Type	Crafting material
Placeable
Use time	15 Very Fast

Ores are primary crafting materials necessary for game progress. 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 in the Underground layer and below, and are mined with a pickaxe or drill. 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, Ocram , and Moon Lord  .

An Extractinator and Wooden Crates (from Fishing) also provide ores as random rewards.

A world will generally only contain one ore type from each tier, which is chosen at random (see tables below). The alternate ore types that do not generate naturally in a world can be obtained from crates, as bonus drops from Slimes (   ), from an Extractinator, or other worlds. Hardmode ore types are chosen at random when players destroy Altars.

List of ores

Ore		Rarity	Sell
	Tin Ore Internal Item ID: 699		75*75
	Demonite Ore Internal Item ID: 56		800*8
	Chlorophyte Ore Internal Item ID: 947		600*6

Pre-Hardmode

Tier	Possible Ore Types		Minimum Tool(s) Required	Ores Per Bar	Source
1	Copper Ore	Tin Ore		3	Surface, Underground, Cavern
2	Iron Ore	Lead Ore		3	Surface, Underground, Cavern
3	Silver Ore	Tungsten Ore		4	Underground, Cavern, Floating Islands, Surface (rarely)
4	Gold Ore	Platinum Ore		4	Underground, Cavern, Floating Islands, Surface (very rarely)
5	Meteorite			3	Meteorite biome
6	Demonite Ore	Crimtane Ore		3	Eye of Cthulhu, Underground, Cavern, Eater of Worlds (Demonite), Brain of Cthulhu (Crimtane)
7	Obsidian			n/a	Contact between water & lava
8	Hellstone			1 + 3	Underworld

Note that there is also "Tier 0" equipment: Armor, tools, and weapons made of wood, cactus, or pumpkin.

Hardmode

Tier	Possible Ore Types		Minimum Tool(s) Required	Ores Per Bar	Source
9	Cobalt Ore	Palladium Ore		3	Underground, Cavern
10	Mythril Ore	Orichalcum Ore		4	Cavern
11	Adamantite Ore	Titanium Ore	(works on  3DS version only)	5	Cavern (roughly at lava depth), Ocram  (Adamantite only)
12	Chlorophyte Ore			6	Underground Jungle
13	Luminite			4	Moon Lord

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 will spawn a Wraith and causes one type of Hardmode ore to appear in the world, with the appropriate status message displaying in the chat: "Your world has been blessed with (name of ore)!"

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.

Players will be able to find these new ores scattered across the Underground layer to near-Underworld levels, with them replacing most blocks created during world generation. They will spawn at random locations in varying quantity, in places explored and unexplored alike.

• Destroying more Altars will never spawn Hardmode ore types beyond the three that were randomly assigned to the world during the initial round of destroyed Altars. A world with Palladium Ore deposits will never spawn Cobalt Ore deposits, or vice versa.

• Which ores are generated is not determined until the first, second or third Altar is smashed. For example, it is not determined if the world has Cobalt or Palladium until the first Altar has been smashed. The same goes for Mythril/Orichalcum with the second Altar, and Adamantite/Titanium for the third.
• Subsequent Altars destroyed will begin the cycle again, though the fourth to sixth Altars will drop half as much ore as the first ones, the seventh to ninth will drop only one third of the ore of the first ones, and so forth. This "multiplier" can be calculated with the formula 1/(ceiling(n/3)) where n is the number of Altars destroyed. So, destroying the 19th Altar would yield one-seventh of Cobalt/Palladium Ore compared to the first Altar. Destroying 12 altars will roughly double the ore provided by the first three; tripling that original allotment would require destroying 33 altars (if a world spawns that many).
• Altars are needed for crafting certain items; destroying every Altar in a world is not recommended.
  • However, most of the items are pre-Hardmode boss-summoning items which are mostly unneeded at this point in the game. If the Night's Edge has already been crafted, then there is very little reason to keep an Altar.
• No matter how many Altars are destroyed, ore rarity remains set with Cobalt/Palladium being the most common, followed by Mythril/Orichalcum, then Adamantite/Titanium as the rarest.
• 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. Therefore, it is not recommended to smash another if the Wraiths are not defeated.
• Each time an Altar is destroyed, there is a 66% chance that a single random Stone Block in the Cavern layer will be converted to Ebonstone/Crimstone or Pearlstone, facilitating the spread of Underground Hallow or Corruption/Crimson. No block other than stone can be converted. As a failsafe, the game can repeat this process up to 1000 times if there is no Stone Block available, effectively ensuring that in most cases, the respective biome will spread.
• Additionally, smashing an Altar will allow mechanical bosses to spawn naturally (If said boss has not been defeated before it will spawn with a 10% chance each night), and random Pirate Invasions (if all the criteria are met).

Chlorophyte Ore spawns on its own once Hardmode is triggered, and Luminite does not occur naturally. Neither are affected by destroyed Altars.

