Crates

Crates are grab bag-type items which can be hooked while fishing, containing random loot such as ores, bars, potions, accessories, and other items. In addition, biome-specific crates can contain biome-specific loot. Their content can be unloaded by using. They can also be placed.

Wooden Crates (most common), Iron Crates, and Golden Crates (rarest) can be caught anywhere. Rarer crate types contain more valuable loot. Biome Crates, which are exclusive to the, are slightly less rare than Golden Crates and can contain items otherwise found only in the matching biome chests. When fishing in an area with multiple biomes, the crate priority is, from highest to lowest, Corruption > Crimson > Hallowed > Dungeon > Jungle > Sky. For example, when a Floating Island is Corrupted and changes to Corruption, Sky Crates will no longer be harvested.

The kind of crate the player obtains is dependent on their Fishing Power, with higher Fishing Power increasing the probabilities of rarer crates. As an example, fishing with a Fishing Power of 100 in a lake of at least 300 valid water tiles in the Corruption would yield crates with the following probabilities: Golden Crate: 1/150 (0.67%); Corrupt Crate: 7/750 (0.93%); Iron Crate: 7/250 (2.8%); Wooden Crate: 7/125 (5.6%). The Crate Potion doubles these chances.

Variants
See crates for additional information.

Tips

 * Crates collected before Hardmode, but saved to open during Hardmode, will yield Hardmode ores and bars. Stockpiling them while fishing is a lot safer and can give players a big head start when entering Hardmode.
 * The crates can also supply a few other Hardmode items:
 * As above, the Anchor and Enchanted Sundial are only found in crates.
 * Corrupt or Crimson Crates can contain Cursed Flames or Ichor, respectively, and both can have Souls of Night.
 * Hallowed Crates can drop Crystal Shards and Souls of Light.
 * Two stacks of Wooden Crates and a few higher-tier crates should provide enough metal for a Hardmode Forge, Hardmode Anvil, and at least some other items.
 * The higher the Fishing Power, the greater the chances for crates. See Fishing Power and Fishing § Tips for information and recommendations about how to increase Fishing Power.
 * The chance to catch a Iron or Wooden Crate increases if the player is not in a biome where a biome chest can be caught (i.e., not Corruption/Crimson, Hallow, Dungeon, or Jungle, and below sky level – examples could be the pure caverns or the Snow biome). With a Fishing Power of 100 and a lake of at least 300 valid water tiles, Iron Crates are then caught with a chance of 7/225 (3.1%; instead of 7/250 or 2.8%) and Wooden Crates with a chance of 14/225 (6.2%; instead of 7/125 or 5.6%).
 * For a deeper look at the sale value of crate contents, see here.