Guide:Skipping ahead

Summary

 * 1) First go hunting for Pots and Chests on the surface, or in caves. Gear up with the loot, but save at least one grenade in your inventory.
 * 2) Acquire at least 20 Bombs. You can do this by looting, or building houses for at least 4 NPCs: one of these must be a Demolitionist.
 * 3) Find a Corruption/Crimson biome and bomb your way to two of the Shadow Orbs/Crimson Hearts for a bit of good loot. This will also allow Meteorites crashes and Goblin Army event to happen.
 * 4) Choose any combination of the following to do:
 * 5) * Wait for a meteorite to drop, then find it and and mine it out with bombs/dynamite for quick access to meteorite gear.
 * 6) * Wait for a Goblin invasion and smash the goblins to get a bit of loot, and the Goblin Tinkerer.
 * 7) * Loot the jungle, and possibly take on Queen Bee.
 * 8) * Defeat the Eater of Worlds/Brain of Cthulhu to gain access to Corruption/Crimson gear.
 * 9) * Fish for a Reaver Shark, but save any crates you get.
 * 10) * Defeat Skeletron and loot the dungeon. Also earns you the Mechanic.
 * 11) Dig to The Underworld and clear a long passage for the fight against the Wall of Flesh.
 * 12) Maybe take some time as well to loot the Shadow Chests, get a Hellforge, and mine Hellstone.
 * 13) Defeat the Wall of Flesh.
 * 14) If you went fishing, open all those crates to get your hardmode ores.
 * 15) You might find it worthwhile to farm in Space for a little bit, until you get enough materials for a pair of Harpy Wings.
 * 16) You can't really skip the Mechanical Bosses, Plantera or Golem since their deaths directly trigger the next respective phases of the game, so just gear up and take them on.
 * 17) At any time, you may take on Duke Fishron and the Pirate Invasion for extra loot.
 * 18) The Solar Eclipse is fully unlocked post-Plantera. The Hardmode Dungeon is post-Plantera, as are the Pumpkin Moon and Frost Moon events. Martian Madness is post-Golem.

Getting Started
If you wish to rush into high tiers of equipment as soon as possible, you may choose to simply not build any houses, although, it may take only two minutes or less to build an apartment with minimum NPC requirements. You don't have to build a house for the Guide, Goblin Tinkerer, Mechanic, Tax Collector, or Wizard, as they will initially appear even when no houses are available. Keep in mind though, unless you have houses, these NPCs will not respawn after they die for the first time. Additionally, certain items that can prove invaluable later on, such as the Clentaminator or Autohammer, or even Bombs are bought from NPCs that require a house to move in. If you do chose to build houses, make sure they are grouped together and secure from attacks from enemies.

First Steps
Assuming you're starting with a fresh character in a newly generated world, you have a few options on the first day. Your starting Copper Pickaxe will probably do for now, but the tiny hitbox, slow speed and negligible damage of the Copper Shortsword leaves you underarmed for even the most basic of enemies. Exploring the surface will eventually lead to the discovery of Chests, usually surrounded by Pots. These will provide you with Ropes and Torches, which are essential to exploring further underground earlier. However, what you're really looking for in these chests is one of these weapons:
 * , a powerful melee weapon that can hit enemies multiple times with a single stab.
 * , a "ranged" melee weapon that can be thrown as often as you can catch it.
 * , an early ranged weapon for which ammunition is plentiful.
 * , an early magic weapon whose fireballs can pierce.

You may also find Shuriken and Throwing Knives which, while limited, will allow you to do some damage from a distance if needed. Grenades are also pretty common, but their use in combat is limited compared to gaining early access to the Demolitionist, which is essential to getting better weapons, potentially before the sun even goes down. Outside of offensive items, the following items may also be found.
 * Bars of Copper, Tin, Iron or Lead that can be used to upgrade tools or weapons.
 * The Umbrella, which negates fall damage while held. This can be used to go deep underground with little equipment, though getting back up will still be complicated. It will also allow using a Gravitation Potion to search for and loot Floating Islands, which will offer much better fall-protection equipment.
 * Climbing Claws, which can ease the task of getting out of a deep hole you've fallen into and remain useful into Hardmode, both alone and combined.
 * Potions, especially Lesser Healing Potions and Recall Potions.
 * Arrows, which are useful if you've built a Wooden Bow.
 * Coins.

