Tips: Controlling Monster Spawn Rate, Maximizing Farm Efficiency, etc...

[RafaelHydra]

Hi everyone, my name is RafaelHydra and welcome to my first guide:

Honorable Mentions:
ZeroGravitas - Part 1 Step 4, 5, 6 Fix; Step 12/Part 2 Step 6 Fix; Step 9, 10
bisslit - Part 1 Step 7 Fix
Xylia - Part 2 IMPORTANT Step

- How to control monster spawn rate, defend your base/town and maximize farm efficiency -

In this post I will be talking about how to control monster spawn rate, and tips of how to defend your base and increase monster farms efficiency.


- Part 1 -

- How to reduce monster spawning rates/How to defend you base -

Please note that this part might not have (much) effect if there is an event occurring.

This part is meant to help you reduce the monster spawn rate, mostly due to safety reasons.

1: Fill your town/base with sunflowers
The reason why you should do this is because in the 1.3 update, there is a new buff called Happy, which will increase movement speed and decrease monster spawn rate. Doing so will allow a faster circulation and decrease the chances of finding a monster.

2: Check and destroy all water candles
Look everywhere and see if there are any water candles with a debuff range within you town/base, then find them and destroy them, as they will increase monster spawning rate.

3: Wait for the Battle debuff to wear off
If you have a Battle debuff, wait until it wears of, because it has similar effects to the water candle, the only difference being the duration and range of debuff.

4: Finish any ongoing event
Most (if not all) events in Terraria are about surviving through them, fighting and defending. Either it being a Goblin Invasion or a Blood Moon, events such as the Goblin Invasion, Pirate Invasion, Frost Moon and Pumpkin Moon set the monster spawn rate and max monsters to a HUGE level, so it is recommended you finish any event occurring if you want a safe base.

5: Build walls outside your base/town
If you know about walls, you know they're used to avoid monsters spawning inside your houses. For your NPC's to feel safe, they need walls for them to live and for them to be protected. Building metric tons of walls (really, really lots of them) can possibly lower the monster spawn rate if you also build ceiling and walls (enclose it, not to forget to place the background walls). It is not recommended to proceed with step as it is very expensive and tiring. Estimated cost will be around 16,000 walls (4,000 blocks), as told by ZeroGravitas (Check his 2nd reply for more info).

6: Get at least 3 NPC's living in your base/town
According to the NPC Spawning Rules, having at least 3 NPC's nullifies monster spawn rate near your base/town, so it is recommended you get them as fast as possible, especially in early game. In my opinion, the easiest ones to get are the Guide, the Merchant and the Nurse.

7:Avoid living in the jungle
Weird as it sounds, the jungle has a higher monster spawn rate than all other biomes, and due to this reason, this is one of the least secure places to live/be on, and it is especially not recommended to even live on the Underground Jungle, as the monsters are highly more dangerous in there than in the Surface Jungle. Artificial Jungles also count as Jungles, so be careful!

8: Stay near a Peace Candle
Peace Candles have the useful buff to protect you (and maybe your NPC's) if you stay near them, just simply by reducing the monster spawn rate. It works as an opposite for the Water Candle.

9: Drink Calming Potions
Even though they are not the most popular potion in Terraria, they are very useful for both early game players or afraid players (Players that avoid danger at all costs) as they reduce monster spawn rates.

10: Kill the monsters yourself
Probably one of the most common solutions is to manually kill the mobs around your base/town. Even though it is more tiring than building defenses, it is more useful because it allows you to kill specific monsters that your traps may be useless against. (Example: Lava Pits vs. Flying Enemies/Underworld Enemies)

11: Build defenses
Also one of the most common solutions in late game is to protect your base using defenses, like traps. Even though most of the traps used are automatic and work against most monsters (Example: Poison Dart Traps, Lava Pits), some traps only work for specific types of monsters (Example: Zombie traps work effectively against Zombies).

12: Wait for day time
Apparently, day time has the longest duration between each monster spawn and the minimum Max monsters, so, combined with all other tips shown in here you can nearly nullify monster spawn rate near you base.

Part 2

- How to increase monster spawn rate/Maximize Farm Efficiency -

Note that this is mostly the opposite of Part 1, so you probably know how to do some of the steps shown in here without even reading this part, also, all farms mentioned in this part are meant to be monster farms.

