Guide:Making money

is an essential part of Terraria, as it allows the player to buy valuable items from NPCs.

There are many ways to earn money:


 * Killing monsters and bosses. (See also Guide:Enemy farming)
 * Finding coins in and.
 * Selling found items to NPCs, perhaps after crafting them into a more valuable form.
 * Using, , and at an.
 * Fishing
 * Completing Fishing Quests for the.
 * Opening Crates.
 * Statue Farming
 * After reaching Hardmode, you can.
 * Cheating (Not Recommended)

Note: This Guide was originally written for version 1.3.5, while Terraria has since updated to version 1.4. While the general trends may hold, a number of specific exploits have been fixed. In particular:


 * The and others have had their drops nerfed.  Statue spawns in general no longer drop loot if killed completely by lava, they must take at least some player-caused damage.
 * The item frame duplication glitch has been blocked as well as of 1.4. When following the procedure as previously advised, the frames will not stack. The top frame will break into an icon, therefore rendering the glitch sufficiently unusable.
 * The exploit was fixed while revamping prices in general.
 * With the exception of and  (and to a lesser degree, ), crafting your ore into bars is no longer needed for higher prices.  For all but these, bars sell for the same as the ores that went into them.
 * NPC sale and purchase prices are no longer exact, but can vary according to the NPC's "happiness" status. When your NPC housing is set up appropriately, this can be a positive; happy NPCs will buy items from you from a higher price, giving more value to your farming or collecting.
 * The sale price of Light Discs has been reduced to slightly more than their materials; the Destroyer's drops are still fairly valuable, but Light Discs no longer provide a major bonus to their value.
 * On the flip side, with gems now farmable (and sand farming much easier) Stained Glass has become a long-term money-maker, no longer limited by the gems' former non-renewability. See Gem Farming below, and the Sandgun page.

General tips
Regularly deposit your money into a or. This minimizes the loss of coins from Death: When you die you will drop at least half of the coins carried in the inventory, and drop all of them in master mode. You can freely spend money from "personal storage" at any vendor; there are few reasons for you to carry coins in your inventory any longer than needed.

In general, the standard RPG trope of "collect everything you find" will pay off over time.


 * Accumulate surplus items in chests until there's enough to be worth selling. Collecting a coin while 99 of that coin’s type are in your inventory will convert the stack from copper to silver, from silver to gold, and from gold to platinum, while platinum can stack to 999.
 * Some items can be crafted to be more valuable, including monetizing materials that are otherwise worthless.
 * Some stuff really is almost worthless, so feel free to trash it in favor of items that are either useful or saleable for decent money. Whether "decent money" means silver or gold will depend on how far along in the game you are, and how much money you have already. Remember that although a material may be worthless alone, combining it with another material may yield a higher profit.  See below for examples.
 * The can offer a chance to unload items without having to go to a base (especially useful for non-stackable items).
 * Be careful about selling scarce items: A few items found in chests, and some furniture found in special locations (including some of those chests), are found only there, and have a limited supply per world.  (See the warning under Collecting for more information)

There are still ways of making a few gold pieces per minute with little effort or risk, representing three different methods of "low effort, high payout". All of them do require investment and game advancement, but can be done well before Hardmode, even before visiting the underworld. These methods include:


 * Fishing in general is fairly profitable, offering many fish selling for and up, plus crates, and other high-value catches such as  or.
 * Fishing in lava will let you catch Obsidian or Hellstone crates, each of which is guaranteed to have an Obsidian Lock Box with a valuable item (in addition to the crate's other contents). You will also be catching Flarefin Koi  and various other valuable items.  Fishing in lava can start with either Underworld Bait, or the Hotline Fishing Hook (a Hardmode fishing pole awarded by the Angler).  Eventually the crates will supply a Lavaproof Fishing Hook, which allows lava fishing with any bait and/or pole.   You will catch things much more quickly if you have at least two of the bait, pole, or accessory.
 * Statue farms have been heavily nerfed, but a few of them can still provide Hooks and other loot. Requires the, 10 / for a timer, and  (which need to be found underground).  See below for details.
 * Gem farming (see below) is less continuous but can yield regular large payoffs.  In Hardmode, crystal farming can add some income.

Gem Farming
The introduction of craftable Gemcorns in version 1.4 has created one of the best low-effort high-reward methods of money making in the game, accessible very early in the game.

To create a Gemcorn farm, a player can simply dig out a large corridor at least 17 blocks high in a convenient location (such as a branch off of their base's Hellevator). This is easily done with, which is available even before any bosses have been defeated. Simply throw Sticky Dynamite on walls to expand horizontally. The farm corridor should be lined with stone blocks on the bottom; the top should at least be covered over for safety, but you may want to get a head start on infection-proofing the area by lining the top with wood, and making sure you have space for a three-tile-deep barrier beneath the floor.

Early farmers thought that gem trees would grow faster in the dark, but source-divers have confirmed that the 1.4.0.4 code does not in fact check for light levels at all.

Gemcorns are trivially craftable, -- any Gem can be crafted into a Gemcorn by simply combining it with an, no crafting station required. Gems may be found naturally, though a more reliable way of obtaining the most valuable and  is use an  and extract,. or  until you get some amber or diamonds. That might be harder than it sounds, as Extractinators are most easily found in the relatively dangerous Underground Desert. On the other hand, in 1.4, Amber itself can also be found there!

Gem Trees, on average, produce more than one Gemcorn for each tree. However, the first few might be tricky, because any one tree is not guaranteed to replace their seed, and despite those "0-5" numbers, the actual average is something like a 30% gain over the planting (Working your Luck might help.)  Save any surplus Gemcorns and the first few gems, until you have enough trees of each given type to be sure you will have enough Gemcorns to cover. Once you have enough Gemcorns (or gems to make more), you can also expand the farm by planting new trees. (Buying more is easy now that you have a steady income....)

A Gem Tree farm about 400 blocks in length (which takes 3-5 minutes to clear and replant) can yield well over 80, and sometimes more than 1 if all Gemcorns and Gems (minus the ones used for replanting) are sold. While the exact time varies, Gem Trees grow fast enough that it's reasonable to harvest and replant the farm every other in-game day or so. Given that the only work involved in obtaining this money is cutting down a lot of trees and replanting them (and killing a couple basic monsters), this is easily one of the lowest-effort money-making methods in the game, and also one of the most profitable and reliable. Sand farming can let you get even more money by converting the colored gems (all but Diamond) to Stained Glass.

Some additional tips:


 * Smart Cursor is very useful for fast harvesting and replanting.
 * In both cases, simply keep your mouse on the opposite side of the screen from the direction you're moving in. For example, if you want to plant many Gemcorns while moving right, then keep your mouse on the left side of the screen. This will automatically space out your Gemcorns perfectly. Watch out for stray Teal Mushroom s, or other interlopers such as moss.
 * Note that you should NOT use a mount while replanting, as the movement speed is fast enough that you will skip blocks. Running with some small movement speed buffs appears to be the fastest way to plant quickly; even then, if you have high-tier boots, you may need to pause occasionally to avoid sprinting.
 * The same is not true for harvesting trees: since even the fastest axe requires a small pause to harvest the trees, it can be ideal to use a mount with some height, such as the Zoologist's Saddles., to pick up the tree drops more quickly.
 * Marking the blocks with colored torches beneath the stone may also be helpful.
 * Unlike many other block changes, tree growth is updated on the minimap automatically. You can check the progress of your trees by just looking on the minimap, and head down to harvest them when a large portion of them are grown (or when you need some quick cash).
 * If you are in Expert mode, a is helpful in making your harvesting/replanting runs smoother. Many Slimes will spawn whether the space is lit or not, and it is convenient to be able to totally ignore them.
 * Summons are also useful for clearing the occasional slime, and later in the game, they can help with Possessed Armors that may spawn in your farm (though those are tanky enough that you will probably need to kill them manually).
 * If you plan to use this as your main method of making money, it is helpful to acquire a good axe like the as soon as possible so that you can harvest more quickly.
 * While your farm can technically be as wide as you like, it may be wise to keep it in the Forest biome (that is, "plain Underground") so that your farm isn't invaded by stronger monsters. Excessively long farms may also be a bit of a chore to harvest and replant.
 * A is helpful for quickly picking up all Gem Tree drops. Without a magnet, you may have to go back for some missed drops while cutting down trees at full speed.
 * Diamonds and Amber are the most valuable gem when sold directly, valued at 30 each. However, due to their relative rarity, it may be more realistic for a player to acquire Ruby or Emerald Gemcorns first, both of which have respectable values. Once Diamond or Amber gems are found, the farm can be slowly transitioned to farm those instead. Amber is also useful as an ingredient for Crate Potions.  Amber is probably the best target for money-making -- it shares Diamond's value, but can also be converted to Stained Glass (more than tripling the price in exchange for some sand farming), and it can reliably be found in the Underground Desert or acquired from the Extractinator.

