Item Hoiks! - [Guide + Video] Move & Seperate Drops, Trawl Fallen Stars and More...

ZeroGravitas

The Destroyer
[Updated 2014-12-28] Related Guides: Hoiks (Player) | Fastest Engines Measured | Hoiktronics | Rapid Fire Dart Traps
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It's a pretty self contained, covering all the facets (that I know of) related to moving loose items around in a world by using the sloped block 'hoik' glitch. There is, however, a lot of information whizzing by pretty fast, so I've laid out a few key snap shots with notes here. Please feel free to ask any related question, however big or small. Please ask me to check the size of any particular object you're interested in hoiking. And, by all means suggest any new or modified uses for this idea! :)

Video Index:
00:32 - Item Size Categories
01:21 - Jellyfish Farm Hoik (separate necklaces from glowsticks)
01:46 - Size 1 Horizontal Hoik
02:27 - Shark Shredder (separate fins from helmets)
03:20 - Notes: [1] Active stone looses shape [2] lava disappears
04:11 - Health & Mana Star Hoiks
04:40 - Teleporter Float Glitch
05:16 - Size 1 Active Vertical Hoik
05:50 - Pumpkin Moon Grinder Pit Health Extractor
06:20 - Size 2 & 3 Verticals
07:06 - Down Hoiks
07:39 - Size 3 Horizontal Hoiks
08:23 - Size 2 Horizontal Hoiks
08:48 - Antlion (Mandible) & Vulture Auto-Farm
09:25 - Universal Horizontal Hoiks (inc. souls)
09:59 - Ghost Wall Glitch
10:19 - Examples of Size 1, 2 and 3 items
10:47 - Item Hoik Loop
11:11 - Fallen Star Hoik/Trawler
11:39 - Mushroom Vending Machine
(Application Examples in Bold
.)

Theory:
When the sprite (graphic) of an item (or player, or monster) overlaps a square shaped block, nothing happens. But if that block has been hammered so that it is sloped, strange things may occur!:
  • With an upward facing sloped block inside a sprite, the game will instantly jump that entity to sit on top of the sloped surface.
  • But if there's a solid block directly above the sloped block (or rather, directly, above the sprite's current position) it will place the entity to the side instead.
  • If the sloped surface is on the underside, then it will place the entity below the sloped surface.
  • Again, if there's a solid block directly below, a sideways displacement occurs. To the side faced by the sloped surface.
Each time a sprite is jumped, it can be made to land on another sloped block, and then another, in a chain that I've called a 'hoik'. For more diagrams with detailed explaination, see my original Hoik Guide, aimed more at player transport hoiks, but also discussing all other applications.

Item Hoik Lab.png

Diagram 1A - Example Item Hoiks
KEY: {Digram Figure} - Item sizes compatible - Technical Name
  • {A} - 2, 3, player (while holding {down}) - Bottom Foot-Height (Right)
  • {B1} - 1 in small steps (all others pushed up) - Top Foot-Height (Right)
  • {B2} - None (size 1 goes right only) - Top Foot-Height (Left)
  • {C} - 3, player - Bottom Waist-Height (Right)
  • {D} - 2 only (3 & player pushed up, 1 untouched) - Top Waist-Height (Left)
  • {E} - None - Bottom Head-Height (Right)
  • {F} - 3, Player (1 & 2 untouched) - Top Head-Height (Left)
  • {G} - All (inc, souls, other size 1 in small steps) - Universal Top (Right)
  • {H} - 2, 3, Player - Universal Bottom (Left)
  • {I} - 1 (e.g. hearts mana stars) - See [B1] - Note: some hearts will get stuck on the plinth and prevent further spawns, beyond 3. Mana star statue has been suspended in mid air, using the floating teleporter pad glitch (creddit to Scheper).
  • {J} - 3, Player - Bottom Foot-Height (Left)
  • {K} Actuated Square Blocks, 2 High - None. 1 High - Player only - Note: Items are never hauled up by square blocks, since they are not expected to move!)
  • {L} - 3, Player - Up (Size 3)
  • {M} - 2 (3 & Player ejected to side, 1 untouched) - Up (size 2)
  • {N} - 1 only - Active Up (Size 1) - Note: size 2 items will zip straight up if inserted. Teeth can be switched as fast as 60 times/s, in theory.
  • {O} - 2 only - Full Hoik Loop (size 2) - Note: extra space or extra teeth at the ends of the transitions are needed, depending on the width of the size 2 item being hoiked. These size differences will cause a slight separation of items upon each transition (e.g. horizontal to vertical).
  • {P} - 2 only - Down (Size 2) - Note: for some reason, many size 2 items do not like to down hoik from a standing start (although some will), best to use an adjoining horizontal to ease mounting.
Item Hoik Lab(Wiring).png

Diagram 1B - Wiring - Hoik 'teeth' must be actuated to pick up items.

