If you’ve ever spent 20 minutes farming a rare Ankh Shield only to accidentally trash it while clearing inventory clutter mid-boss fight, you know how frustrating unorganized Terraria storage can get. Whether you’re playing the new 2026 Calamity mod update or just doing a vanilla master mode run, knowing how to favourite items in terraria is one of the most underrated quality of life tricks you can pick up to save hours of wasted time. I’ve put in over 700 hours of Terraria playtime across 12 different playthroughs, and I still use this feature every single time I log on, no matter what build I’m running.
Step-by-Step: How to Favourite Items in Terraria (2026 Vanilla & Modded)
The process is almost identical across all 2026 game versions, so you don’t have to learn different steps if you switch between PC, console, and mobile. For PC players, simply hover your cursor over the item you want to protect, hold down the Alt key, and left click the item once. That’s it. Your favourited items will show a small gold star in the top corner of their inventory slot, so you can tell at a glance which ones are protected. Once you know how to favourite items in Terraria, you’ll notice the feature works across every inventory screen, including your piggy bank, safe, and void vault.
For console players, the steps are just as simple. Hover over the item you want to favourite, press the left thumbstick down (click it in) on Xbox or PlayStation, or tap the star icon next to the item name on Nintendo Switch. Mobile players just need to long press the item and select the “favourite” option from the pop-up menu. Even if you use custom mod packs in 2026, the default favourite controls almost always work, though some inventory overhaul mods let you rebind the function to a different key if you prefer.
To unfavourite an item, just repeat the same action you used to favourite it. The gold star will disappear, and you can sell, trash, or move the item like normal again.
Key Benefits of Favouriting Items in Your 2026 Playthrough
A lot of new players write off the favourite feature as unnecessary, but it solves so many common headaches that come with Terraria’s limited inventory space. Even casual players who only log on a few times a month will get value out of using it regularly, especially if you tend to play fast and loose with inventory management during events or boss fights. The biggest perks include:
I learned how useful this is during my last summoner playthrough earlier this year. I favourited all my minion accessories so I never accidentally swapped them out when looting chests after beating a boss. I also favourited my stack of greater healing potions so I didn’t accidentally trash them when I was cleaning out my inventory after a Goblin Army event. It’s such a small feature but it cuts down on so many avoidable mistakes. Favourited items do not drop when you die, even on master mode or hardcore worlds, which is a game-changer for permadeath runs where one mistake can erase hours of progress.
Common Favouriting Mistakes to Avoid in 2026
Even long-time players make mistakes with this feature that make it less useful than it could be. The first and most common issue is favouriting too many items. If you favourite every other thing in your inventory, the feature loses its purpose, because you can’t tell the really important ones apart at a glance. I recommend only favouriting 10 to 15 items at a time: your main weapon, your four accessories, your healing and mana potions, and any rare crafting materials you’re actively farming for.
Second, don’t forget to update your favourited items as you progress. When you upgrade from a Nights Edge to a Terra Blade, make sure you unfavourite the old weapon so you can sell or discard it without extra steps. I’ve had so many friends carry around obsolete gear for weeks just because they forgot to unfavourite it after upgrading.
If you’re using modded inventory UIs in 2026, double check your keybinds. Some popular mods like Terraria Mod Loader add extra keybind options for favouriting, so make sure you don’t accidentally rebind the function to a key you use for something else, like quick heal. Never favourite junk items just to keep them around temporarily – use a separate chest for temporary storage instead, so your favourite slots stay reserved for high-priority gear.
Advanced Favouriting Tricks for 2026 Power Players
Once you get the hang of the basic feature, there are a ton of little tricks you can use to make it even more useful for your playstyle. First, you can favourite entire stacks of items, not just individual ones. So if you have a stack of 999 chlorophyte ore you’re saving for endgame armor, you only need to favourite one item in the stack to protect the whole thing. That saves you a ton of time if you’re hoarding large amounts of rare materials.
If you’re playing on PC, you can hold Shift + Alt to favourite multiple items quickly, without clicking each one individually. That’s super useful when you just looted a dungeon and want to protect all your new rare drops at once, instead of fumbling with each item while enemies are still spawning around you.
Many 2026 community servers have custom favourite features that let you mark items as shared, so your clan members can use them from your chests but can’t remove them permanently. That’s perfect for group playthroughs where you share base resources but don’t want someone accidentally taking your best weapon for their own run. You can also use favourite markers to organize your chests by category – for example, favourite all building materials in your storage chest so you can pull them out quickly when you’re expanding your base.
I used one of these tricks when I beat the Moon Lord on master mode last month. I favourited all my buff potions so I didn’t accidentally drink them early before I reached the boss arena. It saved me from wasting three stacks of wrath potions before I even got to the fight, which would have made the run way harder than it needed to be.
At the end of the day, small quality of life features are what make Terraria such a fun, replayable game even 15 years after its initial release, and the favourite function is one of the best of the bunch. Even if you’ve been playing for years, taking a few minutes to learn how to favourite items in terraria and integrate the habit into your 2026 playthrough will save you so much frustration and wasted time down the line. Next time you log on, try favouriting your most used gear first, and you’ll wonder how you ever played without this feature.