Farming for Mimics, Weapons, and Materials
Farming Mimics without using Souls of Light and Night is not so hard. You can re-purpose farming areas to suit your needs. Read on!
Something new players won't realize immediately is that the spawns in Terraria are based on blocks. That simple, though spawn rates are a little more complex. You can completely control this process and ensure that enemies spawn in the correct place, on your terms, and use traps or hazards like lava against them. You can additionally speed up manual farming by simply making an area where enemies spawn in predictable places so that you can take them out fast, allowing more to spawn in their place. These are the best ways to get rare accessories and weapon drops - for example from mimics - in Terraria.
If you are lazy and don't care about all this mechanical stuff, you might skip to Putting it Together but at least check my images for tips.
Spawn Mechanics
The wiki has some insight into this, but I will tell you how to apply it and simplify it. When the game decides to spawn an enemy it looks for a nearby block that is on the ground, chosen randomly. Even flying monsters seem to spawn from a block, unless they're harpies and certain others. The type of enemy is based on the type of block available for spawning, based on a zone that is off screen. An enemy from the biome that block comes from will spawn just off screen, not even 1 and a half screens away. Their AI then tends to send them toward you. With that, we can make a meat grinder.
In many cases the block decides the enemy that spawns, but Biome is also important. So once you have blocks set and determined the biome of the area, enemies that are exclusively spawned by biome can spawn. If you want to Farm Mimics then you want a Hallowed/Crimson/Corruption Biome built. If you want to avoid them, then do not include these Biomes.
Click to Enlarge. Imagine 2-3 more campfires from the torch to the left, and that is the zone in which monsters spawn in Terraria - always offscreen. If my character were by the left-most torch, we would not be able to see the campfires. This should help you get the distance that is required.
Spawn Zone
Enemies spawn in a rectangle around you, no matter your resolution. They're always off screen unless you're using a resolution-increasing mod to go beyond 1920x1080, it's why we don't see monsters appear out of thin air. The screen area (no spawn zone) is 62 tiles to the left and right of the player. 35 tiles up and down from the player. Monsters can spawn in an area 22 tiles to the left and right of this, and 12 tiles up and down - roughly. This means there's room for error, but it's also not a very large zone where spawns actually take place. If monsters are too far outside the spawn zone, they despawn.
It is hard to imagine the size, but players on PC have access to the Mechanic NPC's Mechanical Ruler. Place a torch and count every 10 blocks from it. When you hit 70, enemies will spawn outside this zone. Do it for both sides. You can dig out an area of sufficient size, deep underground in the Cavern layer to ensure the highest spawn rates for the biome you need to farm. Find a middle ground and dig it out, then count the appropriate number of blocks' distance.
Spawn Rates are based on Depth and Biome
The rate monsters spawn are based on a few things - but for our farming purposes mainly depth and the type of Biome. Biomes like Jungle and the Underground Crimson/Corruption have higher spawn rates than a normal "virgin" cavern-layer area, and far more than the surface aside from it being in Event (Pumpkin Moon), Blood Moon, or Solar Eclipse mode, which have set rates and cannot be manipulated. Generic biomes like underground ice, desert, marble and granite biomes follow the Underground Cavern spawn rate and are not as dangerous as that of the Corruption. You'll likely notice this while playing.
The types of enemies that spawn and the drops increase at the Cavern depth, so if we're in late Hard Mode we'd want to set something up deeper underground to get the really good stuff. Mimics from the Hallow and Corruption can be spawned manually (15 soul of light/night turned into a key and placed in a chest), but we can make them spawn automatically more frequently and get their drops.
Putting it Together for a Simple Manual Farm
One large area could be re-purposed to serve any number of farming needs once you've carved it out. Laying Ice Blocks on top of the platform in this Crimson Biome would result in Crimson Mimics spawning, along with ice-themed monsters while also generating Souls of Night given it is underground. I can take the 1-block thick layer of ice blocks off, and farm antlion mandibles by placing sand, yet still be in a Crimson Biome!
As the guide stated above, enemies will spawn anywhere from 64 to 82 blocks away from your character horizontally, and 35 to 47 blocks above and below the character. To truly have complete control over spawns, we'd want an area about 170 blocks wide and 100 tall, void of blocks. We will fill in a line across at the center. Because of digging, this is easier to do on the surface, but it's not always best if you're hunting Hallowed/Crimson Mimics because of the spawn rate being higher underground. This size will ensure control over spawns for the most part. You can help yourself measure by starting on the right/left edge of your desired zone and working your way the opposite direction with an empty stack of blocks. If you peel 180 blocks off the top, you've got yourself a good farm zone.
