Cactus

Cactus is a crafting material obtained by harvesting Cactus plants, using an axe or chainsaw just like with trees. In addition to crafting, Cactus can be used as a building material.

Crafting
It takes 258 items of Cactus to craft all items.

Plant


The cactus plant grows in Desert biomes on all types of Sand. Cactus plants can be harvested using an axe or chainsaw, which causes Cactus items to drop. On the, mining or hammering the Sand Block the cactus plant grows on will harvest the cactus, while on the the Sand Block the cactus plant grows on is unbreakable and not affected by gravity. Putting a sand block up to one of the stems, right under it, and then cutting the main cactus body, will make the branch a new cactus. Corruption, Crimson, and Hallow cacti will all drop the same Cactus items when harvested.

Cacti will sometimes grow Pink Prickly Pears on their tops.

Conditions
Cactus plants cannot be planted and will only grow on a target Sand Block under the following conditions:


 * 1) The target Sand Block is above 0ft and is not actuated or sloped in any way.
 * 2) The target block is more than 378 tiles away from the lateral edges of the world, i.e. not in the zone where the Ocean biome is usually located.
 * 3) The tiles above and to both sides of the target Sand Block (only the directly adjacent ones) are open space.
 * 4) The tile above the target block is not filled with any liquid.
 * 5) There are fewer than 4 Cactus tiles and more than 10 Sand Blocks (or Ebon-, Crim-, or Pearlsand Blocks; all variants are added together) within a 13×5-tile rectangle centered on the tile above the target Sand Block.

Cacti that are spawned after world generation will first always consist of a single stub and slowly extend over time.

Tips

 * The most effective way of selling Cactus is to craft it into Cactus Swords.
 * Because of how easy it is to get massive amounts of Cacti, crafting Cactus Swords until obtaining one with the Legendary modifier is easy, lucrative, and very useful in the early game.
 * Unlike trees, new cacti appear not fully grown but as 1-block plants, and chopping a cactus not entirely but leaving a "stump" above the ground will let the plant regrow from it. This can be very helpful when farming cactus. Moreover, new plants will continue to appear among saved ones thus increasing farm's "production power" over time.
 * Because of the -1 range attribute on the Copper Pickaxe, the Cactus Pickaxe becomes a viable early-game alternative since it does not have this drawback and, due to the availability of cacti, is also quick and easy to obtain.

Trivia

 * The Terraria cactus is designed after the, a cactus species found in North America noted for its "arms" and exceptional overall size.
 * Neither the plant nor the placed item deal contact damage to any entity, although it used to before 1.1.