Guide:Travel

Even small Worlds in Terraria can present a challenge when a player wants to return to a point far from their spawn point. Here are some often-used methods.

Navigating Uneven Terrain
Because of the fact that the world's surface is not flat it makes it quite difficult to travel from one side of the map to another in order to visit points of interest. There are a few things that can be done about this.

Equipment
There are a number of items that can make it much easier to do so giving the player a better overall playing experience.

The first item that can decrease travel time are the Hermes Boots which allow the player to run at a faster rate. Rocket Boots are another helpful item because they can propel the player high in the sky allowing them to leap over obstacles. If possible, combining these two items together with the Tinkerer's Workshop in order to create the Spectre Boots is a good idea as it allows the player to hold more accessories.

As well as the aforementioned items, a Shiny Red Balloon is also helpful in leaping over obstacles. The Cloud in a Bottle is another travel aid as it grants the player the ability to double-jump making the navigation of uneven terrain easier. The various grapples are also very useful in this regard, as they allow quick navigation of steep slopes and small chasms. They do not need to be equipped and can be activated with a hotkey, making them very convenient to use.

Terraforming
Alternately, instead of changing equipment to navigate the terrain, it is within the player's means to change the terrain itself. This is not as tedious as it sounds because the goal is to make travelling smoother rather than the complete flattening of the surface. Most of the time all that is needed is to simply flatten the top of small rises or to fill in small holes or dips in the ground; for large hills it may be easier to just tunnel right through them, and chasms of any size are easily handled by laying a row of dirt blocks to serve as a bridge.

Done little by little, over time the terrain will eventually be mostly flat surfaces easily jumped from one to another, allowing for quick travelling through.

Sky Bridge
A Sky Bridge is a long platform of blocks usually a single block in height, or Wood Platforms, either of which are placed at high altitude, that players may build in order to provide easy travel to far-away areas of the world without having to negotiate the uneven natural terrain. Players who wish to farm Fallen Stars may also build a Sky Bridge to catch and collect them easily by simply running its length. With the advent of Wings in 1.1, this is now their primary advantage. They also make effective boss arenas, maximizing mobility in all directions and leaving a clear line of fire to the boss, the downside being the lack of cover from bosses like the destroyer and occasionaly harpies and wyverns.

Using Hermes Boots or Spectre Boots, players can make good time running along the bridge. Points of interest can be marked and exits provided by substituting wood platforms in place of blocks for easy access back to the surface.

One downfall of building a Sky Bridge is that Meteorites may also be caught on the thin platform, producing only minimal ore. This can be mitigated by making the Sky Bridge thick enough to fully exploit the ore. However, this would require an extremely large amount of effort and building materials, almost as much as simply flattening the entire surface of the world in the first place. Alternatively, a new world could be created specifically for obtaining Meteorite.

One possible solution is to build a skybridge out of active/inactive stone. You would be able to turn the skybridge on and off with the flip of a switch or lever, and while it is deactivated does not interfere with meteors. The process of activating and deactivating this is complex, as wire may only affect 1000 squares; you'll need stations every 1000 squares or so. Additionally, the cost in wire is high; every 2000 wire (for 1000 active blocks and wiring each of them up) is one platinum.

Subway
An alternate travel solution to the Skybridge is to create a Subway, which is basically a sort of inverted Sky Bridge, being an underground tunnel rather than a bridge suspended in mid air. Surface entrances/exits are created by simply digging shafts down to the level of the subway. The subway itself is then mined out horizontally across the map in both directions, usually with a height of 3 blocks (the minimum height necessary for the player to fit). Chasms or other open spaces can be filled in with Dirt Blocks or other resources if you wish to block them off from the Subway, or wooden platforms if you wish to be able to easily leave. Like the Skybridge, Hermes Boots or Spectre Boots can be used to quickly travel through the subway.

For ease of returning to the surface from the subway, junctions can be created at desired places on the map by simply mining upwards from the subway to the surface. Signs can be placed near the junction to let travelling players know what is at that particular exit.

A subway provides the same ease of travel as the Skybridge but without obstructing meteorites. However, digging out a subway is considerably more work than creating than a skybridge (mining across the entire map compared to placing a line of blocks in open space), although it may be one of the useful team projects to work on in a cooperative multiplayer server.

A wide enough subway can also double as a barrier to prevent the spread of hallow/corruption (see the Quarantine section in the Guide on how to contain the Hallow/Corruption). To maximize the effectiveness of this secondary barrier function, the subway should be carefully designed so as not to abruptly end somewhere where the Hallow/Corruption can simply spread around the end to the other side. This will almost inevitably require digging out additional shafts whose functions are primarily to act as a continuation of the barrier rather than an extension of the subway.

Hell Bridge
A Hell Bridge is a path constructed above the lava in The Underworld. Though the bridge need only be built a single block high, the rises and low ceilings in this layer of the world will need to be flattened down or tunneled through. The bridge itself can serve as a farm of sorts, for gathering Fireblossoms if the bridge is made out of Ash Blocks or Blinkroots if the bridge is made out of dirt blocks.

This bridge also allows a player to fight the Wall of Flesh without worrying about lava or getting stuck in uneven terrain - for most players this will quite likely be the main point of building the bridge in the first place. While building it the player should also be prepared to fend off the underworld's monsters, so having good armor and weapons is vital. On the plus side, the time spent building this makes it likely that desirable monster drops will be obtained, such as the Guide Voodoo Doll and the Demon Scythe.

