Guide:Walkthrough

When progressing through Terraria, many players can be confused about where they should go and what they should do next. Terraria is an open-ended game: Players are not forced to go anywhere or do anything. You are free to set your own goals and follow through with them, whether you are a builder, fighter, explorer, collector, or whatever else. This walkthrough merely aims to provide a logical order of progression through Terraria’s many different biomes, generally in order of increasing difficulty. It is recommended, but there is certainly no requirement to visit each biome, or even in this order if you don't want to.

If you are new to the game or unsure of what map size to choose for a fresh start, choose small. Even in a small world, a player can face long travel times, and it would still take hundreds of hours to explore every cave in a small world at a normal pace. If you're looking for a balanced experience and/or are already experienced in the game, choose a medium sized world, as it has more opportunities for exploration and loot but still allows for quick exploration. Large is suitable for long-term playthroughs or multiplayer games, providing the most space and opportunities for loot, but is not recommended for a new player.

= Starting Out = On the creation of a new world, a helpful NPC (Non Player Character) will spawn, and he is called the. If you are new to Terraria, then chat with him and he will give you advice on different elements of your world based on what stage of the game you're at. Even if you are already quite experienced with the game, it is still a good idea to keep him around as he displays all available crafting recipes when he's given an item. He's also required for game progression, as he is needed to summon the Wall of Flesh far later in the game.

Beginner
Your goal during the day should be to find some better starting equipment from your surroundings and build a small house to pass the night. Players might want to build sets of 2 houses to house later NPCs without having to worry later. Give the sets some distance to keep the NPCs happy.

The first thing players should do is cut down several trees (using your, aim for the lowest block), as wood is needed for many things, then build a. From there, craft a, and perhaps a , (alongside some Wooden Arrows which players can soon upgrade to Flaming Arrows for extra damage) as a player's starting weapons are next to useless.

One major exception is if you're playing (a -exclusive game mode), in which you'll start out with some better equipment – you'll have Iron instead of Copper starting tools along with a  (a weak early game summon weapon), 100  and  (very useful for exploration),, a  ( only), and a. You'll also have many more powers over your gameplay experience, ranging from time control to item duplication, which are further explained in the main Journey Mode article.

Next, players should explore their surroundings. There are usually some and  on or near the surface near your starting point, which will often contain useful weapons, potions and materials. If you are lucky (a 9% chance per chest), you’ll find a Spear, which is one of the best starting weapons, especially against Zombies, which are the biggest threat at this point. If you can find enough near the surface (you'll need 20), you can also make a, which is finicky, but a solid starting weapon. There will also almost always be at least one cave entrance close by, leading Underground signified by a massive domed hill with a cave entrance on one of the sides. Use and  to reach high ledges, bridge chasms, and safely descend. The accessory, found in surface Chests, allows you to press the UP to increase your block placing range and jump height. Holding the  tool (which is also a large shortsword on the ) allow for very slow fall, easing cave exploration early on. Always carry blocks around with you so you can descend safely!

Once you have explored your surroundings and cracked open all the chests and pots in sight, you should head to the Underground before night falls to continue your search for useful items and resources. At this point it's likely you've found enough bars (mostly or ) in Surface Chests and small pockets of ore that you'll be able to craft yourself an  and possibly some starter ore weapons, which will make adventuring a bit easier.

It is recommended to stay Underground (or inside your House if you built it) during night time until you are strong enough to deal with Zombie packs, as there is little to be gained and so much to lose for a new character during night. If you find yourself outside without a base to hide in or a cave to go down, you can simply build a box around yourself to hide for the night. A two-block wide hole on either side of the box should be enough for you to attack Zombies and gain some starter gear and money, but Zombies can not attack you through that hole. If you're not used to playing Sandbox building/mining games, it is easy to forget your greatest ability: the power to move blocks.

will often be found shooting down from the sky (and are even more common during ) and are some of the most useful crafting materials at the beginning of the game. 3 / 5 can be used to craft a, which increases the player's maximum mana by 20 upon each usage until the player reaches their maximum attainable base mana at 200. This is very useful once you've obtained magic weapons, and is a good pairing with the if you happen to find it in surface Chests. As an alternative, they can be turned into, which are some of the best arrows you can obtain at this stage of the game – they pierce infinitely and are unaffected by gravity, making them invaluable for fighting against hoardes of Zombies or against enemies Underground.