If you can gather twenty Cobwebs, a Wooden Yoyo can prove to be very invaluable in your early exploration, as it has more range than any Wooden Sword and can be maneuvered around corners and through small holes.

If you're expedient then you can begin building shelter. Try to finish two houses, one for the Guide you start with and another for the Merchant to move into. Buying an Iron Anvil for is much more efficient than building a work bench and a furnace to ultimately burn through fifteen Iron Ore. The Merchant can also sell you a Bug Net, which lets you catch bait for fishing. While fishing takes a few minutes from your day, there are a number of places where it can help you skip ahead.

All in all, spending the first day exploring and treasure hunting is far more productive than digging holes or chopping wood. A bit of fishing can also get you some Bomb Fish, which will come in handy when you go underground the next day.

You can opt for staying up all night fighting. Bear in mind that your gear and health at this point might make this a daunting task. Zombies drop Shackles, which both increase defense and carry modifiers. What you're really after in this is the Zombie Arm, a powerful early melee weapon comparable to the Tungsten Broadsword.

Even the surface has better options than just regular wooden armor. If you're still on the first or second day, you're unlikely to have the several dozen ingots required to craft metal armors, but "high-tier" wooden armors made from Cactus, Ebonwood, or Shadewood are comparable. (If you happen to be playing during the Halloween season, Pumpkin armor is even better and offers a damage bonus.) While you'll have to deal with attacks from Eaters of Souls, Crimeras and even Face Monsters, it shouldn't take long to chop down a few trees and toss together some armor. If you're feeling daring, or if you've got an Accessory with a particularly good Modifier, you may even choose to skip armor outright: almost all enemies at this stage in the game are melee based and susceptible to knockback, so if you don't get hit then your damage resistance doesn't matter.

If your world generated with corruption, and you're feeling particularly patient, you can farm Eaters of Souls to get Ancient Shadow armor, which can provide a nice boost in defense and speed.

Going Underground (the hard way)
Now, on day two, it's time to get a gun.

By now, you should have scouted out where the Corruption or Crimson is located, and now it's time to go there. No pickaxe able to be crafted at this stage has the ability to break Ebonstone or Crimstone and allow the player to reach the Shadow Orbs or Crimson Hearts. Ironically, you have to break them in order to reach them- breaking three hearts or orbs causes Eater of Worlds/Brain of Cthulhu to appear, which drops Shadow Scales/Tissue Samples used to craft the Nightmare Pickaxe/Deathbringer Pickaxe that can mine through these harder materials. In some sense, every player has to skip a step in this way, but the earliest way to get to the next prize is to use Bombs or Bomb Fish to break through the tainted stone. Admittedly, this requires a bit of luck to start out - one of those chests or pots you found earlier has to have had some Grenades in it, and hopefully you didn't use them. If you're holding it in your inventory and have a free house, then the Demolitionist will move in, ready to sell you the much more important Bombs (as well as the more destructive but expensive Dynamite, if that's more your speed). These will destroy terrain, including the impenetrable tainted stone of a chasm. Lacking the Demolitionist, you can fish for the fairly common Bomb Fish, which are equivalent to Sticky Bombs and will suffice to break the stone.

Note that no boss is going to be fought here yet. You are after something much more interesting. While destroying three of these will cause the biome's representative boss to spawn, each individual one drops a useful item. Most importantly, the first of either, when broken, has a 100% chance to drop as a specific type of Gun, along with 100 Musket Balls for ammunition:

While there are differences that may affect an individual's preference, either of these guns supersedes any bow available until the moments just before hardmode in terms of raw damage, as well as Musket Balls dealing more damage as ammunition than Arrows while still being cheaper. While they won't be competitive with weapons you'll find later, they'll allow you to prevail over the Goblin Invasion that is certainly coming after you break your first orb or heart. Either will also allow the Arms Dealer to arrive.
 * , found in the Corruption, fires slowly but deals high per-hit damage.
 * , found in the Crimson, fires quickly but deals less damage per shot.