Item Size Categories:
Here, the 'size' refers to the height of the item's collision box (i.e. how tall is). In general this roughly matches the size of it's image (or sprite), with some exceptions. 'Size 1' are under 1 tile tall, 'size 2' are between 1 and 2 tiles tall, and 'size 3' are 2 to 3 tiles tall. The height doesn't just determine weather an item (or other game entity) is tall enough to reach a hoik 'tooth', it also determines how far sideways the item will be displaced, on a horizontal hoik. Each jump along a horizontal hoik = (item height) - 1, rounded up to nearest whole number of tiles.

Size 1 Examples - Low value mob drops (including gel, not shown), coins, captured critters, souls, flower material,torches, small furniture, blocks and walls. (Unexpectedly small exceptions bottom left - late game pickaxes.) Also: presents.
Size 1 Examples(sml).png


Size 2 Examples - Common mob drops, mushrooms, all banners, fallen stars, potions, trophies, bigger furniture, rarer item drops, most swords, rods, staffs, bars. Actuators look smaller, but are size 2. Death sickle, and some swords, look huge, but are only size 2.
Size 2 Examples(sml).png


Size 3 Examples - Very rare, high end weapons. Only dropped (non-crafted) examples are from pumpkin and frost moon events.
Size 3 Examples(sml).png

Also: Night's Edge and Venom Staff (credit @jinjoohat below).

Size 5 (Special case) - While most big swords make for surprisingly small, size 2 items (e.g. Fiery Greatsword) the Breaker Blade turns out to be ridiculously big in that department too! (Thanks to Gabriel Iobagiu for this suggestion on YouTube).
Breaker size 5 copy.png



Example Applications:

E.g.1 - Jellyfish Farm. Necklace (and banner) hoik (size 2), leaves pesky glowsticks behind.
EG1 - Jellyfish Farm(sml).png


E.g.2 - 'Shark Shredder' with fin/helmet separator hoik. Size 1 items go right (in 3 tile steps), size 2 go left.
EG2 - Shark Shredder(sml).png


E.g.3a - Antlion Farm V1. Sand spawn surface is actuated, dropping antlions into lava pit below. Dropped mandibles (and banners) are picked up by a size 2 hoik. The spawn surface actuation occurs every 3 seconds (on a timer), but the pulses come via a bunny powered 'flip-flop' circuit. This sends a second pulse soon after the first, ensuring the surface is able to spawn monsters for more of the time (than if it were just on a timer, at 50% on/off). Lihzahrd temple blocks make this area count as jungle, raising the spawn rate massively! (80 Jungle grass blocks can be used instead).
EG3 - Antlion Farm1(smal).png


E.g. 3b - Antlion & Vulture turbo grinder. Not an item hoik, just an efficient farm. Improvement over previous example, since spawns may occur at all times (2 sand surfaces). Note - antlions can only be picked up (with hoiks) by their heads; blocks anywhere else will just cause them to burrow upwards slowly. Also, some vultures (spawned on upper surface) may escape the hoik and just fly to the pit, slowing things down slightly.
EG3 - Antlion Farm2(sml).png


E.g. 4 - Kill Pit Health/Mana Extractor. The demonstrator (left) uses a single crab engine to actuate the size 1 active hoik lift at ~1 cycle/s (i.e. about twice as fast as with a 1s timer). The vertical part probably only needs to be 1 tile wide. The horizontal part lifts all the monsters up for half of the time, so may slightly reduce the pit's killing efficiency. Also, it must be left in the inactive state when re-loading the world, otherwise the lava in front of the blocks will disappear.
EG4 Kill Pit Health Hoik.png


E.g.5 - Fallen Star 'Trawler' and Collection Loop. Falling stars are the only items that can insert themselves into a hoik. This special case means that you can build an entirely passive hoik structure to collect them; just augment an existing sky-bridge with a layer of sloped blocks directly on top (as shown). Be aware that these stars do not spawn from the very top of the world, so some stars will get past, and fall to the ground below, unless this structure is built below the bottom of the space biome level (low gavity + space music).

