Guide:Tips for Mining

Mining in Terraria is one of the most important elements in the game. This page shows some tips for mining.

Basic Mining Tips
Grabbing everything is good, but when going on a mining trip your Inventory will get full very easily. That's why it is important to only grab what you need. If you are planning to go mining in a specific biome, make sure you're aware of all the things you can find there.

To reduce clutter, try to bring a Piggy Bank or Safe, or, if possible, a or  to make it easier to carry everything. Note that a Chest is not usable for portable storage as it can't be picked up if it has anything in it.

Upgrading Tools
Always upgrade your tools. If you still have your starting Copper Pickaxe, try to upgrade to a better one as fast as you can because certain items can only be mined with certain pickaxes.
 * Getting a Silver Pickaxe may be a good idea for some players, as it mines Ores faster. However, it still mines the same blocks as Copper Pickaxes and Tin Pickaxes.
 * On the contrary, a Tungsten Pickaxe can mine Meteorite in addition to the normally mineable blocks. Also, Gold Pickaxes (and Platinum Pickaxes) can mine Meteorite and Demonite Ore.

After beating the Eater of Worlds or Brain of Cthulhu, the stronger Nightmare Pickaxe or Deathbringer Pickaxe, respectively, can be made so that the player can mine Hellstone. Once enough Hellstone Bars are obtained, it is highly recommended to craft a Molten Pickaxe.

Once the player has entered Hardmode, they can mine Cobalt with a Molten Pickaxe and craft a Cobalt Pickaxe or Drill. With a Cobalt tool, the player can then upgrade to a Mythril Pickaxe or Drill.
 * They can also then upgrade to an Adamantite Pickaxe or Drill from there, but this is unrecommended, as it is much less resource-consuming to craft Hallowed tools.

Once the player has defeated the Mechanical Bosses, making a Pickaxe Axe or Drax is very useful, and they won't need to upgrade it for a while. However, once Golem is defeated, the player gains access to the Picksaw.

Hardmode Strategies
After Defeating The Wall of Flesh, Hardmode Begins. New Difficult Enemies, Underground Corruption/Crimson and Hallow Will Generate in your world. Mining is Extremely Recommended in Hardmode, Especially for Fighting Mechanical Bosses. To Begin, You'll Need a Metal Detector that drops from Nymph, A rare creature that spawns Underground. If your world is in Hardmode and you still haven't got the Metal Detector we Recommend you to obtain/farm it in a pre-Hardmode world (because Hardmode enemies will decrease the spawnrate of Nymph). First, Break 3 Demon Altars for generating the hardmode ores:

First Altar: Cobalt Ore or Palladium Ore

Second Altar: Mythril Ore or Orichalcum Ore

Third Altar: Titanium Ore or Adamantite Ore

The First and Second Might be found Easily, But Titanium and Adamantite might be a bit rare. Open Your minimap and check the cavern Depths you've searched to make sure there are some visible Titanium/Adamantite.

Now Bring some Spelunker Potions (If you don't have any, make one or find a Skeleton Merchant and Buy Spelunker Glowsticks) Make your way down to the Cavern Layer (possibly near Lava Depths) and look on bottom of your Minimap and see If the ore is detected. If it is, Drink the Spelunker potion or use your Spelunker Glowsticks. Note that Spelunker Glowsticks will only show the ores with glowing stars instead of brightening them and making them visible in darkness, which is the effect of the Spelunker potion, so it's a bit harder with glowsticks. Mine down Hellevators to the direction of Ores. Check Each of the Glowing Ores until you find what you need.

This Strategy may work even until Post-Golem If you get used to it and you don't have enough Chlorophyte Ores to craft the Equipment and tools you need for your next goals.

End-Game Mining
If it's near the end of the game, and you still need to mine some more bars, then some good options are the Shroomite Digging Claw or the Picksaw, if you were lucky enough to get one. They have some of the fastest mining speeds in the game, and, combined with the Spelunker potion, can help you find and mine ores extremely quickly. Another nice option is the Laser Drill, due to its long range of 10 tiles, although it is not recommended as it does not benefit from any mining boosts and the extra mining power is not required.

If you have beaten the Moon Lord, the Drill Containment Unit becomes available. Although rather expensive to make, this mount can mine large amounts of ore quickly and also slopes surrounding blocks, which provides a visual bonus. It can also hover and fly indefinitely.