Starter Guide



=What is Terraria?=

Terraria is an open-ended "sandbox"-style 2D platform game. It features customizable characters, randomly generated worlds, day/night cycles, deformable terrain, and a crafting system that allows the player to "live off the land": crafting items that are required for survival. The crafting system allows the player freedom to manipulate their environment by doing anything from digging mines to building towns; it is their perogative.

The game also features online multiplayer. As its rumoured it is not capped at 8 players.

=Getting started=

Your first minutes in the game
When you enter your world for the first time, you will find yourself stranded in the middle of... well, nowhere. Next to you you'll hopefully see an NPC, the Guide. You're able to talk to him by right-clicking him, and he'll tell you important information, as well as explain the basics of the game. If you ever feel lost it's always a good idea to have a little chat with him. The Guide will stay near the spawnpoint and will later settle in the first house you build, so you are always able to return and check his tips again if you have missed something.

You won't start off empty handed though. In your inventory hotbar, floating in the top left corner of the screen, you'll discover two basic tools, a Copper Pickaxe and a Copper Axe. By moving your mouse's scroll wheel up and down you'll be able to switch between the hotbar slots. You can also use the numbers 1 through 0 on your keyboard, or click on the slots with your mouse.

These are the most common tools in this game: The first thing you probably want to do is to chop down a couple of trees. To do so, walk near a tree with your axe equipped and just click and hold it's base until it breaks, spreading wood all over the place. If you chop it down above the base, it will leave a stump behind, which may get in your way if you are building a house; be sure to chop at the very base of the tree. You will also get Acorns, strongly recommended to plant them as soon as possible, as this will provide constant income of valuble wood.
 * Pickaxes - Used to remove almost all kinds of block. Everything from dirt and stone to iron and sand.
 * Axes - Pretty self explanatory; Allows you to chop down trees and remove wooden blocks.
 * Hammers - Used to remove background blocks like wooden and dirt walls. May also be used to remove furniture and smash certain rare items.
 * Hamaxe - An advanced tool combining the Hammer and the Axe, allowing both functions from a single slot.

You will also need some stones. To gather blocks, select your pickaxe, aim at a nearby block and hold your left mouse button until the block breaks. You will then receive that block as an item and it will automatically be put to your inventory.

By now, chances are that you will already get attacked by basic enemies; Slimes. To attack these slimes, face them and click and hold anywhere and your tool will keep swinging (swords usually require you to keep clicking per swing). Keep attacking it until it dies and drops a couple of gels. These gels are used to make torches and potions, which will become very useful later in the game.

Once you feel that you've gathered enough wood, it's time to make a workbench. To do so, press ESC, which will reveal your inventory. In the bottom left corner, you'll see a list of items available for crafting. Select the workbench, click its icon and drag it to your hotbar. In order to place the workbench on the ground, equip it and click on the ground close to your character. If you open up your inventory near the workbench, you will be given advanced items for crafting. One thing to do is to craft a wooden bow and some wooden arrows, so you will have something to defend yourself against the monsters. Crafting arrows requires wood and stone, so keep that in mind. One(1) wood and one(1) stone make three(3) arrows. You can improve your arrows by using torches to craft burning arrows; which consequently have more damage. Burning arrows are also a light source when fired and act like torches if they hit the ground.

Now, what you need to do is to make a building or hideout. In order to do so, you will need a solid material e.g. wood,dirt or stone, doors and wooden walls that cover the background this will prevent monsters spawning within the building and prevent access to it. As a warning dirt backgrounds will not count as a room stopping NPCs settling and allowing monsters to spawn within your building.

Start by finding a flat area, and successively build the "outline" of a house using the materials you have gathered. Remember you do not need to build your house on your spawn point since beds are easily crafted and set your spawn somewhere else. To get NPCs to move in, your house will need a door. So remove Three(3) blocks of what you used to make the outline, from one side of the house, and place a door. After that, you want to fill this "outline" with the wooden walls (crafted at the work bench), which are background objects. The background of your house should be filled in. Craft a torch and place it within the building. This light source is necessary for NPCs to move in, and you will want it to see at night, as well. You will also need a wooden table and wooden chair inside your house for NPCs.

Congratulations! You've successfully built your first Terraria shelter!

