Beginner's reference guide Pre 1.2 patch (Unlocking Hardmode): How to play if you feel lost in Terraria.

This reference guide is for those players that feel they're playing but not going anywhere.

If you have started a game, built a house, mined some ore, but you are getting bored because you don't know what to do next or find yourself doing the same thing over and over again, this guide is for you!

Unlock Hardmode to really enjoy Terraria!

Warning! This guide does not cover 1.2 patch!

Introduction

Terraria is a terrific game, it's a sandbox game, so this means you can do whatever you want and play the game however you like. But sometimes this liberty could be overwhelming, and we need some pointers to discover the game's possibilities and have fun with them.

This guide will help you get through the first part of the game, to help you unlock the game's hardmode.

This guide covers the basics, so if you are looking for in-depth strategies on defeating bosses or farming tips, you may not find them here.

Creating your world and character

This guide will work on any world size, but I recommend you to play in a small world with a softcore character. If you feel like you can handle a bigger challenge, you may play in a bigger world and using a mediumcore or even a hardcore character!

Your first day

First things first, you need a home where you and your fellows NPCs are going to reside. So go and chop some trees to get wood, kill some slimes to get gel for torches.











Your home can have any shape or size, as long as you have rooms for your NPCs. They are very valuable, most of them will have items for sale, others can heal you, and even The Guide has a purpose. So build your home as you want but plan ahead for eleven (11) rooms. In order for an NPC to move in, the room must meet some requirements:

• Must be at least 6 blocks tall and 10 blocks wide
  
• Must be fully enclosed (you know, have floor, walls and ceiling)
  
• Must have at least three empty blocks of floor space
  
• Must have an entrance
  
• Must have background wall
  
• Must have one confort item
  
• Must have a flat surface item
  
• Must have a light source

I use a very basic structure to cover those requeriments, it's a very basic but functional home. I lay down a floor 33 blocks wide, and 6 blocks tall per floor, this give me enough space for two rooms with 10 blocks wide each, and a central hall that I use as stairs.
Each room has a chair, a table, a torch, and a door.



So my home starts with a first level which contains the crafting stations, starting with a Work Bench and a Furnace. The second floor has two rooms ready, one already taken by The Guide, who spawns beside you when you start playing.



Most likely you will spend this first day gathering wood and building your home. You can use the first night to explore your surroundings, kill zombies to gather some coin. You can use the night time to collect fallen stars, they are very important later on the game. As a matter of fact, one goal we must cover in the early game it's to gather 100 fallen stars, but we will talk about this later.

Important note: money is very important, since the only way to obtain certain items is buying them, it's very recommendable to save all you can. If you are playing as a softcore character, every time you die, you will drop half your money there. Some times you will be able to get that money back, but if you die in a remote cave or in a lava pool, or any other hard place to reach, you may end loosing that money. Tip: Whenever your first chest becomes available, move all your coins there, eventually you will have four slots with copper, silver, gold and platinum coins. Every time you return to your home, go back to that chest and click "Quick Stack" to automatically store your hard-earned money in the chest.

Items to craft this day:

Torches (1 gel, 1 wood for three torches, no crafting station needed)
Chairs(4 wood, using the Work Bench)
Door (6 wood, using the Work Bench)
Tables(8 wood, using the Work Bench)
Wood wall (1 wood for 4 wood wall pieces, using the Work Bench)
Wood Platforms (1 wood, no crafting station needed) This are very useful, you might want to have them all the time in your inventory. They can help you cross water, reach higher places, or make way down to a deep cave.

Tools recommended to craft this day:

Wooden hammer (8 wood, using the Work Bench)
You will need this in order to remove furniture and crafting stations if you want to put them somewhere else, also to remove background walls.

Crafting Stations recommended to own:

Work Bench (10 wood, no crafting station needed)
Needed to craft a lot of items, like a Furnace, an Iron Anvil, chairs, tables, etc.

Furnace(20 stone blocks, 4 wood, 3 torch, using the Work Bench)
Needed to craft metal bars and bricks among other things.

Scouting the world

The next couple of days (and nights) you will be scouting the world, your surroundings, although this game relies in crafting, you don't need to have a mine per se. You can have one, but almost all ore needed at the beginning of the game you can find it exploring caves, you will have to mine, granted, but you don't have to have a mine shaft.

