Similar to rope, chain is an essential Terraria resource.
Chain is useful for the early-game as a mobility item, giving quick, vertical mobility up and down the map. This makes it perfect for things such as hellevators (a hole dug from the surface to the Underworld/Hell).
The early-game can last longer than expected so it is good practice to ensure you have chain for the mobility aspect.
On top of this, chain is also used for crafting – being found in the recipes of many practical and aesthetic items. This means that it’s also crucial to have plenty of chain throughout your Terraria adventure.
Both an important crafting material, and a useful mobility tool, it’s crucial to know how to make chain in Terraria.
How to Obtain Chain
Chain is quite an easy item to obtain, however, it does require a little bit of mining or exploring before being able to get them. They are made at an anvil, and need 1 iron bar of any type (lead bars or iron bars) per 10 chain. Because as little as 1 iron provides 10 chain, it is a very simple task to stock up on lots of chain, and can be very beneficial throughout your game.
There are 4 types of anvil: 2 pre-hardmode and 2 hardmode. The pre-hardmode anvils are lead and iron, and the hardmode anvils are mythril and orichalcum. Any anvil can be used to craft chain.
The required resources to craft the pre-hardmode anvils are simply 5 bars of the respective anvil type, whereas to craft the hardmode anvils, 10 mythril bars or 12 orichalcum bars are needed – for their respective anvil. Additionally, in order to craft a mythril or orichalcum anvil, the crafting station required is a lead/iron anvil.
The fact that both pre-hardmode anvils, as well as chain itself are made using iron or lead means that it’s imperative to know where to find these resources. Iron/Lead ore can be found in clusters in any underground level – apart from Hell. It’s important to keep the area you are searching for iron/lead ore in lit up with any light source because it can be difficult to distinguish these ores from stone – particularly in the dark.
Iron/lead ore can also be found as a rare drop from slimes, or from any fishing crate. Obtaining iron ore this way, however, is much more tedious, and it’s a better idea to just go exploring or mining to get it.
Additionally, it is possible to find iron/lead bars in surface chests. A surface chest is simply a chest found in the surface segment of the world. There is a 50% chance of discovering iron/lead bars in a surface chest, and they will be found in stacks of 3-10.
It costs 3 iron/lead ore to smelt 1 bar at a furnace. This means that every 3 iron/lead ore is indirectly worth 10 chain. This is a very inexpensive recipe for such a valuable resource.
Uses of Chain
Chain has many uses – for both mobility and crafting useful items.
With the same player movement velocity as rope, chain can be used for traveling up and down the map quickly. Unlike rope, however, chain cannot be crafted into coils. This means that horizontal mobility with chain is entirely compromised, whereas with rope coils there is a little bit.
It is worth noting that, while mobility underwater is incredibly limited, chain can be used to overcome this problem. Underwater, the speed at which you ascend and descend on chain is not compromised. This makes it a perfect tool for exploring the ocean found at both ends of the map.
Chain can also be used for aesthetic purpose as it has the same physical characteristics as a wall, and you can walk through chain. It is good for building with themes such as medieval buildings. The only physical factor differentiating chain from walls is that they cannot be used as a replacement for walls in NPC houses.
On top of these factors, chain is also used for crafting items. Some are purely decorative, while others are for utility purposes. For example almost every type of the 21 chandeliers are crafted using chain. Chandeliers are a decorative item that also act as a toggle-able source of light.
An example of a utility item crafted using chain is a watch. All the different types of watches require chain for crafting. Watches tell the time in Terraria – with the higher tiers of watches giving the time to a more accurate degree.
Another demonstration of chain’s utility usage is in crafting a Sawmill. A Sawmill is a placeable item that allows the player access to crafting recipes for many decorative items.
Chain can be used to craft Heart Lanterns. Heart Lanterns are a very important part of boss-battling in Terraria. They provide extra health regeneration to any nearby players which is essential for boss fights – as relying solely upon natural regeneration and health potions is not a good idea; health potions have a long cooldown.
Conclusion
To summarise, chain is a very useful resource to have throughout the game, however, it particularly excels in the early-game. It is used for both decorative and utility features – such as mobility and time-telling. Overall chain is an important resource and should always be taken into consideration for your Terraria adventure.