As for other quickly accessible weapons, the, occasionally found in surface Chests, can shred groups of Zombies and makes close-range fighting quite easy. The is useful if you master how to use it, and can be further upgraded into the more powerful  by combining it with a  (note that this crafting recipe is only available on the ).

There are some valuable mob drops you can find at night. Zombies have a 2% chance of dropping the, one of the earliest available accessories. It'll provide you with plus one defense point, which may not seem valuable, but it is necessary at the beginning of the game and can drop with a modifier further increasing it. Additionally, Zombies can also drop the, a sword with stats comparable to that of the , making it a very feasible starter weapon. Demon Eyes will regularly drop, a material which has a variety of uses, and have a rare chance of dropping the , which will be useful much later on.

Once the sun rises and morning arrives at 4:30 AM, Night will end, causing Demon Eyes and Zombies to flee and the day to begin once again. At this point you'll be able to explore the world more – your first priority should be to find an entrance to a cave to obtain more loot and become more powerful.

= Going Underground =

While exploring the Underground (and, by extension, the Caverns), you might find : you can mine and use them to increase your maximum life by 20 (up to a maximum of 400). You can also stockpile Life Crystals and use them to craft, which increases life regeneration as long as you stay near to it. It's critical that you increase your max life, as it significantly boosts your survivability. That said, your first few crystals will also unlock various events: The first unleashes Blood Moons, the third allows Slime Rains, and the fifth allows the Eye of Cthulhu to spawn. It may be wise not to use the first crystal until you have Iron/Lead or better armor, and to hold off on the fifth until you have Gold/Platinum armor.

The Caverns are a massive biome with many useful items and treasures, and as such, players may find themselves spending a lot of time here. Although its monsters can be dangerous for a new player, the greatest threat in this layer may be the danger of falling into its deep chasms, frequently with the aid of the bats. Should you find yourself falling to death, don’t forget there are a number of items that can break your fall: 's (or equivalents) extra jump, Grappling any surface (with a ), including the ground you’re about to hit, or even an. Pools of water (1+ block deep) and Cobwebs will also save you if you’re lucky enough to fall into them.

This ever-present danger is closely followed by the devious and near-invisible traps sprinkled throughout the dark caves. A bold, fearless new player skipping heedlessly through the caves for the first time will quickly meet with a landing on their head, or even, a landmine powerful enough to destroy the surrounding terrain. These dangers can be fatal to Hardcore characters. Needless to say, tread with extreme caution, and take advantage of the. Using generous amounts of light sources is one of the best ways to mitigate both of these dangers. The, , and s can prove useful additions to the usual sources.

Although there are many helpful items to be collected in this layer, probably at the top of the list will be a and a. Both of them will make getting around much easier and faster. Fortunately, with the Gem hooks, it is trivial to craft one, and Magic Mirrors are also very common. Besides these two, a player may want to craft a, as they tend to outclass most other weapons at this stage of the game, limited by the number of stars you’ve managed to collect so far.

Note that should you descend too far, you will actually find yourself in the Underworld. This will be marked by a change in music and background, and its enemies will start spawning, which you probably won’t want to face at this stage.

A quick note on weapons and armor: at this stage, you have a lot of choices of Ore-based weapons and armor that you can craft. It is entirely feasible to be constantly upgrading your weapons if you desire, as they don’t cost much. The, for example, only costs 8 Iron Bars – 24 iron ore – which is about one to three ore veins. Armor is a different question. Because of set bonuses, it is wise to try and complete an armor set rather than mixing and matching different pieces. Because of how Defense works, there isn’t a huge benefit from upgrading from one armor set to the next. The Copper armor set, for example, reduces damage taken by 3, Iron armor reduces damage by 5, so the difference in damage reduction is only 2, which is barely noticeable. Yet to complete the Iron armor set requires 225 ore, which represents a significant amount of mining time.

It is therefore recommended to mine Silver or Tungsten Ores for the Armor because they are good enough to take on the first bosses, it's significantly faster to complete than Gold or Platinum, and allows you to save the latter for Weapons and Tools.