This part is meant to help you find (rare) monsters or increase your monster farm efficiency.

1: Destroy any nearby Sunflowers
First reason: Destroying them will give you back the monster spawn rate you lost when getting the Happy buff (caused by Sunflowers). Second reason: You can use them (Pre-Hardmode only) to stop Corruption/Crimson from spreading. If you are building a sunflower farm, it is not recommended to place them near monster farm.

2: Place Water Candles
Place Water Candles scattered through your monster farm to help it produce more and be more effective. Note that Water Candle debuff does NOT stack, placing one down and holding one DOES stack.

3. Drink Battle Potions
These work similar to Water Candle, only difference is that they are potions, so they last temporarily, and since they are potions (again), their effect will last everywhere, and will only wear off when the timer runs out.

4: Wait for a Blood Moon
Waiting for a Blood Moon is a good choice if you want to maximize your farm efficiency (Kind of like overclocking a CPU), however, it can be dangerous if you don't have the adequate defense for it.

5: Build your farms far from your base/town
As stated in part 1/step 6, at least 3 NPC's will ''obliterate'' the monster spawn rate NEAR your town. If you build your farms away from your base/town, NPC's won't affect the monster spawn rates of your farm.

6: Destroy all Peace Candles buffing you
As you probably already know, Peace Candles lower the monster spawn rate. It is advised to have none near your monster farm, as they will reduce its efficiency.

7: Manually end any Calming buffs
Calming Potions are used to lower enemy aggression, more specifically, its spawn rates. If you want your farms to work 100%, right-click the buff you got from the Calming Potion you drank, as this will manually end it. If you want your potion to be worth it, you can always wait it out.

8: Kill the monsters right before they hit their cap
As you probably know, monsters have a cap of how many can there be alive at one moment, that way, when you think your farm is getting a little bit too crowded or not spawning any monsters (there can be mistakes on you farm), just kill them and get the loot.

9: Build farms in the highest monster spawn rate location
It is advised you build your farms according to the type of monster you want to farm, but if it spawns everywhere, like the Zombie, it is recommended building it in the Jungle Stone Layer or the Dungeon Stone Layer, as both those places have the highest monster spawn rate in the game (Not including events).

10: Wait for any event to occur
Unbelievably, Invasions and Frost/Pumpkin Moons set the monster spawn rate to an INSANE level, allowing you to farm a LOT more than before. However, it is not advised to do this because you might need to defend your base/town or participate in the event.

IMPORTANT
Make sure you build your farm according to the type of monster you want to spawn. Example: If you are building a corruption monster farm, you must build it in the corruption biome, if you are building a jungle monster farm, you must build it in the jungle, etc...

That was it for this guide, hope you enjoyed it .

If you have any questions, visit the Terraria Wiki, reply to the post or PM me.

If you have seen a mistake in any of the steps/If you want to give me a new step for this guide, reply to the post or PM me WITH proof.

Thanks for reading, -RafaelHydra​

 

[TTSp00k the Invincible]

Sorry if you said this and I just missed it, but invasions seem to increase the spawnrate of enemies(just observation, may not be true), meaning you can start an invasion and run to your farm, which is far away from the invasion.

 

[RafaelHydra]

Sorry if you said this and I just missed it, but invasions seem to increase the spawnrate of enemies(just observation, may not be true), meaning you can start an invasion and run to your farm, which is far away from the invasion.

I don't think so, shouldn't invasions keep the rate normal, or lower it down to balance things? Invasion monsters + normal monsters would be a little bit too much, so it probably just keeps it as it is or even lowers it down. Anyway, I have no proof that is true, so I won't post it. Thanks for your attention!

 

[bisslit]

You can also build an artificial jungle with 80 blocks and increase the spawn rate a lot

 

[ZeroGravitas]

I don't think so, shouldn't invasions keep the rate normal

Nah. During invasion events the spawn rate is forced up to 3 times the maximum normally possible (base rate averaging 1 spawn every 20 game ticks, verses normal max of 1 spawn every 60 ticks). See Wiki on spawn rates (by biome, etc). The events hijack the type of monsters spawned, however, so you only get those special monsters (while you are at surface level). Normally the type of monster spawned is mostly determined by the biome type of the block on which it is spawned (same Wiki page).

