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This is a Guide page.
This is a Guide page.
This means the page will walk you through a specific task, strategy, or enemy/boss fight.
Status: Subject to revision (This Guide does not meet certain quality standards and may be heavily outdated.)
  • Issues:
     • Most likely outdated since 1.4. Remember not to delete pre-1.4 content; use {{eicons}} and {{eversions}}!
  • Farming is the practice of intentionally obtaining useful resources in a convenient area.

    Most resources can be found naturally within the world, while others such as several Plants or Crystal Shards can additionally be grown in a convenient area for harvest.

    The following guide will focus on those resources that can be easily obtained or farmed in large quantities.

    Fully Renewable

    In Terraria, an item or block is considered "renewable" if it can be created indefinitely within a single world.

    Wood

    Guides Bases treefarm

    Layered tree farm.

    Wood type Grows In
    WoodWood DirtDirt with regular Grass
    Boreal WoodBoreal Wood Snow BlockSnow
    EbonwoodEbonwood DirtDirt with Corrupt Grass orEbonsand BlockEbonsand
    ShadewoodShadewood DirtDirt with Crimson Grass orCrimsand BlockCrimsand
    Rich MahoganyRich Mahogany Mud BlockMud with Jungle Grass
    Palm WoodPalm Wood Sand BlockSand
    PearlwoodPearlwood DirtDirt with Hallowed Grass orPearlsand BlockPearlsand
    Stone BlockStone Block and GemGems Stone BlockStone, using GemcornGemcornGemcornGemcornGemcornGemcornGemcornGemcorns
    Glowing MushroomGiant Glowing Mushroom Mud BlockMud with Mushroom Grass
    CactusCactus Sand BlockSandEbonsand BlockEbonsand Crimsand BlockCrimsandandPearlsand BlockPearlsand
    BambooBamboo Mud BlockMud with Jungle Grass under 2-5 tiles of Water

    While trees grown by a player are significantly shorter than those generated naturally, building a farm for them provides a very simple way to obtain all different Wood types in one place.

    A typical Wood farm consists of a flat surface made with the block required to grow the respective tree. If building multiple layers, all layers will need to have the correct vertical spacing in order for the Trees to grow properly.

    In order to grow into a Tree, Acorns require sufficient space both horizontally and vertically.

    • Most trees need at least one tile of empty ground (with matching soil) on either side of the sapling (Palm trees can get by without).
    • If saplings are to be placed near each other, they also need an additional tile of space between them.
    • Vertically, most tree types need 16 tiles of free vertical space above them; Jungle and Palm trees respectively need 24 and 30 tiles of space instead.
    • Trees will not grow Underground (below 0 depth) or in front of a wall. All except Palm trees will grow in front of fences.

    In addition to farming Gems via Gem trees it's also possible to obtain them via mining or by using the Extractinator on Silt, Slush and Desert Fossils. In contrast to trees however, these alternatives are finite. Geodes, however, are not finite, and can be farmed infinitely through Granite Cave enemies. For more detailed instructions on Gem tree farming, see this Guide.

    Cacti, Bamboo, and Giant Glowing Mushrooms cannot be manually planted, but they will automatically grow on their respective surfaces if all conditions are met. Rich Mahogany Trees will grow automatically as well, but can be planted with Acorns on Jungle Grass. If you wish to farm Bamboo, you cannot make it indoors, as Bamboo will not grow in front of walls of any kind--even naturally generated ones. It also recommended to acquire Water Walking Boots or better for farming purposes, and to make the farm quite long, as Bamboo takes forever to grow. At least ten blocks of vertical space is recommended.

    Herbs

    Herb Seed Planted In Bloom condition
    BlinkrootBlinkroot Blinkroot SeedsBlinkroot Seeds Dirt or Mud None
    DaybloomDaybloom Daybloom SeedsDaybloom Seeds Grass, Hallowed Grass During daytime (4:30 AM to 7:30 PM)
    DeathweedDeathweed Deathweed SeedsDeathweed Seeds Corruption or Crimson grass During a Blood Moon or Full Moon
    FireblossomFireblossom Fireblossom SeedsFireblossom Seeds Ash From 3:45pm to 7:30pm, if not raining, or when submerged in Lava
    MoonglowMoonglow Moonglow SeedsMoonglow Seeds Jungle Grass During nighttime (7:30 PM to 4:30 AM)
    WaterleafWaterleaf Waterleaf SeedsWaterleaf Seeds Sand During Rain, or when submerged in Water .
    ShiverthornShiverthorn Shiverthorn SeedsShiverthorn Seeds Snow None

    A well-planned herb garden will provide materials needed to create almost every buff Potion -- while many potions have other ingredients, they all need at least one herb.

