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.

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 one tile of empty space on either side of it, as well as 16 tiles of free vertical space. Jungle and Palm trees will respectively require 24 and 30 free vertical tiles instead. Note that Trees will not grow Underground (below 0 depth) or in front of a Wall.

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 most of the materials needed to create almost every buff Potion.

Herbs can be planted in soil, Pots or Planter Boxes. Pots and Planter Boxes do not have terrain limitations and allow every herb to grow on them, while also protecting them from being accidentally destroyed by a Player or enemy's attacks, projectiles, or even harvesting nearby herbs. Herbs on soil can be automatically harvested with Dart Traps or Actuator mechanisms, but this will be mostly efficient when all plante herbs are blooming at once.

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.

Mushrooms
All Mushroom types will grow naturally in their respective Grass surface. Usual 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 grow on actuated Mushroom Grass: they will be immediately harvested as soon as they spawn, having a 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 having it produce and harvest Glowing Mushrooms without player intervention.

Bait farm
A bait farm is used to gather large amounts of bait before Fishing.

Fireflies are one of the most common forms of Bait. With a Water Candle and/or Battle Potion, large amounts of them may spawn at Night. Once in Hardmode, Lightning Bugs will appear in the Hallow, which are more effective as bait.

Worms and Grasshoppers are an alternative to them, having slightly higher Bait Power and being very common during a Rain when destroying stone or dirt piles or cutting grass.

Jungle grass is also excellent source of bait, as each Jungle plant has a very high chance of spawning a Grubby, Buggy, or Sluggy.

The Flower Boots obtained from Underground Jungle Cabin chests can be used to get a large amount of bait in little time. When a Flare is directly beneath the player's feet, the flowers spawned will be instantly destroyed, and swinging a Bug Net will catch any critters that spawn.

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 special and more powerful Potions, such as Prismite or Armored Cavefish.
 * Crates, which contain items such as Potions, Money and Ores.
 * Certain weapons and tools, such as the Crystal Serpent or Reaver Shark

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

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

Liquids
Liquids, more specifically Water, Lava, and Honey, can be easily duplicated in large quantities (see images). This process can be easily automated with Pumps.

By extension, those blocks that can be obtained by mixing liquids, such as Obsidian or Crispy Honey are renewable as well.

Chlorophyte ore


Tiles of Chlorophyte ore can spread to nearby Mud Blocks, making the resource practically unlimited.

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 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.

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.

Others

 * Cobwebs automatically regenerate on naturally occurring Spider Walls found in Spider Nests. 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.
 * 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.

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 Dirt, Sand, Stone, Clay, Mud, Silt, Slush, Desert Fossil, Hardened Sand, Sandstone, Ice, Thin Ice, Ash, Granite and Marble. This extends to items created from these materials, including all craftable Statues, and several furniture sets, such as Frozen, Marble, Flesh, and Skyware.
 * Most Ores are generated with the world, and large amounts of them can be easily collected with only a couple Mining and Spelunker potions.
 * Gems are found placed in the world as well, but they are less abundant in comparison.
 * Gems and Ores can also be obtained by using the Extractinator on Silt, Slush, and Desert Fossils.
 * 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.
 * 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 Nest, 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.

Non Renewable
A few items are created with the world in particular locations, and cannot otherwise be created in 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.

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 associated Furniture.
 * Alchemy Table
 * Bone Welder (placed or in chests)
 * Dungeon Chest items

The Underworld

 * Obsidian Furniture (the few craftable pieces require hellstone ore, except platforms)
 * Hellforge
 * Hellstone ore
 * Shadow Chests and their drops

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