Guide:Getting started

Welcome to the land of Terraria! Everyone starts out at some point, and here is a small guide in how to start out in Terraria and what to do afterwards. This guide is intended to make a person with absolutely no knowledge of gaming and Terraria into an explorer of Terraria in no time!

Creating Your Character and World
To create a character, one must first pick a game mode to play: Single Player or Multiplayer. It is recommended to choose single player if it is the player's first time playing Terraria. After choosing which mode to play; click the Create Character button to create a character.

Once at Character creation screen; four options are presented: Hair, Eyes, Skin, and Clothes. There are 17 hair styles to choose from, as well as their color. The Clothes menu has four more options to choose from. Looks do not affect any aspect of the game, and therefore are purely cosmetic. In order to pick colors, the Red/Green/Blue (RGB) values must be set to a number between 0 and 255. For example, in order to get a white color, the RGB must be Red: 255, Green: 255, Blue: 255. However, there must be a minimum of 254 in all slots total. Finally, choose a character name.

Now there is the option of creating a world. The size of the world must be chosen: Small, Medium, or Large.

Small Worlds are compact. The oceans are much closer to the starting point, and the entire world is not as deep. The Corruption is only in one or two places.

Medium Worlds are well proportioned. Traveling to the edges will take roughly a day of time, depending on how well the character is equipped. The Corruption is in two or three places.

Large Worlds are massive. To reach the deepest sections of the map will take quite a while, and the oceans are easily days apart. The Corruption is in three to four places.

Finally, choose a name for the world. Now it's time to finally enter Terraria!

Getting Started in Your New World


Once logged into the world the character will be spawned (Or placed into the game) on dirt, surrounded by a forest. In the upper left corner there are ten boxes. These are the inventory slots. Each one is connected to the number keys listed above the letters, and can be selected by using the scroll wheel on the mouse. Also, when “Escape” is pressed, it will open the rest of the inventory. To select an item for use, simply drag it to one of the top slots.

The “hearts” beside the inventory is the character's health; which is at 100 when starting out. The hearts will fade and disappear as the health depletes. Each heart is worth 20 health, with up to a maximum of 400 health or 20 hearts.

Movement in the game is done by using A (to go left) and D (to go right). The space bar is used for jumping. Q will throw the currently selected item to the ground (Or holes, so be careful),

On the inventory slots there are two tools: A Copper Pickaxe and a Copper Axe. The pickaxe is used to dig up dirt and stone, which are the most common types of materials that can be dug up. It can also be use to dig many more block types. The axe is mainly used for chopping down trees.

During the first day, it is best to cut down some trees immediately and start storing wood. If an enemy is approaching; simply turn towards it and swing the weapon at them. A few hits will kill them, especially if they are slimes. More information about the combat system will be available in detail later.

If some more in game help is needed, there's always the Guide that can be talked to (by pressing the right-click button on him)! He's an NPC (Non-Player Character) who has a lot of useful information to help out within Terraria.

Your Very First Home


After getting about 100 pieces of wood, it's time to build a house. Find a nice spot and begin to clear a flat surface with the copper pickaxe. If there is a gap in the way; simply open the inventory and drag the dirt or stone to the bar, and select it. Blocks needs to be touching another block in order to be placed.

When finished with placing down a flat surface; select the wood on the bar. Then make a floor, a wall, a ceiling (with enough space for the character to at least walk through, if not higher), and another wall with a three space (the height of the character) gap left between it and the floor. This is the frame of the house. If a piece of wood is misplaced somewhere, simply use the axe to chop it out. Wood chopped like this does not disappear and can be picked up again.

It's time to do some crafting. Push escape and look down at the bottom left corner. This is the crafting corner and will changed based upon which crafting stations the character is close to. There are two or three things available at this time: Torches (If there is any Gel available which comes from killing slimes), Wood Platforms, and a Workbench. The workbench is an important crafting tool. To make one, simply click it once to select it, and one more to make it. Drag the newly crafted item to the hot bar and select it. Click a spot in the home to set it. Now when pushing escape, there will be quite a few more crafting items available as long as the character is next to the workbench.