    Herbs can be planted in soil, Clay Pots or Planter Boxes:

    • Herbs on soil can be automatically harvested with Dart Traps or Actuator mechanisms, but this will be inefficient until all planted herbs are blooming at once. Harvesting soil-farmed herbs by hand is difficult, since any tool will break all herbs in its range. However, wielding a seed allows you to instantly harvest and replant.
    • Clay Pots do not have terrain limitations, and allow every herb to grow on them, while also protecting them from being accidentally destroyed by a Player's or enemy's attacks, projectiles, or harvesting nearby herbs. Herbs must be explicitly broken with a pickaxe or Staff of Regrowth before they can be replanted.
    • Planter Boxes offer all the advantages of clay pots, and can also be placed without need for a supporting block. They can be placed anywhere a platform can.

    The Staff of Regrowth will greatly increase the amount of herbs and seeds harvested. It will also work on fully grown but not yet bloomed plants at a lower efficiency, making it very useful when harvesting natural Deathweed or Waterleaf. Note that the Staff of Regrowth requires herbs in Planter Boxes be in bloom, not just mature. Regular pickaxes can still harvest mature (and not blooming) plants, but they will not drop seeds as usual.

    Mushrooms

    Mushroom Grows in
    MushroomMushroom Grass SeedsGrass or Hallowed SeedsHallowed Grass
    Vile MushroomVile Mushroom Corrupt SeedsCorrupted Grass
    Vicious MushroomVicious Mushroom Crimson SeedsCrimson Grass
    Glowing MushroomGlowing Mushroom Mushroom Grass SeedsMushroom Grass

    All Mushroom types will grow naturally on their respective Grass surface. Usually, mushroom farms consist of several layers of dirt with 3 block tall gaps in between.

    Note that vines will grow down from strips of grassy dirt, preventing the growth of other layers below them. A layer of Wooden platforms below the dirt layers will prevent their growth while allowing the player to walk through them, allowing layers to be packed more tightly.

    Regular Mushrooms are only used for Lesser Healing and Regeneration Potions, however their sell price is significantly higher than the other two, giving it the small use of a limited money farm as well.

    Vile or Vicious Mushroom farms are used for Vile Powder, which is required to summon the Eater of Worlds or Brain of Cthulhu, depending on the natural evil biome. Make sure to contain the farm properly, otherwise the Corruption/Crimson may spread out of the farm. A good idea is to build these farms in the sky, where there is no chance of spread occurring.

    Glowing Mushrooms are much more useful in comparison, being used for Furniture, and Shroomite Bars in Hardmode. They also grow at a faster rate than usual, and Giant Glowing Mushrooms may grow if given enough space (See above).

    Mushrooms can be automatically harvested with Dart Traps or Actuators. (The following does not apply to PC v1.4) Glowing Mushrooms have the unique ability to grow on actuated Mushroom Grass; they will be immediately harvested as soon as they spawn, having their usual chance to drop as an item and/or seeds. This can be taken advantage of by building a large mushroom farm in the surface layer and letting it produce and harvest Glowing Mushrooms without player intervention. Note that such a farm may crowd the limit for loose items (which is 400), causing other loose items to despawn unexpectedly. (In Vanilla, there is no way to automatically place them into chests.) Conveyor belts can at least gather the crop into stacks.

    Bait farm

    See also: Bait
    Jungle Bait Farm

    A player standing in a jungle bait farm.

    A bait farm is used to gather large amounts of bait before Fishing, by spawning many Critters, some of which will be suitable. With a Water Candle and/or Battle Potion, spawning in general can be increased, including natural spawning of Critters. If any Golden critters (of bait types) appear, they will have the maximum bait power, but even so, these are probably better sold than used for fishing.

