Meteorite

A  is an unnatural Biome that can appear on the surface of the world during the night after destroying a Shadow Orb or a Pulsating Heart.

A Meteorite falling is announced in the bottom-left of the screen with the message, "A meteorite has landed!" This event will always occur off-screen &#8212; a player can never witness the actual impact.

The Meteorite itself is normally made up of approximately 350 blocks of Meteorite Ore, but this largely depends on where it lands. In particular, if the Meteorite spawns on a Skybridge, it will only cover a width of ~20 blocks through the depth of the Skybridge.

The ore found in this biome requires a Platinum or Golden Pickaxe or better (or Explosives) to mine, and inflicts 20 damage (modified by defense) to players who directly touch it. This damage can be nullified entirely by equipping an Obsidian Skull, Obsidian Shield, or Obsidian Horseshoe, or by drinking an Obsidian Skin Potion.

A really easy way to find one is using the minimap, and then when one lands, you can press M to try to find where it is.

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Monsters
When approaching a Meteorite crash site, Meteor Heads will spawn (though not from the actual Meteorite) in an attempt to hinder your excavation of the Meteorite, and the game's music will change to the Underworld theme. When there is less than 50 Meteorite Ore, the Meteor Heads will stop spawning, indicated by the music returning to normal.

Spawning Conditions
A Meteorite has a 50% chance to spawn the midnight after a Shadow Orb/Pulsating Heart  is destroyed in the world (or immediately if the orb/heart is smashed after midnight but before dawn). In addition, every night after the first Shadow Orb/Pulsating Heart is destroyed has a 2% chance of having a Meteorite spawn so long as the amount of Meteorite Ore in the world is below a certain threshold.

Mining Tips

 * Dynamite is a very useful mining tool as it is quite powerful and can help excavate the meteor with a couple of simple explosions. Sticky Bombs can also be used to mine Meteorite, as they stick to blocks, letting you position explosions.
 * A strategy for dealing with Meteor Heads early to mid game: If you have 10 of the same kind of gem, try to mine 60 pieces of Meteorite (enough for 20 bars), and craft a Phaseblade. With a Phaseblade, dealing with the Meteor Heads becomes much easier and should allow you to mine the entire area with few problems.
 * With proper positioning, Meteor Heads can be repelled by your Pickaxe as you mine.
 * If you wish to spawn Meteor Heads to gain their drops, place 50 blocks of Meteorite in close proximity, such as in a 7x7 box with one additional block extended (so you can quickly end the spawning when needed).
 * The amount of meteorite needed to spawn Meteor Heads (50 blocks) sells for exactly one gold. However, you'd be better off with the bars because they seem to fetch more.

Bugs

 * There is a bug that rarely occurs which summons Eye of Cthulhu even at daytime just after the last blocks of meteorite are mined. This only seems to happen before Eye of Cthulhu has been defeated in a world.
 * Sometimes, if a meteorite has not landed in a world yet, the first time it says "A Meteorite has landed!" in that world a meteorite will not have actually landed, but the next time it says "A Meteorite has landed!", it will have landed.
 * If the meteorite is in Crimson or Corrupt biome, the soundtrack will not change.