Later in the game, some additions may be useful -- as noted above, the Mechanic will let you provide switchable lighting, and once you have a and ammo-conservation equipment, you may want to add a nearby space for convenient sand farming (it's a lot easier than it used to be). Conversion to Stained Glass will make any gem except Diamond worth apiece; this costs 1000 sand per 100 gems, but that stack of sand can be farmed in about 8 minutes with pre-Hardmode equipment.

Collecting
Most "found" equipment and other items can be sold for varying amounts of money, just make sure they're outclassed by your current items and can't be crafted into better items. Stackable items can be accumulated, others can be stashed in nearby chests until you have a chance to ferry them to a vendor (or the shows up). Many of these resources can also be farmed; see Guide:Farming Resources for more details on that.

Don't be afraid to trash near-worthless items in the field, so that you can keep more valuable items. If you need more of any of these, they can easily be bought, crafted, and/or farmed. Naturally, this only applies once you have enough for your own use, and/or better alternatives. Some usual examples include:


 * Pot trash: Particular offenders are, , and , which sell for only a few coppers each; even a 999-stack of any of these will only yield a few silver coins, comparable to a single  dropped by a passing bat.
 * Herbs and their seeds, (which also stack only to 99). Once you have farms of your own, there's no reason to harvest them in the wild.  Even farming them for profit is hardly worth the trouble.
 * can be upgraded but otherwise qualify, and can't even be upgraded.
 * Later on, when you are dealing more in gold (or platinum) than silver, you can trash drops that "only" sell for silver, especially when they're unstackable or poorly stackable. For example, even a 99-stack of Bombs, or a 30-stack of most chest/pot potions, sells for about .   You can also stash these in nearby chests pending a visit by the Skeleton Merchant.

Finders Keepers

 * Plain old are probably the first thing you can collect (or farm) for sale, and you'll likely pick a fair number anyway just running around.  Their sell price of  apiece is a lot for the early game.
 * The various dye ingredients can be sold for each whether or not they've been crafted into dyes.  Strange Plants can also be traded to the Dye Trader for rare dyes, which can be sold.  The Strange Plants (at least) prevent others of their kind from spawning nearby, so harvesting them opens up territory for more to spawn.  (In 1.4, Strange Plants are limited to Hardmode.)
 * By and beneath the Ocean,  and several variants of  will spawn continuously, with values ranging from to .  With a little effort they can even be farmed.
 * 1.4 introduces fruit dropping from trees. All of them except the Hallow fruits give only Well Fed, so as soon as you have food that can give you Plenty Satisfied or better, you might as well sell the rest (each).  (Grapes. appearing in Hardmode, are another story entirely, and likely worth keeping for use.)
 * As soon as you venture outside the forest, you'll start seeing "rare drops" from various enemies, mostly accessories but with occasional armor and weapons. Generally you need one of each for your own use, the rest are saleable.  Crafting the accessories into more advanced items (notably the Cell Phone crafting tree) is good for your own use, but usually not for sale value.  Some of the rare food drops are worth using directly instead (anything that gives Plenty Satisfied or especially Exquisitely Stuffed).
 * Much the same applies to the contents of various chests -- there are a few items that you may want a spare or two of (again, some only have a few per world), but eventually you'll reach a point where they're just duplicates. Many of these items can be had from fished crates as well.
 * Breaking found around the world can release coins and other saleable items.
 * Additionally, in, pots have a rare chance of opening a Coin portal, which can yield 5-.
 * The money dropped from Pots varies with location, and also increases by about 10% for every boss you have defeated (that is, game progression -- boss farming doesn't count).
 * Luck affects both the money yield from Pots, and the chance of a Coin Portal.
 * In the Caverns and in Pyramids you may find small sacks of coins spilling over stone. These are Coin Stashes. Breaking them drops their respective content.
 * A variety of naturally-placed can also contain coins and other loot.


 * Collect all the Silt, Slush, and Dessert Fossils you can find. Once you get an Extractinator, these can be converted to money, ores, and gems.
 * None of these blocks are renewable, (and before 1.4, nor are the gems). That said, there are few other uses for these blocks:  Silt can also be used to craft  for building, and before 1.4, Desert Fossils are explosion-proof blocks.  As of 1.4, Desert Fossils are no longer explosion-proof -- indeed, explosives are the preferred method for harvesting them.
 * For sale, craft most gems into Stained Glass, except Diamond and Amber. Sell the diamonds directly, but save any Amber for .  You can craft into  for sale, but they also go into some useful equipment, such as Scarab Bombs for more mining.  You can also use the gems to start a gem farm as above.
 * With such crafting, a full stack of 999 silt or slush can yield an average of about total, while desert fossils will average about  (but more amber).  In both cases about a third of that will be in coin, and there is a small chance of getting a jackpot in platinum coins.
 * and can only be sold at their modest prices.CrystalFarms.pngode offers several new materials, though many of those are best crafted (see below):
 * and are both best sold straight.
 * are easy to collect or farm (see images) and sell for lots of money.  Sold straight, 1000 shards will get you,   Save a few dozen for crafting with , below.  In 1.4, a crystal farm will also produce the even more valuable , which are also a boss-summoning item.
 * Pixie Dust can be sold straight, but it is much more profitable to mass-produce (see "Crafting" below).  The dust can also go for.
 * / can also be sold straight, though some cumbersome crafting can more than double the profit.  are small change regardless.
 * The various Souls can be sold straight, but most have profitable and/or boss-summoning crafts, see below (or their pages) for details.
 * The various Souls can be sold straight, but most have profitable and/or boss-summoning crafts, see below (or their pages) for details.

A Warning
Be careful about selling too many useful materials: Some items or materials have a limited per-world supply. This is especially an issue for rare items found in chests or special locations. Also, not everything is about money: Blocks can be used for building, and walling off a large area can take a surprising amount of material. Some items may also make good "trophies" in Item Frames, Weapon Racks, or (Wo)Mannequins.


 * Many kinds of Soil and a few other blocks are plentiful but cannot be created. While it might take some effort to deplete your world of Ice or Clay, it is possible, especially in a small world.  Particularly limited are, , and.
 * There really is no way to make money directly from dirt, mud, or snow, but you can make landscapes out of them.
 * However, dirt and mud can be transformed into, which does sell for a lot of money.
 * Ores and bars can be useful for crafting, even after you're past their "tier". Iron/Lead bars in particular are used in a variety of utility recipes, and the other early bars are used in Watches and Timers.  All the ores have bricks and/or walls that are useful for building, and some useful potions require ores in their recipes.
 * Extras of rare (limited) items can also be brought to another world for a head start there.
 * Avoid selling the materials used for boss summoning items, such as, , and . Fighting bosses is much more profitable than selling these materials!
 * Remember, if you don't need money right now, you can always store potentially-useful stuff, and sell it later when it's clear you have more than you need.

Critters
Once you have a Bug Net and a few NPCs at your base, collecting Critters is trivial (a Water Candle can help), and as they accumulate you can sell them. Their prices range from on up to. The Guide to Critter Companionship is helpful in avoiding accidentally killing critters with your attacks, including those of your minions.

Special mention for Frogs around a Jungle base: With enemy spawns suppressed by NPCs and a Water Candle boosting the critter spawns, these can be remarkably plentiful. They often wander by in armies filling their spawn cap, from 7 (pre-Hardmode day) to 10 (Hardmode night). Their cooked form yields Plenty Satisfied, too (see below).

Seagulls are also plentiful by the Ocean, and sell better once cooked.

