How to Get the Petri Dish in Terraria

Using the Petri Dish in Terraria summons a pet. While this critter deals no damage, it will follow your character’s sprite wherever it goes. If you're looking to summon to secure the Petri Dish and summon your own loyal companion, here's everything you need to know, including which versions of the game it was removed from, and a potential replacement item for the others.

Getting the Petri Dish in Terraria

First, note that using the Petri Dish in Terraria summons a Blue Slime pet. This item was exclusive to the console and mobile versions of the game originally, however players can now only get it on one of these platforms. Terraria’s developers removed the Petri Dish pet-summoning item at the launch of the following patches for Terraria on the PlayStation, Xbox, and Mobile platforms respectively:

• PlayStation: Version 1.0.750.0
• Xbox: Version 1.0.933.1
• Mobile: Version 1.3.0.7

Despite the removal of the item, the Petri Dish is still obtainable in the Nintendo 3DS version of Terraria. To get it, players must kill Shadow Slimes, and the item has a roughly 30% drop rate. After the removal of the Petri Dish from most versions of the game, many Terraria players expressed their interest in this item’s return. In response, the Petri Dish was replaced with a new item, the Gold Bunny.  This new critter won’t follow players like the blue slime - but it can be caught and displayed in a Terrarium.

How To Get The Gold Bunny In Terraria

If you want to fulfill the Petri Dish and the pet Blue Slime’s legacy in Terraria by catching the Gold Bunny, you should know that the chance of the game spawning one is only 0.25%. Plus, it has 5 health with zero defense. That means you can easily kill it accidentally with summoned minions, sentries, or area of effect damage from weapons and spells - so be extra careful around it! Once spawned, you can catch the Gold Bunny with a Bug Net. If successful, the Gold Bunny will show up in your inventory. Note that you can’t catch a released Gold Bunny and must wait for the game to spawn another entity. However, you can craft a Gold Bunny Cage by crafting a Terrarium with a Gold Bunny by hand. That way, you can display the captured critter without it leaving your town. Note: You can “de-craft” a Gold Bunny Cage by throwing it in Shimmer, which will revert it to the Terrarium and Gold Bunny items.