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Getting Started in Terraria

The first few hours of Terraria define your momentum for the rest of the playthrough. You spawn into a new world with basic copper tools and no instructions. If you waste daylight, you die to zombies on the first night. This guide walks you through the exact steps you need to take to establish a secure base and prepare for exploration.

Gathering Initial Resources​

Your first priority is wood. Use your copper axe to chop down the trees immediately surrounding your spawn point. Collect at least 200 wood. This gives you enough material to build a shelter, craft a workbench, and make your first set of wooden armor.

While chopping trees, watch out for green and blue slimes. They are a primary source of gel, which you need for torches. Do not ignore slimes early on. You want a large stockpile of gel before night falls.

Building Your First Shelter​

Pick a flat area near your spawn point. If the ground is uneven, use your pickaxe to flatten it out. Build a simple rectangular frame out of wood. The total size must be at least 60 tiles and fewer than 750 tiles, which includes the ceiling, floor, walls, and frame. The internal area must be completely enclosed.

Once the frame is built, craft a workbench from your inventory crafting menu and place it inside. Stand next to the workbench to craft wooden walls. Fill in the background of your shelter completely. If you leave gaps in the background walls, monsters spawn inside your house.

Craft a wooden door and replace one of the lower wall blocks with it. Finally, craft torches using wood and gel, and place a few on the interior walls. Note the difference between foreground blocks (wood, stone) and background walls. Monsters will spawn inside if you do not fill the background completely with player-crafted walls.

Crafting Basic Gear​

With your shelter secure, focus on gear. The default Copper Shortsword features a highly restrictive, linear horizontal attack hitbox. Abandon it immediately. Stand by your workbench and craft a wooden broadsword, a wooden bow, and a full set of wooden armor. The wooden broadsword swings overhead in a protective arc, making it much better for hitting flying enemies. Craft wooden arrows using wood and stone blocks.

If you have extra time before sunset, dig a small tunnel straight down from inside your shelter. This gives you a safe place to mine stone and copper ore during the night.

Surviving the First Night​

When the sun sets and the background music changes, zombies and demon eyes spawn on the surface. Stay inside your shelter. If you built it correctly, enemies cannot break down the door during a normal night.

Spend the night mining the tunnel you started. Look for copper, iron, or lead ore. If you find stone, mine it. You need 20 stone blocks to craft a furnace, which lets you smelt ore into bars. Smelt those bars to craft better armor and weapons at an anvil.

Repeat this cycle. Explore the surface during the day, and mine underground at night.

Essential Early Habits​

Using the Guide NPC​

Inventory bloat becomes an issue quickly as you discover new blocks and items. The Guide NPC acts as an interactive database. Show him any item tagged as a "Material," and he reveals its complete crafting tree and the specific crafting station required. Rely on him heavily rather than guessing recipes.

Securing Your Capital​

Dying causes you to drop hard-earned coins. To protect your wealth, purchase a Piggy Bank from the Merchant as soon as he moves in. The Piggy Bank acts as a secure, portable storage system. Coins placed inside are safe from death penalties.

Building Boss Arenas​

Attempting to fight early bosses on natural, uneven terrain almost guarantees failure due to poor mobility. Before engaging any boss, construct a Boss Arena. Build layered grids of wooden platforms in the sky to allow vertical movement. Place Campfires throughout the arena for a localized health regeneration buff, and plant Sunflowers nearby to decrease natural enemy spawns and increase your movement speed.