Minimap



The minimap is a scale-size live overview of the world around your character. By default, it is displayed in a square frame in the upper-right corner of the screen.

As the world is explored, areas appear on the minimap with the greatest brightness with which the character has ever seen them. Even if the tiles return to darkness, they will remain visible on the minimap. The rate that the minimap logs new data on is dependent on the current video quality - the higher it is, the faster it will be.

Areas explored without a light source will not be mapped. If a location's appearance is updated (e.g. Meteor landing somewhere), the map will update even if the player has not gone there since it occurred.

In addition, players, friendly NPCs (except Skeleton Merchant and the Old Man), and Bosses appear on the minimap as icons of their heads, which show their character name when the cursor moves over them. This makes it easy to find NPCs, keep track of other players in multiplayer, and aids in fighting Bosses. In PvP, only players on the same team can see each other on the minimap.

Minimap data is saved with your character data, not the world data. This means that if one character explores the world, other characters do not automatically see it on their maps. Minimap data is saved to a subfolder of the My Documents\My Games\Terraria\Players folder with the character's name.

The minimap can be disabled from the Settings screen.

Modes
The minimap has four modes: portrait, overlay, hidden, and full screen. By default, the key toggles the minimap between the first three modes, with full-screen mode available by pressing the  key. Modes can also be changed by using buttons displayed in the top-right while the Inventory screen is open.


 * Portrait Mode: The minimap appears in the top right corner of the screen, as shown in the screenshot. The + and – buttons on the frame allow the map to be zoomed in and out; the = button returns it to the default scale.


 * Overlay Mode: The minimap appears as a transparent overlay over the entire game screen. In this mode, it can actually be zoomed in to a 1:1 scale, which can help visibility at night or in caves, or out far enough to see the entire world.


 * Hidden Mode: The minimap display is disabled. Areas you explore with the minimap hidden are still mapped, and will be shown if you turn the minimap back on.


 * Full-Screen Mode: An opaque map covers the entire game screen. This mode allows you to move the map around without actually moving your character, making the entire current map available for research. This can be zoomed in and out with the keyboard just as the minimap can, or with the mouse wheel, and it can be scrolled using the directional keys or by dragging it with the mouse. The full-screen map can be dismissed by clicking the icon at the bottom left corner, by pressing M, or by pressing the inventory key again. There are unique backgrounds behind the map depending on which Biome you are currently in. When a player double-clicks/taps the map, a [[File:Map Ping.gif]] Map Ping appears to point out locations. This is purely visual, and will show up for a short time to all players viewing the map. This can be used in singleplayer to keep track of an important location when you're relatively close, or in multiplayer to communicate better with teammates. Multiple pings can be triggered at the same time, and there is no cooldown.

Minimap Style
The stylized border of the portrait mode minimap can be changed by opening the Interface menu under settings. Here you can cycle through 9 different border styles:, , , , , , , , and. The Health and Mana bar style can be changed under the Interface menu as well, though there are only 3 options.

Controls
In the portrait, overlay, and full-screen modes, the keyboard can be used to control the minimap. All controls listed here are defaults, and can be changed in the options menu.

The and  keys on the numeric keypad zoom the minimap in and out. There is no key to restore the default scale, but the = button on the portrait frame does this.

The and  keys make the minimap more or less transparent. This cannot be done in full-screen mode. In portrait mode, this only affects the map, not its frame.

The key toggles the map between portrait, overlay and hidden mode. The key brings up the full screen map.

The minimap appears when you press Back (Xbox) or Select (PlayStation).

The minimap appears when you pinch your fingers on the screen.

Minimap Pre 1.3
In Singleplayer, If you pinch your fingers together, but keep touching the screen, the game doesn't auto-pause and the enemies still move. You can watch how they act with the surrounding terrain and identify what AI type they are.

Yourself, other players and all NPCs will appear as that person's head, with the exception of the Old Man which will appear as a "enemy circle".

Bosses appear as a large skull icon, except for the Eater of Worlds which appears as lots of monster circles. The Destroyer is a lot of enemy circles with a skull for the head.

Worm-type monsters appear as lots of medium "enemy circles" in a line, due to each body segment being classified as a new enemy.

Tapping on a player/NPC's head icon will display their name.

If you or someone else is attacked with the minimap open, the unmapped spots on the screen will flash red.

Tips

 * If you don't have any light sources, you can use the zoomed in Overlay Mode to see where you are going, though you cannot see your enemies.