Guide:Farming resources

Farming is the practice of intentionally obtaining useful resources in a convenient area.

Most resources can be found naturally within the world, while others such as several Plants or Crystal Shards can additionally be grown in a convenient area for harvest.

The following guide will focus on those resources that can be easily obtained or farmed in large quantities.

Fully Renewable
In Terraria, an item or block is considered "renewable" if it can be created indefinitely within a single world.

Wood


While Trees grown by a player are significantly shorter than those generated naturally, building a farm for them provides a very simple way to obtain all different Wood types in one place.

A typical Wood farm consists of a flat surface made with the block required to grow the respective tree. If building multiple layers, all layers will need to have the correct vertical spacing in order for the Trees to grow properly.

In order to grow into a Tree, Acorns require sufficient space both horizontally and vertically.


 * Most trees need at least one tile of empty ground (with matching soil) on either side of the sapling (Palm trees can get by without).
 * If saplings are to be placed near each other, they also need an additional tile of space between them.
 * Vertically, most tree types need 16 tiles of free vertical space above them; Jungle and Palm trees respectively need 24 and 30 tiles of space instead.
 * Trees will not grow Underground (below 0 depth) or in front of a Wall. All except Palm trees will grow in front of a Fence.
 * Exception is that Gem trees need to be planted in Underground or Cavern.

In addition to farming Gems via Gem trees its also possible to obtain them via mining or by using the Extractinator on Silt, Slush and Desert Fossils. In contrast to trees however, these alternatives are finite. Geodes, however, are not finite, and can be farmed infinitely through Granite Cave enemies.

Cacti and Giant Glowing Mushrooms cannot be manually planted, but they will automatically grow on their respective surfaces if all conditions are met. Rich Mahogany Trees will grow automatically as well.

Herbs
A well planned herb garden will provide materials needed to create almost every buff Potion -- while many potions have other ingredients, they all need at least one herb.

Herbs can be planted in soil, Clay Pots or Planter Boxes:


 * Herbs on soil can be automatically harvested with Dart Traps or Actuator mechanisms, but this will be inefficient until all planted herbs are blooming at once. Harvesting soil-farmed herbs by hand is difficult, since any tool will break all herbs in its range. However, wielding a seed allows you to instantly harvest and replant.
 * Clay Pots do not have terrain limitations, and allow every herb to grow on them, while also protecting them from being accidentally destroyed by a Player's or enemy's attacks, projectiles, or harvesting nearby herbs. Herbs must be explicitly broken with a pickaxe or Staff of Regrowth before they can be replanted.
 * Planter Boxes offer all the advantages of clay pots, and can also be placed without need for a supporting block. They can be placed anywhere a platform can.

The Staff of Regrowth will greatly increase the amount of herbs and seeds harvested. It will also work on fully grown but not yet bloomed plants at a lower efficiency, making it very useful when harvesting natural Deathweed or Waterleaf. Note that the Staff of Regrowth requires herbs in Planter Boxes be in bloom, not just mature. Regular pickaxes can still harvest mature (and not blooming) plants, but they will not drop seeds as usual.

Mushrooms
All Mushroom types will grow naturally on their respective Grass surface. Usually, mushroom farms consist of several layers of dirt with 3 block tall gaps in between.

Note that vines will grow down from strips of grassy dirt, preventing the growth of other layers below them. A layer of Wooden platforms below the dirt layers will prevent their growth while allowing the player to walk through them, allowing layers to be packed more tightly.

Regular Mushrooms are only used for Lesser Healing and Regeneration Potions, however their sell price is significantly higher than the other two, giving it the small use of a limited money farm as well.

Vile or Vicious Mushroom farms are used for Vile Powder, which is required to summon the Eater of Worlds or Brain of Cthulhu, depending on the natural evil biome. Make sure to contain the farm properly, otherwise the Corruption/Crimson may spread out of the farm.

Glowing Mushrooms are much more useful in comparison, being used for Furniture and Shroomite Bars in Hardmode. They also grow at a faster rate than usual, and Giant Glowing Mushrooms may grow if given enough space (See above).

Mushrooms can be automatically harvested with Dart Traps or Actuators. Glowing Mushrooms have the unique ability to grow on actuated Mushroom Grass; they will be immediately harvested as soon as they spawn, having their usual chance to drop as an item and/or seeds. This can be taken advantage of by building a large mushroom farm in the surface layer and letting it produce and harvest Glowing Mushrooms without player intervention. Note that such a farm may crowd the limit for loose items, causing other loose items to despawn unexpectedly. (There is no way to automatically place them into chests.) Conveyor belts can at least gather the crop into stacks.

