NPC GUIDE [UPDATED FOR 1.4.4]

Updated NPC guide including spawn requirements for Terraria 1.4+ and going forward

Introduction

This guide will show you the requirements on how to get all NPCs to move into your town. This includes pre-hardmode, hardmode, misc NPCS, and even town pets. Below is a brief section on housing. Enjoy! :) TIP: If there is a specific NPC/Item in this guide that you are looking for, CTRL+F allows you to specifically search for it! Now updated with new NPC/Items introduced in 1.4.4!

Housing + Examples

A house is a player-built structure that NPCs can move into and in some cases, are required for NPCs to even spawn. The following requirements must be met for the game to consider the structure as a house.
1. Interior of at least 60 tiles
2. Background walls that have been placed by the player (Naturally occurring walls do not count)
3. A light source
4. A table of some sort (Any flat-surface item works)
5. A chair of some sort (Any comfort item works)
6. A door (Platforms also count as a proper entryway)
Additionally, houses cannot be too close to an evil biome (Crimson or Corruption)

Examples of housing structures for NPCs:

Simple early game house -> Simple larger scale housing

Pre-Hardmode

The following NPCs can essentially be acquired right after world creation (bar each NPCs own individual requirements)


Guide: Automatically present upon starting a new world

Merchant: All players combined have over 50 silver in their inventories
Merchant replaces the Guide as the starting NPC when using the "not the bees" seed


Nurse: Merchant is present + A player has over 100 health

Demolitionist: Merchant is present + A player has an explosive in their inventory
Demolitionist replaces the Guide as the starting NPC when using the "getGoodWorldGen" seed

Dye Trader: A player has a dye item or an item that is used to craft dye


Angler: Found in ocean biome (Must be spoken to in order to acquire)


Dryad: Eye of Cthulhu, Eater of Worlds/Brain of Cthulhu, or Skeletron has been defeated


Painter: 8 NPCs are present in the world


Arms Dealer: A player has bullets or a firearm that uses bullets in their inventory

Tavernkeep: Found and spoken to after defeating the Eater of Worlds/Brain of Cthulhu
NOTE: Tavernkeep can spawn in any layer within the world


Goblin Tinkerer: Found in the Cavern layer after a Goblin Invasion has been defeated


Witch Doctor: Queen Bee has been defeated


Clothier: Skeletron has been defeated


Mechanic: Found in the Dungeon (Must be spoken to in order to acquire)


Party Girl: 1/40 of appearing after there is 14 NPCs in the world


Golfer: Found in the Underground Desert (Must be spoken to in order to acquire)

Zoologist: 10% (or 53 entries) of the Bestiary has been filled
The Bestiary, not to be confused with a Beastiary is a book that can be viewed in game that shows all the various entities found within Terraria

Hardmode

The following NPCs can only be accessed and acquired after the game enters Hardmode (The Wall of Flesh has been defeated)


Wizard: Found in the Cavern Layer



Tax Collector: Tortured Soul is transformed with Purification Powder. Tortured Souls can be found in the Underworld.

Truffle: Will only move into a house that is in a above-ground Glowing Mushroom biome



Pirate: A Pirate Invasion has been defeated

Steampunker: Any of the 3 mechanical bosses has been defeated. Either The Destroyer, The Twins, or Skeletron Prime.


Cyborg: Plantera has been defeated

Santa Claus: The Forst Legion has been defeated. NOTE: He will only stay a member of the town during the Christmas seasonal event (December 15th to December 31st)


Princess: All NPCs are in the world (Town pets and Santa Clause do not count)

Misc NPCs

These are all the NPCs that do not move into a house.

Traveling Merchant: 22.12% chance to spawn during the morning once you have at least 2 other NPCs present


Old Man: Found at the dungeon when starting a new world. He is the one that summons Skeletron when spoken to at night, and he becomes the Clothier after Skeletron is defeated.


Skeleton Merchant: Scarcely found in the Caverns

Town Pets

Town pets can appear the dawn after the specific pet license (Cat, Dog, Bunny) is purchased from the Zoologist. Town pets do not require their own housing as they can share a house with another NPC. There are currently 3 town pets available in Terraria that all come in a variety of different colors.

Town Cat: Requires Cat License, can be bought from Zoologist right away

Town Dog: Requires Dog License, can be bought from Zoologist after 25% Bestiary completion

Town Bunny: Required Bunny License, can be bought from Zoologist after 45% Bestiary completion

Currently, apart from pylon requirements, there is no real usage for town pets besides cosmetics. This includes being able to "pet" them which again only displays a cosmetic petting animation.

Slimes [1.4.4]

As of the new 1.4.4 update to Terraria there have been 8 new npcs added into the game that are called, "Town Slimes"
These new npcs function just like any other pet in the game and the majority of these slime npcs will begin to spawn and join your world/town after King Slime is defeated.

Nerdy Slime: Unlocked after defeating King Slime'
Elder Slime: Unlocked by opening an Old Shaking Chest found in underground biomes. The slime will pop out when a golden key is used on the chest
Squire Slime: Unlocked after throwing a Copper Helmet and Copper Shortsword onto a slime
Clumsy Slime: Unlocked by popping a Windy Balloon found floating in the sky.
Surly Slime: Unlocked by fishing during a Blood Moon
Cool Slime: Chance to move in during a party
Mystic Slime: Unlocked when you use Purification Powder on a Mystic Frog, which are found in the Jungle Biome
Diva Slime: Unlocked by throwing a Sparkle Slime Balloon directly into a pool of Shimmer.

