Critters



Most Critters will spawn in the place of enemies near NPCs. Mice, however, will generally not spawn near NPCs.

Even the Underworld has its own Critters, which can be used to fish in Lava: The Magma Snail, Lavafly, and Hell Butterfly. These require a Lavaproof Bug Net or Golden Bug Net to catch them; attempting to catch one without proper equipment will result in the player being set On Fire, even if the player sprite does not actually touch the critter.

Having the Guide to Critter Companionship in inventory prevents the player from dealing damage to critters.

Many Critters can be cooked as food: Older versions already had the two soup recipes below, but in 1.4 even those are improved, and there are a variety of new dishes:


 * Any Golden Critter (even types that otherwise can't be cooked) can be turned into a Golden Delight, offering the top-tier Exquisitely Stuffed for a full 48 minutes (2 game days).
 * Several recipes offer 8 or 10 minutes of Plenty Satisfied:
 * Bowl of Soup (Goldfish+Mushroom, and 1.4 no longer requires a bowl) (8 minutes)
 * Escargot (Snail) (10 minutes)
 * Grub Soup (Buggy+Sluggy+Grubby) (8 minutes)
 * Roasted Duck (Duck, Mallard Duck, or Grebe) (10 minutes)
 * Sauteed Frog Legs (Frog) (10 minutes)
 * And even the most common Critters (not Gem Critters) can yield 10 minutes of Well Fed:
 * Bunny Stew (Bunny)
 * Grilled Squirrel (Squirrel, or Red Squirrel)
 * Roasted Bird (Bird, Blue Jay, Cardinal, Penguin, or Seagull)

Tips

 * With several NPCs acquired, keeping Water Candles around your suitable housing will cause more Critters to spawn, without spawning enemies.
 * To find exactly how much damage an enemy does, a critter can be placed on the enemy. Critters have 0 defense and enemy damage to it will not vary unlike most situations of dealing damage. Projectiles from enemies will do varying and reduced damage to critters, so it will not work for measuring projectile damage.
 * Early game, before a player can craft enough torches to place around a base, a player can use critters to alert them when an enemy is approaching.
 * For eligible critter types, 1 in 150 spawns gets a valuable Golden Critter. But since all critters are subject to a spawn cap, few new ones will spawn unless you are industrious about collecting all those "worthless" critters, increasing turnover.

Trivia

 * Birds placed in a Terrarium peck in ascending order, the Blue Jay once, the Bird twice, the Cardinal three times and the Gold Bird four times.
 * The Glowing Snail Cage emits a faint blue glow, similar to the one Jellyfish Necklace does when under water.
 * The Bunny, Bird, Goldfish, and Penguin are the only four Critters that have banners of themselves.

History
Tiere Créature 小动物