TUTORIAL

 

The beginning of the first day

During the first day, it is best to cut down some trees immediately with the Copper Axe and start gathering wood. During this, if an enemy appears, simply select the Copper Shortsword and swing at it. If it is a Slime, it will take only a few hits to dispatch it. More combat information will be available further into the guide.
When a world is created for the first time, there will only be one Non-player Character (NPC): The Guide. The Guide is there to help new players learn the game, and he is a valuable source of information. The Guide also can tell the player how to craft various items.

• It's important to note that the Guide himself is an inherent problem for beginners in that he can open doors. More information on this later. 

BUILDING A HOME ...

Your very first goal is to cut down trees for wood while fending off any slimes that spawn. When you have gathered about 100 pieces of wood (a large tree can yield over 20 pieces), it's time to build a house.

• Find a nice spot and begin to clear a flat surface with the Copper Pickaxe. If the chosen location has missing places that need to be filled in, open your inventory (Esc) and drag any blocks you have to the hotbar, and place them down.
• When finished creating a flat surface, select the wood on the hotbar. Using the selected wood, lay down a layer of wood blocks to create the following: a floor, two walls, and a ceiling at least four blocks high. Do not worry about opening a space for a door, and use the current box around the location as protection.
• Housing Requirements are the game rules that decide whether a house is 'suitable for living', which will allow NPCs to come to the world, or not.
• If a piece of wood is misplaced somewhere, simply use the Copper Axe to chop it out. Wood chopped like this does not disappear and can be picked up again. 

You should now have a box-like structure, measuring 10 blocks wide by six blocks high. The exact dimensions aren't terribly important; as long as you have enough wood you are good to go. You can construct as large a structure as you like, it will simply require more wood.
Now it's time to do some crafting. Crafting is the basic way players will obtain items, and all armor is crafted. Understanding of the system will allow the player to conquer the world.

• Push escape and look down at the bottom left corner. This is the crafting corner and will changed based upon which crafting stations the character is close to.
• There are two or three things available at this time: Torches (If there is any Gel available which comes from killing slimes), Wood Platforms, and a Workbench. The workbench is an important crafting tool. To make one, simply click it once, or scroll using the mouse wheel, to select it, and then click it once more to make it.
• Drag the newly crafted item to the hot bar and select it. Click a spot in the home to set it. Now when pushing escape, there will be quite a few more crafting items available as long as the character is next to the workbench.
• Clicking and holding the right mouse button on the item to craft allows you to continuously create multiples of the same item.

With a Workbench now in place, let's make a few more items, and use one of the game's most important tools, a Hammer:

• A Wooden Hammer – requires: 8 wood
  • The Wooden Hammer is part of the triumvirate of Terraria: A Pickaxe will break apart blocks, an Axe will cut down trees and wood, and a hammer will take down furnishings.
  • Try to keep all four items, including the sword, in your hotbar. It helps to have them all available to switch to at a moment's notice.
  • For now, use the hammer to clear out the dirt back walls that may have been left after the construction of the home. While back walls serve a purpose in preventing monsters from spawning inside a home, naturally occurring Dirt Walls do not.
  • If the Workbench is struck by the hammer, simply run over to it, and place it back down after clearing the rest of the back wall.

Next, create a door for the house so that it can be entered without needing to leave a permanent hole in the wall open.

• A Wooden Door – requires: 6 wood
  • Select the Copper Axe, and pick one of the wooden walls created when making the home.
  • Begin to remove blocks using the Axe, and remove a three (3) block high section of the wall.
  • Open your inventory and drag the door to the opening. As long as the requirement is met, the door will furnish the home. Alternatively, you may place the door in a free spot in the hotbar, then close the inventory, select the hotbar position the door is in, and leftclick to place it. This allows you to place multiples of an item quickly, for example to place a line of torches; you can simply leftclick to place each torch instead of having to drag each one from your inventory.

Doors can be opened and closed by right clicking on them, and the direction the door will open is based on the direction the character is facing. All NPCs can open doors, while monsters cannot except for very specific events like a Blood Moon or an Invasion. Due to the ability of NPCs to open doors, it is possible that the Guide may try to enter a home, which means monsters can be let in, even if being kept out. A great way to prevent this is to make the guide his own house.

Note that monsters generally push on doors to open them. You can exploit this behavior by placing something close to the door on the inside side, for example a chair or a table. This allows the door to swing open the other way only, stopping monsters from outside pushing the door open inwards. NPCs can still open these "one-way" doors so it is a good construction habit to get into. This does not stop monsters that can destroy doors from getting through, though, nor does it stop NPCs from occasionally forgetting to close a door they go through.

One of the final steps in making a home is placing a back wall. Without back walls, monsters are free to spawn inside the home. Any player created back wall is considered 'safe' by the game. These back walls do not take up the space of regular blocks - hence why they are called "back" walls: they serve to "cover up" the background so that your structure looks like it is actually enclosed instead of being able to see the background through it.