This time, use it to explore nearby caves, loot some pots and chest (don't forget to use your hammer on the chests), and mine ore near to the surface.
The main objectives during this stage will be:

• Find chests (with some luck they'll have useful items, like a spear, Hermes Boots, shackles or bands)
  
• Mine ore (any kind of ore, most likely we will be gathering a lot of copper, some iron, and a little silver and gold, but don't worry too much about finding large quantities of gold or silver)
  
• Find some Crystal Hearts (You will need your Hammer to pick them up)
  
• Gather Fallen Stars (as much as possible)
  
• Locate The Corruption (very important, we go here after this)
  
• Locate The Jungle (We go here after The Corruption)

Tip: Gather cobwebs if you find them in caves! We may use them later.

Exploring a cave









Finding a Crystal Heart









The Corruption









The Jungle










Don't forget to expand your home, it is most likely to have a couple o NPCs moving in during this stage.

• The Merchant will show up when you have 50 silver coins in your inventory
  
• The Nurse will show up when you use one of the Crystal Hearts
  
• The Demolitionist will show up when you have an explosive in your inventory (a bomb or a grenade for example, this guy will make our next stage easy so be sure to find a bomb or a grenade!)

Tip: If you want to assign an specific room to any NPC, just open your inventory, click on the house icon above your equiped items, and click on the NPC icon, and then click on the room of your choosing.

Items to craft during this stage:

Any piece of armor, of any material you can afford If you can craft a complete set of armor of copper (the most common ore near the surface) it's ok.

Any Broadsword Iron or better.

Tools recommended to craft during this stage:

Iron Pickaxe This is not really necessary, we are aiming for the Nightmare Pickaxe anyway, but if you have the spare materials and feel a little slow mining, go ahead.

Crafting Stations craft during this stage:

Iron Anvil (5 Iron Bars (15 iron ore in total), using the Work Bench)
Needed to craft most tools, weapons and armors.

Sawmill (10 Wood, 2 Iron Bars, 1 Iron Chain (5 Iron Bars in total), using the Work Bench) We need this to make the Loom

Loom (12 Wood, using the Sawmill) We need this to make silk out from cobwebs.

The Sawmill and the Loom are totally optional, but if we want to respawn in our home whenever we die or load the game, instead the default spawning point, we need a Bed (15 Wood, 5 Silk, using the Sawmill).

Tips:

• When you have 1 gold, buy a Piggy Bank from the merchant, and carry it with you all times. The Piggy Bank provides 20 extra storage slots and can be placed while you adventure (you will need a table or 2 wood platforms), put your coins in there, and can be picked up again! So if you are going to a dark cave, or night time catches you up, save you coins in the Piggy Bank, just in case you get killed by nasty monsters. Multiple Piggy Banks doesn't provide more storage slots, all of them will contain exactly the same but can provide multiple access points to the content, you can have one in your home and another in your inventory, so when you are at home you don't have to place your Piggy Bank to access the items in it.
  
• Whenever you gather 10 Fallen Stars craft a Mana Star (you don't need a crafting station), this will give you 20 mana points, you will be using magic later in the game.
  
• Save money! Next stage we will be buying a lot of granades and some bombs

The Corruption

By this time, you might have found a couple of Crystal Hearts, don't worry if you haven't. If you are careful even 100 hp are just enough. We will need at leats 3-4 gold coins, so if you haven't been saving money, go out and kill some monsters, the night time can be used efectively to gather coins killing zombies.

The next goals are:

• Buy about 50 grenades from The Demolitionist (1 gold = 25 grenades)
  
• Buy about 40 bombs (maybe less, but better be safe than sorry, 1 gold = 20 bombs)
  
• Expand 2 new rooms for the arrival of The Arms Dealer and The Dryad
  
• Go to The Corruption biome wich we previously found and look for a large cave containing some Demon Altars and some Shadow Orbs
  
• Gather at least 15 Rotten Chunks and 6 Vile Mushrooms (With this we craft the Worm Food, used to summon The Eater Of Worlds, the boss we are going to kill!)
  
