The Grand Design

The Grand Design is a tool for working with wiring and mechanisms. It combines and extends the abilities of its components: It allows a controlled view of wiring (Mechanical Lens), and allows the player to place or remove any color of wire (Multicolor Wrench); unlike its components, it also shows and works with Actuators. It also provides the Ruler's ability to measure distances and relative positions.

Creating the Grand Design costs in total. Its components are all bought from two NPCs: Most from the Mechanic, but the Ruler comes from the Goblin Tinkerer. Given the requirements of these two NPCs spawning, it can only be created after both Skeletron and a Goblin Army have been defeated.

The Grand Design can be used at any part of the screen, regardless of block placement range. When pressing with the tool, a small menu will pop up at the cursor's position with six different buttons in a radial pattern. The outside buttons can be used to select which wire colors (including Actuators) can be interacted with, and the middle button will toggle between placing or harvesting the designated wires. In addition, as long as The Grand Design is anywhere in the inventory, seven buttons will appear on the left-hand side of the screen, controlling whether to display the ruler or not and whether to highlight actuators and/or the four different colors of wires.

Tips

 * This item is an effective way of dealing with traps, such as Explosives and Boulders, and serves as a far more compact way of storing wiring tools.
 * When dismantling certain naturally-generated traps (like those in the Dungeon which are diagonally-placed), a Wire Cutter may be preferable, as the Grand Design cannot take advantage of smart cursor. For other traps, however, the Grand Design is usually the best tool, as it allows remote collection of wires.

Trivia

 * The internal name for both The Grand Design and its projectiles is "WireKite", possibly a humorous poke at its inventory icon resembling a real-world.
 * The Grand Design is possibly a reference to a book by Stephen Hawking of the same name.

History
Le Grand dessein