Did the new NPC system leave your megacity flats useless? Do you need someone to tell you how this system actually works? Maybe you just want someone to tell you where to place your NPCs so you don’t have to think about all of this?
 
You’re in the right place.
 
A guide about Happiness, Pylons, NPC placement etc
 
 

NPC and Housing Basics

 
NPCs can “move in” to houses that you build.
 
it doesn’t need to be a house or look like a house. But there are some conditions for it to be considered by the game to be “Suitable”.
 
 
To build a suitable house you need certain types of furniture and a living area:
 

• -A Light source such as: torches, lamps, lanterns, chandeliers, candelabras
• -Sittable furniture such as: Chairs, Benches, Sofas, Beds
• -Tables such as : Workbench, Table, Dresser, Bathtub, Bookcase, Piano

 

 
 
It also needs:
 

• -An opening such as: Doors or Platforms. (note that you can’t just leave an opening.)
• – Solid floor: at least 1 tile of the floor needs to be a solid block rather than a platform. And it this block can’t be adjacent to the outlines of the house.
• – Background walls: These needs to be placed to obscure the background or natural spawned walls
• – At least 30 tiles of “inside” so in general a 6×10 tiles large house is fine
• -To not have a lot of Corruption or Crimson nearby. Placing Sunflowers can counter this however.

 
With 25 NPCs in the game it’s understandable that you want to keep them all in one place. There is also a Cat, a Dog and a Bunny NPC Pet that can be bought from the Zoologist and can be assigned to a house, but lives together with NPCs.
 
 
Added in 1.4 (Journey’s End) is the ability to form Towns which changes the background music and decreases enemy spawning nearby. How? Simply have 3 NPCs living in suitable houses within 100 blocks of each other or such.
 
 
Another thing added in 1.4 is the option to build a teleportation system with “Pylons” that function with 2 NPCs nearby and can only be bought from a NPC with hight Happiness. And this is where the point of this guide comes into play.
 
 
 

Happiness and what it does

Happiness is a new “hidden” stat that applies to each NPC individually. It is directly related to the price of items bought and sold at that NPC.
 
Each NPC starts out with 100 Happiness. It can be decreased down to 75 (which is good) or increased to 133 (this is bad)
 
When an NPC reaches 85 or lower they will sell Pylons.
 
 
This value is also the discount on the items, so if you max an NPC to 75 then all items sold by that NPC have their cost reduced to 75% of the normal max price.
 
Problem is… There is no way to check their current value except for choosing “Happiness” when talking to them, and even then they just give random messages based on their preferences.
 
 
Here are some general items each NPC sells if you want an easy way to guess their current happiness (if you are okay at math).
 
For example, if you buy the Piggy Bank for 1 G, and it costs 94 S, then you know the price is currently 94%, so happiness must be 94 at the moment.
 
 

NPC	Item	Base Cost
Merchant	Piggy Bank	1 G
Demolitionist	Dynamite	20 S
Dye Trader	Gold Dye	1 G
Zoologist	Squirrel Hook	2 G
Golfer	Worn Golf Club	10 S
Dryad	Planter Box	1 S
Tavernkeeper	Ale	1 S
Arms Dealer	Flintlock	5 G
Stylist	Dye Remover	2 G
Painter	Brush	1 G
Goblin Tinkerer	Ruler	10 G
Witchdoctor	Blowgun	5 G
Clothier	Black Thread	1 G
Mechanic	Mech Lens	1 G
Party Girl	Party Wagon	10 G

 
Hardmode:
 

NPC	Item	Base Cost
Truffle	Mushroom Cap	2 G
Wizard	Bell	1 G
Pirate	Pirate Hat	5 G
Steampunker	Steam Minecart	10 G
Cyborg	Dry Rocket	50 S
Princess	Princess 64	10 G

 
 
 

Numbers and Happiness

Let’s explain the math behind this then.
 
 
Happines starts at 100
 
Then the positive and negatives are multiplicative, much like crit chance and so on.
 
