MOVING TO GAME

GENDER

You can switch your character between Male and Female. This option is also purely cosmetic, having slightly different looks and a different sound made when the character takes damage in any form.

DIFFICULTY

A Difficulty must be chosen. You will see that Softcore is displayed by default.

• Note: You may click on Softcore in order to select a new difficulty. However, for your first Terraria experience, it is recommended that you leave your character in Softcore mode. It is the easiest mode, and will make learning Terraria a more pleasant experience.

The Difficulty setting determines what happens when your character dies. It does not affect any other aspects of gameplay, including how hard Terraria's enemies will be.

• Softcore mode is the default mode presented to the player, and it's the easiest difficulty. When your character dies, they will drop half of their currently carried coins onto the ground, and the character will be sent back to their spawn point (generally the point where a character first started in the world, though this can be changed later). Their items will all remain intact, and any coins dropped this way can be found and picked up again afterwards.

• Mediumcore mode is the second mode presented to the player, and it adds a more difficult death experience. When the character dies, all items, coins, and ammo will drop, and the character will be sent back to the spawn point. Once revived, in order to get the dropped items back, the player must go back to the location of death and pick up all equipment and currency. Under certain circumstances, items dropped this way can wind up permanently destroyed.

• Hardcore mode is the final mode presented to the player, and has the harshest penalty for death. When the character dies, the character will be left as a ghost, and the character will be deleted upon logging out. All items will be dropped to the ground, which allows other players in a multiplayer game to pick them up. This mode is not recommended for the purposes of this guide. 

FINISHING CHARACTER CREATION

• Click Create.
• The next screen asks you to type a name for your character, so type a name (any name you like), and click Accept.
• You will then see your new name listed on the screen. Click that name to choose it, and the World selection screen will display
  
  WORLD CREATION

Click Create World.
You are now presented with three World Size options: Small, Medium, or Large.
Note: Choosing Small is recommended for your first Terraria experience. This will make it easier for you to find and experience the various different area types that Terraria has to offer. Medium and Large Worlds have the benefit of providing more area to explore, which you'll likely want once you've gained some experience, but as a beginner you'll appreciate having to travel less distance to see the various game aspects. Don't worry, as Small worlds are still quite massive, especially for a beginner, and fully exploring a Small world would take many days (real-world days!) of play.

• Small Worlds are relatively compact. The oceans are much closer to the starting point, and the entire world is not as deep. The Corruption (a difficult area type with deadly hazards) is only in one or two places.
• Medium Worlds are, well, medium-sized. Traveling to the edges will take a new player roughly one in-game day (15 minutes in the real world). The Corruption is in two or three places.
• Large Worlds are massive. To reach the deepest sections of the map will take quite a while, and the oceans are easily several days apart. The Corruption is in three to four places.

Upon clicking a size option, you're asked to enter a name for your new World. You can leave the displayed name (usually "World 1"), or erase that name and type any name you like. Click Accept.
You will now see your new World listed on the screen. Click it to enter.
Now it's time to finally enter Terraria!


BEGINNIG GAMEPLAY

Upon entering your World for the first time, your character will spawn (be placed into the game), usually in a Forest. This location is at the center of the map, so you have half of your World to explore to the left, and half to the right.
This location is known as the Spawn Point (or simply, the "Spawn"), and will be where your character is placed each time this World is entered.

• Note: The Spawn Point can be changed later using the Bed, but we'll get to that later.

Movement and tool use

Your character is moved using the keyboard, while most interactions like fighting, mining, and building, are done with the mouse. These can be customized in the settings menu before entering a World, but for now, we'll assume you haven't used the game settings to change these buttons. For a quick recap of the available keys, refer to the game controls page.

• A makes the character go left.
• D makes the character go right.
• Space makes the character jump into the air.
• Left Clicking uses the item in the currently selected (in your Hotbar, see Inventory below).
• Right Clicking interacts with the world in various ways, such as opening Doors. The mouse cursor will change accordingly when an item it is pointing to can be interacted with. 

Inventory

In the upper-left corner of the screen are ten boxes numbered from 1 to 0 (zero). These are special inventory slots referred to as the "hotbar", and they contain the items you currently have access to for use. Press the "Esc" key to see the rest of your inventory slots. These are empty right now, since you haven't acquired any items yet (but don't worry, before long you'll have more than you can carry). Press the Esc key again to close your Inventory.
You begin the game with the following tools in your hotbar slots: a Copper Pickaxe, a Copper Axe and a Copper Shortsword.