• Prepare our battleground
  
• Summon The Eater Of Worlds and kill it
  
• Enjoy the loot! Craft new tools and armor with it!

I strongly recommend to carry a Work Bench (10 Wood, no crafting station needed) or a Wooden Table (8 Wood, using the Work Bench) and a Bottle (1 glass, using The Furnace. To make 1 glass you will need 2 Sand Blocks and The Furnace), with this we will create a new crafting station, The Alchemy Station, just place The Work Bench or The Wooden Table and The Bottle on top. This new station will allow us to create Vile Powder with the Vile Mushroom (5 Vile Powder for every Vile Mushroom). We need this Vile Powder (30) and Rotten Chunks (15) (these are dropped from The Eaters Of Souls: Big Eater, Eater Of souls and the Little Eater, critters you will find only in The Corruption, as well as the Vile Mushrooms). It is convenient to have this ingredients ready before we go exploring the pits looking for the large cave because in the cave we will find a Demon Altar (most likely several of them), in the Demon Altar we will craft the Worm Food.

Exploring the pits in The Corruption










Crafting The Worm Food in a Demon Altar










There are two ways to summon The Eater Of Worlds, one is using the Worm Food, and the other is smashing (with a Hammer) three Shadow Orbs. We are using the Worm Food, mainly because we can prepare our battleground, using a lot of space, contrary to smashing three Shadow Orbs, wich reside in a small cave, turning the battle way more difficult. Nonetheless, we are going to smash two Shadow Orbs! Because these drop loot! If we are lucky we can get a Musket, once we get any kind of gun (musket, pistol, handgun, shotgun, etc) The Arms Dealer will show up in our home, selling some goods and guns!

Important Note! You can't use your pickaxe to make way to the Shadow Orbs (you will need a Demonite pickaxe for this) so this is where we use the Bombs or Sticky Bombs (1 Bomb, 5 Gel).

Smashing a Shadow Orb










Now we are ready to prepare the battleground! Head to the surface and with wooden platforms create 2 or 3 big platforms with about 5 blocks between each platform, this will help us to evade The Eater Of Worlds while we use our grenades to attack it, just beware, a grenade exploding too close to you, will harm you, and most likely kill you, and if you die, you will need to craft a new Worm Food.

Preparing the battleground









Summoning The Eater Of Worlds









In battle with The Eater Of Worlds!









Defeating The Eater Of Worlds!










If you defeat The Eater Of Worlds, you will have on your hands (assuming you pick the loot up) several Demonite Ore and Shadow Scale (beside some handsome amount of coins), material needed to craft new armor and tools/weapons.

Do this 3-5 times (if you want to craft the whole set of armor AND all the tools/weapons) and let's head to The Jungle!

Two new NPCs at home!









Items to craft in this stage:

Vile Powder (1 Mushroom for every 5 Vile Powder, using the Alchemy Station)
The Worm Food! (30 Vile Powder, 15 Rotten Chunks, using a Demon Altar)
Extra Work Bench (10 Wood, no crafting station needed) OR
Wooden Table (8 Wood, using the Work Bench)
1 Glass (2 Sand Blocks, using The Furnace)
Bottle (1 glass, using The Furnace)

Tools/weapons/armor recommended to craft in this stage:

Demon Bow (8 Demonite Bars, using the Iron Anvil)
War Axe Of The Night (10 Demonite Bars, using the Iron Anvil)
Light's Bane (10 Demonite Bars, using the Iron Anvil)
Shadow Helmet (15 Demonite Bars, 10 Shadow Scales, using the Iron Anvil)
Shadow Scalemail (25 Demonite Bars, 20 Shadow Scales, using the Iron Anvil)
Shadow Greaves (20 Demonite Bars, 15 Shadow Scales, using the Iron Anvil)
Nightmare Pickaxe (12 Demonite Bars, 6 Shadow Scales, using the Iron Anvil)
The Breaker (10 Demonite Bars, 5 Shadow Scales, using the Iron Anvil)

Crafting Stations needed in this stage:

Alchemy Station (Work Bench OR Table and a Bottle)

Tips:

• The Corruption is a very dangerous place, well, not really, but it's home to some nasty critters, wich will hunt you down every opportunity they have, so be ready to place platforms in every pit you see.
  
