User:Altnando/Sandbox

Pre-bosses
Prior to encountering a boss, set bonuses from wooden and ore armor will almost exclusively provide additional defense, and accessories will not discriminate by weapon type when giving bonuses. When combined with the general scarcity of weapons and the need to survive, there is little point to sticking to a "class" this early on. For these reasons, players are recommended to make use of whatever they can get their hands on. (Note that Shadewood and Ebonwood are the best variants of the wooden equipment, and even being better than Cactus equipment.) Players can acquire a gun early on by smashing one of the corruption or crimson orbs.

Pre-Evil Boss
At this stage, the majority of weapons obtainable late pre-bosses are still effective, however some new options become available after defeating the first few bosses. Since no armor gives significant damage boosts yet, you can mix and match armors and weapons to your desire.

Pre-Hardmode
Once you start defeating the first bosses new options become available. In addition, you should have enough mana to use magic weapons. However, the armors still only give small bonuses, so you can still safely mix class styles without a significant loss of damage. Dedicated summoners are still rather weak at this point, although their summoning items can be used by any class.