Talk:Goblin Army

5 on screen at once?
Is the "5 on screen" limit per player? Also, what is "screen" based on; current visible area? If so, this would imply that if you want more goblins to show up at once, switch to a low resolution. It took ages to for goblins to spawn and attack me while playing at 1920x1200, so it may indeed be related to visible screen area. Keldi 18:20, 2 June 2011 (UTC)
 * There are still some bugs with high resolutions and spawning enemies. At lower res's the enemies spawn just outside the player's viewport however at higher resolutions, I've noticed them materialize within the viewport (which is a bug.) I still am not sure how the scaling works though. It would seem to me to be 5 enemies "within a reasonable distance of" each player, however I know the Blood Moon events have overriding rules to spawn many more enemies so this probably has something like that too. --Ahamilton9 17:07, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

Item Drops
Items that drop from the goblins and after the army is defeated should be mentioned on this page. Jrob 22:27, 31 May 2011 (UTC)
 * There aren't any special drops once they've been defeated. The individual drops are on the Goblin pages. --Theothersteve7 20:50, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Theorycraft: Spawning
It seems like for each invasion you have to break one orb. I break two orbs and get two invasions in 7 hours, then 10 hours of of nothing. I break two more(first one spawns EoW) and invasion comes out quickly. Also, after 50 hours i never get invasions on small worlds, but got 3 or 4 at medium.
 * Not true. My friend has not broken a shadow orb but has had 2 invasions. --Colonel Thirty Two 19:47, 1 June 2011 (UTC)
 * The Colonel's statement sounds accurate to me, though I'm not perfectly certain. I will say that they do seem to be sporadic - there may be some strange requirement that we haven't tracked down yet.  I'd love to know a way to force or at least encourage them.  --Theothersteve7 20:50, 1 June 2011 (UTC)
 * If what Colonel said is right, then the page shouldn't say "You must have smashed at least one Shadow Orb." in the requirements. Unless I'm misunderstanding somehow. --92.19.50.249 10:28, 4 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I can't decide if it requires a shadow orb. Now I'm starting to think that it does.  My base doesn't have one smashed, and I've gone without an army for 6-8 hours. --Theothersteve7 17:24, 6 June 2011 (UTC)
 * It does require a smashed shadow orb. There is a glitch where a shadow orb can get smashed during world gen. --KoreRekon 17:30, 6 June 2011 (UTC)
 * You can have multiple invasions with only one orb broken. I've only broken one orb & had 2 invasions so far. Pretty close together. --Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.158.160.209 (talk • contribs)

Just to confirm I must have had an orb shatter in world generation, as I just had an invasion by goblins, I must have died 10 times or more in fighting them as i only had Iron armour and my weaponry kinda sucked. (Also i accidently set a bomb off in my personal house destroying my crafting station :( And the EYE OF CTHULU spawned while i was fighting them even though i didn't do anything to cause him to come I thought it would never end they murdered all my NPC's thankfully somehow i got the eye to disapear after he killed me. But Just so everyone is aware. I did not self shatter an orb.... -EVILEYEBALL.... I'll get an account and properly sign this later. I have to fix my vliage :( and rebuild. Terafirma reports I did break a shadow orb just checked to confirm.

The Goblin army shows up when you are spotted by a Goblin scout who come back to the rest of the goblins (unless you kill the scout in that case you will not be attacked by an army) but they will travel to the group of goblins who travel to your spawn on foot and attack you.

Boss?
Shouldn't the actual "Goblin Army" be considered a Boss (or Boss event)? It has arrive and death message like bosses, as well as matching music...
 * Yeah, but then Blood Moon should be considered an Boss Event as well.
 * Well... Maybe? happypal (talk &bull; contribs) 07:39, 15 June 2011 (UTC)
 * You can't 'summon' a Goblin Army, it's a random chance. Each other boss, on the other hand, has specific instructions on how to summon it. --Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.184.80.77 (talk • contribs)
 * Except that you can, with the Goblin Battle Standard. 98.247.13.109 22:00, 9 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Yeah, look at this: The King Slime is considered a mini-boss, as it is large and boss-like, but does not require any particular item or level of game advancement to spawn, and does not provide access to game-advancing items upon defeat. The Goblin Army requires game advancement to spawn (NPCs, Hearts, etc.) and you get rare goblin items from it, like the rocket boots. The Blood Moon is technically not a boss since you can't 'summon' it.