• Use your Wooden Platforms to get down the pits in search for the large cave. We haven't craft a Grappling Hook yet.
  
• Take with you your Alchemy Station, unless you don't mind returning home to craft the Vile Powder!
  
• Use your potions! You will be looting a lot of these, so be sure to use them, specially The Ironskin Potion (1 Bottled Water, 1 Daybloom flower, 1 Iron Ore, using the Alchemy Station, for the Bottled Water use a Bottle near a body of water, if you are having trouble just dive in a large pond) if you are having too much trouble dealing with The Eater Of Worlds!

A meteorite has landed!

A meteorite has landed!









There is a chance a meteorite crashes every time we smash a Shadow Orb. I f you find the crash site, you can mine a new kind of ore, Meteorite Ore, with it you can craft a full new armor set, 3 weapons, a Phaseblade (wich resembles a light saber from Star Wars), a Space Gun and a Star Cannon, and 1 tool, the Meteor Hamaxe (a Hammer and an Axe in one item).
Beware, the Meteorite Ore will burn you when you touch it if you don't have an Obsidian Skull (20 Obsidian, using the Furnace) equiped. So in order to mine the Meteorite Ore, just stand one block away from it and try to not step on it, use dirt or any other block to create a pathway between you and the ore.

The Meteor armor has a defense value of 10, and a 15% bonus to magic damage, whereas The Shadow Armor we just crafted has a defense value of 19, and a 21% bonus to melee attacks and 15% bonus to movement speed. Another cool thing of the Meteor armor if you wear the full set, the mana requirements to use the Space Gun are 0 (in other words, you can use the Space Gun for free!).

The Phaseblade it's a very special sword, pre-hardmode, it's not very powerful, it's not even one of my favorites, I rather use The Blade Of Grass as soon as I can, but once hardmode it's unlocked, the Phaseblade can be upgraded using Crystal Shards, and then it becomes one of the most useful swords of the game, with a damage of 41 only comparable to the damage of Night's Edge (42) and the Adamantite Sword (44, one of the three new hardmodes ores), but the continuous swing makes it extremely dangerous against big numbers of enemies. Just keep your mouse button pressed and watch your enemies get killed without any effort. So be sure to craft one of these before unlocking hardmode.

The Space Gun it's not a powerful weapon, it's damage value is 17 but its attack speed is very fast and can pierce through three enemies. It's very attractive its use, but its damage becomes outdated once we reach The Underworld, so beware of this if you want to invest time farming and crafting for this set of armor and the Space Gun.

The Star Cannon is one of the most powerful weapons in the game, the downside is it uses Fallen Stars as ammunition, and farming stars can be slow and makes its use very limited.

The Meteor Hamaxe is the first 2-in-1 tool, the extra free inventory slot may be worth it if you find yourself discarding items while adventuring. Besides it will be a good idea to craft one because you will be needing it in The Underworld.

Mining a meteorite











Items to craft with Meteorite Ore:

• Meteorite Bar (4 Meteorite Ore, using the Furnace)
  
• Phaseblade (20 Meteorite Bars, 10 Gems, using the Iron Anvil) A very cool kind of broadsword a must have for any Star Wars fan. The gems give the Phaseblade its color, and all 10 must be of the same type of gem, so there are 6 colors available: red, blue, green, yellow, purple and white. It has a long reach and a fast attack speed.
  
• Meteor Hamaxe (35 Meteorite Bar) Two items in one! What else is there to say?
  
• Space Gun (30 Meteorite Bar, 10 Fallen Stars, 1 Flintlock Pistol) A very quick attack speed combined with its piercing attack up to three enemies, one of my favorites weapons in the early game, too bad it becomes obsolte just as quick. The Flintlock Pistol can be bought from the Arms Dealer at 5 gold coins cost.
  
• Star Cannon (20 Meteorite Bars, 5 Fallen Stars, 1 Minishark) A very powerful weapon but with its scarce ammo, and a very expensive ingredient (the Minishark can be bought from the Arms Dealer for 35 gold coins) you might as well be better off using the Minishark by itself with a full set of Necro armor (getting a 46.7% chance of not using ammo when shot). The damage comparison may be huge, but otherwise you must spend a great deal of time farming for Fallen Stars.
  
