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Shimmer transmutations312
Shimmer is the lavender pool found in the Aether, a small cave biome that generates deep underground on the Jungle side of the world. Drop an item in and one of two things happens: it transmutes into a different item, or, for most craftable gear, it decrafts back into its ingredients. The table below is the full list of direct transmutations in 1.4.5; decrafting simply runs the normal recipes in reverse, so check the recipe browser for those.
the liquid that undoes crafting
Shimmer sits in the Aether, a single small cave that generates once per world on the same side as the jungle. Drop a crafted item in and it comes apart into its ingredients, which float up out of the pool for you to grab. Some items instead become a completely different item, and a few things exist only because of that swap.
rules worth knowing before you throw things in
An item with more than one recipe always breaks down into one fixed set, so a tool built from platinum still returns gold. Ingredient groups always give back the first member of the group. Potions mixed at a bottle or an Alchemy Table lose roughly a third of their materials on the way out. Anything gated behind a boss stays gated, so bone items will not come apart until Skeletron is dead, and a short list of recipes is blocked outright to stop shortcuts. The same loop doubles as a free reforge: rebuild a weapon and it rolls a new modifier every time.
what it does to you
Touch it and you phase downward through every solid block until you reach an opening, which is both a fast trip underground and a way into rooms you have no key for. The Chromatic Cloak switches that off and lets you start the fall deliberately instead. You cannot fish in it, scoop it into a bucket, or use items while sinking.
How to find shimmer
Every world generates exactly one Shimmer pool, inside the small Aether cave biome. It always spawns on the Jungle side of the world, the side opposite the Dungeon, and hugs the outer edge of the map: the generator places it in the last tenth or so of the world's width, anywhere from the underground layer down to well above the Underworld. Tunnel down near that edge and watch for the lavender glow; it cannot be crafted or moved, only found.
Type your seed into the seed map and it marks the exact Shimmer location
All 312 transmutations · decrafting runs the normal recipes in reverse
Each item page also shows its shimmer result and anything that shimmers into it, next to its recipes and drop sources.