2 goblin invasions on one world
I defeated them once yesterday and now they came back for more I think this is either rare or a bug. --Roaringjohn 15:36, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * nevermind I know why : cause I smashed another shadow orb alittle bit after I defeated them once. --Roaringjohn 15:38, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Actually I think it may be a misinterpretation of the code that army invasion cannot occur within a certain time period of each other. I cannot confirm either way, however. --Theothersteve7 17:14, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * this is a glitch. the goblin army is not, according to the coding, able to spawn within 7 days of each other. --Anonymous 19:13, 9 Nov 2011

Spawn Point - Singleplayer
My base is not where my my original spawn point is and I had to take my character all the way back to my original starting location in order to fight the army.
 * Did you change your spawn location with a bed? I've yet to test this, but I'm assuming that the army should attack towards your spawn location, since that would normally be where your base is located. I may be wrong of course, and it could be just set to attack the original spawn location.
 * I don't think the Goblin Army attacks the spawn point, at least with 1.1.1. I was mining far west of both the world spawn point and my bed, and the Army kept coming to me.  Maybe the Army heads towards the spawn point, until they "find" you - but then they seem to stick to you rather than the spawn.  --Sinister Stairs 03:21, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Who overrides who?
So,golbin army stops enemies for spawning(BUT the golbins itself)Right? What appenens ifyou are on a area where meteor heads spawn?(AKA:50 blocks or more of meteorite)Golbins will spawn,Meteor heads,or both?--MadPedro 01:33, 24 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I don't know for sure but I do know when I hadn't defeated the Eye of Cthulhu yet I had the message "You feel an evil presence watching you..." during the event (I save & exited then came back. Didn't want to fight both at once) so I assume it does not stop other events from happening. --Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.158.160.209 (talk • contribs)
 * the presence of the goblin army will stop some enemies/events. you will still get the message of an enemy/event such as EoC or blood moon but they will be, or should be, prevented from spawning until the goblin army has been defeated. --Anonymous 19:17 9 Nov 2011

Hmm...
This looks very familiar... ILiaWneK 22:33, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm sure they have many pages that include a lot of similar text. They are documenting the same game after all. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  12:09, 5 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Looks like JonTheMon rolled-back the word for word copy of this page. If you check HeroGaming's revision in the history, it's an exact copy of this page. What makes it even more surprising is that he is the admin of that wiki. ILiaWneK 13:18, 5 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, salvo, return-salvo, and return-return-salvo fired already... --JonTheMon 15:04, 5 July 2011 (UTC)

Goblin Army not showing up ?
I believe I've played at least 60 hours on my world and I never saw the Goblin Army, I must have broken my first orb at the 50th hour which means more than 20 nights have passed since then. I experienced 6 meteorite crashs, lots (20 ?) of fights with the Eater Of Worlds but I still can't get to fight with those goblins. I'm wondering if the requirements must be that at least one orb has been broken in a cycle of three, or that at least one orb has been broken in the whole game. The last orb I have broken might be the first or second of the cycle so on either case it may be good for me, but no way to get them coming here ! Dammit I'd love rocket boots :/
 * How many hearts do you have?  Equazcion ( talk ) 06:54, 19 Aug 2011 (UTC)
 * Yep sorry forgot to mention that, I have 400 hp so I think I meet all the requirements
 * It may just be bad luck. At least now you can summon the goblins yourself, by farming Goblin Scouts. --GauHelldragon 07:47, 20 August 2011 (UTC)
 * I doubt it is bad luck, as now it has been like 50/60 nights till I broke my first orb. I still can summon them but I don't have killed enough scout goblins to do that and since 5h of gaming I haven't seen one. I may be cursed or something :/

actually you need to go 100 blocks from the ocean and the goblin scouts will spawn at a 1/5 rate making them easy enough to find if you are searching for them -Th3D4rk3stSh4d0w I have found them and killed them 5 times without spawning even though I destroyed only 1 orb. Maybe you need to kill Skeletron to increase the spawnrate?