Golden Critters have a 1 in 400 chance (1 in 150 before 1.4) of spawning in place of an eligible type: Bird, Bunny, Butterfly, Frog, Grasshopper, Mouse, Squirrel, and Worm (1.4 adds Goldfish, Ladybug, Seahorse, Water Strider). Most of these will be regular sights for dedicated collectors, but the Golden Mouse is arguably the rarest non-unique creature in the game. Despite the low odds, the jackpot is big enough to add a few silver to the "average" price for these types. Note that critters obey a (varying) spawn cap, so collecting the normal critters allows new, potentially Golden, critters to spawn. The similar Golden Carp is obtained only through fishing.

Butterflies are priced according to their fishing bait values, but sell for a good deal more than equivalent baits (Worm, Enchanted Nightcrawler, Master Bait).

Goldfishes and Worms can be easily caught during a rain in a Forest. In both cases, see "Crafting" below for maximum profit. During a rare Meteor Shower, Enchanted Nightcrawlers will spawn directly.

There are two special cases (one new in 1.4), both of which are boss-summoning items, and are technically enemies rather than critters, so the usual critter-farming methods will backfire. Both appear only in Hardmode. The Truffle Worm is found in the underground Glowing Mushroom biome, and the hard part is catching it before it tunnels away to despawn. It is the summon item for Duke Fishron, so save some if you wish to fight him. The Prismatic Lacewing appears only in the surface Hallow, between dusk and midnight (7:30 PM to 12:00 AM). The hazard here is that if killed, this creature will immediately summon the fearsome Empress of Light. However, they can be captured without incident. (The above-mentioned Guide To Critter Companionship is vital in their spawning grounds!)

Critter Food
In 1.4, many more critters are cookable, and the resulting food is often worth more money -- in fact, almost any cooked (non-golden) critter is worth a flat, while few critters sell directly for nearly as much. That said, don't sell all the food, the buffs can be useful! A warning: All these food items only stack to 30, while the critters themselves stack to 999. Don't cook until you're ready to sell or resupply yourself. There are three tiers of food buffs:


 * Most of the commoner critters yield only Well Fed, so they are worth best cooked for sale. Roasted Bird (any bird but the duck types, even Seagulls), Bunny Stew, and Grilled Squirrel all  sell for the usual, far more than the critters they're made from.
 * Food that gives Plenty Satisfied, the second-tier buff is what you probably should be keeping for your own food supply (unless you can do better!): Bowl of Soup (goldfish+mushroom), Grub Soup, Sauteed Frog Legs, Escargot, and Roasted Duck.  Of these, the two soups have a shorter duration and other issues: Goldfish can be sold as Fish Bowls for the same, and those stack to 99; Grub Soup's sale price is barely more than the total for the three critters, and it is limited by the supply of the rarest (Buggy), so you'll have the others left over to sell separately.
 * The culmination of this is that any Golden Critter (including those which aren't otherwise edible) can be cooked into Golden Delight, which grants the highest-tier food buff Exquisitely Stuffed for a full two game days. It's still salable for the same, and it stacks better than an assortment of Golden Critters.  Other sources of Exquisitely Stuffed (with shorter duration) come from cooking potion fish (see below), and from enemy drops.

Fishing
Fishing can provide a lot of saleable stuff, especially once you get better equipment from the Angler; besides the "usual" fish, you will also catch various useful and saleable tools, weapons, and accessories, not to mention the occasional Golden Carp or Crates. If you're getting impatient waiting for the Angler to give you the Golden pole, you can buy, find, or make various intermediate-powered poles. For best results, pay attention to the moon phase, time, and the size of the lake. Note that anything gotten from fishing is renewable by definition.


 * All the cookable fishes that you're not using for food are best sold uncooked. ( and up)
 * As with the critters above, sell off the ones that could only give you Well Fed first:
 * ,, and would only be good for Cooked Fish;   go for  apiece (set the pearls aside for potion brewing).
 * In contrast, and  cook up for a full 10 minutes of Plenty Satisfied;  , ,  , and  all give 8 minutes as Sashimi.  You may want to keep some of these for yourself.
 * Likewise, the fish used for brewing potions all sell for more money than the potions you could craft. (mostly, including the Honeyfin)
 * Surplus potion fish (including the Honeyfin and the otherwise-useless Neon Tetra) can also be cooked into Seafood Dinners, two fish per dinner. These give the top-tier food buff Exquisitely Stuffed -- the duration is short, but even so, this may be a better use than selling them.
 * Quest fishes can't be sold, but if you come up with extras (stash them in a chest or bank as you catch each one), you can turn them in for a later quest.
 * Jellyfish are weak bait but very saleable.
 * This leaves the various tools, weapons, and accessories. Use what you need, then sell off the rest.
 * All Critters used for bait (including Enchanted Nightcrawlers) sell for much more than the Angler Bait that could replace them. As soon as you get Master or even Journeyman Bait, use that instead.
 * All crates except Wooden can contain Master Bait, and the Angler can also give it as a reward. Once you have enough Master Bait, you can sell off your Apprentice Bait and Journeyman Bait  too.

Fishing for Crates with Crate Potions is an easy and safe way to make large amounts of money. Depending on location, fishing power, and if in Hardmode, this can rake in up to per Crate Potion, aside from the useful items you can save for yourself. Use the best bait you've got, with any Angler's equipment you have, and whatever relevant Potions you have.


 * You will probably get your first Crate, Fishing and Sonar potions as Angler rewards or from previously-caught crates, but once you've got the makings you can also craft them for yourself.
 * This is one of the two main ways to get your world's "alternate" metals, both before and during Hardmode.
 * In  versions, if you save crates for opening in Hardmode, they will also provide both alternatives for the early Hardmode metals.  Note that high-tier crates don't have all the metals, and only Wooden crates contain ore.

Never sell unopened Crates -- opening them will average several times their sale price just in coin, plus useful and saleable items. On average, most crate value is from the coins, but (especially in quantity) the other items can sell for a decent bonus. Hardmode brings more valuable metals and more items. Here is a more detailed rundown on crate values.

Crafting
Almost any craft that requires a purchased ingredient is unlikely to be profitable, no matter how useful the item is in gameplay. Crafting together items that are picked up "for free" is another story, and there are many common materials whose sale value can be sharply improved by the proper recipe.

When crafting large numbers of weapons or accessories, the random modifiers will add a bit to your yield: This bonus averages a bit over 10% for melee weapons, or 20% for accessories. Magic or ranged weapons (rare in this context) fall between those at around 15%. Note that individual weapons can have their value reduced by modifiers, but the average will be above list price. Accessory modifiers can only increase the item's sale price.

Ores and Gems
On version 1.4, most bars sell for the same price as the ores that went into them. The exceptions are Meteorite and Hellstone, whose bars sell for much more.


 * Most ores sell for at least as much, and often more than, the bars made from them. The exceptions are the late pre-Hardmode ores (Meteorite, Demonite/Crimtane, Hellstone), and Chlorophyte, all of which are far more profitable as bars.
 * The evil ores are dropped by bosses, so they can be easily farmed for sale.
 * If you have an Autohammer, Converting Chlorophyte bars to Shroomite gets another per bar (% more).
 * On the versions, Iron (but not Lead) is worth slightly more as Chains ( for 10) than bars (/bar). On the, Chains ( for 10), sell for much more than either bar.
 * Obsidian can't be sold directly, but it can be crafted into Obsidian Skulls worth each, plus modifier bonuses.
 * On 1.4, Liquid Bombs, or the Bottomless Water Bucket and Bottomless Lava Bucket, allow unlimited obsidian.
 * On other platforms, liquid duplication allows making an automated obsidian farm, if just flooding lava lakes isn't convenient enough.
 * Obsidian is also needed to craft Hellstone Bars.
 * If you also have extra Water Walking Boots, you can upgrade them to Obsidian Water Walking Boots worth . Remember that these boots come only from Water Chests, so there is a limited number in each world!
 * Most Gems (not diamonds or amber) are best crafted into Stained Glass (/gem).
 * This does use quite a lot of Glass, 5 times the number of gems. However, sand is farmable:  In 1.4, making 1000 sand takes about 8 minutes, or less with Hardmode equipment.  1000 sand +100 gems = !   Alternatively, you can simply buy a lot of bombs and go to a desert, and begin to blow up and collect the sand from there. Though it slightly reduces the profit, it's far easier to collect sand in that way.
 * You can create new worlds and go into caves for even more gems.
 * Remember that silt, slush, and desert fossils can be turned into gems at a low chance at an extractor, but there is a limited amount of these in a world.
 * Before 1.4, there also is a limited amount of gems to be mined in a world.
 * Gemcorns can be used to farm gems, making gems unlimited.
 * Diamonds can only be sold directly ( each). Amber can be sold like diamonds, but it's far more profitable to brew Crate Potions with it and go fishing (see above). Alternatively, as of 1.4, Orange Stained Glass can be crafted out of Amber, allowing you to use that as a quicker method instead.

