Lava

Some lava in a cave.

The icon displayed when immune to lava.

See also: Liquids

Lava is a glowing red/orange liquid found deep in the Cavern layer and in The Underworld, appearing instead of Water at depths below 1,500 feet (750 tiles) in a small world, 2,300 feet (1,150 tiles) in a medium world, and 3,350 feet (1,675 tiles) in a large world. Tiny pools can frequently be found on the outskirts of the underground desert as well, even as high as 200 feet below the surface.

Contact with Lava deals 80 damage per hit on players and 50 damage per hit on enemies, and inflicts the On Fire! debuff on both. Lava also slows movement the way Water does. The Obsidian Skin Potion makes players immune to Lava damage, and the Lava Charm and its derivatives will allow players to be safely submerged in lava for 7 seconds.

Lava flows downwards and horizontally, settling and taking the shape of any block formations below and beside it, the way Water does; however, Lava is more viscous than Water, flowing more slowly. It also emits a medium amount of flickering light. Lava can be moved by the player via a bucket or pump. After flowing 50 blocks in a direction, lava will begin to evaporate, causing the source to be lost. Lava will destroy most furniture and platforms, except Obsidian and Stone Platforms.

Most dropped items of White Rarity (which includes all Coins) will be destroyed when submerged in Lava past their vertical midpoint. Blocks cannot be placed directly within Lava, but falling blocks like Silt and Sand can fall into it, resulting in placement at its bottom, and these can be stacked until reaching the Lava's surface to form a safe bridge over it. Silt and Sand blocks placed this way will revert back to Lava if mined away. However, one can use this method and log out. Upon logging back in, most of the lava will be gone.

Hellstone produces half a block's volume of Lava when mined in the Underworld (a full block's volume in Expert Mode). Lava Slimes create a small amount of lava when slain in Expert Mode.

Unlike with water, lava's color does not depend on the biome the player is in.

Crafting

An example of lava (together with water and honey) placed to be used as a crafting station. Notice the Crystal Ball above them.

Like water and honey, lava can be used as a minor crafting station. It works just like those two; in order to use it the player only has to stand nearby. Creation of items from a body of lava does not lower the lava level at all.

Used to craft

Lava

Result	Ingredients
Lava Bomb	Dry Bomb
Lava Rocket	Dry Rocket

Crystal Ball and Lava

Result	Ingredients
Lavafall Block	Glass
Magic Lava Dropper	Empty Dropper

Lava can also be used to make the following items, though not as a crafting station:

Item	When combined with
Obsidian	Water
Crispy Honey Block	Honey

Fishing

Fishing in lava requires the use of the Hotline hook, Lavaproof Fishing Hook, or bait found in the Underworld .

• It is not possible to get other catches normally obtained in water.
• It is advisable to make a large artificial lava lake near the surface where the enemies are less dangerous.
  • Do note that while this may be more difficult at first, it will save many deaths and coins.
  • This also requires you to collect Underworld bait before you can fish, and you may end up needing a lot of bait before you get a lavaproof fishing hook.
  • If you have access to Pumps, a Bottomless Lava Bucket or a Wet Bomb (the latter two are both acquired by fishing in lava) making an artificial lava lake is quite easy

Catches from Lava

Item		Type	Sell	Rarity	Notes
	Flarefin Koi Internal Item ID: 2312	Fish	50	02*	Used in Inferno Potion.
	Obsidifish Internal Item ID: 2315	Fish	15	02*	Used in Inferno Potion and Potion of Return.
	Obsidian Swordfish Internal Item ID: 2331	Spear	1	07*	Hardmode-only.
	Bottomless Lava Bucket Internal Item ID: 4820	Tool	10	07*	Allows placing infinite amounts of lava.
	Lava Absorbant Sponge Internal Item ID: 4872	Tool	10	07*	Allows removing infinite amounts of lava.
	Demon Conch Internal Item ID: 4819	Tool	1	04*	Teleports the player to the center of the Underworld.
	Obsidian Crate Internal Item ID: 4877	Crate	1	02*	Pre-Hardmode only.
	Hellstone Crate Internal Item ID: 4878	Crate	1	02*	Hardmode only.