 
The Positive
 

Criteria	Effect
Loved Biome	0.88
Each loved NPC within 25	0.88
Liked Biome	0.94
Each liked NPC within 25	0.94
No more than 2 NPC within 25, no more than 3 NPC between 25 and 120 away	0.95

 
The Negative
 

Criteria	Effect
Hated Biome	1.12
Each hated NPC within 25	1.12
Disliked Biome	1.06
Each disliked NPC within 25	1.06
If there are more than 2 NPC within 25, for each extra	1.05

(I hope this is still correct, they’ve changed these numbers so many times now for like each update since the release…)
 
 
Note that distance is counted in tiles and from the “NPC hometile” aka, where their flag is located rather than the real distance between NPCs.
 
 
Note that the Pet Cat, Dog and Bunny will not count towards these checks.
 
 
Note that only Santa actually hates and Loves Biomes, so you can just ignore those two modifiers.
 
 
 

Numbers and Calculations Examples

Let’s present an example with NPCs you can get early in the game: The Guide, Golfer and Zoologist. (+ the Merchant because the formula changed again) al placed in the Forest Biome.
 
 
Based on the chart we know the following:
 
The Zoologist likes the Forest and that her feelings towards the Golfer are positive (liked) and neutral towards the Guide and Merchant.
 
The Golfer likes the Forest and has a very positive feeling (love) towards the Zoologist and neutral towards the Guide.
 
The Guide also likes the Forest and has a positive feeling (like) towards the Zoologist and neutral towards the Golfer.
 
But let’s ignore the other guys and just focus on the Zoologist for now.
 
 
Let’s say you want to buy something from the Zoologist, the Squirrel Hook for example, a useful early game Hook item that costs 2g.
 
 
PS. Note that the pictures say “120 tiles away” that’s incorrect, it should say “more than 25 away but within 120”
 
 
Example 1
 
If we cram all four of them into the smallest possible rooms as close to each other as possible.
 
 

 
 
100 x 0.94 (for liked biome) = 94
 
94 x 0.94 (for a liked NPC within 25t) = 88.36
 
88.36 x 1.05 (for the 3rd NPC within 25) = 92.778
 
92.778 rounded to closest is 93.
 
Equals prices of 93%
 
 
Squirrel Hook’s cost will be 1g 86s
 
 
Example 2
 
If we remove the Merchant or move him more than 25 tiles away from the others we instead get:
 
 

 
 
100 x 0.94 (for liked biome) = 94
 
94 x 0.94 (for a liked NPC within 25t) = 88.36
 
88.36 x 0.95 (since there are no more than 2 within 25, and no more than 3 up to 120 away) = 83.942
 
83.942 rounded up to 84.
 
Equals prices of 84%
 
 
Squirrel Hook’s cost will be 1g 68s
 
 
Example 3
 
What if we cram all 25 NPCs into the same area but we make sure that there are no more than 2 within 25 of the different “houses” and just the Zoologist, Golfer and Guide sharing a place.
 
 

 
 
100 x 0.94 (for liked biome) = 94
 
94 x 0.94 (for a liked NPC within 25t) = 88.36
 
No bonus nor penalty for overcrowding
 
88.36 rounded down to 88.
 
Equals prices of 88%
 
 
Squirrel Hook’s cost will be 1g 78s
 
 
Example 4
 
The worst case scenario we cram all NPCs into small barracks as close to each other as possible. But for the sake of brevity we assume that there are no hated or disliked NPCs within 25.
 
 

 
 
100 x 0.94 (for liked biome) = 94
 
94 x 0.94 (for a liked NPC within 25t) = 88.36
 
88.36 x 2.65 (for the 20 something NPCs within 25) = 234.154
 
234,154 rounded down to 234, but max is capped at 133, so 133.
 
