Guide:Surviving in the Dungeon

Getting there
Finding the Dungeon is a simple matter. Simply go to one end of the map, if you encounter a Jungle when you are trying to find it then it is at the other end.

In order to be able to safely enter the Dungeon, you will have to kill Skeletron.

IMPORTANT: You MUST kill Skeletron in order to access the whole Dungeon, otherwise you will be killed instantly by the Dungeon Guardian.

Required Items
Once you have access to the Dungeon, you will want to bring: Note: It is possible to do the Dungeon with Gold Armor, Necro Armor, or Jungle Armor, though with the lower defense, you'll need to be more careful. Accessories with defense modifiers can offset this.
 * Strong weapon, such as Light's Bane/Blood Butcherer or a strong bow
 * Torches
 * Healing Potions
 * Shadow Armor/Crimson armor or better (Not required, but strongly recommended)

Suggested Items
Note: Lower Tiers of Pickaxe cannot break Dungeon Brick, and are thus useless in the Dungeon.
 * Cobalt Shield (only if you've been in a Dungeon before)
 * Magic Mirror
 * Rocket Boots, Cloud in a Bottle, or Shiny Red Balloon
 * Grappling Hook/Ivy Whip
 * Vilethorn
 * Sticky Bombs
 * Glowsticks
 * Nightmare Pickaxe/Deathbringer Pickaxe or better
 * Ball O' Hurt (for dealing with large groups of enemies)
 * Potions (Ironskin potion, regeneration potion, hunter potion or other)

Strategy
'''Go slowly. The faster you go, the more likely you are to run into a situation where you die or can't get back out of.''' An effective, though slow and rather dangerous method is to destroy every spike you find, as they deal considerable amount of damage and you can't avoid stepping on some with low-tier equipment. Alternatively, you can build bridges above the spikes.


 * There are five primary sources of damage in the Dungeon:
 * Monsters, which can be killed in normal ways
 * Traps, activated when a Player steps on a Pressure Plate. May be removed with your Pickaxe, the only means of acquiring a Trap for your own use. Pressure Plates may also be removed with a pickaxe, and Wire can be salvaged with a Wire Cutter
 * Spikes, which deal high damage to any player in contact with them. May be removed with a Pickaxe, or more safely removed from a distance with Sticky Bombs.
 * Spike Balls, which must be avoided. Moving far enough off-screen may cause an inconvenient one to disappear.
 * Blazing Wheels, which also must be avoided. They are brightly glowing "traps" which roll along the walls. They glow and thus are not hard to see, but they can be very annoying when they show up during battle. They are rather quick as well.


 * A wall passing weapon such as a Vilethorn will help greatly, allowing you to kill Dark Casters and Cursed Skulls from behind walls.


 * Removing any Water Candles you find can help you to survive, because they increase the spawnrate when placed.


 * Use a Grappling Hook or an Ivy Whip to avoid ground-based hazards and to get out of range of most enemies.


 * If a Weapon hits a projectile from a Dark Caster, the projectile will be destroyed. Used well, this can negate most damage from them.


 * It is generally very dark in a dungeon. While, yes, you can place torches, use of a Hunter Potion may be smart, as it will help you to notice enemies quicker even in the dark, especially if you run out of torches.

Important Loot

 * Cobalt Shield
 * Prevents Knockback, making exploring much easier, and can be made into the highly useful Obsidian Shield.
 * Muramasa
 * Required to make a Night's Edge, as well as being one of the few swords that swing with the button held down.
 * Handgun
 * Can be made into Phoenix Blaster.
 * Shadow Key
 * Opens Shadow Chests in The Underworld.
 * Aqua Scepter and Magic Missile
 * Useful for magic characters.

Chests
Gold Chest

Harvested items

 * Book
 * Spike
 * Water Candle
 * Chain Lantern
 * Water Bolt
 * Dungeon Bricks
 * Dungeon Brick Walls
 * Switch
 * Wire
 * Pressure Plate
 * Dart Trap