Guide:Hardcore Master Mode

Hardcore x Master Mode is a fairly popular challenge that combines Terraria ' s most extreme settings for maximum difficulty. This guide is to help The Player through completing this challenge themself.

Day 1
The first step is to collect plenty of Wood. A single, armorless hit from a slime can be fatal in Master Mode, and remember, hardcore characters are deleted upon death. After most available wood has been harvested, have a look around for chests, make wooden weapons and kill some slimes.

Make a small box out of wood for protection, and start digging a hellevator during the night. It is also important to collect a large amount of dirt. Blocks are a perfect method of protecting oneself from monsters.

Day 2
On the second day, it may be of The Player's interest to obtain Cactus gear. Beware of vultures, as they can quickly end a playthrough without effort. Proceed with extreme caution. Avoid Crimson, Corruption, and Jungle at all costs. During the night, the smartest thing to do is to simply expand the hellevator. Metal equipment will be a massive milestone, and simply digging further downward is the easiest method of getting there. Light up caves and loot Underground Cabins, Glowing Mushroom biomes, etc. with extreme caution. Beware of traps, and be sure to check every lone chest extremely carefully as it could be a Dead Man's Chest, which will easily destroy an unsuspecting player. Bringing plenty of blocks to evade enemies is also an ideal strategy.

Day 3
Starting to branch out on day 3 is not a bad idea. Crafting stations and storage should be set up, as well as housing. Obtaining reasonable weapons, tools, and armor will also be necessary for upcoming bosses. See Guide:Class setups for more in-depth equipment recommendations.

King Slime
After any further preparation, King Slime should be fought. A long, 3 layer arena of platforms with plenty of space to move around should be constructed. A hook, at least 180 life, silver equipment or better, and lots of potions should be used. If a bow is being used, bring plenty of Flaming Arrows or Jester's Arrows. Remember to keep a distance at all times.

Exploration
Following the defeat of king slime, one may choose to further explore the world. Crimson/Corruption should still be avoided, and caution is incredibly important. Bring plenty of platforms and blocks to evade/avoid enemies. Whenever an uncommon resource is encountered, make sure to confirm full safety before going to collect it. Think about if an item is needed. Could it be found near base? If not, grab it. (Ice Blocks are very important for Frostburn Arrows, Desert Fossils are limited and can spit out valuable items when extractinated, etc.) Remember, caution is key here. The player should never, under any circumstances, let their guard down.

Mining
Once some good gear has been acquired, venturing into the underground layers is feasible. Remember to use Spelunker Potions if available and use ranged attacks instead of melee to keep a safe distance. Look for gold/platinum, and make sure to look through Chests. If a Magic Mirror has been obtained, it can be used for emergency escapes. Make sure to mine as much gold/platinum as possible, it will be used for armor. Look for Life Crystals but do not use them until ready for the Eye of Cthulhu. Look for defense buffs. Make a hellevator for easy access to the underground. If a Nymph is encountered, do not engage for it is extremely dangerous and could kill a player in one hit. Be sure to grab all ores and slush, fossils, or silt blocks for the Extractinator. Avoid enemies with more health than the player and/or more than 40 damage. Use blocks to evade other combat. Once 100-200 pieces of gold/platinum ore and a magic mirror/stock of Recall Potions have been obtained, begin making metal bars. Armor is priority, if a full set has been crafted and there is extra gold or platinum, make the bow and sword.

NPC gathering
Once some gold or platinum armor and or weapons have been obtained, it is time to gather some NPCs. The top priority is to get the Demolitionist, Merchant, Arms Dealer, and Zoologist. The demolitionist provides Grenades, which will deal well with groups, arms dealer provides Guns, and zoologist for Whips if playing as a summoner. Once grenades are acquired, it is time to take on the Goblin Army. Use the grenades but when they run out, use a small "volcano" farm. This is a small pit filled with very shallow Lava, with a room underneath. Go under the lava and wait. Be sure to have a broadsword out to deal with Chaos Balls, and watch for the teleportation of the Goblin Sorcerers themselves. After defeating the goblins, go to the caverns (a Lifeform Analyzer will help, as well as Hunter Potions) and just wait for the bound goblin to spawn. Then use the underground base that should have been made earlier and assign the Goblin Tinkerer to a house there, optimally with someone who enjoys underground or someone he likes.