Descending into the chasm itself is easy if you've found an Umbrella or plan to slide down with Climbing Claws, though getting out may still be hard. Using Rope to make a quick way in and out is optimal. Once inside, find one of the hearts or orbs - they glow with the biome's colour, making them hard to miss in the dark underground - and blast a hole to it with bombs. Another bomb will destroy it as well, giving you an ominous system message and a loot drop. If you break a second orb/heart, you may find the following:

From Shadow Orbs: From Crimson Hearts:
 * A different type of Shadow Orb that, when used, creates a light-emitting orb that follows you.
 * The Vilethorn is fittingly, very effective against the multi-segmented Eater of Worlds you'll eventually fight in this same biome.
 * The Ball O' Hurt can be handy for fighting large groups of enemies or attacking from range.
 * The Band of Starpower may be less useful than other treasures, but it can still be combined with other accessories later in the game.
 * A different type of Crimson Heart that, when used, creates a light-emitting heart that bounces after you.
 * The Crimson Rod is very efficient for dealing with stronger enemies, as it will continue dealing damage after you flee the spot. It is also effective against the biome's boss, the Brain of Cthulhu, though it's a bit less of a hard counter.
 * The Rotted Fork is a lifesaver, as it is the strongest spear-type weapon you'll get your hands on before The Underworld.
 * The Panic Necklace, while limited in use, can allow for faster escape from dangerous monsters.

Feel free to break a second orb if you can, but avoid breaking a third one unless you want to battle the boss. While you're down here, you may choose to open up paths to other orbs or hearts as well, in preparation for eventually finishing these biomes. Otherwise, you can go home.

Arguably a more important side effect of this process, though, is that Meteors may now fall in your world, potentially providing you with significant amounts of Meteorite. If you can acquire this material, it's possible to essentially skip the Eater of Worlds or Brain of Cthulhu, and proceed directly to Hardmode from there - though you won't exactly have an easy time there without some work, as the meteor set has no pickaxe. At this point you may have to slow it down a bit, as it's possible that your first meteor will fall somewhere totally inaccessible, like the bottom of the Ocean or high on a Floating Island, though more will fall in time. During the wait until you're ready to gather this material, though, you may want to work on your town, building suitable shelters for the NPCs you currently have and to house others you may want - as well as fortifying your settlement against the looming Goblin Invasion, one of the few threats to a player on the surface at this stage. However, at the moment you have a fairly powerful ranged weapon and at least a few other utility items. While you aren't quite ready for the Dungeon yet, you should be able to survive any biome on the surface, as well as freely venture underground to collect ores and treasure with little trouble.

To the Jungle
After getting geared up a bit more (or maybe not, if you're feeling confident), you could head to the Jungle. A ranged weapon is heavily recommended here, as the Hornets can be deadly if taken on with a weak sword. Gather as many Stingers, Jungle Spores, and Vines as you can. The Jungle Hat is arguably the easiest piece of high tier armor to get, requiring no mobs, no pickaxe, and only eight spores required, and will give an easy five defense, as well as mana. Stingers can be crafted into Poison Darts, useful if you're still hanging on to that Blowpipe from earlier. Because of the Jungle's large caves, this is the best place to quickly find more gear, such as the Cloud in a Bottle, Magic Mirror, Shoe Spikes and if you're lucky, a Lava Charm. If your expedition is a success, you should make a Blade of Grass, Thorn Chakram, Ivy Whip or an Amazon. You're almost set for Hardmode already! If you come across a Beehive, it can be a good idea to snag some Honey, or even battle Queen Bee herself. But if you can't seem to find success in the Jungle, or simply want to make your start somewhere else, there are plenty of other options.

Skipping the Eater/Brain
The Eater of Worlds and Brain of Cthulhu are both invaluable to crafting a pickaxe strong enough to mine Hellstone, which is a necessity for starting Hardmode. Even if you decide to skip these grotesque bosses, you'll still want to break Shadow Orbs/Crimson Hearts, as they will allow meteorites to begin falling, as well as giving a chance for Goblin Invasions to happen. Skipping the Eater of Worlds or the Brain of Cthulhu is not necessarily a good idea, as defeating them will also make the Tavernkeep NPC spawn in your world, who provides access to the Old One's Army event. (If you really don't need the ore they drop, you can always craft it into bars and sell it.) The main alternative to getting the "evil" pickaxe, is to get a Fishing Pole and head to the Ocean, because there's a chance you'll catch a Reaver Shark. (You will likely also find the Angler, who will later help with your fishing ability, but that's not for today.) This aquatic creature is as strong as a Molten Pickaxe, so you won't have to bother getting any Hellstone.

The Goblin Invasion
The Goblin Invasion can be skipped as well, but doing so can be a very large mistake, as beating the invasion will allow the Goblin Tinkerer to appear, and he is needed for combining accessories and improving your gear. He also sells the Rocket Boots, which are very handy for the treacherous lava pits of the underworld that you'll soon be facing.