Now go to the edge and count 100 down from the top. From there, hollow this area out and rock on! It doesn't need to be exact and you can be safe to go a bit bigger than this.
Dig down 3-5 blocks, then move across, then repeat this until ALL blocks are gone. One stray block can cause monsters to spawn below/above you and be the wrong type. It shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes but the rewards are worth it. There's a good reason for digging it out - it's easier than filling in blocks, especially with a Chlorophyte+ Pickaxe - and even better a Shroomite Digging Claw! If you were to try to fill them in, you'd have to make sure there is 0 space for monsters to spawn.
Determining Biome & Making a Monster Farm
Making a Corruption or Crimson Farm is all about the blocks. You can add a Water Candle and Battle Potion to make things spawn faster and increase the maximum number of monsters that can spawn at once (spawn cap), but it's already faster when there are no obstacles to contend with. Monsters won't spawn in lava, so carrying buckets back to your farm zone can help you control where they spawn - thus leading to traps and AFK farms. Just don't make it too thick or it would melt coins.
As I said in my page about , the only thing that determines a biome is the quantity of blocks around the character. Some take priority over others, while some are compatible (think red ice blocks from Crimson spreading there, yet still spawning ice monsters along with Crimson monsters). We can make totally pure biomes that spawn only what we want, and where we want by digging out an area.
Lay a layer of stone - or Crimstone - or Pearlstone across the area you want to farm in. Form the foundation. Once it's all dug up, you can change this at will by simply changing the block type on top of the stone. If you frequently need souls of light or souls of night, then make it Hallow/Corruption stone for a base so that it counts as a hybrid biome. You'll get Souls of Night from, for example, Ice Tortoises while still getting a chance at a Frozen Turtle Shell.
However, you'd get Crimson/Hallowed Mimics because they are spawned by the biome your character is in. You may instead want Ice Mimics - in this case, you'd want to go 'pure' or ensure there are so many snow/ice blocks in the central area that it counts as an Ice Biome while making the blocks enemies spawn from be Crimson (a thin layer of crimstone on top is all you need for this)..
Changing the biome of an area is simple in Terraria, and it's a part of customizing your world. Making a rectangle of 200+ blocks will change the background, and thus the biome your character is in - influencing spawn rates and causing appropriate Mimics to spawn. This is handy if you're in a Crimson World and want Corruption. Just go to another world you made and get the blocks you need, you can then get Worm Teeth and other materials that are only found in Corruption.
Determine the Biome & Spawns
Build upward from the center, making a column so that you can place blocks midair. Now make a 200-400 floating rectangle segment above the central area so that your character is counted as being in a frost, desert, etc. Biome (as pictured above). This is all it takes - the background should change. The monsters that spawn will be based on the blocks you've laid in the 'spawn zone' off-screen. So, if you are hunting Hallowed Mimics for the Daedalus Stormbow, then lay Pearlstone blocks above your character so that it counts as a Hallowed Biome.
Boost Spawn Rates
I already have a guide to Water Candles and Battle Potions which will nearly double the amount of monsters you encounter. The water candle is easily doable - just grab one from the Dungeon with a pickaxe or craft one if you're on PC (the first is easier). If you'd like to do things more automatically, stay tuned as I have simple guides coming that will cover making wastelands that spawn only monsters you desire based on biome, and even keeping them where you want them so they are easy to kill via trap or your own blade.
Click to enlarge. A manual Biome Key farm, with a summoned minion to help kill. Hallowed cancels out Corruption/Crimson and vice-versa. I had to have a lot of Hallowed blocks to get enemies to drop Souls of Light. Because of the presence of enough blocks to create an overall Jungle biome, with additional snow and crimson, any of Ice Mimic, Hallowed Mimic, or Crimson Mimic can spawn. Enemies may drop any type of Biome Key except for Corruption, as there are no blocks of that type.
Best Spawn Rates & Farming Biome Keys
The best spawn rates are found in Jungle and Dungeon Underground Biomes (Cavern layer). However there are no Jungle Mimics (yet) and you will not get Crimson/Corruption/Hallowed Mimics with this setup alone - however you can farm regular items very well. You need Jungle Grass/Lihzard Blocks or Blue Blocks from the Dungeon in order to make that the biome you're in, while the spawn blocks you use are of the type you want to farm. The Frozen Turtle shell is a good item, but you may also need biome keys from a specific biome.
>Click to Enlarge. Thanks to Joe Price (who has nothing to do with this hideous design) for informing me about Mimics spawning based on biome rather than block. He has good autofarm videos you can find on his channel. Here, a Hallowed Mimic has spawned on a snow block thanks to the presence of enough Pearlstone to make the area 'count' as having Hallow. Biome Keys of all types of blocks present can also drop.