Early Boss Preparation
In the earlygame the player needs to prepare for early bosses and events in order to defeat them safely. The player may proceed along normal progression and fight the King Slime, Eye of Cthulhu, and Goblin Army with Silver/Gold quality weapons. However the safest way, especially in Hardcore is to be overpowered and use weapons which break the normal sequence. Below are a couple of options for obtaining overpowered equipment in the early game.


 * Minishark: This requires the player to farm gold in the early game but is the safest and most reliable "overpowered" weapon to obtain early.  It will require the player to make one risky run into the Corruption or Crimson, however this may be less risky than facing bosses with underpowered weapons.  Explore and smash pots to obtain a grenade or bomb in your inventory.  With an empty house, the Demolitionist is now eligible to move in.  Using either the Demolitionist or smashed pots, obtain a few bombs.  Now run to the Corruption/Crimson and smash a Shadow Orb / Crimson Heart.  It is guaranteed to drop a Musket or Undertaker.  Grab it an immediately warp out using a recall potion, magic mirror, or logout of the game.  With the new gun, the Arms Dealer is now eligible to move into an empty house.  Buy the Minishark from him to make the rest of the early game a breeze.
 * Boomstick and Demon Scythe: These two are together because the rationale is the same.  In both cases, the risk is extremely high of dying while trying to get these weapons, but since the character is in the earlygame the player has not yet invested much time in the character so the consequences of dying are less.  If you agree with this rationale, then the player may acquire a Demon Scythe by digging to hell and killing a few demons or a Boomstick by digging to the underground jungle and finding a few ivy chests.  In both of these cases, the player should constantly build a shield of blocks around themselves and watch out for block, piercing enemies (Man Eaters in the jungle and Demon Scythes in the underworld).
 * Traveling Merchant Items: Like the Minishark, these items require gold farming in the earlygame and the player must be prepared before the Traveling Merchant arrives.  Also, the probability of individual strong weapons being sold by the Traveling Merchant are very low, so this method is not reliable in a time sensitive manner.  However, if the player is fortunate and flush with gold, they may purchase an early Revolver, Katana, Gray Zapinator, or Code I.

Eye Of Cthulhu
Congrats on surviving this far! There is a need for the Shield Of Cthulhu as we are gonna need it in order to dodge the speedy hits of queen bee. A easy and overpowered method is to make a skybridge around 300-700 blocks horizontally with platforms, (for anybody not knowing what horizontally means, it’s the side), farm sand (around a stack) and replace the gap you made with blocks. Then place the sand on top of the skybridge. In order for the method to work, you need Dunerider Boots. Below it, put Heart Lanterns and Campfires. Place blocks right below the arena. In any free spot, put Sunflower s (not all but some. They decrease mob spawning and make you faster.  The extreme speed will make it extremely hard for you to get hit when it starts speed swinging at you.  Use the musket (or undertaker if your crimson.) as the 2 weapons can deal significant damage.   Try and reforge the musket to rapid (or legendary, unreal, or godly) and the undertaker to ruthless or godly or unreal or legendary.  The amber staff is overpowered too.   (if you get a lot of mana stars).  When you defeat it (if you defeat it), make the tendon/demon bow.

EOW and BOC
If your corruption, you can get the Ancient Shadow Armor. It’s the best set before EOW so it’s worth the amount of farming. Get water candles (if you want to risk it) to make the farming quicker. Other than that, you should use battle potions. Crimson, attempt to get The Meatball by farming the crimson hearts. When you mine the third one, recall/magic mirror away. Do this non-stop until you get it. Reccomended for corruption too. But for crimson, the meatball is needed. Make a arena on the surface with 5 layers. Make them high but low enough where you can rocket boot to them. Crimson, make the platforms about 100-300 blocks wide. This is so you can avoid the boss when it hits its second form. Use the undertaker on it until it dies on its second form. Btw, make the arena with campfires and Heart Lanterns. Farm it until you get full crimson armor, and all the tools and stuff.

Queen Bee
This boss is actually very reccomended to fight and farm here. Find a hive and mark it down on the map with a TON of torches surrounding it. Mine a side away to make a arena. Platform it your way. Make a honey place at the bottom for faster healing. Put campfires everywhere so Healing is made easy. Use your molten fury and get frostburn arrows. When it gets extremely speedy, if you time it correctly (you will see once you do the battle) it doesn’t deal damage to you, as it deals damage to queen bee. once you defeat it, farm it. Mine the hive and make a farm of honey (mine down with the honey until you make it land on a big pool of water and just non-stop mine it. Do the same method over and over and over until you collect enough honey.

