Re-Logic's beautiful, 2D, crafting adventure Terraria, may have received its final update, 'Journey's End', but that hasn't stopped it from attracting new players. Terraria may appear simple on the surface however, the challenge quickly ramps up as new recipes are discovered and more obscure items are needed to complete them.
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In a game where the player can go from idyllic farming to battling cosmic horrors in the matter of an evening, it's easy to get a bit overwhelmed. Like many complex games, learning what to do at the beginning and giving yourself the best start possible can often be the key to success.
Updated by Beau Low on the 19th of June 2021: Terraria's 10th anniversary has seen the game sell over 35 million copies across all platforms. Since receiving the final update, Terraria is possibly more complex than ever before. With so many items to craft and monsters to battle, new players may still find the learning curve incredibly daunting. Like any true survival game, there are many ways to die, including drowning, cave-ins, and dangerous monsters. Between the beginning of the game and the final boss fight, there is much to explore, both in the sky and underground, with plenty of treasures and items to discover along the way. In the spirit of helping new players tackle the game's challenges, this article has been updated to include more helpful tips for fresh-faced Terrarians.
13 Start On Easy For The First Game
Veterans of other open-world, survival games should bear in mind that Terraria is very different from its 3D counterpart Minecraft. One significant change is the greater focus on combat, with monsters appearing in the day as well as at night.
Newbies and survival fans alike should start their first game of Terraria on softcore difficulty. The game can still be very challenging even on this difficulty setting, but this way players will only lose their coins upon death, rather than all of their items as well. It is also a good idea to start off in a small or medium-sized world to have a chance of finding important items without having to trek or dig over long distances.
12 Chop Down Trees And Mine Stone
While it may sound obvious, before you can start collecting tissue samples from Eldritch gods, you need to gather some basic resources. The first thing new players will want to do is gather stacks of wood and stone. These materials are essential for building the most basic items and structures such as houses and workstations.
Players start Terraria with a copper sword, axe, and pickaxe which will help speed up resource gathering in the early game. Trees are common and can be felled as needed, while stone can be mined by digging two or three blocks underground.
11 Kill Slime To Build Torches
There are many dark corners of the map to explore and often rare items to find deep below the surface. If players are planning underground expeditions, or just want to brighten up their homes, they will need a supply of light sources.
Terraria has a multitude of different torches, each with its own function and light intensity. As well as wood, players will need to gather gel by killing slimes in order to build their first standard torch. Torches can be placed as furniture on walls or carried in the player's hand and are essential for subterranean exploration.
10 Aim To Build At Least Two Houses Early On
With zombies marauding the world at night, and a whole map to explore the player's first priority will be to build a house. Houses serve as places to store items and can be filled with crafting stations as well as other useful tools. Building two or more houses close to each other will create a village.
How To Build A Basic House
A simple house in Terraria is composed of:
- 3 walls
- A door
- A table
- A chair
- One or more torches
Since they are relatively simple to build, players should aim to build two houses at the beginning of the game, one for themselves and one for the guide. The two houses will count as a village which will attract more NPC's for the player to interact with.
9 Build A Work Bench and Furnace
As the player progresses they will need to build crafting stations in order to make new items, armor, and better weapons (including eventually a sniper and scope).
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The work bench is the simplest crafting station and is required to build most early game objects. The furnace which can be built from 20 stone, 4 wood, and 3 torches, is essential for smelting ores into metal bars that can be used to build weapons and armor upgrades. Getting kitted out with proper weapons and pickaxes will make mining much easier and help with killing difficult enemies.
8 Keep The Guide Safe
The guide is the first NPC encountered in Terraria and possibly one of the most useful. He can offer the player helpful tips and tell them what objects can be crafted from certain materials he is also essential for finding and defeating the wall of flesh boss fight later on in the game.
The player should aim to build a house for the guide as soon as possible to keep him safe from monsters at night. If a house can't be built on the first day the player should temporarily surround the guide with blocks of dirt to prevent him from wandering into hungry zombies.
7 Use Platforms To Get Back Up To The Surface
When the player is ready to start digging underground for materials and ores they will need to ensure they can get back up to the surface. Ropes are an effective way of moving vertically but can be hard to get in the early game.
Platforms are special objects that the player can jump through and land on top of. They can be constructed from a variety of materials including wood and are one of the easiest ways to move up and down mine shafts in Terraria. Since the player can jump through them but not move the other way they are great for descending deep caves and avoiding fall damage.
6 Find Caves to Collect Chests, Pots and Cobwebs
The world of Terraria is full of natural features to find and explore most of which are underground. Naturally occurring caves are great places to find treasure and cobwebs, which have a range of uses from ropes to cosmetics.
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Players can smash pots to receive basic loot such as coins, while special materials and rare items can often be found in chests. Once chests have been emptied of their contents they can be pickaxed and retrieved to be placed again as storage containers. Cobwebs are also found underground in caves and ruined houses. They slow down the player when moving through them but can be harvested using any tool and turned into silk which is an essential item for making beds.
5 Don't Enter Water Without An Escape Route
There are many hazards to encounter in the subterranean depths of Terraria. As well as skeletons and low-flying bats, players may also find pools of water while traveling through natural cave systems.
These underground reservoirs are only a problem if the player does not have a means of escape. Should any intrepid explorers get stuck in water they can try to create air bubbles by removing blocks above them, or dig down to channel the water elsewhere. Before entering any pools of water, players should first check for piranhas and ensure they have a means of getting back out.
4 Craft A Yoyo For An Effective Melee Weapon
While a yoyo may not sound as exciting as a power glove, another powerful early game melee weapons, even a wooden one can be surprisingly efficient at slaying monsters.
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Yoyos in Terraria are long-distance melee weapons that can be held at full extension, for a set amount of time, to deal damage. A simple wooden yoyo can be built from 10 wood and 20 cobwebs at the player's work bench. The rally yoyo which is dropped from certain enemies can even make a viable weapon against the Eye of Cthulhu boss fight.
3 Place Sunflowers Around Villages And Houses
Keeping NPC's happy and minimizing the number of enemies spawning each night is essential for maintaining your villages in Terraria. Sunflowers offer a happiness buff for NPC's, reduce the spawn rate of monsters and protect tiles directly beneath them from being tainted by corruption or the crimson.
The player can encounter sunflowers naturally in the game and pick them up using the pickaxe to be replanted elsewhere. Surrounding a village with sunflowers is a good way to keep it happy and free from zombies.
2 Build A Grappling Hook For Easy Mobility
As well as finding ways to safely descend mineshafts, players will also want to build ropes for climbing back up. Once players have an anvil they can make chains from iron bars, which can be used to construct a grappling hook.
Building this tool will require a hook which can be found as a rare drop by killing skeletons and piranhas deep underground in the third strata of the map. The grappling hook is great for quickly climbing steep ledges and can even be used to dodge enemy attacks.
1 Don't Avoid The Early Game Boss Fights
The randomly generated world in Terraria is far from safe and tranquil. Newcomers who are struggling with combat may feel daunted at the prospect of a boss fight. However, beating a boss early on offers an extra, single-use, pool of hearts that can help players kill later bosses and survive other difficult encounters.
The player can summon and defeat the Eye of Cthulhu or King Slime in the early game to get this bonus. Both of these bosses also drop special weapons and ores that are essential for progressing and finishing the game.