• Meteor Helmet (20 Meteorite Bars)
  
• Meteor Suit (30 Meteorite Bars)
  
• Meteor Leggings (25 Meteorite Bars) The full set of armor provides 15% bonus to magic damage, and rduces to zero the use of the Space Gun, but provide limited protection. Nearly as half of the Shadow Armor.
  
• Meteor Shot (25) (1 Meteorite Bar, 25 Musket Balls) This kind of ammo can bounce up to one time, which makes it useful to hit an enemy behind cover or not in direct line of fire. It is also useful to locate Floating Islands, more on that later.

The Jungle

Welcome to The Jungle we take it day by day! (yes, I'm that old)

With our new set of armor and new tools and weapons, the jungle is not that dangerous now. We can explore ot and gather some ingredients to craft items that will make our life easier.

Our goal, craft the next items:

• 3 Iron Chains ( 3 Iron Bars each, using the Iron Anvil)
  
• Grappling Hook ( 3 Iron Chains, 1 Hook, using the Iron Anvil)
  
• Ivy Whip (12 Jungle Spores, 3 Vines, 1 Grappling Hook, using the Iron Anvil)
  
• Blade Of Grass (12 Jungle Spores, 15 Stingers, using the Iron Anvil)
  
• Thorn Chakram (15 Stingers, 6 Jungle Spores, using the Iron Anvil)

So it will be farming time here, we need to gather:

• 30 Stingers (dropped by Hornets)
  
• 30 Jungle Spores (scattered in the Underground Jungle)
  
• 3 Vines (dropped by the Man Eaters)
  
• 1 Hook (dropped by Piranhas, Skeletons and Undead Miners)

This is a pretty straightforward farming, just find the critters, kill them, collect the loot. The hard part it's not dying from all the critters flying around you and creeping all around you.

Stingers. You farm this killing Hornets, wich in number can be hard to deal with. They are easy to kill with a ranged weapon, the Space Gun or a Musket for example, just try to kill them when they fly over a reachable surface, to ensure the recollection of the stinger. Their attack can poison the player when hit (33% chance).

Farming Stingers










Jungle Spores. You might need to go deep in the Underground Jungle, but at least these things glow and are easy to spot.

Jungle Spores on sight!










Vines. These are easy to farm, just locate a group of Man Eaters, and kill them with a ranged weapon.

Farming vines!










Hook. This may be the most hard to find ingredient, because Piranhas are found just in water, and water is not that common, and not all water bodies have Piranhas. One easy trick (although somewhat boring) is to find a pond with Piranhas, kill them, move out of sight the pond and return and kill the newly spawned Piranhas (IF they spawned). If you are having too much trouble finding the Hook, you might want to try with the Skeletons and Undead Miners, they spawn in the Cavern Layer (just dig or follow the caverns until the background turns a dark stone gray color).


Tips:

• Build a second home in the surface of the Jungle (or deep inside the Underground Jungle, wherever you like) and place a bed in it, left click on the bed to set your new spawn point, in case you die, you don't have to walk all the way over to the Jungle again.
  
• Use your Piggy Bank and save your money and get advantage of its extra storage slots, even in the middle of an exploration deep down!

A second home in the Jungle









Using your Piggy Bank

Defeating The Eye of Cthulhu

The Eye Of Cthulhu is a Boss that has a chance (33%) of spawning every night if the following conditions are met:

• The player has 200 HP
  
• The player has 10 or more defense
  
• At least three NPCs are spawned
  
• The Eye Of Cthulhu has not yet been defeated in the current world

But we can craft an item to summon it, the Suspicious Looking Eye (6 Lenses, using a Demon Altar, the Lenses are dropped by the Demon Eyes, critters that spawn at night). This item works only at night.

You can use the same battleground you used when summoned The Eater Of Worlds. If you have crafted The Shadow armor and The Thorn Chakram, the battle will be relatively easy, this Boss drops Demonite Ore, Unholy arrows, Corrupt Seeds, Lesser Healing Potions and Hearts, besides 6-7 gold coins in total. So it's a very profitable Boss, if you need money for your Minishark, just gather some Lenses, craft The Suspicious Looking Eye, and farm away!

