Making Progression Easier (Outdated)

A start-to-finish progression guide for Terraria aiming to smooth out the difficulty curve and find the path to success with the lowest resistance. This guide was written in one go, as a stream-of-consciousness guided only by the items I had on a spreadsheet, so it might be missing details.

Edit: The 1.4.4 update either reworked or directly nerfed nearly every concept in this entire guide (so as to make the game less fun overall), I will not be updating this guide.

Starting Out

If you've never played Terraria before, this probably isn't the best place to start, this guide will be focusing on where to expend your efforts to make your time in the game have the most impact, regardless of how you want to play or what you'd like to do. Maybe use this guide as a suggestion if you are getting stuck.


Always do a Softcore Character, it is less unfun that way.


A Medium or Small world is best since the Large worlds take a while to cross, and have few-to-no benefits.


Journey mode is probably one of the smarter options to play the game with if you don't want to spend a significant amount of time farming materials, or want to do a lot of building without being restricted to the inventory size. The Invincibility and weather/time controls are optional and are up to you to not use.

However, this is not the "intended" way to experience the game, and having access to cheats like that might be too tempting for those with no self control. Do Classic mode for your first time, if you've already played through Classic mode then you could try Expert for the extra Accessory slot and exclusive items if you want. Master mode gains you essentially nothing to pick, and one more accessory slot doesn't make up for the additional 50% health. This guide will operate on the assumption that you've chosen Expert or Classic.


Make the world and start chopping trees.

Pre-Bosses

Start with a Wooden Bow and arrows, crafted with wood and stone. Kill some slimes and upgrade to Flaming Arrows, 1 gel gets you 30 and the damage increase is substantial. Frostburn Arrows just take ice for 80% more arrow damage and an even better DOT. These will last almost until hardmode and are almost free.

The Ranged class is the easiest class for the entire game, and is usually one of the strongest. It's also the class most people tend to gravitate toward since it makes almost everything easier, staying away from bosses and still dealing damage, no mana, good DPS, it is essentially the best class on paper and especially so for those with less skill. Melee is a joke in pre-hardmode so I wouldn't even try, and mages have to worry about mana too much for my liking (but mana potions are cheap and easy to get infinite mana using). Summoner is nice since you deal damage passively, but the minion AI will make you cry sometimes.

Die over and over to make Tombstones for Abigail's Flower to spawn over time, don't need a graveyard just the tombstones spread out over grass. This takes a long long time, so go mining/exploring while you wait for them to sprout.


Mine for materials to craft the Gold/Platinum bow and pickaxe, then get jungle ingredients to craft the Snapthorn. Generous hitbox, can hit enemies that pass through walls without needing line-of-sight, can hit multiple opponents, and is upgraded significantly using an armor set found very early. It is probably the best weapon at this point in the game. The Amazon Yo-yo is ok, but the Ivy Whip is the best hook until hardmode. Craft Iron/Lead armor pieces, and Gold/Platinum if you can manage it, all we need is defense right now, not tiny set bonuses.

While exploring, keep an eye out for:
Sandstorm/Blizzard/Cloud in a Bottle
Feral Claws
Stuff in this list:
https://terraria.fandom.com/wiki/Terraspark_Boots#Crafting_tree


Build a house for each NPC you have, and two more for future guests. I like this house since it's dirt cheap:

The two spare houses need full background walls to get NPCs to move in faster.


For Pylons, use the Zoologist and the Golfer, or the Arms Dealer and the Nurse, put them both in a house in whatever new biome you want a pylon for, and one will be selling it. You can then place down the pylon and move in two new NPCs who do not matter and you will be free to teleport to and from this pylon at your leisure. Placing the Underground pylon close to the underworld makes getting down there pretty easy, and placing the Ocean pylon just past the Dungeon (on the side with the ice biome) will let you travel there faster too. The rest are self explanatory, and you will eventually end up with a setup like this:



Use a Gravitation and Featherfall potion to look for sky islands, we want Fledgling Wings and Balloons. Every world has one of each at least.


