Guide:Walkthrough

When progressing through Terraria, many players can be confused about where they should go and what they should do next. Terraria is an open-ended game: you are not forced to go anywhere or do anything. You are free to set your own goals and follow through with them, whether you are a builder, fighter, explorer, collector, or whatever else. This walkthrough merely aims to provide a logical order of progression through Terraria’s many different biomes, generally in order of increasing difficulty. It is recommended, but there is certainly no requirement to visit each biome, or even in this order if you don't want to.

If you are unsure of what map size to choose as a new player, choose small. Even in a small world, a player can face long travel times, and it would still take hundreds of hours to explore every cave in a small world at a normal pace.

= Starting Out = On the creation of a new world, a helpful NPC (Non Player Character) will spawn, and he is called the. If you are new to Terraria, then chat with him and he will give you advice on different elements of your world. As you progress however, his tips become increasingly less useful because you will either already know or have done its tips.

Beginner
Your goal in the daylight should be to kit yourself out with some better starting equipment from your surroundings and find a source of shelter, preferably underground, to pass the night.

The first thing you should do is cut down several trees (using your, aim for the lowest block), as wood is needed for many things, then build a. From there, craft a, and perhaps a , as your starting weapons are next to useless.

Next, you should explore your surroundings. There are usually some s and s on or near the surface near your starting point, which will often contain useful weapons and other items. If you are lucky (a 9% chance per chest), you’ll find a Spear, which is one of the best starting weapons, especially against Zombies, the biggest threat at this point. If you can find enough near the surface (you'll need 20), you can also make a, which is finicky, but a solid starting weapon. There will also almost always be at least one cave entrance close by leading Underground. Use and  to reach high ledges, bridge chasms, and safely descend. Always carry blocks around with you so you can descend safely!

Once you have explored your surroundings and cracked open all the chests and pots in sight, you should head to the Underground before night falls to continue your search for useful items and resources.

It is recommended to stay Underground (or inside your House if you built it) during night time until you are strong enough to deal with Zombie packs, as there is little to be gained and so much to lose for a new character during night. If you do find yourself outside at night, any weapon that can hit multiple times are very useful. If you're not used to playing Sandbox building/mining games, it is easy to forget your greatest ability: the power to move blocks.

If you are busy fighting enemies at night, it may be wise to look for Fallen Stars while you're outside. 3 / 5 of them can be used to craft a, which will benefit you later when you obtain Magic Weapons.

= Going Underground =

While exploring the Underground (and, by extension, the Caverns), you might find : you can mine and use them to increase your maximum life by 20 (up to a maximum of 400). You can also stockpile Life Crystals and use them to craft, which increases life regeneration as long as you stay near to it. It's critical that you increase your max life, as it makes you tougher to stronger and harder to dodge attacks. That said, your first few crystals will also unlock various events: The first unleashes Blood Moons, the third allows Slime Rains, and the fifth allows the Eye of Cthulhu to spawn. It may be wise not to use the first crystal until you have Iron/Lead or better armor, and to hold off on the fifth until you have Gold/Platinum armor.

The Caverns are a massive biome with many useful items and treasures, and as such, players may find themselves spending a lot of time here. Although its monsters can be dangerous for a new player, the greatest threat in this layer may be the danger of falling into its deep chasms, frequently with the aid of the bats. Should you find yourself falling to death, don’t forget there are a number of items that can break your fall: 's (or equivalents) extra jump, Grappling any surface (with a ), including the ground you’re about to hit, or even an. Pools of water (1+ block deep) and Cobwebs will also save you if you’re lucky enough to fall into them.

This ever-present danger is closely followed by the devious and near-invisible traps sprinkled throughout the dark caves. A bold, fearless new player skipping heedlessly through the caves for the first time will quickly meet with a landing on their head, or even, a landmine powerful enough to destroy the surrounding terrain. These dangers can be fatal to Hardcore characters. Needless to say, tread with extreme caution, and take advantage of the. Using generous amounts of light sources is one of the best ways to mitigate both of these dangers. The, , and s can prove useful additions to the usual sources.

Although there are many helpful items to be collected in this layer, probably at the top of the list will be a and a. Both of them will make getting around much easier and faster. Fortunately, with the Gem hooks, it is trivial to craft one, and Magic Mirrors are also very common. Besides these two, a player may want to craft a, as they tend to outclass most other weapons at this stage of the game, limited by the number of stars you’ve managed to collect so far.

Note that should you descend too far, you will actually find yourself in the Underworld. This will be marked by a change in music and background, and its enemies will start spawning, which you probably won’t want to face at this stage.

A quick note on weapons and armor: at this stage, you have a lot of choices of Ore-based weapons and armor that you can craft. It is entirely feasible to be constantly upgrading your weapons if you desire, as they don’t cost much. The, for example, only costs 8 Iron Bars – 24 iron ore – which is about one to three ore veins. Armor is a different question. Because of set bonuses, it is wise to try and complete an armor set rather than mixing and matching different pieces. Because of how Defense works, there isn’t a huge benefit from upgrading from one armor set to the next. The Copper armor set, for example, reduces damage taken by 3, Iron armor reduces damage by 5, so the difference in damage reduction is only 2, which is barely noticeable. Yet to complete the Iron armor set requires 225 ore, which represents a significant amount of mining time.