Summoning The Eye Of Cthulhu









In battle!









Second form of The Eye Of Cthulhu









Loot!

The Dungeon

Our next stop, The Dungeon!

The Dungeon is located at some end of the world (left or right end, Terraria's worlds are flat. It is also located in the opposite side of The Jungle, so by now you should know where to go) so if you didn't found it in the Scouting stage, it's time to walk the world again. The entrance to The Dungeon is located in a building made of bricks, the color is random but it's the only big building made of bricks so it's easy to spot. It reminds me to the dungeons found in A legend of Zelda 2, from the NES, the ones with the fighting statues. Oh great memories!

The Dungeon is guarded by an Old Man, in order to gain entrance to The Dungeon, you must defeat the Old Man, at night, and only at night, if you talk to the Old Man, he gives a "curse" option, which will turn the Old Man into Skeletron a formidable Boss, harder than any other Boss we have fought before.

I recommend setting up a battleground just like we did with The Eater Of Worlds, prepare a ranged weapon, and a lot of ammo, shoot Skeletron hands first and then the head. Always keep moving and switch platforms to avoid attacks. Once Skeletron is defeated, you can not longer fight it in that world.










The battleground is ready










Skeletron on guard!









Skeletron 0, Alter 1!










If you try to enter The Dungeon without having Skeletron defeated first, you will be killed by a Dungeon Guardians almost inmediatly after a short while of going down The Dungeon.

Here you will find a lot of Gold Chests, (here is serious loot to be done!), some of them locked, so you will have to farm golden keys, some of them appear in unlocked chests, others are dropped by killing any monster (a little chance of this, other than killing a Dungeon Slime, which will always drop a key).

A Dungeon Slime with a golden key










The Dungeon will have 7 unique items and a magic spell, the Water Bolt, this is CRUCIAL you find it, we will need it for our last battle, knock every book you see on a shelf, one of them is the spell (actually you can find several of these in The Dungeon) because the speel is cheap in mana use and it bounce and pierces enemies, besides its glow effect makes it perfect for exploring dark rooms or caves.

The other 7 unique treasures are:

• Aqua Scepter, a magic weapon that shoots streams of water, consumes 7 mana and deals 14 damage hitting up to three times, its range its 7 blocks, works kind like the spear.
  
• Magic Missile, a magic weapon that shoots a projectile that can be moved with the cursor. Deals 22 damage and uses 10 mana. Good for exploring dark caves, because the prijectile emits light.
  
• Blue Moon, a melee weapon, deals 23 damage.
  
• Cobalt Shield, grants 1 defense, but its real value resides in granting immunity to knockback, making it valuable when standing near lava or at great heights. Can be conbined with a Obsidian Skull in the Tinkerer's Workshop (a station sold by the Goblin Tinkerer for 10 gold) to grant immunity to knockback and immunity to fire blocks (more on this later).
  
• Handgun, ranged weapon that deals 14 base damage plus whatever ammo you use ( +7 with Musket Balls and +9 with Silver Bullets or Meteor Shots). Used in the crafting of the Phoenix Blaster, a powerful gun. We will craft one soon!
  
• Muramasa, a broadsword type of blade, with a very quick attack speed, used in the crafting of Night's Edge sword along with the Ligh'ts Bane, the Blade Of Grass and the Fiery Greatsword (more on this later).
  
• Shadow Key, used to open Shadow Chests in The Underworld, be sure to have one, no more than one is necesary.

Here you will find a NPC, The Mechanic, she will sell you a bunch of stuff to craft traps and mechanisms.

So it's Adventure Time! Well more like looting time, once you have looted most of The Dungeon (or before if you dont feel like looting) we head in search of The Floating Islands! just be sure to keep a bunch of Golden Keys, those islands have one yellow locked chest each. A small world will have 3 maximum islands, a medium 5 and a large 8. So save accordingly.

