Shimmer

See also: Liquids

Shimmer is a liquid that can be found in the Aether biome on the jungle side in the furthest fifth of the world. It cannot be picked up with Buckets, but can be placed anywhere through use of the Bottomless Shimmer Bucket which can be obtained by submerging a Bottomless Water Bucket into it, or crafting one using a Bottomless Water Bucket and 10 Luminite Bars in an Ancient Manipulator. It has a variety of effects on different items and NPCs, triggered through contact.


 * If you get submerged in it, and you are not in The Underworld or wearing the Chromatic Cloak, you will fall through blocks until there is an open space for you to exit into.
 * This is called the insubstantial debuff. Any animations on your character or mounts freeze while this debuff is active. You are unable to use items while this debuff is active.
 * This will also happen whenever a player attempts to fish in shimmer. This is not prevented by the Chromatic Cloak.
 * The shimmer debuff will not be applied if the player is in the The Underworld. Suffocation will occur if the player is still inside of a block once the Underworld layer is reached.
 * The shimmer debuff will not be applied if under the effects of Gravitation Potions or the Gravity Globe, and will remove their effects.
 * Shimmer can be used to enter the Jungle Temple without a Temple Key.
 * Certain items will be upgraded by being submerged, some will be downgraded. Some won't be affected at all.
 * Putting any item that has a crafting tree into it will disassemble it into its components, except for Potions, for which each ingredient has a 33% chance not to be produced, to prevent duplication of potion ingredients.
 * Placing any coins into the liquid will increase your luck. The number of coins dropped determines the duration of the luck. You cannot obtain your coins after they have submerged.
 * Placing any coins into the liquid will increase your luck. The number of coins dropped determines the duration of the luck. You cannot obtain your coins after they have submerged.


 * All accessories that can be crafted into another accessory will cycle in ingredients needed to make it, cycling in a similar fashion to emblems.
 * Grappling hooks end when they touch shimmer, not grabbing and not having to retract
 * If a block is placed on top of Shimmer, a hook will grab the block, briefly pulling the player toward the block before disconnecting.
 * Bullets, Gem staves' Projectiles, Portal Gun portals and Starfury stars bounce off of shimmer.
 * Any new item created from shimmer will not have a modifier, even cycling items like the emblems.
 * If a critter walks into the shimmer, it will turn into a Faeling. The same will happen if you throw it into the shimmer as an item.
 * Ancient armor such as the Ancient Gold Helmet change to their standard form, and vice versa. This works for both loot dropped ancient armor and craftable ancient armor.
 * If an NPC or certain enemies become in contact with Shimmer, they will turn into their Shimmered variant. The only difference between variants is the sprite. For NPCs this applies to all instances of the sprite appearing.
 * Most projectiles bounce off the surface of the liquid, others become submerged in the liquid and are repelled outward.
 * Upon placing a certain amount of shimmer in an area underground, the place will get dimmer and stars will appear in the background (like with using the Aether Monolith). The music that plays is "Aether".
 * Enemies submerged in the Shimmer which cannot be transformed by it will rapidly turn invisible, this effect will fade very slowly once the enemy leaves the Shimmer.
 * Gem critters turn into their respective gems.
 * Hardmode Crates turn into their respective Pre-Hardmode variants.
 * Items will float out of the shimmer and stay in the air when they are transformed, and their sprite is a bit brighter.
 * When Shimmer comes into contact with any other liquid it will make an Aetherium Block.
 * Luminite bricks will turn into different variants, depending on the phase of the moon it is when they are thrown into the shimmer.
 * Shimmer cannot be fished in. Attempting to will give the player the Shimmer debuff, even if wearing the Chromatic Cloak.
 * If the player obtains the Shimmer debuff whilst flying (through the use of a fishing rod or other means) the debuff will instantly disappear.
 * Cannot Transmute items in multiplayer (Tested on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Mobile)
 * Add to the transmutations, mud turns into dirt and wet bomb turns into dry bomb, but not the other way around.
 * Fluids on the Jungle side caverns of Celebration Mk10 worlds are replaced with Shimmer.

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

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

Tips

 * Some permanent character upgrades can be made by throwing certain items into shimmer. Each can only be used once per character:
 * Life Crystal -> Vital Crystal (increases health regen)
 * Mana Crystal -> Arcane Crystal (increases mana regen)
 * Life Fruit -> Aegis Fruit (increases defense by 4)
 * Any Fruit -> Ambrosia (increases mining and tile / wall placement speed by 5%)
 * Gold Worm -> Gummy Worm (increases fishing power)
 * Pink Pearl -> Galaxy Pearl (increases luck)
 * Peddler's Hat -> Peddler's Satchel (increases number of items sold at a time by the Travelling Merchant)
 * Spell Tome -> Advanced Combat Techniques: Volume Two (increases defense and attack damage for town NPCs. Usable once per world instead of once per character)
 * Some items can be upgraded by throwing them into shimmer:
 * Rod of Discord -> Rod of Harmony (no longer damages the user from teleporting too frequently. Requires Moon Lord to be defeated)
 * Clentaminator -> Terraformer (farther reach, wider spread, and 33% chance to not consume solutions. Requires Moon Lord to be defeated)
 * While Buckets cannot collect Shimmer, it can be transported using Pumps.

Trivia

 * This item may be a reference to the 2018 science fiction film "Annihilation", in which an amorphous phenomenon called "the shimmer" transforms living things.
 * May also be a reference to "The Waterfall of Wishing"/"Mysterious Pond" areas in the 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.
 * If the Skeleton Merchant falls into the shimmer liquid, he transforms into a human. Bones.jpg
 * May be a reference to the animation series "Arcane" as the color of the liquid is the same as the shimmer in "Arcane".