With the massive amount of ores in Terraria, it’s easy to get confused about where to find some of them. Some ore types look similar, which makes them even harder to locate.
I should also note that every ore in the game has an equivalent. For example, a world that spawns with Lead will never contain Iron, and vice versa. The good news is that each ore comes with an equivalent set of items, though sometimes one ore equivalent is slightly better than another.
There are so many ores that it gets hard to keep track of. Luckily, I have hundreds of hours in Terraria, and have become a master at locating these ores. Here is a list of every ore in Terraria, and where to find every single one of them.
Ore locating items
Before we get to ore hunting, there are a few items that’ll make your search much easier.
Spelunker Potions
You absolutely NEED to have Spelunker Potions with you at all times. They are crafted using 1 Bottled Water, 1 Blinkroot, 1 Moonglow, and 1 Gold / Platinum Ore.
These potions make every block of ore light up on your screen, making it extremely easy to see them all. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult to tell certain ores apart, but eventually, you’ll be able to figure it out extremely quickly.
Metal Detector
The perfect complement to Spelunker Potions is the Metal Detector since it tells you the most valuable ore nearby. These can be obtained by defeating a Nymph, a rare underground enemy.
These work especially well when you need to locate hardmode ores. I find myself using it extensively while searching for Titanium / Adamantium, so it’s definitely worth having in your inventory.
Magic Lantern
A lesser needed but still very helpful item is the Magic Lantern. This item will provide extra light in the darkness, and highlight any ores 15 blocks away from you. These can be bought from a Skeleton Merchant when a full moon occurs.
Copper / Tin
Source – Surface, Underground, Cavern
Every world spawns with one or the other, but not both. You’ll start with copper tools regardless of what the world has in it. You don’t have to look very hard to find copper or tin. It’s practically everywhere close to the surface, and you even start with a set of copper tools.
While you can find this pretty much everywhere, my favorite place to look is underground just before the Cavern layer. There are a lot of caves that have these ores just sitting there waiting for you to mine it.
Chests will also have bars of these ores in them, so you really won’t ever have a shortage of copper or tin. Later on in the game, you’ll probably get annoyed at how frequently they show up.
There aren’t a ton of uses for Copper and Tin, so only collect the amount you need. Once you make everything you wanna craft with it, it’s best to avoid mining this ore altogether.
Iron / Lead
Source – Surface, Underground, Cavern
Now we are getting to the metals that are somewhat useful. You need this ore to makes chests, armor, chains, and boss spawners, and many more useful things.
I recommend having a decent supply of it at all times. You can also find lots of it in chests, as well as tons of it underground. You will find Lead/Iron on pretty much every mining trip you go one, and you should always mine it when you see it.
It may get annoying mining it after a while, but you’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll run out of it. There have been so many occasions that I needed Iron to craft something, and my massive supply was used up on some other random items.
Silver / Tungsten
Source – Underground, Cavern, Floating Islands, Surface
I have no clue why, but for the longest time, I didn’t realize that Tungsten was the equivalent of Silver. Every time I saw the ore I would just assume that it was a less valuable ore like Tin or Iron, so I steered clear of it. It’s found mostly underground, and in many chests all over the world.
The armor you can make from these is pretty decent starter armor. It’s definitely better than Lead/Iron armor, and is much easier to find than Gold and Platinum, so I usually end up making at least a couple armor pieces out of these metals.
Silver is much harder to spot than silver since it is very similar in appearance to iron. If your world spawns with Tungsten, you’ll have a much easier time locating it. Tungsten’s green hue is unmistakable, so be happy if your world is filled with that rather than silver.
Gold / Platinum
Source – Underground, Cavern, Floating Islands
I would pull my hair out if my world spawned Iron, Silver, and Platinum, because all three of them look nearly identical. Gold is much easier to spot than Platinum, even though it’s a tiny bit weaker.
I always prefer to have Platinum in my world due to it being stronger, but I think it’s harder to spot. It’s basically silver ore but with a bluish tint to it, so you definitely need a metal detector to help tell the difference.
