Terraria 1.4 – Guide to Luck (Torches, Potions, Gnomes, and Ladybugs)

A guide to new luck stat (torches, potions, gnomes and ladybugs) in Terraria 1.4 Journey’s End.

Guide to Luck

Foreword

Luck is a new hidded stat that affect drop rates and spawns. Unfortunately the only way to keep track of it is the Wizard.

This fact blew up hard. People are not happy, and then someone asked the Devs about it who gave a bad/funny answer which was obviously spread everywhere and just made everything worse.

So I’m here to try to clear some things up about Luck.

Note: So far I have no way to confirm this or anything like that since it is a hidden stat and therefore hard to keep track on. This is all based on the wiki.

The Basics

Let’s start in the right end: Why should you care?
When an enemy is killed or an object is broken and that entity has a loot table, chances are calculated with a randomizer to see what you get.
Same with enemy spawn, time passes, something is supposed to spawn. Where and what is determined by chance.

And these things, the chance based things, is what Luck affects. Not the chance directly. But by adding a chance before the actual “roll” to either double or halve that “roll”.

What does it affect?
In most cases, the player performing the roll influences the luck

  • All material drop rates from enemies
  • All unique item drop rates from bosses (with some exceptions).
  • Players with high luck have better coin drop rates and chance of Coin Portals from Pots
  • Chances of enemies dropping Hearts and Mana Stars. And dropping more than 1.
  • Chances of Food dropping from enemies and trees.
  • Chances of items appearing in the Travelling Merchant and Skeleton Merchant inventory. (Based on the player with highest luck.)
  • Chances of spawning special enemies and critters.
  • Chances of a Hardmode Dungeon enemy spawning outside their wall type
  • Chances of the NPCs spawning underground (the ones you need to find).
  • Chances of Fairies spawning underground.
  • Damage calculations, positive luck generates 2 random numbers and pick the highest. Negative the opposite

What is the Luck stat?Luck is a hidden stat with a value between -1 and 1. This is also translated to a chance for things to be doubled or halved. Having a positive score of 1 means 100%, having a positive score of 0.2 = 20%, 0.6= 60% etc.

How to increase it:

  • Ladybug Luck -Touching Ladybug +0.2 (critters) effect lasts 12min
  • Garden Gnomes +0.2 (assumed range is within 170 tiles)
  • Lantern Nights +0.3 (random “weather effect”)
  • Luck Potions, up to +0.3 (explained later)
  • Having the right Torch nearby, up to +0.2 (more on that later)

How to decrease it:

  • Bad Ladybug Luck – Killing Ladybugs -0.2 (critters) effect lasts 3min
  • Having the wrong Torch nearby, up to -0.3 (more on that later)

Halfshell Cat: Killing guide also gives Ladybug Luck, killing other NPCs give Bad Ladybug Luck

How does it work?
First of all, Luck is calculated from all the sources:
Ladybugs + Torch Score + Lucky Potions + Lantern Night + Garden Gnome = Luck Stat

If the player’s luck is greater than 0, then there is a (100 * luck)% chance that the chance is doubled.
If the player’s luck is less than 0, then there is a (-100 * luck)% chance that the chance is halved.
If the player’s luck is 0, the chance will be the base value.

Meaning:
Before any of the “rolls” for the chance (in the previously mentioned affected things happen). You have a chance to double or halve that chance.

Example:
A Hook has a 4% chance to drop from Skeletons.

If your luck is above 0 it gives you that many percent of the chance being doubled.
So if your current luck value is 0.2 you get a 20% chance to double the 4% drop rate to 8%.
in 80% of the times, the drop rate is still 4%.

If your luck is below 0 it gives you that many percent of the chance being halved.
If you luck is -0.2 if gives you a 20% risk to halve the 4% chance to 2%.
In 80% of the times, the drop rate is still 4%.

