Goblin Army

*"A goblin army has arrived!"*

The **Goblin Army** (also known as the **Goblin Invasion**) is an event when unique Goblin enemies spawn in waves. A Goblin Invasion has a random chance of occurring at any particular dawn, if the criteria stated below are met. It can also be triggered manually using a Goblin Battle Standard.

Defeating at least one Goblin Army fulfills the criteria for the Goblin Tinkerer NPC to make his initial appearance in a random Cavern area.

## Criteria

The criteria for a Goblin Invasion to occur naturally are as follows:

* It must be daytime (4:30 AM is when it triggers).
* At least one Shadow Orb or Crimson Heart must have been destroyed.
* At least one player must have 200 health or more. (If this is not met the Goblin Battle Standard will not work)
* There must be no Goblin Invasion already in progress.

A Goblin Battle Standard can be used to manually summon the event if a player meets the health requirement, even if no Shadow Orb or Crimson Heart has been smashed.

## Chances

* After the spawn criteria have been met, there will be a 1/3 chance every day for the army to first invade.
* Further invasions (after the first has been defeated) have a 1/30 chance of occurring each day before Hardmode begins, and 1/60 chance afterwards.
* The Goblin invasion takes a higher priority than the Pirate Invasion, which can only occur when the Goblin Invasion fails to do so.

On average, a random Goblin Invasion will occur about every 12 real-world hours of playing in pre-Hardmode, and every 24 hours of playing in Hardmode.

## Initial event

When a Goblin invasion is approaching, one of the two following status messages will appear: *"A goblin army is approaching from the west!"* */* *"A goblin army is approaching from the east!"*

The message repeats a few times (one time on a small- or medium-sized world, and twice on a large-sized world). The direction specified in this message only pertains to the initial wave of Goblins, which spawns at the world's edge and travels to the player's original spawn point. Additional waves spawn immediately near the player's original spawn point, when the player is in that area.

If the message says "west", the initial Goblins will come from the left. If the message says "east", they will arrive from the right. Note that these directions are *not* related to the apparent motion of the sun and the moon, which, in *Terraria*, appear to move from left ("west") to right ("east").

When the Goblin Army is about to begin spawning around the player's spawn point, another status message appears: *"A goblin army has arrived!"* and the theme music will switch to the  "Goblin Invasion" /  "Boss 1" track.

## Completing the event

The event is completed when the player defeats all goblins in the army.

The size of the army is based on the number of players currently in the world, and their health capacity:

* There will be 80 base goblins.
* There will be an additional 40 goblins for each player that has a maximum health of 200 or more.

This means that in single player, the army will consist of 120 goblins, while in an 8-player game, with each player having 200 health or more, it will spawn 400 goblins. The maximum number of goblins in an invasion is 10,280 (255 players above 200 health).

When the final wave of goblins is on the screen, the status message *"A goblin army has been defeated!"* will appear; and goblins will stop spawning. Even after the message is displayed, the event theme will keep playing until the last remaining goblin is dead.

## Contents

CharactersPre-Hardmode:
* ​Goblin Peon
* ​Goblin Sorcerer
* ​Goblin Thief
* ​Goblin Warrior
* ​Goblin Archer

In Hardmode:
* ​Goblin Summoner

Unique DropsFrom all enemies: (except for Goblin Summoner)
* ​Harpoon
* ​Spiky Ball

From Goblin Summoner:
* ​Shadowflame Hex Doll
* ​Shadowflame Knife
* ​Shadowflame Bow

Music
* ​Goblin Army
* ​Boss 1
* ​Invasion (Otherworldly)

### Other Goblins

These goblin characters are not part of the Goblin Invasion:

* Goblin Tinkerer: A town NPC that appears randomly, only after at least one Goblin Invasion has been defeated. He initially appears bound in a random area of the cavern layer.
* Goblin Scout: An enemy Goblin that drops Tattered Cloth and spawns near the edges of the world. Tattered Cloth can be collected and used to craft a Goblin Battle Standard, which is used to trigger an invasion manually.
* Etherian Goblin: An enemy that spawns in the Old One’s army event.

