Fall damage

Fall damage is one of the basic mechanics of the game where a character sustains damage from falling too high. The Player only takes damage after falling past a certain threshold, at which point the damage taken is linear with the distance traveled past said threshold (and not related to speed).

Calculations
You will not receive fall damage until you drop beyond 25 blocks (50 feet). At 26 blocks (52 feet) you receive 10 damage with no equipment. Every block above that is an additional 10 damage, or 5 damage every foot. Example: You drop down 50 blocks that is 250 damage.

You can create an equation from this:

dmg = 10 × (h − 25)

Where:
 * h: Blocks above ground level (where you land)
 * dmg: Fall damage

Again, you have to be ABOVE 25 blocks to receive any fall damage at all.

Also, defense plays a role in how much damage you take.

Defense's equation is very simple. You take the defense of your armor/accessories and divide it by two then round up (at least in the case of fall damage). Example: You have 19 defense, you'll divide this by two (9.5) and round up (10). So if you fall 50 blocks you'll take 240 damage instead of 250 damage.

This makes the Fall Damage equation:

dmg = 10 × (h − 25) − ceil(d ÷ 2)

Where:
 * h: Blocks above ground level (where you land)
 * d: Total Defense
 * dmg: Fall damage

Negation/strategies
There are four major ways of negating fall damage and three minor.

Stopping the fall
The first and most obvious is to "break" the fall before hitting the ground. The Fall Damage taken is only calculated by the fall distance (and not speed). Using items such as Cloud in a Bottle, Rocket Boots, Grappling Hook or Ivy Whip will cause the "fall distance" counter to reset upon use, negating the damage. You can also make a pool at the bottom of your descent, useful for hellavators.

Preparing the terrain
Another alternative is to prepare the terrain in such a way as to not take Fall Damage at all: Placing wooden platforms inside shafts guarantee the player cannot not fall more than 25 blocks. Other alternatives include cushioning the ground: Cobwebs or just Water will stop the player's fall, without damage. As of version 1.0.6, Cobwebs will break off after pushing them. This makes water the more desirable choice as the player would take the cobwebs with them.

Lucky Horseshoe
The Lucky Horseshoe is an accessory that negates fall damage. It can be found in Floating Island chests. They can be very handy when exploring chasms.

Once the player has found a Grappling Hook and/or a Cloud in a Bottle, the Lucky Horseshoe loses some of its usefulness, and can potentially be swapped out, although having one equipped is always a good safeguard.

Featherfall Potion
The Featherfall Potion makes players fall more slowly and negates fall damage, even when its slowing effect is temporarily canceled out by the player holding the down key.

Cobweb parachute
By falling next to a wall and placing a Cobweb under you before you land, you can negate all of the fall distance above the cobweb you placed. This is almost never used because cobwebs can only be placed over a background wall piece or by a block, but cobwebs are easier to come by than other items so that makes them good to start with.

Bucket parachute
By using a Bucket to pick up water and then drop it below you during a fall, you will find that you are falling almost as slow as the water, thus not "actually" falling. This can be good for spelunking into large caves and the corrupted area due to many of these places often having water on the bottom and you can often salvage the water you drop. (You could do this with lava too but if you don't have the Obsidian Skin buff active during the whole thing you would take lava damage and would probably die.)

Sand ladder
If there is an area with a large drop or may be hazardous (such as a lava pool), gather a lot of Sand (the number of blocks you want to avoid falling or more). When you reach an area you want to go down, drop sand down there until it has stacked up to a desirable level, jump onto the pile of sand and then mine the sand block you're standing on. Sand blocks are also great for getting rid of other nasty stuff such as lava and water. See Guide:Mining techniques.

Maximum fall damage
Although there is no maximum cap on fall damage, there is a limit to how big your map is.

On a large world you can take up to 23270 damage if falling from the top of the map to the bottom. This would mean falling down 2352 blocks (after 25 blocks). So from the bottom of the map to the top of the map (that a player can have access to) is 2352 blocks + 25 + 2 (because you land on your feet, you have to account for your body and head too) which makes a large world 2379 blocks in height, or 4758 feet (again, that a player has access to. There is space outside of the boundaries for monsters to spawn).