= Building a Base =

Once you’ve filled your inventory with blocks and loot, you may want to consider starting to build a base, as now you have some building materials and money to buy things. A base can take anywhere from a single in-game day to more than an in-game week to complete, depending on the player's tastes. It is not necessary, however, to build the entire base right away. Waiting to build the majority of the base can be advantageous, as it will allow the player to use the large stores of blocks they will end up gathering as a by-product of mining. Regardless of when or what the player builds, it is recommended to build houses for the Guide, Merchant and Nurse, craft a, and an area for storage and crafting before progressing. It is also wise to create a layout that can be easily added onto later as more NPCs are available and more storage is needed.

You should have at least the following in your base before moving on:
 * Of course, houses for the Guide, Merchant and Nurse, as well as a valid empty house or two for other NPCs.
 * Several organized chests for item storage. You don't want to have a cluttered inventory every time you leave your base.
 * A campfire and sunflowers, both of which provide helpful buffs to those nearby. (Sunflowers also block the spread of Corruption and Crimson until hardmode, if you happen to have such biomes near your base.)
 * A crafting room, preferably with a chest or two in it to store crafting materials. Eventually, you're going to want a unified place for all your crafting needs. By now, you'll have a, a on that Work Bench, a  next to it, a , an /, and probably a  and a . A Chair and a Table adjacent to each other will serve as a crafting station for Watches. You should also leave some space for later-game crafting stations and more chests, but with just this setup, you'll be able to craft anything up to this point, from swords to robes to potions and building blocks.

= Beyond the Forest =

Once the player obtains strong enough weapons many mid-tier biomes open up. These biomes contain crafting materials as well as other treasures.

As you continue your exploration of the surface, you should also expect to encounter this event:

= The Bosses: Dealing with the first three = Once you’ve survived the first couple nights and started work on a base, you should begin preparations for the upcoming boss battles, as even if you do not wish to go looking for them, they will come looking for you.

King Slime
King Slime is an entirely optional but fun mini-boss: none of its drops are necessary for game advancement.

King Slime can spawn rarely in Grass at the outer sixth of the world, by using a, or during a Slime Rain if the player kills 150 slimes. As with all monsters that can spawn naturally, the King Slime has a better chance of spawning while standing near a placed Water Candle or under the effects of a Battle Potion. It's extremely unlikely you will ever come across King Slime without planning to. King Slime is a good challenge for a beginning player and can be easily defeated by tactical use of terrain.

Still, savvy players may want to defeat King Slime for the chance of getting a good, as it's better than any hook obtainable up to this point. In the, the it drops provides critical hit bonuses, useful for all weapons except summoning weapons, which aren't affected by critical hits. It also drops the, a mount with a fast fall speed that is useful for dodging in boss fights even into Hardmode.

Eye of Cthulhu
Eye of Cthulhu looks like an enormous Demon Eye. It travels through blocks, and it has two forms. During the first, he spawns Servants of Cthulhu while floating around the player, which drop hearts and stars on death. When the Eye’s health falls below half, it transforms into its second form, which charges the player more aggressively, no longer spawns Servants, and has lowered defense. In Expert Mode, it has increased health, changes into its second form earlier and gains a new rapid charge attack which increases in speed the less health the eye has.

Eater of Worlds or Brain of Cthulhu
After the Eye of Cthulhu is defeated, you should do the following:
 * Be sure the Dryad has a home: she sells Purification Powder, a less explosive option for getting to the Shadow Orbs and Crimson Hearts, and planters, a more convenient way to grow your plants.
 * Make sure to have at least 12 valid NPC houses and be sure you can access them without having to go all the way across the map. One way to do this is to have them linked by Pylons.
 * Start on your plants farm: Potions will be immeasurably helpful throughout the rest of the game.
 * Build a chest room: It's not a bad idea to have plenty of storage to put away items you'll find later on.

After this, head to the Corruption or Crimson to smash a Shadow Orb or Crimson Heart. Smashing your first orb or heart allows two events to occur in short order:

Every third Orb or Heart you smash in the world will spawn either Eater of Worlds or Brain of Cthulhu respectively:

Eater of Worlds
Eater of Worlds is a worm boss 50 segments long, each with their own health. When a segment in the middle is destroyed, the two severed parts will each become new worms, each with their own head and tail. This boss must be fought in the Corruption, and will disappear if you leave it at any point during the fight.

