Rare spawns - Dr. Bones, Tim, Nymph. What else can I do?

L

LastLifeSyndrome

Terrarian
I've consulted the wiki, browsed the web and youtube, and have search several forums and this is what I've gathered:

1. I started a brand new world to limit possible spawns (no hardmode common spawns).
2. I am in the "caverns - forest"(Tim)/"underground - jungle"(Dr. Bones)/"underground - forest"(Nymph) - (Cellphone states 908' Caverns, 278' Underground).
3. I have 15 "water candles" placed and holding one.
4. I drink a "batte potion" every 7 minutes.
5. Blood moon is active.

I've been at this for close to 4 hours blood moon as come and gone a few times. And I haven't found anything. I'm concentrating on "Tim" at the moment, the cellphone says 908' Caverns and I'm in the forest. There are like 5 enemies on the screen and doesn't seem to be anything else spawning. Am I missing something or does RNG just hate me that much?

terraria_zpsukegatd2.png
 
LastLifeSyndrome said:
I've consulted the wiki, browsed the web and youtube, and have search several forums and this is what I've gathered:

1. I started a brand new world to limit possible spawns (no hardmode common spawns).
2. I am in the "caverns - forest"(Tim)/"underground - jungle"(Dr. Bones)/"underground - forest"(Nymph) - (Cellphone states 908' Caverns, 278' Underground).
3. I have 15 "water candles" placed and holding one.
4. I drink a "batte potion" every 7 minutes.
5. Blood moon is active.

I've been at this for close to 4 hours blood moon as come and gone a few times. And I haven't found anything. I'm concentrating on "Tim" at the moment, the cellphone says 908' Caverns and I'm in the forest. There are like 5 enemies on the screen and doesn't seem to be anything else spawning. Am I missing something or does RNG just hate me that much?

terraria_zpsukegatd2.png
Click to expand...
Multiple water candles dont stack spawn bonuses
 
You don't need that many Water Candles, as the effect does not stack. One placed water candle should be enough, as well as holding one. Also, so long as you have not obtained his hat, Tim has a higher chance of spawning. I don't think this applies to the Rune Wizard or Doctor Bones, but I know it applies to Tim.

Also, while it has more potential spawns, Hardmode Caverns have a higher spawn rate (or chance for a monster to spawn each second, at least) than the Pre-Hardmode Caverns.
 
I believe Tim appears more often if your equipped with a robe, but not a wizard hat

Dr Bones is my personal nightmare, only ever spawned once since 1.3's achievements went live, somewhere offscreen, then despawned before I could find him, even with the hunter potion :(
 
LastLifeSyndrome said:
*snip*
Click to expand...
Water candles do not stack. You only need to place one. You can use a battle potion as well, that one will stack with the water candle.

Anyway, the best way by far is to make a proper arena. Hollow out a large square underground, and with large I mean large. It needs to be larger than your screen, on all sides.
Divide the large square by a horizontal bridge.
Fill the bottom of the large square with a bit of lava. Fill as many caves and openings surrounding the arena with lava so enemies won't spawn there.

You should end up with a giant empty square with a bridge right through the middle. If you did it right all enemies will spawn to the left and right on this bridge, making it easy for some massive killing sprees. While you're at it you'll frequently find nymphs, Tims and Rune Wizards, as well as Dr. Bones if you made the bridge out of mud+jungle grass.

If there's anything unclear I can post a screenshot if so desired. :)

Edit: A picture tells more than a thousand words.
Here's the arena:
http://avatar.home.xs4all.nl/crap/terraria/arena1.png

Crude screenshot of the arena's surroundings:
http://avatar.home.xs4all.nl/crap/terraria/arena2.png
Notice how many openings are filled with lava. Enemies can't spawn there anymore. Not even flying ones.
The roof should be high enough so enemies won't spawn there either.
When standing in the middle of this arena the game is forced to spawn all enemies to the left or right of the bridge and they'll have no problems getting to you, meaning that you'll be able to kill large numbers of them in no time, also meaning that the frequency of rare monsters increases.
 
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Get a Stardust dragon and go AFK for a day. The dragon will annihilate everything onscreen including any hidden rare spawns. Tim really isn't a big concern since he teleports to you when he spawns. The nymph and Dr. Bones are the tough ones. The dragon is incredibly helpful for this as long as you don't care about actually getting drops.
 
Try using a peace candle instead of a water candle, place a sunflower then consume a calming potion (instead of a battle potion). This should help you find rare mobs.

Ignore what I said
 
One thing to keep note of is that you don't need to be underground to have Doctor Bones spawn, as he can spawn on the surface.
Not sure if he spawns more frequently above or below ground, but aboveground there's less hornets.
 
Thank you for the replies. I migrated to a hard-mode world that I had. Cleared a huge area, about the size of the mini-map, not sure if this is big enough, or too big. Is there such thing as too big? I put lava in all crevices and under my platform. I have a blue candle placed and holding one. I drink the battle potion and am wearing the robe in the social spot. I have the stardust dragon doing all the killing while I'm afk with a lot of regen bonuses. I've only been at it 10 mins and enemies are definitely spawning more frequently. No Tim yet, but its only been 10 mins. After I find him, I'll end up replacing the stone platform with mud and jungle grass and move on to the nymph and Dr. Bones.