[SCREENSHOTS OF NEW SLIME NPC/PETS COMING SOON]

Shimmer [1.4.4]

A new liquid called "Shimmer" was added into Terraria and can be found in the underground of Aether Cave biomes that are located within the Jungle of your world. This liquid can be used to change items and even your town NPCS. However, this liquid cannot be picked up with a bucket, and can only be placed with a Bottomless Shimmer Bucket

Crafted with a Bottomless Water Bucket and 10 Luminite Bars at an Ancient Manipulator

*A Bottomless Water Bucket can also be changed into a Bottomless Shimmer Bucket by throwing it into Shimmer

When NPCs are submerged in Shimmer liquid it will transmute them into their "Shimmered form" Note: This only changes the cosmetic appearance of NPCs all dialogue and shop items remain the same, their appearance is the only thing that changes with the Shimmer Transmutation

Credit to Reddit user Gasstein for the image

NPC Happiness

Before getting into Pylons and how to acquire them through NPC's this section will briefly go over NPC happiness. If you would like me to expand upon this section in more detail please let me know in the comments below! For now this section will be fairly short and concise with some links.

When looking to get each of the pylons in Terraria, the given NPC/s must be at maximum happiness.
The factors that affect happiness include: the biome they are residing in, and the other NPC/s that they are living with. Some examples of NPC living preferences, the Witch Doctor likes living in a Jungle Biome alongside the Dryad. Or the Nurse loves living near the Arms Dealer and likes living in The Hallow. These living preferences can be used in conjunction to obtain all Pylons in the game.

Besides Pylons, NPC happiness also affects vendor prices (Excluding Nurse fees and Goblin Tinkerer reforging)

Here[terraria.fandom.com]is a link that goes more in-depth on NPC happiness and its determining factors, if you would like me to include a section similar to this within this guide please let me know in the comments below :)

Pylons

Pylons are colored crystals hovering above a biome-themed stand. These pylons allow the player to teleport from pylon to pylon across the world. This can be done by standing next to a (within 5 tiles) pylon and clicking on another pylon from the fullscreen map.
NOTE: Each pylon requires at least 2 or more housed NPCs living near it in order for it to work and will only work in its respective biome, these link up to other pylons within the world. This means that using a full pylon setup in your world with all biome pylons will result in having your NPCs spread across the world. This should especially be noted if you are planning on building a big town in your world.

Below are all of the available Pylons in Terraria and their usability, as of update 1.4.1



Forest Pylon: Above the surface in a forest



Snow Pylon: Snow biome



Desert Pylon: Desert Biome



Cavern Pylon: Anywhere below the surface (Including the Underworld)



Ocean Pylon: Ocean biome



Jungle Pylon: Jungle biome



Hallow Pylon: Hallow biome



Mushroom Pylon: Glowing Mushroom biome (Above or underground)



Universal Pylon: ANYWHERE


Pylons can be obtained when an NPC is at max happiness and is in an appropriate biome. The biome determines what Pylon the NPC will have for sale. All Pylons are sold for 10G each, apart from the Universal Pylon, which is sold for 1 platinum coin. Since Pylon setups require at least 2 NPC living together in an area it is worth noting that only ONE of the NPCs needs to be happy in order for the Pylon to be available.

Below is a simple Pylon guide by yeems420 on the best/efficient NPC setups to obtain all Pylons.
NOTE: This particular Pylon guide involves the use of 3 NPCs instead of 2, both of which are doable for obtaining Pylons.


Credit to Reddit user yeems420 for this image

Closing

Thank you for reading this guide, I hope it was useful to you and if it was please feel free to rate and favorite this guide :) I will be updating this guide in the future as more topics are added

[Heeter]

Oh sorry, I don't know how I didn't see him. After looking a bit further, I realised there isn't the Princess or Santa Claus! Now if I do some research I might find out why but eh I'll do it when I need to. Or you can tell me the reason

[NiCO]

Hey Heeter, the Golfer is in the forest section of the Pylon Guide (the png I included in my guide!). The only biome that the Golfer likes to be in is the Forest biome. The Golfer also loves the Angler, and likes the Princess, Painter, and Zoologist! Thanks for the questions!

[Heeter]

In the Pylon Guide

[Heeter]

Where is the Golfer?

[NiCO]

Hello frobnicate, sorry for the late response, but I just tested the ocean pylon (Pirate + Merchant + Angler) and the Pirate does indeed sell the ocean pylon when all 3 of them are living together. I believe this is because the Pirate loves to live with the Angler, I'm not sure why this Pylon Guide included the Merchant in it, but it does not effect you being able to get the ocean pylon from this setup. Hope this helps c:

[frobnicate]

But doesn't the merchant hate the angler? How would they work?

[NiCO]

Guide is now being updated for the new 1.4.4 update

[jakub]

pog

[Gzhappy]

thx

[NiCO]

hey wstelzer, yes, I believe Santa's best fitting biome would be the snowy biome as that is the biome he "loves" and the tax collector can also be in the underworld, as the cavern pylon works anywhere below the surface, the underworld included! Hope this helped and thank you for all the feedback everyone!