Notes

By default, players are dealt 80 damage and set on fire by lava.

• There are many ways to reduce or eliminate the damage from lava:
  • It is possible to dodge lava with Hallowed Armor, Master Ninja Gear, or by other means. The lava will not hurt you until the invincibility frames end, though it will still inflict the On Fire! Debuff.
  • Under effect of Obsidian Skin Potion you can stay in Lava as long as you have the buff. Unlike Water or Honey, players cannot drown in lava.
  • Defense from armor and other sources reduces lava damage like any other sort.
  • The Obsidian Rose reduces Lava's basic damage from 80 to 35 / 50. Combined with Hardmode heavy armor and other defense items, this can reduce lava to a minor annoyance, or even a potential source of invincibility frames to avoid damage from enemies and bosses.
  • A Lava Charm can be used to stand in Lava for up to 7 seconds without getting hurt. Also can be used in combination with the Lava Waders to allow up to 14 seconds without getting hurt.
  • Lava Waders - Allows you to walk on Lava and provides 7 seconds of immunity to it (triggered when you would normally take damage to the lava). The immunity acts like breathing (shows its own bar), but unlike breathing takes much longer to refill after exiting the lava. Note: when walking on lava, the surface must be completely settled. Changing the level of the lava (e.g., by digging below it) will cause the player to fall in, and the lava will take some time to settle again.
  • The Lava Shark Mount provides immunity to lava and allows for fast movement in all liquids.
  • Some Accessories intended for Water use will also aid Lava operations, which normally comes into play when an Obsidian Skin Potion is used (as no Accessory prevents Lava damage on its own permanently).
    • Flippers and Diving Gear - Allows swimming in Lava.
    • Neptune's Shell - Has no effect in Lava.
    • The Water Walking Potion enables walking across Lava without taking damage, as long as the surface is completely settled
• Contact with Lava dislodges many placed furniture items and most kinds of Platforms, except Obsidian and Stone Platforms.
  • Statues, Pumps, and Obsidian furniture found in The Underworld are not dislodged by lava, but will still be destroyed if they are manually broken and fall into lava.
  • Rope and Chain are dislodged by lava, but Web Rope and Silk Rope are not.
• Flying monsters rarely enter Lava, but walking enemies will walk into it.

• Being rained on doesn't turn lava into obsidian.
• The presence of Lava prevents grass from spreading to dirt within an approximate two-tile radius.
• Occasional lava "drips" from the ceiling are a special effect, which cause no damage. The player can create them with a Magic Lava Dropper.
• Lava flowing from a "lavafall" (flowing over a half-block like a waterfall) is similarly harmless.
• Only five white Rarity items are not destroyed by lava
  • Obsidian
  • Fireblossom
  • Fireblossom Seeds
  • Living Fire Block (only the original type)
  • Grate
• Worms and Bosses (except the King Slime) will not take any damage from contact with lava.
• The Beach Ball bounces off of lava.

Tips

A few basic techniques go a long way:

A shallow lava pit underneath a structure will kill all walking enemies as they attempt to jump towards you while you're in your house, and if shallow enough, will gather their drops in one location for easy collection later. You can also use this technique to upgrade regular pits. Standing underneath the pit will lure most enemies toward you, with even some flying enemies diving into the lava.

Lava Depth

Lava will destroy any item of White rarity (Other than the aforementioned exceptions) including Coins, if it is deep enough for the item to sink past its midpoint. (That is, items with larger sprites can survive deeper lava.) This allows making pits with lava just deep enough to burn copper coins, but (almost) nothing else:

