Astral Infection

Not to be confused with the debuff or the consumable Astral Injection.

The Astral Infection is a Hardmode biome added by the Calamity Mod. It crash-lands into the Dungeon side of the world via a meteor upon defeating the Wall of Flesh, which infects the nearby terrain and extends somewhat deep underground. The biome is filled with a sickly purple haze, and is populated by many alien creatures as well as dark monoliths of various sizes. Players are alerted of the Astral Infection's arrival via a status message: "A star has fallen from the heavens!"

The meteor itself is made out of Astral Ore, which can only be mined after defeating the Astrum Deus boss. Nearby tiles are converted into Astral versions of themselves, including Astral Dirt, Astral Stone, Astral Sand, and Astral Ice, among others. Trees are converted into Astral Monoliths.

Two bosses, Astrum Aureus and Astrum Deus, can be summoned in this biome.

Contents

Astral Infection
Characters		Unique Drops
Astral Probe Big Sightseer Small Sightseer On Surface: Aries Astral Slime Atlas Mantis Nova Underground: Astralachnea Hive Hiveling Stellar Culex Desert: Fusion Feeder Hadarian	Critters: Enchanted Nightcrawler Twinkler Bosses: Astrum Aureus Astrum Deus	From all enemies: Stardust After defeating Astrum Aureus: From Arieses: Stellar Knife From Astralachneas: Astralachnea Staff From Atlases: Titan Arm From Hadarians: Hadarian Membrane From Hives: Hive Pod From Mantises: Astral Scythe From Novas: Stellar Cannon From Astral Slimes after defeating Astrum Deus: Astral Ore	From terrain: Astral Clay Astral Dirt Astral Ice Astral Ore Astral Monolith Astral Sand Astral Sandstone Astral Snow Astral Stone Celestial Remains Hardened Astral Sand Novae Slag From Fishing: Aldebaran Alewife Astral Crate Twinkling Pollox Procyonid Prawn Arcturus Astroidean Gacruxian Mollusk Polaris Parrotfish Ursa Sergeant

Conditions

An Astral Infection meteor has a 100% chance of spawning after defeating the Wall of Flesh for the first time. After the first meteor has landed, defeating Astrum Aureus will always spawn a meteor in the world, assuming the limits have not been met yet.

No new meteors will fall if there are already a certain number of Astral Ore blocks above 0 depth. The limits are:

• Small worlds: 200 Astral Ore blocks
• Medium worlds: 400 Astral Ore blocks
• Large worlds: 600 Astral Ore blocks

Alternatively, meteors will fall but not infect any nearby terrain if there are already a certain number of Astral-infected tiles in the world. Astral Ore blocks are not counted toward this total. The limits are:

• Small worlds: 400 Astral-infected tiles
• Medium worlds: 600 Astral-infected tiles
• Large worlds: 800 Astral-infected tiles

16% of the world centered on the player's spawn point is protected from falling meteors. Meteors will not land within 25 tiles of a player, NPC, or a chest, nor directly on top of a platform.

Notes

• Player-created Astral biomes are possible by placing at least 950 Astral Dirt, Astral Stone, and/or Astral Ore in an area. Astral Grass that grows on Astral Dirt also counts toward this total.
  • Astral Ice biomes require 300 Astral Ice.
  • Astral Desert biomes require 950 Astral Sand, Hardened Astral Sand, and/or Astral Sandstone.
• Although meteorites will avoid hitting chests, one may still hit the edges of a Floating Island or a Planetoid.
• Astral-infected blocks can be converted back to normal using Green Solution with a Clentaminator. Conversely, blocks can be converted into their Astral Infection versions using Astral Solution.
• Only the meteor's initial impact will infect nearby tiles. The infection will not spread on its own, unlike Evil Biomes or The Hallow.

Trivia

• The Astral Infection's theme is Heaven's Hell-Sent Gift, which was composed by the artist DM DOKURO.
  • The theme plays notably slower in-game compared to the original track, at about 75% speed.
  • DM DOKURO also made 2 new themes for both surface and underground, The Heaven-Sent Abomination for surface and Treasures Within the Abomination for underground. Neither have been implemented into the mod yet.
  • If the Calamity Music add-on mod is disabled, the Space biome's theme will play instead.
• The Astral Infection used to be only a mini-biome known as the Astral Meteor, which did not infect any tiles upon its crashing and possessed a different color scheme of yellow and pink.
• The Astral Infection can infect several blocks that are unaffected by the Corruption, Crimson, or Hallow, including Dirt, Snow, Clay, Silt, and Desert Fossils.

Lore

The Astral infection hails from the depths of space, carried on the remains of corroded and broken planets. How those planets were destroyed remains a mystery, yet traces of dark matter tell tale of a chaotic force. Upon being shattered, fragments are scattered across the galaxy and collide with other celestial bodies. Wherever those meteors land, the surrounding ecosystems become modified, slowly twisting and warping to the infections will. This is all brought about by a single species of pathogen, carried by the meteor, and reformed by chaos to serve a new purpose. Gigantic monoliths of dark stone begin to rise from the ground. The trees rot away, replaced with pillar-like growths serving as further breeding grounds for the virus. Organic creatures are swiftly transformed beyond recognition as the microbe enters them and multiplies through their bodies, twisting them into self-mockeries that live and die to protect and spread the infection. The pillars exhale a thick violet haze that blankets the mutated land and permeates the system of any living being that wanders near, warping vision and stinging exposed flesh.

The virus’ control does not stop at the planet and its residents. If any entity is powerful enough to consume these infected planets, then they too are prey for the infection. Their entire astronomical body becomes a breeding ground for its new parasites. The original host may continue to travel the cosmos - but their purpose of existence is reduced to spreading the virus across the universe as yet another vector of the disease. All across the cosmos, brought about by the phage, these areas of infection are not uncommon. Many worlds have fallen to the virus, and grow dark, as the virus devours the planet to its core. As it continues to spread, it overrules any semblance to natural order. The weak become strong, the hunters the hunted. But in the end, the final result is a world turned into a nightmare for all, ruled by fear.