The Goblin Army

The Goblin Army is an event, when it triggers, a lot of goblins attack the original spawn point. In order to this event can occur the following poinits must be met:

• The player must have 200 hp
  
• The player must have smashed at least one Shadow Orb
  
• The player must have not had the same event within the past seven in-game days

There is another way to trigger the event, crafting the Goblin Battle Standard (10 Tattered Cloth, 5 Wood, using the Loom) can summon the event, but beware, if the player does not have 200 hp, the item will be wasted. The Tattered Cloth is dropped by Goblin Scouts.

Defeating the Army will drop Spiky Balls and sometimes a weapon called the Harpoon. It works much like a Bow and arrow but the arrow it's attached to the weapon, and after been fired it retracts, so there is no need of ammo.


A Goblin Army is coming!









A Goblin Army has been defeated!










After defeating the Army, you will find The Goblin Tinkerer bound in the cavern layer, you have to talk to him in order to free him, and if you have a free room in your home, he will move in. He is a very valuable NPC, he sells the Rocket Boots for 5 gold coins, with theses you can briefly fly, and moving around the world becomes easier. He also can Reforge items, adding modifiers to it. They can be good or bad, and also expensive, but sometimes can be worth the investment.
Once you can afford the Tinkerer's Workshp (10 gold coins) you can combine some items to take advantage of both properties using just one storage slot, these are the items I recommend to get if you can:

• Obsidian Horseshoe, (1 Lucky Horseshoe, 1 Obsidian Skull)
  
• Obsidian Shield, (1 Cobalt Shield, 1 Obsidian Skull)
  
• Cloud In A Ballon, (1 Cloud In A Bottle, 1 Shiny Red Ballon)
  
• Spectre Boots, (1 Hermes Boots, 1 Rocket Boots)
  
• Mana Flower, (1 Mana Potion, 1 Nature's Gift) This Item is CRUCIAL, you must get it. You will need to craft the Mana Potion (1 Lesser Mana Potion, 1 Glowing Mushroom), it's not for sale until you find the Wizard and he appears after killing The Wall Of Flesh.

There are more items but for the purpose of this guide, those in the list are the most useful. (You can pick the Obsidian Horseshoe OR the Obsidian Shield, they perform very similar functions).

The Goblin Tinkerer.

The Floating Islands

The Floating Islands are masses of Forest land found in the sky. Each island has a locked Gold Chest with a unique treasure:

• Lucky Horseshoe, this item negates fall damage, it's useful when you are exploring caves with little surface to stand on, or if an enemy pushes you to your death. Like with the Cobalt Shield, it can be conbined with an Obsidian Skull to form the Obsidian Horseshoe, which negates fall damage and grant immunity to fire blocks using the Tinkere's Workshop.
  
• Starfury, this is a magic weapon, it's a broadsword that shoots stars from the sky when swung, the sword itself deals 16 damage and the stars deal 15 additional damage, and consumes 16 mana per use.
  
• Shiny Red Ballon, this item increases the player's jump height.

A floating Island easy to spot!










Methods to find Floating Islands

• Shooting a Meteor Shot or Water Bolt, both of them bounce when hitting a surface,
  
• Building a skybridge, stack a bunch of dirt blocks and extend a bridge to both sides at a considerable height, eventuaslly you will see them.
  
• Using a Gravitation Potion and traversing the skies under its effect.

The Underworld

The Underworld, home of The Wall Of Flesh, the boss we have to defeat to unlock hardmode in Terraria.

To reach The Underworld we are going to dig our way down, building a Hellevetor, it's just a hole 2 blocks wide, straight down, and everytime you need to go to The Underworld, just jump in the Hellevator. just make sure you have a Lucky Horseshoe equipped or use your Ivy Whip before you touch ground.

Hellevator!










Here we are going to mine the most powerful ore before Hardmode, Hellstone, as with Meteorite Ore, Hellstone will burn you if you touch it without an Obsidian Skull equiped (or an Obsidian Shield or an Obsidian Horseshoe), besides it will release a little quantity of lava after mined, so have these things in mind before mining it.

We need to craft the following things before our last fight:

• Molten Hamaxe (35 Hellstone Bars, using the Iron Anvil)
  
• Molten Pickaxe (35 Hellstone Bars, using the Iron Anvil)

If we are dying too much the Molten Armor can help us survive a little more, besides you might need it after the world has turn Hardmode.