You will not face an easier boss in Terraria than EoW, especially in melee. The reason for this is when you swing your melee weapon as the worm glides past, is running itself into your swing and damaging many segments, and rangers can use a demon bow and jester arrows for penetration,which is very useful, when Magic weapons at this point usually only hit 2-4 times per shot.

In Expert mode, you may not want to take the EoW aboveground because its damaging ranged attacks will no longer be frequently blocked if you do so.

Brain of Cthulhu
The Brain of Cthulhu is a boss that teleports and has two stages. In the first stage, it is invincible and surrounded by 20-30 Creepers. You must kill all the creepers before you can damage the Brain. In the second stage, you fight the Brain directly as it tries to charge you.

In Expert mode, when you reach its second phase, the Brain creates three fake copies of itself. The copies become more opaque as the Brain loses health.

= The Late Pre-Hardmode = The four late pre-hardmode biomes — the Underground Jungle, Underground Desert, Dungeon, and Underworld — are all of the roughly similar difficulty and can be done in any order or concurrently.

The Underground Jungle
Be on the lookout for the following loot and materials in the underground jungle:


 * Feral Claws: These will increase your melee speed, and can prove very helpful later on in hardmode.
 * Anklet of the Wind: This greatly increases your movement speed without having to be charged up, and can also be tinkered with Spectre Boots and an Aglet to make Lightning Boots.
 * Bezoar: Immunity to poison is extremely useful while you're in the Underground Jungle, and this accessory is very helpful when coming up against Queen Bee. This accessory is also needed to craft the Ankh Charm later on.
 * Honey: This will give you a healing buff upon touching it and is therefore very useful in boss arenas. Consider bringing Buckets along to pick it up.
 * Stingers and Jungle Spores: These can be used to craft gear that's useful against some of the upcoming challenges.
 * Vines: These can be used to craft an Ivy Whip, which allows you to grapple to three different spots.
 * Flower Boots: These are useful for creating farms for harvesting hay, critters, and strange plants.

The Underground Desert
Be on the lookout for the following loot and materials in the underground desert:


 * Bast Statue: This will increase your defense significantly for early boss fights.
 * Ancient Chisel: This increases mining speed by 25%, and is useful throughout the game.
 * Sturdy Fossil and Amber: These can be used early on to craft the Amber Staff (the second best gem staff), the Bone Javelin and Bone Throwing Knife (two exceptionally powerful throwing weapons), and Fossil armor (the earliest available ranged armor).
 * Magic Conch: This is invaluable for quickly traversing the world or visiting the Dungeon (usually close to one of the oceans).

The Underworld
The Underworld is the hardest pre-hardmode biome, and the last biome that players explore.

The greatest danger working in the Underworld is, unsurprisingly, the wide expanses of molten lava. There are many tools which you can use: one these is probably the Water Walking Potion. The Lava Waders are the ultimate accessory in the Underworld, although it can be difficult to find all the components. Otherwise, the Lava Charm is an invaluable aid. If you have neither of these accessories, Obsidian Skin Potions are a fantastic alternative. When used, the potion gives you a four-minute invulnerability to lava. There is no breath meter in lava, so as long as you have potions, you can stay in lava indefinitely.

Hellstone mining is quite time-consuming and is the main reason to spend time in it. You'll need an Obsidian Skull or better to prevent Hellstone ore and bricks from burning you. Abundant deposits of Hellstone spawn next to the buried Ruined Houses, and instead of going to burrow deep into the ash and build lava channels, mine the ones that spawn close to the walls. Monster spawn rates are low in the Ruined Houses, and the buildings prevent most of them from bothering you, except the Fire Imps and Bone Serpents which can penetrate blocks. You can block the Fire Imp shots with any weapon or projectile, including your swinging pickaxe.

Be mindful that if you kill a Voodoo Demon, you better be ready to get under that before it drops into the lava, or you will be in for a nasty fight you're not prepared for. Should you accidentally awaken the Wall of Flesh, you cannot escape. Using a Magic Mirror will result in your death.