Equip any Boots or movement boosting accessories as they are the only ones worth using right now. Try not to kill monsters at first, just use double jumps, boots, and wings to outrun them and sail over them when you can, and the bow/whip when you can't. The only mob drops you need in the early game are:
Stingers
Vines
Gel
Vertebra/Rotten Chunks


Also, throughout the game you will get banners for every 50 enemies of each type you kill, place these down where you earn them and it will lower the defense + damage of that enemy while the banner is on-screen. Mostly important around arenas and farming spots, do not skip this.


Torch God:
Make an arena like this, and dodge up and down only rather than all around. You can even get hit a few times with no issue. Make sure your arena is nowhere near where you've placed torches as those ones will come from offscreen to snipe you. Cobalt Shield helps here a lot, almost as much as Wings. Arena:
Only gets you the biome torches more easily, placing at least one down in any biome will raise your luck stat slightly, worth doing since it's free.

Fishing

Fishing sucks in every single game, and real life, by design. It's not called "catching" for a reason...

It is unfortunately in your best interest to spend hours grinding away at this stupid little minigame (if you could call it a game) to give you the best chance of success moving forward. I'd avoid it when you can. and only resort to it when you are stuck.


The best items to fish for are Crates in hardmode, potion fish like Armored Cavefish, Variegated Lardfish, and Prismite, and any other special fish you can get your hands on to craft into Seafood Dinners, the best food you can get in bulk (right now). In classic mode you are pretty safe skipping these potions, and there are better food options later.


In any case, if you choose to fish, keep this graphic in mind from the wikI:

Maximize the number of blocks visible to the sky, essentially

Early Pre-Hardmode

The first boss is either the Eater of World or the Brain of Cthulu, the Brain is the easier to fight for me, based off the arena given and boss composition.

For the Brain of Cthulu, set up an arena like this:

Yours will be red instead, my bad. You can use regular wooden platforms, but block off the "fingers" so you can build in peace.

For the Eater of Worlds, you can set up a single, long platform 20-30 blocks above the surface of the corruption, and let it chase you up there, otherwise you can try your best underground.


You don't have to beat the boss, all you have to do is defeat enough segments to get enough Shadow Scales/Tissue Samples to craft the pickaxe (and ideally the Void Bag) and unlock the next set of upgrades.

Craft:
Nightmare/Deathbringer pickaxe
Obsidian Armor
Magiluminescence
You are currently as geared as you need to defeat Skeletron. The Snapthorn and Obsidian armor are enough to defeat most pre-hardmode bosses with ease, so long as you can kite the boss left to right, or in a circle.


King Slime can also be killed for the Royal Gel in Expert mode, which is very useful in the jungle for Spiked Slimes, and early hardmode against Gastropods. The Slimy Saddle can be used as a downward dash in boss fights, but it's too much of a hassle for me, and only serves to bring me down my hellevator faster.


Dig said hellevator from near the surface all the way to the underworld, Scarab Bombs and Dynamite make this easier, but a mining potion and some time work just as well. Make sure you bring an Obsidian Skin potion (and Spelunker potion, ideally) for when you get down there, and dig around in the ash for Hellstone. Scarab bombs and dynamite only destroy the Ash tiles but still speed this up.

Use Hellstone to craft the Molten Pickaxe and the Imp Staff.


If you are unlucky and haven't gotten a Goblin Invasion, you'll have to camp out on one of the forest biomes near the beaches at either end of the map for Goblin Scouts to spawn and drop the material for the summon item. You can die over and over during the invasion while you whittle down the progress bar. The spiky balls dropped by the monsters are great against them. After the event ends, the Goblin Tinkerer will move in. Place him and the Dye Trader underground and buy the Pylon if you haven't already, and the Tinkerer's Workshop to finally combine your accessories.

Terraspark Boots

One of the best accessories in the game, you can get this as soon as you can get the Tinkerer's Workbshop technically, though it is unlikely you will have ALL the pieces.

Here is an overly-complicated crafting tree for them from the wiki:

What you need to know:

You should have come across an Aglet and one of the Boots during your exploring, and if not, keep exploring.