My tests on a small world showed that about 40 stars fall each night, and they are distributed evenly (though very randomly) right across the entire width of the map (regardless of player's current location). At just over 4000 tiles wide, this means that each 100 tile length of star trawler will yield an average of 1 star per night. So, given all the hammering necessary, I consider this to still be a fairly labour intensive way to collect fallen stars (unless you are happy to copy-paste in TEdit). I also find unsupported sky-bridges ugly, but that's just a personal aesthetic taste.
EG5 - Fallen Star Collection.png


E.g.6 - Mushroom Vending Machine. Consecutive rows of grass (or mushroom grass) are actuated, much like Yrimir's bait farm. Any mushrooms that have grown then drop off to the bottom, re-actuating the growing tiers also brings back the size 2 horizontal hoik teeth, underneath, which pick up the 'shrooms, sending them leftwards, to a vertical hoik that rises them all to the vending machine dispenser. Unfortunately, vines are not destroyed by actuating the blocks they grew from. Yrimir's fix was a second layer of blocks below, but this doubles the requirement for actuators and reduces the farm's useful growing area by 33%, so I've used a series of dart traps to strim them at each collection.
EG6 Mushroom Vending Machine(2).png


Related Information:
 
Last edited:
Thanks guys. Just flushed out this guide a bit, with details about each example. Any questions, observations, suggestions or general ideas welcomed. Plus, would love to see screenshots of anyone who's managed to get their own systems working! :)
 
Hoik%20Terraria%20attempt.png


PREDIOUS HERE,

This is what I have currently on my one Terraria world. This is just a third of the map. The arrows point to the directions that the HOIKS are going where I want them to. If more detail pics are require, please don't hesitate to ask me to do so.

I could also make a video showing what I have so far.
 
Cool. You have those working fine then? Presuming they're player hoiks, it might make more sense to post this to the other Hoik guide thread (instead).
Heh, yeah, I guess I should have posted this over there, sorry about that. But yes, the Player Hoik's i'm using are in working order. Let me make a video of this and post it over in the Player Hoik Guide.
 
how to i put a map into terraria
Hopefully you should have a zip file, in which there is a "readme" with directories specified (relevant for PC, Win7 & 8, I think). You just need to copy the ".wld" file to the "C:\Users\[PC USER NAME]\Documents\My Games\Terraria\Worlds" directory. I also included a ".map" (mini-map) file to go in the "players/[CHARACTER NAME]" directory too, but that's optional.

I'd love to have confirmation that someone has it working ok (my first world upload).
 
I explain how I may have solved the Item Hoik's 1 block high item issue with a bird engine!

Yup, you can certainly use a faster engine (than a 1s timer), to get my size 1 item hoik to transport faster. You've also just demonstrated the main problem with this approach: that if you do go faster, you need to turn it off every now and then, to let the items fall in. You could do this, for example, by having a single bird in a longer plate track with a fair sized gap in the run (although you'd have to ensure this pause happens when the hoik is de-actuated). Alternatively, you could feed a faster section from the side with a slower section...
 
Yup, you can certainly use a faster engine (than a 1s timer), to get my size 1 item hoik to transport faster. You've also just demonstrated the main problem with this approach: that if you do go faster, you need to turn it off every now and then, to let the items fall in. You could do this, for example, by having a single bird in a longer plate track with a fair sized gap in the run (although you'd have to ensure this pause happens when the hoik is de-actuated). Alternatively, you could feed a faster section from the side with a slower section...
In the interest of time, and the fact it took me three hours to figure something out for this, my eyeballs strained as I put this video up, happy to at least move things forward.

Overall, I knew it wasn't perfect, but hey, its a step in the right direction. And as you just stated, improvements can be made. So I'm happy. :)
 
So I have made a startling discovery about item hoiks and the worlds they occupy. Small and Medium worlds, when using an item hoiks within them, require multiple clicks of the switch to get the items to move, but mysteriously, LARGE WORLDS MAKE ITEM HOIKS AUTOMATIC. :D
 
So I have made a startling discovery about item hoiks and the worlds they occupy. Small and Medium worlds, when using an item hoiks within them, require multiple clicks of the switch to get the items to move, but mysteriously, LARGE WORLDS MAKE ITEM HOIKS AUTOMATIC. :D

Can you elaborate on this further? Do you mean that in a large world items get hoiked automatically similar to how falling stars are hoiked?
 
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