You need only 3 NPCs nearby to block all hostile mob spawns, 1/3 absolute reduction of rate from each (still true, as far as i know).

There appears to be a new (early game, craftable) item for reducing spawn rates - the Peace Candle

. I've not tested it yet, although I assume it works like a Water Candle in reverse. Is it (like) the Platinum Candle you mention? (Not heard of that one.) You (used to) be able to get the Water Candle buff (aka 'debuff') twice, by placing one and holding one (although there's no easy way to see this is working, no extra buff icon).

Then, off course, the most sure-fire way to block all spawns is by filling in the entire area around you (so there are no 2x3, or bigger, spaces), or so there are no gaps in player placed back-walls, or so there are no available surfaces in valid positions without lava on. I showed these options (and their exact dimentsions) in my Turbo truffle worm guide, but was meaning to make a more thorough spawn mechanics guide too (but it never transpired). Thanks for making this guide, it's useful to break it all down simply.

 

[RafaelHydra]

You can also build an artificial jungle with 80 blocks and increase the spawn rate a lot

As I said, building your farm in the jungle increases monster spawn rate, so it IS recommended you build it in there.
EDIT: Oh sorry, I didn't understand what you meant. Yes, you also build an artificial jungle, as long as the monster you want to farm spawns in there. You got a cookie and a Medal of Honor!
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Nah. During invasion events the spawn rate is forced up to 3 times the maximum normally possible (base rate averaging 1 spawn every 20 game ticks, verses normal max of 1 spawn every 60 ticks). See Wiki on spawn rates (by biome, etc). The events hijack the type of monsters spawned, however, so you only get those special monsters (while you are at surface level). Normally the type of monster spawned is mostly determined by the biome type of the block on which it is spawned (same Wiki page).

You need only 3 NPCs nearby to block all hostile mob spawns, 1/3 absolute reduction of rate from each (still true, as far as i know).

There appears to be a new (early game, craftable) item for reducing spawn rates - the Peace Candle

. I've not tested it yet, although I assume it works like a Water Candle in reverse. Is it (like) the Platinum Candle you mention? (Not heard of that one.) You (used to) be able to get the Water Candle buff (aka 'debuff') twice, by placing one and holding one (although there's no easy way to see this is working, no extra buff icon).

Then, off course, the most sure-fire way to block all spawns is by filling in the entire area around you (so there are no 2x3, or bigger, spaces), or so there are no gaps in player placed back-walls, or so there are no available surfaces in valid positions without lava on. I showed these options (and their exact dimentsions) in my Turbo truffle worm guide, but was meaning to make a more thorough spawn mechanics guide too (but it never transpired). Thanks for making this guide, it's useful to break it all down simply.

Thanks for supporting! You just got a cookie! (And a Medal of Honor!) Just Note that the Platinum Candle has no monster spawn rate reducing effects, I think it was a bug in my Terraria. Thanks for telling me about the Peace Candle, I didn't know about that one .

 

[ZeroGravitas]

(Not Confirmed) 5: Build walls outside your base/town

Nah. Walls only block monsters from spawning when used to fill in confined areas, i.e. with a ceiling (must also be player placed, of course). The spawn algorithm picks a random tile around you (in the spawn zone, off screen) and then drops straight down from there to the first solid block, to decide what type of monster to spawn (and look for lava in the way).

So you *could* block off spawns altogether with backwalls, but they'd have to be taller and wider than the screen, totalling 16000 tiles (and that's if you stand still)! You won't get noticeable drop-off in spawn rate until you get very close to filling in that entire space.

Oh, and btw, slime rain is supposedly unaffected by spawn rate items and effects, only limited by the NPC cap of 15. And they spawn up higher than normal, in empty tiles.

 

[Xylia]

Another thing that is hugely important, if you're going to set up a farm somewhere, you need to make sure that mobs only spawn where you want them to. Using the image that @ZeroGravitas posted above is a good easy way to explain it, but what the image does not show, is lining the floor on the bottom with Lava (this will prevent anything from spawning in the void, as all tiles chosen in the void will lead right down into lava which will make the game choose another instead).

