Guide:Bases

A player's main base can be a powerful tool, source of resources, and entertainment. Most players at least create a bed with a chest stockpile nearby. Investing time in building a proper base can be quite useful in the long run.

Since player inventory is preserved across servers, players will often create small bases on each server but use one primary base for most of their needs.

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 dropping a crafting table somewhere in the base is certainly mandatory, a centralized crafting area can keep things more organized. The crafting stations are workbench, anvil, furnace (or hellforge, alchemy station, table, and a chair next to either the workbench or table. These items altogether probably warrant their own room.  Keep raw materials nearby, or even put this area near the main storage area.

Note that putting down a chair near a table/workbench may cause NPCs to move in. To avoid this, simply don't bother with the chair. The only recipe that provides in the Goggles, which, of course, do nothing. Once all NPCs have moved in you can place the chair.

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.

Storage
A hallmark of Terraria is that the longer you have played, the more storage you need. Several carefully organized, dedicated rooms of chests are recommended. Signs can be useful for labeling chests or rooms of chests.

Gardening
See also Guide:Gardening

Gardening is the practice of intentionally spawning resources in a convenient area for harvest.

Glowing Mushrooms
The most worthwhile thing to intentionally grow. A Glowing Mushroom farm unfortunately has to be fairly deep underground; far enough that rocks start showing in the background. They usually consist of several layers of mud with planted Mushroom Grass Seeds on them. Keep a gap between them tall enough to walk through.

A small garden of this sort goes a long way. One roughly the size of the screen can provide as many as 200 glowing mushrooms in a single harvest - enough for around seven full stacks of potions.

Normal Mushrooms
Less useful to farm than glowing mushrooms owing the lower yield. Performing the same steps as with glowing mushroom, only above ground with grass, can produce roughly 5-10 mushrooms per screen.

Note that vines will grow down from strips of grassy dirt, preventing the growth of mushrooms. To combat this, add a layer of stone under each layer of dirt.

Trees
A tree farm is usually nothing more than a big flat area where the player uses their acorns. If the tree farm sees heavy use, the player might level off the area more carefully. It is possible to layer tree farms like the mushroom farms, but trees require far more height.

As they have similar requirements, a tree farm may also serve as an arena for the Goblin Army (see below).

Vile Mushrooms
A somewhat dangerous project with potential side effects. Corrupting an area with Corrupt Seeds and layering it like a mushroom farm can provide an area for harvesting Vile Mushrooms for the production of Vile Dust. Unfortunately, a large corrupted area also spawns obnoxious corruption monsters, so this project should be undergone with careful placement and consideration.

This area may also serve as an arena for fighting the Eater of Worlds (see below). Note that an area of wooden platforms is recommended for the actual fight, however he may be summoned from within the farm.

Meteors
Farming Meteor Heads can provide large amounts of coin and some amount on meteorite. 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.

Arenas
Arenas are generally just big boxed-in areas designed to keep monsters out while focusing down a boss. They can certainly be decorated if the player is so inclined, and any addition to the arena that might confer an advantage to the player is recommended. Construct arenas near a demon altar and providing easy access to it if it is possible.

Eye of Cthulhu
A highly recommended project for players who are about to summon their first boss. An arena for the Eye of Cthulhu should be large enough to dodge and maneuver around in, but small enough to seal off any enemies from wandering in and making the fight more difficult. A recommended size is just about the width of the screen.

Adding in a roof is also recommended to protect from airborne enemies and to keep retrievable ammunition from flying too far away. Making several large wooden platforms can make dodging simpler. As the fight will be at night, add torches to help visibility, including several in the ground underneath the arena.

Eater of Worlds
Location is important for an arena of this sort. Specifically, the Eater of Worlds can only be summoned in Corruption. If there is corruption close to your base, then using it is recommended. Otherwise, artificial corruption using Corrupt Seeds is necessary. A fair amount of corruption is required for a successful summon.

The Eater of Worlds is, of course, a burrower, and will usually be offscreen and underground for much of the fight. A properly constructed arena can remove much of that advantage. Make the arena fairly tall and easily climbable with many wooden platforms. That way, you can not only see it coming, but have access to attacking its exposed body on every pass as well.

Goblin Army
Location is important for this arena as well. The goblins will naturally target your initial spawn, that is, the top center of the map. So no matter what you actually have there, that's the general area where you will goblins when they arrive. You may as well prepare a proper greeting for them.

Make sure there are no NPCs in this area, as they will be attacked and possibly killed during the fight. Goblin Sorcerers' attacks go through walls and they can teleport indiscriminately, so the only defense is to make sure that your NPCs are not nearby.

Flatten out an area and make sure that there are no pits or jumps. Walls are not necessary, as during an invasion the newly spawned monsters are the target rather than a distraction. Make certain that any platforms or areas can be easily and quickly reached from anywhere else on the screen, since most players will be looking to quickly close in on casters with their melee weapons.

Dropshaft (Hellevator)
For the advanced player, reaching the underworld is quite a chore unless the player constructs a fast way down. Digging a 2-wide shaft that extends all the way from the surface to the underworld can save much time and trouble. Adding a secondary base in the landing zone is a possibility. Using this to transport water can make an area of the underworld much safer.

Roof Access
A minor consideration at most, 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.