Light sources

"Light" redirects here. For the modifier for melee weapons, see Modifiers.

“

Torches and Glowsticks can be a light for you in dark places when all other lights go out. Torches won't work underwater, but Glowsticks will.

— A loading screen tip

Light sources are items that produce light. Some are brighter than others and produce varying colors of light. Note that several weapons and armor types also generate light, but are not listed on this page.

Primary light sources

These items are intended to provide light as a primary function.

Portable

The following items are portable light sources that can provide light while being carried. Torches and Candles may also be placed as Furniture, and Glowsticks can be thrown. Water Candles will increase enemy spawn rates in the vicinity, while Peace Candles will do the opposite.

Item	Emits light when	Waterproof	Mechanism	House
Torch	Held, dropped, placed	❌	✔️	✔️
Cursed Torch	Held, dropped, placed	✔️	✔️	✔️
Ichor Torch	Held, dropped, placed	✔️	✔️	✔️
Coral Torch	Held, dropped, placed	✔️	✔️	✔️
Candle	Held, dropped, placed	✔️ (placed) ❌ (held)	✔️	✔️
Glowstick	Held, dropped, thrown	✔️	❌	❌
Sticky Glowstick	Held, dropped, thrown	✔️	❌	❌
Bouncy Glowstick	Held, dropped, thrown	✔️	❌	❌
Fairy Glowstick	Held, dropped, thrown	✔️	❌	❌
Spelunker Glowstick	Held, dropped, thrown	✔️	❌	❌
Mining Helmet	Equipped in helmet slot	✔️	❌	❌
Jellyfish Necklace	Equipped in accessory slot	✔️	❌	❌
Magiluminescence	Equipped in accessory slot	✔️	❌	❌
Flare Gun	Held, when a Flare is available	✔️	❌	❌
Flare / Blue Flare	Fired from Flare Gun	✔️	❌	❌
Release Lantern	Thrown/used (disappears after a while)	✔️	❌	❌
Nightglow	Held	✔️	❌	❌

Furniture

The following provide light primarily as placed background furniture.

Item	Waterproof	Mechanism	House
Fireplace	✔️	✔️	✔️
Tiki Torch	❌	✔️	✔️
Lamp Post	✔️	✔️	✔️ ❌
Blue Jellyfish Jar	✔️	❌	✔️
Pink Jellyfish Jar	✔️	❌	✔️
Green Jellyfish Jar	✔️	❌	✔️
Blue Fairy Jar	✔️	❌	❌
Pink Fairy Jar	✔️	❌	❌
Green Fairy Jar	✔️	❌	❌
Candle	✔️	✔️	✔️
Candelabra	✔️	✔️	✔️
Chandelier	✔️	✔️	✔️
Lantern	✔️	✔️	✔️
Heart Lantern	✔️	✔️	✔️
Star in a Bottle	✔️	✔️	✔️
Firefly in a Bottle	✔️	❌	✔️
Lightning Bug in a Bottle	✔️	❌	✔️
Lavafly in a Bottle	✔️	❌	✔️
Souls in a Bottle	✔️	❌	✔️
Lamps	❌	✔️	✔️
Skull Lantern	❌	❌	✔️
Jack 'O Lantern	❌	✔️	✔️

Novelty lights

These placeable items provide a low amount of colored light, and are primarily intended as decoration, rather than providing functional light.

Item	Source	Waterproof	Mechanism	House
Disco Ball	​Merchant (1)	✔️	✔️	❌
Lava Lamp	​Party Girl (2)	✔️	❌	❌
Christmas lights	​Santa Claus (5)	✔️	✔️	✔️
Wire Bulb	​Mechanic (5)	✔️	✔️	❌

Light Pets

These items summon a secondary floating light-emitting character that follows the player. They are infinitely reusable, cost no mana, remain indefinitely, and work in liquids. Light Pets have their own equipment slot in the player's inventory.

Item	Brightness
Shadow Orb (item)	65%
Crimson Heart (item)	65%
Magic Lantern	65%
Fairy Bell	80%
Creeper Egg	80%
Wisp in a Bottle	120%
Suspicious Looking Tentacle	120%
Pumpkin Scented Candle	80%
Guardian Golem	80%
Jewel of Light	120%

Buffs

The following buffs provide light.

Buff	Brightness	Source item	Duration	Waterproof
Shine	100%	Shine Potion	10 minutes	✔️
Basilisk Mount	20%	Ancient Horn	Infinite (when below 27' underground)	✔️
Rudolph	20%	Reindeer Bells	Infinite	✔️
Leaf Crystal	10%	Chlorophyte armor (set bonus)	Infinite	✔️

Incidental light sources

The following items produce varying amounts of light, even though lighting is not their primary function (so they don't count as a light source for NPC housing).