It is therefore recommended to mine Silver or Tungsten Ores for the Armor because they are good enough to take on the first bosses, it's significantly faster to complete than Gold or Platinum, and allows you to save the latter for Weapons and Tools.

= Building a Base =

Once you’ve filled your inventory with blocks and loot, you may want to consider starting to build a base, as now you have some building materials and money to buy things. A base can take anywhere from a single in-game day to more than an in-game week to complete, depending on the player's tastes. It is not necessary, however, to build the entire base right away. Waiting to build the majority of the base can be advantageous, as it will allow the player to use the large stores of blocks they will end up gathering as a by-product of mining. Regardless of when or what the player builds, it is recommended to build houses for the Guide, Merchant and Nurse, craft a, and an area for storage and crafting before progressing. It is also wise to create a layout that can be easily added onto later as more NPCs are available and more storage is needed.

You should have at least the following in your base before moving on:
 * Of course, houses for the Guide, Merchant and Nurse, as well as a valid empty house or two for other NPCs.
 * Several organized chests for item storage. You don't want to have a cluttered inventory every time you leave your base.
 * A campfire and sunflowers, both of which provide helpful buffs to those nearby. (Sunflowers also block the spread of Corruption and Crimson until hardmode, if you happen to have such biomes near your base.)
 * A crafting room, preferably with a chest or two in it to store crafting materials. Eventually, you're going to want a unified place for all your crafting needs. By now, you'll have a, a on that Work Bench, a  next to it, a , an /, and probably a  and a . A Chair and a Table adjacent to each other will serve as a crafting station for Watches. You should also leave some space for later-game crafting stations and more chests, but with just this setup, you'll be able to craft anything up to this point, from swords to robes to potions and building blocks.

= Beyond the Forest =

Once the player obtains strong enough weapons many mid-tier biomes open up. These biomes contain crafting materials as well as other treasures.

As you continue your exploration of the surface, you should also expect to encounter this event:

= The Bosses: Dealing with the first three = Once you’ve survived the first couple nights and started work on a base, you should begin preparations for the upcoming boss battles, as even if you do not wish to go looking for them, they will come looking for you.

Eater of Worlds or Brain of Cthulhu
After the Eye of Cthulhu is defeated, you should do the following:
 * Be sure the Dryad has a home: she sells Purification Powder, a less explosive option for getting to the Shadow Orbs and Crimson Hearts, and planters, a more convenient way to grow your plants.
 * Make sure to have at least 12 valid NPC houses and be sure you can access them without having to go all the way across the map.
 * Start on your plants farm: Potions will be immeasurably helpful throughout the rest of the game.
 * Build a chest room: It's not a bad idea to have plenty of storage to put away items you'll find later on.

After this, head to the Corruption or Crimson to smash a Shadow Orb or Crimson Heart. Smashing your first orb or heart allows two events to occur in short order:

Every third Orb or Heart you smash in the world will spawn either Eater of Worlds or Brain of Cthulhu respectively:

Skeletron
= The Late Pre-Hardmode = The three late pre-hardmode biomes — the Underground Jungle, Dungeon, and Underworld — are all of the roughly similar difficulty and can be done in any order or concurrently.

The Underground Jungle
Be on the lookout for the following loot and materials in the underground jungle:


 * Feral Claws: These will increase your melee speed, and can prove very helpful later on in hardmode.
 * Anklet of the Wind: This greatly increases your movement speed without having to be charged up, and can also be tinkered with Spectre Boots and an Aglet to make Lightning Boots.
 * Bezoar: Immunity to poison extremely useful while you're in the Underground Jungle, and this accessory is very helpful when coming up against Queen Bee. This accessory is also needed to craft the Ankh Charm later on.
 * Honey: This will give you a healing buff upon touching it and is therefore very useful in boss arenas. Consider bringing Buckets along to pick it up.
 * Stingers and Jungle Spores: These can be used to craft gear that's useful against some of the upcoming challenges.
 * Vines: These can be used to craft an Ivy Whip, which allows you to grapple to three different spots.
 * Flower Boots: These are useful for creating farms for harvesting hay, critters, and strange plants.

Many of the Queen Bee's drops may be better than what you already have. Even if they aren't, farming Queen Bee is a good source of income before Hardmode. Plus, the Bee mount is the earliest mounts that can fly, although it's slow on land and hates water.