• If too many items (over 400) accumulate in the world, the oldest ones will despawn.
• Copper coins are among the least valuable objects in the game, but each stack of them still counts as an item. An event or enemy farm can produce huge numbers of copper coins, so it's worth discarding them, against the risk of despawning more valuable items. Fortunately they are also among the smallest items in the game (with a sprite only 12 pixels high).
  • A notable exception: The far more valuable Lihzahrd Power Cell also has a 12 pixel high sprite, and will be destroyed with the copper coins.
  • Other notable heights: Silver coins and gel share a 14-pixel height, while block items are 16 pixels tall.
• To check if a lava moat has the exact depth required, a player can throw in one copper coin, then one silver coin. The copper coin should burn, but the slightly taller silver coin should not.
• In practice, this lava depth can be achieved with 1 Bucket of lava for each 6 to 8 tiles of pit length.
  • Thus a moat that is 6-8 blocks wide, should have one bucket thrown in, while a moat of 12-16 should have 2.
  • This implies avoiding lengths where this range can't be achieved: 1-5, 9-11, 17. A moat 18 or more tiles long can always be filled to proper depth.
  • When filling a very large moat, it is best to drop individual lava buckets over the width of the moat, and not throw it on the same spot, due to unreliable liquid physics.

Trivia

• In the real world, lava is molten rock, but the term is usually applied only when it is expelled above ground as the result of a volcanic eruption. Lava, as found underground in Terraria, would typically be termed magma instead.
• If you stand in lava too long, the death message says magma instead of lava.

In the lava sound file, children can be heard in the background.

History

 PC version

• Desktop 1.4.0.1:
  • Added pre-hardmode lava fishing using Lava critter bait with any fishing pole.
  • Added craftable Lavaproof Bug Net for catching lava critters; a Golden Bug Net can also be used.
  • Added Obsidian Crates and Hellstone Crates (fished from lava), Lavaproof Fishing Hook and Superheated Blood (Lava Shark Mount), both obtained from said crates.
  • Added lava fishing catches Bottomless Lava Bucket, Lava Absorbant Sponge, and Demon Conch.
  • Added recipes for Lava Bomb and Lava Rocket.

• Desktop 1.3.4: Lava is dynamic and has a setting to be more or less dynamic.

• Desktop 1.3.0.1:
  • Lava is no longer required for blooming Fireblossom.
  • Added recipe for Magic Lava Dropper.

• Desktop 1.2.4:
  • Now used to make Lavafall Block instead of Lavafall Wall.
  • Added hardmode Lava fishing with Hotline Fishing Hook and Inferno Potion.
  • Added lava fishing catches Flarefin Koi, Obsidifish, and Obsidian Swordfish.

• Desktop 1.2.3:
  • Lava makes a bubbling noise when nearby.
  • Now functions as a crafting station to make Lavafall Wall.
  • Touching lava while in water will now properly put the On Fire! debuff out when you leave lava.

• Desktop 1.2:
  • When lava touches a half block, it will create a lavafall.
  • Lava no longer activates the breath meter.
  • Added lava-protection accessories Lava Waders, Lava Charm, Obsidian Rose, and Magma Stone.
  • Added Crispy Honey Block, created through contact of lava with honey.

• Desktop 1.1:
  • Now exists as a secondary 'layer' behind the placed blocks, therefore it can no longer be removed by dropping sand-like block in it.
  • "Blocked" liquids now disappear only after restart of world.
  • Dropping the Guide Voodoo Doll in lava in The Underworld now summons the Wall of Flesh.

• Desktop 1.0.6:
  • The Lava's emitted light was reduced.
  • Now spawned when mining Hellstone.
  • Shallow lava can again hurt players and enemies.
  • Blocks can no longer be placed in lava.
  • Now causes the On Fire! debuff.

• Desktop 1.0.5:
  • Lava will remove Grass (including Jungle Grass, Mushroom Grass, and Corruption) from dirt and mud blocks.
  • No longer destroys items with a blue rarity or higher.
  • Very shallow lava will no longer hurt players or enemies.
  • Added Fireblossom which blooms while submerged in lava, Fireblossom Seeds, Obsidian Skin Potion, and the Guide Voodoo Doll.

• Desktop-Release: Introduced with Lava Bucket, Obsidian, Hellstone and the Obsidian Skull. Contact damage to the player is 100 damage per tick.

 Console version

• Console-Release: Introduced.

 Nintendo Switch version

• Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced.

 Mobile version

• Mobile-Release: Introduced.

Nintendo 3DS version

• 3DS-Release: Introduced.