Bait farm
A bait farm is used to gather large amounts of bait before Fishing, by spawning many Critters, some of which will be suitable. With a Water Candle and/or Battle Potion, spawning in general can be increased, including natural spawning of Critters. If any Golden critters (of bait types) appear, they will have the maximum bait power, but even so, these are probably better sold than used for fishing.

Fireflies are one of the most common forms of Bait, though not very powerful. Widely varying numbers of them will spawn at night on a full moon, especially near NPCs. Butterflies will similarly spawn during the day; their bait power varies widely by type, from the almost useless Monarch to the top-tier Tree Nymph.

Worms are common and of moderate power. They spawn commonly during a Rain, and can also be produced when destroying stone or dirt piles, or cutting grass. They can also be crafted into the considerably more powerful Enchanted Nightcrawlers.

Jungle grass is an excellent source of bait, as each Jungle plant has a very high chance of spawning a Grubby (weak), Sluggy (equal to worms), or Buggy (second only to the top tier). Use of Actuators can allow quickly harvesting a large area (see image).

Once in Hardmode, Lightning Bugs will appear in the Hallow, which are considerably more effective than the fireflies they resemble.

Flower Boots no longer produce Critters when flowers are destroyed as of update 1.4 (In previous versions you were able to combine the use of a flare - placed at the player's feet and the aforementioned flower boots to spawn critters en masse).

Fishing items
Since bait can be easily obtained from common Critters and simple farms, fishing is by extension another source of resources. Common resources from fishing include (but are not limited to):
 * Common Fish for Food items.
 * Special Fish which can be used for Potions, such as Prismite or Armored Cavefish.
 * Certain weapons, tools and accessories can be caught directly, notably the Crystal Serpent, Reaver Shark and Frog Leg.
 * Crates contain items such as coins, ores and bars (see below), potions, and even weapons, tools, and accessories.
 * Items found in Locked Gold Chests and Shadow Chests can be obtained from Golden Lock Boxes or Obsidian Lock Boxes, which is one of the items that you can get from opening Crates fished up in the Dungeon or the Underworld. This means that the loot from the aforementioned chests can be infinitely obtained. (Note that Obsidian Lock Boxes do not exist in the ).
 * Fishing in the Dungeon may also yield the Alchemy Table.

The items obtained will vary depending on the biome and depth in which the player is fishing.

Small ponds for fishing can be either found naturally or made artificially by duplicating liquids (see below).

Liquids
Prior to 1.4.0.1, liquids could be easily duplicated in large quantities (see images). This process could be easily automated with Pumps. By extension, blocks that can be obtained by mixing liquids, are renewable as well: Obsidian, Honey Block, and Crispy Honey. In 1.4.0.1, it is still possible to create infinite amounts of any liquid, water through the Bottomless Water Bucket, lava through the Bottomless Lava Bucket, and all three through the use of Dry Bombs and Dry Rockets. However, these are not as fast as previous methods, and require much more resources.

Crystal shards
Crystal Shards have a high sell value for a common material, so farming them can be one of the most effective ways of making money throughout Hardmode. A full stack is worth. Crafting them into Greater Healing Potions yields even higher profits, especially with an Alchemy Table.

For farming, place single horizontal rows of Pearlstone, separated by three tile-wide gaps for walking and harvesting. The farm must be in the Cavern layer or below. If the farm is not built in the Hallow, it should be sealed in a frame of non-infectable blocks with a three-block gap outside to prevent the Hallow from spreading. Note that there are some limits to how densely crystals can spawn, so farms need to be fairly large to be worthwhile.

Actuators can be used to switch Pearlstone to an inactive state, causing all Crystal Shards to drop for easy harvesting. For even greater convenience, Conveyor Belts can be used to move all dropped Crystals for easier collection.

On the, Crystal Shards are also dropped by Arch Demons, allowing for large-scale collection.