Biome Materials
Several frequently-surplus materials have optimum but sometimes-cumbersome sale methods. As always, be sure you won't want them for something else.

Don’t craft fallen stars into mana crystals, as fallen stars sell for 5 silver each but mana crystals don’t sell for anything
 * From the Desert:
 * Sand: Craft into Glass, then Mugs, then Ale.  At  per mug of ale, 1000 sand yields .  (You can do somewhat better with candelabras, and much better with stained glass as above.)
 * Cactus: 1000 blocks of cactus makes 100 Cactus Swords plus bonuses for modifiers.  (Candelabras beat that if you supply the torches, see below).
 * Sturdy Fossils: 1000 of them make 30,000 Throwing Knives for ( per fossil).
 * Antlion Mandibles: With Blinkroot and bottled water, make Mining Potions ( each).  An Alchemy Table will help.
 * Ancient Cloth: The only thing to do with it is to add Silk and make pieces of the Ancient Set, each.  (A 25% improvement over selling the materials.)
 * From the Jungle:
 * Bee Wax: 96 make 12 Bee Headgear.
 * Upgrading Nature's Gifts to Mana Flowers almost doubles their sale price to (plus any modifier bonus).
 * If you have surpluses of multiple jungle materials (Rich Mahogany, Stingers, Vines, Jungle Spores,), the Amazon is a good moneymaker ( apiece, with modifier bonuses).
 * Once the mahogany runs out, you can use up more vines by making Snapthorns ; if the vines run out you can turn to Thorn Chakrams.
 * Separately, the spores can become Jungle Hats ( for 8 spores), and the stingers can become Flasks of Poison ( per stinger).
 * Elsewhere (some of these are easier):
 * Turn Goldfish into Fish Bowls  or (with Mushrooms) Bowls of Soup.
 * You can combine Worms with Fallen Stars, for Enchanted Nightcrawlers (, and they are also better bait than plain worms).
 * Cobwebs: 994 cobwebs make 142 Silk, ( per cobweb).
 * But if you have both Cobwebs and Bones, 1000 of each makes 25 Necro Helmets, which sell for, handily beating candelabras and silk at per pair.
 * Wood by itself can be monetized as candelabras (see below, but minimum /block). However, this is dwarfed by its usefulness in other recipes..
 * Wood and gel together are worth at least per paired pieces, representing the purchase price of the torches they replace.
 * Wood and stone can be crafted into arrows, but this is only worthwhile in Hardmode (see below).

Candelabras
Many otherwise-unsaleable blocks can be monetized as Candelabras ( each). These include: All kinds of wood (except Dynasty Wood, but see below), Gel (as Slime Blocks), Sand (as half its number of Glass), Cactus, Pumpkins (only worthwhile during Halloween), Granite (as Smooth Granite), Glowing mushrooms, Honey blocks, Bones, and Martian Conduit Plating. Ice and Marble (as Smooth Marble) can also be used, but are non-renewable. As worked out below, this gives a minimum value for these materials of /block.


 * In some cases you will also need an appropriate crafting station; use the Living Loom for plain wood, as there is no plain wood candelabra.
 * Each 1000 blocks (1 stack +1) plus 600 torches (6 stacks +6) will produce 200 candelabras that can be sold for.
 * Even buying the torches from the Merchant costs only, letting you walk away with the other half of the sale price.
 * Making your own torches will instead use 200 (more) each of gel and wood.
 * Either way, for Boreal Wood and Ice, you will also need 200 (more) ice blocks to turn the torches into ice torches.
 * For wood or gel, another way to work the same recipe is as follows: Start with 996 wood and 166 gel, or vice versa. Make 498 torches (5 stacks +3), then use those and 830 wood or slime blocks to make 166 candelabras as above for.
 * However, if you have wood and gel, things get more complex:
 * To do the above "both ways at once", you could start with 994 each wood and gel, set aside 284 of each to make 852 torches, convert the remaining 710 gel to slime blocks, and continue to make 142 each wood and slime candelabras for . However, in this or the Dynasty wood craft below, 1000 each wood and gel can instead replace  worth of torches as above, and supplying 5000 other blocks (or 3000 Dynasty wood) can make you.

Dynasty Wood
On versions and platforms before 1.4, Dynasty wood provides a true "money for nothing" deal:


 * 1) The basics of the deal:
 * 2) * Dynasty wood can be purchased from the Traveling Merchant for apiece.
 * 3) * Torches from the Merchant are also apiece, or you can make your own from "free" wood and gel.
 * 4) The Large Dynasty Lantern requires 4 of each ( total if you provide the torches, twice that if you buy them). However, before 1.4, it sells for  apiece.
 * 5) This can be done on a large scale: 1000 dynasty wood will cost, but with 1000 torches (made from 334 each wood and gel), you can produce 250 lanterns worth ( profit).
 * 6) Even if you buy the torches from the Merchant, that only costs another, leaving you of profit.  And since you also made back what you paid up front, you can buy another 1000 each of Dynasty wood and torches for the next round....
 * 7) *In multiplayer, one player can keep the Traveling Merchant's shop open (preventing him from leaving) while other player(s) buy torches, craft lanterns and ferry the resources around.
 * 8) *Note that Dynasty wood cannot be used to make torches.

As of 1.4, the Large Dynasty Lantern only sells for, which effectively patches the exploit.

Hardmode
As usual, the below applies after the usual equipment is made and the materials are actually surplus:


 * Surplus Hallowed Bars can be sold straight, but there are a few crafts that can increase their profit somewhat:
 * They can be put toward Light Discs, but as of 1.4 this is no longer a major profit engine.
 * Perhaps the best remaining way to use them is to make Excalibur s. While unmodified Excaliburs sell for less than 12 Hallowed Bars, random modifiers will average about 6% profit.  Even better is to combine them with surplus Broken Hero Swords to make True Excaliburs ( base); if you have enough Hallowed Bars, you can craft the worse-modified Excaliburs, and sell the better ones directly.
 * As you fight Wyverns and collect Souls of Flight, craft them into Wings . Besides the various rare drops that can only be used for Wings, this can soak up extra Souls of Night (25), Souls of Light (25), or Pixie Dust (100), along with Harpy Feathers.  This is also the most profitable way to sell off extra Beetle Husks, almost doubling the husks' sale price.  With random modifiers, 10 pairs of wings will average almost a platinum piece.
 * Before 1.4, Souls of Might (and Light) go for Light Discs (see "The Destroyer" below, but this was nerfed in 1.4). Souls of Fright should be saved for Naughty Presents.  Souls of Sight have no profitable crafts available, but are needed to make Sensors.
 * Another way to use up Souls of Light and Night is to summon Biome Mimics for a tough fight with great rewards.
 * Pixie Dust ( per piece) can be combined 3-to-1 with Crystal Shards ( each) to make Greater Healing Potions (3 per recipe gives ). An Alchemy Table can add another 50% to your output, for an average of  per crystal.
 * With the Alchemy Table, each stack of 99 pixie dust and 33 shards (otherwise worth a mere ) will yield potions worth an average of, a % profit over the ingredients. (Slightly more profit than using the pixie dust for Wings).
 * The potions only stack to 30, which makes this slightly cumbersome, but that's still per stack.
 * Cursed Flame and Ichor  can most profitably be sold as Cursed or Ichor Arrows (150 arrows for  per piece).  However, this is cumbersome, and will take 6 times their number in wood and (non-renewable) stone; 100 Cursed Flame/Ichor, plus 600 wood and 600 stone, yields 15,000 arrows worth .  Each pair of wood and stone returns up to  profit.
 * Even Worm Teeth can double their sale price of as Unholy Arrows (5 arrows for  per tooth), at the cost of one-fifth (20%) of their number in wood and stone.  (100 teeth need 20 wood and 20 stone.  Each wood/stone pair adds  of profit.)
 * Spooky Wood can be sold as Spooky Helmet s, which yield /block with no gel needed. With gel or stone, it can be used more profitably as "any wood" for torches or arrows as above.
 * Wood and stone can be crafted into arrow s, which in turn can be crafted into Endless Quiver s (160 each wood & stone yields, or per pair).  Cursed or Ichor arrows (see below) yield twice that (see below).