    Fireflies are one of the most common forms of Bait, though not very powerful. Widely varying numbers of them will spawn at night on a full moon, especially near NPCs. Butterflies will similarly spawn during the day; their bait power varies widely by type, from the almost useless Monarch to the top-tier Tree Nymph.

    Worms are common and of moderate power. They spawn commonly during a Rain, and can also be produced when destroying stone or dirt piles, or cutting grass. They can also be crafted into the considerably more powerful Enchanted Nightcrawlers.

    Jungle grass is an excellent and reliable source of bait, as each Jungle plant has a very high chance of spawning 1-3 bait critters in any combination of the following: Grubby (weak), Sluggy (equal to worms), or Buggy (second only to the top tier at 40% Bait Power).Use of Actuators on Jungle Grass blocks will not spawn any Jungle bait (Not confirmed for 1.4.3.2 Bait reported to be spawning again); in order for any plant to spawn Critters, that plant must be destroyed directly by the player. However, indoor farms are still possible, as Jungle plants will grow in front of walls and fences. Vines will stop plants from growing when long enough; so, in order to make the farm higher efficiency, a row of blocks should be placed under the Jungle Grass blocks to prevent vines from growing. The figure above is a shining example of a well designed bait farm.

    Once in Hardmode, Lightning Bugs will appear in the Hallow, which are considerably more effective than the fireflies they resemble. However, these are much less effective than the Jungle baits--both in Fishing Power and attainability (once a farm is attained).

    Flower Boots no longer produce Critters when flowers are destroyed as of update 1.4 (In previous versions you were able to combine the use of a flare - placed at the player's feet and the aforementioned flower boots to spawn critters endlessly).

    Fishing items

    See also: Fishing

    Since bait can be easily obtained from common Critters and simple farms, fishing is by extension another source of resources. Common resources from fishing include (but are not limited to):

    The items obtained will vary depending on the biome and depth in which the player is fishing.

    Small ponds for fishing can be either found naturally or made artificially by duplicating liquids (see below).

    Liquids

    See also: Liquids

    Prior to 1.4.0.1, liquids could be easily duplicated in large quantities (see images). This process could be easily automated with Pumps. By extension, blocks that can be obtained by mixing liquids, are renewable as well: Obsidian, Honey Block, and Crispy Honey. In 1.4.0.1, it is still possible to create infinite amounts of any liquid, water through the Bottomless Water Bucket, lava through the Bottomless Lava Bucket, and all three through the use of Liquid Bombs and Liquid Rockets, and, with the addition of Shimmer, infinite shimmer can also be created with the Bottomless Shimmer Bucket. However, these are not as fast as previous methods, and require much more resources. The splitting liquid farm will still work, although not efficiently, if the blocks are hammered into half blocks.

    Crystal Shards

    CrystalFarms

    Crystal farm with wiring.

    Crystal Shards have a high sell value for a common material, so farming them can be an easy way of making money throughout Hardmode without direct player action. A full stack is worth 159984. Crafting them into Greater Healing Potions yields even higher profits, especially with an Alchemy Table.

    For farming, place single horizontal rows of Pearlstone, separated by three tile-wide gaps for walking and harvesting. The farm must be in the Cavern layer or below. If the farm is not built in the Hallow, it should be sealed in a frame of non-infectable blocks with a three-block gap outside to prevent the Hallow from spreading. Note that there are some limits to how densely crystals can spawn, so farms need to be fairly large to be worthwhile. It will also take up tens of harvests to offset the initial building cost (if using actuators and wires), so they should be built for long-term profits.

    Actuators can be used to switch Pearlstone to an inactive state, causing all Crystal Shards to drop for easy harvesting. For even greater convenience, Conveyor Belts can be used to move all dropped Crystals for easier collection.

    On the Windows Phone version Windows Phone version and Nintendo 3DSNintendo 3DS version version, Crystal Shards are also dropped by Arch Demons, allowing for large-scale collection.