• Molten Helmet (25 Hellstone Bars, using the Iron Anvil)
  
• Molten Breastplate (35 Hellstone Bars, using the Iron Anvil)
  
• Molten Greaves (30 Hellstone Bars, using the Iron Anvil)

We need to have in mind that in order to craft the Hellstone Bar we need Obsidian blocks (4 Hellstone Ores, 1 Obsidian block, using the Hellforge). The Hellforge is found only in The Underworld, in order to remove it and bring it to your home, you will need a Meteor Hamaxe or better.

The Hellforge










How do I get Obsidian? One way to obtain Obsidian, is to locate a body of water above and close to a lava pool, then clear the way between both of them and then let the water fall into the lava pool, this will create a layer of Obsidian (that can only be mined with a Nightmare Pickaxe or better) between the lava and the water, then is just matter of mining it, and the water will create more Obsidian when it's in contact with the lava again.

Tips when mining Hellstone:

• Mine the patches from bottom to top. But make a way for the dripping lava so it wont be spilling all over your floor.
  
• You can use the abandoned buildings found in the Underworld to move lava and free Hellstone Ore in order to mine it.
  
• Try to encapsule the ore patches (with the same Ash blocks that surrounds them), so lava wont spill, and you can safely get your ore.

Encapsulating The Hellstone










Searching for the doll
The last thing we need before we can fight The Wall Of Flesh, we need to find a Voodoo Demon, this critter carries a Guide Voodoo Doll, make sure you kill this enemy away from the lava, you need to get the doll, if this fall in the lava, it will summon The Wall Of Flesh!

A Voodoo Demon










Now, let's get our battleground ready to fight The Wall Of Flesh. By this time you might have collected enough Crystal Hearts to have your hp up to 400. If not, don't worry, either you delay your last fight and keep exploring, or try the Fight with your current hp. Mana Stars, on the other hand, are completly necessary, in order to kill The Wall Of Flesh, we need all the mana we need. So gather all the Fallen Stars you need to craft your remaining mana points (200 total).

The Final Fight, The Wall Of Flesh.

Before anything else, buy Lesser Mana Potions from the Merchant, 60-80 (1 Silver coin each) as minimum. And don't forget to equip your Mana Flower, you will need it to use your Mana Potions automatically.

As with our previous fights, we are going to prepare a platform. But this time it's going to be just one, long platform, made of dirt or whatever type of blocks you have available to spare.











We are going to build this platform just above the lava level on The Undergound, make it very long, so this let you run while shooting The Wall Of Flesh. Just go through anything you find, abandoned buildings, Ash mounds, drain every small lava pools you find. Make your way just tall enough for you to fit, this is 3 blocks tall. At the end of the platform make sure you have a pool of lava just below the end. Prepare your Water Bolt, stand at the edge, drop your Guide Voodoo Doll and wait for the Wall Of Flesh, as soon as you see the eye of The Wall, start shooting at it, and running away from it, keep shooting and running, eventually you will defeat it. That's all. Easy as 1 2 3.

Come at me bro!










Keep shooting Water Bolt!










The Wall Of Flesh is no more!










Welcome to Hardmode!

More Info

If you like more information about this game I higly recommend you visit the official Wiki[terraria.gamepedia.com] site.

There is also this crazy swedish gamer whose videos helped me great deal. Visit his channel to se great videos about Terraria.

I hope you find this guide useful and keep playing this great game!

Don't forget to add this guide to your favorites!

See you around!


- Alter

[DeadassCat]

nvm its cause my guide is already dead. (stupid blood moon)

[DeadassCat]

i dropped the voodoo doll in lava but nothing happened. what should i do? (i have another one)

[Dalton]

thanks

[Alter]

Glowsticks cannot be crafted, the Merchant sells them at night or some times Jellyfish drop them as loot.

http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Glowstick

[Dalton]

and how do i make a kiln?

[Dalton]

how do i make glow sticks?

[Jorge]

OR go to curse.com and download the Builder's Workshop!

[Alter]

Fixed! Thanks!

[Hans Jedermann]

So my home starts with a first level wich contains. wich should be which. In the Youe first day section under the second picture

[Alter]

Thanks for your feedback! Now It's corrected!