Guide:Crafting 101

Crafting Recipes
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 numbers 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.

You can occasionally craft an item of exceptional quality, possessing modifiers.

Crafting stations


The most commonly used crafting stations are the Work Bench (all variants), Forges ([Furnace]], Hellforge, Adamantite Forge, Titanium Forge), Anvils (Iron Anvil, Lead Anvil, Mythril Anvil, Orichalcum Anvil), Alchemy Station, Sawmill, Demon Altar, Keg, Cooking pot, Loom, Tinkerer's Workshop, Dye Vat and a Table with Chair combination (all variants). There are a few more crafting stations, however they only allow you to craft a few recipes. 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 close to a specific crafting station. exactly how close is within 3 tiles up or down and 4 tiles left or right.

Complete station


To create a crafting station capable of producing almost all basic items, place a furnace (or hellforge/adamantite forge if available), an anvil (or mythril anvil if available), a workbench, a sawmill, a bottle on the workbench and a table and chair close to each other. Also place a loom and a keg. The above image shows an example of this, allowing you to craft all items by standing on the anvil.



An example of an almost complete crafting station, only missing Honey, Living Wood and the Demon Altar. The disadvantage is that the crafting stations are spread over a large area, rather than allowing to craft all items from one central location.



The above design allows you craft every craftable item from one central location from before 1.2, being one of the more compact designs. In addition to this you can also access the safe and piggy to take and store crafting items. Note: You must stand with your feet at the left side of the Mythril Anvil in order to be able to craft everything.



This station is ideal for crafting necessities. By placing the anvil underwater, the chair is moved close enough to the workbench to allow the crafting of table-and-chair items.

A Guide to crafting by Terraria Wiki