Goblin Army

The Goblin Army is an event that has a roughly 1/16 (which is 6 hours and 24 minutes of gameplay +/-) chance of happening at dawn if the player has met certain criteria. When the Goblin Army event starts, a warning message will appear on the bottom left of the screen that says "A goblin army is approaching from the west/east!'. It will repeat the warning message 5 times to ensure the player is aware of the event. Note that left is East as the sun in game rises in the East which is on the left side of the screen. The goblins will move as an area in which they can spawn, from the stated side towards the original spawn point (for single-player). The direction does not relate to the side of the screen they will spawn on. The area will keep moving whether goblins are spawning or not, meaning it is very difficult to prevent goblins from arriving at the spawn, as putting yourself in the path will just mean fighting some goblins early.

When this happens, goblins will come towards you to kill you and/or invade your houses and try to kill the NPCs.

When the goblins arrive, a new message will pop up: The goblin army has arrived!



Once all but a few of the goblins are dead, this message will pop up: The goblin army has been defeated!

This means the Goblin Army event has ended. If any NPCs have died, they should respawn soon after this message. Warning Message Times are the following: (The time may differ dramatically)
 * 4:30AM (Dawn)
 * 5:30AM
 * 6:30AM
 * 7:00AM (Goblin Army arrives, changing music to that of a boss battle)

There are 4 different types of goblins:
 * Goblin Peon
 * Goblin Thief
 * Goblin Warrior
 * Goblin Sorcerer

The amount of goblins is calculated like so: 100 goblins + 50 for each player in-game with 200+ life.

Drops include 8-30 gold (in total), 30+ spiky balls, harpoon (rare), and rocket boots(rare).

Goblins hunt down the original spawn point. So if you moved away from your original spawn point before making your base(s), then you should be able to avoid NPC casualties, this appears to be different in multiplayer where they chase down the beds of players. Once the army has arrived, the goblins will spawn near you so long as you are within the battle area, so running about a hundred feet away from your home can also prevent NPC deaths.

This could mean trouble for many newer players, but a good starting strategy is to build 2 massive pits around the spawn / player base to hold the ground based goblins in, and ready your best weapons and armor to thin the ranks. Take out the sorcerers first, then thin the ranks of the ground walkers by standing at one side of a pit and firing at the goblins. Be careful not to fall in. With this tactic, a new player can defeat them with minimal casualties while still profiting off the new gear.

Another way to avoid civilian casualties is to use the same technique to harvest stars to fight them, it makes it very easy as they all funnel on the flat surface, you can literally take zero damage doing this if you stay alert and jump over goblins as they come in from different sides.

An even more effective strategy is to create lava moats that kill but do not destroy items on either side of your original spawn. Due to the fact that Goblin Peons, Thiefs and Warriors spawn off screen, they will most often come charging from either side, ending up in your lava. This significantly aids both your and the NPCs' survival, as you will only need to deal with the Sorcerers and occasionally one of the other 3 types of goblins.

Another way is to stay on the top of your building and keep using your flail (Ball 'O Hurt, Blue Moon , Sunfury) or another weapon with good knockback downwards, preventing goblins to climb up and make casualties, the only problem you will face using these tactics are the teleporting goblin mages. Flails and Spear weapons are very effectvie on flat surfaces, as well, since they hit multiple goblins (and you will often face over 5 at a time) and have such long range.

Another strategy preventing anything except goblin sorcerers from getting in (if you dont have access to lava/don't want to use it) is to create a tower(see the lower Home section, defense) on the edges of your home as the only way to get in and out of it, being too high up for anything to reach it, this will only work if you have a magic mirror(in conjuction with a bed), shiny red balloon and cloud in a bottle, rocket boots, or grappling hook/ivy whip. You can then spam with your bow/gun/magic items/flail/boomerang with impunity(almost).

Though it is extremely rare, Goblin Armies and Blood Moons can occur at the same time.

The criteria for a goblin invasion to occur is as follows:
 * You must have at least one person in the game with 200+ current life.
 * You must not have had an invasion within 7 in-game days.
 * You must have smashed 1 Shadow Orb.

Trivia

 * Exiting your world or moving away from your original spawn point during a Goblin Invasion will not result in the Goblins dissappearing. The next time you log in again the goblins will remain around the original spawn point.