• The Copper Pickaxe is used to dig up dirt and stone, which are the most common types of materials that can be dug up, and can also be used to dig many more block types.
• The Copper Axe is mainly used for chopping down trees to get wood.
• The Copper Shortsword is used for fighting enemies.

The slot of your hotbar that's currently selected is slightly larger than the other slots, and will have the name of the item listed above the hotbar. The item selected will be used when you click the left mouse button. The current selection can be changed by:

• Pressing the number key indicated in the box's upper left hand corner
• Using the mouse scroll wheel
• Clicking on a slot with the mouse pointer.

Press the Esc key to display your Inventory again. Click the slot on your Hotbar that contains the Copper Axe. Notice that you've picked up the Axe with your mouse pointer, and you can now move it around. Point to one of the slots in the lower portion of your Inventory, and click the left button again. The Axe now appears in the new slot.
What you've now done is moved an item from your Hotbar into your Storage slots. Items in your Storage slots are not accessible for use, and are instead just for, well, storage. Pressing the Esc key again, you can see that your Axe is no longer selectable, so you can't use it. Open your Inventory once again (Esc key) and move the Axe back to a Hotbar slot. You can also rearrange the order of the items in your Hotbar using the same method, but this too must be done with the Inventory open (Esc key).
Later in the game, when you acquire more items, you'll have to make smart choices about which items to keep in your Hotbar for immediate access, and which items to keep in storage. In general, though, you'll want to keep your best Tools and Weapons in your Hotbar, along with at least one Light Source, and one set of Blocks.

A test run: Mining and building

Start by selecting the Copper Pickaxe in your hotbar. Position your mouse pointer over some Dirt or Stone near your character, then click and hold the left mouse button. Some blocks will be freed, and assuming you're close enough to them, your character will automatically pick them up (if they're still sitting on the screen, move closer to them, until they are picked up). Do this repeatedly, and notice that the blocks you picked up are now displayed in another slot of your hotbar. Continue until you have at least 5 or so blocks. The number of blocks in the slot is indicated by the number displayed there.
You've gotten your intro to mining. Now on to building!
Select a slot of your hotbar that contains blocks, and left-click in a space that's near your character. The space should be next to -- or on top of -- some other material, like the land surface. The space itself should be free of any material. If you've done this correctly, a block from your hotbar should "thump" into place. Try placing another block on top of the one you just placed, and then try holding the left mouse button while you move the pointer, to continually place connecting blocks.

Other Interface elements

The “hearts” beside the inventory indicate the character's health. The character's health will start at 100 health points (Or five hearts) and can currently go up to 400 health points (or 20 hearts) with the use of Life Crystals.

• When a character takes damage, the hearts will slowly fade away to show the progression towards zero.
• When a character reaches zero health points, they will die. Difficulty will affect the consequences of death.
• Health is slowly regenerated over time. After a short period of not taking damage natural regeneration will kick into effect, slowly increasing in speed until the character is at full health. Standing still further increases the natural regeneration.
• There are items that can recover health. See Health for more information.

Mana is also present in the game, and will show up as blue stars on the right side of the screen. Newly made characters have zero mana. To obtain mana, one must use Mana Crystals. For the purpose of this guide it will only be glossed over.
The inventory screen (opened by pushing Esc) shows the rest of the game's interface.

• Right below the hotbar is the player's inventory. In addition to the 10 hotbar slots; there are 30 more slots for items, up to 40 total items. Right below the inventory is the trash slot, and any items placed here will be deleted upon logout, or overwritten by another item. To the left, there are four coin slots (for storing currency) and four ammo slots (for storing ammunition).
• The lower left section is the crafting interface, which allows players to create different items to be used in the world. This section is affected by the various crafting stations in the game. Further into the guide, details will be given on how to make the very first set of items.
• The right hand section of the inventory screen is the equipment section, which has a total of 11 slots: Three for the actual armor (helmet, shirt, and pants), three for social armor (aesthetically replaces the graphics of the currently worn armor.), and five Accessory slots. At the bottom of the slots, there will be a listing for Defense, which decreases the damage taken, and can be increased by equipping armor and accessories.
• Also in the right hand section of the inventory is the Housing section, which is used to change the locations of Non-player characters. This will be glossed over for the purpose of this guide.