Guide:Crafting 101


 * See also: Recipes

Crafting menu
To access the Terraria crafting menu, press the Inventory key (which is Esc by default) while in-game. This will bring up your inventory, as well as equipment slots and other options. The crafting menu is located in the bottom left of your screen, as indicated in the image below.



The items that can be currently crafted will appear in this menu. Your options are determined by the items you have in your inventory, as well as your proximity to various crafting stations. Next to an item's icon is where the Recipes for the respective craftable items will appear.

To navigate this menu, you can click or use the mouse wheel to scroll through items. To craft something, click the icon of the item you wish to craft. The item will attach itself to your cursor, and from there it can be placed in your inventory or dropped by clicking to the outside of your inventory. Large numbers of stackable items can be made by right-clicking and holding the icon to quickly create and stack that item until the stack is maxed. To exit your inventory, press the 'Esc' key again.

You can occasionally craft an item of exceptional quality, possessing magical modifiers.

Crafting stations
Currently the available stations are the Work Bench (all variants), Furnace, Bookcase, Hellforge, Adamantite Forge‚ Alchemy Station, Anvils (Iron Anvil, Lead Anvil), Water, Mythril Anvil, Orichalcum Anvil, Sawmill, Demon Altar, Keg, Cooking pot, Loom, Tinkerer's Workshop and a Table with Chair combination. When standing next to any of these stations, depending on the materials in your inventory, the crafting menu will be updated with more crafting options. Most recipes require the player to be close to a specific crafting station. exactly how close is within 3 tiles up or down and 4 tiles left or right.





A complete above ground crafting station, prior to the 1.2 update.

Complete station
To create a crafting station capable of producing almost anything, place a furnace (or hellforge/adamantite forge if available). Right next to it place an anvil (or mythril anvil if available), then a workbench, then a sawmill, then a bottle on the workbench, a chair next to the sawmill, and a table next to a chair. Also place a loom and a keg. You may want to submerge them if you want to make bottled water there too.

Note that the regular furnace is not used due to the fact that the Adamantite Forge (the red furnace) can smelt Hellstone in addition to the other ores. You will need to venture out of your crafting station to make recipes that require a Demon Altar, or build your base around one, as they cannot be moved or placed, only destroyed by the Pwnhammer, Drax, or Hammush.



The above design allows you craft every craftable item from one central location. Note: You must stand with your feet at the left side of the Mythril Anvil in order to be able to craft everything. This is one of the most compact designs possible that allows the simultaneous crafting of any item in-game (minimum 11 wide, 10 tall). In addition to this you can also access the safe and piggy to take and store crafting items.



This design allows for crafting of almost all items (including ones from the new stations added in 1.2) if one stands at the edge of the Workbench. All stations have been included except for: Solidifier, Autohammer, Imbuing Station**, Meat Grinder*, Demon/Crimson Altar*
 * The stone or Blend-O-Matic can be replaced with a Demon/Crimson Altar, or a Meat Grinder.
 * The stone and dirt can be replaced with an Imbuing Station instead.



This design allows for most crafting options in a more compact space (minimum of 8 wide, 5 tall area), exceptions being those requiring the Cooking Pot, the Wooden Table, the Tinkerer's Workshop, the Bookcase and the Demon Altar. The Furnace would be replaced with a Hellforge as soon as it acquired, as usual. The water extension below the Chair is optional, and will only be required for the crafting of bottled water and Mud.



This station is ideal for crafting necessities. By placing the anvil underwater, the chair is moved close enough to the workbench to allow the crafting of table-and-chair items.

Video guides
There are hundreds of different items to craft! This video guide will teach you how some specific items are made!

A Guide to crafting by Terraria Wiki