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Jul 05, 2023

Terraria: How to Craft The Cell Phone & What Does It Do

The Cell Phone may be the best tool in Terraria, thanks to its many helpful features, but crafting one is far from simple. There are a variety of helpful accessories in Terraria that can assist

The Cell Phone may be the best tool in Terraria, thanks to its many helpful features, but crafting one is far from simple.

There are a variety of helpful accessories in Terraria that can assist players in exploration, combat, and crafting, but none quite compare to the Cell Phone. While it is certainly a valuable accessory to have, it can be quite intimidating to make since it has one of the most complex crafting trees in Terraria. Still, it being one of the most useful tools in the game makes the journey to crafting it all more than worth it.

The Cell Phone is very much a "catch-all" device in Terraria; it displays a plethora of information like the time, weather, elevation, movement speed, fishing power, moon phase, distance from the world's center, the nearest environment item of value, current DPS, total kills of the most recent enemy attacked, any rare creatures nearby, and the total number of enemies nearby. Like the Magic Mirror, the Cell Phone can also teleport the player home.

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To craft a Cell Phone in Terraria, players will need to combine either a Magic Mirror or Ice Mirror with a PDA accessory. Unfortunately, both of these items have rather complicated crafting trees, so it will take even the most dedicated players some time to craft them. Like the Ankh Shield, the Cell Phone uses twelve base items in its crafting tree, making it the third most complex item to craft in Terraria.

The first item players will want to focus on obtaining is a Gold Watch or a Platinum Watch. These can be crafted by combining a Chain with either ten Gold Bars or ten Platinum Bars at a Table and Chair, depending on which watch is being made. Chains are made with an Iron Bar at an Iron Anvil, and Iron Bars can be made by smelting three Iron Ore in a Furnace. Players will need to search Underground for Iron Ore, but it should be fairly easy to find.

Ten Gold Bars can be made by smelting forty Gold Ore in a Furnace, and ten Platinum Bars from smelting forty Platinum Ore. Both Gold Ore and Platinum Ore are early-game ores that can be found in Underground and Cavern layers. Once players obtain the appropriate amount of ore and smelt them into bars at a Furnace, they should head over to a Table and Chair and craft either a Gold or Platinum Watch.

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A Depth Meter and Compass are the next two items players should acquire, and although they are only found by defeating certain enemies, they can both be obtained rather easily. Giant Shellies and Crawdads can be found in the Cavern layer, and both drop the Depth Meter and the Compass. However, players should be aware that these two enemies never spawn in the same world, so they will have to be on the lookout for either one or the other.

Unlike many of the other items used to craft the Cell Phone, the Radar is found in Wooden Crates and Pearlwood Crates. Both Wooden and Pearlwood Crates can be obtained by fishing in any biome, so players will need a bit of luck to acquire a chest and then even more luck for those chests to contain a Radar.

The Tally Counter is the next item players should focus on obtaining, and while it may take some time to acquire, the enemies that drop it can all be found in one place. Angry Bones, Cursed Skulls, and Dark Casters all roam the Dungeon and will occasionally drop Tally Counters when killed.

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Next, players will want to spend some time farming Nymphs in the Cavern layer for a Metal Detector. Nymphs are rare enemies and will first appear as the Lost Girl, an NPC who attempts to trick the player into thinking they are in need of rescue. However, as the player approaches or attacks her, she will transform into a Nymph.

The next three items players will need are the DPS Meter, Stopwatch, and Lifeform Analyzer. While the acquisition of these items doesn't require any fighting or exploration, it does take a significant amount of luck. These items are only available for sale from the Traveling Merchant, who appears randomly in the player's town for a day. Additionally, he may not always be selling these items, so players will have to wait for his next visit. Thankfully, switching the time from dawn to dusk and then back again will skip a day and increase the chances of him appearing sooner. Each item can be purchased for five Gold Coins.

The Magic Mirror and Ice Mirror items are what players should focus on acquiring next. These two useful tools can be found in various chests around the world. Magic Mirrors can be obtained from Gold Chests found in Underground Cabins in the Underground, Cavern, and Underground Jungle layers. Ice Mirrors, on the other hand, are only looted from Frozen Chests found in the Ice biome.

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The Fisherman's Pocket Guide, Weather Radio, and Sextant are by far the three most difficult items to obtain for crafting a Cell Phone in Terraria. First, players will need to find the Angler in an Ocean biome and speak with him. For him to move in, there will need to be a suitable house in the player's town for him. Once he moves in, he will begin offering fishing quests to the player.

The Angler only offers one quest per day, and it usually involves the player catching a rare fish for him. Unfortunately, there is only a chance that he will then reward the player with one of the three items required to craft the Cell Phone. The Fisherman's Pocket Guide, Weather Radio, and Sextant all have a base chance of 3.33% to be the reward the player receives for completing a daily quest for the Angler. However, that chance will increase after the player has completed 50 quests, then 100 quests, then 150.

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After obtaining all the previously mentioned items, players will have what they need to craft the Cell Phone. They should begin by combining the Depth Meter with the Compass and either the Gold or Platinum Watch at a Tinkerer's Workshop. This will produce the GPS. Then, they'll want to combine the Radar, Tally Counter, and Lifeform Analyzer at a Tinkerer's Workshop to obtain an R.E.K. 3000.

Next, the DPS Meter, Stopwatch, and Metal Detector all produce the Goblin Tech accessory when combined at a Tinkerer's Workshop, and combining the Fisherman's Pocket Guide, Weather Radio, and Sextant at a Tinkerer's Workshop will create the Fish Finder accessory. The GPS, R.E.K. 3000, Goblin Tech, and Fish Finder should then be used at a Tinkerer's Workshop to craft the PDA accessory, which can finally be combined with either a Magic Mirror or Ice Mirror to produce a Cell Phone.

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.