Terraria Complete Guide (92 Sections) | Ludo.guide

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Welcome to Terraria, a massive 2D sandbox adventure where you'll dig, build, explore, and battle your way through a procedurally generated world. Think of it as a 2D Minecraft with a much heavier emphasis on combat, boss fights, and RPG-style progression. You'll start with basic tools, craft better gear, and delve deeper into dangerous caverns, facing off against everything from slimes to colossal bosses.

This guide is your ultimate companion for mastering Terraria. We'll help you navigate the crucial transition into Hardmode after defeating the Wall of Flesh, break down the intricacies of different combat classes, and provide strategies for conquering every challenging boss. Whether you're aiming to complete the game or collect every last item, we've got you covered.

The short tl;dr walkthrough

Walkthrough

1
Chop 150-250 wood to build a rectangle about 1/3rd to 1/2 the width of your screen. Craft a workbench, doors, a table, and a chair. Kill slimes for gel to make torches. Use wood to craft wooden armor, a wooden broadsword, and a wooden bow. Use stone blocks and wood to craft arrows for your bow.
2
Explore left or right to find natural caverns and openings. Explore them to find pots and chests for materials. Look for Life Crystals, mine them with your pickaxe, and use the resulting hearts to increase your HP.
3
As you increase your HP, mine ore to create bars, which are used to craft equipment and higher-level pickaxes, axes, and hammers.
4
Periodically dig a vertical tunnel straight downwards, called a Hellevator.
5
Get 10+ defense and 200+ HP to fight the Eye of Cthulhu, your first boss.
6
Start building homes for NPCs in their preferred biomes and have them move in to build up your NPC (non-player character — anyone the game controls, not you) towns.
7
(Optional, highly recommended) If a Goblin Army event occurs, complete it. A Goblin Tinkerer NPC will spawn underground. Find and rescue him by talking to him; he offers useful items and the Reforge option.
8
Go into your evil biome and break three Shadow Orbs or Crimson Hearts to spawn your second boss: Brain of Cthulhu for Crimson worlds, or Eater of Worlds for Corruption worlds.
9
(Optional) After defeating your evil biome boss, meteorites may spawn. Mine them to make meteorite bars, which are used to craft meteorite armor and the Space Gun, which is quite powerful.
10
Explore the surface until you find the Dungeon. Talk to the Old Man NPC to spawn and kill Skeletron.
11
Continue exploring underground until you have 400 health.
12
(Optional, recommended) Explore the now accessible Dungeon. Kill enemies and break pots to find Golden Keys to open Golden Chests. Try to find a Shadow Key for the Underworld.
13
(Optional) Explore the Jungle biome until you find a Hive mini-biome. Build a small arena and break the larvae jar to spawn the Queen Bee boss.
14
(Optional, highly recommended) To prepare for Hardmode, build five-tile wide tunnels around your Jungle (and optionally your forest biome) to prevent the Corruption/Crimson and Hallow biomes from spreading and ruining them. Place wood on the sides to prevent biome spread.
15
(Optional, highly recommended) Get the Witch Doctor NPC and make a Jungle home for him.
16
Go to the Underworld via your Hellevator. Build long stretches of wooden platforms to create a lengthy runway. Use your Shadow Key (if obtained) to open chests and find the Hellwing Bow. Find and kill a Voodoo Demon to get the Guide Voodoo Doll. Drop it in lava to spawn and kill the Wall of Flesh boss.
17
(Optional, highly recommended) Go to your Witch Doctor NPC and buy Leaf Wings for 1 platinum. Wings are very important for hardmode bosses.
18
If you did not get Leaf Wings, kill Wyverns in the Sky layer for 20 Souls of Flight and kill Harpies for a Giant Harpy Feather. Craft Harpy Wings.
19
With your Pwnhammer, go into your evil biome and break three altars to spawn three tiers of new ores. Break a total of 9 altars for an easier time finding veins.
20
Mine the first tier of ore and make a pickaxe. Mine the second tier of ore, make a pickaxe and an anvil. Mine the third tier of ore, make a pickaxe and a forge. You can now craft all Hardmode items.
21
Get the Destroyer summoning item or wait for it to spawn naturally. Kill it.
22
Get the Skeletron Prime summoning item or wait for it to spawn naturally. Kill it.
23
Get The Twins summoning item or wait for them to spawn naturally. Kill them.
24
Go to the Underground Jungle and look for little pink bulbs. Build a large vertical arena around one. Mine it to spawn Plantera.
25
Find the Lizard Temple in the Underground Jungle. Use the Temple Key to enter, reach the end, and spawn and kill the Golem boss.
26
(Optional) Go to the Cavern layer and find an Underground Mushroom biome. Use your Bugnet to capture a Truffle Worm, or build a Mushroom Biome in the Cavern layer for them to spawn. Fish with it in the Ocean biome to spawn Duke Fishron. He can drop nice equipment but is very difficult.
27
Go to the Dungeon and attack and kill the Lunatic Cultists. Pick up the Ancient Manipulator it drops to craft celestial equipment using materials dropped from the Celestial Pillars.
28
Four Celestial Pillars will spawn. Kill 100 enemies (150 on expert) for each pillar to deplete their shields and kill them. Collect the fragments.
29
After all four Celestial Pillars are destroyed, a one-minute timer activates, and the Moon Lord, the final boss, spawns. Use Celestial Pillar fragments to craft the Moon Lord boss summon item.

