Terraria's final update 1.4, Journey's End, brought with it the addition of pylons. These function as a teleportation mechanic, providing players with an efficient form of travel within a given world.
The game has expanded exponentially since its humble beginnings in 2011. Almost a decade later, it has become a vast and unique sandbox world, amplifying the need for a fast-travel mechanic. Below is everything players need to know about setting up and utilizing a pylon network.
Acquiring Pylons
There is a prerequisite to attaining pylons: mastering the Happiness system that was introduced with this final update. This new system added a Happiness meter to NPCs, which players must keep sufficiently full for vendors to sell them pylons. These gauges fluctuate depending on several factors, including their neighboring residential NPCs and which biome they reside in. Players must accommodate each NPC's personal preferences. Vendors will usually be content enough to sell pylons – if they are housed in their preferred biome and enjoy their neighbors, that is. If the vendor doesn't have an NPC friend, housing them alone will suffice; if they're indifferent to their biome, however, a good relationship with their neighbors becomes imperative.
Pylons correspond with the different biomes throughout the in-game world. Players can purchase pylons from any vendor (excluding the Travelling and Skeleton Merchants.) The pylon available from any given vendor correlates with the biome the player is in, not the NPC.
How To Use Pylons
If there are at least two resident NPCs housed nearby, pylons may be placed anywhere within the correlating biome. The resident NPCs themselves may wander out of range. However, their housing has to be at least partially stationed within a 169-tile wide by 124-tile high rectangle, which must be centered around the pylon.
Once players have at least two pylons each stationed in their respective biomes, they can portal between them using one of two methods. The most straight forward approach is to interact with the pylon directly. Otherwise, when in the vicinity (five tile radius) of a pylon, players can select another from the full screen and portal that way.
The Universal Pylon is an outlier to these stipulations. It's usable in any biome, free from the requirements of nearby NPCs. Players can unlock this pylon by defeating the Moon Lord, completing the final entry in the Zoologist's Bestiary.
Pylons are not functional during invasions or boss battles, so attempting to utilize them as a last resort is not going to work, unfortunately. Additionally, only one of each pylon may be placed within a given world, meaning it's not possible to use the pylon network to traverse within a single biome.
With a plethora of things to do, characters to meet, and biomes to explore within Terraria – the addition of pylons is no doubt an indispensable game mechanic.
Terraria is available across nearly every platform, including PC, mobile, PlayStation 4, 3, & Vita, Xbox One & 360, Nintendo Switch, 3DS, and even the Wii U.