West - East
''If the message says "West", the Goblins will come from the left. If the message says "East", they'll arive from the right. '' Shouldn't it be the other way round? I mean, the East is actually left, as the sun rises from there.. --2.198.31.2 22:22, 3 September 2011 (UTC)
 * It probably should. I consulted the IL code, and what the decompiler made of it wasn't actually very easy to interpret. Here it is, though:
 * X coordinates in XNA go from left to right, so if  is greater than the spawn point's X coordinate, it's to the right (and the east message is displayed). You're right, it's likely wrong, but it's how the game does it. --Lunboks 22:37, 3 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Who said East means East IRL too? :D --Null  Talk  00:00, 4 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Who said East means East IRL too? :D --Null  Talk  00:00, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

Number of warnings
It seems the number of warnings displayed before the invasion changes with world size. Makes sense, since the Goblin "spawn area" actually traverses the map until it hits the middle.

However, I'm not entirely sure about the exact numbers. I'm 100% certain it's 6 on a large world (just counted 'em), but not that certain about the number (4, IIRC) on a small world. I've never actually played on a medium world, so yeah. If anyone can confirm those&hellip; --Lunboks 22:02, 7 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Singleplayer, medium sized world. I swear, I only get one "goblin army approaching!" warning; the next message is always the one saying they've arrived. Not sure whether this is due to the fact that as soon as I get the first warning I magic mirror back to base to unload my stuff and prepare for them. I assume you only get multiple messages if you stay away from your base? - Spinfx 08:09, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

No that's not true Spinfx, I always get one then they arrive even when I'm not at the default spawn or my bed. -Th3D4rk3stSh4d0w
 * Hmm... perhaps for multiplayer then? As far as I can recall from the odd 7-8 invasions I've had in my world, I'm pretty sure I only ever got just one warning. - Spinfx 10:08, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Trigger place: House/Town/Spawn point?
Army apparently don't spawn near player's bed. I've had situation when character had house on the map edge and was perfectly alone (all friendly NPCs lived on the spawn point), and Goblin Army spawned only when I returned to "main" house where NPCs stay. So I will replace "House" with "Town", but may be they attack exactly player's default spawn point.

Warriors dropping through stone as if it were wood platform!
I had just put in kill-zone tunnels leading out from the main entrances to my fortress, with another tunnel running under that to collect the drops. As planned, the gobs funneled in so that I could hit them all in mass with the vilethorn. But, then I saw that I had goblin warriors inside, yet all the entrances were blocked! Then, I saw that the warriors were reaching the end of the kill-zone tunnels, and doing the jump behavior that all the gobs do (and zombies also), but then they dropped right through the stone floor! None of the other goblin types did this, and the same configuration had already been through a blood moon with no problem.

I am guessing a bug in the jumping bit. I gave them no head room, as my past experience showed that some of the gobs would jump out of the vilethorn blast. The warriors must have clipped through the block below them. I have doubled the layer of stone between the tunnels, and hope that will do it for the next invasion.


 * Regarding the "no headroom" bit, I experienced the same albeit with trapping hornets in the underground jungle. I was making a dirt shaft and using it to lure hornets near then I'd brick them in so I could then carefully remove 2 blocks from the shaft wall separating us, allowing my weapon swings to hit. Quickly discovered that they could pop out when enclosed in spaces just big enough for them. Giving them a little headroom stopped this behavior. That was back in 1.0.5 but I wager it's still the same now. - Spinfx 08:06, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

Goblin Army cancelled after being spawned!
I was digging a Hellevator when a message came that a goblin army was approaching. I began climbing up to fight, when the goblins start spawning in the caves around me. When I reached the top, without having killing any goblins, they stopped coming. It didn't say they were defeated. I went back down to the caves I saw them in but they had disappeared.

If anyone can explain, please do so. I want to find the Goblin Tinkerer but it didn't count because I didn't defeat them.

Goblin Tinkerer just showed up
I havent defeated the goblin army yet nor found the dungeon, but i did mod him in with tedit earlier, but then i deleted him to make it vanilla. But now he just randomly came back even though iu havent unlokce dihm yet.