To the Dungeon... or not
The Dungeon has many items that can prove invaluable... but it's by no means required. If you're feeling bold, feel free to completely ignore the Dungeon at first. If you're planning on fighting with magical weapons, though, you may want to take a peek at the entrance and see if you can find a Water Bolt. Leaving Skeletron is also a good way to save the Dungeon Guardians for when you have Hardmode gear, to get yourself a Bone Key. Eventually however, you will want to kill Skeletron and delve into the Dungeon, as items such as the Muramasa and Cobalt Shield can almost be too good to give up, and a Shadow Key lets you get at Underworld loot from the Shadow Chests.

More Preparation
By now you should have a set of Jungle armor, Shadow armor, Crimson armor, or Necro armor. If any meteorites fell now is a good time to decide if you want Meteor armor and the Space Gun or not. If you want meteor gear, but haven't had any luck with meteorites, smash Orbs/Hearts between 12:00am and 4:30am for maximum meteor landings, or, if you have a Shadow Key you can try your luck on the many Shadow Chests of the Underworld, as they can contain Meteorite Bars. By now you need a pickaxe strong enough to mine hellstone, as the Hardmode ores are practically impossible to skip, and can't be mined without a Molten Pickaxe or Reaver Shark.

Tying Up Loose Ends
There's absolutely no way to skip the Wall of Flesh, so the skipping frenzy will have to end here. Make sure to get the Frostspark Boots, collect the last of your NPCs, and obtain the Lava Waders. You should also get 400 health and make a surface Mushroom Biome before you go any farther. In the Underworld, you should hunt down and collect a Hellforge and mine a lot of Hellstone. You need enough to make a Molten Pickaxe (if you don't have a Reaver Shark), and (for melee players) a Fiery Greatsword. Anything more is optional. Once you have the Fiery Greatsword, use it to craft Night's Edge. If you're lucky and find an Obsidian Rose or Magma Stone while in the Underworld, they will be of great help in the next battle.

Skipping the Hardmode Ore Progression
Some parts of the Hardmode ore progression can be skipped, but this requires a fair bit of preparation which is best done before Hardmode. While this technique doesn't really qualify for a "speedrun", you can use fishing to avoid a fair bit of hazard. Normally you must break at least three altars to place ores in your world, then follow a progression:  Cobalt Ore/Palladium Ore gives you a pick/drill that lets you mine Mythril Ore/Orichalcum Ore, which in turn gives you access to (Adamantite Ore/Titanium Ore). However, this entire progression (and perhaps breaking the altars) can be skipped by fishing for crates. Crates opened in Hardmode (even if they were fished up before) have a chance to contain Hardmode metal ores and bars. If you fish up a large number of crates pre-hardmode, and then open them right after defeating the Wall of Flesh, you can often skip many tiers of the initial Hardmode progression. However, to completely skip breaking the altars (that is, getting your advanced armor and weapons this way), you will need well over a stack, and ideally two stacks, of (mostly Wooden) crates. This will require a fair bit of time spent fishing, and probably some upgraded equipment from the Angler. Smaller numbers of crates can at least give you a head start, allowing you to mine less and likely start off with a Hardmode Anvil and/or Hardmode Forge. Note that the Angler's quests and rewards are limited to one per day.

The Wall of Flesh
If you're unprepared and extremely confident, you can choose to battle the Wall of Flesh right away. Death is very, very likely, as the Wall of Flesh is very difficult to defeat (especially in Expert Mode), so as to deter the unprepared from going into Hardmode. If you aren't extremely confident, you should spend a bit more time gearing up.

The Wall of Flesh is both the metaphorical and literal wall in the way of advancing your world into Hardmode, so you'll have to give this battle everything you've got. If you have Lava Waders or an Obsidian Skin Potion, and Rocket Boots, a bridge will be unnecessary; otherwise, it can be a lifesaver. Now, gather your courage, and drop the voodoo doll into the lava... but not before you make sure your Guide is still alive. If he has died and not respawned, the voodoo doll will be completely wasted and you'll have to start looking for another Voodoo Demon.

Hardmode
After you have won, Hardmode will begin. Although Hardmode may seem far more nonlinear, this is an illusion, as you must fight the bosses in a specific order. First, you must take out the Mechanical bosses, and then beat Plantera.