If you're on the surface, and you want to set up arenas for Pirate Invasions, Goblin Invasions, Martian Madness, Frost/Pumpkin Moon, or Solar Eclipse, you will want to make sure there are no caves ~45 blocks beneath the surface and ~85 blocks to either edge of your Arena.

If there are caves, even unseen and totally blocked off ones, mobs WILL spawn in them and take away from your total concurrent mob count which will make latter waves of Frost/Pumpkin Moon more difficult to reach, and/or reduce the amount of time you have to get items/money from the Solar Eclipse.

Another important use of a guide like this, is Golem.

Golem is an awesome, awesome platinum machine that doesn't take a lot of effort to set up. You don't need traps or wires, you don't need hoiks, and it can easily give you 4-5 plat per hour with just a little setup.

However, it is also very finicky as far as worldgen. One of the things you need to do, is empty out a huge section of jungle near Golem's room, and enlarge the room so that mimics can spawn off-screen (use wood platforms along the top of the room). If you can get mimics and Lihzarhds spawning at their maximum rate, you can pop more Golems than you can kill (you should always get 1-3 Cells per Golem kill). The only problem with this method of getting money is that you will run out of inventory room fast, which means you might want to wire up some teleporters or house a vendor NPC nearby.

If you don't hollow out a section of the jungle, though, Golem farms will lose a LOT of their effectiveness. That's why not very many people see just how ridiculous Golem is for making money if you take care to set his room up properly.

 

[RafaelHydra]

Nah. Walls only block monsters from spawning when used to fill in confined areas, i.e. with a ceiling (must also be player placed, of course). The spawn algorithm picks a random tile around you (in the spawn zone, off screen) and then drops straight down from there to the first solid block, to decide what type of monster to spawn (and look for lava in the way).

So you *could* block off spawns altogether with backwalls, but they'd have to be taller and wider than the screen, totalling 16000 tiles (and that's if you stand still)! You won't get noticeable drop-off in spawn rate until you get very close to filling in that entire space.
View attachment 67873
Oh, and btw, slime rain is supposedly unaffected by spawn rate items and effects, only limited by the NPC cap of 15. And they spawn up higher than normal, in empty tiles.

Thanks for the tip, I'm gonna fix it right away. Also, Slime Rain is kind of a special exception, so I'm gonna keep it away. Thanks for suggesting!

Another thing that is hugely important, if you're going to set up a farm somewhere, you need to make sure that mobs only spawn where you want them to. Using the image that @ZeroGravitas posted above is a good easy way to explain it, but what the image does not show, is lining the floor on the bottom with Lava (this will prevent anything from spawning in the void, as all tiles chosen in the void will lead right down into lava which will make the game choose another instead).

If you're on the surface, and you want to set up arenas for Pirate Invasions, Goblin Invasions, Martian Madness, Frost/Pumpkin Moon, or Solar Eclipse, you will want to make sure there are no caves ~45 blocks beneath the surface and ~85 blocks to either edge of your Arena.

If there are caves, even unseen and totally blocked off ones, mobs WILL spawn in them and take away from your total concurrent mob count which will make latter waves of Frost/Pumpkin Moon more difficult to reach, and/or reduce the amount of time you have to get items/money from the Solar Eclipse.

Another important use of a guide like this, is Golem.

Golem is an awesome, awesome platinum machine that doesn't take a lot of effort to set up. You don't need traps or wires, you don't need hoiks, and it can easily give you 4-5 plat per hour with just a little setup.

However, it is also very finicky as far as worldgen. One of the things you need to do, is empty out a huge section of jungle near Golem's room, and enlarge the room so that mimics can spawn off-screen (use wood platforms along the top of the room). If you can get mimics and Lihzarhds spawning at their maximum rate, you can pop more Golems than you can kill (you should always get 1-3 Cells per Golem kill). The only problem with this method of getting money is that you will run out of inventory room fast, which means you might want to wire up some teleporters or house a vendor NPC nearby.

If you don't hollow out a section of the jungle, though, Golem farms will lose a LOT of their effectiveness. That's why not very many people see just how ridiculous Golem is for making money if you take care to set his room up properly.