A Door is needed to protect the house. Open the inventory while standing next to the workbench. There will be many craftable items, but a door is what is needed. Moving through the drafting menu can be done in two ways: Click the item furthest on the list to bring it to the middle and then repeat, or use the mouse scroll wheel to go through the menu. About four items up there is a wooden door. Select it and make it, then once again drag it to the hot bar.

To place the door, head to the three space opening that we left on one wall, and place the door there. Once placed, it can be opened by right clicking on it. To shut the door, simply right click on it again. Doors cannot be opened by enemies except for very specific events (Blood moons, which happen rarely).

To finally get the house secure, it's time to make some backwalls. Without backwalls, monsters are free to spawn inside the home. To craft backwalls, walk up to a workbench and build either wood walls or stone walls, as dirt backwalls do not prevent monster spawns. Quite a bit is needed, so don't be afraid to build 60 or 70 backwalls.

If during the building process a hill was leveled notice how the back Dirt Wall is still visible. In order for us to remove it we must make a hammer; which requires the workbench. Once crafted, it can be used to remove the dirt backwalls left behind as well as furniture. If the workbench is hit by the hammer; simply replace it down once removing the backwalls are done. Backwalls work differently than other blocks by overlapping with themselves and going through other blocks. Simply place the walls until all sides of the house are filled, and all cracks in the wall are filled. Note that the walls do not have to go outside the building itself.

This house is now considered safe: Monsters cannot spawn in it. Now it's time to do some exploring (and killing!)

Defending your home


The battle system in Terraria is simple. When wielding a tool or weapon, left click will cause the weapon to swing or be thrown (in the case of a Shuriken). The Copper Axe and Pickaxe work well, but creating a dedicated weapon is usually the best. Go to the Workbench and create a Wooden Sword.

Depending on the time of day, there will be different kinds of enemies. Slimes are prevalent during the day hours, and will drop Gels, which are used to create Torches. It's a good idea to keep a few of these handy, as when it goes to night the screen will only show places lit by light. They can also be placed on blocks, which when places is how buildings will light up at night.

At night, two more monsters will spawn: Zombies and Demon Eyes. Zombies are aggressive and will try to get to the character whenever they can. They drop Shackles, which are an Accessory. When put into an Accessory slot, they give one Defense. Demon Eyes will float around and occasionally try to ram the character. They will drop Lenses, which are useful for later down the road.

All monsters in the game drop Coins. The three monsters listed above will drop a few Copper Coins and rarely some Silver Coins, which are used later to buy supplies from Non-Player Characters (Or NPC's).

Taking damage is inevitable part of life. At the start of the game a good way to gain health is by eating Mushrooms. When a mushroom is found simply swing a weapon or a tool at them, and then it can be picked up and consumed to recover 20 health, or one heart. Consumables like these have a 13 second cooldown between uses, so it's a good idea to keep the character's health as high as you can.

Blood Moons are random events that can happen anytime night is approaching. During this time, zombies will swarm in greater numbers and will have the ability to open doors. To safely wait out a Blood Moon, just place a block on the inside of the door. Zombies cannot destroy blocks, so they will not be able to get in. The Blood Moon article also has many more strategies for offense as well as more tips on defense.

Lava Pit Defense
When you get further on in the game and mine deep enough you will discover lava pools. These lava pools are very helpful for defending against zombies and other monsters. Craft an Empty bucket and proceed down to the lava, fill your bucket and return to the surface. dig a small pit by your door (about 2-3 tiles deep and 5-7 tiles long) fill it with the lava you just collected. Repeat this as many times as you feel you need to as it does not take much lava to kill a monster. NPCs are vulnerable to lava and if they get caught in it they will die as they cannot move 9 out of 10 times. This is the only downside of this method. You can then build towers to rain down arrows and other ranged weapons on the monsters that are on the other side of the pit. Refer to the PvP traps section 5 for more ideas on defending your home.

