Pylons

   

PC/Console/Mobile/tModLoader-Only Content: This information applies only to the PC, Console, Mobile, and tModLoader versions of Terraria.

Pylons

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Statistics

Placeable	✔️ (3 wide × 4 high)
Use time	15 (Very fast)
Tooltip	Teleport to another pylon when 2 villagers are nearby You can only place one per type and in the matching biome
Rarity	01*
Buy	10 (Universal: 1)
Sell	2 (Universal: 20)
Research	1 required

Sounds

Teleport

• Internal Item ID: 4875, 4876, 4916–4921, 4951
• Internal Tile ID: 597

Two pylons being used, as shown in the 1.4 changelog.

Pylons are furniture items that appear as a large stone or crystal hovering and rotating above a biome-themed stand. They allow a player to teleport to any other pylon by pressing the ⚷ Interact button on them, which will open the fullscreen map, and selecting the other pylon there. When two or more pylons are placed, they form the Pylon Network.

The following restrictions apply to all pylons (excluding the Universal Pylon):

• Pylons can only be used when there are 2 or more living, housed NPCs (including the Old Man and town pets) within a 169-tile wide by 124-tile high rectangle centered on each pylon.
  • At least a portion of the NPCs' housing tiles must be within this range, but the pylons will still work if the NPCs themselves walk out of this range. Pylons will not work if an NPC is not near their home.
• Pylons only function when in their respective biome.
• Only one of each type of pylon may be placed in a world.
• Pylons cannot be used during boss battles or when invasions are announced or in progress (excluding the Lunar Events).
• Players must be within interaction range of a pylon (60 tiles) to use the pylon to teleport.
• Pylons cannot be used to travel long distances without opening the fullscreen map.

Types

Pylon		Placed	Tile ID	Minimap icon	Price	Usable
	Forest Pylon Internal Item ID: 4876		597		10	When not in any other biome and above the surface.
	Snow Pylon Internal Item ID: 4920		597 (7)		10	When in the Snow biome.
	Desert Pylon Internal Item ID: 4919		597 (6)		10	When in the Desert biome.
	Cavern Pylon Internal Item ID: 4917		597 (4)		10	When below the surface (including The Underworld).
	Ocean Pylon Internal Item ID: 4918		597 (5)		10	When in the Ocean biome.
	Jungle Pylon Internal Item ID: 4875		597 (2)		10	When in the Jungle biome.
	Hallow Pylon Internal Item ID: 4916		597 (3)		10	When in the Hallow biome.
	Mushroom Pylon Internal Item ID: 4921		597 (8)		10	When in the Glowing Mushroom biome.
	Universal Pylon Internal Item ID: 4951		597 (9)		1	Anywhere.

Purchasing pylons

A suggestion of one kind of pairings that allows buying pylons.

Another guide to groupings to allow pylon purchases.

Most pylons, with the exception of the Universal Pylon, can be purchased from NPCs when the following conditions apply:

• The NPC is a "vendor" that normally sells items, other than the Traveling Merchant and the Skeleton Merchant:

• Arms Dealer
• Clothier
• Cyborg
• Demolitionist
• Dryad
• Dye Trader
• Goblin Tinkerer
• Golfer
• Mechanic
• Merchant
• Painter
• Party Girl
• Pirate
• Santa Claus
• Steampunker
• Stylist
• Tavernkeep
• Truffle
• Witch Doctor
• Wizard
• Zoologist
• Princess

• The vendor NPC must be happy, with a sale modifier of 90% or better.
  • Remember that NPC relationships are not always symmetrical, but only one vendor needs to be happy enough to sell the pylon. The NPC they like (who helps make them happy) does not even need to be a vendor.
  • The "solitude" bonus gets most of the way there, granted by having at most one other NPC within 25 tiles, and at most three more within 120 tiles. Given this, it is enough to place a vendor in a biome they like, or with an NPC they like, while avoiding crowding or any biome or neighbor that they dislike.
  • In a more crowded area, bonuses can be stacked; e.g. an NPC who loves their biome, and at least likes their only close neighbor (or vice versa), can be happy enough even if there are too many NPCs within 120 tiles to get the solitude bonus.
• There must be another NPC near the vendor NPC.
• The player is not in an evil biome (Corruption or Crimson).
• Note that happiness only matters while purchasing a pylon. To use the pylon, two NPCs need to be housed nearby, but neither needs to be the one who sold the pylon, and their happiness is no longer relevant for the Pylon Network.
• A hybrid biome can result in multiple pylons appearing in the NPC's inventory, except the Forest and Cavern, which are mutually exclusive and only available when not in the Snow, Desert, Ocean, Jungle, Hallow, or Glowing Mushroom biomes.