= Queen Bee =

Queen Bee is not difficult to fight with at this stage in the game. Her charge attack is predictable and easy to dodge, and you can stand in the honey for a big healing boost.

Many of the Queen Bee's drops may be better than what you already have. Even if they aren't, farming Queen Bee is a good source of income before Hardmode. Plus, the Bee mount is the earliest mounts that can fly, although it's slow on land and hates water.

= Skeletron =

To gain entrance to the dungeon, Skeletron must be defeated. To summon Skeletron, talk to the Old Man in front of the dungeon at night.

The Dungeon
Make sure to get the following loot before leaving the Dungeon:
 * Shadow Key: This item can unlock any Shadow Chest in the Underworld. These chests contain many weapons which are unrivaled in power in easy mode and often still remain decent in early hardmode.
 * Cobalt Shield: Protection against knockback can be invaluable. The Cobalt Shield can also be tinkered with an Obsidian Skull to make an Obsidian Shield, which will prove very valuable in the Underworld as well.
 * Muramasa: This is one of the swords used to make the Night's Edge, which is useful to have before Hardmode.
 * Water Bolt: This weapon's piercing and bouncing projectiles can wreck any enemy in the Dungeon, Jungle, and Underworld.
 * Valor: Like all yoyos, this can help greatly in tight situations.
 * Handgun: This weapon is a strong, reliable ranged weapon, provided you can click fast enough. Can be upgraded into the more powerful Phoenix Blaster.
 * Nazar: Although not very useful outside the Dungeon, this accessory is needed to craft the Ankh Charm. It is highly recommended to farm for this accessory before unlocking the Hardmode dungeon, as the Cursed Skulls which drop it will become much rarer then.

= Preparing For Hardmode = At this point you have no deadlines or threats looming over you. You should be more-or-less the master of all you survey, and you have a wide variety of resources available. This is a good time to do large projects like arenas, bases, or farms, though you should keep in mind that depending on location, your base or arena might end up in an infected biome. You'll also need to collect some materials that will be needed in Hardmode, as farming is a lot easier in pre-Hardmode.

The following is a list of preparations you may wish to consider before summoning the Wall of Flesh:


