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Terraria has a load of NPCs, with a total of 26 for the PC and console versions of the game. Though it’ll take some doing, it’s worth settling all of these NPCs in your town. Each NPC has certain bonuses to provide you, items to sell you, and breathes more life into your town. The Dryad is one of these lively characters, and you should make a point of recruiting her sooner rather than later. The question is, how do you go about it?
In this guide, I’ll tell you how to do exactly that, give you an easy way of meeting her prerequisites, and throw in a few reasons why you should spend your efforts recruiting her.
How to get the Dryad to move in
In Terraria, the Dryad isn’t going to move into any old hamlet. First, she’ll want an unoccupied house ready for her to settle into. If you haven’t already, you’ll need to build a room with an area of at least 60 tiles and some furniture for it to be eligible. NPCs get bonuses to their buying and selling prices when you situate them in a preferable location, and the Dryad is no different. If you want to get the best prices for her goods, you should make sure you build her house in the Jungle and house her near the Princess, Truffle, and Witch Doctor.
The Dryad won’t be satisfied with just a decent house, however. She’ll only move in once you have defeated at least one of the following bosses:
- Eye of Cthulhu
- Brain of Cthulhu
- Eater of Worlds
- Skeletron
- Lepus
Although defeating any of these bosses will be enough to persuade the Dryad to move into town, you’ll have an easier time focusing on a couple if you’re actively trying to recruit her. I’d suggest trying to defeat the Eye of Cthulhu first, as this is both the easiest to fight and the easiest to spawn. Other bosses, like Lepus and Eater of Worlds, are hard targets with a very large HP pool compared to the relatively small 2,800hp sported by the Eye of Cthulhu.
You can spawn the Eye of Cthulhu with a Suspicious Looking Eye at night. You can find this item fairly commonly in chests underground, often in Underground Cabins or as loot from dungeons. If you can’t find a Suspicious Looking Eye, one can spawn naturally with a 33.33% chance each night once you have at least 4 NPCs living in your town, and have at least 200HP and at least 10 defense. This can be achieved quite early in the game, making the Eye of Cthulhu the best choice for recruiting the Dryad in my book.
What can the Dryad do?
The Dryad has a few beneficial effects on you and your town, and she’ll be a pretty helpful addition right off the bat. These benefits make it a good idea to bring the Dryad on board pretty soon into your playthrough, as she’ll make life in town much easier.
Defensive spells
Whenever your town is attacked by enemies, she will cast two spells; Dryad’s Blessing and Dryad’s Bane. Dryad’s Blessing only affects player characters and town NPCs inside its area-of-effect, increasing defense by 8 and HP recovery by 3 per second. Players will also get the Thorns effect, dealing 50% damage to an attacker when hit. These buffs also apply to friendly NPCs, though they are a little less potent.
Dryad’s Bane is more of a passive-offensive spell. When cast, the Dryad will create a sphere of leaves that spans 20 tiles and gradually increases over time. Enemies that find themselves within this sphere will take 4 damage per second and will not be able to recover health. Note that the damage done by Dryad’s Bane scales with the number of bosses defeated in the world, capped at 10 damage per second once all bosses are felled.
Corruption monitor
In addition to a helping hand in town defenses, the Dryad can monitor the spread of Corruption, Crimson, and Hallow in your world. You can receive a report of the progression of various corruptions by selecting “status” when talking with the Dryad. She will give you a quote depending on the level of corruptions, with more serious quotes indicating a heavy presence of Corruption and Crimson, which the Dryad views as bad. Once corruption of all kinds reaches zero, the Dryad will remark that the world is completely pure, and you’ll earn yourself the “And Good Riddance” achievement.
Also Read: Surviving The Blood Moon In Terraria
What does the Dryad sell?
Like most NPCs, the Dryad sells a bunch of wares depending on certain prerequisites being met. Many of these items are construction materials and seeds, so I’ll omit these from the list and only include the more important items for the sake of brevity. Here’s what you can be from the Dryad in Terraria:
- Purification Powder
- Vile Powder
- Vicious Powder
- Dirt Rod
- Guide to Environmental Preservation
- Sparkly Wings
- Pylon
- Potted Plants
- Planter Boxes
Several of the Dryad’s wares are always available, like the Dirt Rod and most of the seeds she offers. However, most of what she sells will be gated behind a particular event or the defeat of a boss. I’d recommend checking back with the Dryad every now and then to see if she’s updated her stock, and make sure to pay her a visit during Halloween and upon entering Hardmode for some new stuff.