Now is a great time to go to the Jungle for the Anklet of the Wind and the Feral Claws if you don't have them.

The Ice Skates are in chests located under the Snow Biome, this is the only reason to come here, but it's kinda worth it to craft the full item.


The Lightning Boots are a good place to stop, you are as fast as you're gonna get, and items like the Lava Charm and Obsidian Rose are uncommon to find. If you want to kill time at any point in the future, you may want to pick up where you left off and collect the rest of the ingredients, as these boots make exploring much easier with the lava immunity and water walking aspects.

Late Pre-Hardmode

Skeletron is the next boss on the list, because he opens up the next major upgrades for us, and is a little easier than Queen Bee to me.

Skeletron:
Lightning Boots / Terraspark Boots
Magiluminescence
Feral Claws

Snapthorn x Obsidian Armor

(Optional)
Sandstorm/Blizzard in a Balloon
Shield of Cthulu
Ironskin / Regen / Endurance potions
Shark Tooth Necklace
Fledgling Wings
Imp Staff
Molten Fury x Hellfire Arrows.

Just circle around Skeletron and whip him to death, start with the hands and his head will lose some of its armor, but he will start shooting skull missiles. Keep circling around him and you will be set, an arena like this one will help considerably:


Next step is to loot the Dungeon, we need:
Shadow Key
Cobalt Shield (optional)
Bones
Alchemy Table
Bewitching Table (as many as possible, this is free damage)

Craft the Spinal Tap and a Void Bag if you can. You can use the shadow key to unlock underworld chests for the Hellwing bow but it might not be better than Molten Fury



Make your Queen Bee arena a bit larger than mine here:

and stick to the bottom of the two platforms by default, she will be easier to hit away from the ceiling.

Queen Bee:
Imp Staff
Spinal Tap

We need these drops:
Beenades (the most powerful weapon in pre-hardmode)
Honey Comb (optional)
Hive Pack (Expert mode)

You can craft Abeeminations easily using Honey Blocks, Hive Blocks, Stingers, and Bottled Honey dropped by Queen Bee herself (or crafted). This way you can summon many Queen Bees to fight in your one arena without having to seek out a new hive to summon her at.

Get Pygmy Necklace, but skip Bee armor since the Obsidian Set is the most powerful armor in pre-hardmode. 1 natural minion, 1 from the Obsidian Set, 1 from the Bewitching Table, 1 from the Pygmy Necklace, and 1 from the Summoning Potion if you've farmed it gets you to 4 or 5 Imps at this point, enough to take down the Wall of Flesh and anything less.

Hardmode Prep

I recommend crafting the Architect Gizmo Pack and getting a few Slice of Cake (talk to the Party Girl during a naturally generated party event), the latter is useful for boss fights but both are good for building arenas.


Wall of Flesh arena:
Essentially just a road of ice in the underworld, you can use stone or platforms if you'd like but I like to think that ice makes me faster, it grows Shiverthorn for free, and can generate Crystals on the bottom once the Hallow generates over it. It should look like this:

and cover about 40% of the underworld to be safe:

Having holes every so many blocks will prevent lava from lava slimes from covering it, said lava would just burn through platforms. Having cheaply crafted campfires placed 1 screen apart will give you some much needed health regen for the fight.



Queen Slime arena:
Use either wooden platforms or Planter Boxes bought from the Dryad and span a significant distance of your world, as long as you can afford. Using planter boxes here will provide you a nice, multi-thousand block long area to farm potion ingredients. This platform can also serve as an easy way to traverse the world lengthwise, and collect fallen stars easier. Put it roughly 90 blocks above the ground so you can still reach it, but it's high enough to not constantly rain mobs down on you.




Spider Nest:

Not a farm or arena, but locate a nest like this so you can return and farm for the Spider Staff once hardmode starts.