 * Obtain maximum Health and Mana if you have not already done so.
 * Craft endgame equipment:
 * Armor: If you're doing a general playthrough, it's likely you'll want Molten armor, which provides 25 defense, which is necessary for basic survival in Hardmode. You may, however, have reason to prefer Shadow armor or Crimson armor, as they both provide more general stat bonuses and are easier to get. The former gives +21% melee speed and +15% movement speed, while the latter boosts damage by 6% along with increasing life regeneration. However, at this point in the game, classes begin to diverge into different, distinct groups and you're going to have to be more specific with the type of damage you use. Therefore, you'll want to use the appropriate armor that corresponds with the weapons you have, as opposed to just taking whatever has the highest defense.
 * Melee: Melee players should have the Molten armor set, which costs 45 Hellstone Bars and not only provides 25 defense (which is needed for melee players as you'll be taking many hits in Hardmode) but also a Set Bonus of 17% increased melee damage.
 * Ranged: Rangers should have the Necro armor set, a post-Skeletron set that is crafted with 150 Bones and 135 Cobwebs. Despite having lower defense, it makes up for this by increasing ranged damage by 15% and a Set Bonus of 15% increased ranged critical strike chance/20% chance not to consume ammo.
 * Magic: Magic users, as opposed to other classes, actually have three different armor options. The first is Jungle armor, which boosts maximum mana by 80, magic critical strike chance by 12%, and has a Set Bonus of 16% reduced mana usage. It's easily craftable once the player has made one or two adventures into the Underground Jungle, made with 32 Jungle Spores, 10/12 Stingers, and 2 Vines. Your second option is the Meteor armor, which costs 45 Meteorite Bars (meaning that it can be easily accessed after a Meteorite falls), and increases magic damage by 21%. It also has a Set Bonus of the Space Gun,  Gray Zapinator, and   Orange Zapinator all costing 0 mana to use, so it's preferred if you're using any of those weapons. Your final option is a bit of a mixed set, consisting of the Wizard Hat, Mystic Robe, and Meteor Leggings. The Wizard Hat is dropped by the rare Tim enemy underground, the Mystic Robe is sold by the Traveling Merchant for  /, and the Meteor Leggings are crafted from 15 Meteorite Bars. This set increases magic damage by 28%, magic critical strike chance by 6%, reduces mana usage by 10%, and has a Set Bonus of another +10% magic critical strike chance. This set generally provides the best magic damage while having the lowest defense.
 * Summoner: Summoners's only choice for armor is Bee armor, which increases minion damage by 23% and gives 2 extra minion slots. It is only accessible after defeating the Queen Bee, crafted from 30 Bee Wax (this requires defeating the Queen Bee twice). For whip focused Summoners, one can use the Obsidian Armor, which is relatively easier to acquire and provides better defense.
 * Throwing: The Throwing class, which is only an exclusive class on the, has the Fossil armor, which boosts throwing velocity by 20%, throwing damage by 20%, throwing critical strike chance by 15%, and has a Set Bonus of a 50% chance not to consume ammo. It is crafted with 75 Sturdy Fossils, which have a 10% chance to be dropped by an Extractinator when Desert Fossils (mined in the Underground Desert) are put into it. On the , throwing weapons are now merged with the Ranged class and Fossil armor costs 60 Desert Fossils and only boosts ranged critical strike chance by 9% and has a Set Bonus of a 20% chance not to consume ammo. Note that there are no throwing weapons in Hardmode, meaning that you'll either have to abandon the class by then or use weaker weapons to fight off enemies.
 * Tools: The Molten Pickaxe is the highest tier pickaxe you can obtain at this stage, crafted with 20 Hellstone Bars. It can mine Cobalt and Palladium ore, the first tier Hardmode ores. However, on the versions, the Reaver Shark can be fished up in the Ocean with a 1 in 100 chance with 50% fishing power and has the same pickaxe power as the Molten Pickaxe, meaning it can be obtained early game rather than after defeating the Eater of Worlds/Brain of Cthulhu. The Molten Hamaxe, crafted with 15 Hellstone Bars, functions as both an axe and a hammer, and is the strongest hamaxe in pre-Hardmode.
 * Weapons: At this point of the game, weapon classes begin to noticeably diverge. You should now start to focus on one or two classes, as it's much easier to progress when focusing on a few classes. Though many weapons are available at this stage, here are the ones you should have to make taking down the Wall of Flesh and handling Hardmode much easier.
 * Melee: The strongest sword available in pre-Hardmode is the Night's Edge, which is made by combining the Blade of Grass, Fiery Greatsword, Muramasa, and either Light's Bane or Blood Butcherer (in Corruption and Crimson worlds respectively) at an Altar. This sword deals 42 melee damage and will later be used to craft the Terra Blade, one of the most iconic and powerful swords in Hardmode. However, you may have reason to prefer some other swords. The Blade of Grass and Fiery Greatsword both have a greater range than the Night's Edge and inflict the Poisoned and On Fire! debuffs respectively. The Night's Edge also lacks autoswing, while the Muramasa (and some other swords like the Arkhalis, Enchanted Sword, and Terragrim) does have it. You're also going to want some melee weapons with larger range, as Hardmode enemies can easily overwhelm you if you're too close. The Flamarang (10 Hellstone Bars and an Enchanted Boomerang at an Iron/Lead Anvil) is the strongest pre-Hardmode boomerang, dealing  32/ 37 damage, and can be very efficient when used strategically. The same applies to the Sunfury, the strongest flail, which is found in Shadow Chests and is extremely effective with large groups of enemies, dealing  70/33 damage. The strongest yo-yo at this stage is the  Cascade, which has a 1 in 400 (0.25%) chance of being dropped by any enemy killed in the Underworld after Skeletron is defeated, and is a great weapon for stunlocking enemies or dealing with enemies in tight spaces. All three of these weapons have a chance of inflicting the On Fire! debuff, making them even more effective. Finally, the strongest spear available is the Dark Lance, which can also be found in Shadow Chests.
