Terraria: Ankh Shield Guide

The Ankh Shield is one of Terraria's most useful accessories, but it is going to require a lot of work from players to craft.

While a major feature of Terraria is crafting and exploration, the game is not without exciting combat moments. The sandbox adventure throws countless enemies at players—along with some very challenging bosses—so it is vital that they journey into the fray well-equipped and prepared. Thankfully, there are plenty of items players can craft and acquire that will help them along the way.

The Ankh Shield is one of the most complicated craftable items in Terraria's Hardmode, but it is also one of the most helpful and essential accessories for Hardmode players. One of its best features is the immunity that it grants players to twelve different debuffs, but it also prevents knockback and provides a decent amount of defense. Additionally, players can craft and obtain the Ankh Shield before defeating any Hardmode boss, making it a must-have for players before they attempt a boss fight.

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Players can craft the Ankh Shield by combining an Obsidian Shield with an Ankh Charm. Although crafting the Ankh Shield essentially only requires those two ingredients, the road to crafting each of them is a very complex tree of farming and crafting that will take quite a bit of time and effort to complete—even for skilled and experienced players. The Ankh Shield is ultimately the result of combining twelve different accessories, so players will need to journey far and wide to obtain them all.

The first item players will need to collect is Obsidian — twenty pieces, to be exact. To mine Obsidian, players will need a pickaxe with at least 55% pickaxe power or a drill, which is only available in Hardmode. Explosives are also an option for mining Obsidian, especially if players don't have the required amount of pickaxe power or a drill on hand.

Players can find Obsidian where water and lava meet, so the best place to start is in an underground lake. Digging down as far as possible for the water to continue to flow downward, players are likely to happen upon a pool of lava eventually. When the water comes into contact with the lava, it will create Obsidian blocks surrounding the lava, which players can then mine for the ore.

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The next item players should focus on obtaining is a Cobalt Shield. Despite being an armor piece, the Cobalt Shield cannot be crafted. Instead, players will have to either head to the Dungeon and loot Gold Chests to find one or open Golden Lock Boxes that can sometimes be found in Dungeon Crates. Unfortunately, the Cobalt Shield has a .05% drop rate, so players will likely have to spend a significant amount of time searching before they acquire one.

Before moving forward, players should note that the Fast Clock, Megaphone, Blindfold, and Trifold Map are only available in Hardmode. These four items all drop off of various Mummies and Pixies found in the Hallowed Desert, which will form once the Hallow spreads to a desert biome. Standard Mummies drop the Fast Clock, Blood Mummies and Dark Mummies drop the Megaphone and Blindfold, and Light Mummies drop the Trifold Map. Pixies, on the other hand, can drop the Megaphone and Fast Clock.

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The Vitamins item is the next ingredient players should set out to acquire. This item can be picked up fairly easily by fighting Corruptors in Corrupted or Crimson biomes and collecting the loot that they drop. Floaty Gross enemies also drop Vitamins, and they can be found in the Underground Crimson.

Bezoar should be the next item players focus on obtaining, and it can be found on enemies in the Underground Jungle. Specifically, Hornets and Moss Hornets drop Bezoar in the Underground Jungle, but Slimes will also drop Bezoar in any Underground area.

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There are plenty of ways to obtain a Nazar (another ingredient required to craft the Ankh Shield) in Terraria. Nazar drops from Cursed Hammers in the Underground Corruption, Enchanted Swords in the Underground Hallow, and Crimson Axes in the Underground Crimson. Additionally, players can also find Nazar on Cursed Skulls and Giant Cursed Skulls in the Dungeon.

By now, players should have already farmed enough enemies to obtain an Adhesive Bandage and an Armor Polish. However, Rusty Armored Bones enemies and Angler Fish both drop Adhesive Bandages, and they can be found in the Dungeon and the Jungle, respectively. Armor Polish, however, is dropped by Blue Armored Bones enemies in the Dungeon and Armored Skeletons in the Caverns.

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Now that players have obtained all the necessary ingredients for the Ankh Shield, the only task left is crafting the Obsidian Shield and Ankh Charm to make it. Players can craft an Obsidian Shield by combining an Obsidian Skull with a Cobalt Shield. They should begin by using a Furnace to create an Obsidian Skull using twenty Obsidian, and then a Tinkerer's Workshop to craft the Obsidian Shield by combining the Cobalt Shield with the Obsidian Skull.

Players will use the remaining items they collected to craft the Reflective Shades, Armor Bracing, Medicated Bandage, Countercourse Mantra, and The Plan, each of which can be made at a Tinkerer's Workshop. These items can then be combined at a Tinkerer's Workshop to craft the Ankh Charm, which are then also used at a Tinkerer's Workshop to make the Ankh Shield.

Josh Cotts is a Gaming Features and Lists Writer at CBR. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Arizona State University in 2019 with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Media Studies. Currently residing in Oklahoma, Josh is also an Elementary Music teacher, a singer/songwriter, and he enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter. When he's not spending time with his family, he can appreciate and find fun in almost any game, but he primarily enjoys playing Destiny 2 in his downtime. When writing, he takes pride in doing his own research, and often designing his own images using his skills in Photoshop.