Shimmer



Shimmer is a shiny, pearlescent liquid found in the Aether Biome. It cannot be picked up with Buckets, but it can be pumped. The Bottomless Shimmer Bucket can also pour endless amounts of shimmer, which can be obtained after defeating the Moon Lord by either submerging a Bottomless Water Bucket into it, or crafting one using a Bottomless Water Bucket and 10 Luminite Bars at an Ancient Manipulator. It has a variety of effects on different items and NPCs, triggered through contact. Shimmer cannot be fished in; attempting to do so will inflict the Shimmering debuff, which will pull the player downwards into blocks. This will continue until the player reaches an opening that is at least 3 blocks tall. This can't be bypassed if wearing the Chromatic Cloak but it allows the player to move horizontally freely while in the shimmer.

Throwing coins into Shimmer increases the player's Coin Luck, of which the strength and duration of will be determined by the value of the coin and the amount thrown.

Upon placing 300 or more tiles of Shimmer in the Underground or Cavern layers, an Aether biome is created. In an Aether, the area gets dimmer and stars appear in the background. The music that plays is "Aether" and the background can be replicated using the Aether Monolith.

Transmutation
Shimmer is used to transform or "transmute" one item into another item. This also affects town NPCs (specifically their sprites), several enemies, and many critters.


 * Transformed items will float out of the Shimmer and stay in the air, and their sprite is a bit brighter.
 * Certain items will be upgraded by being submerged, some will be downgraded. Some won't be affected at all.
 * Craftable items will be decrafted into their components, except for Potions, for which each ingredient has a 33% chance not to be produced, to prevent duplication of potion ingredients.
 * NPC sprites will be transformed into a shimmered variant.
 * Some enemies will be transformed into other enemies.
 * Enemies which cannot be transformed will rapidly turn invisible; this effect will fade very slowly once the enemy leaves the Shimmer.
 * Most critters will be transformed into Faelings. The same will happen if thrown into the Shimmer as an item.
 * On contact with another liquid, Shimmer transforms into an Aetherium Block.
 * Any new item created from Shimmer will not have a modifier, even cycling items like the emblems.
 * All accessories that can be crafted into another accessory will cycle in ingredients needed to make it, cycling in a similar fashion to emblems.

Item Transmutations
For an item to be transmuted, the transmuting pool must completely cover the item.

Permanent Upgrades
Some permanent character upgrades can be made by throwing certain items into Shimmer. Each can only be used once per character, except the Peddler's Satchel and Advanced Combat Techniques: Volume Two, which can only be used once per world instead.

Some items can be upgraded by throwing them into Shimmer:

Interchangeable items
These items will cycle between each other when placed into Shimmer.

These items cycle from left to right.

Downgrading
Shimmer can downgrade various tiered items thrown into it, like ores and gems. When the lowest version of something is thrown into the Shimmer, it turns into a Stone Block, and Stone Blocks turn into Dirt Blocks.

With ores, Shimmer downgrades by tier, with 1.2 variants at each tier coming after the original variants. Copper is the lowest ore in the chain, Luminite is presumably still the highest.

Gems thrown into Shimmer downgrade from Diamond down to Amethyst.

Note: Demonite Ore, Crimtane Ore, Meteorite, Hellstone, and Hallowed Bar are unaffected by Shimmer.

Note: Amber is unaffected by Shimmer.

Downgrading items requiring multiple blocks to craft in a high enough stack can break the max limit to how many of those blocks you can stack.

NPC transmutations
When submerged in Shimmer, any NPCs (except town pets) will transform into their Shimmered form. This has no impact on gameplay or dialogue and is only a visual change. They can be returned to their classic looks by being submerged in Shimmer again.

Tips

 * While Buckets cannot collect Shimmer, it can be transported using Pumps.
 * Shimmer can be used to enter the Jungle Temple without a Temple Key.

Trivia

 * Shimmer may be a reference to a number of media.
 * 2018 science fiction film Annihilation, in which an amorphous phenomenon called "the shimmer" transforms living things.
 * "The Waterfall of Wishing" / "Mysterious Pond" areas in the 1991 video game, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, where the player can throw in items and get a stronger item in return.
 * 2021 science-fantasy animated series Arcane, wherein exists a serum-like substance called "shimmer" that is used as a street drug, accelerating natural healing but inflicting intense emotional and physical changes with prolonged use.
 * 2016 short film Cream, in which a miraculous substance can transform, enhance or fix any kind of matter.


 * If the Skeleton Merchant falls into the Shimmer liquid, he transforms into a zombie. Bones.jpg