In the Garden
Now if you've been paying attention, you may have noticed that when you cut down some trees you got more than just wood. You also received an acorn or two (or ten). That's how we're going to make more trees. First equip the acorn, next find a good open spot in the sunlight for your tree to grow. Now just click on the spot you want to plant the tree and voila a sapling is born. You may need to clear the area of surrounding flowers or plants before a tree can be planted. This can be done with a sword, pick, or most other tools.

The trees need enough room on both sides of them in order to grow to their fullest potential. This means that two saplings directly adjacent to each other will not grow, neither will a sapling right next to the edge of a cliff. Make sure to space out your saplings so each one has enough room and they will all grow to supply you with wood ... and more seeds to replenish the garden.

If there is no good open spot in the sunlight for your trees to grow, make your own! You can use your pickaxe to level off a large section of land (preferably right next to your house) and a mallet to knock down the background dirt. Give a few hours for the grass to cover the newly plowed dirt and begin planting your acorns for your very own forest of replenishable wood.

The trees might be a bit smaller than the ones you cut down, they can grow. Anyway, in the meantime, let's go get some stone and metal.

The scary(?) mines
After you got yourself a nice little(or a nasty large) home set up, it's time to go and mine some ores. Now, you can either choose to dig straight down (don't worry, it's safe enough, as you can see through walls with enough light) or explore a bit and find a nice suitable mine. Chances are that you have found some different colored stone whilst exploring, those are ores, mining them might be a good idea. Once you've collected about 15 iron ore, you can explore more or just return to your cozy house. If you've got a nice amount of stone, wood and torches you can make a furnace. Try placing it down just like you did with the workbench, but this time, it takes a 3x2 space. If you look in your crafting window after placing the furnace, you will see that you can make bars out of the ores you saw in the caves/overworld. Try to make 5 iron bars and take them to your crafting bench, with it, you can make a nice iron anvil. Place it down, and if you have enough wood and bars, you can make new tools/weapons! With this, you can upgrade the tools/weapons you have currently.(If you have enough materials) You can also make your own armor, but it will take a lot of bars to make a full set.

While mining underground you may come across some pools of water / underground lakes. Know that it is possible to use torches underwater, but it is impossible to place them. If you come across one of these pools, don't fear diving down underwater to continue moving downwards, you have a rather large air meter. However, should you fear running out of air, there is a technique to allow yourself to get more air underwater.

First either find a wall or make a small shaft at the bottom of the water. (The shaft should be around 10 squares deep) Then dig a 3 high 1 wide hole in the wall and then a 4-6 high and 2 or more wide hole in this wall. You should see that the water will not fill the upper squares. Now you merely need to surface, in that hole and your air supply will refresh.

You may also come across large deep chasms inside the caves. A good way to traverse them is to create a gapped bridge. To do this create a background wall of any material (stone and dirt will be in excess so those are recommended. Place a strip as far as you can reach then build the stepping stones at least 1 block apart.  There are 2 benefits to this.  1 light can still reach below and 2, most enemies cannot actually pass through the blocks (you can't either so make sure to leave a somewhat larger gap near the end so you can jump down/up.

Notice in the last picture, the player has a time display under the item bar, more than 5 hearts and a star in the top right corner. The timer is given if you craft a Copper Watch at a workbench. The extra hearts are found via crystal hearts underground. You need a hammer to get them so its a good idea to bring one with you. Grab as many as you see (you can't go wrong with extra health). Lastly the star is mana power. This won't be used until later, but for now its good to start stockpiling. You craft mana crystals from 10 fallen stars and use them to receive mana power.

Try to keep this going for a while until you can make a nice set of armor (Gold or better recommended) and then we can talk about fighting your first boss!

Video guide
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