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The condition for moving in is being able to destroy any number of enemy bosses (in Terraria, that’s bosses that spawn when you destroy creatures, which usually appear at night) before they attack you. The Arms Dealer is just one of the many NPCs (non-player characters, or things you don’t control) that can move into your base and do things for you.
Carry a Firearm or Bullets: you must be carrying a firearm (ie, it must be in your inventory) and you’ve said you’ve got one. Possessing a Musket, a Flintlock Pistol or any other Firearm fulfills this trigger; having Bullets in your inventory works as well.
Suitable Housing: You must check that the house you just freed up is suitable for NPCs. The house must have enough free space (at least 30 blocks, but no more than 750), some sort of background wall, lighting (a torch is sufficient), a chair, a table (or some other flat item), and an entrance (typically a door). To query the suitability of any house, press ‘Q’ on the keyboard to open the housing query tool (or run the command ‘/hq’).
It’s possible that not all conditions are met For what it’s worth, it can sometimes take a minute or two after you’ve fulfilled all of these conditions for an NPC to actually show up; it can take a while for them to spawn and then walk over to the house.
If you have all those things happening but the Arms Dealer doesn’t arrive, do this: If all these conditions are met but the Arms Dealer didn’t show up, then do this:
Wait until Nightfall: We tend to gain favourable odds when the Arms Dealer appears during the night. Therefore, it’s a good idea to wait until nightfall before making an attempt.
Restart the Game: Sometimes, restarting the game can help trigger NPC arrivals.
When slavedriving a Prisoner Is Either Brace All The Other NPCs: Other slavedriven NPCs queued to move in before the Arms Dealer will also begin moving in (although you can soft-slavetail them to address this, they will still be dragging their feet a bit, especially if they need to cross the city). You’ll usually then need additional slavedriven houses more appropriate for their status.
If you have gone through everything and the Arms Dealer still isn’t showing up, make sure there are no events happening (like an invasion or a boss fight); these will sometimes prevent NPCs from spawning. Just keep meeting the conditions, and he should appear.
