Characters / Terraria Biomes

Terraria's world is split into numerous biomes. However, each world will always feature an "evil" biome, the Corruption or Crimson, either of which is capable of spreading and has monsters of its own. Once you enter Hardmode, a second spreading biome, the Hallow, appears.

The Corruption

The Corruption is a cancer caused by the sins of those living in the worlds of Terraria. The vile actions and thoughts present in all beings feed the growth of the Corruption as it spreads relentlessly across each world. The Corruption knows nothing else but to consume everything it touches, leaving behind terrible creatures of hate that exist for the sole reason to cause pain in punishment for the unearned pleasure experienced by living things. After the Corruption restores balance to life, it destroys it with the goal of turning the world into a desolate abyss void of life.

Making the world evil...

Once you start exploring the Corruption, there are various sickly looking enemies starting with the Eater of Souls: Small, flying enemies that swarm the player, along with Big Eaters and Little Eaters, all three of which drop rotten chunks. There is also the Devourer Worm that burrows through the ground, also dropping rotten chunks, along with worm teeth, used for unholy arrows. Then the king mook of the environment is the Eater of Worlds (see above in bosses). Bunnies and goldfish turn into corrupted versions of themselves during a blood moon. Once in hardmode, the aforementioned Corrupt Slime and its slimelings spawn, along with the Slimer. Then there is the Corruptor, a flying enemy like the Eater of Souls but it can shoot vile spit that has a chance to weaken the player. If the Corruption spreads to a desert, dark mummies will spawn, which drop dark shards by chance. Deeper down underground, World Feeders start to spawn, looking like the EoW mentioned above, that drop cursed flames when killed. Cursed hammers also roam the caves, and charge their target, having a chance to curse the player (unable to use items). Finally, there's the Clinger that acts like a plant enemy such as the man-eater, but it can spew cursed fireballs, flames that cannot be put out, even by water, meaning they also drop cursed flames when killed.

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• Airborne Mook: Eaters of Souls, Corruptors, and Slimers. Cursed Hammers also appear to fly through the ground.
• Alien Kudzu: Although not confirmed, there all too many subtle hints that the Corruption at first may have been of extraterrestrial origin (i.e: the connection to meteors and the Shadow Orbs that are meant to be destroyed in order for them to appear, the Band of Starpower that can be released from said Shadow Orbs, etc).
• The Corruption: Quite obviously. It spreads and corrupts the land, and its spread gets far faster in Hardmode.
• Cyclops: Many entities from the Corruption have a single eye, which seems to be a running theme with them.
• Dark Is Evil: It turns the landscape bleak and foreboding and turns the very rock black.
• Eldritch Location: This place compared to the land around it is unnatural. Weird, rotting monstrosities spawn out of deep chasms in the ground and it assimilates the land around it. All of that can tell you that all is not well in that land.
• Elite Mook: Corruptors, considering that they can appear much more often than other Hardmode corrupted creatures and have that little bonus of spreading the corruption with their vile spit. Past 1.2 though, the corruption spreading bit has been taken out but they have a decent ranged attack and enough health to shrug off some attacks.
• Evil Tainted Place: An evil, spreading biome that corrupts the land and turns critters into twisted, stronger versions of themselves.
• Foil: A rather obvious one to the Crimson: while both are eldritch (and possibly, truly extraterrestrial) Alien Kudzu anomalies, the Corruption more represents inherent evil than the visceral horror of its counterpart and is somewhat more fantasy-like in nature, which becomes more apparent in Hardmode. Furthermore, while the Corruption wants to wipe all life out, the Crimson wants to assimilate life into itself.
• Flying Weapon: The Cursed Hammer; a flying cursed hammer, of course.
• Giant Mook: Big Eaters, which are slightly stronger than the regular Eaters. World Feeders are this to Devourers.
• Hellfire: Clingers spit out cursed flames that cannot be put out by water.
• Mini Mook: Little Eaters, which are slightly weaker than the regular Eaters.
• Made of Evil: Is explicitly said to be created by the sins of those living in the worlds of Terraria.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Its true goal after restoring the balance of life is to then wipe it out and leave a lightless, lifeless world behind.
• Purple Is the New Black: While the Corruption's running theme is darkness and evil, its overall color scheme is purple. Ebonstone, for instance, carries a dark purple hue.
• Shout-Out: Possibly one to The Colour Out of Space.
• Status Infliction Attack: Corrupt Slimes and Dark Mummies inflict Darkness, Clingers inflict Cursed Inferno (water cannot put it out), Corruptors inflict Weakness (reduced stats) and Cursed Hammers inflict Cursed (cannot use any weapons or consumables).
• Wound That Will Not Heal: The Corruption zones that generate naturally in the world will have deep pits in the planet that lead into large tunnels, as if the planet itself has been scarred by its presence here.
• Unholy Ground: An evil land filled with various eldritch monsters that spreads to the lands around it, ayup. It's so unholy that NPCs cannot live on it.

