If you’ve just beaten the Wall of Flesh and stepped into Terraria’s chaotic Hardmode, you’ve probably noticed old gear doesn’t cut it against the new, brutal enemies spawning across your world. One of the first major upgrades you’ll chase is gear made from Hallowed Bars, the backbone of most mid-Hardmode builds that carry you through to the final bosses. Figuring out how to get hallowed bars terraria isn’t super complicated once you know the exact steps, but there are a ton of common mistakes that can waste hours of your playtime if you don’t plan ahead. I remember spending my first three hours of Hardmode running around the Hallow biome digging for Hallowed Ore before I realized it didn’t exist – I wasted so much time that I could have spent farming the Destroyer and getting my first set of Hallowed Armor. I’ve farmed hundreds of these bars across dozens of playthroughs, both in vanilla and modded runs, so I’ve broken down everything you need to know to get as many as you need as fast as possible.
How to Get Hallowed Bars in Terraria: Core Requirements First
Before you can start farming Hallowed Bars, you need to check a few key boxes to unlock access to the content that drops them. First and foremost, you have to beat the Wall of Flesh to trigger Hardmode. There’s no way to get Hallowed Bars in pre-Hardmode, so don’t waste time looking for workarounds in vanilla playthroughs. Once Hardmode activates, the Hallow biome will spread across your world, and the three Mechanical Bosses (The Destroyer, The Twins, and Skeletron Prime) will become available to fight.
A huge myth we need to debunk right away: Hallowed Ore does not exist as a mineable block in vanilla Terraria. You can’t dig for these bars or their raw material anywhere in your world, no matter how deep you go or how much of the Hallow biome you explore. The only way to get Hallowed Bars is to defeat one of the three Mechanical Bosses, who drop them directly as loot after you kill them.
You also need to make sure you have the right gear to even survive a Mechanical Boss fight. At minimum, you should have a full set of Cobalt or Palladium armor, and a weapon that deals at least 40 damage per hit. You’ll also want a cobalt or palladium pickaxe or drill to mine the other Hardmode resources you’ll need to craft boss summoning items, if you don’t want to wait for random boss spawns. Each Mechanical Boss drops between 15 and 35 Hallowed Bars per kill, depending on your difficulty setting, with Master mode giving the highest drop counts.
The Most Efficient Hallowed Bar Farming Strategy
Not all Mechanical Bosses are created equal when it comes to fast Hallowed Bar farming. The Destroyer, a giant worm-type boss, is by far the easiest to farm consistently for new Hardmode players, and it gives the same amount of Hallowed Bars as the other two bosses per kill. You don’t need super fancy gear to beat it, and you can farm summoning items for it really quickly with a basic underground Corruption or Crimson farm.
To craft a Mechanical Worm (the summoning item for The Destroyer), you’ll need 6 Rotten Chunks or Vertebrae, 5 Iron or Lead Bars, and 6 Souls of Night, all of which drop from enemies in the underground Corruption or Crimson biomes. Build a small arena with a few platforms in those biomes, put down a water candle and drink a battle potion to increase spawn rates, and you’ll get all the materials you need for multiple summoning items in 10 to 15 minutes.
When you’re ready to fight, build a sky arena at least 100 blocks above the ground, with 5 to 6 layers of wooden platforms spaced 4 blocks apart. This gives you plenty of room to dodge The Destroyer’s attacks and the probes it spawns throughout the fight. For weapons, the Daedalus Stormbow (dropped from Hallowed mimics) paired with Holy Arrows will melt The Destroyer in less than two minutes even on Classic difficulty, no fancy buffs required. Farming The Destroyer on Classic mode first if you’re new to Hardmode is the best call, as you’ll get enough bars for a full set of Hallowed Armor in 2 to 3 runs, and you won’t have to deal with the extra damage and mechanics from Expert or Master mode until you’re better geared.
