Crates/Crate values in 1.4

This page is devoted to figuring the value of crate contents. If you're not into the subtotals, you can skip to the Recap at the end. Wiki editors can examine the formulas in the source. The advent of 1.4 has added new types of crates, splitting pre-and-post Hardmode crates into separate items. It has also added a few new crate pairs, for Oasis and Lava.

Crate contents
Crates of all types have contents according to a loose formula. Few of the contents are guaranteed, but when opening many crates, all of them will show up in the gathered loot.


 * Coins can be found in any crate, and for all types of crates, the average coins received exceeds the average sale price of all other contents.
 * Metal ores and bars:
 * Any crate can contain bars, but before 1.4, only Wooden crates contained ores. In 1.4, all crates do.
 * Before and after Hardmode, different crates will be caught in the same biomes, and any "legacy" crates from an upgraded world will be the pre-Hardmode versions.
 * pre-Hardmode crates will only have pre-Hardmode metals; Hardmode crates will include and favor Hardmode metals. This raises the average metal value for Hardmode crates.
 * low-tier crates omit high-tier metals, higher-tier crates omit low-tier metals.  Biome crates have all metals except for omitting Copper and Tin bars.
 * For any given tier of crate, all pre-Hardmode metals which do appear, will appear with equal chance and number, and likewise for all Hardmode metals.  This includes the "alternate" metals for each tier.
 * Buff potions. The particular potions and their number vary, but all such buff potions sell for.
 * Wooden and biome crates can contain one item from a list of rare "special" items. In the case of the Dungeon crate, this item comes by way of a Golden Lock Box.  Lava crates have both their own drop list and a Obsidian Lock Box.   These items mostly duplicate the items offered by corresponding chests placed in the world; while many of them are significant to early-game progression, they are still pre-Hardmode items, and not hugely valuable.  In 1.4, this item always appears, in previous versions it was a 1 in 6 chance.
 * Various miscellaneous items, including Healing and Mana potions and Fishing Bait, both of various tiers according to the crate tier. This subtotal also includes any other "rare" items which have their own drop chance, instead of being part of the "special" list -- these add significant value only for the iron and gold crates, which lack a "special" list entirely.
 * In Hardmode, beside the above changes in metals, some crates will offer additional items with their own drop chances.
 * I am ignoring the overlap among some rare drops that are exclusive to each other. This may slightly inflate their contribution.

Initial values for ores, bars, and "special list" items are simple averages of the list -- that is, one item from the list. Again, healing/mana potions aren't on the main potion list, but go with the "misc" items; similarly, "specials" are only the main list for the crate type, anything with its own chance to appear goes in "misc". "Pro-rated" values are adjusted for chance-to-hit and number given. Crate values are averages per crate.
 * average of 1 ore, all pre-hardmode "basic" metals:
 * average of 1 ore, all Hardmode "basic" metals:
 * average of 1 bar, all pre-hardmode "basic" metals:
 * average of 1 bar, all Hardmode "basic" metals:

Wooden Crate
Wooden and Pearlwood crates have Copper, Tin, Iron, and Lead only. Average price per piece: ore, bar Pearlwood crates have Cobalt and Palladium only. Average price per piece: ore, bar

Partial Sums

 * average of 1 "special item", wood-crate list:
 * pro-rated share for cash in a wood crate:
 * pro-rated share for other items in a wood crate:
 * pro-rated share for Hardmode-only items (besides ores/bars) in a wood crate:
 * Metal average yield for wood crate, Pre-Hardmode:  ore and  bars among 4 metals
 * Metal average yield for wood crate, Hardmode:  ore and  bars among 4 early metals,  ore and  bars among 2 late metals

Final Values

 * Wooden Crate average value:
 * Pearlwood Crate average value:

Iron Crate
Iron and Mythril crates don't include Gold, Platinum, Adamantite, or Titanium.

Partial Sums

 * Iron Specials: No list items
 * Iron Cash, pro-rated:
 * Iron Misc, pro-rated:
 * Iron Hard, pro-rated:
 * Metal average yield for Iron crate, Pre-Hardmode: ores  bars among 6 metals
 * Metal average yield for Mythril crate, Hardmode: ores and   bars  bars among 6 early metals,  ores and   bars among 4 late metals

Final Values

 * Iron Crate:
 * Mythril Crate:

Partial Sums
Biome crates Omit only Copper and Tin bars
 * Some biomes have hardmode bonuses (see below).
 * Biome (common) Misc, pro-rated:
 * Biome (common) Cash, pro-rated:
 * Metal average yield for pre-Hardmode Biome crate: ores among 8 metals, and  bars among 6 metals
 * Metal average yield for Hard-mode Biome crate: ores among 8 early metals, and  bars among 6 early metals,  ores among 6 late metals, and  bars among 6 late metals


 * Biome (common) Value, pre-Hard:
 * Biome (common) Value, Hardmode:


 * Jungle Special, misc:, ,
 * Sky Special:
 * Corrupt Special:
 * Crimson Special:
 * Hallowed Special: none
 * Desert Special, misc: ,
 * Frozen Special, misc: ,
 * Ocean Special, misc: ,
 * Dungeon Special (lockbox), misc: ,
 * Lava Special, Lockbox, misc: ,  ,
 * Corrupt Hard, pro-rated:
 * Crimson Hard, pro-rated:
 * Hallowed Hard, pro-rated:

Final Values

 * Jungle/Bramble Value:  /
 * Sky/Azure Value:  /
 * Oasis/Mirage Value:  /
 * Frozen/Boreal Value:  /
 * Ocean/Seaside Value:  /
 * Dungeon/Stockade Value:  /
 * Obsidian/Hellstone Value:  /
 * Corrupt/Defiled Value:  /
 * Crimson/Hematic Value:  /
 * Hallowed/Divine Value:  /

Partial Sums
Golden crates provide only the top four (two tiers) of pre-Hardmode and Hardmode metals.
 * Average 1 ore from Gold Crate pre-Hardmode bars:
 * Average 1 ore from Titanium Crate Hardmode bars:
 * Average 1 bar from Gold Crate pre-Hardmode bars:
 * Average 1 bar from Titanium Crate Hardmode bars:
 * Gold Specials: No list items
 * Gold Cash pro-rated:
 * Gold Misc, pro-rated:
 * Gold Hard, pro-rated:
 * Metal average yield for Gold crate: ores and  bars among 4 early metals
 * Metal average yield for Titanium crate: ores  bars among 4 early metals,  ores and  bars among 4 late metals

Golden crates are the only crates with a chance of being rolled "empty", because they don't always have at least bait. Such crates are re-rolled, which in theory should add about 4% to the average returns.

Final Values

 * Gold Crate :
 * Titanium Crate :

Overall values
In all cases, the coin alone vastly exceeds the sale prices for unopened crates. Biome crates gain at least in Hardmode from the new metals; a few types have other extra items in Hardmode. Obsidian and Hellstone crates are anomalously valuable because they have both their own "special items" list and the Obsidian Lockbox., with some miscellaneous drops to boot.

Metal contents
This table lists the average per crate for each ore and metal available for a given crate, e.g. the amount of Iron Ore.