Meteorite

A Meteorite is an unnatural biome that sometimes appears on the surface of the world in the event of destroying a Shadow Orb (They may also appear even if a Shadow Orb is not destroyed). Meteors are made out of Meteorite Ore, a substance that burns to the touch unless an Obsidian Skull is equipped. This ore, in abundance, can be used to make Meteor Armor and tools. A single meteor usually contains a bit over 300 ore (enough for about 50 bars), though this number may vary. There will usually be an announcement at the bottom of the screen telling you when a new meteor has fallen.

When approached, the game's music will change to a unique theme and Meteor Heads will spawn in an attempt to hinder your excavation of the meteor, but with proper positioning, they can be repelled almost effortlessly by your pick as you mine. Upon mining away the vast majority of the meteor (when the number of meteorite ore is below 50), the Meteor Heads will stop spawning, indicated by the music returning to the general overworld theme.

Dynamite is a very useful mining tool as it is quite powerful and can help get lots of ore with one simple explosion. Plus, with blowing up big amount of blocks, Meteor Heads wont bother you too much. Sticky bombs can also be used to mine meteorite as they stick to blocks, letting you position explosions.

One of the key strategies, if this happens in the early to mid game when you still have Gold weapons or below, is to look for any 10 of the same kind of gems in your primary mining area. Then try to mine the easiest 120 pieces of meteorite ore (20 bars), and craft a Phaseblade. With a Phaseblade, dealing with the Meteor Heads becomes much easier and should allow you to mine the entire area with few problems.

Meteors can fall on floating islands, dungeons, above chasms, and in the ocean. It is even possible for meteors to fall right next to, or on NPC settlements. It is not yet proven as to whether or not they can land on the initial spawn point. Note that if it lands on a Chasm it will not plug it up. They can fall anywhere on a map, which makes locating a meteor on a Large map quite an endeavor.

Note that, meteors will only replace/remove existing blocks (with the exception of a few small scattered pieces), and will crash at the highest altitude possible. This means that a one-block thick bridge in the sky will cause the meteor to crash there, instead of on the ground, and will only be one-block thick itself, along with the large gap. There will usually not even be enough meteorite to spawn meteor heads in this scenario, therefore it is far more efficient to allow all possible meteor events to occur prior to building large bridges.

If you wish to farm Meteor Heads for cash, put 50 pieces of meteorite ore in close proximity, such as a 7x7 box with a small bit sticking out.

Media
thumb|left|404px|Footage of A Meteor Crash Site