Skeletron
As it’s loot is very valuable, it has over 10,000 health COMBINED and it literately shoots skulls. This should be done in between queen slime and the mechanical bosses.

Final Preparations.
This step is very important, as not only is the Wall of Flesh fight difficult, Hardmode will be very punishing, and preparation is necessary. Build a runway for WOF and loot shadow chests - this requires a Shadow Key from the Dungeon, tread carefully. Again, use blocks to evade enemies. Molten armor may be worth the risk, but it is not particularly advised. Right before the battle, a bed should be used to set the player's spawn point in the same house as the arms dealer. Right after the fight, grab the loot and return home, then buy a Shotgun and extra ammo. This will provide a reasonable form of defense against the early, but formidable, enemies in hardmode. You should have MAX life.

The Wall of Flesh
Beenades are key here. Bring at least 300 beenades, even if it requires farming. Running out of beenades is a certain death sentence In this fight, bringing too many is impossible. After setting up a very long bridge as an arena, zoom out as much as possible and throw the doll, then start running and the beenades (do not throw them at extreme rates, time them well). Sunfury can also be useful in a tight spot, and the Dark Lance can help as a sidearm for close range engagements (do not attempt to fight entirely melee.)

Hard Mode
Welcome to hardmode! With the defeat of The Wall of Flesh, the difficulty of survival is greatly increased. Not only can new enemies one-shot players with even the most powerful pre-hardmode builds, but enemies that posed smaller threats earlier receive a massive buff. The first thing to do is buy a shotgun, as detailed above. Then, head back to the top of The Underworld and locate The Hallow. Blow out a large area to collect Crystal Shards and keep a distance from enemies. If a good lava pool is found, generate 20 Obsidian. Craft Crystal Bullets once enough shards are obtained, and then head to the The Crimson/The Corruption. Gather Souls and Ichor/Cursed Flames, and smash some Altars. This process can be very dangerous, so tread carefully. Next, head back to the underworld. Now that hardmode has begun, Hellstone isn't explosive-proof. Gather 60 hellstone and craft a Molten Pickaxe. Now gather the hardmode ores. Fishing is another alternative. Try to stay near the underworld to potentially obtain a Hel-Fire and a Fire Feather. Once a good supply of hardmode ores has been mined, create a safe fishing spot. Wyverns can be very difficult to fight, try piercing or explosive weapons and dodge well. Then, craft a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil and a Adamantite/Titanium Forge, craft bars and equipment out of hardmode ore and finally make Flame Wings. You're all set!

Queen Slime
This fight will be medium hard, but be aware, minions that come from bosses also receive the massive buff so be extra cautious about the minions that spawn from the boss. Your gonna want to kill this a couple times until you get full crystal assassain armor. As your farming for them in the hallow, attempt to get the rod of discord.

Skeletron
Not much to say about this. Buff up as much as possible, and a small platform arena can help as well. With your hard mode gear, this should be no problem.

The Destroyer
This technically is a upgrade of the eater of worlds. Be careful. Use the arena you used for king slime but expand it. Just note that this boss only despawns if all players are either dead or it turns daytime. If you are about to die, if you magic mirror, it will take a route to you. This could be used to a advantage but at one point, the night will end. use full crystal assassain armor. When you kill it, make a mega shark.

The Twins
The twins are the hardest ones yet. They have 2 things you have to kill. Try to kill one at a time as they won’t go in second form at the same time and have it made a whole lot harder. Use the same arena. This doesn’t have much tips. Use the mega shark. When you finish (if you finish), make the optic staff.

Skeletron Prime
Skeletron prime is definitely the hardest one. You are dead if it turns day. Use the same arena you’ve been using. Do the same strats.

if you win, farm for the Pumpkin Moon Medallion and the Naughty Present.

Plantera
A big arena is a must, as Plantera does high contact damage.

Ranged weapons are optimal. It is recommended to use the Megashark with Chlorophyte Bullets. As for armor, use Turtle armor for maximum defense and its thorns effect. Keep a distance from the boss and do the following:


 * Use a pool of honey
 * Set up some Heart Lanterns and Campfires
 * Use all regenerative buffs and accessories (top-tier foods, Regeneration Potions and the Charm of Myths)
 * Try to include space for the Nurse, note that she may be killed.

