Guide:Bases

A player's main base can be a powerful tool, source of resources, and entertainment. Most players create at least a Bed with a Chest stockpile nearby. Investing time in building a proper base can be useful in the long run. Bases are often used as "Safe-Spots" which mean that the player should be secure in that area. A well-enclosed area with NPCs nearby to decrease enemy spawn rates is helpful.

Most bases are composed out of Wood or Stone walls, with Wood or Stone background walls.

Bedroom
The only truly mandatory part of a player's base is a bedroom. Walling off an area and placing a bed in it provides the player with a reliable place to respawn, and if the player has a Magic Mirror, a safe zone to restock after adventuring.

Crafting
While placing a crafting table somewhere in your base is entirely optional, having a centralized crafting area can keep things more organized. The crafting stations are the Workbench, Anvil, Furnace OR Hellforge, Alchemy Station, and a Chair combined with a Table. These items altogether probably warrant their own room. Keeping a Chest or two next to your crafting area is an efficent way to store and access your crafting materials quickly.

Note that putting down a chair near a table may cause NPCs to move in. To avoid this, simply don't bother with the chair. The only recipes that the chair and table combination provide are the Goggles (which are a mostly cosmetic item), Sunglasses (which is also a cosmetic item), three different watches and the Depth Meter. Once all NPCs have moved in you can place the chair without fear of unwanted NPCs, unless of course one happens to die. As of 1.0.6, Dungeon and Dirt walls no longer prevent NPCs from moving into a room.

It is possible, even in 1.0.6, to have access to all crafting stations but the chair/table/demon altar simultaneously, with smart use of wooden platforms, and submerging the anvil and workbench.

Storage
Storage is achieved through the use of Chests, a craftable item that can be placed. Storage is extremely necessary in Terraria, given the amount of items you collect. A dedicated room in your base for chests is recommended, however, creating a storage room deep underground will guarantee a safe place for all your valuable possessions in the event of a meteor destroying your house. However, this is fairly unlikely. Always keeping your items carefully organized will save you a headache or two in the long run. Signs are an efficient organization method, allowing you to label chests or rooms of chests, i.e. "Materials" or "Equipment". Gold Chests, Shadow Chests and Trash Cans are other items used for storage space. The Gold Chest and Shadow Chest cannot be crafted and therefore must be gathered from the world. They can be moved and collected with any tier of hammer. Items that you may need on a multiplayer server can be stored in the Piggy Bank or Safe. These items can then be retrieved from any other Piggy Bank or Safe that you find or place.

Some players may wish to organize their chests/storage objects in the same way between all worlds, so that they don't have to remember a new pattern.

Houses
See also House

A house is an enclosed area fitting certain requirements that will house an NPC. Getting NPCs to swap houses is very annoying and difficult, usually requiring the intentional death of at least one NPC. So it is generally a good idea to try to get this right the first time.

For best results, houses should open into each other and central hallways rather than directly to the outside. During a blood moon, it is easiest to defend the NPCs if there is only a single door to the outside that needs to be barricaded.

Appropriate decorations for each NPC house can add a bit of flavor - bottles in the Nurse house, books with the Guide, some flower pots for the Dryad, and so on. This should be done after the NPC has moved in, since otherwise it is nearly impossible to get the NPC to move to the house that you want.

Meteors
Farming Meteor Heads can provide large amounts of coin. An "artificial" meteor can be created by placing exactly 50 meteorite in close proximity to each other. This can be done inside under controlled circumstances to farm these creatures. To deactivate the meteorite, removing only one piece is required. This method is slightly less efficient for earning coin since the 1.0.6 patch has made the Meteor Heads themselves move more slowly, and as a result, they reach your character more slowly.

Underworld Outpost
The Underworld has valuable resources not found elsewhere, so having an outpost there is valuable once you have progressed to that point. Players often construct Hellevators to provide easy access to the Underworld. The Underworld currently has five enemies, the Fire Imp, Bone Serpent, Demon, Lava Slime and Hellbat. The Imp can be farmed for the Flower of Fire and the Plumber's Hat, the Bone Serpent can be farmed for Flamelash and Sunfury, and the Demon can be farmed for the Demon Scythe. Each of these creatures requires a different configuration to make kills fast and (relatively) safe. However, when mining hellstone, these creatures can be extremely dangerous, so when mining in the underworld it can be a good idea to create an artificial Meteor as Meteor Heads replace all other mob spawns, and are easier to deal with compared to ordinary underworld monsters.

Fire Imp Arena
Fire Imps, as anyone who has fought one knows, teleport quickly and shoot fireballs that pass through walls. When they are hit once, they stop firing and pause at their present location for a number seconds, leaving them vulnerable. Creating a long horizontal enclosed tunnel about 4 tiles high, with a good deal of empty space above and below, will assure that the Fire Imp will usually spawn within reach of the Vilethorn, which can attack through walls. The Vilethorn will take some time to kill the Imps due to their high defense; you can opt to use the Vilethorn just to stop the Imps from attacking, then wait for them to teleport within your tunnel (which will usually happen on the second or third teleport), so you can hit them with the Thorn Chakrum, which will kill them very quickly.

Reservoir
Large water and lava reservoirs provide some convenience for projects, experiments, or quick obsidian. A large pool of water may spawn Goldfish at the bottom. Building the area for the liquid to sit in is easy, but filling it quickly and efficiently requires manipulation of the liquid physics.

Roof Access
Often a minor consideration, but a player that spends a fair amount of time in a large base has a good chance that Fallen Stars will accumulate on the roof overnight. The player may consider adding access to the roof to grab these. Depending on the layout and size of the base, a player may be able to simply jump to the ceiling from rooms inside their base, and the star will pass through the ceiling to the player.

Skybridge
Players who wish to farm Fallen Stars more agressively might build a flat platform or bridge across the map. This can be anywhere above ground level, but is often placed a short distance below the maximum map height. The skybridge can be accessed by building any sort of ladder structure.

In addition to star collection, a skybridge is useful for spotting Floating Islands and quick travel across the map. Using Hermes Boots, players can make good time running along the bridge. Points of interest across the map should be marked, so that by dropping through Wood Platforms, players can easily access the world.

One downfall of this strategy is that Meteorites may also be caught on the thin platform, producing only minimal ore. This can be mitigated by making the skybridge thick enough to fully exploit the ore. Doing so would have the same benefits and ease-of-use as star collection, however, this would take a large amount of building materials. Also there is a border of 50 blocks from the map edge where meteors can not spawn, however most of this 50 block area is beyond where you can build and is off screen.

Harpy Nest
An arena can be built at the top of the map to fight Harpies. This requires a very tall climbable structure in order to reach it. Harpies do not spawn close to the center of the map, so this must be made some distance away. It may be convenient to attach this to an existing skybridge or, failing that, build an access from a secondary base.