Early exploration
Now that you have a nice, safe sanctuary, you'll probably want to go out exploring a little. Feel free to do so. Here's a list of good things to collect: Once the day ends and night time begins, either get back to your shelter and hide in safety, or get ready to slay some zombies and demon eyes. It is strongly suggested you look into making a bow and arrows, as they combine good damage and range.
 * Ores. There are various ores in this game, for example the brown copper or the gray iron. They can be refined using a furnace and crafted into weapons using an anvil.
 * Mushrooms. There are three kinds of mushrooms. Normal (red) mushrooms, which grow on or near the surface. Vile (purple) mushrooms, which grow on or near the surface inside of corrupted areas. Glowing (blue) mushrooms which grow deep underground.
 * Pots. These are found in caves and may contain everything from coins to potions and even bombs. Break them by hitting them with any weapon.
 * Chests. The better version of pots, often hiding rare accessories and loads of coins inside them.
 * Gems. They appear to be quite rare, so if you happen to see any of them, make sure to pick them up. Gems are an integral component of the powerful Phaseblade weapons. The gemtype will determine the colour of the weapon.
 * Crystal Heart . If you happen to come across one of these, you're really lucky. Hitting these with a hammer and "eating" them will give you one extra max heart. (+20 hp)

By now, it's up to you to discover the rest. Who knows what you will find in this mysterious world?

If you happen to have any questions, look them up in the FAQ below or on the Tips & Tricks page. If you have any remaining questions, feel free to ask them in this thread. Good ones can be added to the FAQ.

=Frequently asked questions=

I noticed some vines in a cave, what are they good for?
The main purpose of the vines is to obstruct your sight down caves. You can cut them down by hitting them with any weapons, but they won't drop anything and will grow back in a day or two. The only way to permanently remove vines are by removing the "grass ceilings" and make sure no grass spreads there by blocking it's path.

I also found some mushrooms. What can I do with those?
You can eat them directly and restore 20 points of health. However, you can turn a single mushroom into 2 lesser healing potions fairly easily, which will restore a whopping 100 health points each! This is how you do this: first get some sand and stand next to the furnace. craft some glass from which you can make bottles. After you made yourself some bottles, place one on top of a table. You've now made a alchemy station -- stand next to that and you'll have the option to turn 2 bottles, 2 gels, and 1 mushroom into 2 lesser healing potions.

I saw some purple grass, and as I got closer the sky turned yellow. What's that?
This is the Corruption. The Corruption is like a disease, and will infect regular grass upon contact. It's filled with dangerous monsters, but is also filled with loads of rare stuff. It's a risk/reward kind of thing. I would suggest to wait with exploring the Corruption until you have good armor and weapons.

You can purify corrupted areas by scattering purification powder (purchasable from the Dryad), and you can prevent the Corruption from spreading by planting sunflowers, which act like barriers.

How do I get other NPC's to appear in my house/town?
An NPC will not appear unless there is a room available for them, so make sure you have extra rooms just in case. Keep in mind that the guide will take over your first room. In order for the room to count, you need:


 * 1) Two foreground walls on either side with some room in between, as well as an actual floor (it cannot be made entirely out of wooden platforms, though some are okay) and a roof.
 * 2) Add background walls which you can craft at the workbench. One piece of wood or rock gives you 4 wall pieces and go in the background. They also keep monsters from spawning inside.
 * 3) Add a table, a chair, at least 1 door and a light source (a torch is fine)

Every NPC has his/her own extra preriquisite for spawning. To make the merchant come, you need a total of 50 silver coins. The nurse will come if you gain 1 more heart container and the demolitionist will arrive when you find your first bomb. There are more NPC's though! have fun unlocking them! However there are six in total.

I found a strange glowing altar, what is it?
This is a Demon Altar. Hitting it with a hammer will deduct half of your health. So far the only way to destroy one is to remove the blocks under it. At the Demon Altar you can craft boss summons. For example to summon Eye of Cthulhu you need 10 lenses. These are dropped by Demon Eyes. This boss is fairly easy beatable with a ranged weapon like shurikens and some wooden platforms.

It would be useful to at least record its location if its fairly nearby, however since they are common it wouldn't be that hard to find one; especially if you can handle chasms in The Corruption.