Every time you head into a boss fight for Hallowed Bars, bring these must-have items to avoid unnecessary deaths:
- At least 20 greater healing potions to patch up damage from unexpected probe swarms or direct hits from The Destroyer’s body
- Buff potions including ironskin, regeneration, swiftness, and wrath/rage to boost your damage output and cut down on the time the fight takes
- At least one summon weapon with 2 or more minions to deal passive damage while you focus on dodging and firing your main weapon
- A grappling hook or wings to help you reposition fast if The Destroyer wraps around your arena and cuts off your escape route
What to Craft First With Your Hallowed Bars
Once you start stacking up Hallowed Bars, it can be tempting to craft every cool item you see unlocked in your crafting menu, but prioritizing the right items will make the rest of Hardmode way easier. The first item most players should craft is a full set of Hallowed Armor, which costs 36 Hallowed Bars total (12 per piece). This armor gives the Holy Protection buff, which negates all damage from one attack every 30 seconds – that buff alone will save you from so many one-shot kills against later Hardmode bosses.
Class-specific gear comes next. For melee players, the Excalibur sword is one of the best mid-Hardmode melee weapons, and it only costs 12 Hallowed Bars to craft. You can upgrade it later to the True Excalibur, which is a core component of the Terra Blade, one of the strongest endgame melee weapons in the game. For rangers, the Hallowed Repeater is a massive upgrade from earlier Hardmode bows, and it pairs perfectly with Holy Arrows to take down the other two Mechanical Bosses with ease. For mages, the Magical Harp is a great crowd control weapon that bounces projectiles off walls, perfect for clearing out swarms of Hardmode enemies in enclosed spaces. Summoners will get the most value out of the Hallowed Armor’s extra minion slot, so you don’t need to craft any extra Hallowed Bar weapons right away if you already have a decent summon weapon.
If you have extra bars left after crafting your core gear, the Hallowed Pickaxe is a great next craft, as it can mine Chlorophyte Ore in the Jungle biome, which you’ll need for late Hardmode gear. You don’t need more than 60 Hallowed Bars total for early to mid-Hardmode, so you can take a break from farming once you hit that number and focus on progressing through other content.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Farming Hallowed Bars
I’ve made almost every possible mistake when farming Hallowed Bars over the years, so I can tell you exactly what to skip to save time and frustration. First, don’t try to fight Skeletron Prime or The Twins before you get your first set of Hallowed Armor. On my first master mode playthrough, I tried to fight Skeletron Prime first because I thought its drop of Hallowed Bars was higher, and I died 12 times in a row before I switched to farming The Destroyer first. I got enough bars for a full set of armor in two runs, and beat Skeletron Prime on the first try after that.
Second, don’t build your boss arena close to your base. Mechanical Bosses have huge attack ranges and will destroy blocks, NPC houses, and any other builds you have nearby if you fight them too close to home. I lost my entire starter base once when I fought The Twins right above my house, and I had to spend an hour rebuilding everything before I could get back to farming. Build your arena at least 300 blocks away from any NPC housing to avoid this mess.
Third, don’t waste Hallowed Bars on low-priority items like furniture or decorative blocks early on. Those items are fun to craft later when you have hundreds of extra bars, but you’ll need every single bar you farm early on for gear that lets you progress through Hardmode. It’s also a bad idea to use Hallowed Bars to craft tools like the Hallowed Axe or Hammer early on, as you can get equivalent tools from other Hardmode resources that are easier to farm.
Finally, don’t ignore random Mechanical Boss spawns. If you get a pop-up saying “You feel a terrible presence lurking in the darkness” while you’re mining or building, head straight to your arena. You can get a free set of Hallowed Bars without having to craft a summoning item, as long as you’re prepared to take on the boss when it spawns.
Farming Hallowed Bars doesn’t have to be a frustrating grind if you follow the steps we’ve laid out, and you’ll be decked out in top-tier mid-Hardmode gear before you know it. You don’t need perfect gear or thousands of hours of playtime to pull this off, just a little prep and a solid strategy for the Mechanical Bosses. Once you’ve got the hang of how to get hallowed bars terraria, you’ll be able to farm as many as you need for every build, craft, or project you have planned for your world. Take it slow the first few runs, and don’t be discouraged if you die a couple times – even veteran players mess up boss fights occasionally when they’re trying a new build.