Tips

Mine Life Crystals to increase your HP.
Dig a Hellevator for easy access to the Underworld.
Build homes for NPCs in their preferred biomes.
Consider breaking Shadow Orbs/Crimson Hearts to spawn bosses and potentially meteorites.
Explore the Dungeon for Golden Keys and a Shadow Key.
Build tunnels to prevent biome spread before Hardmode.
Wings are make-or-break for Hardmode progression.
Break altars in your evil biome to spawn new ores in Hardmode.
Build arenas for boss fights, especially Plantera.
Be prepared for difficult fights like Duke Fishron and the Moon Lord.

Tips & Tricks

Tips

Use Hunter Potions to reveal enemies and Spelunker Potions to reveal ore/life crystals. These significantly speed up gathering, especially when searching for NPCs to rescue.
Set up distinct crafting areas: one for equipment (workbench, anvil) and another for potions (bottle/alchemy table). Keep a chest nearby for ores and potion ingredients to enable crafting in bulk.
Create a specialized crafting area for stations like the Sawmill and Loom to access less common recipes without cluttering your main crafting menu.
Consider crafting a Glass Kiln and replacing your Furnace with it. It functions as a Furnace and allows crafting of glass items. Move it to your specialized crafting area once you obtain a Hardmode T3 crafting forge.
Sell items frequently, as most can be re-acquired easily and money is needed for various purposes. Avoid selling building materials, as they have low sell value and are useful for building.
Use explosives for exploration, as destroyed blocks can be recreated. Limit explosive use in your Underground Jungle to avoid hindering progression.

The goals section

This section is intended to tell you what your immediate goals are to get you started on your adventure, and what the general goals are for throughout the game. This is different than the short tl;dr walkthrough, as it's meant to tell you what crafting stations you should make and what you should be doing very early on.

Crafting Stations:

Workbench — Requires x10 wood. Used to craft many different types of items and can be easily created and placed anywhere.
Furnace — Requires x20 stone blocks, x4 wood, x3 torch. Used to turn ores into bars.
Iron/Lead Anvil — Requires x5 Iron Bar/Lead Bar. Used to turn bars into equipment and tools.
Sawmill — Requires x10 wood, x2 lead/iron bar, x1 chain. Used to create many different types of wood furniture from all types of wood. Most importantly, it is used to create a Loom.
Loom — Requires x12 wood at a Sawmill. Mainly used to craft various beds so that you can set your spawn point. Also used to craft cloth vanity items.
Bottle — Requires x1 Bottle (use sand at a furance to make glass, use glass to make Bottle, place Bottle). This is your alchemy station, used to turn herbs and other ingredients into potions.
Table & Chair — Requires x8 wood (table), x4 wood (chair). Used to crate Watches from chain and metal bars. Watches are an informational accessory that tell you the time.
Cooking Pot — Requires x10 lead/iron bar, x2 wood at an Anvil. Used to create food items. When food is consumed, you get the Well Fed buff, which grants you various stat bonuses. It's also used to provide easy HP regen. Very important for expert mode players since they don't regen HP well without the Well Fed buff.
Tinkerer's Workshop — Bought from the Goblin Tinkerer NPC after the Goblin Army event. This station allows you to combine many accessories into new ones, usually combining their effects into a singular item, saving lots of space. Very important.

Early Game Goals:

Build a house, get some materials from natural caverns via pots and chests. Mine ore to make equipment and upgrades to your pickaxe and axe. Also hammer if you wish. Use wood to craft some wooden equipment, a wooden bow and a wooden broadsword.
Build a workbench in your house, then a furnace and anvil to craft equipment with.
Adventure underground to acquire cobweb to make into silk to create a bed from to set your spawn point.
Work on acquiring various NPCs to aid you.
Kill bosses: Eye of Cthulhu > Brain of Cthulhu/Eater of Worlds > Skeletron > Wall of Flesh.

Late Game Goals:

Enter Hardmode. Gather ores for better equipment by smashing altars in your evil biome.
Upgrade your pickaxe, then your anvil and forge, then your equipment.
Kill bosses: The Destroyer > Skeletron Prime > The Twins > Plantera > Golem > Lunatic Cultist > Celestial Pillars > Moon Lord.

Character Creation

Alright, let's get your adventure started in Terraria! The very first thing you'll do is create your character. Honestly, the cosmetic stuff like gender doesn't really matter too much. You can even change your gender later with a potion if you feel like it, so don't sweat that choice too much.

What *is* important, though, is the type of character you choose. This determines your difficulty and how the game handles death. You've got a few options:

Journey: This is a special mode. If you pick a Journey character, you can *only* play in Journey-type worlds. We'll cover those worlds soon, but for now, just know that Journey characters and Classic-type characters can't mix worlds.
Classic: Pretty straightforward. If you die as a Classic character, you'll drop 50% of the money you're carrying.
Mediumcore: This is a step up in difficulty. When you die, you'll drop 50% of your money and all the items in your inventory. Ouch!
Hardcore: This is for the brave (or maybe the slightly masochistic?). It's perma-death. You get one life. Once you die, that's it – your character is gone forever.

So, to recap, you've got Journey characters, and then you have what we'll call 'Classic-type' characters (Classic, Mediumcore, and Hardcore). They're separated by the type of world they can join. Choose wisely based on how much risk you're willing to take right from the start!