 * Ranged: The ranger class, along with having multiple weapon choices, also has multiple ammunition choices. The Molten Fury, crafted with 15 Hellstone Bars at an Iron/Lead Anvil, is generally the best bow. Although it cannot autofire, it's accurate, does 31/ 29 damage, and turns Wooden Arrows into Flaming Arrows when fired. Another option for your bow is the Hellwing Bow, which is looted from Shadow Chests. Though it is less accurate and only does 22 damage, it turns Wooden Arrows into homing Hellwings (Flaming Bats). Additionally, it autofires and is very fast in doing so, making it especially efficient in the Wall of Flesh fight dealing with the Hungry or when fighting many enemies in a large range. Both bows are best used with Hellfire Arrows, as they not only deal high damage, but also have a large explosive effect that can easily deal with large groups. The Hellwing Bow is also well used with Wooden Arrows, as the homing ability of the arrows can quickly overwhelm enemies. The Phoenix Blaster is the best pre-Hardmode gun, crafted with 10 Hellstone Bars and a Handgun at an Anvil. Though it isn't autofire, it has a very fast use time, and therefore firing rate. It deals  24/ 23 damage, and is very effective when paired with Meteor Shots. The Star Cannon (crafted with a Minishark, 20 Meteorite Bars, and 5 Fallen Stars) deals an insanely high 55 damage and is autofire. Though the Fallen Stars it uses as ammo can be hard to accumulate, building a skybridge can easily collect them, and using it as ammo against both the Wall of Flesh and the mechanical bosses can quickly take them down.
 * Magic: Magic users will begin to see their weapons heavily diversify – arguably making it the most unique class at this point. There are tons of items you can fight with. One is the Demon Scythe, which has a 1 in 35 (2.86%) chance of dropping from Demons and Voodoo Demons in the Underworld. It fires a Demon Sickle that hovers around the player then slowly accelerates until reaching full speed. Though it doesn't autofire, it is quick to use, pierces four enemies, and firing multiple Demon Sickles at a time can easily kill most enemies. The Book of Skulls is another great option for mages. It has a 36/343 (10.5%) / chance of dropping from Skeletron and fires slow flying skulls that can pierce two enemies and, on the, flies towards enemies. The way it "juggles" enemies makes it a formidable weapon through Hardmode. The Water Bolt can be found on the shelves of the Dungeon amongst other Books, and autofires multiple bolts of water that both pierce enemies and ricochet off blocks, making it especially effective in arenas and dense caves. Against the Wall of Flesh, the player can bounce them off the ceiling, allowing them to repeatedly pierce the Wall of Flesh's eyes and mouth. The Flamelash and Flower of Fire are both found in Shadow Chests: the former fires a ball of fire that can be controlled by the cursor, and, on the , will home into enemies and, after hitting it, will home on and explode on contact with another enemy. Meanwhile, the latter fires a slow fireball that doesn't pierce but ricochets 4 times and deals  48/  damage. These are generally all the magic weapons you'll need – however, if you have the Meteor armor, the Space Gun fires very rapidly and doesn't cost any mana, meaning it could still remain effective.
 * Summon: Finally, there are summoning weapons, which are generally the most limited at this stage of the game. There are really only two formidable choices. The first is the Hornet Staff, crafted with 14 Bee Wax, which inflicts 9 damage and shoots stingers at enemies, inflicting Poisoned for 4 to 7 seconds. Your second option is the Imp Staff, which is crafted with 17 Hellstone Bars and inflicts 17/  21 damage and fires fireballs at enemies every 0.75 to 1.5 seconds, inflicting the On Fire! debuff for 3 to 6 seconds. Though the Imp Staff deals much more base damage and the debuff it inflicts is more damaging over time, its fire rate is a lot slower. Therefore, either summon is effective, though the latter may be preferred.  The Snapthorn is the most powerful whip in pre-hardmode and is highly recommended.
 * Ensure you've obtained key accessories and items. Many of these accessories are produced at the Tinkerer's Workshop, and the components will be much harder to get in Hardmode due to the much stronger enemies.
 * If at all possible, you should have created the following:
 * Frostspark Boots which allows flight, very fast running, and extra mobility on ice, alongside boosting movement speed on 8%. This accessory is especially necessary during boss fights. Lava Waders are another important mobility accessory underground, which provides the ability to walk on honey, lava, and water. It also grants immunity to fire blocks and 7 seconds of immunity when in lava. On the, these two can be combined into the Terraspark Boots.
 * One of the Horseshoe Balloons, which provide increased jump height, double jump (the best double jump is from the Yellow Horseshoe Balloon, crafted with the Sandstorm in a Bottle), and immunity to fall damage.
 * The Grand Design, a versatile wiring item that gives the player access to a menu easily controlling wiring. The player can place or remove actuators and any color of wire almost effortlessly, and the menu (accessed by right clicking) allows the player to easily change between wiring options. This makes it incredibly easy to create farms and other mechanisms requiring wiring.
 * Other useful equipment includes Lava Waders, Frog Leg, Jellyfish Diving Gear, Flying Carpet (if you have a Pyramid), Obsidian Shield, Celestial Cuffs (only available in a Corruption world), Mining armor.
 * You will need a good multi-line Hook such as the Ivy Whip, Fish Hook, Skeletron Hand, or even the Slime Hook.
 * And some company: At least one minion as above, one or more Mounts, and a light pet. The Shadow Orb or Crimson Heart are basic and easy to obtain, while the Magic Lantern can help when exploring).  A regular pet is optional and purely a cosmetic, but by now you should have some appealing choices.
 * Some items are meant for later: Feral Claws will start you on the path to the Fire Gauntlet, while a Bezoar and Nazar will be the first components of an Ankh Shield  (and that Obsidian Shield will be the last).
 * Ensure you have a sufficient stock of Potions.
 * You should have a farm for herbs (see Guide:Gardening)
 * Build secure fishing bases in all the major biomes, especially near your base. You might also want to build a lake of Honey for Honeyfins.
 * Build a bait farm to be able to fish sustainably.
 * Find Demon or Crimson Altars. Most Altars are found in the Corruption and Crimson respectively, so explore each Corruption or Crimson biome in the world. They need to be easily accessible when hardmode begins (further information in the Hardmode section).


