This article is about the naturally occurring block. For the crafting material, see Sturdy Fossil.
Desert Fossil is a type of block found in the Underground Desert biome in medium to large veins. Desert Fossils can be used with an Extractinator to produce Sturdy Fossils, along with regular Extractinator drops.
By default, there is a 6.67*1/15 (6.67%) chance for a block in any of the 8 surrounding tiles to be destroyed. Of these 8 tiles, if any of them has no block below, they will have a 25*1/4 (25%) chance to be destroyed. The tick the original fossil is broken, the block above also has a 25*1/4 (25%) chance to break.
To get as many fossils as possible, players should try to mine horizontally from top to bottom and avoid creating holes, which can otherwise spread quickly. Explosives and especially Scarab Bombs can harvest whole swathes of the vein with minimum breakage.
Desert Fossils appear highlighted under the effects of a Spelunker Potion.
Tips[]
As explosives break Desert Fossil instantly, early-game players may want to use them instead, to prevent weaker pickaxes from damaging the surrounding Desert Fossil during mining.
↑Information taken from the Desktop1.4.0.1 source code, method AttemptFossilShattering() in Terraria.WorldGen.cs. There may be inaccuracies, as the current Desktop version is 1.4.3.6.