Guide:Harvesting Souls

Souls are valuable Hardmode materials. They are used in the vast majority of important Hardmode crafting.

Light and Night
Souls of Light and Souls of Night are found in identical ways (though not in the same place). Every monster killed in the Underground Hallow has a 1:7 chance to drop a Soul of Light. And every monster killed in the Underground Corruption has a 1:7 chance to drop a Soul of Night. Because they are obtained in such similar ways, most farming techniques work the same for both.

These souls can be farmed by simply fighting the enemies that spawn in those environments. A Water Candle, Battle Potion, and/or Blood Moon can speed up the process. However, the enemies in these environments can be dangerous even to those with Hallowed Armor, so be careful to not be overwhelmed.

Statue farming
An alternative is to use Statues and Mechanisms. Normally, statue creatures killed in the underground Hallow/Corruption do not drop Souls. However, on Blood Moons or when using Vile Powder, Bunnies and Goldfish summoned by their appropriate statues will become Corrupt Bunnies and Corrupt Goldfish. Killing them will drop souls (and money as well).

All you need is a mechanism, hooked to a timer or Engine, that will spawn monsters onto a shallow bed of lava. Here is an effective setup:



This works equally well in the Hallow or Corruption.

Meteor farming
Another method is to build an artificial Meteorite biome in the middle of the underground Hallow/Corruption by placing 50 pieces of Meteorite. This causes all enemies spawned to become Meteor Heads. These are not particularly dangerous creatures by this point, thus making the gathering much safer.

This technique can be done while AFK. With enough defense and a Star Cloak, one can simply come back every 5 minutes to refresh potions. Meteor Heads do 40 damage before reductions, so it is advisable to have 70+ total defense before attempting this method. Accessories with defense bonuses are valuable here. Even those like the Warding Shackle and Cobalt Shield can be used in addition to Obsidian Shield, since mobility accessories are of no use while AFK. Ironskin Potions and Regeneration Potions are useful as well. To prevent the On Fire! debuff, simply stand in enough water to put it out instantly.

A Water Candle and Battle Potions can be useful to increase Meteor Head spawn rates.

Night specific
One easy way to harvest many Souls of Night quickly is to summon the Eater of Worlds. By this point, you should have sufficient armor to make its attacks negligible, as well as weapons that can one-hit its segments. Each segment gets a 1:7 chance to drop a Soul of Night. The other drops (Demonite Ore and Shadow Scales) can simply be sold.

Flight
Souls of Flight are only used in the creation of wings, and can only be gathered from Wyverns. The fastest way to gather these is to build a quick wall of dirt up until you spot your first Harpy, and then build a horizontal platform to fight on. Fighting wyverns can be difficult as they deal respectable amounts of damage and are very fast.

The first tip is to play on fullscreen. A bigger field of view gives you more warning about its attacks. Not playing on fullscreen makes it pretty much impossible to dodge.

Secondly, learn how to dodge. As long as you are moving at a decent speed in a straight line, as perpendicular to the next attack as you can manage, the wyvern should miss you most of the time. Ideally, you can alternate dodges left and right to make the wyvern's movements more predictable - it should follow a big figure eight. In practice, this isn't always the case, and you'll be fending off Harpies during the fight anyway. Full Adamantite armor is generally a good idea, full Mythril could be considered a minimum.

Placing one or several Heart Statues placed around where you think you'll land between your jumps can help you greatly, especially if you lack Healing Potions or don't have optimal weapons or armor for the task, e.g. trying to kill it early with only Cobalt Armor and Demon Scythe.

Your actual weapon doesn't matter terribly much; most melee and ranged weapons work well. Multihit and rapid-fire projectiles are especially effective, which encompasses the majority of available weapons by this point in the game.

One approach that seems to work well when fighting this monster (especially on Large-sized maps) is to let one spawn and then fall downwards without moving to the left or right. The Wyvern will follow you, ending up in a perfectly vertical angle. You could then attack it with any high-damage, high-speed weapon, such as the Minishark, Muramasa or Megashark. This works even better when you use piercing projectiles, as each projectile hits each segment once, resulting in huge amounts of damage.

When fighting the Wyvern for the first time, it is recommended to use Rocket Boots in order to change altitude quickly to avoid its sweeping passes. Featherfall Potions could optionally be used to help avoid contact with any part of the body as it passes. While fighting, wait until the Wyvern is visible flying at you, then use the Rocket Boots quickly to get as high as possible in the air, avoiding the pass. Once in the air and above the sweeping Wyvern, blast away at it with your weapon of choice until it passes you completely. Then allow yourself to land and repeat until the Wyvern is dead.

Once the player has access to the Angel Wings or Demon Wings, simply repeat the process above, but using the wings to stay in the air easily. This makes fighting the Wyvern far easier. A Cloud in a Balloon makes the fight very easy when paired with one of the "wings".

Another method is to take advantage of it's attack pattern, which is highly predictable. The Wyvern will always sweep next from the opposite side it just attacked from. IE:If it just attacked from the left, it will attack from the right, and vice versa, provided that you maintain the same horizontal position. With the rocket boots, jump and fly in the same direction the Wyvern is going to attack from. It will be tricky at first but once you get the timing down you will be hit less often. Use the Grappling Hook or Ivy Whip to pull yourself back to the ground to quickly prepare for the Wyvern's next sweep as well.

The Dao of Pow is an excellent weapon against Wyverns. Simply stand at a point and thrust the Dao of Pow towards the Wyvern as he approaches. The Dao of Pow should go through most of the Wyvern's body, dealing massive amounts of damage. Before the Wyvern hits you, dodge out of the way. Using this technique, you should be able to defeat a Wyvern in 3-4 passes.

Minimum Setup Note: This is the bare minimum. Only use if you are good at dodging or willing to be slaughtered two or so times to get used to its pattern.  Cobalt Armor (or higher). this is only to negate harpy damage. Demon Scythe. Preferably with decent modifiers . Cloud in a Bottle/Cloud in a Balloon + Rocket Boots. Cloud in a bottle is needed to rapidly jump above the wyvern's sweep, rocket boots are to give extra height in case of bad timing. Cobalt Shield. To prevent fatal harpy knockback. 

The key is to wait until the wyvern is at a point where it will be hit by your demon scythe as many times as possible, but is still avoidable. shoot as many scythes as possible, then double tap and hold the space bar. If timed right, this will get you out of its reach, and give it a good few hits. After that, its only a matter of repeating.

Might
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The Destroyer is generally the first hardmode boss you will fight. Adamantite armor and a Phasesaber or better are recommended. Magical Harp can be extremley useful as well, provided you have enough defense.

Sight
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The Twins are generally the second boss you will fight. They require a powerful ranged weapon, such as the Megashark or even Clockwork Assault Rifle could suffice.

Fright
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Skeletron Prime is the hardest boss in the game as of 1.1. Even players with access to every item available may have difficulty with him.