The table below indicates which NPCs could be housed in the biome appropriate to the pylon (at a distance from other NPCs) to ensure that one of them is happy enough to sell the pylon. These are only examples and are not a complete list of every combination that can be used to obtain a pylon.

Pylon		NPC combination examples
	Forest Pylon	Zoologist and Witch Doctor or Golfer
	Snow Pylon	Mechanic and Goblin Tinkerer or Cyborg
	Desert Pylon	Dye Trader and Arms Dealer or Painter
	Cavern Pylon	Tavernkeep and Demolitionist or Clothier
	Ocean Pylon	Pirate and Angler or Tavernkeep
	Jungle Pylon	Dryad and Painter and Witch Doctor or Zoologist
	Hallow Pylon	Wizard and Party Girl or Dryad or Nurse
	Mushroom Pylon	Truffle and Dryad or Guide

Notes

• As with all biome-specific vendor items, NPCs sell pylons based on the biome the player is in, not the biome the NPC is in.
  • Similarly, pylons function based on the biome the pylon is in, not the biome the NPCs allowing it to function are in.
• NPCs living in the Underworld count their current biome towards the Cavern Pylon, despite technically being in another biome.
• NPCs will not sell pylons if there is no available space in their shop.
  • One example is the Tavernkeep after Golem is defeated, he will stop selling pylons due to his shop inventory being entirely filled with unique offerings.
  • Another example is the Painter during Christmas. Although he still has one empty shop slot, there will always be an empty slot for players to rebuy sold items, thus he will not sell pylons.
• The Universal Pylon is a post-Moon Lord item, since obtaining it requires a full Bestiary, which includes having to defeat the Moon Lord.
• It is possible to purchase a pylon without placing it down. Therefore, it can be worthwhile to move an NPC into a location long enough to buy the pylon, then move them out to a preferred location (especially useful for NPCs who may dislike a biome but be liked/loved by another NPC).
• Since the hovering crystals are not part of the actual tile, but rather merely graphics placed on top of it, they cannot be painted. The actual tile of a pylon only consists of its stand, which can be painted.
• Pylons cannot be used to teleport into the Jungle Temple (more specifically, areas with natural Lihzahrd Brick Walls) if Plantera has not been defeated yet. If attempted, the status message "Ancient forces prevent you from accessing this location . . ." will appear.
• Because the Princess has no biome preferences, she can sell every pylon given she is in the correct biome.
• It is not strictly necessary to interact with the pylon, opening the map any other way while being close enough to a working pylon also allows teleportation.