Can summoning with a battle standard cause a chance for future invasions?
If a player never broke a shadow orb but used a goblin battle standard to summon a goblin invasion, would there still be a chance for more goblin invasions in the future even if no orbs were ever broken?
 * Avter viewing the source code it seems that this is not the case. --0icke0 (talk) 08:10, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Goblin army Glitch?
I think I found a glitch with the goblin army. When I was fighting a goblin army that came from the east (in hardmode), I noticed that some goblins were walking into a naturally made cliff face, with pearlstone that I put under it. When they hit the cliff, they fell through the pearlstone and into the water that was under the pearlstone. 17:07, 25 May 2014
 * This does indeed sound like some sort of bug. Although your explanation is good it is however a bit hard to pin-point the exact mechanics of the bug, something which would be nifty for listing, avoiding, and perhaps fixing it. NoseOfCthulhu (talk) 00:17, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Never spawn in cavern layer
I have a town in the cavern layer. (It might be unsafe, but let's ignore that.) A goblin army came, and I teleported there (with a Magic Mirror) to defend it. After the message came that they arrived, I waited and none came. I began climbing to the surface and they began spawning. The boss music also began playing. I used my magic mirror to teleport back again, and after a few seconds, the music stopped. No goblins spawned. Perhaps it should be added to the trivia that no goblins spawn in the cavern layer, even if that is the location of the town. Jjman740 (talk) 19:15, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
 * The Goblin Army attacks the player's original spawn point, not the place where their spawn is set with the Bed. I've just clarified that on the page, hopefully.  Equazcion ( talk ) 10:51, 21 Jul 2014 (UTC)

Natural Goblin Armies always while raining?
I have watched a lot of videos detailing a Goblin Army battle (as I haven't gotten that far in the game yet), all of them more recent than 1.2.2, and in each one it is raining. Is this a coincidence, or is that a programmed event? By the way, these are naturally spawning Goblins, not using the Goblin Battle Standard.

---Extremegamer2012 (talk) 23:37, 31 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Seems the videos are just a coincidence. Natural or triggered Goblin invasions can happen whether or not it's raining. I don't think there are any Events that depend on rain, and there are no Events that cause rain either.  Equazcion ( talk ) 00:04, 1 Nov 2014 (UTC)

Yet Another Spawn Point Discussion
Howdy folks! I have been playing Terraria for a couple of months now, and I have been experiencing Goblin Invasions that are not as described on this page. Specifically, the spawn point for the Invasion is not my original spawn point; rather, it is wherever my current spawn point is (ie: near the last bed I right-clicked on). I have tested this multiple times now, and every time the result is the same: the Invasion begins at my current spawn point. I have even been in other parts of the world, including near my original spawn point, and had to go to my current spawn point to be able to see and fight the goblins. I have some screenshots of my current base being attacked; this base is all the way on the left side of the world, firmly in the Ocean Biome (clearly not my original spawn point).

I'm not going to make any edits to the page yet, but I would like to know if others have had similar experiences with Goblin Invasions. I have a strong feeling that I'm not the only one seeing this, and if enough others have seen it as well then I think an edit may be in order. Vegtabill (talk) 20:30, 2 June 2015 (UTC)


 * UPDATE: I have experienced several more Goblin Invasion events in this same world (the large world with the main base/town in the far left Ocean Biome), and I have conducted a few tests during each of them in order to pin down exactly what happens WRT the current spawn point. With the current spawn point set with the bed in the Ocean Biome base, I can confirm the following:
 * After the "A Goblin Army is approaching from the East" warnings, the Goblin Army arrived and attacked my base from both sides.
 * If I stayed and fought the goblins there, then the entire event would take place and conclude right there in my ocean base, without ever going anywhere near my original spawn point.
 * On the other hand, if I left the base where the attack was occurring some interesting things happened:
 * If I left the base being attacked, the attack would stop once I got far enough from the base (maybe two screens away or so, maybe a little less). This was expected.
 * However, if I came to another "base" I had built with its own bed, the goblin attack would immediately commence. I have two small bases built between my ocean base and my original spawn point, each with its own bed. As I approached each one, the goblin attack would start back up, continuing until I had moved far enough away for it to stop.
 * As expected, the base I had built at my original spawn point came under attack when I approached it, making it the fourth spawn point (location with a bed) invaded by goblins in one event.
 * Continuing to the right, I soon approached another small base with a bed. But this time the expected attack never came. All was quiet, and normal enemies were spawning at normal rates. I waited there for almost five minutes, but the goblins never came.
 * As I continued to the right, I came across several more bases with beds, but none came under attack. This continued all the way to the edge of the world on the far right side. None of the bases came under attack no matter how long I waited.
 * This behavior continued as I made my way back to the left. None of the bases were attacked, and normal enemies spawned for each biome at normal rates.
 * As expected (by now), the goblin attack commenced once more as I approached my base at the original spawn point.
 * From that point on, every base (with a bed) that I approached came under attack as I made my way back to my ocean base on the far left side of the map.
 * The event concluded each time once I had killed the required number of goblins, regardless of which spawn point I was defending at the time.