Equals prices of 133%
 
 
Squirrel Hook’s cost will be 2g 66s
 
 
Example 5
 
Let’s go with the best case scenario. Careful placement to make the Zoologist as happy as possible. We switch out the Guide with the Witch Doctor and remove the Merchant. Making sure that only 2 NPCs are within 25 tiles whom the Zoologist have positive feelings towards. We also make sure that there aren’t more than 3 NPCs between 25 and 120.
 
 

 
 
100 x 0.94 (for liked biome) = 94
 
94 x 0.94 (for 1 liked NPC within 25t) = 88.36
 
88.36 x 0.88 (for 1 loved NPC within 25t) = 77.7568
 
77.7568 x 0.95 (since there are no more than 2 within 25, and no more than 3 up to 120 away) = 73.86896
 
73.86896 rounded up to 74. But the minimum is 75, so 75.
 
Equals prices of 75%
 
 
Squirrel Hook’s cost will be 1g 50s
 
 
(actually, placing the Princess (now that she exists) within 25 as well would result in 73 instead of 74 since the bonus for liked NPC is greater than the “non-crowded” bonus.)
 
 

Conclusion

 
So remember to only keep 3 NPCs close nearby, any more than that and you lose one of the positives and instead get a negative.
 
 
 

Biomes and Pylons

So Pylons are sold once the happiness of a NPC is 85 or lower. But why get Pylons?
 
 
Well Pylons form a fast travel network, each pylon matches a biome in the game which means you can travel there near instantanious if you have it placed near (100 ish blocks) of 2 NPCs and in the correct biome.
 
 

 
There is a Pylon for the following biomes:
 
Forest (above surface)
 
Jungle
 
Snow
 
Desert
 
Ocean
 
Cavern (below surface)
 
Hallow
 
Mushroom
 
(Universal)
 
 
For an NPC to sell the Snow Pylon for example the NPC must be considered to be in the Snow Biome when you shop with them.
 
 
Once bought you can rearrange your NPCs however you want, you can even buy multiple ones and store them for later if you don’t wish to repeat it in later playthroughs.
 
 
Simply put. Place any NPC in a biome they like with at least 1 npc they like within 25 and their Happiness should be 84, enough to get a 16% discount and open their inventory for the Pylon of that biome.
 
Or place an NPC with an NPC they Love in any Biome they don’t dislike and it should give you the option as well.
 
 
Biome Priority:
 
If the Corruption or Crimson overtakes your Desert or Snow biome the Pylon will no longer function since the game will consider it to no longer be a Snow biome.
 
Same thing goes with the Hallow biome which will override the Snow, Desert, Ocean and Cavern Pylons if there are too many hallowed blocks around.
 
 
Likewise The Cavern Pylon works in the Underground, Cavern or Underworld layer. But the underground- Jungle, Snow, Desert will count before that preventing the Cavern Pylon from working there.
 
 
Universal Pylon
 
The Universal Pylon is unique in 3 ways.
 
1. It is not bought like the others
 
2. It can be placed anywhere
 
3. It doesn’t need NPC around to function
 
 
To get the Universal Pylon from the Zoologist you need to fill out your Bestiary (monster/critter/NPC list) to 100% in that world.(has this changed with the release of Princess and Deerclops?)
 
To achieve this you also need to bring in the other evil into your world.
 
I would suggest going for this in one world, then just buy tons of them and save for later.
 
 
So if your world has corruption then you also need to bring in Crimson to gain the entry for those monsters.
 
Your world will either have: Salamander, Giant Shelly or the Crawdad so only 1 of those are needed.
 
https://terraria.fandom.com/wiki/Bestiary#Excluded_and_unachievable_entities – [fandom.com] 
 
I’m sure there is a good guide out there for this.
 
 
 

NPC Preferences (with pictures and lists)

The problem here for making the perfect setup is that the NPCs don’t feel the same towards each other.
 
For example the Stylist likes the Pirate. But the Pirate dislikes the Stylist.
 
