How to get Terraria’s new liquid, Shimmer

The new Terraria patch 1.4.4 Labor of Love update has greatly expanded the late mid- and end-game, so naturally, there are even more ways to alter the experience through new items and gadgets. The update has also expanded the crafting possibilities and, more specifically, transmutations. A new type of glowing fluorescent stuff liquid called Shimmer has been added to the game, and it has some truly magical properties. But to get Shimmer and use it, you’ll have to advance quite a bit into the game. If you’re wondering where to find Shimmer in Terraria and what you can use it for, we have prepared this guide to help you out.

Related: How to get the Terraformer in Terraria

Where to find Shimmer in Terraria

If you’re on the lookout to find the new Shimmer liquid, then you might need a bit of luck first. Shimmer naturally spawns only in Aether Cave biomes, which can be found by digging deep down on the Jungle biome side of your world.

An alternative way of getting Shimmer is through the use of the Bottomless Shimmer Bucket item. This item works exactly like the Bottomless Water Bucket or Bottomless Lava Bucket, meaning that you can use it to create Shimmer pools inside your base. There are two ways to get this item:

• By crafting at the Ancient Manipulator crafting station using Bottomless Water Bucket and 10 Luminite Bars. 
• Alternatively, after defeating the Moon Lord, you can throw a Bottomless Water Bucket into a pool of Shimmer to get the Bottomless Shimmer Bucket.

The effects of Shimmer in Terraria

Shimmer has different transformative effects on items and creatures that it comes into contact with. For example, your player character will get a ‘shimmer debuff,’ which will make them freeze until it falls through blocks into free space on the other side. Coins thrown into Shimmer will increase your Luck stat, with the number of coins determining the buff duration. Crafted items thrown into the pool will disassemble into their components. On the other hand, items that have different types (such as Crests and some Bags) can be ‘cycled’ to transmute into different types.

For some humor, you can throw critters into Shimmer (or have them walk in), and they will transform into Faelings. Meanwhile, if you douse NPCs in Shimmer, they will transform into a shimmering variant, but this has no effect other than changing the sprites. Enemies that get into Shimmer can transform into different types, while those that can’t be transformed will just turn temporarily invisible.

All Shimmer transmutations in Terraria

To transmute an item in Shimmer, the item has to be either thrown in or entirely submerged. The transmutation process will expel the new item and make it briefly float so that you can pick it back up.

Shimmer can also be used to downgrade some items that are thrown in. When they can’t be downgraded any further, all items will then turn to Stone Blocks, and then Stone Blocks will turn to Dirt Blocks.

Ores thrown into Shimmer downgrade by one tier below, with Luminite being the highest, and Copper being the lowest. However, Demonite, Crimtane, Meteorite, Hellstone, and Hallowed Bar are not affected by Shimmer.

The gems thrown into Shimmer follow a similar path as ores, with Diamond being the highest tier and downgrading to Amethyst. Amber is the only gem that’s unaffected by Shimmer.