Did I miss anything or do anything wrong? Thanks again for the replies!

terraria_zpsxdccpa84.png
 
LastLifeSyndrome said:
Thank you for the replies. I migrated to a hard-mode world that I had. Cleared a huge area, about the size of the mini-map, not sure if this is big enough, or too big. Is there such thing as too big? I put lava in all crevices and under my platform. I have a blue candle placed and holding one. I drink the battle potion and am wearing the robe in the social spot. I have the stardust dragon doing all the killing while I'm afk with a lot of regen bonuses. I've only been at it 10 mins and enemies are definitely spawning more frequently. No Tim yet, but its only been 10 mins. After I find him, I'll end up replacing the stone platform with mud and jungle grass and move on to the nymph and Dr. Bones.

Did I miss anything or do anything wrong? Thanks again for the replies!

terraria_zpsxdccpa84.png
Click to expand...

That is generally fine, hopefully solid lava below your spawning row of blocks (looks like it on the minimap, but lava is not 100% flat, so could be something down there).

Additionally you can optimize a little further and remove whats off screen then move your AFK spot up until the spawning is happening directly below you. You can control how wide that spawning area is, but it does not need to be much.

Cells are faster than the dragon at killing pretty all non boss mobs. I would switch to that and they should up your kill rate.
 
My suggestion of the dragon was primarily for its ability to pass through blocks. If you make an arena that eliminates the possibility of monster spawning on the other side of blocks from you, then yes, the cell staff is the better option.
 
Alright, thanks everyone! It seems to be going alright. The lava under me is level its jsut the way the mini map works it doesn't update until you do down there, at least it does that for me and the level is about up to the faces of standard enemies. I can make it higher but it doesn't seem like anything even spawns down there. I got down to check for drops and absolutely nothing. It seems the only issue I'm having trouble with is every now and then the skeleton merchant shows up and stops spawns. But then when he leaves everything picks up again. There wouldn't be a way to stop his spawn is there?
[DOUBLEPOST=1438787744,1438787522][/DOUBLEPOST]Alright, thanks everyone! It seems to be going alright. The lava under me is level its jsut the way the mini map works it doesn't update until you do down there, at least it does that for me and the level is about up to the faces of standard enemies. I can make it higher but it doesn't seem like anything even spawns down there. I got down to check for drops and absolutely nothing. It seems the only issue I'm having trouble with is every now and then the skeleton merchant shows up and stops spawns. But then when he leaves everything picks up again. There wouldn't be a way to stop his spawn is there?
 
He just does what he do! He spawns when he wants but shouldn't he burn in the lava? Also you need to move in order to get the lost girl she's like a mimic she spawns of screen and isn't aggressive till you get close!
 
MadCat said:
He just does what he do! He spawns when he wants but shouldn't he burn in the lava? Also you need to move in order to get the lost girl she's like a mimic she spawns of screen and isn't aggressive till you get close!
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Most minions will naturally aggro mimics/lost girls in the process of killing other targets.

When farming for frozen shell I started trashing ore detectors.
 
Just an update. I got the nymph fairly quickly while afk (within the first 30 mins of my current build (the last pic I posted). I was at this 5+ hours, no Tim. Changed the stone blocks to mud and planted jungle grass seed, 30 seconds later I got Dr. Bones. RNG pisses me off so much. lol Is there a better block to build the platform out of that may help Tim spawn? Maybe dirt and grass? or just dirt
 
LastLifeSyndrome said:
Just an update. I got the nymph fairly quickly while afk (within the first 30 mins of my current build (the last pic I posted). I was at this 5+ hours, no Tim. Changed the stone blocks to mud and planted jungle grass seed, 30 seconds later I got Dr. Bones. RNG pisses me off so much. lol Is there a better block to build the platform out of that may help Tim spawn? Maybe dirt and grass? or just dirt
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Tim condition:
else if
(
(double)num1 > (Main.rockLayer + (double)Main.maxTilesY) / 2 &&
(Main.rand.Next(200) == 0 ||
Main.rand.Next(50) == 0 && Main.player[j].armor[1].type >= 1282 && Main.player[j].armor[1].type <= 1287 && Main.player[j].armor[0].type != 238)
)

Looks like cavern depth* maybe modified a bit to be the lower cavern? -- didn't track down what all those variables are, 1:200 chance to spawn or 1:50 if you are wearing any gemmed mage robes and don't have tim's hat on.

public const short AmethystRobe = 1282;

public const short TopazRobe = 1283;

public const short SapphireRobe = 1284;

public const short EmeraldRobe = 1285;

public const short RubyRobe = 1286;

public const short DiamondRobe = 1287;

So put on a robe to have 4x more tims....

Rare creature spawns are usually just about kill rate and keeping the monster cap high with water canbdles, biomes, and battle potions.
 
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