Tombstones

A Tombstone drops when a player dies. It can then be retrieved and used much like a sign or as a form of decoration. By default, they contain the death message generated based on how the player died. Additionally, Tombstones created in 1.4 and later show the real life date the player died.

Upon death, a Tombstone will bounce around until it lands on a 2×2 empty space, at which point it will place itself. Two Tombstones cannot land on each other, nor can they be retrieved if they fail to place themselves (e.g., due to lack of suitable space).

Variants are chosen randomly upon death. Golden Tombstones drop when the player had more than in their inventory.

In 1.4, having 4-8 Tombstones placed in close proximity will gradually darken and desaturate the environment. Six or more Tombstones placed in close proximity will generate a Graveyard mini-biome. Breaking a Tombstone may spawn a Ghost offscreen.

The is a -exclusive Tombstone variant dropped when the Worm Pet is active at death. Its tooltip is "A Tombstone that kinda looks like a worm, right?". Despite it saying so, the Strange Looking Tombstone cannot be re-placed after being mined.

In hardcore, Tombstones cannot be easily obtained because death is permanent. In, NPCs in worlds with hardcore characters will now drop Tombstones when they are killed. This makes it possible to build Graveyards without the need for a non-hardcore character.

Because Tombstones create Graveyards, and mark a place where a player had died, they are highlighted by Dangersense Potions.

Tips

 * Tombstones can be easily farmed by placing Hellstone or Meteorite directly under the spawn and then creating a new character. The player will die and respawn continuously, creating a Tombstone each time. Alternatively, it can be done by digging straight down from the spawn so the player will die from fall damage.
 * The spawn point can also be flooded with water to drown the player, but it is more inefficient than other methods.
 * In Journey mode, even when the enemy spawn rate is set to 0× the normal rate, mining up Tombstones may still cause Ghosts to spawn.

Trivia

 * Golden Tombstones, like all other tombstones, have no sell value.
 * On the Xbox 360 version, before an unspecified patch, certain terms which could be considered profanity or sexual content written on tombstones would have resulted in the tombstone saying "(Censored)".
 * There is no golden variant of the Obelisk in any version of the game.
 * The Strange Looking Tombstone is inspired by the artillery turn-based tactics video game , as is the Worm Pet.

History
Pierres tombales