Environments

The world of Terraria consists of eleven officially mentioned environment types, also known as biomes.

If you had a hard time finding these biomes such as the Floating Islands, you can use these tools to locate them.

Forests


Forests are where most of the trees spawn. Trees drop acorns when they are chopped down, which can be used to replant them. Natural caves may be found in this environment, although most are not more than 100 feet deep.

Monsters


 * Zombie (Night)
 * Doctor Bones (Night)
 * Demon Eye (Night)
 * Slime (Day) (Includes blue and rarely the purple variants of the slime)
 * Pinky (Day)
 * King Slime (Day)
 * Bunny (Day)
 * Corrupt Bunny (Blood moon)

Deserts
Deserts are large sandy areas that are occasionally generated on the map. They have 2 types of plants: Cacti and Waterleaf, both of which are used in alchemy. The Desert is useful if you want a large amount of Glass.

Monsters


 * Vulture


 * Antlion

Ocean
Main article: Ocean

Oceans are large bodies of water that spawn at both sides of the map. One side will have the map's dungeon near it. The ocean on the opposite side of the dungeon will usually, but not always, have 1-3 treasure chests in it.

On the side opposite from the one with the Dungeon, there is mostly a Corruption area. Corruption areas are covered in corrupted grass, and there are alot of chasms in which Shadow Orbs will be hidden. After the Corruption zone there will be another ocean.

For more information on Corruption see: Corruption.

Monsters


 * Goldfish
 * Crab
 * Shark
 * Jellyfish (pink)

Underground
Main article: The Underground

The underground consists of four layers: The dirt layer, the rocky dirt layer, the stone layer and the Underworld layer. While the Underworld is considered its own enviroment, it is still technically an underground layer.

For more details see: Underworld

Monsters include: Stone Layer (498ft below water level) Underworld Monsters (2,916ft below water level)
 * Slime (Blue, Red, Yellow, Purple)
 * Pinky (Uncommon)
 * Giant Worm
 * Piranha
 * Goldfish (Uncommon)
 * Slime (Black, Mother, Baby)
 * Giant Worm
 * Skeleton
 * Tim (rare)
 * Undead Miner
 * Cave Bat
 * Piranha
 * Goldfish (Uncommon)
 * Bone Serpent
 * Fire Imp
 * Piranha
 * Goldfish (Rare)
 * Demon
 * Hellbat
 * Lava Slime
 * Voodoo Demon

Floating Islands
Main article: Floating Islands

Floating Islands are masses of land that appear in the sky. Just like forests, you can find trees and grass growing over dirt blocks, with some stone and ores in the ground. Sometimes you find gold ore and silver ore. Each floating island also has a building made of copper, gold, or silver brick which contains a chest. In the chest will be a Shiny Red Balloon, Lucky Horseshoe, or a Starfury along with other various items.

People have been calling Floating Islands as Sky Islands as well.

Monsters


 * Harpies

The Corruption
M'ain article:'The Corruption''

The Corruption forms during the creation of a map at a random position. In most cases there are 1-3 Corruptions per map. The Corruption spawns higher-level monsters regardless of time and thus should initially be avoided by low-level players. Shadow Orbs can be found here in deep thin caves called chasms. These chasms can reach all the way to the stone layer.There are rumors of chasms reaching The Underworld. {needs proof}

Monsters


 * Eater of Souls (and its variants)


 * Devourer

Meteorite
Main article: Meteorite

Meteorites can spawn randomly when you break Shadow Orbs and will land on the map somewhere. Meteorite Ore can be used to make bars which can be used to make...


 * Meteor Hamaxe


 * Space Gun


 * Star Cannon


 * Phaseblades


 * Meteor Shot


 * Meteor Armor

Monsters


 * Meteor Head

Glitch

There is a chance of, if you created one, a meteorite hitting a 'Skybridge.' If this happens, you'll only get a couple of pieces or so. This is because of the fact that there are not many blocks to replace with meteorite blocks.

Underground Jungle
Main article: Underground Jungle

The Underground Jungle is a very remote area of the world, residing deep underground. It is often found near or under the Corruption. Like Dungeons, these areas have few dead ends; however unlike Dungeons they are covered in plants. They have special items that are unique to the Underground Jungle which are found in Jungle Shrines, small buildings made of gold blocks that are spawned at random locations. You can often find a higher concentration of minerals like gold, silver, iron, and copper in the Underground Jungle.

On a medium sized world, you can find it by first finding which side the dungeon is on, then go and look for a Floating Island then dig straight down from the bunker there, if it doesn't work with one floating island, search for others because it doesn't always pop up first try.

After patch 1.0.4 it's possible on rare occasions to find a Surface Jungle, which typically indicates an Underground Jungle beneath it.

Monsters


 * Man Eater
 * Hornet
 * Jungle Bat
 * Snatcher (rare)
 * Skeleton (when the Underground Jungle reaches the stone layer)
 * Fire Imp (when the Underground Jungle reaches the Underworld)

Dungeons
Main article: Dungeon

Dungeons are enormous buildings found close to the edge of a generated world, spanning many layers deep. They are filled with treasure chests which contain unique items.

There is always one and only one dungeon in each world, although a player may create new worlds and plunder their dungeons to gain additional loot.

The Dungeon's upper level is home to an Old Man, which will turn into Skeletron should the player talk to him at night, or summon a Dungeon Guardian if the player attempts to enter the dungeon without killing him first.

Monsters


 * Dungeon Guardian (only if the player enters the dungeon without killing Skeletron first)


 * Angry Bones


 * Cursed Skull (Formerly Burning Skull)


 * Dark Caster


 * Skeletron (guardian boss)

The Underworld
Main article: The Underworld

The Underworld is a hellish realm (about 3500 Feet below on Large maps and 1700 on Small ones) that can be reached by digging past the stone layer. It is very easily identified by its background of stone with veins of lava. It is primarily made of Hellstone ore deposits surrounded by ash blocks, with extensive pools of lava. Chests with unique loot can be found here. Hellstone can be used to make molten tools and armor.

Monsters


 * Bone Serpent


 * Fire Imp
 * Lava Slime
 * Hellbat
 * Demon (Rare)
 * Voodoo Demon (Very rare)

Surface Jungle
Main article: Surface Jungle

The Surface Jungle is a tree-filled biome containing decorative vines. The trees here grow without the need to plant Acorns, as long as there is jungle grass present. The Surface Jungle typically directly connects to the Underground Jungle. This Biome was added with V1.0.4.

Monsters
 * Jungle Bat
 * Piranha
 * Snatcher