How Long Does It Take for Crimson to Spread in Terraria?
The spread of the Crimson, one of Terraria’s world evils, is a significant gameplay element that players must manage. Understanding the mechanics and timing of its growth is crucial for both early game survival and late-game world preservation. The simple answer is: the speed at which Crimson spreads is not constant, but depends heavily on the game’s progression. In pre-Hardmode, the spread is quite slow and manageable. However, after defeating the Wall of Flesh and entering Hardmode, the Crimson’s spread dramatically increases, becoming a major threat. This speed is later reduced by half after defeating Plantera.
This article will delve into the intricacies of Crimson spread, offering a comprehensive look at how it works, and answering frequently asked questions to arm you with the knowledge needed to manage this pervasive biome.
The Initial Slow Crawl: Pre-Hardmode Spread
Before venturing into the more challenging Hardmode, the Crimson’s growth is relatively gentle. During this initial phase, Crimson will spread at a pace of approximately 3-6 blocks per day. This spread occurs primarily through direct contact; meaning that Crimson grass will convert adjacent susceptible blocks, including:
- Grass
- Stone
- Mud
- Sand
The spread is slow enough that it can generally be contained with early game methods, such as digging trenches or utilizing purification powder. Players have ample time to assess the landscape, prepare the surrounding area for its spread, and create a safe zone.
The Post-Wall Onslaught: Hardmode Expansion
The real challenge of Crimson spread begins after the Wall of Flesh is defeated and your world transitions into Hardmode. Suddenly, the speed of the Crimson’s expansion is dramatically increased. The spread rate can increase several times over, which creates a significant increase in difficulty managing its growth. At this stage, the Crimson becomes more aggressive, and the slow creep from the pre-hardmode transforms into a relentless advance that requires vigilance to manage. It’s imperative to have plans or defenses already in place to manage its growth, such as quarantine zones and purification tools.
The increased speed during this phase is due to several factors, including the ability to convert a larger variety of blocks and the ability of Crimson thorns and vines to further spread the biome more quickly.
The Plantera Taming: Late-Game Control
Just when you thought the Crimson was unstoppable, the tide can turn after defeating Plantera. This pivotal boss battle has the added benefit of significantly reducing the spread of both the Crimson and Corruption. The spread speed is reduced by 50% after the player takes down Plantera, giving the player breathing room to finally regain some ground against this evil. This makes the post-plantera phase more manageable, and the world can be properly managed.
This slowdown in spread is crucial for players who want to focus on other areas of the game, like completing building projects or hunting bosses. It allows more freedom to shape the world.
Factors That Influence Crimson Spread
Besides game progression, other factors influence how fast the Crimson can spread:
- Thorns and Vines: Crimson thorns and vines can extend the Crimson’s reach significantly. Thorns can grow in any direction, spreading the crimson past basic block placements. Vines grow downwards, facilitating the spread into lower areas.
- Block Type: During Hardmode, the Crimson can convert a larger range of blocks, allowing it to spread through more areas. Specifically, the crimson can spread through sand, mud, stone and grass blocks.
- Direct Contact: The most basic way it spreads is through direct contact, where a crimson block converts an adjacent block to the crimson variant.
Mitigation Strategies
Players have access to many methods for dealing with Crimson spread:
- Barriers: Creating a 3-4 block wide gap can prevent the crimson from spreading. Digging these trenches can provide a basic level of safety. Make sure to cover the top of the trench so thorns and vines can’t bypass the gap.
- Non-Corruptible Blocks: Using blocks like clay, bricks, silt, or ash creates effective barriers because the crimson cannot spread to those.
- Purification Powder: Early on, purification powder sold by the Dryad can temporarily clear the crimson from an area.
- Clentaminator: In Hardmode, the Clentaminator uses Red Solution to efficiently convert large areas of Crimson to the normal terrain.
- Sunflowers: Sunflowers can prevent corruption from spreading to the two tiles directly underneath them and can decrease the overall corruption rating in an area.
- Hallow: The Hallow biome can be used as an effective counter to the crimson, as they are unable to overlap and the Hallow can overwrite the crimson.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Does Crimson spread faster than Corruption?
No, the Crimson and Corruption spread at the same rate. There is no “faster” or “stronger” variant.
2. Can Crimson spread through walls?
Yes, in Hardmode, Crimson can spread through Grass Walls, Flower Walls, and Jungle Walls, including both safe and unsafe versions.
3. Does water stop Crimson spread?
No, water does not directly stop the Crimson, but a large body of water may slow down or stop the spread due to the block differences and gaps. Crimson spreads on blocks and walls.
4. Can Crimson spread through Living Wood?
Living Wood Trees are infectable but will not spread the infection. Placed Living Wood blocks will still spread the corruption though, and this is only for Expert Mode.
5. Can Crimson spread through bricks?
No, the Crimson cannot spread to Gray Bricks. Other brick types, such as Stone Bricks, can be affected.
6. Does Crimson spread through ice?
Yes, in Hardmode, Crimson can spread to the Ice biome, turning it to Red Ice.
7. Can Crimson spread through thorns?
Yes, Crimson thorns can grow from Crimson grass and spread the Crimson, even over normally non-corruptible blocks.
8. Do altars count as Crimson spread?
No, Demon/Crimson Altars do not count towards the overall corruption percentage, but breaking them will randomly convert a stone block to a crimson/ebon block.
9. Can Crimson ore spread the Crimson?
No, Crimtane Ore does not spread the Crimson, in either pre-Hardmode or Hardmode.
10. Does Crimson spread through clay, silt, or ash blocks?
No, the Crimson cannot spread to blocks such as clay, silt, or ash. These can be used as containment blocks.
11. Can the Dungeon stop Crimson spread?
Yes, if the Dungeon extends down to the Underworld, it will prevent the spread of both Corruption/Crimson and Hallow. Otherwise it will slow the spread.
12. How deep can Crimson spread?
The Crimson can jump up to 3 blocks and also spread through vines and thorns. Digging a 4 block wide trench will create a gap that can prevent the spread.
13. Will lava stop the Crimson?
Yes, placing a single block of lava on the surface is enough to burn grass and stop the Crimson from spreading, but the crimson still grows underground.
14. Can the Crimson overtake the Jungle biome?
Yes, the Jungle is susceptible to Crimson takeover in Hardmode, making crucial items more difficult to acquire.
15. Can Crimson and Hallow overlap?
No, the Crimson and Hallow will not overlap. Hallow can overwrite the Crimson.