If you’ve spent dozens of hours grinding through Terraria’s early biomes and beating your first few bosses, you’ve probably heard whispers of the game’s most powerful early hardmode gear. Most of that gear is locked behind a rare, glittering resource you can only get once you’ve crossed the hardmode threshold, and if you’re here, you’re probably wondering how to get hallowed bars in Terraria to upgrade your loadout. I’ve spent over 300 hours playing Terraria across multiple playthroughs, and I’ve tested every possible farming method for these bars to cut down on grind time and skip the frustrating mistakes most new players make. This guide will walk you through exactly what you need, the fastest farming routes, and what to do with your bars once you have them.
What You Need Before You Can Get Hallowed Bars in Terraria
You can’t get hallowed bars before you trigger hardmode, so don’t waste time looking for them in pre-hardmode worlds. To unlock hardmode, you have to beat the Wall of Flesh boss in the Underworld, which you summon by throwing a Guide Voodoo Doll into lava while the Guide is alive in your world. Once you beat the Wall of Flesh, your world will automatically convert large sections of the map to Hallow, Corruption, or Crimson biomes, but that’s not all you need.
You will also need a Mythril or Orichalcum Anvil to craft hallowed bars once you collect their raw materials, so make sure you’ve mined enough of those hardmode ores to build one first. I made the mistake of farming 20+ hallowed ores my first playthrough before realizing I couldn’t smelt them without the right anvil, so don’t repeat that error. You’ll also need a pickaxe with at least 65% pickaxe power to mine the ore that turns into hallowed bars, or a good enough weapon to beat the bosses that drop them directly.
- A fully triggered hardmode world, unlocked after defeating the Wall of Flesh
- A Mythril or Orichalcum Anvil to craft the bars from raw ore
- A pickaxe with 65%+ pickaxe power, or a weapon strong enough to beat hardmode mechanical bosses
- At least 10 empty inventory slots to carry ore, drops, and extra potions during farming runs
Two Fastest Methods to Farm Hallowed Bars
There are two main ways to get hallowed bars, and which one you pick depends on your playstyle and how comfortable you are fighting bosses. The first method is farming them directly from mechanical bosses, and the second is mining hallowed ore from the Underground Hallow biome to smelt into bars. Let’s break both down so you can pick what works for you.
If you love boss fights and want extra loot besides just bars, fighting mechanical bosses is the way to go. Each mechanical boss (The Destroyer, Skeletron Prime, and The Twins) drops 15 to 35 hallowed bars per kill, depending on your game mode, and they also drop other rare crafting materials like mechanical souls. On Expert or Master mode, bosses drop 50% more bars on average, so if you’re playing on a higher difficulty, this method is way more efficient than mining. You can even set up a boss farm to spawn mechanical bosses repeatedly in one spot, cutting down on travel time between fights.
If you don’t like boss fights or you’re still gearing up to take on mechanical bosses, mining hallowed ore is the better option. You can find hallowed ore deep in the Underground Hallow biome, which spawns after hardmode triggers. Each bar requires 3 hallowed ore to smelt at a furnace, so you’ll need to mine 3 ore per bar you want to make. Just watch out for the dangerous enemies in the Underground Hallow, like Enchanted Swords and Gastropods, which can one-shot undergeared players if you’re not careful.
Pro Tips to Cut Down Hallowed Bar Grind Time
I’ve tested dozens of tricks to make farming hallowed bars faster, and these are the only ones that actually made a noticeable difference in my playthroughs. First, if you’re farming via boss fights, build a dedicated boss arena with campfires, heart lanterns, and honey pools to boost your health regen and fight bosses faster. You can also use a Mechanical Boss Summon Item to spawn bosses whenever you want, instead of waiting for them to spawn naturally at night. You craft these summon items with souls from hardmode enemies and bars at a Mythril anvil.
If you’re mining instead, use a Spelunker Potion to highlight all nearby hallowed ore on your screen, so you don’t waste time digging around looking for veins. I also recommend equipping a full set of Mining armor and using a Pickaxe Axe or Drax to mine ore 30% faster than you would with a standard pickaxe. Another trick I swear by is building a small base near the Underground Hallow entrance, so you don’t have to run all the way back to your main base to smelt ore or restock on potions mid-run. That cuts out 10 to 15 minutes of travel time per farming session, which adds up if you’re grinding for a full set of hallowed gear.
Make sure you wall off your Underground Hallow base if you’re playing on a Corruption or Crimson world, because the evil biomes will spread and turn the hallow into corrupted land over time, which will stop hallowed ore from spawning nearby. I learned this the hard way when I came back to my mining spot after 10 hours of play to find the entire area had been converted to Crimson, and all the hallowed ore was gone.
What to Craft First With Your Hallowed Bars
Once you have a stack of hallowed bars, it can be hard to decide what to make first, since you can craft over 20 different items with them. I always prioritize gear that gives you the biggest power boost first, depending on your class. For melee players, the Hallowed Sword is the best first craft, because it does 52 base damage and shoots out a glowing projectile that hits enemies from far away, making it way easier to beat the rest of the mechanical bosses. For ranged players, the Hallowed Repeater is the top pick, as it fires arrows 20% faster than pre-hardmode alternatives and does 40 base damage per hit.
For mage players, the Crystal Serpent is a great early craft, though you can also hold off and make the Hallowed Armor set first for the magic damage and mana regen boosts. For summoners, the Hallowed Armor set is non-negotiable first craft, since it gives you an extra minion slot and boosts minion damage by 28%.
No matter what class you play, don’t waste your bars on decorative items like hallowed furniture until you’ve crafted your full set of gear and weapons first. Those decorative items are fun, but they don’t help you progress through the game faster, and you’ll need all the bars you can get to beat later hardmode bosses like Plantera and the Golem.
At the end of the day, getting hallowed bars doesn’t have to be a 10-hour grind if you follow the right steps and pick the farming method that fits your playstyle. Whether you prefer fighting bosses for fast, high-quantity drops or mining at your own pace to avoid stressful fights, you now know exactly how to get hallowed bars in Terraria and make the most of every bar you collect. I’ve used these methods to get a full set of hallowed gear in under 2 hours on new playthroughs, and once you have that gear, the rest of hardmode becomes way easier to navigate. Don’t forget to stock up on potions before every run, and don’t be afraid to test both farming methods to see which one you enjoy more.