The cavern layer is the best place to find these ores. My favorite place is just above the lava in the cavern layer, and I always use Spelunker Potions to help me. As you go further underground, these ores will become much more frequent.
Many of them can be found in chests all over the world, so you’ll probably find much more in chests than you’ll find mining. It feels pretty cool to have buildings or items made out of Gold and Platinum, so I collect every piece of these ores I find.
Meteorite
Source – Crashed Meteor on surface
Meteorite is the ore that drastically changes how powerful your character becomes. Not only is the armor awesome for Pre-Hardmode, but the weapons you can create with Meteorite are extremely useful and fun.
To mine Meteorite Ore, you need to first cause one to fall into your world. Every time you break a Shadow Orb or a Crimson Heart, a Meteorite has a 50% chance to spawn. If you break the orb before midnight (in-game time), the Meteor has a chance to fall before midnight. On the other hand, an orb broken after midnight has a chance to spawn immediately, as long as it’s before dawn (4:30AM).
You should also be aware that meteorite can burn you while walking on it. The only way to counteract the burning debuff is to equip an Obsidian Skull, which is crafted using Obsidian ore. Scroll down a bit further to see how to get Obsidian.
Meteorite can only be mined using a Gold Pickaxe or better, as well as with bombs. My favorite method for mining Meteorites without an Obsidian Skull is to stand on a platform above the Meteorite and chuck sticky bombs down into it. You will have to protect yourself from the Meteor Head enemies that spawn, but bombs make quick work of the Meteorite.
Demonite / Crimtane
Source – Eye of Cthulhu, Underground, Cavern, Eater of Worlds (Demonite), Brain of Cthulhu (Crimtane)
Are you ready to get rich? Because selling Demonite / Crimtane is one of my favorite ways to make money in Terraria. Speaking of which, I wrote an article about how to make a ton of money in Terraria.
Besides the awesome profit you can make from these ores, they are the second-best Pre-Hardmode ores you can get. Once you have the ability to easily beat the Eater of World and Brain of Cthulhu, you simply have to farm them for massive amounts of these ores. It should only take defeating them 2 or 3 times to craft everything these ores allow.
One cool thing about these bosses is that you don’t have to completely beat them to get the ores. Destroying the EoW’s segments and the BoC’s Creepers will drop the ore. If you’re having trouble with these bosses, it’s possible to craft their armor and weapons before you even beat them.
I personally prefer the items that can be crafted with Demonite, as they fit my playstyle better. The Shadow armor is my favorite Pre-Hardmode armor set, so I typically set my world to be fixed with corruption.
Tiny little pieces of ore can be found scattered around the world, but mostly in the Corruption / Crimson. There is so little of this ore that you probably shouldn’t even bother mining it.
Obsidian
Source – Created when lava touches water
Obsidian ore really isn’t valuable, but it is necessary to craft certain items. To mine it, you need at least a Nightmare Pickaxe / Deathbringer Pickaxe, which means you probably won’t have an Obsidian Skull when you mine meteorites.
Speaking of Obsidian Skulls, you can sell them for decent money if you get enough obsidian. You can read more about that in my article about making money in Terraria.
The best way to get lots of Obsidian ore is to find a pocket of water underground and direct it straight to a lava pocket. It’s best to block off a tall section for the water to pool in, and then you can simply mine the ore until the lava is depleted.
Due to the abundance of water and lava, it’s one of the easiest ores to get in the entire game. Once you get pickaxe good enough to mine it, you’ll be able to get as much Obsidian Ore as you want.
Hellstone
Source – Underworld
Much like Meteorite Ore, Hellstone will burn any player that touches it. However, each block will spawn lava when you mine it, so it’s extremely dangerous to mine without lava protection.
You won’t have to look very far in Underworld to find it, so you need to gather up some gear that’ll minimize the lava damage. The first thing you need is an Obsidian Skin Potion. These potions will allow you to survive in water, and you can swim freely in it.