Buffs:
The best food in the game you can get easily is also bought with gold: Bacon. Purchase Pigronatas from the Party Girl during a party (and ideally next to the Wizard or Stylist, and in the Hallow). You can then grapple onto any block above your head like this, and place them in the space your body takes up. This will instantly break the pinatas and give you the gold and Bacon they drop. Keep the bullets if you want. Bacon purchased this way is expensive, but you get a fair amount of money from killing bosses that has no other use than buying fancy platforms from the Dryad and reforging, so might as well invest them when we can. This strategy gets far cheaper in Hardmode with access to the Wizard and Hallow, so maybe stick with Seafood till then.

The best buff potions to get are:
A) Ironskin, Regeneration, Endurance, Heartreach, Lifeforce, Summoning
and if that's not enough grinding,
B) Swiftness, Calming, Hunter, Invisibility
Some are easier obtained in Hardmode, so do what you can with what you have for now. And make sure you are using Healing Potions and not their Lesser variant still.

For whips, the Poison Flask is the best option pre-hardmode (but we will be upgrading to Ichor asap), crafting these are cheap so go wild.

For any stationary arena, you want a Heart Lantern, Campfire, Bewitching Table, Sunflower, and if you can manage it, a Bast Statue, Garden Gnome, and Peace Candle. I like to maximize here because you can just get a couple and take them around, only placing them down when you need. Bewitching tables can be bought in Hardmode so those first four are easy enough.


The Cell Phone and Money Trough are good items to farm up before leaving Hardmode, as are Bloody Tears and jungle enemy drops, and it's good to do as much fishing as you can before it gets a lot harder to not be bothered constantly, at least for the fishing quests and potion fish.

Finishing off the Terraspark Boots will never be easier now that you are at the top of the power curve for once, and getting a Giant Harpy Feather now will make getting your first set of wings that much quicker. Finish getting all the NPCs moved in, and complete your pylon network (pets count for TP). Buying bulk Eternia Crystals now will save you money in the long term.


Get the WoF and Queen Slime arenas completed so you don't have to do them while corruption and Hallow take over the world, then leave the rest for after the Wall of Flesh. Speaking of:

The Wall of Flesh

The Wall of Flesh:
Terraspark Boots / Lightning Boots
Magiluminescence
Feral Claws
Shield of Cthulu (Expert)


easy mode:
Necro Armor
Beenades x100+
Hive Pack (Expert)
or
Molten Fury x Hellfire Arrows


normal mode:
Obsidian Armor
Spinal Tap
Imp Staff


The whip does amazing on the Hungries it spawns, and and Imps do piercing damage to both the adds and the boss itself. Beenades are simply better though, better than anything else in pre-hardmode by far and maybe better than the Dynamite strategy since you get to keep the arena after. You can use the whip at first and switch to beenades after the hungries are dead, you'll maybe need 50 and can throw them in the direction you are running so they explode right before the boss.


Tossing the doll or guide into lava just off the center of your world will let you lead the WoF toward the edge of your world instead of running all the way to the end of the ice bridge every time (I never remember this).


Farm the Wall of Flesh at this time for
Firecracker Whip
Summoner Emblem
Ranger Emblem
extra emblems for crafting later
Demon Heart (Expert)

Early Hardmode

The first things we need are the Onyx Blaster, the Golden Shower, and the Berzerker's Glove. We'll also want the Unicorn mount and a better set of Wings. We can grab these in almost any order, but here is what I did:

Head down to the spider nest you totally found before hardmode and farm up 16 Spider Fangs, use the sentries from the Tavernkeep and the Imp Staff, it will be safe but slow going. Mining out a big area but leaving the spider nest walls will make this easier, they are less deadly when they are walking on the ground.

If you find it to be raining heavily at any point, head over to the Snow biome for a Ice Golem to spawn, build a wall 6 blocks tall and poke one out at arm level to shoot him, or let your spiders take him down. the Frost Core can be used to craft the Cool Whip, and the Ice Feather can be used to craft Frozen Wings later if you get one. The Cool Whip is a noticeable upgrade to the Firecracker so keep an eye on the weather.


