Guide:Harvesting Souls

Souls are valuable Hardmode materials. They are used in the vast majority of important Hardmode crafting.

Light and Night
Souls of Light and Souls of Night are found in identical ways (though not in the same place). Every monster killed in the Underground Hallow has a 1:5 chance (2:5 on Expert) to drop a Soul of Light. And every monster killed in the Underground Corruption or its counter part Underground Crimson has a 1:5 chance (2:5 on Expert) to drop a Soul of Night. Because they are obtained in such similar ways, most farming techniques work the same for both.

These souls can be farmed by simply fighting the enemies that spawn in those environments. A Water Candle, Battle Potion, and/or Blood Moon can speed up the process. However, the enemies in these environments can be dangerous even to those with Hallowed Armor, so be careful to not be overwhelmed.

Another good way is to summon the Eater of Worlds using Worm Food, as each segment has a chance of giving you a soul. You can also "hunt" for Eater of Souls and Wraiths(as they normally spawn by destroying a Demon Altar) in the Underground Corruption, although this is more time consuming.

You can easily farm these by making a pillar to the roof of the underworld, directly under the underground hallow and place a water candle on it. Then stand on the pillar and kill all the bats that fly up to you.

For more controlled soul farming, create artificial Hallow/Corruption/Crimson within or very close to the Dungeon or Lizhard Temple. Both locations will spawn only their respective mobs. The Dungeon is viable once Hardmode is started (after the player has mined enough blocks for the type of soul they wish to farm). The Lizhard might be more desirable in the late game. This is because the a player may farm souls, money, Power Cells, and Solar Tablet Fragments. In addition, there is the spawn boost from the Jungle Biome, which may be augmented by Battle Potions and Water Candles.

Meteor farming
Note: As of version 1.2.3 meteors no longer drop loot in hardmode, and this method of farming is no longer applicable.

Another method is to build an artificial Meteorite biome in the middle of the underground Hallow/Corruption by placing 50 pieces of Meteorite. This causes all enemies spawned to become Meteor Heads. These are not particularly dangerous creatures by this point, thus making the gathering much safer.

This technique can be done while AFK. With enough defense and a Star Cloak, one can simply come back every 5 minutes to refresh potions. Meteor Heads do 40 damage before reductions, so it is advisable to have 70+ total defense before attempting this method. Accessories with defense bonuses are valuable here. Even those like the Warding Shackle and Cobalt Shield can be used in addition to Obsidian Shield, since mobility accessories are of no use while AFK. Ironskin Potions and Regeneration Potions are useful as well. To prevent the On Fire! debuff, simply stand in enough water to put it out instantly.

A Water Candle and Battle Potions can be useful to increase Meteor Head spawn rates.

Night specific
One easy way to harvest many Souls of Night quickly is to summon the Eater of Worlds. By this point, you should have sufficient armor to make its attacks negligible, as well as weapons that can one-hit its segments. Each of its 50 segment gets a 1/5 chance to drop a Soul of Night. The other drops (Demonite Ore and Shadow Scales) can simply be sold. And if you have the gear to farm The Destroyer you could farm it, as it spawns probes which can drop Souls of Night.

Flight
Souls of Flight are only used in the creation of wings, and can only be gathered from Wyverns. The fastest way to gather these is to build a quick wall of dirt up until you spot your first Harpy, and then build a horizontal platform to fight on. You could also use minecart tracks, so you can match the Wyvern speed (57 mph), to kill it. Fighting wyverns can be difficult as they deal respectable amounts of damage and are very fast.

The first tip is to play on fullscreen. A bigger field of view gives you more warning about its attacks. Not playing on fullscreen makes it very difficult to dodge.

Secondly, learn how to dodge. As long as you are moving at a decent speed in a straight line, as perpendicular to the next attack as you can manage, the wyvern should miss you most of the time. Ideally, you can alternate dodges left and right to make the wyvern's movements more predictable - it should follow a big figure eight. In practice, this isn't always the case, and you'll be fending off Harpies during the fight anyway. Full Adamantite armor is generally a good idea, full Mythril could be considered a minimum.

Placing one or several Heart Statues placed around where you think you'll land between your jumps can help you greatly, especially if you lack Healing Potions or don't have optimal weapons or armor for the task, e.g. trying to kill it early with only Cobalt Armor and Demon Scythe.

Your actual weapon doesn't matter terribly much; most melee and ranged weapons work well. Multihit and rapid-fire projectiles are especially effective, which encompasses the majority of available weapons by this point in the game.