Another amazing lava protection gear is the Lava Charm, which will let you survive in lava for 7 seconds before being harmed. This is harder to find than the Obsidian Skin Potions, but is an amazing tool to have if you find it. They are found in Underground Cabins at the point where lava spawns underground.
With these pieces of gear, you’ll be able to collect as much Hellstone as you want. The only other things you must watch out for are the Underworld enemies, so have fun fighting them off.
Cobalt / Palladium
Source – Underground, Cavern, Crates
After beating the Wall of Flesh, you’ll get a Pwnhammer to break Demon / Crimson Altars. Destroying an altar spawns one of the 3 hardmode ores, so you want to break as many as you can. Just remember to leave one intact so you can craft items.
The colors of these ores are really easy to spot, as Cobalt is blue and Palladium is orange. Of course, you’ll have one or the other in your world, so you won’t know which ones you have until you start breaking altars.
You’ll find these ores pretty much everywhere underground, and you’ll find lots of it. The only thing you really should craft using this ore is a pickaxe or drill so that you’re able to mine the second tier of ore. Once you have your pick, it’s time to move on to the next ore.
Mythril / Orichalcum
Source – Cavern, Crates
These Hardmode ores are a little harder to find than the first ones, but aren’t too difficult. I typically find tons of it in the lower Cavern layer, so I usually end up making a set of tier 2 armor from these.
Orichalcum is very easy to spot, as it’s color is pink, but I seem to always get confused by Mythril. The darkness underground makes it hard to tell Mythril from other ores like Tungsten, so a Metal Detector is once again your best friend.
I prefer having Orichalcum simply because of the visibility. You can’t change the one you have in your world, get used to mining with Spelunker Potions.
Adamantite / Titanium
Source – Cavern (towards the bottom), Crates
Most likely, you’ve gone through the previous 2 ore tiers to get here. Something a lot of people don’t realize is that they can get all 3 of these ore tiers in fishing crates, so you can essentially skip mining for the first 2 ores.
Although I’d rather use Titanium than Adamantite, Titanium is incredibly annoying to find. This third tier ore spawns in tiny little pockets, and you need 5 ore pieces to make a bar, which is more than previous ores.
I usually look towards the very bottom of the map, and eventually, I find some of it. Expert mode players want to steer clear of the Underworld while mining, because the enemies can be very deadly.
These ores are by far some of the hardest to locate due to their scarcity. Without a Metal Detector and Spelunker Potions, it’ll take ages to find enough to craft everything you need.
Chlorophyte
Source – Underground Jungle
Chlorophyte is one of the most interesting ores in the entire game. As soon as you beat all 3 of the mechanical bosses, Chlorophyte ore starts to grow in the Underground Jungle. It’s especially unique because it’ll literally grow more over time.
The longer you wait to mine the ore, the more of it you’ll find. If you wanted, you could create a Chlorophyte farm by placing a few ore pieces into mud blocks while you’re underground.
To mine it, you’ll need the Pickaxe Axe or the Drax, which of course is crafted using Hallowed Bars. You’re gonna want to spend a while mining it, since you’ll need its armor to help defeat the coming boss. Be sure to bring some Spelunker Potions and lots of light, as it’s both dark and dangerous in the Underground Jungle.
Luminite
Source – The Moon Lord
Luminite is currently the best ore in Terraria, though we’ll see what happens after Journey’s End. The only way to get Luminite is by beating the Moon Lord.
According to the Terraria wiki, crafting everything you possibly can with Luminite will require you to defeat the Moon Lord about 15 times on average. The good news is that you’ll probably only want one set of gear depending on your playstyle, so you won’t have to farm him quite that much.
Luminite is an awesome looking ore, and some people like to decorate their bases with it to flex on their friends. Due to how hard it can be to beat the Moon Lord, it’s probably one of the most difficult ores to obtain. The Moon Lord is a nightmare on expert mode, so good luck to the expert mode players. If you don’t mind world-hopping, I recommend that expert players move to a normal world for farming purposes.