Collect ~200 evil biome stone, then head down to the underworld where the evil backslash meets the ice bridge you made (hopefully, or just wherever you see crimstone/ebonstone above the ash). This will already be an evil biome more than likely, and all we are building is a simple platform like this:
Again note the lava holes. The evil biome is only needed for the Souls of Night to drop, the blocks alone are enough for the enemies to spawn, no matter how few there are. This will spawn Ichor Stickers in the Crimson, which are supremely useful as they drop Ichor and can't shoot through the dirt wall cover. Corruption worlds can still get Cursed Flames and souls. Crimson can be obtained in a Corruption world, and vice/versa, but to do so requires buying seeds from the Dryad in a Graveyard, and waiting for it to spread. Not super fun, I prefer bringing in the stone from another world to save time. Use these items to craft Golden Shower if you can, it debuffs bosses and shreds Wyverns/worms. Flasks of Cursed Flames are good too.


Kill Wyverns at a sky island and craft Pixie Wings from pixie dust if you have no other wing options immediately available.


Get 2 Dark Shards from an evil desert for the Onyx Blaster. You can 2 for 1 the Dark/Light Shards and Souls of Night/Light if you go to the Underground Desert to farm instead, and craft an Endless Musket Pouch since most of the Onyx Blaster's damage comes from the darkness blast. Crystal bullets are best for boss fights, 1 crystal makes 100, so pretty cheap.


Craft a couple Key of Night to spawn evil mimics, use Spider Staff to stunlock and Golden Shower to debuff. Putrid Scent or Flesh Knuckles will upgrade the Feral Claws, alongside a Titan Glove.
The hook dropped by this enemy is also better than the one you have now, and it drops plenty of money and Greater Healing potions.


Farm in the Hallow caverns for Souls of Light to use later maybe, and pick up some Crystals growing on the walls. The later you leave this one to do, the more crystals will have grown since you killed the Wall of Flesh.


Roughly flatten an area of the surface Hallow (ideally in the forest) and plant some trees (might be needed for Prismatic Lacewings, idk). Pillar up until there are 3 or 4 blocks between the bottom of your screen (at 1080p) and the highest point of the ground. Standing at this level will allow monsters to spawn below you, and your summons can start taking them out. Kill enough Unicorns to get the Blessed Apple, we will be using this mount for one boss fight. It makes the Wall of Flesh fight easier if you have to go back for that, and you can also traverse the world a little quicker now.


You could now take the time to smash some Demon Altars with your Pwnhammer, but you don't really need the ores for too much. The Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil is needed for some hardmode recipes, and the Titanium/Adamantite Forge is likewise needed for progression (you can also get these from Mythril and Titanium crates if you like fishing). Break 3 max and poke around just above the underworld for ore deposits, get the Mythril/Orichalcum pick and mine enough ore for the two crafting stations at this point.


Things I would not recommend doing at this time: re-exploring the Dungeon, Jungle Caverns, Underworld, or Underground Crimson. All of these areas are too deadly and have nothing to offer you. You could farm the items for the Ankh Shield at this point I think, but it's not that great of an item during boss fights so that's up to you.

First Hardmode Bosses

There are a number of option available for the first hardmode boss to fight, Queen Slime is what I choose, but the Mechanical bosses can all be trivialized somewhat even now. The Onyx Blaster, Crystal Bullets, and a Gravitation Potion are all you need in Classic to beat The Twins easily, and I will show a way later to beat The Destroyer, though Skeletron Prime remains relatively uncheesable. Depending on your approach, one of these bosses will be easier than the rest, I've always had that be the case, but it largely depends on your gear and weapon.


Here is a guide on how we will be defeating the Queen Slime, just use the Gelatin Crystal in the Hallow biome and quickly fly up to the platform we built. Swapping your wings and boots for damaging accessories or the Brain of Confusion/Worm Scarf in Expert mode+ is ideal, since you will be mounted the whole time.

Moxus Gaming
Queen Slime - Pre-Mechs! Quick & Easy Guide for Summoners
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ire8wMFZQg

Queen Slime:
Berzerker's Glove
Power Glove
Feral Claws
Pygmy Necklace
Summoner Emblem

Cool Whip x Ichor Flask

I did so with this loadout, on the Unicorn mount, with every buff i could get. The Cool Whip was what I used, but you can move on to the Durendal or stay on the Firecracker if you want, the only difference is how much runway you'll use. Took me just under 2000 blocks to do so. Only got hit a few times from her burst attacks and I'm not sure how much damage the Spider Staff summons really did... Use all the usual buff potions, and Invisibility potions work well at keeping the flying slimes from following you in phase 1.