Getting Chances of All Biome Keys and Mimics at Once
You can farm Mimics and Biome Keys/Key Molds using these methods by combining Biomes. Farming Biome keys all at once can be accomplished by having enough blocks to create each Biome whether the background changes to that biome or not. So if we make our main Biome Jungle (with the 80 required Lihzard/Jungle Grass blocks above/under the player) but also have 200 Crimson, Hallow, and Ice Blocks, we can have a chance at all of those dropping at once. If you want the biome to be mainly jungle, get as many Jungle Grass around your character as possible so as to override the others. You can tell when the music changes that you're benefitting from the increased spawn rates.
By placing a Water Candle on a table and consuming a battle potion every so often, enemies will spawn fast - you can take them out with a ranged weapon (fastest) as they come toward you. Slaughter them and take the loot every now and then. It's surprising how much gold and materials you can farm doing this, and how regularly you'll get Mimics. Once you know about these mechanics, you can set up your own automatic farms that are super efficient and allow you to leave the computer while they run. See below.
Having Fun & Scoring Loot With AFK Farms
Joe Price, Zerogravitas, and HappyDays are names you should know if you're interested in automated farming. Click to learn more as I've linked to all three of their channels on Youtube so that you can see how things are done. For many of the builds you will learn of, these mechanics come into play whether above or underground. However, I still suggest you play around with them yourself and use them to farm the accessories you need.
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FAQs
What is the fastest way to farm mimics? ›
Mimics can be spawned by powering the Chest Statue, but they will only drop the Mimic Banner when spawned this way. you can use dart traps to farm mimics in afk farms by wiring them to a timer. mimics can be spawned by a chest statue but will drop no items but will count toward mimic banners.
What is the best way to spawn mimics in Terraria? ›Mimics can be spawned by the player using the Chest Statue, even prior to Hardmode. However, Mimics spawned this way only drop the Mimic Banner. Mimics can also spawn naturally prior to Hardmode in worlds with the Remix Seed.
What is the best way to farm ice mimics in Terraria? ›Trying to get the frostbrand how can I maximize my chances of finding ice mimics. Use Water Candles, Battle Potions and if placing 80 jungle blocks work to increase spawn rate. Mimics often spawn on wide spaces so just placing strips of blocks in a large area can work.
Do mimics spawn from statues drop items? ›Mimics spawned via the statue will not drop loot, even in Hardmode.
How do you increase the spawn rate of mimics in Terraria? ›Since the only mobs to spawn are slimes and mimics, the dart traps will instantly kill the slimes, leaving another opportunity to spawn a mimic. If a mimic is spawned, they will be activated by the dart trap. They will then hop into the lava and die. Add a few water candles if you want even higher spawn rates.
What are the odds of a mimic? ›Mimics can only be encountered after at least three hours of total playtime. Chests have a base chance of 2.25% to turn into a Mimic.
Does mimic have unlimited arrows? ›Your mimic will use equipped weapons (prioritizes your right-hand weapon), armor, shields, and talismans. In addition, they will use consumables, have unlimited arrows, bolts, and spells/incantations, but they can't use Great Runes or Pouch items.
Can mimics spawn in Hallow? ›The Hallowed Mimic is a miniboss that spawns rarely in the Underground Hallow. They can also be spawned by putting a Key of Light into any chest. The chest will then turn into a Hallowed Mimic.
What items increase spawn rate in Terraria? ›Use of a Water Candle and/or a Battle Potion will increase spawn rates. Contrarily, a Peace Candle, Calming Potion, and Sunflower will reduce spawn rates. Invasions are not affected by these items, but Blood Moons and Solar Eclipses are.
Which NPCs like the ice biome? ›The Cyborg, Mechanic, Santa Claus, and Tax Collector NPCs now like living in the Snow biome, while the Arms Dealer, Nurse, Stylist, and Tavernkeep dislike it.
How do you farm crimson mimics? ›
The Crimson Mimic is a miniboss that spawns rarely in the Underground Crimson. They can also be spawned by putting a Key of Night into any empty chest. The chest will then turn into a Crimson Mimic in a hardmode world that contains the Crimson. They can be detected by the Lifeform Analyzer or any of its upgrades.
Do statue enemies drop biome keys? ›Notes. Since they do not drop coins, keys cannot be dropped by Meteor Heads, enemies spawned by a statue, critters, Old One's Army enemies, or any enemy spawned by a Celestial Pillar in the Lunar Events.
What is the point of statues in Terraria? ›These statues can be wired and activated to spawn enemies, drop items, or teleport a random NPC to their location. Statue-spawned enemies do not drop coins and can drop their other usual items (except food items, these cannot drop from statue-spawned enemies) with the drop chance being multiplied by a set factor.
