Guide:Bases

A player's main base can be a powerful tool, source of resources, and entertainment. Most players create at least a Bed with a Chest stockpile nearby. Investing time in building a proper base can be useful in the long run. Bases are often used as "Safe-Spots" which mean that the player should be secure in that area. A well-enclosed area with NPCs nearby to decrease enemy spawn rates is helpful.

Most bases are composed out of Wood or Stone walls, with Wood or Stone background walls.

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 placing a crafting table somewhere in your base is entirely optional, having a centralized crafting area can keep things more organized. The crafting stations are the Workbench, Anvil, Furnace OR Hellforge, Alchemy Station, and a Chair combined with a Table. These items altogether probably warrant their own room. Keeping a Chest or two next to your crafting area is an efficent way to store and access your crafting materials quickly.

Note that putting down a chair near a table may cause NPCs to move in. To avoid this, simply don't bother with the chair. The only recipes that the chair and table combination provide are the Goggles (which are a mostly cosmetic item), Sunglasses (which is also a cosmetic item), three different watches and the Depth Meter. Once all NPCs have moved in you can place the chair without fear of unwanted NPCs, unless of course one happens to die. Note that you can use dungeon or dirt walls in the room where the table and chair are located to keep the NPCs out.

Storage
Storage is achieved through the use of Chests, a craftable item that can be placed. Storage is extremely necessary in Terraria, given the amount of items you collect. A dedicated room in your base for chests is recommended, however, creating a storage room deep underground will guarantee a safe place for all your valuable possessions in the event of a meteor destroying your house. However, this is fairly unlikely. Always keeping your items carefully organized will save you a headache or two in the long run. Signs are an efficient organization method, allowing you to label chests or rooms of chests, i.e. "Materials" or "Equipment". Gold Chests do the same job as regular chests, but are immune to explosions. These are found randomly throughout the world, and can be collected by using any tier of hammer.

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.

Meteors
Farming Meteor Heads can provide large amounts of coin. 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, and as of update 1.0.5, can only be FOUGHT in the corruption. If there is corruption close to your base, then using it is recommended. Otherwise, artificial corruption using Corrupt Seeds and/or Ebonstone is necessary. An area of just corrupted dirt will work sufficiently to summon the Eater of Worlds. Large chunks of Ebonstone (generally 300+) will also work.

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 center surface of the map. So no matter what you actually have there, that's the general area where you will encounter 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.

King Slime
The King Slime only spawns some distance away from the center of the map. As most bases are started near the original center spawn, a secondary outpost is necessary to farm this creature. Additionally, to facilitate spawning, a large flat area covered in grass reduces wait times.

Though this boss is particularly easy, and an arena probably isn't necessary, it's possible to exploit this creature's unwieldy size and movement pattern to create an area where it is impossible for the player to take damage during the fight. Create several "foxholes" poking up to the surface, large enough for the player to jump (and shoot) through but too small for the boss to travel in. Then connect them all with a tunnel.

Underworld Outpost
The underworld has valuable resources not found elsewhere, so having an outpost accessible from your main base is important once you have progressed to that point. It currently has five enemies, the Fire Imp, Bone Serpent, Demon, Lava Slime and Hellbat. The Imp can be farmed for the Flower of Fire and the Plumber's Hat, the Bone Serpent can be farmed for Flamelash and Sunfury, and the Demon can be farmed for the Demon Scythe. Each of these creatures requires a different configuration to make kills fast and (relatively) safe. However, when mining hellstone, these creatures can be extremely dangerous, so when mining in the underworld it can be a good idea to create an artificial Meteor as Meteor Heads replace all other mob spawns, and are easier to deal with compared to ordinary underworld monsters.

Dropshaft (Hellevator)
Advanced players who have reached the Underworld will usually want to return repeatedly to collect resources, and traveling down to this layer repeatedly can be a chore. Many players opt to create a shaft, 2 blocks wide, that extends all the way from the surface to the Underworld via a straight fall. It may be convenient to add a secondary base at the landing zone.

