In Terraria, 1 in-game hour lasts 1 real-life minute. This means that a full day in Terraria lasts 24 real-life minutes. Of these 24 minutes, 15 are day and 9 are night.
The Terraria day begins at 4:30am, while night begins at 7:30pm.
Despite nighttime being shorter than daytime, it is arguably the more action-packed period in the 24 minutes of a Terraria cycle. This means that it is essential to know how to make it night in Terraria.
Differences Between Day and Night
There are many differences between day and night in Terraria. Due to these differences, it is recommended you plan your days and nights in Terraria, as day and night are best suited for different endeavors.
One of the features of the night is that particular enemies and bosses are only spawnable during this time. In pre-hardmode, the Demon Eye is the only enemy that spawns exclusively at night. On the other hand, in hardmode there are 9 enemies that will only spawn at night.
As well as this, there is an increased spawnrate of enemies at night time. The exact increase depends on the type of enemy. Nocturnal enemies will run or fly away when day starts.
Due to the increased spawnrate and exclusive enemies, when building, it’s best to do so during the daytime.
Certain bosses are only spawnable at nighttime too. These bosses are:
- Eye of Cthulhu
- Skeletron
- Skeletron Prime
- The Destroyer
- The Twins
It’s worth noting that while Skeletron and Skeletron Prime can only be spawned at night, they will continue to exist when the day starts if not killed, but will gain a high amount of defense and damage – enough to kill you in one hit.
Every night, the Blood Moon event has a 1/9 chance of occurring, provided you have over 120 health and there is a moon currently present (any night except the New Moon). The Blood Moon lasts the entire night and will cause an increased spawnrate (including places enemies would not usually spawn such as near NPCs) and zombies will have the ability to open doors.
You can tell if you have a Blood Moon by the message “The Blood Moon is rising…” appearing in the bottom left of the screen, and the reddish-pink filter applied to the surface level of your world.
There are some plants which will only appear in the day/night. Dayblooms will only spawn during the daytime, and moonglows will only spawn during the nighttime. On top of this, Deathweeds will only spawn at night – during a Blood Moon.
How to Make it Night
In Terraria, there are 2 ways to make it night in classic, mediumcore, and hardcore world modes. In journeymode, there is an extra way to make it nighttime.
Using an Enchanted Sundial
The first way is using an Enchanted Sundial. The Enchanted Sundial, when used, will speed up time, causing the day to go more quickly than usual. This increased speed will happen until 4:30am the following day.
There are a few setbacks with the Enchanted Sundial, however. For a start, it can only be used once every 7 in-game days (2 hours and 48 minutes in real time). This 7 day cooldown period is universal for all Enchanted Sundials, meaning a second one cannot be used to bypass it.
Enchanted Sundials are a hardmode item that can be obtained from Pearlwood, Mythril, and Titanium crates, with a 1/200, 1/60, and 1/20 chance of dropping, respectively.
Using a Bed
Using a bed is another way to make it night in Terraria. Sleeping in a bed will make time pass 5x faster than the normal rate. It is important to note, however, that a bed can’t be used when there is a boss alive or an event active. Beds also give an increase in health regeneration and allow you to set a new spawn point.
Obtaining a bed is a simple task and with 44 different types of beds, there are plenty to choose from. Most beds are craftable, but the varieties of beds require different workbenches and different resources.
The thing all craftable beds have in common is the requirement of 5 silk. The other ingredient is respective to the type of bed you want. For example, a bone bed would require 5 silk and 15 bones.
Crafted at a loom, using 7 cobwebs per 1 silk, it is an easy item to get. This is due to the abundance of cobwebs underground – commonly found in caves, in clusters of at least 5.
There are 5 beds that aren’t craftable. These are pink, green, and blue dungeon beds, as well as golden and obsidian beds. The dungeon beds are found in the dungeon, golden beds are dropped by pirates (during the Pirate Invasion event), and obsidian beds are found in ruined houses (structures that form in the Underworld).
Placing your bed (and setting your spawnpoint) near the Nurse NPC is recommended. This is so that you can fully heal as soon as you respawn by talking to the Nurse.
The final way to make it night in Terraria is a feature exclusive to journeymode. Journeymode is a difficulty that gives access to a wide range of customizable features. Journeymode worlds can only be accessed by journeymode players.
There is the option to set the time to one of four presets: 4:30am, 12pm, 7:30pm, and 12am. Additionally, in journeymode, you have the ability to freeze or speed up time – up to 24x.
Worth Noting
In Terraria, there are also a few time-related items/accessories that do not alter time but can still be useful.
The Clock is one of these items and – when placed – will display the time (to the hour) to any player within 50 tiles vertically and 80 tiles horizontally. There are many types of clocks, but the easiest to obtain is the Grandfather Clock. To craft a Grandfather Clock, you will need 10 wood, 6 glass, and 3 iron/lead bars.
To create the other Clock variants, simply replace the 10 wood with 10 of the block respective to the type of clock you want to make.
Watches are another item that will allow you to tell the time in Terraria. There are 6 watch variants, with different degrees of accuracy. The Copper Watch and Tin Watch will display the time accurate to the hour (rounded down). The Tungsten Watch and Silver watch will display the time accurate to 30 minutes (rounded down). And the Gold Watch and Platinum Watch will display the time accurate to the minute.
Watches can be crafted at a table and chair with 1 chain and 10 of the respective bars. It’s also worth noting that they can be crafted into 1, 3, or 5 second timers using wire at an iron or lead anvil.
The GPS, PDA, and Cell Phone all tell the exact time – accurate to the minute. These items, however, are typically late-game content and are not easy to obtain. The Cell Phone is especially difficult to craft as it requires many items, including the GPS and PDA.