    Money

    Enemy Drops

    Other resources

    • Cobwebs automatically regenerate on naturally occurring Spider Walls found in Spider Caves. However, beware that these walls are only created during world generation, and can't be replaced if removed (except on the PC version PC version, Console version Console version, Mobile version Mobile version, and tModLoader version tModLoader version, in which they can be crafted).
    • Some materials can be easily farmed with the use of wired Statues. Examples include Slime Statues and Gel, or Granite Golem Statues and Granite Blocks.
    • The collection of Jungle Grass Seeds can be sped up through the use of Flower Boots.
    • Pumpkins can be grown by planting Pumpkin Seeds sold by the Dryad. Note that they can only be grown on regular and hallowed Grass.
    • Fallen Stars fall from the sky every night, and can be easily collected with a skybridge.
    • Coral spawns spontaneously on submerged sand blocks in the ocean biome, as long as at least 4 blocks of space above it are free. It is possible to create 'beds' for growing coral using sand and water placed atop other blocks or platforms 4 blocks apart. This also has the bonus of spawning seashells for sale, or crafting.
    • Starfish and Seashells (and their rare and more valuable counterparts) also spawn spontaneously on sand blocks in the ocean biome, requiring no water whatsoever. While useful in fewer crafted objects than Coral, they can sell for a considerable amount and can be used as a lucrative pre-hardmode gold farm.
    • A Sandgun used with ammunition-conserving equipment, can place more sand than it uses, thus "farming" sand. However this is a very slow process.
    • Hay is produced by cutting tall grass with a Sickle.
    • All the Critter types spawn spontaneously in their respective biomes, and can be captured. Gem Critters are considerably more valuable than most other Critters. They begin to spawn when there are three or more NPCs in an area that is within the Underground or Cavern layers.
    • All the "basic" dyes are either plants that spawn spontaneously, purchased, or mob drops. Quest-exclusive Dyes can be obtained from the Dye Trader if you trade in Strange Plants for them. Most plants that are materials for Dyes can be grown, including Strange Plants. See the Dyes page for full details on getting and crafting the various dyes.
    • Snow can be created and dropped by the enemies of the Frost Legion invasion. However, the required summoning item for the Frost Legion appears only during the Christmas season.
    • Gnomes most commonly spawn beneath Living Trees. Digging out multiple horizontal passages between trees and using platforms to make it easy to lure them to the surface to transform into Garden Gnomes earns over 1 gold each, and having them around for luck increases spawns for other objects.
    • Dirt bomb can be crafted with 25 dirt and can yield up to 30-40 dirt, making dirt renewable. As the mud can be made of dirt, Chlorophyte is also renewable this way.
    • Ores and Bars:
      • As noted above, the "basic" metals for both pre-Hardmode and Hardmode can be obtained from fished Crates.
        • While probably slower than actual mining, crates provide not only the metals which could be mined in the world, but their "alternate" metals as well, for example they will contain both Gold and Platinum.
        • Prior to update 1.4, stockpiling crates before Hardmode allowed getting a supply of Hardmode metals immediately after killing the Wall of Flesh, and without breaking altars.
      • The "evil ores", Demonite Ore and Crimtane Ore, are dropped by their respective biome bosses (Eater of Worlds for Demonite, Brain of Cthulhu for Crimtane), and by the Eye of Cthulhu (what the Eye drops depends on the world's evil biome).
      • Meteorite ore is provided by the "crash sites" which appear after breaking a Crimson Heart or Shadow Orb. If desired, timing the breaks can maximize the number of crashes.
        • Albeit rarely, Meteorite can also be dropped by Meteor Head. If you leave behind (or stockpile) at least 50 Meteorite ore, you can farm meteorite from them.
      • Hallowed Bars are dropped by the three Mechanical Bosses.
      • Luminite is dropped by the Moon Lord.


    Becoming Non Renewable as the Game Progresses

    Some items may be renewable in a new world, but they become non renewable as the game progresses:

    Plentiful but Finite

    While these resources have a technical limit and cannot be grown naturally, the abundance of these in a world makes them very easy to obtain in very large amounts.