Avoiding fall damage

 * Fall damage can be averted using a small water pool at least 4 tiles deep, just above the Underworld (water evaporates within the Underworld itself, as of update 1.0.3).
 * Cobwebs can be placed at or near the landing, though these can take some time to get free of without having to cut them away, requiring replacement each time.
 * The Lucky Horseshoe can be equipped to eliminate fall damage.
 * The Grappling Hook, Ivy Whip, Cloud in a Bottle, or Rocket Boots can be engaged just before landing, though this requires that the player pay close attention to their location during the fall.

Fire Imp Arena
Fire Imps, as anyone who has fought one knows, teleport quickly and shoot fireballs that pass through walls. When they are hit once, they stop firing and pause at their present location for a number seconds, leaving them vulnerable. Creating a long horizontal enclosed tunnel about 4 tiles high, with a good deal of empty space above and below, will assure that the Fire Imp will usually spawn within reach of the Vilethorn, which can attack through walls. The Vilethorn will take some time to kill the Imps due to their high defense; you can opt to use the Vilethorn just to stop the Imps from attacking, then wait for them to teleport within your tunnel (which will usually happen on the second or third teleport), so you can hit them with the Thorn Chakrum, which will kill them very quickly.

Demon Arena
Demons can be farmed in a similar way to Fire Imps, though it is important to remember that the Demon's projectiles can damage the player through one-block-thick walls, if you're in contact with that wall. In case Demons spawn below the platform you're standing on, you'll want to make that platform 2 tiles thick. Also, if Demons spawn below your tunnel, you will want to have solid ground or another platform built far below your tunnel to catch dropped loot (anything but lava). Demons will always fly as close to you as they can, putting them well within range of the Vilethorn, which will dispense with them rather quickly.

Bone Serpent Arena
Bone Serpents die if any one segment of their body, including head or tail, is reduced to zero health. The segment that dies is the only one that drops loot. If multiple segments die simultaneously, each drops loot, creating a greater chance for rare drops like the Sunfury and Flamelash. This can be accomplished through creative use of Dynamite.

The first step of a bone serpent altar is to make a platform out of a dynamite-proof material such as Hellstone. Add a small lip to either side to prevent the dynamite from rolling off. Then, add a wooden platform up above the first platform.

To farm bone serpents, throw dynamite onto the first platform timed such that most of the serpent will be caught in the explosion. Then, jump up to the wooden platform straight above the dynamite (but out of range of the explosion) to lure the serpent right into your trap. This takes practice. If a bone serpent is caught just right, upwards of ten to twelve times the normal amount of loot is dropped. This more than covers the cost of the dynamite and actually turns a tidy profit.

Reservoir
Large water and lava reservoirs provide some convenience for projects, experiments, or quick obsidian. A large pool of water may spawn Goldfish at the bottom. Building the area for the liquid to sit in is easy, but filling it quickly and efficiently requires manipulation of the liquid physics.

Roof Access
Often a minor consideration, 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. Depending on the layout and size of the base, a player may be able to simply jump to the ceiling from rooms inside their base, and the star will pass through the ceiling to the player.

Skybridge
Players who wish to farm Fallen Stars more agressively might build a flat platform or bridge across the map. This can be anywhere above ground level, but is often placed a short distance below the maximum map height. The skybridge can be accessed by building any sort of ladder structure.

In addition to star collection, a skybridge is useful for spotting Floating Islands and quick travel across the map. Using Hermes Boots or Necro Armor, players can make good time running along the bridge. Points of interest across the map should be marked, so that by dropping through Wood Platforms, players can easily access the world.

One downfall of this strategy is that Meteorites may also be caught on the thin platform, producing only minimal ore. This can be mitigated by making the skybridge thick enough to fully exploit the ore. Doing so would have the same benefits and ease-of-use as star collection, however, this would take a large amount of building materials. Also there is a border of 50 blocks from the map edge where meteors can not spawn, however most of this 50 block area is beyond where you can build and is off screen.

Harpy Nest
An arena can be built at the top of the map to fight Harpies. This requires a very tall climbable structure in order to reach it. Harpies do not spawn close to the center of the map, so this must be made some distance away. It may be convenient to attach this to an existing skybridge or, failing that, build an access from a secondary base.