Mining and Crafting

Your progression in Terraria depends entirely on what you pull out of the ground. The deeper you go, the better materials you find. This guide explains how to harvest ores efficiently and use them to craft better equipment.

Exploring the Underground

Surface chests provide basic potions and accessories, but the real loot lies underground. Grab plenty of torches, some wooden platforms, and start digging down. You want to look for natural cave systems rather than carving a straight tunnel the whole way. Natural caves expose more ore veins and contain underground cabins holding valuable chests.

Keep an eye out for pots. Break every pot you see. They drop bombs, ropes, and potions that make early exploration much easier. Use rope coils to descend steep drops safely. Throw glowsticks into water pools to light up submerged caves before jumping in.

Essential Early Game Ores

The world generates with either copper or tin, iron or lead, silver or tungsten, and gold or platinum. The second metal in each pair is slightly stronger than the first.

Iron and lead are the most important early game ores. You need them to craft an anvil, chains for grappling hooks, and reinforced doors. Mine every iron or lead vein you spot.

Gold and platinum offer the best armor sets and weapons available before fighting the first major bosses. Prioritize crafting a gold or platinum pickaxe. A better pickaxe mines blocks faster and allows you to mine meteorite later on.

Setting Up Crafting Stations

A workbench only gets you so far. To process ores, you need to set up a proper crafting area.

First, craft a furnace. Stand by a workbench with 20 of any stone block (including Ebonstone, Crimstone, or Pearlstone), 4 of any wood, and 3 torches. Place the furnace down. Stand next to it to smelt your raw ore into metal bars.

Next, craft an iron or lead anvil. Take iron or lead bars to a workbench. Place the anvil near your furnace. The anvil is where you craft weapons, armor, and tools using metal bars.

Keep all your crafting stations grouped together in one room. This allows you to stand in the center and access all crafting recipes at once without running back and forth.

Using Gems and Grappling Hooks

While digging, you occasionally find gems embedded in stone blocks. Amethyst, topaz, sapphire, emerald, ruby, and diamond spawn randomly. Collect them to craft magic staves or gem hooks.

A grappling hook fundamentally changes how you move through caves. If you find 15 gems of the same type, craft a gem hook at an anvil. Alternatively, you can craft a basic hook using 3 chain and 1 hook (dropped by skeletons or piranhas). This tool lets you latch onto ceilings, catch yourself mid-fall, and easily cross wide gaps. It is a mandatory mobility upgrade for the early game.