 
You’re getting these two charts as well as a link to the official wiki:
 
https://terraria.fandom.com/wiki/NPCs#cite_note-npcprefs-1 – [fandom.com] 
 
 

 
 
Just gonna list the biomes they like and dislike so the next part makes sense
 
 

NPC	Positve Biome	Negative Biome
Guide	Forest	Ocean
Merchant	Forest	Desert
Zoologist	Forest	Desert
Golfer	Forest	Cavern
Demolitionist	Cavern	Ocean
Goblin Tinkerer	Cavern	Jungle
Clothier	Cavern	Hallow
Dye Trader	Desert	Forest
Arms Dealer	Desert	Snow
Steampunker	Desert	Jungle
Dryad	Jungle	Forest
Painter	Jungle	Forest
Witch Doctor	Jungle	Hallow
Stylist	Ocean	Snow
Angler	Ocean	Desert
Pirate	Ocean	Cavern
Mechanic	Snow	Cavern
Tax Collector	Snow	Hallow
Cyborg	Snow	Jungle
Santa	Snow(L)	Desert(H)
Nurse	Hallow	Snow
Tavernkeep	Hallow	Snow
Party Girl	Hallow	Caverns
Wizard	Hallow	Ocean
Truffle	Mushroom	–
Princess	–	–

 
NPC preferences
 
 

 
 
Some of these preferences are mutual but far too many aren’t leading to a bit of a puzzle to make it work. But these are your ace pairings regardless of location:
 
Nurse and Arm’s Dealer
 
Mechanic and Goblin Tinkerer
 
Demolitionist and Tavernkeep
 
Steampunker and Cyborg (not a perfect match, Steampunker likes Cyborg more)
 
 
 

Suggested Setups

Alright, so this is too much thinking for you? Just want answers? I will list two setups here. One for pre hardmode and one for hardmode.
 
 
Both will assume that you want at least 1 NPC happy enough to purchase a Pylon in that biome and have access to all of them.
 
My personal preference will go in here as well of which NPCs I tend to prioritize.
 
 
“House” In this case refers to suitable housing with the NPCs ending up within 25 of each other but not within 25 of the other one.
 
 

Pre-Hardmode

 
18 NPCs, 6 Pylons.
 
 

Forest

 
House 1 – Merchant(84), Zoologist(84), Golfer(94)
 
House 2 – Guide(84)
 
 

Cavern

 
House 1 – Demolitionist(79), Tavernkeep(84), Clothier(84)
 
 

Desert

 
House 1 – Arms Dealer(79), Nurse(84)
 
 

Jungle

 
House 1 – Dryad(84), Witch Doctor(84), Painter(79)
 
 

Ocean

 
House 1 – Angler(84), Party Girl (95)
 
House 2 – Stylist(79), Dye Trader(95)
 
 

Snow

 
House 1 – Goblin Tinkerer(84), Mechanic(79)
 
 
There you have it, not everyone will be in their prefered biome or with prefered people but at least some sort of positive result. And at least 1 of the NPCs in the biomes should be down to 85 or lower to sell you a Pylon.
 
Use the Pet cat/dog/bunny to fill up the “towns” if you want to move an NPC somewhere else so the Pylons still work (needs 2npcs within 100 ish)
 
 

Hardmode

 
25 NPCs, 9 Pylons
 
 

Forest

 
House 1 – Merchant(84), Zoologist(84), Golfer(94)
 
 

Cavern

 
House 1 – Demolitionist(79), Tavernkeep(84), Clothier(84)
 
House 2 – Goblin Tinkerer(79), Mechanic(88)
 
 

Desert

 
House 1 – Arms Dealer(74), Nurse(84), Steampunker(89)
 
 

Jungle

 
House 1 – Dryad(84), Witch Doctor(84), Painter(79)
 
Same as before
 
 

Ocean

 
House 1 – Angler(84), Party Girl (95), Pirate(79)
 
House 2 – Stylist(79), Dye Trader(95)
 
 

Snow

 
House 1 – Tax collector(89) + Pet
 
House 2 – Cyborg(89), (Santa(83))
 
 

Hallow

 
House 1 – Wizard(84), Princess(84) + Pet
 
 

Mushroom

 
House 1 – Guide(95), Truffle(79) + Pet
 
 

Universal

 
House 1 – Free space for 2 NPCs to move someone here when you want a simple “non-crowded bonus” or more for certain purchases.
 