Torches Effect on Luck

The Big Torch Debate
The strangest thing to effect Luck is the type of torches placed near you (42 tiles) depending on the biome you are in.
(it’s the same range as a Water Candle/Peace Candle. So a bit larger than what you can see on your screen).
More than one of the same type of Torch does not affect the score.

This system adds a new layer of complexity
Torches give positive and negative “scores” depending on where you use them. These are two different values Positive Score and Negative Score.
The total scores in turn gives you + or – to your luck stat in the end.

  • If P score is equal to or greater than 1: +0.2 Luck
  • If P score is between 0 and 1: +0.1 Luck
  • If N score is between 0 and 1: -0.1 Luck
  • If N Score is equal to or greater than 1 but less than 2 :, -0.2 Luck
  • If N Score is equal to or greater than 2: -0.3 Luck

Then the total of those two are added together.

So if you use the right Torch 1+ P Score, and a bad Torch 1+ N Score your total luck is 0.2 – 0.2 = +0 Luck
If you only use the right Torch 1+ P Score, your total luck is 0.2 +0 = +0.2 Luck

“Safe” Torches

In most cases, the torch thing is straight forward. Use the torch from the same biome for a positive buff but nowhere else.
But here comes a list of all the Torches that doesn’t have a Negative Score:

  • Purple Torch
  • Yellow Torch
  • Blue Torch
  • Green Torch
  • Red Torch
  • Orange Torch
  • White Torch
  • Pink Torch
  • Bone Torch
  • Demon Torch
  • Rainbow Torch
  • Ultrabright Torch

Potions, Gnomes and Ladybugs

Luck Potions

The Lucky Buff gives + Luck depending on the time remaining. Therefore the 3 different potions give the same Lucky Buff but have different durations.

  • Lesser Luck Potion lasts 3min
    • Bottled water, Water Leaf, Ladybug, White Pearl
  • Luck Potion lasts 5 min
    • Bottled water, Water Leaf, Ladybug, Black Pearl
  • Greater Luck Potion lasts 10min
    • Bottled water, Water Leaf, Ladybug, Pink Pearl

They are all crafted at a Table with Bottles or Alchemy Stations:

  • Bottled Water: Craft with a Bottle while near water
  • Waterleaf: Found in Deserts
  • Ladybug: Critters spawning in Forest biome during Windy Day events.
  • White/Black/Pink Pearls:From Oysters, fishing reward from Oasis, Ocean
 Lucky

The Luck bonus is based on the remaining minutes of the buff:

  • If minutes left is 5 or greater: +0.3 Luck
  • If minutes left is 3 or greater: +0.2 Luck
  • if minutes left is less than 3: +0.1 Luck

Garden Gnomes

Garden Gnome is a placeable furniture. However, to get one you need to lure a Gnome enemy into sunlight, true to the folklore.

Gnomes (the enemy) is a random spawn on the Surface (where there is background so below gorund), making them petrify counts as kills.

Ladybug

  • Touching one gives +0.2 Luck for 12 min
  • Touching a Gold Ladybug gives +0.2 Luck for 24 min
  • Killing one or using as bait gives -0.2 Luck for 3min

These states cancel each other out.

Ladybugs spawn during Windy Day weather in the Forest Biome. Increase spawn rate with Water Candles and Battle Potions.

You can capture them and release them, touch them and then capture them again.

Use the Zoologist Critter protection book to avoid killing them.

Lantern Nights

A random weather effect that can take place when no other weather or events are taking place.

No idea about the chance of it showing up but easy to see as the background fills up with what resembles Chinese Lanterns, or if you will – the lanterns from Tangled.

Knowing your Luck

Not gonna paste it all in. But talking to the Wizard NPC (in hardmode) is currently the only known way to know your luck.

By prpl_mage

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3 Comments

  1. The lantern nights are not random, but spawn after you’ve killed a boss. If you kill the eye of Cthulhu, the lantern night will happen the next night.

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