## Notes

* Completing this event at least once can be essential to game advancement, as it makes the Goblin Tinkerer available, which provides the reforge function, the Tinkerer's Workshop, and the Rocket Boots.
* Dying will not end the invasion or cause any goblins to despawn.
* There must be no other enemies on screen for the goblins to begin their attack.
* Goblins override the current biome's enemies in the same way as Meteor Heads.
* The invasion will not prevent most other events, so it is possible to fight a Goblin Army and a boss at the same time. A Blood Moon or a Solar Eclipse may begin during a Goblin Invasion, but their related enemies only spawn after the Goblin Army has been defeated.
* Goblin Peons will break doors instead of opening them. If the door belonged to a house containing the player's bed or an NPC, this will cause the spawn point to reset or the NPC to move out, respectively.
* A Goblin Invasion will prevent dead NPCs from respawning for their duration.
* Using the Goblin Battle Standard when a Goblin Army is already approaching will have no effect.
* If all the goblins appearing on the screen are killed, the music will switch to normal, the progress bar will vanish and goblins will stop spawning. After about a minute, the invasion will continue again.
* Although it says this event will swarm the world spawn, in reality, it swarms the area nearest to the player as long as NPCs are nearby. Example: If a player is in the Ocean while an invasion event is happening, the invasion will swarm spawn. While if the player has an NPC with a beach-side house at the Ocean, the invasion will swarm that area instead.
* If a Goblin Army invades shortly before summoning the Wall of Flesh and is not dealt with, it will immediately transfer to its Hardmode version after the boss is defeated.
* Once the initial status message pops up, there is no way to prevent the goblins from invading, as leaving the world and coming back will just redisplay the message and the goblins will proceed to invade anyway.

## Achievements

 **Goblin Punter** • *“Triumph over a goblin invasion, a ragtag regiment of crude, barbaric, pointy-eared warriors and their shadowflame sorcerers.”*Defeat a **Goblin Army** for the first time. Category:  Slayer
 **Crowd Control** • *“You have defeated the Goblin Army!”*Defeat a **Goblin Army** for the first time.
## Tips

For more elaborate strategies on defeating Goblin Army, including weapon and arena recommendations, see Guide:Goblin Army strategies.
* Piercing items like spears and flails can take out several goblins at once.
* The Spiky Balls dropped during the invasion are effective in fighting off further goblins, as the majority of them follow the basic Fighter AI and will mindlessly walk through them.
* Goblin Peons cannot break doors that are already open.
* Mediumcore players should be careful (as with all events), since if they die directly at spawn, retrieving items may be close to impossible if they also happen to not have their spawnpoint set anywhere else, as the enemies will attack them continuously whilst they are practically unarmed. This is made worse in Hardmode as Goblin Summoners fly fast and shoot through walls whilst dealing high contact damage, making collecting items whilst unarmed extremely difficult.
* If you somehow get low on health, you can always hide behind your villagers / nearby NPCS as the goblins may target them instead of you. Along with that, they can attack the goblins with you. If you are still under-geared when this raid happens, you can stick next to an NPC and let them fight alongside you.

## History

PC version
* Desktop 1.4.0.1: Updated the sprite of all Goblins.

* Desktop 1.3.0.1:
	+ Added a new mini-boss that spawns during Hardmode Goblin Invasions, the Goblin Summoner, along with its drops and banner.
	+ Now has its own music.
	+ Now shows a progress bar.

* Desktop 1.2.0.3: Added Goblin Archer Banner, Goblin Peon Banner, Goblin Sorcerer Banner, Goblin Thief Banner, and Goblin Warrior Banner.

* Desktop 1.1:
	+ Number of goblins per invasion reduced from 100 plus 50 per player, to 80 plus 40 per player.
	+ Goblin Archer added.
	+ Rocket Boots no longer drop from Goblins. Instead, they are sold by the Goblin Tinkerer.

* Desktop 1.0.6: Can now be initiated with a Goblin Battle Standard.

* Desktop-Release: Introduced.

Console version
* Console-Release: Introduced.

Nintendo Switch version
* Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced.

Mobile version
* Mobile-Release: Introduced.

Nintendo 3DSversion
* 3DS 1.04: Now has its own music.

* 3DS-Release: Introduced.

## References

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