The Crimson

The Crimson is a single emergent living being connected directly to each world, sharing a hive mind, and solely focused on restoring balance at all costs. Thousands of worlds before the one on which you stand now have been absorbed by this being. Many misguided people have made the horrific mistake of raising the Crimson to the level of a deity – conducting human sacrifices to it to placate the monstrosity or seek its favor. The Crimson gladly consumes these bodies, becoming one with them and producing terrifying beings, who lose the ability to feel and blindly follow the hive mind.

Making the world bloody...

The Crimson biome appears as an alternative to the regular Corruption, a land of rotting flesh and bodily fluids. Their lands instead resemble neuron pathways rather than the "impact craters" style of their counterparts. Their normal mode enemies include the Crimera, a floating cockroach-like expy of the Eater of Souls, Face Monsters which are basically faster and tougher zombies, Blood Crawler which are giant spiders which crawl long the walls to get you, and Blood Feeders which are monstrous fish. Hardmode enemies include the Crimslime, the Floaty Gross, the Herpling, and the Ichor Sticker.

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• The Assimilator: In the lore, it’s revealed that anybody who is sacrificed to the Crimson is consumed and transformed into one of its monstrous slaves.
• Airborne Mook: Crimeras are the Crimson's equivalent of the Eaters of Souls and fly in a similar manner to them. Ichor Stickers and Crimson Axes are also capable of flight.
• Alien Blood: Ichor, the elemental counterpart to the Corruption's Cursed Flames, is consistently portrayed as both the Greek mythology (blood of gods and / or immortals, deadly to mortals) and the bodily fluid (i.e: pus) versions of its namesake.
• Alien Kudzu: Possibly, just like the Corruption (if the connection to Cthulhu with the Brain of Cthulhu and by extension, the Moon Lord, was any indication).
• Animalistic Abomination: Blood Crawler and Blood Jellies.
• Artistic License – Biology: The Blood Crawler drops vertebrae despite being based on an invertebrate. Could be a way to show the eldritch nature of the Crimson that goes against nature itself, and the lore states that they might have been once human before being assimilated.
• The Corruption: Similar to the Corruption, it spreads and corrupts the land, and its spread gets far faster in Hardmode.
• Beat Still, My Heart: The Crimson Hearts in the underground crimson areas are giant disembodied hearts.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Blood Crawlers are basically huge ticks.
• Bloody Horror: The main theme of the Crimson is flesh and blood everywhere. Even the grass and trees are bloody. Fittingly enough, the world creation for a Crimson world is "Making the world bloody".
• Bloody Murder: The Ichor Sticker shoots ichor at you, described as the blood of gods.
• Body Horror: Face Monsters. Floaty Gross as well, if it's name is any indication; considering that it rather looks like a Gardevoir made out of bodily fluids, one could say it's pretty spot-on...
• Boss Room: Each Crimson chasm leads down to a huge, spacious room, with multiple passageways leading from it to a Crimson Heart. This spacious room is a very useful place to retreat after smashing three Crimson Hearts and causing the Brain of Cthulhu to appear, since the huge amount of space will help with the fight.
• Came Back Wrong: The Floaty Gross is classified as an Undead enemy, and it has come back alright, and very very wrong.
• Eldritch Abomination: In the lore it’s revealed to be a sentient extraterrestrial entity that exists on (and has entirely consumed) multiple planets at once and possesses a Hive Mind that follows a bizarre train of thought, as it sees itself as restoring balance.
• Eldritch Location: Like the Corruption. It's an otherworldly, unnatural place that turns the earth itself into flesh as it assimilates it, and spawns murderous, disgusting, Body Horror-riddled Eldritch Abominations.