Other resources

 * Cobwebs automatically regenerate on naturally occurring Spider Walls found in Spider Caves. However, beware that these walls are only created during world generation, and can't be replaced if removed.
 * Some materials can be easily farmed with the use of wired Statues. Examples include Slime Statues and Gel, or Granite Golem Statues and Granite Blocks.
 * The collection of Jungle Grass Seeds can be sped up through the use of Flower Boots.
 * Pumpkins can be grown by planting Pumpkin Seeds sold by the Dryad. Note that they can only be grown on regular and hallowed Grass.
 * Fallen Stars fall from the sky every night, and can be easily collected with a skybridge.
 * Coral spawns spontaneously on sand blocks in the ocean, as long as 4 blocks of space above it are free. It is possible to create 'beds' for growing coral using sand placed atop other blocks or platforms 4 blocks apart. This also has the bonus of spawning seashells for sale, or crafting.
 * Starfish and Seashells (and their rare and more valuable counterparts) also spawn spontaneously on sand blocks in the ocean biome, requiring no water whatsoever. While useful in fewer things than Coral, they sell for a considerable amount and can be used as a lucrative pre-hardmode gold farm.
 * A Sandgun used with ammunition-conserving equipment, can place more sand than it uses, thus "farming" sand. However this is a very slow process.
 * Hay is produced by cutting tall grass with a Sickle.
 * All the Critter types spawn spontaneously in their respective biomes, and can be captured.
 * All the "basic" dyes are either plants that spawn spontaneously, purchased, or mob drops. Quest-exclusive Dyes can be obtained from the Dye Trader if you trade in Strange Plants for them. Most plants that are materials for Dyes can be grown, including Strange Plants. See the Dyes page for full details on getting and crafting the various dyes.
 * Snow can be created and dropped by the enemies of the Frost Legion invasion. However, the required summoning item for the Frost Legion appears only during the Christmas season.
 * Gnomes most commonly spawn beneath Living Trees. Digging out multiple horizontal passages between trees and using platforms to make it easy to lure them to the surface to transform into Garden Gnomes earns over 1 gold each, and having them around for luck increases spawns for other objects.
 * Ores and Bars:
 * As noted above, the "basic" metals for both pre-Hardmode and Hardmode can be obtained from fished Crates.
 * While probably slower than actual mining, crates provide not only the metals which could be mined in the world, but their "alternate" metals as well, for example they will contain both Gold and Platinum.
 * Prior to update 1.4, stockpiling crates before Hardmode allowed getting a supply of Hardmode metals immediately after killing the Wall of Flesh, and without breaking altars.
 * The "evil ores", Demonite Ore and Crimtane Ore, are dropped by their respective biome bosses (Eater of Worlds for Demonite, Brain of Cthulhu for Crimtane), and by the Eye of Cthulhu (what the Eye drops depends on the world's evil biome).
 * Meteorite ore is provided by the "crash sites" which appear after breaking a Crimson Heart or Shadow Orb. If desired, timing the breaks can maximize the number of crashes.
 * Albeit rarely, Meteorite can also be dropped by Meteor Head. If you leave behind (or stockpile) at least 50 Meteorite ore, you can farm meteorite from them.
 * Hallowed Bars are dropped by the three Mechanical Bosses.
 * Luminite is dropped by the Moon Lord.

Becoming Non Renewable as the Game Progresses
Some items may be renewable in a new world, but they become non renewable as the game progresses:


 * Gray Zapinator is renewable from the Traveling Merchant pre-Hardmode after any Boss kill, but it is replaced by Orange Zapinator in Hardmode.
 * All pre-Hardmode crates are replaced by their Hardmode versions, thus making them non renewable in Hardmode.
 * Bone Key becomes non renewable after defeating Skeletron.
 * Cascade, renewable after defeating Skeletron, becomes non renewable in Hardmode as it's replaced by Hel-Fire.
 * Town pet licenses and Advanced Combat Techniques become unavailable once a character used one in the world.
 * Similarly, Demon Heart and Torch God's Favor become unavailable for a character if they used one.

Plentiful but Finite
While these resources have a technical limit and cannot be grown naturally, the abundance of these in a world makes them very easy to obtain in very large amounts.