Those are a lot of stuff I didn't know! I said everything I knew, but I am no pro player, so I didn't finish the game yet (1.3 is gonna make it tougher than ever before!). Some of these are kind of special, like tips about specific farms for certain events (I feel), so, as I said above, they don't really get a spot here. Also, I have very little information about Golem farming, not enough to make it in this post. Maybe if you tell me some more it can actually get a little hub for itself. You also got in the Honorable Mentions! Thanks for your attention and support!

 

[SoulJr]

why my farm setup dosen't work, slimes spawn on my farm, no eater of souls :C, help me please

 

[Xylia]

why my farm setup dosen't work, slimes spawn on my farm, no eater of souls :C, help me please

From the background, it looks like the game still considers that to be in the "Forest" Biome. Eater of Souls will only spawn if the current Biome is Corruption, but for some weird reason, all of that corruption grass is not turning the Biome to Corruption... maybe you have it built too high in the air? Could you perhaps give us a screenshot of your map?

 

[ZeroGravitas]

why my farm setup dosen't work, slimes spawn on my farm, no eater of souls

What is important is the 'spawn surface' - the type of block you have used for the part of the farm *just* off-screen when you stand in place. Zombies and slimes means that you have used a biome neutral material. I think I see ebonstone *blocks* there, which are not classed as corrupt (you can use a load to make NPC housing, etc). Switch to plain ebonstone or corrupt grass. (Also make sure there is no big gap under your farm. See the dimensions in my diagram higher up.

I have very little information about Golem farming, not enough to make it in this post

Yeah, best to leave Golem out of it. I think @Xylia was talking about building a farm that kills Lihzahrds and flying snakes in the temple *while* you are also killing Golems. This is to harvest the Power Cell drops from them, so you can keep spawning more Golem bosses at the altar without having to stop and farm the temple mobs manually. (Or not so much.)

It's correct that people often don't account for the open spaces outside spawning other types of mobs and this can stop your desired mobs from spawning at all if you are not careful. And that applies to most situations too. (Also, lava trays/surfaces are the easiest way to spawn block, yeah.)
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Eater of Souls will only spawn if the current Biome is Corruption...

Not true. You only need the correct spawn surface block types for eater of souls. This is my world's edge spawn mechanics testing fascility. It lets you see mobs as they spawn, because the screen stops scrolling. Here you can see the Eaters that have spawned on the thin layer of ebonstone to the right.

Note the ranges marked out. Nothing will spawn outside the blue line, or inside the red one (while I stand to the left there). And all the spawn area you can't see (top and bottom) is walled off (diamond gemspark), which also blocks spawns, if you totally fill in the space.

 

[Xylia]

What is important is the 'spawn surface' - the type of block you have used for the part of the farm *just* off-screen when you stand in place. Zombies and slimes means that you have used a biome neutral material. I think I see ebonstone *blocks* there, which are not classed as corrupt (you can use a load to make NPC housing, etc). Switch to plain ebonstone or corrupt grass. (Also make sure there is no big gap under your farm. See the dimensions in my diagram higher up.

I see normal ebonstone on the very edges of the farm next to the torches, but they might be too close to the player in that picture?

Also, shouldn't all that ebongrass cause eaters to spawn?

And on top of that very bottom layer of wood platforms, I see normal ebonstone there too.

 

[SoulJr]

From the background, it looks like the game still considers that to be in the "Forest" Biome. Eater of Souls will only spawn if the current Biome is Corruption, but for some weird reason, all of that corruption grass is not turning the Biome to Corruption... maybe you have it built too high in the air? Could you perhaps give us a screenshot of your map?

Thanks i put ebonstone on top of the farm, and works pretty well!

 

[ZeroGravitas]

they might be too close to the player in that picture?

It's an issue with the helpful new in-game screen capture that scale is now harder to be sure about...

shouldn't all that ebongrass cause eaters to spawn?

Only if it is a spawn surface: i.e. is in the spawn/despawn halo area current around the player and has exposed space of at least 2 wide x3 high above it (and has preferably several hundred tiles of space above and around it, if you want to see a noticable number of spawns there). The wiki is still correct on spelling out how this works, for the most part (slime rain as a special event with different rules).