The Corruption



"Making the world evil..."

The Corruption is an evil biome with a dark purple wasteland, death, and decay theme, in contrast to the red gore theme of its counterpart, the Crimson. Every world will contain one of the two, generated randomly (each with a 50% chance of occurring) or chosen by the player upon world creation. Both contain similar hazards and feature their own unique enemies, items, and blocks. The tools, weapons, and armor obtained via Corruption materials are generally slightly less powerful than those obtained via Crimson materials. Corruption enemies tend to have slightly lower stats, such as health, defense, and damage.

The Corruption contains multiple chasms, underground extensions of the biome. Chasms lead downwards in a straight line, some crossing a horizontal connector, ending with a Shadow Orb. Demon Altars generally line the chasm's passages, appearing inside and around it. Chasms consist of Ebonstone, which can be blown up by or mined with a Nightmare/Deathbringer Pickaxe or higher.

The Corruption spreads, meaning it slowly converts adjacent tiles to their Corruption variants. See below for details. Chasms, Demon Altars, and Shadow Orbs will only appear upon world generation, and will not spawn in a Corruption area that has formed through spreading. If enough Corruption manages to take over a new area, then that area will eventually adopt the Corruption's theme music, background, and water color. For an area to be considered a Corruption biome, at least 200 tiles of Corrupt grass or Corruption blocks must be present.

Spread
In Pre-Hardmode, the Corruption can spread, but only under limited conditions:
 * Corrupt grass can spread in a manner similar to normal grass, converting adjacent Dirt Blocks with at least one side open to air (only in the surface layer).
 * Corrupt grass can also displace normal grass, unless the grass has a Sunflower planted on it.
 * Corrupt grass may sprout thorny bushes, which can spread Corrupt grass adhering to the same rules.

Naturally-occurring Corruption will often be halted by various natural barriers (stone, Desert, etc.) before it is even discovered, but when creating an artificial Corruption in Pre-Hardmode, care should be taken that it does not spread further than intended.

In Hardmode, the Corruption and Underground Corruption spread much more aggressively. In addition to normal grass, the following tiles can be converted:

Blocks which are up to three tiles away from an existing Corruption block can be converted, even if incorruptible blocks are in the way. Grass and thorny bushes can spread to tiles which are up to five tiles away. Due to this change, Sunflowers can no longer stop the spread.

The Corruption does not spread through any other materials, even natural materials like Clay and Snow. Therefore, in order to halt the spread, a gap or barrier, consisting of any incorruptible block, of three tiles is necessary. Note that thorny bushes might bridge a gap and continue the spread.

Hallow and Corruption cannot convert each other.

Defeating Plantera reduces the speed of the Corruption's spread to 33% of the default Hardmode speed.

Corrupted Desert
In Hardmode, Corruption spreads through Deserts, transforming them into Corrupted Deserts. A Corrupted Desert is fairly similar to a regular patch of Corruption: The theme music and enemies are the same, with the addition of Dark Mummies on the surface and, and  in the.

Sand is replaced by Ebonsand. Cacti drop ordinary cactus when cut, even though they have a different color. Waterleaf is not able to grow in Corrupted Deserts.

Tips
For elaborate strategies on surviving in the Corruption, including detailed gear recommendations, see Guide:Surviving in the Corruption.
 * Early on, determining whether a world contains Corruption is possible in the following ways:
 * The Guide will tell the player to break a Shadow Orb (Crimson Heart in Crimson worlds).


 * During world generation, one half of the progress bar will be green, and the other half purple (red for Crimson worlds). Additionally, the bar on the inside will be lime green (yellow for Crimson worlds), representing Cursed Flames. The step in the world generation process in which the Corruption is created is called "Making the world evil" ("Making the world bloody" for Crimson worlds). Also, a tree at the side of the world name in the world selection has one green/normal side and one purple side (red for Crimson worlds).


 * Due to the vertical, straight shape of the Corruption's chasms, fall damage is an omnipresent danger. Any of these items can be used to completely negate fall damage: Lucky Horseshoe (or its upgrades), Featherfall Potion, Umbrella (only works when held), or the Bunny or Bee Mount.
 * Climbing out of a chasms requires certain gear as well: any, Climbing Claws/Shoe Spikes (or their upgrades), any Rope (though note that enemies can easily knock the player off), Slime Mount, or items enhancing the player's jump ability (see Guide:Jump Height Comparison).
 * It is recommended to cover all chasms with platforms to reduce the likelihood of accidentally falling into one and suffering fall damage. Placing rows of platforms inside the vertical chasms can be helpful, too.

Trivia

 * Many Corruption enemies have rotten bodies, sometimes with green pus dripping out of them, as seen with the Eater of Souls and Corruptor. This contrasts with the Crimson enemies' abnormal cancerous-like growths.
 * The horror media franchise Dead Space features an organism also called the Corruption, which spreads and terraforms affected areas, serving as habitats for the franchise's signature zombie-like creatures, the Necromorphs. Terraria's Corruption may have been based on this.
 * The game Anti-Idle features an area called the Corruption, based heavily on the Terraria biome.
 * The Corruption and its Shadow Orbs seem to be based heavily on "", a science fiction/horror short story by American author, written in March 1927. In the story, a meteorite crashed near a small fictional town. The meteorite twisted the land, drove people insane, drained the life forces of anything around it, and deformed animals into grotesque abominations.
 * This may have something to do with why meteorites begin falling after a Shadow Orb is smashed.
 * During a Blood Moon, three critters turn Corrupt (the Corrupt Bunny, Corrupt Goldfish and Corrupt Penguin), a reference to the Corruption. They can also manually be turned Corrupt with Vile Powder.