Terraria Lava Charm Guide: Hard to Come By - Indie Game Culture (2024)

I wanted to write this Lava Charm Guide for my fellow Terraria players because the accessory annoys me. I’ll quickly explain.

I found it quite soon in my first playthrough and used it immediately.

I started a second map and a new character to see how far I could go with a Summoner (I love the minions). I was not so lucky. I scoured that map. Digging and diving from one end to the other. Hell and all, and I ended up going into Hardmode, never finding a Lava Charm. I ended up creating a new, small map to search for one.

You see where I got a little frustrated? So, here I am to make sure you aren’t going to make the same mistakes I did. If you have, I will also help you find an easy fix. You can get Lava Charms on any map, and multiple ones even.

Let’s get this Terraria Lava Charm guide started.

Bottom Line Up Front

This guide will tell you how to obtain the Lava Charm and all the different items that can be crafted with it.

Key Info

• Item: Lava Charm
• Item Type: Accessory
• Found In: Chests in the deeper Cavern Biome. Obsidian or Hellstone Crates.
• Effect: 7 seconds of Lava Immunity
• Material: Yes
• Value: 6 gold
• Required: Nothing for the chests. A Hotline Fishing Hook or a Hellfire Butterfly/Magma Snail as fishing bait for the crates. They can only be fished up in lava.
• Additional Info:The Lava Charm is not guaranteed in chests, so you may need to invest in fishing.

Entering the Caverns

To reach the Cavern layer on a map, you have to dig really deep. If you don’t have a depth meter, one way to know you’ve reached it is when you start encountering Black Slimes or Mother Slimes. Cave Bats are also a good sign.

Digging is slow if you haven’t upgraded your pickaxe. Coincidentally, a good early pickaxe is one you can get from fishing, and fishing is something you may need to do a lot to increase your odds of getting a Lava Charm.

The Reaver Shark can be fished up in the Ocean. Using this to dig, you’ll get through dirt plenty fast and down to the Caverns in no time. You can check out our pickaxe guide if you want more help with efficient digging.

The digging part aside, the Caverns can be a little tough. Still, you’ll need a decent weapon, preferably with knockback. In Pre-Hardmode, silver/tungsten armor is enough to deal with most non-boss enemies.

If you grab up the Reaver Shark, it does 16 damage, so it should serve you well for these purposes.

When you make it into the Caverns, dig even deeper until you encounter lava pools. Once you do, you can use minecart tracks that spawn there to travel quickly around. You’ll want to dig and explore to locate as many chests as possible.

A Lava Charm will have a chance to spawn in the treasure chests in the Caverns’ lower parts. So, if you haven’t gone deep enough to see lava, you may not find one.

Keep in mind stepping in lava, an obsidian accessory or not, will do heavy damage(70 per second!).

Suggestions

• Build four houses quickly.
• Get at least 50 silver in your inventory, and the Merchant will show up.
• Buy a Bug Net and then hunt for the Angler, catching every bug on your way.
• The Angler usually floats in one of the oceans on either edge of the map.
• Rescue him and start doing his fishing quests.
• Set a bed in his house and click it as your spawn point.
• You can now recall to this bed as soon as you finish a Fishing Quest via Mirror or potions.
• Do one quest a day in addition to exploring.
• Craft a Sonar Potion for any fishing so as not to waste time.
• Craft a bottle using glass(made from sand when next to a furnace) to do this.
• Place the bottle on a table or shelf and craft potions next to it. (Potion Crafting Station)
• Make bottled water by having glass bottles in your inventory near any water.
• At the Potion Crafting Station, use one bottle of water, one coral, and one Waterleaf to make a Sonar Potion.
• Always collect fauna you come across for potions. This will come in clutch late game!
• You’ll need an Extractinator from the Underground Desert.
• Toss Silt, slush, or Desert Fossils into it to get amber.
• At the Potion Crafting Station, use one bottle of water, a Waterleaf, Moonglow, Amber, and a Shiverthorn to make a Crate Potion.
• Crate and Sonar Potions will help you fish up Obsidian/Hellstone Crates in lava.
• If you have a Shimmer Pool in your world, you can transmute a Magma Stone into a Lava Charm.

Dangers of the Caverns

The enemies aren’t too much of a problem. The usual slime or bat, an Undead Miner here and there.

However, some will give you a problem if you are not prepared.

• Salamander/Giant Shelley/Crawdad: A world will only have two of these types of enemies.

If you got the Salamander, it’s the easier of the three, but you still need to be wary of its poison.

If you got a Crawdad, don’t be fooled. They do a lot of damage for Pre-Hardmode. Kill them before they get to you. They have low defense and only 50 health with no knockback resistance. Be aggressive.