Tips

• Pylons can be used during the Lunar Event to traverse the world to combat the various pillars. This exception does not include Moon Lord, and they are still unusable during other invasions/boss fights.
• Early access to all pre-hardmode pylons can be gained from the first NPCs available without defeating a single boss: The Arms Dealer with The Nurse sells all pylons.(This includes the hallow Pylon if you are playing Celebrationmk10 seed).
• The Pylon Network can be supplemented by several other forms of teleportation or transportation, all of which do work during boss fights and invasions:
  • Each player can use a Recall Potion, Magic Mirror, or Cell Phone or Shellphone to teleport to their own spawn point or Oceans, or The Underworld. (Use while fighting the Wall of Flesh will result in an instant death unless you teleport to the center of the underworld).
  • The Shellphone gives access to both Oceans (use once for the currently more distant Ocean, then again for the other Ocean). It will take the player to the furthest point with a solid block or platform at the surface. It also gives access to the center of the Underworld (it may be necessary to build a platform there).
  • In Hardmode, each pylon plus the three conch landing points, can be used as the hub of a local Teleporter network.
  • Even before Hardmode, the pylons and conch points can also be rail hubs.
• Pylons cannot work with solitary houses. One way to easily work around this without building another house is to have a town pet or Town Slimes move in with the NPC in that house.
  • With the three town pets alone, this strategy works with a maximum of three standard pylons per world (excluding the Universal Pylon).
  • With town slimes alone, this strategy works with every single pylons in the game
  • Combining both town pets and town slimes, 4 pylons can even be established with only town pets or town slimes
• Since the area that the Cavern Pylon can be used in is very large, there are several possible use cases for it:
  • Creating a Cavern Pylon town immediately outside the Dungeon has many benefits, the most obvious being near-instant access to a deeper part of the Dungeon once Skeletron is defeated.
    • It is still possible to build the town prior to defeating Skeletron, as the Dungeon Guardian will not spawn unless a player is actually inside the Dungeon (more specifically, when the player is in front of natural Dungeon Brick Walls).
    • Since the Dungeon is right next to the Ocean, this means both Oceans can be conveniently accessed, so long as the Ocean Pylon is at the opposite Ocean from the Dungeon.
    • If there are at least three NPCs, part of the Dungeon may be considered part of the town instead. While it is not likely to be a large part, it can provide a relatively safe place to deal with enemies without more immediately spawning. (Note that this will work even if the town does not contain a pylon.)
    • Later in the game, the player will not have to worry about accidentally triggering a battle with the Lunatic Cultist, as it is more likely they enter the Dungeon via an own entrance than the naturally-spawned one.
    • Aside from the practical benefits, it also provides unique scenery for both the town and the Dungeon.
    • This setup is not recommended in multiplayer games, where a player in the Dungeon can potentially cause Dungeon enemies to spawn within range to teleport to or attack players in the town.
  • Alternately, building the Cavern Pylon at the top of the Underground layer near the player's main base may be convenient, especially in multiplayer or when all players have some form of Magic Mirrors. This allows the player to Hallow their base area without reshuffling pylons, if desired. A Dungeon town can then use the pylon of whatever surface biome it is located in, often Forest, allowing quicker access to the Ocean but still quick access to the Dungeon.
  • Another use for the Cavern Pylon is to put it in or near the Underworld, providing a viable alternative to a conventional Hellevator.
• The Universal Pylon uniquely works anywhere, and perhaps more usefully, does not require NPCs nearby. It can effectively be a free infinite-use Potion of Return for a player carrying it.
• A third-party world-editing program can be used to circumvent the one-of-each-pylon rule. Additional pylons will function normally, as long as enough NPCs are present.
• It is possible to have 3 different Pylons appear in one NPC's shop.
  • Example: Jungle, Mushroom and Hallow Pylons appearing at the same time; This was obtained due to there being an artificially created mushroom biome in a jungle while having the Hallow be near the jungle-mushroom biome. Some other combinations may be possible, However.

Trivia

• While pylons will still hover and rotate when the game is paused, they will only hover when the game is "tabbed out".
• Pylons resemble the Protoss building of the same name in StarCraft.
  • This is also referenced in the Universal Pylon's tooltip.
• The maximum price for a non-universal Pylon is 9. This is because even though all non-universal pylons have a base value of 10, due to the fact that the NPC that one is buying from must have at least a 90% price modifier from happiness for the NPC to sell the pylon, a pylon can normally not be bought for its base value; however on the remix seed and everything seed npc happiness is disabled, and thus pylons will be sold for its base 10 gold value.

History

 PC version

• Desktop 1.4.4.2: Fixed Smart Cursor trying to place Boulders on pylons.

• Desktop 1.4.4:
  • Increased the maximum range where pylons are usable from (it should be impossible to be in range of opening a pylon and not be able to teleport with it).
  • Can be used during Moon Lord's summoning sequence.

• Desktop 1.4.3.3:
  • Pylons now require a minimum of 2 NPCs under all conditions to be sold.
  • The minimum required happiness for NPCs to sell pylons has been decreased from 0.85 to 0.9 (i.e. the required cost modifier changed from 85% to 90%). This means that it is now easier to make NPCs happy enough to sell a pylon.

• Desktop 1.4.1:
  • Fixed an issue where pylon NPC detection only checked for the housing flag, and not the actual NPCs being present near their home.
  • Now works during the Lunar Events.

• Desktop 1.4.0.5:
  • Fixed a bug where the Ocean Pylon could be sold underground despite it not working there.
  • Tavernkeep will no longer sell pylons when his unique shop is full.
  • The Forest Pylon can now be used in the sky as well.

• Desktop 1.4.0.1: Introduced.

 Console version

• Console 1.4.0.5.4.1: Introduced with changes up to Desktop 1.4.0.5.

 Mobile version

• Mobile 1.4.0.5.0: Introduced with changes up to Desktop 1.4.0.5.