 * Most Soil types created with the world. This includes Clay, Silt, Slush, Desert Fossil, Hardened Sand, Sandstone, Ice, Thin Ice, Ash, and Marble. This extends to items created from these materials, including several furniture sets, such as Frozen, Marble, Flesh, and Skyware. Sand is a notable exception; one can use a Sandgun which, when used with ammunition-conserving equipment, can place more sand than it uses, thus "farming" sand.
 * By crafting a Dirt Bomb for 25 dirt and throwing it to generate ~30-40 dirt, you can gain a little bit of dirt for each bomb. Since dirt can be crafted into mud, this also makes Chlorophyte Ore fully renewable in 1.4, otherwise it qualifies as plentiful but finite.
 * Hive blocks are found only in hives in the Jungle. Since Hive (or a Larva, which is only generated with the world) is needed to summon the Queen Bee, this makes the Queen Bee's drops (except Bottled Honey), and any item made with Bee Wax, plentiful but non-renewable. In addition, as the Bee Keeper is one of the Zenith's material, the Zenith is also plentiful but finite.
 * Some types of natural Wall cannot be harvested or crafted by the player; even harvestable walls will no longer be considered "natural" if they are harvested and replaced.
 * Natural walls do not suppress enemy spawning, while any placed walls can.
 * The Dungeon, Spider Cave, and Underground Desert (mini-)biomes are defined by the presence of their respective naturally generated walls, hence the removal of these may cease special spawns permanently.

Chlorophyte ore


Tiles of Chlorophyte ore can spread to nearby Mud Blocks, allowing farming. On the, Dirt Bombs can be used to duplicate Dirt and, by extension, Mud Blocks, allowing for infinite Chlorophyte Ore farming.

Chlorophyte will only naturally appear in Hardmode Underground Jungles, but the ore can be grown in any non-evil biome underground. Farming in the Cavern layer will be most productive; in the Underground layer its spread is much more limited. Make sure to protect the area from the spread of the Corruption and Crimson, as both will convert mud into dirt, preventing Chlorophyte from growing.

Chlorophyte has a spreading limit, checking a square area roughly centered around the ore tile selected to update. The exact limits will depend on the platform:
 * On, the short-range maximum is 21 ore blocks in a 104 tile range and the long-range max is 66 ore blocks in a 127 tile range in Underground, while in the Cavern short-range maximum is 41 ore blocks in a 70 tile range and the long range max is 131 ore blocks in a 170 tile range.
 * On, the short-range maximum is 12 ore blocks in a 114 tile range and the long-range max is 56 ore blocks in a 284 tile range in Underground, while in the Cavern short-range maximum is 24 ore blocks in a 76 tile range and the max is approximately 111 ore blocks in a 190 tile range.

A simple method to farm Chlorophyte is to build a single square "farm" of mud with one Chlorophyte Ore block in the middle. One may also instead create a single long horizontal or vertical one block strip with a single Chlorophyte Ore block in it, as an alternative method. Either way, any ore mined should of course be replaced with fresh mud.
 * On, the squares / rectangles can be as large as 6x6 or 6x7, and (in the Caverns) multiple farms should be separated by at least 38 tiles.
 * On, a minimum sized square of 3x3 or 3x4 blocks will do, and farms in the Caverns should be separated by at least 45 tiles.

Multiple farms built too close to each other will compete with each other (that is, they will share the limits above). Similarly, larger squares will produce no more chlorophyte than the minimum sizes, and may be more difficult to mine. However, a slightly larger square might spread faster once most of the square has been converted, as it will have more candidate tiles to convert. Note that any Chlorophyte Ore present within these ranges will count toward the spreading limit, and may similarly compete with the farms.

Using larger squares will not interfere with farming, but may be more difficult to mine, and in any case the amount of Chlorophyte produced will not exceed the limits above.

Non Renewable
A few items are generated in particular locations, and cannot otherwise be crafted or spawned. Unlike much of the above list, these items can be feasibly permanently eliminated from a single world. This includes furnishings and materials from several fixed structures, notably the Dungeon, the Jungle Temple and the Underworld's Ruined Houses, and Chests and special items obtained from them. For a fuller listing, see Guide:Non-renewable Resources.

All Biomes

 * Many particular Paintings (see page for details)
 * Several decorative Banners (see page for details)
 * Assorted Chests and items obtained from them (see page and/or list below)

Underground and Caverns

 * Geyser Traps
 * Dart Traps
 * Non-craftable Statues

Jungle Temple

 * Lihzahrd Bricks, and all matching furniture and statues
 * Lihzahrd Pressure Plates and traps: Spiky Ball Trap, Flame Trap, Spear Trap, Super Dart Trap, Wooden Spike
 * Lihzahrd Chest
 * Lihzahrd Furnace
 * Lihzahrd Altar

Dungeon

 * Dungeon Bricks and most of the associated Furniture
 * Bone Welder (placed or in chests)
 * Biome Chests and their unique items
 * Alchemy Table

The Underworld

 * Obsidian Furniture (the few craftable pieces require Hellstone Ore, except platforms)
 * Hellforge
 * Hellstone Ore
 * Shadow Chests and their unique items.

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