Achievements

Ooo! Shiny! • "Mine your first nugget of ore with a pickaxe."

Mine your first ore.   

Extra Shiny! • "Mine a powerful ore that has been newly blessed upon your world."

Mine your first Hardmode ore.   

Photosynthesis • "Mine chlorophyte, an organic ore found deep among the thickest of flora."

Mine your first Chlorophyte Ore.   

Tips

• Each Hardmode ore is chosen at the moment the first three Altars in the world are broken. Ores can be "chosen" by quitting the world without saving (by ending the task or killing the process) after smashing the first Altars. It is more easily done with a server, using the exit-nosave command.
• All ores except Hellstone and Obsidian are highlighted by the Spelunker buff, making it easy to find veins of ore. Hellstone is not lit up by the buff, but it is by a Dangersense Potion. Obsidian is easily found and made around lava.
• Using a Crate Potion will improve the chances of obtaining Crates and as such the ore-bearing Wooden Crates.
• Filling in caves with spare natural blocks such as dirt before destroying Altars can cause Hardmode ores to spawn in them. They can then also be seen on the minimap, presenting an easy way to convert extra blocks into ores with knowing their exact location.
• In the  3DS version, the Palladium Pickaxe and Drill can mine Adamantite and Titanium.
• Most ores sell for the same as or more than the bars made from them. The exceptions are the late pre-Hardmode ores (Meteorite, Demonite/Crimtane, Hellstone), and Chlorophyte, all of which are far more profitable as bars. (Hellstone and Obsidian are unsaleable as ores, and there is no Obsidian Bar).

Trivia

•   Hellstone's item sprite is a recolor of that of Silver Ore.
• Hellstone and Chlorophyte are the only ores that cannot be infinitely generated within a single world. Others can be obtained from sources such as Crates, an Extractinator, bosses, duplicable liquids, and Meteorite crashes. Furthermore, Chlorophyte can be grown using mud, which, while not truly infinite, is unlimited for all practical purposes.
• Iron and Lead are the only ores not to have bricks.
• Despite being a late-game ore, Chlorophyte Ore only sells for 600*6  per ore. This could be because it can be farmed indefinitely, but its bar (and derivative bars) fall right into sequence pricewise. Luminite sells for the most, netting 3000*30  per ore.
• Palladium, Cobalt, and Titanium are the only Hardmode ores named after real metals.
• As of version 1.3.5.3, there are a total of 21 types of ores in Terraria.
• Luminite is the only ore that does not require a Furnace to craft bars.

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.3.0.1:
  • Updated some Ore graphics.
  • Introduced Luminite.

• Desktop 1.2.3:
  • Ore now stacks to 999.
  • Chlorophyte is slightly rarer and grows slower.
  • Hardmode Ores generate slightly less.

• Desktop 1.2:
  • Added 8 new Ores as possible alternatives to the original 8: Tin, Lead, Tungsten, Platinum, Crimtane, Palladium, Orichalcum, and Titanium Ore, ordered by tier.
  • Added Chlorophyte Ore.

• Desktop 1.1: Introduced Hardmode Ores: Cobalt, Mythril, and Adamantite Ore.

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

• Desktop-Release: Introduced Copper, Iron, Silver, and Gold Ores, Hellstone, Obsidian, and Meteorite.

 Console version

• Console 1.0.933.1: Made changes from PS4’s 1.0.750.0 update. ()

• Console 1.0.750.0: ()
  • Updated some Ore graphics.
  • Introduced Luminite.

• Console 1.06:
  • Ore now stacks to 999.
  • Chlorophyte is slightly rarer and grows slower.
  • Hardmode Ores generate slightly less.

• Console 1.02: Introduced Ores from Desktop 1.2.

• Console-Release: Introduced with mining noises.
  • Pre-Hardmode Ores: Copper, Iron, Silver, and Gold Ores, Hellstone, Obsidian, and Meteorite.
  • Hardmode Ores: Cobalt, Mythril, and Adamantite Ores.

 Mobile version

• Mobile 1.2.11212:
  • Ore now stacks to 999.
  • Chlorophyte is slightly rarer and grows slower.
  • Hardmode Ores generate slightly less.

• Mobile 1.2.6508: Introduced Ores from Desktop 1.2.

• Mobile 1.1.5536: Introduced Hardmode Ores: Cobalt, Mythril and Adamantite Ore.

• Mobile-Release: Introduced Copper, Iron, Silver, and Gold Ores, Hellstone, Obsidian, and Meteorite. These make noises when mined.

 3DS version

• 3DS-Release: Introduced with mining noises and generation mechanics from Desktop 1.2.3.
  • Pre-Hardmode Ores: Copper, Tin, Iron, Lead, Silver, Tungsten, Gold, and Platinum Ores, Hellstone, Obsidian, and Meteorite.
  • Hardmode Ores: Cobalt, Palladium, Mythril, Orichalcum, Adamantite, Titanium, and Chlorophyte Ores.