Minimap



The minimap is a scale-size live overview of the world around your character. By default, it is displayed in a square frame in the upper-right corner of the screen.

As the world is explored, areas appear on the minimap with the greatest brightness with which the character has ever seen them. Even if the tiles return to darkness, they will remain visible on the minimap.

In addition, players and NPCs appear on the minimap as icons of their heads, which show their character name when the cursor moves over them. This makes it easy to find NPCs, or to keep track of other players in multiplayer.

Minimap data is saved with your character data, not the world data. This means that if one character explores the world, other characters do not automatically see it on their maps. Minimap data is saved to a subfolder of the My Documents\My Games\Terraria\Players folder with the character's name.

The minimap can be disabled from the Settings screen.

Modes
The minimap has four modes: portrait, overlay, hidden, and full screen. By default, the Tab key toggles the minimap between the first three modes, with full-screen mode available by pressing the "M" key. Modes can also be changed by using buttons displayed in the top-right while the Inventory screen is open.


 * Portrait Mode: The minimap appears in the top right corner of the screen, as shown in the screenshot. The + and – buttons on the frame allow the map to be zoomed in and out; the = button returns it to the default scale.


 * Overlay Mode: The minimap appears as a transparent overlay over the entire game screen. In this mode, it can actually be zoomed in to a 1:1 scale, which can help visibility at night or in caves, or out far enough to see the entire world.


 * Hidden Mode: The minimap display is disabled. Areas you explore with the minimap hidden are still mapped, and will be shown if you turn the minimap back on.


 * Full-Screen Mode: An opaque map covers the entire game screen. This mode allows you to move the map around without actually moving your character, making the entire current map available for research. This can be zoomed in and out with the keyboard just as the minimap can, or with the mouse wheel, and it can be scrolled using the directional keys or by dragging it with the mouse. The full-screen map can be dismissed by clicking the icon at the bottom left corner, by pressing M, or by pressing the inventory key again.

Controls
In the portrait, overlay, and full-screen modes, the keyboard can be used to control the minimap. All controls listed here are defaults, and can be changed in the options menu.

The + and – keys on the numeric keypad zoom the minimap in and out. There is no key to restore the default scale, but the = button on the portrait frame does this.

The Page Up and Page Down keys make the minimap more or less transparent. This cannot be done in full-screen mode. In portrait mode, this only affects the map, not its frame.

The Tab key toggles the map between portrait, overlay and hidden mode. The M key brings up the full screen map.

The minimap appears when you pinch your fingers together on your screen.

Mobile Minimap
The minimal appears when you "zoom out" on the screen (pinch your fingers together). The game will auto-pause, unless you are playing on a multiplayer world. Monsters and critters (bunnies and birds) will appear on the map as a medium-sized pulsing pixelated circle, but will not move whilst on the map (due to the auto-pause).

Yourself, other players and all NPCs will appear as that person's head, with the exception of the Old Man which will appear as a "monster circle" after you explore the dungeon.

A little minimap cheat allows you to detect and identify monsters around you. If you pinch your fingers together, but leave them touching the screen, the game doesn't auto-pause and the monsters still move. You can watch how they act with the surrounding terrain and identify what AI type they are.

Boss Monsters appear as a large disembodied skull.

Worm-type monsters appear as lots of medium "monster circles" in a line, due to each body segment being classified as a new "monster".

Tapping on a player/NPC's head icon will display their name.

If you are attacked with the minimap open (whilst on multiplayer or doing the "cheat" above), the unmapped spots on the screen will flash red.

History

 * Dark tiles on the map no longer tell you what they are when moused over.
 * Map drawing changed to work over time rather than lock the machine up while it happens.
 * Maps draw much faster and their save files.