Jungle Temple
The Jungle Temple normally cannot be entered before defeating Plantera, and not without consuming a Temple Key. However, unusual incidents during world generation can be exploited to gain access: Otherwise, several methods exist to circumvent the requirement:
 * A Granite or Marble Cave overlaps the Temple.
 * A Living Mahogany Tree grows above the Temple, extending its roots into the Temple.
 * On the Console version, it's possible for the Temple to spawn with an opening in the roof.
 * The locked Lihzahrd door generates on top of a trap or is surrounded by Wooden Spikes, which can be mined with lower-tier pickaxes or drills, effectively removing the door as well.
 * A Jungle Shrine spawns in the wall.
 * The Temple protrudes into The Underworld, where the Wall of Flesh can pull the player into the Temple. It is crucial to immediately kill the Wall afterwards.
 * It is possible to get inside by placing three Platforms in front of the door and hammering them once. Simply walk towards them while pressing the key.
 * Teleporting into the Temple is possible using a Rod of Discord or Teleporters. However, the target location needs to be free of Lihzahrd Brick Walls, which can be achieved by using any Hardmode Hammer or Hamaxe.
 * In rare occasions, an Underground Cabin intersects the Temple. As it contains Planked Walls, it is a suitable teleportation target location.
 * Creating vertical passages (the bigger the better) from the top of the Temple to the surface allows meteorites to crash into it. This will replace Lihzahrd Bricks with meteorite ore, letting the player dig into the Temple prior to getting the Picksaw. The chance of this happening is somewhat slim, though, but can be increased by placing chests all over the world. With that being done, the meteorite is bound to crash into the Temple, since it would be the only place for it to crash into.
 * By hammering the block under the outside of the door, and placing rope on the outside of the door, it is possible to glitch through the door by swinging a sword toward the door.
 * A Hoik can be used to glitch through the walls and into the Temple.
 * Hammer the blocks so they are facing inwards, then use the Unicorn Mount and fall down into the blocks; dismount afterwards.
 * Make the 2 blocks either side of the door slabs using a hammer, then use a Grappling Hook to attach to the bottom tile of the door. Then hammer the second tile on the outside of the door 3 times. This will flip you to the other side of the door. This works both ways, but ensure that the tile is returned to its half state, else you can get stuck.[clarification needed]
 * Acquire a Temple Key in another world.

World Farming
World Farming is a strategy employed by players wishing to get an early head start on the game. They do this by creating new worlds, and running across the surface of the world and occasionally cave running. This allows the gathering of materials from chests at a much higher rate than normal, and grants an early lead, especially if an ice biome spawns nearby. However, some consider it cheating.

How To World Farm

 * 1) Create a new world
 * 2) Walk/run in one direction until you find a chest
 * 3) Loot and mine said chest and continue to look for more chests
 * 4) Once all chests have been explored, cave running is another option

Is a world worth farming?

 * A world is bad for farming if
 * To access the snow biome one must traverse the crimson/corruption
 * The world is difficult to traverse (Lots of hills, etc.)
 * There are no or very few caves to loot
 * There are very few chests
 * A world is good for farming if:
 * The ice biome is near spawn
 * The world is relatively flat
 * There are easily accessible caves
 * There are lots of chests relatively close to spawn

Cave Running
Similar to World Farming, Cave running is a strategy employed by players to get ahead in certain aspects of the game. However, unlike world farming, this does not require new worlds to be created each time, although it might be useful if you've exhausted your world's resources. Most notably, this strategy gets you ahead in chest resources and Life Crystals. However, there are some cons to this strategy.

How to cave run
This is a lot easier with minecart tracks, as these can be ridden until a cavern system appears. Cave running is when a player runs through cavern systems, mostly ignoring ore and doing no actual mining (some obviously, just not as much as usual). They do this to spend time looking for chest resources from underground cabins and life crystals.

Pros

 * Lots of life crystals (Up to 100 Health can be obtained in one run, sometimes even more)
 * Possibility of valuable early game weapons such as the Ice Boomerang
 * Explores most of the underground

Cons

 * Relies on world having an abundance of underground cabins
 * Worlds with few underground cabins may struggle to grant any weapons
 * Gaining hearts quick can often lead to the necessary requirements for the Eye of Cthulhu to spawn
 * If no weapons have been gained this can lead to a very underprepared boss fight
 * Will often put the player behind in terms of weaponry and ore.