Starter Guide

Terraria is sandbox game. It features customizable characters, randomly generated worlds, day/night cycles, deformable terrain, and a crafting system that allows the player to "live off the land": crafting items that are required for survival. The crafting system allows the player freedom to manipulate their environment by doing anything from digging mines to building towns; it is their perogative.

The game also features online multiplayer. As is rumoured, it is not capped at 8 players.

Another guide can be found at the Official Terraria Wiki.

=Getting started=

Your first minutes in the game
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Early exploration
Now that you have a nice, safe sanctuary, you'll probably want to go out exploring a little. Feel free to do so. Here's a list of good things to collect:
 * Ores. There are various ores in this game, for example the brown copper or the gray iron. They can be refined using a furnace and crafted into weapons using an anvil.
 * Mushrooms. There are three kinds of mushrooms. Normal (red) mushrooms, which grow on or near the surface. Vile (purple) mushrooms, which grow on or near the surface inside of corrupted areas. Glowing (blue) mushrooms which grow deep underground.
 * Pots. These are found in caves and may contain everything from coins to potions and even bombs. Break them by hitting them with any weapon or tool (e.g. Hammer).
 * Chests. The better version of pots, often hiding rare accessories and loads of coins inside.
 * Star. They only appear at night, and are noticeable because they give off light. 10 of these can be crafted into a Mana Crystal, which will give you +20 maximum Mana. Mana isn't used at all until later in the game (to fuel various magical items), but it's still recommended you collect them as you go anyway. The maximum mana you can have is 200. You can check how much mana you have by moving your mouse over the stars.
 * Crystal Heart. If you happen to come across one of these, you're really lucky. Hitting these with a hammer then "consuming" them will give you one extra max heart. (+20 hp) The maximum amount of health that you can have is 400. You can check how many health points you have by moving your mouse over the hearts.

Once the day ends and night time begins, either get back to your shelter and hide in safety, or get ready to slay some zombies and demon eyes. It is strongly suggested you look into making a bow and arrows, as they combine good damage and range.

If you happen to get hurt, the heart count in the top right-hand corner of the screen will decrease. As you guessed, when it reaches 0 you will die. To prevent this you will need to eat some food. To do this simply have the edible item you wish to eat in the item bar at the top, click on it, then click anywhere on the background and your characters' health will have been slightly refilled. You can also refill your health using Potions which can be made using an Alchemy Station. You can also refill your health if you have had a Nurse move into your world (for a fee).

It's now up to you to discover the rest. Who knows what you will find in this mysterious world?

If you happen to have any questions, look them up in the FAQ below or on the Tips & Tricks page. If you have any remaining questions, feel free to ask them in this thread. Good ones can be added to the FAQ.

=Frequently asked questions=

==I cannot find any ores! Do you have any tips? ==

Ores can be easily found in naturally generated caves, and usually are accompanied by stone. If you are exploring, remember to light up dark places obstructed by dirt, etc. that you cannot see! Many ores can be found that way. Copper and Iron require 3 ore per bar, Silver, Gold and Demonite require 4 ore per bar, Meteorite requires 6 ore per bar and Hellstone Bars require 2 Obsidian and 6 Hellstone per bar. For example, you will need 36 Iron Ore to make an Iron Pickaxe, which requires 12 Iron Bars (and 4 Wood).

== I noticed some vines in a cave, what are they good for?==

The main purpose of the vines is to obstruct your sight down caves. You can cut them down by hitting them with any weapons, but they won't drop anything and will grow back in a day or two. The only way to permanently remove vines are by removing the "grass ceilings" and make sure no grass spreads there by blocking its path.

==I also found some mushrooms. What can I do with those? == You can eat them directly and restore 20 points of health. However, you can turn a single mushroom into 2 lesser healing potions fairly easily, which will restore a whopping 100 health points each! This is how you do this: first get some sand and stand next to the furnace. craft some glass from which you can make bottles. After you made yourself some bottles, place one on top of a table. You've now made an alchemy station -- stand next to that and you'll have the option to turn 2 bottles, 2 gels, and 1 mushroom into 2 lesser healing potions.

I saw some purple grass, and as I got closer the sky turned yellow. What's that?
This is the Corruption. The Corruption is like a disease, and will infect regular grass upon contact. It's filled with dangerous monsters, but is also filled with loads of rare stuff. It's a risk/reward kind of thing. I would suggest to wait with exploring the Corruption until you have good armor and weapons.

You can purify corrupted areas by scattering purification powder (purchasable from the Dryad), and you can prevent the Corruption from spreading by planting sunflowers, which act like barriers.

How do I get other NPC's to appear in my house/town?


An NPC will not appear unless there is a room available for them, so make sure you have extra rooms just in case. Keep in mind that the guide will take over your first room. In order for the room to count, you need:


 * 1) Two foreground walls on either side with some room in between, as well as an actual floor (it cannot be made entirely out of wooden platforms, though some are okay) and a roof. A house needs to be at least 4 blocks tall on the inside for an NPC to move in.
 * 2) Add background walls which you can craft at the workbench. One piece of wood or rock gives you 4 wall pieces and go in the background. They also keep monsters from spawning inside.
 * 3) Add a table, a chair, at least 1 door and a light source (a torch is fine)

Every NPC has his/her own extra prerequisite for spawning. To make the merchant come, you need a total of 50 silver coins. The nurse will come if you gain 1 more heart container and the demolitionist will arrive when you find your first bomb. The arms dealer will come if you have your first gun and the dryad will arrive when you killed your first boss. There are more NPCs though! Have fun unlocking them! There are six NPCs in total and you normally can have only one of each type in a single world, so think carefully where to make a house for them.

I found a strange glowing altar, what is it?
This is a Demon Altar. Hitting it with a hammer will deduct half of your health. You cannot destroy the Demon Altar by hitting the blocks under it either. At the Demon Altar you can craft boss summons. For example to summon Eye of Cthulhu you need 10 lenses. These are dropped by Demon Eyes. This boss is fairly easily beatable with a ranged weapon like shurikens and some wooden platforms.

It would be useful to at least record its location if its fairly nearby, however since they are common it wouldn't be that hard to find one; especially if you can handle chasms in The Corruption.

Do I have a private stash to keep my items in?
Yes, Piggy bank plays the role of private stash. Your character file will hold data, so you can safely switch between worlds and servers with all your items in it.