• Evil Is Visceral: An evil place with a flesh, blood and gore theme.
• Evil Tainted Place: An alternative to the usual purple one.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Floaty Gross, as its Bestiary entry describes, is "floaty and gross".
• Expy: The Crimera to the Eater of Souls, Crimslime to Corrupted Slime, the Ichor Sticker to the Corruptor and the Crimson Axe to the Cursed Hammer.
• Flying Seafood Special: The Ichor Sticker is basically a flying squid.
• Flying Weapon: The Crimson Axe. A counterpart of the Cursed Hammer.
• Foil: To the Corruption: while both are eldritch (and possibly, truly extraterrestrial) Alien Kudzu anomalies, the Crimson more represents visceral horror than the inherent evil of its counterpart and is even more sci-fi in nature. Furthermore, while the Corruption wants to wipe all life out, the Crimson wants to assimilate life into itself.
• Genius Loci: With the lore, it’s revealed that it’s not only just alive, but a sentient, thinking entity as well, meaning anywhere it corrupts is automatically converted into one of these.
• Hive Mind: In the lore, anybody who is assimilated by the Crimson becomes a part of one.
• Humanoid Abomination: Face Monsters and to a lesser degree Floaty Grosses.
• Knight Templar: The Corruption is an extraterrestrial Hive Mind that believes itself to be restoring balance to life... by assimilating all life it touches and turning them into visceral horrors.
• Lovecraftian Superpower: The Ichor Stickers wear this on their sleeve.
• Meat Moss: The ground and trees are covered with this in a Crimson biome, and Crimstone might be considered this as well.
• Nightmare Face: There's a pretty good reason why the Face Monster is named that way.
• No-Sell: Forget using Sunflowers to stop Pre-Hardmode Crimson, it will uproot them and take over the grass instead.
• Order Versus Chaos: Represents the Order to the Hallow's Chaos. It consumes living beings and forces them to follow the will of a single hive mind.
• Prophet Eyes: Any Crimson creatures with visible eyes have them glazed over with a reddish tint.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The combination of black necrotic flesh and blood-covered tissue give it this look. Additionally, Crimtane bars and equipment are colored red and black.
• Shout-Out: How the trees in the background of Forests afflicted with Crimson are covered in intestines and overall the entire biome's red gore theme (and possible connection to an extraterrestrial lifeform) brings to mind the Red Weed from War of the Worlds.
• Status Infliction Attack: Ichor Stickers inflict Ichor (lowers defense considerably), while the Floaty Gross inflicts Weakness.
• Theme Naming: Many of the Crimson creatures and related items begin with "Crim".
• Villain Team-Up: It formed an alliance with the Brain of Cthulhu; It provides the Brain with a place to rest, and the Brain defends the Crimson's hearts and helps it spread.
• Was Once a Man: The lore states that several of the monsters were humans sacrificed to the Crimson, assimilated and transformed into horrors. This might explain why the Blood Crawler drops a vertebrae.
• Womb Level: It's definitely this. The entire biome has a "flesh" theme, and moreso underground where it and the cave systems leading to it resemble being inside of some giant, red abomination.

The Hallow

The Hallow, on the other hand, is of an entirely different nature. Within each world is a Guardian who serves as the worlds[sic] master and core. Once this creature is destroyed the world will release the Ancient Spirits of Light and Dark to expedite the process of finding a new Guardian. It is here when the Hallow is created and functions as an overcompensation of purity, taken to the absolute extreme. The Hallow cures threats that would attempt to violate the critical balance of life, killing anything in its path as though it were treating an infection – whether friend, foe, or neutral party. Ultimately, the Hallow serves to push back against the never-ceasing encroachment of control.