Do imp statues drop obsidian rose? ›Qty. The Obsidian Rose is an accessory that reduces lava's base damage from 80 to 35 / 50 . It has a 1/20 (5%) / 1/50 (2%) chance of being dropped by Fire Imps, an enemy found in The Underworld.
What is the slowest mimic? ›Shizu is currently the slowest monster the player encounters.
What is the fastest mimic? ›Daku is one of the fastest monsters in the game as of now, the others being Futaomote and Sama. He is one of the tallest monsters in the game as of now. Some others being Kaito, Futaomote, Kusunoki Masashige (Both forms) and Keiko.
What was the first mimic? ›The mimic made its first appearance in the original Monster Manual (1977), by Gary Gygax. This book described mimics as "subterranean creatures which cannot stand the light of the sun.
What happens when a mimic dies? ›The mimic can use its action to polymorph into an object or back into its true, amorphous form. Its statistics are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn 't transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
What is the code in mimic? ›When Yasu goes inside, he must look for a crowbar to take off the wooden boards on one of the doors. He finds a code that will open up the room that the crowbar is in (the code, which is in Japanese language, is 3015).
What is the hardest gamemode in the mimic? ›Jigoku means "Hell" (地獄) in Japanese, and is the Hardest Mode (Including Chapters, Books, and other Gamemodes) as of now.
Is Mimic Tear the best summon? ›
Mimic Tear
Despite being nerfed by Elden Ring's first major patch, the Mimic Tear remains the most powerful and useful Spirit Summon in our view. That's because it's an exact copy of the player, with access to any weapons, skills, and spells they have (providing these are equipped at the point of summoning).
The Arkhalis is also the only pre-Hardmode weapon to be able to achieve the highest rarity in the game, that being Purple.
What is the rarest enemy in Terraria? ›While the Nymph is one of the rarest enemies in Terraria, in reality, she spawns more frequently than is initially apparent. She is usually missed due to her passive and stationary behavior: she often remains in dark areas, without moving to attack players or making any sounds, unlike what most enemies would do.
Can mimics spawn in jungle? ›Jungle Mimics are currently unused enemies, they are not able to be found unless you are on a secret world seed, they spawn in the underground jungle and drop money, angel statues, 69 party girl bath water, terra toilets, stink potions and etc.
Do mimics have loot? ›Once defeated, the Mimic gives you a Mimic Token in addition to the regular loot that would normally be in the chest.
What is the highest selling item in Terraria? ›The most expensive item in all of Terraria is the Companion Cube, a subtle reference to the popular Valve sci-fi puzzle video game, Portal. The Companion Cube will rarely be part of the Traveling Merchant's shop, and he will sell it for an extortionate amount of five platinum.
What is the most powerful stuff in Terraria? ›The Zenith is the absolute strongest weapon in Terraria. Crafting the Zenith requires you to beat the game multiple times. It deals the most damage, has the most range, can go through blocks, and has an extremely fast fire rate. It can destroy anything in its path with relative ease, from bosses to waves of enemies.
How big is the AFK farm in Terraria? ›The farm starts as a normal pyramid farm, with roughly a 100x200 rectangle cut out around the farm to prevent mob spawns. At the bottom of the area is lava to prevent all spawns in the bottom portion to save from having to put walls all around down there.
Who loves the ocean in Terraria? ›The ocean pylon can be bought in the ocean biome. The NPCs that prefer to stay in these biomes are the Stylist, the Angler, and the Pirate. Luckily, the Pirate likes staying near the Angler, so you can use those two NPCs to get the Ocean Pylon.
Are ice biomes rare? ›Ice Plains is a flat, snowy biome consisting of ice and snow. Passive Mobs never spawn here, like desert and mesa biomes. These biomes are sort of rare and are spotted when in an ocean by seeing ice. Grass is also found with random spruce trees scattered around.
What NPCs like the Hallow biome? ›
| NPC | Preferred Biome | Liked Neighbours |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant | Forest | Golfer and Nurse |
| Nurse | Hallow | Arms Dealer and Wizard |
| Painter | Jungle | Dryad and Party Girl |
| Party Girl | Hallow | Wizard, Zoologist, and Stylist |
The Hallowed Mimic is a miniboss that spawns rarely in the Underground Hallow. They can also be spawned by putting a Key of Light into any chest. The chest will then turn into a Hallowed Mimic.
How do you get corruption mimics to spawn? ›The Corrupt Mimic is a miniboss that spawns rarely in the Underground Corruption. It can be spawned by putting a Key of Night into any empty chest. The chest will then turn into a Corrupt Mimic in a world that contains the Corruption. It is a bigger, more offensive Mimic.