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I'm having trouble discovering Hearts (Life Crystals) to increase my maximum hearts (health).

Is there a pattern on how to discover them or a certain depth range I should be looking? I've found maybe 3 hearts when I feel like I should have found at least double that.

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It is particularly dangerous, but if you're really hurting for more health, you could try exploring the dungeon without killing Skeletron (assuming you can't, if you're low on health).

It's reasonably easy to avoid the Skeletron heads that spawn if you continue falling down further into the dungeon - just take out your hammer and head down, breaking any hearts you find until you die. I found a good 3-4 hearts before I was killed, and I wasn't trying very hard to stay alive.

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    Indeed, you can also dig down a tunnel next to the dungeon and start from that point. Other than that, if you remove the background wall of the Dungeon skeletons will not spawn allowing you to explore the Dungeon without being bothered although slower. I've done this in the beginning to farm some of the easy accessible chests, and my hellevator goes through the Dungeon... xD – Tamara Wijsman Jun 12 '11 at 10:35
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    Tried digging down next to the dungeon and quickly found 3 hearts. I like this answer! – Robb Jun 13 '11 at 1:53
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    +1 @Robb: Hmm, I didn't think of that the Dungeon is actually the largest natural cave. It indeed improves your chances although the concentration isn't higher... :) – Tamara Wijsman Jun 13 '11 at 11:48
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    Ya, but in the update entering the Dungeon without killing Skeletron is physically impossible. – Anthony Mar 19 '14 at 4:11
  • I don't know if this was the case when this answer was posted, but in the current version the Dungeon Guardian is extremely fast and you get killed seconds after venturing too far into the dungeon. – Mage Xy Nov 7 '16 at 19:10
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  1. Carry light with you or place torches to make sure that you see the hearts.

  2. Make sure that you explore natural caves; hearts are made with your world and thus don't spawn.

  3. To overcome the depth problem you can explore all depths, which is a point of the digging aspect of the game. Different layers future different things, while I belief the hearts can be found on any layer and perhaps can be found a little more frequent on the lower layers.

  4. If you don't care, a world viewer is a last solution.

There are two suggestions that I have for you, do not read this if you are still in the 'discovery' phase:

So, I would suggest that you start digging a vertical tunnel called a Hellevator and explore natural caves along the way. Another thing you could do is to make a long horizontal tunnel at the Jungle / Lower Dungeon depth; together with Hermes Boots this makes crossing the map easy, instead of having to wait till you ever get those rocket boots...

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    Point 2) is the most important. Hearth are always located into natural caves (or at least I found them always there). – Drake Jun 11 '11 at 17:20
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    I guess I need to find more natural caves then – Robb Jun 11 '11 at 17:22
  • Tom - any reason you link to the wikia wiki instead of the official wiki? (The official wiki doesn't have a "hellevator" page, so it's irrelevant in this question) – Raven Dreamer Jun 11 '11 at 18:53
  • @RavenDreamer: Well, Google prefers Wikia results. I don't see what is wrong with Wikia either... – Tamara Wijsman Jun 11 '11 at 19:25
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    In a Terraria world, there are 3 places with a high concentration of Life Crystals: the Dungeon, the Underworld, and the Underground Jungle. The irony is that without enough maximum life, you're not likely to survive long enough to find them in any of those places. – a cat Jun 12 '11 at 7:31
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Crystal Hearts can be found in the Underground and below. There is no place where they would've been created more often in this area.

The optimal way to find them would be with Spelunker potions as this will illuminate them if it is on your screen. Spelunker potions are easy to make with bottled water, Blinkroot, Moonglow and either gold or platinum ore at a placed bottle or alchemy table.

So after using a spelunker potion just dig straight down to hell. Whenever you see a Crystal Heart just dig to it and then go back and continue down the original hole. When you get to hell, recall back to the top move approximately 100 blocks to the side (depending on your screen size and resolution) so that when you go down you won't be covering the same area and then repeat.