Statue farming


The basic setup for statue farming involves connecting a Statue to a 1 Second Timer (or a Crab Engine). Place a shallow layer of lava (recommended) around the statue, or connect a few Dart Traps to kill the spawned monsters. Once you click the switch, all you have to do is wait for drops to accumulate. A tunnel beneath the trap can allow safe collection, and Conveyor Belts can help once they're available. Housing a vendor NPC near the farm is convenient for selling the items quickly. Multiple statues in a lava pit can speed things up.

Caveats
Unfortunately, successive version upgrades have made statue farming much less profitable and convenient than before. Despite these changes, statues remain useful for important drops such as Cell Phone or Ankh Shield components, later a Medusa Head, and so on. They can also be used to farm some raw materials such as gel.

Since Version 1.3:


 * Statue-spawned enemies do not drop coins, many have reduced rates for their other drops, and some will not drop items if killed by traps. See the Statue page for details.
 * Sharks and mimics spawned by statues no longer spawn Dungeon Spirits (and mimics drop no loot at all).
 * Statue-spawned critters cannot be caught. If a Bug Net is used on them, they will disappear in a puff of smoke.
 * Statues will only trigger twice per second no matter how they are activated, and they will not trigger if there are more than 3 of their creature in the immediate vicinity, 6 within most of the screen, or 10 anywhere in the world.

Since Version 1.4:


 * The profitable Granite Golem Statue has been nerfed, as have several other statues. The sell value of some drops has also been tweaked.
 * On the flip side, several previously non-functional statues now produce enemies: Goblin, Eyeball, Hornet, Imp, and Corrupt.
 * No statue-spawned creature will drop loot if killed entirely by lava. At least some player-initiated damage has to be involved, even if lava deals the "killing blow".  Some options include, using a block-penetrating weapon such as a Vilethorn or Crimson Rod (the latter needs to be placed from above), or placing a sentry in the killing chamber such as the Lightning Aura Rod or better.

Before 1.4, there are still a number of options to be had, depending what enemy you are trying to spawn:


 * A statue farm for a relatively strong enemy -- specifically, one that takes a half-second or more to die in lava -- can't do much better than up to three statues on a single timer. Note that lava does 50 damage/hit to enemies, and hits apparently come 6 times per second.
 * However, those spawns killed in less than a half-second can make use of staggered timers to keep more statues in play.
 * Farms whose spawn is killed almost immediately can use far more statues, triggered in sequence. In fact, if you have enough statues of a single type, you can spawn your targets literally just as fast as they die.  (The question is just how quickly a death registers.)
 * And of course, the spawn limits only apply to a single type; it's entirely fair to mix statue types in a farm depending on what statues you have.

In 1.4, those enemies that would be one-shotted by lava, need instead to be killed with a block-penetrating weapon or sentry, as above.

Lava Pools
Use of lava warrants some standard comments; while statue farming no longer involves coin drops, the shallow pool is still useful:

Profitable Statues
Many statues are still good for regularly producing their bonus items, and in some cases the value of these items combined with the drop chance makes them usefully farmable. Note that most of the following do qualify as "weak enemies" by the above standard: Only Unicorns take more than a second to die. Granite Golems only take three lava hits (perhaps half a second) to die, the undead (Skeletons, Hoplites, Undead Vikings) all die on the second hit, and the others are one-hit kills. In 1.4 many of the former moneymakers have been heavily nerfed.

Note that many statues drop Hooks often. While these only sell for straight, they can trivially be crafted with Chains to make a Grappling Hook worth. Happily, the raw Hooks do stack, and each upgrade costs less than one piece of Iron or Lead ore. Accordingly, the yields below will credit Hooks at their post-crafting price.

The list includes only the statues with passable drops at reasonable chances, and ignores some rare and/or low-priced drops. It does include some which have been nerfed into oblivion by 1.4.

Per spawn, the most profitable statue by far is the Granite Golem, but as of 1.4 they no longer drop loot when killed by lava. Otherwise profitable statues include (mostly due to crafting the Hooks as above) the Hoplite, Skeleton, and Piranha statues. In Hardmode, the Unicorn statue comes fifth for its horn drops (but takes much longer to kill), while the Jellyfish trails distantly with an average of one silver piece per spawn. While the Granite Golem is clearly best despite occasional stacks of granite, the Hoplite barely outyields (5%) the Skeleton, and the latter doesn't produce stacks upon stacks of unsaleable (nearly worthless) Javelins.

Remaining leaders include the Hoplite, Unicorn, and Piranha statues, in that order.

Selected Statues

 * Bats drop Depth Meter s (, 1%) and Chain Knives (0.4%) . Note that they spawn on the ground, and so get killed instantly by the lava. Yield is /spawn
 * Using Bunny Statues during a Blood Moon will spawn their evil counterparts, which drop Bunny Hoods (, 1.33%, yield /spawn). A Penguin Statue during a Blood Moon will likewise produce pieces of Pedguin's set (/piece, 2%, yield /spawn).
 * The converted critters don't count towards the Statue's spawn limit, so you can add even more statues for this occasion. Both statues can be crafted from caught critters.
 * Granite Golems drop the Night Vision Helmet (, 3.3%), plus a steady supply of granite blo ck s, which stack to 999 (1 stack/133 spawns). Yield:  /spawn.
 * Crediting the granite at /1000 (as candelabra, see "Crafting" above), adds an average of (34% of the helmet yield) for a total of /spawn.
 * The crafted profit for the granite can be doubled to /1000 if you supply your own torches. A Slime statue makes a Gel supply easy, but you're on your own for wood.
 * As of 1.4, they also drop Geodes. However, their drop rates for all items have been reduced sharply.  They also do not drop loot when killed entirely by lava.
 * Hoplite Statues produce Gladiator armor (average /piece, 1.67%) and Hooks (4%), along with an average of 30 Javelins per spawn. (1 stack/33.3 spawns).   In 1.4, the Javelins are salable for  apiece, or  per thousand.  The yield is  for the armor,  for the Hooks,  for the javelins, total /spawn.
 * Jellyfish Statues yield Jellyfish Necklaces (, 0.025% (was 1%).  The glowstick are trash; each 99-stack (16 spawns, was 40) sells for under .  Yield is /spawn.
 * Piranhas drop Compasses (, 1.33%), Robot Hat (, 0.4%)) and Hooks (3.3%).  The yield is  for the compasses,  for the hats and  for the Hooks, total /spawn.
 * Skeletons offer several drops: Drops Ancient Gold Helmet ( 0.12%, was 0.5%), Ancient Iron Helmet ((, 0.25%, was 1%), Bone Sword (, 0.1225%, was 0.5%), and Hook (1%).  Yield is  for the helmets and swords,  for the Hooks, total  per spawn.
 * Undead Vikings drop Viking Helmets (,0.5%), Compasses (, 0.5%), and a few more Hooks (1%). Yield is, plus  for the Hooks, total /spawn.
 * Unicorns drop Unicorn Horns (, 5%), and now Blessed Apples (, 0.125%), but only in Hardmode.  They need a 6x3 space to spawn, but other statues will not block them.  Yield is /spawn.  Note that they take a lot longer to kill than other creatures on this list, due to their high health and defense.

Bomb Statues work a little differently: no lava or traps are required, but only 3 bombs can spawn at once, so you need to stay close to collect the bombs. In any case, you'll want a vendor NPC nearby to quickly sell the stacks of bombs.

Heart & Star Generator
Statues for weak Enemies (those killed in one or two hits from lava) can be used to create a Heart and Star generator for boss fights; when they die they they will drop Hearts and Stars whenever the player is not at full health or mana respectively. These drops do not have the spawn limits of Heart Statues and Star Statues. In this context, Crabs and Wall Creepers have the advantage of not dropping anything else. Other weak enemies, which will produce saleable stuff as a side effect, include:


 * (one hit) Bats, Dripplers, Piranha, Zombies
 * (two hits) Blood Zombie, Harpy, Skeleton, Undead Viking.
 * Note that Jellyfish, Slimes, and Hoplites would otherwise qualify, but should be avoided here, due to dropping large numbers of worthless items.

