Terraria – Population Control / New Town System (Journey’s End / Update 1.4)

The 1.4 update, Journey’s End, added new mechanic for Town Pylons and NPC Happiness, an expansion on the town system that culminates with the ability to build a teleportation network to towns around the world.

This guide is suggestion on how NPCs shold be brought together to form several towns. That could be used as several outposts in different bioms.

Pylons

Pylons are furniture items. They allow a player to teleport to any other pylon with the following restrictions:

• Pylons can only be used when there are 2 or more NPCs nearby.
• Pylons are only practical if there are 2 or more in the world. The system they form is known as the pylon network.
• Pylons only function when in the matching biome.
• Only one of each type Pylon may be placed in a world.
• The pylon network cannot be used during Boss battles or when invasions are announced or in progress.
• Pylons are sold by NPC vendors, and have interactions with the Town mechanic. The pylon can be sold by every NPC in the biome, as long as they have high enough happiness.

Types

Pylons have a corresponding biome. They may only be sold by NPC vendors who are living in that biome. Additional requirements before pylons will be sold may include number or happiness of NPCs in the area.

• Cavern Pylon
• Forest Pylon
• Snow Pylon
• Jungle Pylon
• Desert Pylon
• Ocean Pylon
• Hallow Pylon
• Mushroom Pylon
• Universal Pylon

Pylons are only sold by NPCs when their happiness is high enough.

NPC Happiness

NPCs gained the Happiness stat, which when increased or decreased will cause them to change their prices and, if they sell items, allow the player to purchase Pylons. Happiness is affected by a variety of factors:

• The size of the NPC’s house, including not having a house at all
• The amount of adjacent NPCs
• The presence of certain NPCs in the same town
• The biome the NPC’s house is located in

Here are some ways to increase their happiness:

• Place NPCs next to other NPCs that they like. This takes maximum effect not just when NPCs that like each other are in the same town, but are in different rooms in the same building, connected by doors or platforms.
• Place NPCs in biomes that they like.
• If an NPC’s happiness should be maxed out, but they aren’t offering pylons, their houses are likely too far from each other.

NPC Preferences

All NPCs could be grouped by biome they like.

Desert NPCs

• Arms Dealer
• Steampunker
• Dye Trader

Forest NPCs

• Merchant
• Guide
• Golfer
• Zoologist

Hallow NPCs

• Nurse
• Wizard
• Party Girl
• Tavernkeep

Jungle NPCs

• Dryad
• Painter
• Witch Doctor

Ocean NPCs

• Pirate
• Stylist
• Angler

Snow NPCs

• Mechanic
• Cyborg
• Tax Collector
• Santa Claus

Underground NPCs

• Demolitionist
• Clothier
• Goblin Tinkerer

Truffle loves surface mushrooms and don’t care about other biomes, but he loves to live near Guide, so it safe to say he is Forrest NPC.