Cactus

Cactus plant*
Statistics

* Internal Tile ID: **80**
Cactus*

Statistics

* Internal Item ID: **276**
* Internal Tile ID: **188**

This article is about the surface plant. For the circular cactus found in Underground Desert, see Rolling Cactus.
**Cactus** is a crafting material obtained by harvesting Cactus plants, using an axe, chainsaw, or hamaxe just like with trees. In addition to crafting, Cactus can be used as a building material.

## Crafting

It takes 258 items of Cactus to craft all items.

## Plant

The **cactus plant** grows in Desert biomes on all types of Sand. Cactus plants can naturally grow up to ten blocks high. Cactus plants can be harvested using an axe or chainsaw, which causes Cactus items to drop. On the Old-gen console version, Windows Phone version, Old Chinese version, Nintendo 3DSversion, and tModLoader 1.3-Legacy version, mining or hammering the Sand Block the cactus plant grows on will harvest the cactus, while on the PC version, Console version, Mobile version, and tModLoader version the Sand Block the cactus plant grows on is unbreakable and not affected by gravity. Putting a sand block up to one of the stems, right under it, and then cutting the main cactus body, will make the branch a new cactus. Corruption, Crimson, and Hallow cacti will all drop the same Cactus items when harvested.

Cacti will sometimes grow Pink Prickly Pears on their tops.

### Conditions

Cactus plants cannot be planted and will only grow on a target Sand Block under the following conditions:

1. The target Sand Block is above 0 ft and is not actuated or sloped in any way.
2. The target block is more than 378 tiles away from the lateral edges of the world, i.e. not in the zone where the Ocean biome is usually located.
3. The tiles above and to both sides of the target Sand Block (only the directly adjacent ones) are open space.
4. The tile above the target block is not filled with any liquid.
5. There are fewer than 4 Cactus tiles and more than 10 Sand Blocks (or Ebon-, Crim-, or Pearlsand Blocks; all variants are added together) within a 13×5-tile rectangle centered on the tile above the target Sand Block.

Cacti that are spawned after world generation will first always consist of a single stub and slowly extend over time.

## Tips

* The most effective way of selling Cactus is to craft it into Cactus Swords.
* Because of how easy it is to get massive amounts of Cacti, crafting Cactus Swords until obtaining one with the Legendary modifier is easy, lucrative, and very useful in the early game.
* Unlike trees, new cacti appear not fully grown but as 1-block plants, and chopping a cactus not entirely but leaving a "stump" above the ground will let the plant regrow from it. This can be very helpful when farming cactus. Moreover, new plants will continue to appear among saved ones thus increasing farm's "production power" over time.
* Because of the -1 range attribute on the Copper Pickaxe, the Cactus Pickaxe becomes a viable early-game alternative since it does not have this drawback and, due to the availability of cacti, is also quick and easy to obtain.

## Trivia

* The Terraria cactus is designed after the saguaro, a cactus species found in North America noted for its "arms" and exceptional overall size.
* Neither the plant nor the placed item deal contact damage to any entity, it used to before 1.1 and now it only does in The Constant world seed.

## History

PC version
* Desktop 1.4.3: In worlds with The Constant world seed, players will take damage while touching Cactus plant tiles.

* Desktop 1.4.0.2: Fixed a bug where Cacti would spawn on rare configurations of adjacent Demon Altars, resulting in the world crashing if the Demon Altars were hit.

* Desktop 1.4.0.1:
	+ Added Cactus Toilet and Rolling Cactus.
	+ Sand Blocks underneath Cacti can no longer fall or be broken.

* Desktop 1.3.0.1: Added Cactus Sink.

* Desktop 1.2.4.1: Added Cactus Table and Platform.

* Desktop 1.2.4: Added Cactus Chest, Clock, Dresser, Piano, and Sofa.

* Desktop 1.2.3:
	+ Added more cactus variations.
	+ Added Cactus Bathtub, Bed, Bookcase, Candle, Candelabra, Chandelier, Lamp, and Lantern.

* Desktop 1.2:
	+ Added Cactus armor, Pickaxe, Sword, Wall, Work Bench, Chair, and Door.
	+ New Pink Prickly Pears will grow on the top of cacti.
	+ Can now be placed and used as a building material.
	+ Stack limit was increased from 250 to 999.

* Desktop 1.1: No longer damages players (used to cause 10 damage).

* Desktop 1.0.6: No longer causes knockback when damaging players and no longer destroys blocks above when growing.

* Desktop 1.0.5: Introduced with recipes for Swiftness and Thorns Potion.

## References

1. ↑ Information taken from the PC 1.3.5.3 source code, method `UpdateWorld()` in `Terraria.WorldGen.cs`. There may be inaccuracies, as the current  PC version is 1.4.4.9.