Furniture

Item	Brightness	Source	Waterproof	Mechanism
Crystal Shard	20%	​ ​ Plundering (Underground Hallow)	✔️	❌
Campfire	125%	: 20  + 5  or     : 10  + 5  Plundering	❌	✔️
Furnace	80%	20  + 4  + 3  ( @  )	✔️	❌
Hellforge	80%	Plundering (Ruined House)	✔️	❌
Adamantite Forge	80%	30  + ( @  /  )	✔️	❌
Titanium Forge	80%	30  + ( @  /  )	✔️	❌
Glass Kiln	80%Verify	18  + 8  ( @  /  )	✔️	❌
Lihzahrd Furnace	80%Verify	​ Plundering (Jungle Temple)	✔️	❌
Lihzahrd Altar	10%	Plundering (Jungle Temple)	✔️	❌

Accessories

Item	Emits light when
Rocket Boots	Flying
​Jetpack ​Vortex Booster ​Lazure's Barrier Platform	Flying
​Butterfly Wings ​Fairy Wings ​Flame Wings ​Frozen Wings	Flying
​Mothron Wings ​Yoraiz0r's Spell	Idle, flying

Blocks

Any corresponding walls will also give off light, except for Offline Gemspark Walls. This may not be noticeable if both are used in the same area, as the blocks tend to outshine the walls.

Block	Wall	Source	Mechanism
Demonite Ore	n/a	​ ​ ​ ​ Plundering	❌
Demonite Brick	Demonite Brick Wall	+ 5  + 5  ( @  ) Plundering	❌
Crimtane Ore	n/a	​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Plundering	❌
Crimtane Brick	Crimtane Brick Wall	: + 5  ( @  ) or : + ( @  )	❌
Meteorite	n/a	​ Plundering (Meteorite (biome))	❌
Meteorite Brick	Meteorite Brick Wall	: 5  + ( @  ) or : + ( @  )	❌
Shroomite Plating	Shroomite Plating Wall	: 25  + ( @  ) or : 15  + ( @  )	❌
Gemspark Block	Gemspark Wall Offline Gemspark Wall	20  + ( @  )	✔️ (block) ❌ (wall)
Lavafall Block	Lavafall Wall	( @  &  )	❌
Living Fire Block	n/a	Dropped by any enemy in the Underworld	❌
Rainbow Brick	Rainbow Brick Wall	​	❌
Martian Conduit Plating	Martian Conduit Wall	​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​	❌
Solar Fragment Block	n/a	+ 5  ( @  )	❌
Vortex Fragment Block	n/a	+ 5  ( @  )	❌
Nebula Fragment Block	n/a	+ 5  ( @  )	❌
Stardust Fragment Block	n/a	+ 5  ( @  )	❌
Echo Block	n/a	2  or 4  ( @  ) ​Cyborg (10)	❌

Growable

These can be spawned given the right conditions, which occur naturally and can also be induced by the player.

Item	Brightness	Grows on	Emits light when	Waterproof
Blinkroot	0%–100%	Dirt, Mud, or in a Clay Pot	Blooming (random)	✔️
Fireblossom	70%	Ash, or in a Clay Pot	Blooming (at dusk)	✔️
Moonglow	30%	Jungle Grass, or in a Clay Pot	Blooming (at night)	✔️
Shiverthorn	75%	Snow, Ice or in a Clay Pot	Blooming (after a period of time)	✔️
Jungle Spores	75%	Jungle Grass in Underground Jungle	Always	✔️
Mushroom grass	48%–52%	Mud	Always	✔️
Glowing Mushrooms	48%–52%	Mushroom Grass	Always	✔️
Giant Glowing Mushroom	48%–52%	Mushroom Grass	Always	✔️
Lava Moss	35%	Stone in the lava layer	Always	✔️
Krypton Moss	35%	Stone	Always	✔️
Xenon Moss	35%	Stone	Always	✔️
Argon Moss	35%	Stone	Always	✔️

Pets

These are normal pets who emit light either incidentally, or as part of their movement, but are not Light Pets.

Pet	Item	Emits light when
Baby Truffle	Strange Glowing Mushroom	Always (same brightness as Glowing Mushrooms)
Cupid	Broken Heart	Always
Cursed Sapling	Cursed Sapling	While fast-traveling or not on the ground
Shadow Mimic	Ornate Shadow Key	While fast-traveling or not on the ground
Volt Bunny	Lightning Carrot	While fast-traveling or flying
Dynamite Kitten	Ball O' Fuse Wire	While flying

Other

Item	Brightness	Source	Emits light when	Waterproof
Lava	10%–50%	Lower Cavern and below	As liquid	❌ (spawns Obsidian on contact)
Teleporter	10%	​Mechanic (250)	When flashing	✔️
Plantera's Bulb	20%–25%	Underground Jungle	Always	✔️
Frost Armor	?	Crafted	Causes all melee and ranged weapons and projectiles to glow	✔️

On world generation only

These are produced only on World creation, and can not be picked up, used, or placed by players.

Item	Brightness	Found in	Waterproof
Demon Altar	0%–10%	Corruption	✔️
Crimson Altar	0%–10%	Crimson	✔️
Shadow Orb	0%–10%	Corruption	✔️
Crimson Heart	0%–10%	Crimson	✔️

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Brightness percentage is a bit vague, so this either needs to be clarified or replaced with tile distance. There are also multiple unknown brightness levels.
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