One approach that seems to work well when fighting this monster (especially on Large-sized maps) is to let one spawn and then fall downwards without moving to the left or right. The Wyvern will follow you, ending up in a perfectly vertical angle. You could then attack it with any high-damage, high-speed weapon, such as the Minishark, Muramasa or Megashark. This works even better when you use piercing projectiles, as each projectile hits each segment once, resulting in huge amounts of damage. Golden shower is REALLY good. If done well, you could kill it with no armor.

When fighting the Wyvern for the first time, it is recommended to use Rocket Boots in order to change altitude quickly to avoid its sweeping passes. Featherfall Potions could optionally be used to help avoid contact with any part of the body as it passes. While fighting, wait until the Wyvern is visible flying at you, then use the Rocket Boots quickly to get as high as possible in the air, avoiding the pass. Once in the air and above the sweeping Wyvern, blast away at it with your weapon of choice until it passes you completely. Then allow yourself to land and repeat until the Wyvern is dead.

Once the player has access to the Angel Wings or Demon Wings, simply repeat the process above, but using the wings to stay in the air easily. This makes fighting the Wyvern far easier. A Cloud in a Balloon makes the fight very easy when paired with one of the "wings".

Another method is to take advantage of its attack pattern, which is highly predictable. The Wyvern will always sweep next from the opposite side it just attacked from. IE:If it just attacked from the left, it will attack from the right, and vice versa, provided that you maintain the same horizontal position. With the rocket boots, jump and fly in the same direction the Wyvern is going to attack from. It will be tricky at first but once you get the timing down you will be hit less often. Use the Grappling Hook or Ivy Whip to pull yourself back to the ground to quickly prepare for the Wyvern's next sweep as well.

Another fairly good method is to build a long horizontal platform at sky level, but not too close to the top of the map. Then, when a Wyvern approaches, use Hermes Boots/Spectre Boots and run away from it, all while attacking with your weapon of choice. When you reach the end of the platform, simply jump over it and wait for it to come back, running this time, the other way. Wings are best suited for doing this, although having the platform high enough to reduce gravity by a good amount will suffice.

The Dao of Pow is an excellent weapon against Wyverns. Simply stand at a point and thrust the Dao of Pow towards the Wyvern as he approaches. The Dao of Pow should go through most of the Wyvern's body, dealing massive amounts of damage. Before the Wyvern hits you, dodge out of the way. Using this technique, you should be able to defeat a Wyvern in 3-4 passes.

The Hellwing Bow is extremely effective against Wyverns, given that if you pair it with wooden arrows, the bats have unlimited piercing. One thing to note is it's inaccuracy, but it is easily made up for by it's sheer attack rate.

Honeyed Goggles also help greatly with maneuverability.

Minimum Setup Note: This is the bare minimum. Only use if you are good at dodging or willing to be slaughtered two or so times to get used to its pattern.  Cobalt Armor/Palladium armor (or higher). this is only to negate harpy damage. Demon Scythe. Preferably with decent modifiers . Cloud in a Bottle/Cloud in a Balloon + Rocket Boots. Cloud in a bottle is needed to rapidly jump above the wyvern's sweep, rocket boots are to give extra height in case of bad timing. Cobalt Shield/Obsidian Shield. To prevent fatal harpy knockback. 

The key is to wait until the wyvern is at a point where it will be hit by your demon scythe as many times as possible, but is still avoidable. Shoot as many scythes as possible, then double tap and hold the space bar. If timed right, this will get you out of its reach, and give it a good few hits. After that, its only a matter of repeating.

Might
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The Destroyer is generally the first hardmode boss you will fight. Adamantite armor/Titanium armor and a Mushroom Spear, Phasesaber or better are recommended. Magical Harp, Nimbus Rod or the Golden Shower can be extremely useful as well, provided you have enough defense. However, you need to defeat The Twins first to get the souls for the Magical Harp.

Sight
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The Twins are generally the second hardmode boss you will fight. They require a powerful ranged weapon, such as the Megashark or even Clockwork Assault Rifle could suffice.

Fright
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Skeletron Prime is the strongest mechanical boss in the game. Even players with access to every item available may have difficulty with him.

Blight
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Make sure you have full Hallowed Armor and a Megashark or Hallowed Repeater. It might be helpful to reforge accessories to Warding. You can also place a block of Meteorite to take advantage of its 1 damage per second. It is recommended to use the summoning glitch for this boss so you can summon him twice per night.