"We are living in a fairy tale."

Once hardmode is activated, the hallow will start spreading as a bright, colorful environment with pearlstone, teal-colored grass, and rainbow-colored trees. This is also a straight example of Light Is Not Good, meaning that the inhabitants aren't merciful, such as violent pixies that deal heavy amounts of damage, along with a chance to slow you or silence you (unable to cast spells). Pixies drop dust when killed. Unicorns also roam around the hallow, and will charge you at high speed. They drop unicorn horns for the purpose of holy arrows and such. At night, there are also gastropods that can slow the player on contact, fire lasers at you from as far as off-screen, and drop gel upon death, like slimes do. Hallowed deserts contain a light equivalent of the dark mummies that drop light shards. Underground, there's the aforementioned illuminant slime as well as an illuminant bat. Chaos elementals that Teleport Spam to attack and avoid the player are also found here. Contrasting the underground corruption, there are enchanted swords that also attack the player and curse them.

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• Blob Monster: Gastropods, despite resembling jellyfish-snail hybrids, are actually slimes, as they drop gel and also become harmless when Royal Gel is equipped.
• Crapsaccharine World: Bright, cheerful and healthy for the environment...and filled with vicious fairytale creatures.
• The Fair Folk: Pixies are hostile towards the player, unlike normal fairies.
• Flying Seafood Special: Gastropods, if you consider them jellyfish.
• Heavenly Blue: Hallowed grass becomes blue, and the Hallow in general is stated as having been overcome by the spirits of light. Additionally, there's also the Holy Water, a thrown weapon that spreads hallow upon impact. The Clentaminator solution for the Hallow is light blue. Underground the Hallow is instead more associated with pink, as that is the color of their torches, most of the Underground Hallow enemies, Hallowed ice, the backgrounds, and the Souls of Light.
• Flying Weapon: The Enchanted Sword. Unrelated to the equipable sword of the same name (in fact it looks like a glowing Excalibur). It's also the Hallowed version of the Crimson Axe and Cursed Hammer.
• Holy Is Not Safe: Unless you enjoy getting gored repeatedly by unicorns and poked to death by hostile pixies, do not tread lightly on the Hallow.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: The only biome in the game safe from being corrupted on its own. It can still be corrupted manually via the Clentaminator.
• Knight Templar: The 8th Anniversary lore describes the Hallow as order and purity taken to the extreme, as it will indiscriminately destroy anything in its way to purify the world.
• Lesser of Two Evils: Commonly interpreted as this, since unlike the Crimson/Corruption it does not render areas uninhabitable, never attempts to invade the jungle, and prevents them from spreading. Certain NPCs still believe it is bad — the Dryad considers a completely pure world to be better than a world with Hallow, but no Corruption/Crimson, and the Witch Doctor believes it is evil outright.
• Light Is Not Good: Played painfully straight - despite the rainbows, pastel colors and flora-friendly atmosphere the biome is filled with creatures just as dangerous as the ones dwelling within the Corruption and Crimson. However, the Hallow does not force NPCs to move out unlike the Corruption and Crimson.
• Lightning Bruiser: Unicorns. Chaos Elementals, considering that they can take about as much in damage, move as fast as the player and also Teleport Spam to close the distance even faster.
• Order Versus Chaos: Represents the Chaos to the Crimson's Order. It's mentioned in the lore that it pushes back against the never-ceasing encroachment of control, attacking friend, foe, and neutral party alike.
• Pure Is Not Good: The lore page describes it as "purity, taken to its utmost extreme". In game, it is nearly as deadly and contagious as the evil biomes, and can ruin a player's day just as thoroughly.
• Status Infliction Attack: Pixies inflict slowness (along with the gastropod) and silence, enchanted swords inflict cursed, light mummies inflict confusion.
• Teleport Spam: Chaos Elementals teleport near the player and dash around. They have a small chance of dropping a Rod of Discord, which allows the user to teleport.
• Unicorn: One of the enemy types found in the Hallow. They're very deadly and fast, and can drop their horns.