The Dungeon
Make sure to get the following loot before leaving the Dungeon:
 * Shadow Key: This item can unlock any Shadow Chest in the Underworld. These chests contain many weapons which are unrivaled in power in easy mode and often still remain decent in early hardmode.
 * Cobalt Shield: Protection against knockback can be invaluable. The Cobalt Shield can also be tinkered with an Obsidian Skull to make an Obsidian Shield, which will prove very valuable in the Underworld as well.
 * Muramasa: This is one of the swords used to make the Night's Edge, which is useful to have before Hardmode.
 * Water Bolt: This weapon's piercing and bouncing projectiles can wreck any enemy in the Dungeon, Jungle, and Underworld.
 * Valor: Like all yoyos, this can help greatly in tight situations.
 * Handgun: This weapon is a strong, reliable ranged weapon, provided you can click fast enough. Can be upgraded into the more powerful Phoenix Blaster.
 * Nazar: Although not very useful outside the Dungeon, this accessory is needed to craft the Ankh Charm. It is highly recommended to farm for this accessory before unlocking the Hardmode dungeon, as the Cursed Skulls which drop it will become much rarer then.

The Underworld
The Underworld is the hardest pre-hardmode biome, and the last biome that players explore.

The greatest danger working in the Underworld is, unsurprisingly, the wide expanses of molten lava. There are many tools which you can use: one these is probably the Water Walking Potion. The Lava Waders are the ultimate accessory in the Underworld, although it can be difficult to find all the components. Otherwise, the Lava Charm is an invaluable aid. If you have neither of these accessories, Obsidian Skin Potions are a fantastic alternative. When used, the potion gives you a four-minute invulnerability to lava. There is no breath meter in lava, so as long as you have potions, you can stay in lava indefinitely.

Hellstone mining is quite time-consuming and is the main reason to spend time in it. You'll need is an Obsidian Skull or better to prevent Hellstone ore and bricks from burning you. Abundant deposits of Hellstone spawn next to the buried Ruined Houses, and instead of going to burrow deep into the ash and build lava channels, mine the ones that spawn close to the walls. Monster spawn rates are low in the Ruined Houses, and the buildings prevent most of them from bothering you, except the Fire Imps and Bone Serpents which can penetrate blocks. You can block the Fire Imp shots with any weapon or projectile, including your swinging pickaxe.

Be mindful that if you kill a Voodoo Demon, you better be ready to get under that before it drops into the lava, or you will be in for a nasty fight you're not prepared for. Should you accidentally awaken the Wall of Flesh, use a Magic Mirror if have it.

= Activating Hardmode = Defeating the Wall of Flesh will activate Hardmode. Hardmode is pretty self-descriptive: routine tasks can become difficult and time-consuming once there, and due to this, it's wise to complete any tasks and preparations you can before entering hard mode.

Preparing For Hardmode
The following is a list of preparations you may wish to consider before summoning the Wall of Flesh:
 * Obtain maximum Health and Mana if you have not already done so.
 * Craft Hellstone equipment. Hellstone equipment is the best equipment available in Pre-Hardmode, although you may have reason to prefer Shadow armor, Crimson armor, Meteor armor, Necro armor, Jungle armor, or Bee armor to Molten armor. Night's Edge is the highest-tier sword (Bee Keeper is also a good option).
 * Ensure you've obtained key accessories and items such as: Frostspark Boots, Lava Waders, Diving Gear, Frog Leg, Flying Carpet, Lucky Horseshoe, Obsidian Shield, Magic Cuffs, Feral Claws, Ivy Whip, Magic Mirror, Mining armor and Metal Detector. Many of these accessories can be combined from others at the Tinkerer's Workshop and the base accessories and items will be much harder to get during hardmode.
 * Ensure you have a sufficient stock of Potions. You may consider creating "farms" for certain ingredients. For more information on farming, see Guide:Gardening.
 * Find Demon or Crimson Altars. Most Altars are found in the Corruption and Crimson respectively, so explore each Corruption or Crimson biome in the world. They need to be easily accessible when hardmode begins (further information in the Hardmode section).
 * Consider creating quarantines. You may wish to contain the spread of the Corruption or Crimson in Hardmode which will otherwise quickly overtake your world. There are a few reasons you might want to do this: these biomes are very hard when first entering Hardmode, your base can be converted and NPCs will not live near Corruption or Crimson, there are some unique drops only available from "natural" biomes, such as Angler fishes. You may particularly wish to protect the Jungle and Ocean biomes in their natural state. For more information on building quarantines, see Guide:Maintaining world purity.
 * Reforge Weapons and Accessories. You'll generally want extra Defense, Damage, or Critical hit chance.
 * Consider farming money. Some vendors sell new, but expensive items in Hardmode and reforging Hardmode weapons is extremely expensive. For more information on farming money, see Guide:Making money.
 * Build a lake near your base. You don't want to risk your life in Hardmode going to a spot halfway across the map to fish. You may also want to have a decently sized lake of honey to farm Honeyfin, which are easier to get than Greater Healing Potions and restore 120 health.
 * Build a surface Mushroom biome with a house for the Truffle NPC, as gathering the necessary materials will become much harder during hardmode.
 * Make sure you have 21 valid NPC houses, so you don't have to worry about building them later on.

Wall of Flesh
Once Wall of Flesh is defeated you will receive a message which says "The ancient spirits of light and dark have been released". You have now entered Hardmode.

= Hardmode =