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 havens where the player can craft and organize their inventories in relative peace. A well-enclosed area with NPCs nearby to decrease enemy spawn rates is helpful.

Most bases are composed of abundant block types like Wood or Stone, with Wood or Stone background walls.

Houses


A House is an enclosed area fitting certain requirements that will house an NPC. See House for detailed requirements.

For best results, houses should be connected and open into each other or to central hallways, rather than directly to the outside. During a blood moon, it is easiest to defend the NPCs if there are only one or two doors 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.

Floating House
If you have the Rocket Boots, Grappling Hook, or Ivy Whip, you can build and have access to a House that resides well above the surface. Such a House can be built out of jumping range for walking enemeies, and can mean never having to worry about Blood Moons or Slimes, and making Goblin Invasions a more simple matter of dealing with Goblin Sorcerers alone. A House can be built in midair by stacking blocks up to the point you wish to build, then mining away the lower blocks. A shallow Lava pit underneath the structure will kill all walking enemies as they attempt to jump towards you while you're in your house, and if shallow enough, will collect their drops in one location for easy collection later.

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 area

 * See also: Guide:Crafting

Having a centralized crafting area can keep things more organized. The crafting stations are the Workbench, Anvil, Furnace OR Hellforge, Alchemy Station, a Chair combined with a Table, a Loom, and a Keg. 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.

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.

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 Demon can be farmed for the Demon Scythe. Before 1.6, Bone Serpents and imps were farmed for Sunfury, Flamelash and Flower of Fire, respectively. 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.

As of 1.6, Shadow Chests can rarely be found in the underworld.