Fighting bosses and events
Once a player has defeated a given event or boss, they will quickly reach a point where they can kill them easily. Aside from developing skills, the player is accumulating equipment over time, and progressively outclassing their former enemies. It can be quite profitable to repeatedly summon and slaughter prior bosses and events. Not all bosses are listed below, as some are not good moneymakers.


 * In Hardmode, the use of the Midas debuff (Flask of Gold or Golden Bullets). will increase enemy drops, as will use of a Lucky Coin (or its upgrades).
 * If you are sufficiently overpowered for some event, the Lucky Coin will reward "cherry-tapping", using weak attacks and weak summons to maximize the number of hits landed. Cherry-tapping works best for Invasions (events with a  fixed number of spawns, marked by a progress bar) and perhaps some bosses.  There are limits:
 * For any given enemy, the Lucky Coin can extract at most (an average of) per health point beyond their normal drops, assuming all player attacks do 1 damage each.
 * Critical attacks will do at least 2 damage, so high critical chances will reduce yields from cherry-tapping.
 * Cherry-tapping is also limited by the rate of attacks. Doing this to bosses can be slow; e.g., cherry-tapping the Eye of Cthulhu can roughly quadruple the take, but will likely take much longer than stomping on four in a row.
 * For timed events (Blood Moon, Solar Eclipse, Frost Moon, Pumpkin Moon) the Lucky Coin can still bring in extra money, but it may be more profitable to slaughter enemies as quickly as possible, to maximize spawns, get the most drops from kills, and perhaps move on to more advanced waves.
 * In addition to the drops noted below, the occasional (10%) boss trophies can be sold for each.
 * Recall that Demonite and Crimtane ores are best sold as bars.

Special enemies
A few Hardmode enemies warrant special note because of the generosity of their drops. All of these are powerful enough to qualify as minibosses when first encountered:


 * Mimics warrant special note because they drop  even without use of the Midas debuff, and you can sell the items they drop for up to . A continuously swinging sword with enough knockback to keep the Mimic at distance, or ranged weapons, can easily kill them with little risk. As noted below, farming the Golem's room will reliably produce quite a few Mimics; they are also common in the Underworld.
 * The Star Cloak and Cross Necklace can be combined for great profit, as before 1.4 a Star Veil was worth.
 * Biome Mimics drop only up front, but most of their "special" item drops sell for  (hooks only for ), with another  or so worth of potions. They are rarer "in the wild", but can be summoned with Keys of Light or Night, for a definite profit over  worth of Souls.
 * Wyverns drop 1, and also drop Souls of Flight. On average, each Wyvern will drop slightly over half the Souls needed for a pair of wings, each pair saleable for . Wings will also require an additional "key" ingredient, but many of these can be had as drops from a variety of enemies.

Eye of Cthulhu
Farming the Eye of Cthulhu will yield about per kill, assuming all drops are transformed and sold.

Even before the player reaches Hardmode, it can easily be defeated multiple times in a row, resulting in lots of money. With Hardmode equipment, it is possible to kill over 100 Eyes in one night.

Each kill yields in coin and an average of 59 ore. (Other drops are worth a bit of silver.) On, selling the ore as bars yields an average of  for Demonite, or  for Crimtane. For, that will be for Demonite, or  for Crimtane.

A stack of 20 Suspicious Looking Eyes (quite possible with late-game gear) will yield about in coin and   in Demonite or  in Crimtane. (For, the yield is for Demonite or  for Crimtane.)

Eater of Worlds
The Eater of Worlds drops an average of 175 Demonite ore per kill, which sells as bars for an average of about. ( .)

Buying Vile Powder for a Worm Food costs only -- for boss farming, even stocking up during a Blood Moon may be more convenient than gathering or farming the mushrooms. However, the Rotten Chunk s must be harvested. With Hardmode weapons, the Eater can be summarily dispatched, but the Destroyer becomes a more effective use of those Rotten Chunks.

Brain of Cthulhu
Farming the Brain of Cthulhu will yield about per kill, assuming all drops are transformed and sold.

The Brain of Cthulhu and its Creepers drop about coin and about 207 Crimtane ore. ( in Expert Mode) On, the bars sell for about. On, the sale yields.

Buying Vicious Powder for a Bloody Spine costs only -- for boss farming, even stocking up during a Blood Moon may be more convenient than gathering or farming the mushrooms. However, the Vertebrae must be harvested. With Hardmode weapons, the Brain can be killed fairly quickly, but the Destroyer becomes a more effective use of those Vertebrae.

Queen Bee
Farming the Queen Bee will yield about per kill, assuming all drops are sold.

The Queen Bee has no time restrictions and only needs to be summoned in a jungle. Like other early bosses, it becomes very easy to fight with hardmode or late-game weapons, even when "enraged". Each Queen Bee drops in coins, plus various item drops whose sale prices average to another. On most platforms, Bee Wax can be best sold by crafting it into Bee Headgear, to bring in another 2-. The Abeemination is rather easy to craft, as (except on ) all the ingredients can be found or made in the jungle, and it doesn't even need an altar to craft.

Wall of Flesh
Farming the Wall of Flesh will yield about per kill, assuming all drops are sold.

Using Hardmode gear, you can kill the Wall of Flesh quickly and cheaply. It can be summoned day or night, but repeated summons do need to wait on the Guide respawning after his death. Timing the first fight for just before dawn (4:30 AM) can allow two or more fights in a morning; the Guide will need about 2 minutes after either dawn or his last respawn before he can reappear. Drops in coins, a Pwnhammer which sells for about, and another random item which sells for 2-.

A decent way to farm the Wall in early Hardmode, even before defeating any mechanical bosses, is by boosting summons (such as the Spider Staff) with the Spider armor, backed up with a good Yoyo and the Yoyo Bag. The Amarok is easy to obtain in the Ice biome and does solid damage as well as the Frostburn debuff. Collecting more Guide Voodoo Doll s is trivial in the Underworld, especially with Hardmode equipment.

The Destroyer
Farming the Destroyer will yield about in coin and  worth of drops (sold straight) per kill. The key ingredients for the Mechanical Worm must be collected from the Underground evil biome, but are common drops from most or all of the enemies there. You will also want to collect Souls of Light from the Underground Hallow. With Post-Plantera gear, The Destroyer can be killed multiple times in one night, subject only to the supplies for summoning it.

Before version 1.4, crafting Light Discs (formerly apiece) makes the Destroyer a major farming target. As of 1.4, their reduced price offers only a slight profit over the materials. On average you can make a stack of 5 Discs for each kill (and 15 Souls of Light) with occasional extras. Over multiple kills, there will be leftover Souls of Might; these can be crafted with spare Hallowed Bars from the other mechanical bosses, or just sold on their own.

Golem
Farming the Golem will yield about per kill, assuming all drops are sold.

However, you can also make quite a bit of money just farming Lihzahrds and Flying Snakes in the Golem's room. Place a Water Candle and banners nearby, grapple yourself to the ceiling, and just shoot downward for awhile, and/or let your minions hunt. After a while the Power Cells and other loot can be collected. This works well with a Coin Ring, Slime Staff, and Tiki Armor.

This method also will yield quite a lot of Solar Tablet Fragments, a fair number of Mimics, (which drop some nice money and items), and some Yelets to boot. You will average about one power cell for each banner earned; the banner messages are a good cue to collect your loot, hopefully including power cells. Conveyor belts can gather the loot into stacks, to prevent items from despawning among the flood of coins.

The solar fragments can be used for Solar Tablets, which summon the remarkably profitable Solar Eclipse (see below)

and Moon Lord
After repeating the endgame a few times, surplus Lunar Fragments can be crafted into Monoliths for sale;  each for 15 Fragments, and each pillar drops an average of 36 of its type, averaging  almost  worth per round.

The Moon Lord himself drops a Portal Gun worth, Luminite worth an average of , and an endgame weapon worth to. Combining Lunar Fragments into a Celestial Sigil effectively trades them for more Luminite and other Moon Lord drops, but this is not profitable; even without pro-rating them, one Monolith of each type is worth more than the Moon Lord's drops.