 
We now use the pets to fill out to decrease monster spawns and crowd some of the Biomes (but less than 6 in each to get the most out of them. There can of course be other setups but this is how I prefer to do it.
 
 
 

Min Max Setup

This is an attempt to get the most out of your NPCs, to get all relevant NPCs down to the lowest possible discounts.
 
Some of these NPCs could of course be happier, but I have disregarded their happiness for other people’s happiness.
 
 
25 NPCs, 9 Pylons
 
 
Sorry, never finished this one. Lost my inspiration trying to find the perfect setup for each NPC.
 
But it would involve making sure that some NPC are within 25 of others but not that all of them would be.
 
For example the Zoologist would be within 25 of the Witch Doctor, who in turn is within 25 of the Dryad BUT not the Painter.
 
Or by placing settlements between two biomes. For example The Cavern Pylon being next to an underground snow biome for the Mechanic.
 
 
Instead lets list how to make certain npcs happy and build from that! A different type of maxing
 
 
In this case I will prioritize:
 
Goblin Tinkerer, Arms Dealer, Steampunker, Merchant, Truffle, Demolitionist.
 
Those are the only NPC you actually buy stuff from right?
 
 
A lot of these will of course be similar to the above. But more at the expense of other NPCs we now disregard.
 
 

Cavern

 
 
Goblin Tinkerer (74)
 
Mechanic(88) and Dye Trader(95)
 
 
Demolitionist (74)
 
Tavernkeeper(84), Mechanic within 25
 
 

Desert

 
 
Arms Dealer (74)
 
Nurse(84), Steampunker within 25
 
 
Steampunker (74)
 
Cyborg(89), Arm’s Dealer within 25
 
 

Mushroom

 
 
Truffle (74)
 
Guide(95), Dryad(89)
 
 

Forest

 
 
Wizard (78)
 
Merchant (84), Golfer(100)
 
 

Ocean

 
 
Angler (79)
 
Party Girl(106), Tax collector(89)
 
 
So you are free to do whatever you want with the Snow, Jungle and Hallow biome here. Not as important, but suggestions follow:
 
 

Jungle

 
Painter(89), Witchdoctor(89), Zoologist (83)
 
 

Ocean 2

 
Stylist(84), Pirate(95)
 
 

Snow

 
Clothier(95) + All the pets because no one likes him
 
 
Place the Princess near any NPC that you want to buff up, just don’t get her too close to the others to inflict the penalty.
 
 
 

Tips and tricks

• The most important advice is to keep less than 3 NPCs within 25 tiles of each other. That’s the biggest penalty right there.
• Another good thing is to keep less than 6 NPCs in the same place. If you have more than 3 outside of 25(but within 120) of an NPC they will lose a positve addition. There is no penalty here, but no bonus.
• Keep the liked and loved NPCs nearby to counteract whatever other negative penalty you may inflict upon them.
• Only focus on the NPCs you will actually visit. No one cares if the Guide lives in the Ocean biome with the Painter and Steampunker. He may dislike all of that but he doesn’t even have anything to sell. So who cares?
• Focus on the Goblin Tinkerer if you tend to reforge, or the Mechanic and Painter if you are building something.
• Likewise, you don’t need everyone to live near a Pylon, by hardmode you have plenty of ways to get where you want fast. Drop some NPCs into the Dungeon, Sky Islands, Underworld. It’s your world! Don’t let the system decide for you.
• Even if you place an NPC by themselves in a biome they like their Happiness will be around (89), that’s an 11% discount without much effort at all.
• Otherwise, don’t worry too much about this and play the game like you want to. Avoid placing too many within 25 of each other and you are fine.

 
Know any better setups for certain biomes? Please share!
 
 

 
 
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