How To Find Shimmer In Terraria: The Ultimate Guide

Terraria has all sorts of interesting liquids with varying capabilities. For example, there’s the basic Lava that destroys anything it touches despite housing a few secret items, like fish. Then you have the basic Water, which acts exactly as you’d expect it to — serving as a spot for fishing, among a few other benefits.

However, the game also features a very unique liquid in the form of Shimmer. It’s possible you’ve never even come across Shimmer while playing the game, which is a testament to how rare and valuable it really is.

Fortunately, we’ve got you covered. This guide will detail everything you need to know about Shimmer, including how it can assist you with gathering crafting materials, how to use it to alter NPCs, and how to find the amorphous phenomenon in the first place.

What Is Shimmer In Terraria?

Shimmer is a versatile liquid that you can only find in the Aether Biome while exploring Terraria’s world. It offers various transformative properties that apply to both items and in-game characters.

What Is The Aether Biome?

As every Terraria world is different, you can find the Aether Biome by searching out a few key landmarks. One is to find the Jungle, specifically its outer parts. You may find an Ocean and a Beach right outside the Jungle. Dig underground from there, and you’ll find the Aether Biome. It’s always on the same side as the Jungle.

However, note that the Aether Biome can be 100 to 2200 blocks down from this Beach, so be ready to spend some time digging. Typically, you’ll find it a bit before Lava appears. So, if you start to see that evil red liquid, maybe try exploring horizontally.

Once you discover the Aether Biome, you’ll often come across Gem Trees and Stone Blocks. At the center of these materials is a pool of Shimmer.

What Is Shimmer?

Shimmer is quite an exciting liquid. To start, it’s the only liquid you cannot use for fishing in the entire game. You can’t pick it up with a Bucket, either.

Transmutation is the liquid’s primary use.

If you’re unaware, transmutation allows you to transform an item form into another. This could be something complex like turning Adamantite Ore into Orichalcum Ore or something simpler like transforming an Apple into Ambrosia.

To transform an item, you must submerge it entirely in the Shimmer pool. Once the Shimmer completely fills the item, it will float out of the Shimmer pool and transmute.

All sorts of item transmutations are available, so experiment to discover the best ones.

You can also use Shimmer to decraft items.

Decrafting only applies to crafted items. When you place crafted items into Shimmer, the Shimmer decrafting process commences. After a moment, the crafted item will break down into the crafting materials that make it up.

However, it’s important to note that potions are a bit different. When decrafting a Potion, each ingredient has a 33% chance not to appear. This prevents Shimmer from being an exploitable item farm.

Shimmer even affects enemies and NPCs, transforming them in various ways.

For example, you can convert a Zombie into a Skeleton or a Blue Slime into a Shimmer Slime. You cannot find Shimmer Slimes in the wild. Instead, you have to make them with a Shimmer pool.

Of course, you must get the NPCs to the Shimmer pool before you can transform them, but doing so is often worthwhile.

Finally, you can create some permanent upgrades through the Shimmer pool. For instance, you can upgrade the Life Crystal into a Vital Crystal by throwing it into Shimmer.

How To Find Shimmer Terraria

As mentioned, you can only find Shimmer in Terraria by discovering an Aether biome. We described how to discover those biomes earlier in the article, but inside them is where you’ll find Shimmer.

You cannot move Shimmer from the Aether, but you can find a Bottomless Shimmer Bucket by defeating the Moon Lord boss and earning materials to craft it.

What Is The Moon Lord Boss?

The Moon Lord Boss is a Hardmode-only boss and one of the most challenging enemies in the entire game. In fact, as of this writing, he’s considered the game’s final boss in many ways.

This is a multi-phase boss fight that leads to the game’s credits. Afterward, he’ll drop the Luminite Bar.

With the Luminite material unlocked, you can craft a Bottomless Shimmer Bucket by combining a Bottomless Water Bucket with 10 Luminite Bars.

Note that you cannot craft this by normal means, however. You must use an Ancient Manipulator, another item that’s unlocked after defeating the Moon Lord, to create the Bucket.

After creating the Bottomless Shimmer Bucket, you’ll be able to pour Shimmer anywhere you’d like.

You can also create a Bottomless Shimmer Bucket by submerging a Bottomless Water Bucket into Shimmer. This will transform the Bucket into a Shimmer one.

If you place more than 300 tiles of Shimmer using the Bucket, specifically in the Cavern Layer or the Underground Layer, you’ll create your own Aether biome.

You’ll know you’ve created an Aether biome by its background changing. The Underground or Cavern layer you decided to use will suddenly have stars in the background.

Shimmer opens up all sorts of possibilities while playing Terraria. It’s one of the most interesting liquids in the game world and one you should not ignore. That said, it’s not the easiest to find, and defeating the evil Lord is even more difficult. To give you a bit of an edge, why not invite some friends to play in your game world?

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