• A Wood Wall - requires: 1 wood to craft 4 wall pieces
  • Head to the Workbench, and create at a minimum of 70 of the Wood Wall back wall. If you made your structure larger you will require more.
  • Drag the newly made wall to the hotbar, and begin to place it. Note that back walls must overlap each other and any small openings or cracks must be sealed.
  • Back walls do not have to extend outside the building, although you must ensure that the inside is completely covered.

This house is now considered safe; monsters cannot spawn in it. However, you may have noticed that it is somewhat dark inside. If you have dispatched any slimes you should have some Gel on hand. Open the crafting interface and create a small set of three torches. To place torches, select either the wall or the ground, and place them inside. The small home is now lit with light. If the time of day is approaching Night, and the player has not yet killed a slime, don't worry: As long as the home is protected, it is safe. Make sure to watch that Guide, however.

• At night, NPCs will return to their designated houses and stop moving about. If night falls before you have completed construction of a house, you can temporarily surround NPCs with blocks of dirt to prevent monsters from reaching them. You can even do this for yourself if you don't feel up to defending yourself from the noticeably stronger nocturnal monsters.

While it may feel humiliating to be forced to hide in a hole blocked up with dirt, rest assured that we've all been there. Hey, at least you'll survive to see the next sunrise.

Now it's time to do some exploring (and killing!)

....AND DEFENDING IT

While making a home, the player may have fought off and dispatched several Slimes. However, there is a small chance that your first day went by without a single monster spawning. Here, the guide will show players how to fight in Terraria.

• When wielding a tool or weapon, left clicking will cause the weapon to swing, or be thrown in the case of a Boomerang, Shuriken or Throwing Knife, or fire an arrow in the case of a Bow.
• A dedicated weapon is usually the best and with the leftover wood that was gathered from earlier, the player can create a Wooden Sword (7 pieces of wood) at the Workbench to replace the Copper Shortsword.
  • The Wooden Sword deals more damage.
  • The Wooden Sword, like other broadswords, is swung overhand in an arc rather than just being stabbed forward. This allows it to protect the player from far more angles of attack, which is important as Slimes move by jumping around, and may often attack from above.

Taking damage and dying will be an inevitable part of early life in Terraria.

• At the start of the game, a good way to gain health is by eating Mushrooms. When a mushroom is found, simply swing a weapon or a tool at it. It can then be picked up and consumed to recover 15 health.
  • Consumables like these have a 60 second cooldown between uses, so it's a good idea to avoid taking damage as much as you can.
• The effects of death can be lessened by periodically depositing all money and items into a Chest or a Piggy Bank at home, where they will remain safely regardless of an unfortunate demise.

Depending on the time of day, there will be different kinds of enemies. All monsters in the game drop Coins in addition to a possibility of a monster type specific drop. The three monsters listed below will drop a few Copper Coins and rarely some Silver Coins, which are used later to buy supplies from NPCs.
During the day:

• Slimes are prevalent during the day hours, and will drop Gels, which are used to create Torches. There are a couple of slimes that can spawn, and most can be killed in a few swings.

During the night:

• Zombies are aggressive and will try to get to the character whenever they can. They may drop Shackles, which are an Accessory that provide one defense.
• Demon Eyes will float around and occasionally try to ram the character. They will drop Lenses, which are useful for later down the road. If the player manages to collect 2 lenses they can craft a pair of Goggles, which is likely to be the very first helmet crafted. It gives one defense.

There are events that periodically happen to the player that can add extra challenges to the game. At first, there is only one event that the player will have to deal with: The Blood Moon.

• Blood Moons are random events that can happen anytime night is approaching and it isn't a new moon.
• Players are notified of this with the message 'The Blood Moon is rising...'. During this time, Zombies will swarm in greater numbers and will have the ability to open doors.
• To safely wait out a Blood Moon, just place a block on the inside of the door. Zombies cannot destroy blocks, so they will not be able to get in.
• Additionally, putting furniture around doors can prevent zombies from entering.
• You can also dig a 1 deep 2 wide hole outside, just to the side of the door, the zombies will not break the door down, because they are too low.
• The Blood Moon article has more strategies for offense as well as more tips on defense. 

MINING IN TERRARIA

Mining is a big part of this game. If you do not mine you can not raise your skills of your own mind. So you have to explore the big world.

It's time to begin the wonderful process that is getting upgrades, as there are no advancement paths apart from the power that comes from better gear. However, a Workbench will not be enough to craft our gear; a Furnace is needed. A Furnace will serve to transform Ore into Bars (and can also be used to make glass and ceramic items), which are the main building materials of weapons, tool, and armor . Venture out and find deposits of Stone, and mine up at least 20 blocks of stone. Torches are also needed for creating a Furnace, so make sure to kill a few slimes to get a bit of Gel. Finally, a small bit of Wood is all that's needed. Head to the Workbench and craft a Furnace, then place it down.
Ore is a fundamental part of Terraria, and in order to reach the higher sections of the game one must forge and create a ton of Bars. While exploring the world; keep an eye out for odd colored soils as these will most likely be deposits. The picture to the right (1) shows the four most common types of ore and Stone.

