Meteorite (biome)



A Meteorite is a medium-level event location. When the event occurs, a Meteorite impacts the surface of the World, leaving a crater lined with Meteorite ore, which requires a Gold Pickaxe or better to mine. This event always occurs off-screen, so the player will only see a message and the resulting crash site, but never the impact itself. Meteorite biomes have their own theme music and spawned enemies, though there is only one enemy type: the Meteor Head.

The player is notified by a chat message when the event occurs: "A meteorite has landed!"

Meteorites can land anywhere, including Floating Islands, inside of a Chasm, in water bodies, or the Dungeon. Meteorites can even land at the bottom of a body of water.

Warning: if you have built a skybridge, the meteorite will not land beneath it. If a meteorite strikes your skybridge, only the bridge is converted into Meteorite ore, meaning not much.

Conditions
A Meteorite crash site has a 50% chance of spawning the next midnight after a Shadow Orb is smashed, or immediately if the Orb is smashed between midnight and dawn. Additionally, each night has a 2% chance that a Meteorite will fall, if at least one Shadow Orb has already been smashed in the World.

Meteorites will not fall if there are already a certain number of Meteorite tiles above 0 depth. The limits are:
 * Small worlds: 400
 * Medium worlds: 600
 * Large worlds: 800

Event
The meteorite will land somewhere on the surface, replacing dozens of blocks deep with Meteorite in a crater pattern. Touching the meteorite blocks causes the player damage and knocks them back, unless they have the Obsidian Skull/Obsidian Shield accessory equipped, or are using an Obsidian Skin Potion. A Cobalt Shield will prevent the knockback. Meteorite ore does not cause damage once mined from the Meteorite blocks, and can safely be collected thereafter.

Note that the meteorite will impact on the highest-altitude blocks it finds in a given area. If you have built Sky Bridge, even one composed of Wood Platforms, the Meteorite has a good chance of landing on that bridge. Having a low density of blocks to replace means you will not obtain the intended yield of Meteorite from the event.

It may be advisable to destroy any paths in the sky before smashing a Shadow Orb in order to get the full yield of Meteorite, as it is a valuable resource and the event can be rare. Alternatively, the Sky Bridge can be constructed thick enough to fully exploit the meteorite landing. This would require a much greater investment of time and resources, but also serves to protect the surface below from the damage of an impact.

Use
The Meteorite's primary use is in providing the player with Meteorite ore, allowing them to craft Meteorite Bars at a Furnace to then craft a variety of mid- to end-game items.

Meteor Heads will continuously spawn and attack as the player is in the vicinity of a Meteorite crash site that hasn't been mined away yet. Meteor Heads fly, follow the player as they move, and can pass through all blocks, so it can be quite difficult for players without good defenses and weapons to attempt to mine Meteorite.

Once most of the Meteorite has been mined away (less than 50 Meteorite blocks remain unmined; about 10%), the area will cease to be considered a Meteorite biome. The music will change back to normal and Meteor Heads will stop spawning, although the remaining Meteor Heads will still attack. Afterwards, the remainder of the Meteorite can be safely mined or ignored.

Tips



 * A pickaxe can be used to knock back Meteor Heads if the player strategically repositions themselves as they spawn.
 * Dynamite is useful for mining Meteorites, as 2 or 3 sticks can rid the area of enough ore to stop Meteor Heads from spawning relatively quickly. Be sure not to throw Dynamite while uncollected ore is still present in the area, as Dynamite can sometimes destroy uncollected ore. Explosives also effectively mine 3/4 of the Meteorite in a single blast, albeit being expensive and taking a bit of set-up.
 * With two players, one player with the Vilethorn can protect the mining player rather easily if they stick together. (The Vilethorn will kill a Meteor Head in two direct hits, and it goes through walls as do the Meteor Heads.
 * Meteorite in The Corruption will not stop corruption enemies from spawning. One strategy to avoid the Eaters of Souls while mining is by tunneling under the Meteorite. This will not protect you from Devourers, however.
 * The same goes for Floating Islands. Even if a meteorite lands on one, Harpies and Wyverns will not stop spawning.

Enemies

 * Meteor Head