Digging down is more optimal than digging horizontally for 2 reasons:

  1. Faster to dig down than across. To dig down you will need to dig out two blocks as compared to digging across you will need to dig out 3 blocks.
  2. (Assuming you have a landscape monitor) You can see more at a time since the screen is wider than it is tall.

Digging diagonal is even less efficient as it requires 4 blocks to be dug out.

You can dig diagonal or sideways occasionally to utilize natural caves to help you go down and explore faster but when you get to hell you will need to go across more so as not to cover the same area again.

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One good way to find life crystals is to start by gathering material such as gold/platinum. Next make a hellevator (just dig strait down to hell.) You will want to bring a decent type of armor along with you such as silver/tungsten. I found at least twenty life crystals down there. Just be careful. Good luck:)

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  • Well, it's not the BEST way. – Anthony Mar 19 '14 at 4:01
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Heart crystal are more common at the cavern layer so if you want them you should be at that level but I have found at least 3 in the underworld easily. I would suggest rocket boots and an ivy whip before that as it can be hard and time wasteful to make bridges plus you can get attacked or knocked into lava and there are hard enemies

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  • Ivy whip? Well, grappling hook would help a bit too because its much easier to get. – Anthony Mar 19 '14 at 4:03
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Sometimes it helps if you make the world multiplayer and have other people help look for them in different places. The only problem that can come from this is that if they find one, they will probably keep it to themselves. Also, another trick to getting them is to mine fast by using explosives such as "bombs" and "dynamite" which you can buy from the demolitionist.

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  • I don't see how exsplosives will help with anything except getting rid of money. – Anthony Mar 19 '14 at 4:21
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I find them in the small caverns and jungle. Also in the bottom of the underworld.

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Caves have a nice amount of heart crystal their usely found in ponds rivers and lakes underground you can also go to the underworld

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Another suicidal way to do it is to go to the underworld.

Note: as of Version 1.2.3 (early 2014) Terraria, Heart Crystals (wiki) no longer occur in the underworld. One alternative (if your world was generated since this changed) is to go as close to the Underworld as possible, since most rare items have higher spawn rates the lower that you go. All the advice still applies, you just don't need to dig as deep.

Have at least iron/lead armor so that you won't get killed by the monsters too easily. Make sure you have a grappling hook or a flying accessory.

  1. Ensure you are on Softcore, (where death only drops coins), you can check this on character selection if you are unsure. If not, suicide missions are just that, since Hardcore will lose you your character, and any Life Crystals already used, and Mediumcore will lose you all your items and tools
  2. Put your cash away safely in Piggy Bank, Safe or Chest (no-one wants)
  3. Make passage underground (wiki)
  4. Then just YOLO and get as many hearts as you can before you die. Don't bother with killing the monsters, you will die before you can kill one. Then just repeat until you have enough to go into the dungeon.
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  • Iron and led armor won't help you much. Even with full Hallowed Armor, Horseman's Blade, and Angel Wings along with some greater healing potions,it can still be a challenge,and I've already beat the whole game so, ya. NOT EXACTLY the best idea, don't you think? – Anthony Mar 14 '14 at 2:43
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    I run around the underworld in meteorite armor and the space gun, and the only time I die is when I stupidly fall into lava. You're in hardmode, which is totally different. – Foo Barrigno Mar 14 '14 at 11:03
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    Ya, if it weren't for those stupid Red Devils I probably would survive longer. In Pre-Hardmode I don't go into the underworld until I get Shadow Armor. At least with silver armor...well, at least you can last a little bit with it... – Anthony Mar 19 '14 at 4:06
  • Why not kill the mobs? Those Fire Imps will own you if you don't fight back. – Anthony Mar 19 '14 at 4:08
  • I feel like this deserves -20. Iron and lead won't help at ALL. – Anthony Mar 19 '14 at 4:19

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