    • Most Soil types created with the world. This includes Clay, Silt, Slush, Desert Fossil, Hardened SandSandstone, Ice, Thin IceAsh, and Marble. This extends to items created from these materials, including several furniture sets, such as Frozen and Marble.
    • Hive blocks are found only in hives in the Jungle. Since Hive (or a Larva, which is only generated with the world) is needed to summon the Queen Bee, this makes both honey (before 1.4) and the Queen Bee's drops (except Bottled Honey), and any item made with Bee Wax, plentiful but non-renewable. In addition, as the Bee Keeper is one of the Zenith's material, the Zenith is also finite. (Given that it also requires two of the Moon Lord's drops, calling it "plentiful" would be a stretch.)
    • Some types of natural Wall cannot be harvested or crafted by the player; even harvestable walls will no longer be considered "natural" if they are harvested and replaced.
      • Natural walls do not suppress enemy spawning, while any placed walls can.
      • The Dungeon, Spider Cave, and Underground Desert (mini-) biomes are defined by the presence of their respective naturally generated walls, hence the removal of these may cease special spawns permanently.

    Chlorophyte ore

    Chlorophyte Underground

    An example of a Chlorophyte farm.

    Tiles of Chlorophyte ore can spread to nearby Mud Blocks, allowing farming. On the PC version PC version, Console version Console version, Mobile version Mobile version, and tModLoader version tModLoader version, Dirt Bombs can be used to duplicate Dirt and, by extension, Mud Blocks, allowing for infinite Chlorophyte Ore farming.

    Chlorophyte will only naturally appear in Hardmode Underground Jungles, but the ore can be grown in the bottom half of any non-evil biome underground and below. Farming in the Cavern layer will be most productive; in the Underground layer its spread is much more limited. Make sure to protect the area from the spread of the Corruption and Crimson, as both will convert mud into dirt, preventing Chlorophyte from growing.

    Chlorophyte has a spreading limit, checking a square area roughly centered around the ore tile selected to update. The exact limits will depend on the platform:

    • On PC version PC, Console version Console, Mobile version Mobile, Old Chinese version Old Chinese, tModLoader version tModLoader, and tModLoader 1 tModLoader Legacy, the short-range maximum is 21 ore blocks in a 52 tile range from the block (105x105 square) and the long-range max is 66 ore blocks in a 127 tile range (255x255 square) in Underground, while in the Cavern short-range maximum is 41 ore blocks in a 35 tile range (71x71 square) and the long range max is 131 ore blocks in a 85 tile range (171x171 square).
    • On Old-gen console version Old-gen console, Windows Phone version Windows Phone, and 3DSNintendo 3DS version, the short-range maximum is 12 ore blocks in a 114 tile range and the long-range max is 56 ore blocks in a 284 tile range in Underground, while in the Cavern short-range maximum is 24 ore blocks in a 76 tile range and the max is approximately 111 ore blocks in a 190 tile range.

    A simple method to farm Chlorophyte is to build a single square "farm" of mud with one Chlorophyte Ore block in the middle. One may also instead create a single long horizontal or vertical one block strip with a single Chlorophyte Ore block in it, as an alternative method. Either way, any ore mined should of course be replaced with fresh mud.

    Multiple farms built too close to each other will compete with each other (that is, they will share the limits above). Similarly, larger squares will produce no more chlorophyte than the minimum sizes, and may be more difficult to mine. However, a slightly larger square might spread faster once most of the square has been converted, as it will have more candidate tiles to convert. Note that any Chlorophyte Ore present within these ranges will count toward the spreading limit, and may similarly compete with the farms.

    Using larger squares will not interfere with farming, but may be more difficult to mine, and in any case the amount of Chlorophyte produced will not exceed the limits above.

    Non Renewable

    A few items are generated in particular locations, and cannot otherwise be crafted or spawned. Unlike much of the above list, these items can be feasibly permanently eliminated from a single world. This includes furnishings and materials from several fixed structures, notably the Dungeon, the Jungle Temple and the Underworld's Ruined Houses, and Chests and special items obtained from them. For a fuller listing, see Non-renewable items.

    All Biomes

    • Many particular Paintings (see page for details)
    • Several decorative Banners (see page for details)
    • Assorted Chests and items obtained from them (see page and/or list below)
    • statues

    Underground and Caverns

    Jungle Temple

    Dungeon

    The Underworld

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