 * Reforge Weapons and Accessories. You'll generally want extra Defense, Damage, or Critical hit chance.
 * Build a surface Mushroom biome with a house for the Truffle NPC, as gathering the necessary materials will become much harder during hardmode.
 * Make sure you have 21 valid NPC houses, so you don't have to worry about building them later on. In fact you should have rather more that that, but they shouldn't all be together.  Have spare houses at all your bases, so that if a bunch of NPCs find themselves in the middle of the Corruption/Crimson, they have someplace to respawn.

Here are some more open-ended ideas, many of which qualify as "big projects".


 * Creating quarantines. You probably want to limit the spread of the Corruption or Crimson, and the Hallow as well.  Without preparation, the Hallow and your "evil" biome will quickly divvy up your world between them.  There are a few reasons this is bad: These biomes are very hard when first entering Hardmode; NPCs will not live near Corruption or Crimson (which is a problem if your town gets converted); and there are some unique drops and resources only available from uninfected biomes. You  should particularly protect the Jungle and Ocean biomes in their natural state; in particular, if a Jungle or Mushroom Biome gets taken by evil, the conversion is irreversible. To block the spread of the biomes, you will need to dig tunnels and hellevators to chop up your world, restricting any infection to a relatively small area (or at least keeping it away from your more valuable areas).  For more information on building quarantines, see Guide:Maintaining world purity.
 * Make the world accessible. Build a skybridge or a tunnel across your world, ideally with minecart tracks, to allow you to visit the new Hardmode biomes relatively safely and quickly. The Magic Conch and Demon Conch allow you to quickly teleport to the ocean shores and the center of the underworld.
 * Rebuild your base. This is a good time to reconsider your main base(s) and rebuild them to something that has space for all your crafting stations and chests, with extra for growth, and houses for convenient access to favored NPCs.
 * Farming money. Some vendors sell new, but expensive items in Hardmode and reforging Hardmode weapons is extremely expensive. For more information on farming money, see Guide:Making money.
 * Rearrange the Landscape. Is there some area that's inconvenient to you?  Change it!  Want a lake or a mountain someplace?  You can do it now.

Activating Hardmode
Once the player is ready to move on to the next phase of their world, Hardmode, then they will have to head to the underworld and fight the Wall of Flesh. Once the player defeats this boss, they will receive weapons and accessories to boost their survivability in early Hardmode. The player will also receive a message saying, "The ancient spirits of light and dark have been released." This indicates that the world has transitioned into hardmode.

= Hardmode =