Hellevator
A Hellevator or Dropshaft is a vertical tunnel of mined-out blocks, usually 2 blocks wide, that generally extends all the way from the surface to the Underworld via a straight fall. Players who have reached lower layers of their world may have spent considerable time constructing underground structures such as testing areas, corrupt farms, Underground Jungle farms, and Glowing Mushroom farms. Having a quick way to access these areas can be a big time saver, and this means constructing a hellevator.

Other players may wish to create one with wider shafts with wooden platforms along the side, providing a choice between a straight fall or a controlled descent, and allowing the player to ascend provided the platforms are placed close enough together to access via jumps. Having a grapple negates the need for platforms for ascending, although slipping and missing may result in an unplanned and likely fatal fall.

Similar to the subway (see above), the hellevator can also be incorporated as part of a player's defenses against the spread of hallow/corruption, although this usually requires the mining out of additional secondary shafts not part of the primary hellevator shaft.

Recommended Items

 * Fall damage negating item, this includes water, any form of grappling hook, or numerous accessories.
 * Sand or Silt (not necessary, but helpful)
 * Depth Meter or GPS (useful for gauging when to prepare to grapple to stop your fall if the landing area is not prepared)
 * A source of hands-free light or a stack of Torches and Glowsticks
 * Obsidian Skull, Obsidian Horseshoe or Obsidian Shield (recommended for underworld survival)
 * Magic Mirror

As mentioned above, a hellevator is is a method of getting you quickly from the surface to various points of interest deep underground. Therefore, ideally the surface entrance of the shaft should be easily accessible from your spawn point. Note that if you do not possess a magic mirror for a quick return trip you may need to design the shaft to accommodate ascending by strategically placing wooden shafts or otherwise leaving unmined blocks jutting out from the sides of the shaft.

While digging you can throw a glowstick at your feet - since glowsticks drop down with the floor as you dig, the illumination provided will keep the area around you visible. Another advantage of glowsticks is that they remain lit up even while underwater, making exploring pools much less harrowing.

Bringing torches is recommended, because when placed they will provide permanent illumination and can double as marker beacons. For example a vertical row of torches can be used to indicate the approach of the shaft floor and serve as a reminder to quickly grapple the wall to stop falling.

Avoiding Obstacles
As you tunnel downward, a variety of obstacles may impede your progress. Here are some ways to overcome them and carry on quickly.


 * Monsters - Most monsters will not bother you if the shaft is sealed and small enough (wide shafts will allow monsters to spawn in it). Burrowing monsters and casters, on the other hand, remain a danger. For casters, the only real solution is to get to their level, kill them, and get back to the shaft, ASAP. If you have a Vilethorn and mana, you can possibly use it to kill them without getting near them. (Certain ranged weapons can also fire through walls, under the right conditions - the Star Cannon, for example.)


 * Air Pockets - This is why you brought sand. Before you fall, place sand to the area directly beneath your feet. The sand will fall to the bottom of the floor, and eventually will build itself back up underneath you, assuring you do not fall to your death. You may then remove the blocks beneath you, building the shaft walls as you go. You may instead drop sand for the walls as well, if you don't mind its instability. Alternately you may simply use your grapple to negotiate your way down the sides of the air pocket to the bottom and continue digging downwards. Another way to deal with air pockets, is to use dirt blocks. Build two dirt blocks below you, and then one across. Mine/jump down to that, and build the dirt blocks down the other side of the shaft, plus one block in. Mine the single block you built into the shaft earlier, and continue cat-stepping down the shaft as you dig downwards.


 * Water - See Digging through Water.


 * Lava - See Digging through Lava.

Note: After update 1.0.6, mining through liquids is no longer a simple matter of swapping blocks in and removing them because water and lava now no longer magically soak and disappear with the blocks. Instead you must now drain liquids away from the shaft or tunnel around the obstruction.

Avoiding Fall Damage
Depending on how the end of the shaft is reached falling damage may be a problem. Here are some ways to prepare for it.
 * Fall damage can be averted using a small water pool at least 2 tiles deep, just above the Underworld (water evaporates within the Underworld itself, as of update 1.0.5).
 * If you drop a bucketful of water into your hellevator and jump after it, you will fall at a safe pace as you continually float in the falling water.
 * Cobwebs can be placed at or near the landing, though these can take some time to get free of without having to cut them away. Also, they come loose and fall away as the player falls or cuts through them, requiring that they be repositioned after each fall.
 * The Lucky Horseshoe, Obsidian Horseshoe, Demon Wings, or Angel Wings can be equipped to eliminate fall damage.
 * The Grappling Hook, Ivy Whip, Cloud in a Bottle, or Rocket Boots can be engaged just before landing, though this requires that the player pay close attention to their location during the fall. A depth meter or GPS is useful for noting when you will be approaching the landing area.
 * You can also use a Featherfall Potion to negate fall damage providing your fall is not too long.
 * Wood Platforms can be placed periodically throughout the Hellevator to negate fall damage altogether if the player does not mind mashing the "Down" key. Wood Platforms would also give an easy exit as the player would only need to jump repeatedly to get back to the surface if they did not have or did not wish to use the Magic Mirror. About 200 platforms should be enough for a 3-block wide Hellevator assuming the player has the Spectre Boots.

NOTE: As you will inevitably hit caves while digging your Hellevator, it is best to block them off with Active Stone Block mechanisms and other solid blocks, as Skeletons can open doors. (Personal experience; was falling down a hellevator, got hit by a jumping Black Slime, knocked out of the shaft, took all the fall damage and died.