 * So from what I have seen so far, it seems that when the goblin attack commences, the original spawn point may be attacked as stated on this page... but it is not the only place that will be attacked. Based on my current tests, I'd say it looks like the current spawn point is also attacked (perhaps even before the original spawn point), as well as any other spawn points between the current one and the original.
 * It may be even simpler: perhaps the attacks can happen at any spawn points between the original one and the far side of the map opposite the direction the goblins are invading from. In my example, since the goblins were invading from the "east", then any spawn points between my original one and the far left side of the map would come under attack if I approached them. Since my biggest base happens to be on the far left side of the map, it's not clear which condition allowed it to be attacked (because it's a spawn point, or because it's on the left side and the invasion came from the east).
 * What I really need to do is create a new world with a handful of spawn points at different locations (excluding the far edges of the map), and then test the theory with some goblin invasions in that world. I'd want the invasions to occur as random events (not manual events created with the Goblin Battle Standard), so this could be a pretty time-consuming experiment. Also, I'm really enjoying the world I've been talking about, so it may be hard to pull myself away from it long enough to create the world(s) and test it(them). So I guess I'm saying I'll get this done and report back here, but don't hold your breath waiting... it could take me a little while! :) Vegtabill (talk) 03:39, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
 * It definitely seems like there could have been some change in the attack position. During a Goblin invasion, I left my spawn point to head for the ocean, and the attack stopped. But, as soon as I reached the Old Man at the dungeon, the Goblins reappeared and continued their attack. I've also experienced multiple pirate invasions at my beach home at the far left of the world. Any additional info would be appreciated --KM100 (talk) 18:38, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Now that is interesting. I haven't been able to test the Dungeon itself yet because I have built a small base (with a bed) right beside it in the world I've been doing all of my Goblin Invasion testing in. If the goblins attacked there, I can't easily discern if it's because of the bed in the base or because of the Dungeon. Speaking of beds though, isn't there typically one there with the Old Man when you find him? In the few worlds I have created I seem to recall there being a bed there with the Old Man just outside the Dungeon, but I don't know if that's always the case. If so, I'm beginning to think the Goblin Invasion event is coded such that some combination of original spawn points, potential spawn points (beds), and NPCs determine where there actual attacks can take place.
 * Incidentally, I think we can rule out which direction the invasion comes from as a parameter. I finally had an invasion come from the west, and I took full advantage of the opportunity to visit every single base/town on the map twice before killing enough goblins to conclude the event. I really expected to see something different from I what reported above... but no. The exact same locations were attacked when the army came from the west as they were when the attack came from the east. The few places that were left alone from the eastern goblins remained untouched by the western ones. I'll try to test this more as well, but at present it appears as though the direction the invasion comes from has nothing to do with which locations are attacked and which are not.
 * Thanks for the info about the Old Man at the Dungeon. That's really helpful; I'll see if I can duplicate what you saw in one or more of my own worlds. Vegtabill (talk) 20:52, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I've noticed similar behavior but believed it was linked to multiplayer. The exact mechanics are kind of mysterious (as well as being likely to change very soon) but goblins do seem to spawn around valid spawn points, including beds, at the very least. Putting up too much unverified research may be jumping the gun, but at any rate, the assertion that goblins can be avoided by building a base elsewhere is incorrect, so I've gone ahead and removed it. Gearzein (talk) 20:55, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I think that makes good sense, and yeah, it has crossed my mind that 1.3 may well make this all moot! FYI though, I haven't played any multiplayer at all yet myself, so that's definitely not the [only] cause for the mysteriousness. I agree that the change you made is all that's appropriate until 1.3 is out and more tests have verified the particulars of the behavior. Thanks! Vegtabill (talk) 21:06, 24 June 2015 (UTC)