Guide:Crafting 101

Crafting Menu
To access the Terraria crafting menu, press the Inventory key (which is Esc by default) while in-game. This will bring up your inventory, as well as equipment slots and other options. The crafting menu is located in the bottom left of your screen, as indicated in the image below.



The items that can be currently crafted will appear in this menu. Your options are determined by the items you have in your inventory, as well as your proximity to various crafting stations. Next to an item's icon is where the Recipes for the respective craftable items will appear.

To navigate this menu, you can click or use the mouse wheel to scroll through items. To craft something, click the icon of the item you wish to craft. The item will attach itself to your cursor, and from there it can be placed in your inventory or dropped by clicking to the outside of your inventory. Large amounts of stackable items can be made by right-clicking and holding the icon to quickly create and stack that item until the stack is maxed. To exit your inventory, press the 'Esc' key again.

Crafting Stations
Currently the available stations are the Work Bench, Furnace, Hellforge, Alchemy Station, Iron Anvil, Demon Altar, Keg, Loom, and a Table with Chair combination. When standing next to any of these stations, depending on the materials in your inventory, the crafting menu will be updated with more crafting options. Most recipes require the player to be next to a specific crafting station.



Complete Station
Note: the following is outdated, and must be updated to 1.0.6

To create a crafting station capable of producing almost anything, place a furnace (or hellforge if available). Right next to it place an anvil, then a workbench, then a bottle on the workbench, a chair next to the workbench, and a table next to a chair. You may want to submerge them if you want to make bottled water there too. Make sure there are no gaps between them all so you don't have to move to use all of them.



This order will make almost all crafting recipes available at once, making crafting a breeze. Note that in the setup in the image, the regular furnace is useless due to the fact that the Hellforge (the red furnace) can smelt Hellstone in addition to the other ores. You will also still need to venture out of your crafting station to make recipes that require a Demon Altar, or build your base around one.



An alternative design allows you craft nearly every craftable item from one central location. Note: You must stand with your feet at the workbench in order to be able to craft everything. This is one of the most compact designs possible that allows the simultaneous crafting of any item in-game excluding the Night's Edge, Worm Food, and Suspicious Eye, all of which require a Demon Altar. If you do not need to craft any of the watches or the depth meter, you can safely remove the table and chair, and simply add one more platform for the piggy bank.



This station is taller than the previous at 5 squares, but is only 6 squares wide. By placing the anvil underwater, the chair is moved close enough to the workbench to allow the crafting of table-and-chair items.

Video Guide
There are hundreds of different items to craft! This video guide will teach you how some specific items are made!