Make a house with a thin layer of Lava on the top and sides so the drops don't burn. You may want lava protection to collect the drops. He drops his own summoning item, and if you have more than one you can summon multiples of the boss. Each kill nets coins and items worth about.

During Thanksgiving, Turkor the Ungrateful can be farmed by only attacking his heads, which drop most of a gold piece each. This may not be worth the trouble: Consider that the individual heads have 2000 health (but no defense), and attack for 55 damage, then compare that to the Eye of Cthulhu's stats and drops.

Holidays
If the Halloween season is upon your game, treats are in store. Goodie Bags commonly drop costumes with 2 to 3 pieces, each piece worth, or the bags can be sold directly for. Pumpkins also become plentiful; they can be crafted into chandeliers as above, or baked directly into Pumpkin Pies ( for 10 pumpkins). In the Christmas season, Presents can't be sold directly, but many of the gifts within are saleable.

Events
Much as with bosses, once you have mastered an event, you can effectively farm it as desired. Suitable use of lava pools and other traps can allow killing off most of an invasion automatically, leaving you to deal with minibosses, flying enemies, and spot defense. While the pre-Hardmode events are basically small change, Hardmode offers some better opportunities, especially with a Lucky Coin, Gold Ring, or both (as a Coin Ring). Gold Dust items will also improve drops.


 * Even the lowly Blood Moon has rather better coin drops in Hardmode.
 * The Solar Eclipse can be particularly profitable -- with a Gold Ring (to rapidly gather coins) and powerful weapons, they can approach even before use of Gold Dust items or a Lucky Coin (which can double or triple the yield). The Moon Charm and Neptune's Shell can be profitably combined into a Moon Shell.
 * The Goblin Army is relatively small, but by the same token can be finished off fairly quickly with an arena and/or advanced weaponry. Tattered Cloth for the summoning item can be farmed with a Goblin Statue.
 * The Pirate Invasion can yield a bit of cash and some saleable Golden Furniture. Initially, its greatest attraction is the rare drops:
 * The is comparatively common, and very useful for collecting coins swiftly.
 * A Discount Card can save a lot on purchases and reforging.
 * The scarce Lucky Coin is an actual license to coin money (a Slime Staff can help).
 * The Coin Gun is usually considered an eccentricity, and it does take some inventory management to make it work. That said, with the techniques in this guide, you can have enough money that you can afford to use gold coins as ammunition, and perhaps even platinum!
 * For getting rare drops, it's best to "farm" for Flying Dutchmen. Once you do have those drops, farming a Pirate invasion from shelter with a Coin Ring, Slime Staff, and Tiki Armor (if you don't kill the Dutchman, you'll get more pirates) can yield up to.
 * Martian Invasions are difficult to arrange on demand, but putting a Water Candle on a Floating Island will eventually lure in a Probe, and with a suitable base they could be farmed in fair safety, especially for the Saucer drops. In 1.4, it's not so safe (the saucer's beam now penetrates blocks), but some of the saucer's drops have been distributed to the lesser Martians.
 * The Pumpkin Moon is probably the most effective event to farm coin. Late game, a player using the Last Prism, a Stardust Dragon, Nebula armor, and appropriate buffs, can easily farm over per moon (over  in coins and over  after selling gear).
 * With the introducing of Zenith, geared up with Solar armor, Greedy Ring, and the buff obtained from Flask of Gold, one can net out over per night after collecting and selling all enemy drops. Also make sure to pick up all hearts after having down a mini-boss, serving as the main source of surviving. One could easily get over-encumbered though, resulting in a large portion of the loots vanishing for too many left on the ground not picked up. This could be mitigated with the uses of additional storage.
 * Also make sure to sell loots to a merchant whose happiness is max.
 * The Frost Moon is more difficult to farm: it's harder than the Pumpkin Moon, also Ice Queens appear only one at a time and are harder to kill quickly.

Monster Farming
Once in Hardmode you can buy Gold Dust to craft ammunition or Flasks which will increase the amount of money monsters drop on death. Also, don't forget mobs spawn as much below you as above, so filling in any caves below your farm can increase spawn rates within the farm.

Slime Staff Farming
If you have a Lucky Coin and Slime Staff (Slime statues do drop Slime Staffs) you can farm for money very easily at the rate of about 10 Gold/Minute. Making full use of the spawning mechanics, it is possible to make the speed exceed 1 platinum per minute. A simple way to apply the slime staff is to create a space in the Lihzarhd Temple where you can stand in a box in an open space with all of the Lihzarhds crowing below you. Then summon all of the slimes you can. The slimes hit very quickly and only do about 1 damage a hit, with each hit giving a chance to drop several gold coins due to the Lucky Coin. You can do a similar farm by creating a box in the Ocean and putting 80 Lihzard blocks around you (to spawn Arapaimas and increase spawn rate).

However, minions are treated as projectiles, and since the slime won't vanish after hitting a monster, it counts as a piercing projectile: This means that each monster hit by a slime will get 1/6 second's invulnerability against more piercing attacks. This limits the effect of adding more slime minions, unless there are plenty of targets to go around (see invasions note below).

Invasions are also a very viable way of making money from this method. Even for rare Pirate Maps and the effort required to farm 2-3 maps, the profit is well worth the effort. Even with minimum equipment and boosts, including two Summoning Potions, a Bewitching Table and holing up in a base slightly above or below the ground, one can make an average of per invasion or  if they sell the gold furniture dropped by the invasion enemies.

Hallow Farm


Once you enter Hardmode, it may be a good idea to farm The Hallow. The best way to do this is to make an AFK Hallow Farm:


 * The first thing to do is to clear out a flat area in The Hallow, which will help the spawn rate. Then create a pillar, at least 15 blocks high.
 * After that, clear out two wide pits on both sides of the pillar with a thin layer of lava, thin enough to not destroy drops. This will kill the Unicorns and other ground enemies. Conveyor Belts may be helpful to collect coins into stacks. If you have a Gold Ring or upgrade, use that.
 * The next step is to make the part to kill the Pixies and Gastropods. It should have two box shaped parts, the first part thinner than the second, which will help catch the pixies in the trap. Some players may want to separate the parts with platforms. There should be Dart Traps, Super Dart Traps, or Spear Traps on both sides of the second section, to kill the Pixies and Gastropods. These traps should be connected to a 1 Second Timer with wires.
 * The next step is to set up the player room. This room should have doors to allow the player to exit, but not allow enemies in, and a switch to control the traps.
 * For maximum efficiency, the player room should have a Water Candle, a Heart Lantern, a Campfire, Banners for the enemies, and a chest to store items. It should also qualify as an NPC Home, so that you can pull in a vendor if needed to sell off your loot quickly.   While having an NPC there would decrease spawn rates, any time during the night you can assign a vendor there and immediately move off-screen from the farm to teleport them in.  After selling off the current loot, if it is still night you can void the house (e.g., break the chair) and head off-screen again to make them teleport to a vacant home and restore your spawn rate.
 * The player should also have a minion to help with the slaughter and deal with passing enemies.
 * The major items for sale from this farm are: Unicorn Horns, ( per stack of 99), Blessed Apples ( each), Fast Clocks  and Megaphones .  All the enemies also drop money.  You will also get Pixie Dust and gel, which can can be used for crafting more profitable items.

Hardmode Dungeon
A very fun and effective way to grind money is to gear up with endgame gear and farm the Hardmode Dungeon. After killing Plantera go in there and farm all the monsters you see. Armored Bones drop over ten silver each, and they are so common that you can easily rack up a lot of money fast. Also, sell the Ectoplasm and drops you don't need for even more money. In one hour, you might be able to get five platinum with water candles and battle potions and maybe even a lucky Blood Moon. Another way to use the dungeon for money-making is to use a farm. Lihzahrd Temple-type traps can prove to be very useful in this method, and will make fighting in the dungeon a lot safer.

Hardmode Spider Cave
An effective way to get money is in a Hardmode Spider Cave with a strong sword such as a Cutlass or Excalibur and a Water Candle and/or Battle Potion. A Nimbus Rod can also be quite effective, and some of the sentries (or the Queen Spider Staff) can allow farming from outside the cave.