Dungeon
After Plantera is defeated, the dungeon is completely revamped. If you haven't explored the dungeon yet, now's the time. Dungeon enemies are very powerful, so keep your distance as much as possible. Make a spawn chamber or a volcano farm. Once you get the weapons and accessories you want, farm Ectoplasm. With this you can get the Pumpkin Moon Medallion and Naughty Present. After that, heat back home.

See the post-Plantera section of Dungeon for more info.

Duke Fishron
Duke Fishron should be fought here or after golem for the good loot.

The Shrimpy Truffle is almost required for the moon lord fight. The weapons are very useful too. Make a large, multi-platform arena over the ocean. Getting the Truffle Worm won't be too hard. Make sure to bring lots of mobility accessories. The Duke is fast, so it will be hard to outspeed him. Dodge him as well as possible. When he goes into his final form, use a long-ranged weapon such as the Megashark. Keep grinding until you get the weapons you want.

Golem
A large space is required. Actuate the blocks forming the walls of the room to move into a prepared arena.

For this boss fight, mobility is paramount. Do not stop moving. A Tabi or upgrades will be very helpful for its dash; this should be used to avoid the Eye Beams. Destroying the hands is priority due to their high attack rate. When the second phase is reached, be sure to pay attention to all incoming projectiles as well as the still-moving body.

Martian Madness
Martain Madness is very risky, due to the beserk mode on Expert Mode and Master Mode with the Martian Saucer and also due to the fact that lasers go through walls. The Rod of Discord can help dodge when the berserk isn’t on but you can’t do it every time when it’s on berserk or you may end up killing yourself. Attempt to do this event until you get the anti-gravity hook. It will be later needed. Try to also get the cosmic car key.

Lunatic Cultist
For this boss fight, dodging is the only way to beat this boss, no facetank setup can survive his damage in Master Mode. Homing weapons are helpful, but note that they can only do 75% damage against the cultist. Proceed with extreme caution so as not to attack the duplicates.

Celestial Pillars
You're almost there! The Celestial Pillars are a difficult fight. It is recommended to use a cautious strategy. This entails staying near the edges of the pillars' spawn zone, allowing fewer enemies to spawn and killing them safely. This is a time-consuming but safer strategy than simply running toward the pillar attacking. When the shield of a pillar is down, move away and use a long range weapon to destroy it. Rocket Launcher is a good option if obtained. Also, in the solar pillar, Do NOT fly. If there is a Crawltipede, it can kill you probably in 2 shots as it does around 125-150 damage in classic mode, meaning your run you worked on and all this time would all be for nothing. But if you stay on the ground, the Crawltipede will not come down.

Moon Lord
This battle is going to be very difficult. Nothing will shelter the player from the Moon Lord's attacks, and no facetank strategy can outperform his massive damage values. It is advised to obtain the Shrimpy Truffle mount and create a large amount of Bubble pockets for either water or honey. Both liquids have their advantages and disadvantages. Rod of Discord is invaluable for evading attacks. No matter the class, use the Vortex Beater with Chlorophyte Bullets for their homing capability, allowing more focus on dodging. Mobility should be taken care of by these preparations. Equip a full set of Combat Accessories instead of Movement Accessories. Once the eyes are destroyed, start flying to one side while moving up or down slightly to dodge the attacks. There is one strat

Post-Moon Lord
If you actually made it here, Congrats! You survived! Combining Hardcore with Master mode, that is insane. If you beat this, here is some stuff you might want to choose to do next if you like doing these challenges.

Hardcore Master For The Worthy

One Class Hardcore Master

One Class Hardcore Master For The Worthy

Tips

 * See Guide:Hardcore for extra tips. These will generally need to be taken more seriously in the massively increased difficulty of Master Mode.
 * It is most important of all that one's guard is not let down. In-game monsters are dangerous, but ignorance or carelessness can be more dangerous than the Moon Lord.
 * Buff up! Buff potions and food are crucial during such a dangerous playthrough. An herb farm should be built, as well as fishing spots. One should always be able to chug before a battle.
 * Try the seed "for the worthy" for the outmost, impossible difficulty.