We also need to make an Iron Anvil. Anvils are used to create items from Bars. Go out and find some Iron Ore. In order to smelt one Iron Bar, three Iron ore must be present. As we need five bars total; to successfully create the Anvil we need 15 Iron Ore. Once the ore is gathered and smelted at the Furnace, head to the workbench and create an Iron Anvil. When placed down preferably next to the Furnace, you can also buy an anvil from a Merchant for 50 silver. After that, an entire new set of Recipes become available. The surface has its share of ore, but in order to get the best items in the game, it's now time to dig a bit deeper.
It is highly advisable to begin gathering materials for a few Buffs. A fresh character on a new map can quickly gather Sand and Daybloom necessary for some early buff potions, as well as the Daybloom Seeds and Clay used to begin Gardening with Clay Pots. All Buff potions used Bottled Water, at least one of the six Herbs, and in most cases another item such as Ore, enemy drops, or other naturally occurring objects. Two of the earliest buffs that can be easily concocted are the Regeneration Potion and the Ironskin Potion, and for the early game can significantly improve your survivability.

CAVE EXPLORATION

There are a few options when choosing how to dig: Digging straight down or searching for an open cave to explore. At this early stage in the game use caution when digging holes. Using the blocks picked up while digging or creating Wood Platforms, you can construct a way back. Another thing to watch out for is deep caverns. When falling great distances the character will take damage.
When underground there will be no light. To illuminate your area and see, you can hold a torch in your hand by putting a torch stack in your hotbar and selecting it. However, you will be unable to use anything else while holding the torch. You can stick a torch on a wall or on the ground by left clicking where you want to place it. This will not only let you see mobs so you can fight them, but you can leave behind a trail of torches to see mobs coming at a greater distance, mark the way back out, and show where and how far you've gone if you come back to the same cave to explore further. In addition to placing torches, you can throw one (the T button by default), which is useful for seeing what's at the bottom of a pit, and how far down it goes (unlike with all other items in the game, throwing a torch only throws one item in the stack, instead of the whole stack).
When exploring caves you will frequently come across pots. You can smash these with a weapon or tool to get some loot. Less common are chests and golden chests. When you are near or in front of a chest you can right click, which will show your inventory and below your inventory the contents of the chest. You can click on a chest item to grab it, then click again on an inventory square to put it in your inventory. Alternatively, you could click "Loot All" to the right of the chest contents grid to grab everything in the chest. Once the chest is empty you can repeatedly hit it with your hammer in order to pick it up and take it with you, and then place it elsewhere like you'd place any other piece of furniture (if the chest isn't completely empty then it will remain there no matter how many times you hit it). It's recommended that you take a few of the chests you find back to your house to store stuff with, since crafting your own chest or barrel uses Iron Bars, and you'll want to save up your iron for other purposes.
Another thing you'll run into underground is cobwebs, which slow you down when you try to move through them. You can cut them down with any weapon or tool and then pick them up. Harvested cobweb can be turned into silk, which is used to make a bed, which can be used to change your spawn point. Silk can also be used to make some type of decorative items and vanity clothing, or can be sold for two silver coins a piece if you need money. Harvested cobweb itself can be placed like furniture or a torch (select it and left click), either for use as decoration, or placed at the bottom of a tall pit to break your fall for preventing fall damage.
While mining underground it is possible to come across pools of water. Torches do not work underwater. Glowsticks work underwater, but they cannot be crafted and must be found at this stage of the game. Also, they cannot be attached to blocks. You can throw them, but they will bounce and move around and may be hard to place exactly where you want them. You can craft Sticky Glowsticks anywhere by combining Gel with a Glowstick; these will stick to walls when thrown, making them easier to place. No matter which you use, however, glowsticks are not permanent when thrown, unlike placed torches, though they do last for 5 minutes.
Also note that just as with other projectiles, a glowstick should be thrown with the attack command. The default button to "throw" an item is the "T" button, but using this method the entire stack of glowsticks will be thrown. Using the throw command is for dropping a stack of the item from your inventory on the ground. Instead, you should use the attack command, which throws an individual glowstick.
When stepping into a pool of water the character will sink as if weighted down. Don't fear diving down underwater to continue moving downwards, as the character has a rather large air meter. However, if close to running out of air there is a way to regain air quickly. First either find a wall or make a small shaft at the bottom of the water. (The shaft should be around 10 squares deep) Then dig a 3 high 1 wide hole in the wall and then a 4-6 high and 2 or more wide hole in this wall. The water will not fill the upper squares. As the air supply runs low jump into the hole. This will restart the meter. (2)
There are many deep chasms inside the caves. An efficent way to traverse them is to create a gapped bridge (3). To do this create a background wall of any material. Stone and dirt will be in excess so those are recommended. Place a strip as far as the character can reach then build stepping stones at least one block apart. There are two benefits to this:

• Light can still reach below the blocks.
• Most enemies cannot actually pass through the blocks.

Note that the character cannot pass through the one space gaps either; so it would be a good idea to leave an opening somewhere along the bridge.