Black Recluses drop directly, Spider Fangs (craft into Queen Spider Staffs, which sell for  each), and Poison Staffs ( each). Both sorts of staff will average about 15% above their standard price due to random modifiers. Over time, the return (mostly from the Queen Spider Staffs) will average nearly half a gold piece per spider killed.

General note
In addition to the above concerns, none of these are guaranteed to work in any current version; at least some of them have definitely been patched for 1.4.

Crafting glitch
(This may only work on console by now.) If you craft a stack of copper, silver, or gold coins using a silver, gold, or platinum coin, the crafting menu allows you to craft it back into a single coin. As it turns out, if you take at least one coin from the stack while the rest are in your inventory, put the coin in a storage item such as a chest, safe, or piggy bank, then press deposit all or quick stack on the storage item, the option to craft the original coin still exists as long as you do not exit the inventory screen. You can then craft this coin without it taking away any coins as long as you do not have a separate stack of the lesser coins in your inventory or in the storage item. This gives you a new second coin for free. This glitch does not, however, allow many duplicates to be made at once. If you attempt to do this by making multiple stacks of coins and depositing all of them, the game will not let you craft the original coin as many times as you had stacks. Instead, once you use the option once, the game seemingly realizes that there are no stacks of coins to use to craft a new original coin, therefore the option disappears. Despite this limit, this method still allows for quite quick duping of coins and is one of the few options that does not require another player, joining a server, or editing files.

Player duplication
This trick is known to have been patched in 1.4.

When a character (or world) is created, it is saved as a file on your computer/device. This means that it can be copied like any other file. The default directory for such files are  for Windows and   for iOS, though this may change with other OSs. Characters are stored as .plr files; a character called "Manbearpig" will be saved as "Manbearpig.plr". If this file is copied (into "Manbearpig2.plr", for example) the in-game character selection menu will feature two characters named "Manbearpig". (Note that there is no need to copy "Manbearpig.plr.bak". Also note that the order of the .plr files in the Players-folder is representative for the in-game character list.) Any character that has items stored in portable storage, such as a Safe or Piggy Bank will also have an associated folder with the same name as the character (e.g., a folder named "Manbearpig"). If the character's folder is also copied, the player will be able to duplicate items in portable storage.

The copy will feature all items held and worn by the original (and the accompanying folder will contain all items kept in portable storage), allowing the player to duplicate money and items by repeatedly copying Manbearpig.plr (and Manbearpig folder) and deposit the copies' inventories in a storage item in-game. Creating money like this makes it increase exponentially: if you start with and copy it 31 times, you will have a little more than  (1*2=2 (one copy) → 230=1073741824 copper coins = 1073 platinum coins).

Copied character files can afterwards be deleted with no issues arising, though you may wish to also delete each copy's respective .plr.bak file and folder (keeping obsolete .bak files and folders will not impact the game, but it may cause yourself some confusion later). Though arguably being somewhat cumbersome, this method is convenient as it requires no third-party software.

Read-only world file
Set your world to "read-only" while you have all your coins in a chest, then load the world. Take the coins, and exit. Set "read-only" off and play again. The coins you took while the world was "read-only" will be in the chest, and you can take them out. If you had, say, about 50 gold, you could get a platinum, and, if you do it again, you can get 2 platinum. And you can do this method whenever needed to get coins back.

Item servers
Certain servers are dedicated to distributing free items and coins, placed in automatically-refilling chests. These items and coins can be taken freely. Some servers also grant you access to free command of every item in the game.

TShock server
Instead of using the dedicated server software that ships with Terraria, you can set up a more powerful and advanced server up with TShock. As an admin, you can give yourself free items through Item IDs.

World Edit Tools
World edit tools, like TEdit or some other tool, is easy to add or manipulate coins.

Terrasavr Inventory Editor
Using inventory editors such as Terrasavr can be a way to get money for experimental purposes.

Soft duplication method
You need: 4 Bars of any kind, 2 item frames, a work bench, and 1 chest. You also have to host a multiplayer server. (Because being in single player mode doesn’t work for this method).

Place the 4 bars down in a square, place the chest on them, destroy the bottom 2 bars. Put the work bench where you just destroyed the bars, mine the chest and replace it with an item frame. Then mine the right side of the work bench, the item frame should be floating. Place the other item frame below the first item frame. Click the first item frame with a item you have at least 2 of. It should duplicate like this: 2 coins, 4 coins, 8 coins, 16 coins. (Also can be used on items other than coins. Breaks when you leave meaning you have to build it up each time you join.

Note:You can also duplicate rare items and sell them.

Another note: Sometimes you might place coins on top of the top item frame, breaking it.

Item Duplication with TerrariaServer

 * 1. Place the item(s) you want to dupe in a chest in a world (can be any world, it wont affect the items in it afterwards) and exit the world, but not the game.
 * 2. Run  (can be found in  ).
 * will open the TerrariaServer console window, but it won't close the console window every time you exit like  does.
 * 3. In the TerrariaServer console window, select the world where you stored the item(s) you wish to dupe.
 * 4. In the Terraria game, join multiplayer game and type  in the ip page.
 * 5. Take all the items you want to duplicate using your character (do not exit the world).
 * 6. In the TerrariaServer console window, type  (it disconnects your character but doesn't save the world, so your items will still be as it was before you loaded the world).
 * 7. In the Terraria game, go to a world and unload all your duplicated items, and exit the world.
 * Repeat steps to do it over and over again. This only works if you are the server host, it won't work on anyone else's world.

Magic Mirror Duplication
Note: Doesn't work if you're the host.

Note: Items have a chance of disappearing.

First, in your inventory highlight the coin(s) you want to duplicate. Then, exit out of your inventory. After that has been done, you use the magic mirror and while the screen turns black, you pull up your inventory and pick up the coin(s).

An easier method of duplication if timing is a problem is to turn auto-save off in settings and toss the coins out at spawn, go off the server, re-enter, pick up the coins, and save manually, and repeat until the satisfactory amount is reached.

Exit+Rejoin
Note: To make it easier, be the host.

Note: Does not work with a piggy bank/safe.


 * 1) Put the items you need in a chest, then save the game
 * 2) Turn autosave off.
 * 3) Leave the game without saving.
 * 4) Go back into the world you were in, and take the items and loot from the chest.
 * 5) Exit without saving again.
 * 6) Repeat steps 4 and 5 as needed.

This is expected to duplicate the item, as it will be in the player's inventory and chest at the same time.

Note: No longer works as of the 1.2.4 update.

Exit+Rejoin 2.0
Note: Doesn't work if you're the host.

Note: Requires either online multiplayer or a second controller and account.

Note: Will work with multiple players.

Note: It can be extremely slow.

First, gather the items you want to duplicate, and give them to the other player. Make sure they have autosave off, and they save with the items in their inventory. (WARNING: Doing the previous part the other way around (saving without the items, exiting when you have them) will not duplicate and instead DELETE the items!) Then, have them give you back the items. Next, they have to exit the game without saving, then rejoin. You and them will have the items and their amounts, doubling the amount you both have. And You can use this trick for almost every item.

Depending on what items you duplicating, you can sell them for a lot of money.

Exit+Rejoin 2.1
Note: You will need 2 players.

Place a chest, and turn autosave off. Have a second player join with autosave on. Put the amount of money to be duplicated into any chest, then save the game. After the game finishes saving, have the second player leave the game, then have the host leave WITHOUT SAVING. Then, have both players rejoin. The money would still be in the chest, and in the second player's inventory. Have the second player take the money, leave the game, then have the host leave the game without saving again. Repeat until the wanted amount is reached.

Every after duplicating, put the duplicates in the chest you're using, then save the game, take all the money, & have the second player leave and the host leave without saving. Then have both of them rejoin, and then have the second player put the new duplicates in the chest and then save it. And then take the money. then have the host leave the game. Repeat until the wanted amount is reached.

The money can also be replaced by any item you like to be duplicated.

Chest/World Save Copying
Note: Requires 2 locations to save, works vise-versa (character save copying), and Super tedious.

Like the Desktop versions of Terraria, the world saves and the character inventory saves are separate. To do this, Place a chest, and put the amount of money you want to duplicate into the chest and save both hard drives (you may need to copy it into the 2nd hard drive). Place the items into your character's inventory, and save and exit the game entirely. Go into the system setting and access storage. Copy the world save from the 2nd hard drive into the 1st. Collect duplicated items. Repeat until the wanted amount is reached.