If you got the Giant Shelley, you got the short stick. It will spin and charge at you. While spinning, its defense is higher, and it does good damage. It is one of the more dangerous enemies you’ll encounter in Pre-Hardmode Caverns. They kill many a player.

All three of these do drop a Compass or a Depth Meter. Make sure to pick that up if you see it.

• Giant Worm:This is not that dangerous of an enemy, but because it can go through blocks, you should keep an ear out for it. It can hit you unexpectedly when low on health or knock you into lava. If you hear a shuffling sound, there is one on its way.
• Tim: This is a rare enemy that spawns in the deep caverns. Tim teleports and fires chaos bolts that go through blocks. He will despawn if you go far enough away. While a bit of a danger with decent damage and 200 life, if you can kill him, you get a rare magic hat drop!
• Nymph:This dangerous distraction will appear as a Lost Girl. She transforms and goes wild on you when you get close to her or if a minion strikes her. If you are not ready, at 35 damage a hit and 300 health, she will easily kill any player in the early game. She drops a metal detector, which is a key item, so kill her if you can.
• Lava and Traps:Lava is a clear danger, and you should pay attention to where it is when digging. What is less easy to see are the traps. Look out for switches on the ground, boulders in blocks, and dart traps. They aren’t always fatal, but a low-health player will meet their doom if a boulder falls on you.

Quick Tip:Make sure to pick up Life Crystals while looking for the Lava Charm. They appear more frequently at that depth, and you can kill two birds with one stone.

What Does the Lava Charm Do?

Equipping it to your active accessory slot grants you immunity to lava for seven seconds. This means small fire bubbles will appear on the screen when you fall into lava or walk through lava. These tiny flames act like the oxygen meter when you’re submerged in water.

When the red bubbles run out, you will begin to take damage from the lava again. Exit any lava to recharge the Lava Charm.

Does the Lava Charm Stack with Anything?

Yes. Giving you a maximum time of 42 seconds of lava immunity. It can stack with almost all the other items that grant lava immunity. The Lava Waders, Molten Charm, Hellfire Treads, Terraspark Boots, and the Demonic Hellcart all stack if they are equipped.

What’s interesting to note is only the Demonic Hellcart is not an upgrade of the Lava Charm. To make all those other items, you will need multiple Lava Charms.

Do I Need the Lava Charm?

No, but having it is very useful. Not just for crafting a good item to protect you during exploration of The Underworld, where lava is literally the major tile, but for a specific item.

The Terraspark Boots. These are the best boots in the game, and they require Lava Waders and Frostspark boots to craft.

Fishing in Lava

To make certain you acquire a Lava Charm, assuming you haven’t had luck with chests or, you know, hate luck, go fishing.

Don’t fish anywhere, though. Find a nice Lava Pool and cast a line into it. Now, you’ll need certain bait, a Hellfire Butterfly or a Magma Snail, if you don’t have the Hotline Fishing Hook or a Lavaproof Fishing Hook(the latter is only found in lava crates).

To catch these insects, Pre-Hardmode, you must mine Hellstone and forge a Lavaproof Bug Net.

Lavaproof Bug Net: x15 Hellstone and a Bug Net next to a Hellforge.

Using one of those fishing baits, you can cast any fishing pole into Lava to try and pull up a crate. If you have a Hotline Fishing Hook, you can instead use your very best bait to increase your catch chances. Many good items are in Obsidian/Hellstone crates, so it won’t feel like a waste of time. Through fishing, every map will have a Lava Charm for you, sooner or later.

The Many Things you Can Make

Here is a list of other accessories you can make once you get a Lava Charm and what they can do. You must be next to the Tinkerer’s Workshop for all of these things.

Magma Skull: Protects you from Fire and grants 7 seconds of Lava Immunity.

• Required: Lava Charm and Obsidian Skull

Molten Charm: Protects you from Fire and grants 7 seconds of Lava Immunity.

• Required: Lava Charm and Obsidian Skull

*Yes, you can choose which of the previous two to make.

Lava Waders:Walk safely on the surface of ALL liquids, including lava and shimmer. Ignores damage from fire blocks, reduces damage from lava by 50%, and grants 7 seconds of lava immunity.

• Required: Lava Charm, Obsidian Rose, and Obsidian Water Walking Boots

*You need the Lava Waders to make the Terraspark Boots.

Molten Skull Rose:Reduce damage from lava, 7 seconds of lava immunity and ignore damage from fire blocks.

• Required: Obsidian Skull Rose and Lava Charm

FAQs

Happy Hunting

This guide should make certain you get yourself a Lava Charm. You can navigate our Terraria section to find more articles if you need any help with other areas of the game. For now, I think you are ready to brave the fiery depths.

Good Luck and Good Gaming.