We only need the Blade Staff here, but the Crystal Armor is good enough to hold onto, especially if you like the other class weapons.


An aside:
The Obsidian Armor set is really good still at this point in the game, you could use it through to Moon Lord but you'd have to almost never get hit. This approach is surprisingly better in Classic mode with 25% or 50% less health to burn through as the higher difficulties. Using Summons is a double edged sword, since they attack for you and you can just dodge, but the summon AI is absolutely horrible sometimes, and you have little control over them. Ranged always has been and always will be the king of zero brainpower strats, as all you gotta do is click toward the boss and run away, so our strategies also lean toward this.



You can use this exact same loadout on the Dreadnautilus for an alternate summon to the Blade Staff. The Spider Staff might work to beat him but use the Blade summons to be sure, or skip ahead and come back with the Durendal. All you need to summon him is nearly all of these items, the tackle bag can be swapped with the non-lava version and an extra fishing earring wouldn't hurt. You can get Master Bait from crates, and Chum Buckets and the Chum Caster from Blood Moon enemies you fish up. The Bloody Tears to summon the event are dropped by all blood moon enemies I think, and the two potions are rewards from the fisherman (or crafted). Overall not too bad and if you can only get a few of these items, you will just have a harder time fishing him up, so it might take more than one night. Better armor and Warding accessories are ideal, not that I had them, and the Daedalus Stormbow is debatably easier than using the whip too. It's a race against time either way, you can only stay alive for so long, you're just trying to kill him first. Arena:


This was originally showcased by Arcwell I believe, here is a good video on the subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgpJZxA9lc8

The Mechanical Bosses

Next boss is the Destroyer. My strategy is not the easiest way to defeat him, that goes to the dynamite strategy used in speedruns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8ARCf2EiA

My strategy is outlined in this video by Moxus Gaming, where you can use the whip to defeat the Destroyer and its Probes from behind a wall without ever being in danger. Possibly the second easiest way to defeat him, only limited by the time in one night.
https://youtu.be/zGwTM9jzaMI?t=450


The Destroyer:
Cool Whip
Blade Staff
Obsidian Armor

Bererker's Glove
Power Glove
Feral Claws
Summoner Emblem
Pygmy Staff
Stinger Necklace

You can get away with the Firecracker or the Spider Staff and still finish on time. You could do this fight before Queen Slime or Dreadnautilus, and use the Durendal for those fights instead, but I find this order preferable. Arena:


This is a great point to craft the Hallowed Amor set, you will lower the power of your whip but increase your summons from 4 with the Bewitching buff, to 6 (or 7 with the summoning potion). The Hallowed armor buff is only super useful if you are really good at dodging already, but one free hit every 30 seconds isn't too shabby either way, and will make defeating Daytime Empress of Light possible later.



The Twins:
Hallowed Armor (Ranged is better)
Megashark x Crystal Bullets
Blade Staff

Wings
Boots
Ranger Emblem
Summoner Emblem
Pygmy Necklace
Stinger Necklace

Chug a gravitation potion and fall upwards, zig-zag-ing across the sky while their shots sail over our heads.



Skeletron Prime:
I do not know a good way to defeat him, nor can I find one online. There is no cool cheese or exploit that you can use to simplify the fight, you just have to attack at him until he hopefully dies before you do. The Unicorn mount on the platform arena will do fine, move in one direction until he reaches the same speed as you and floats above your head, then you can turn around and leave him behind or keep going and hope he slows down. No cool strategy to this one, sadly, just hit him and try not to get hit :/

Craft the Pickaxe Axe and move on to the next section:

Plantera and Golem

Life fruits have now spawned in the jungle caverns, collect 20 to reach full life if you don't lack the patience to look around for 20 minutes. Pick up plenty of Chlorophyte Ore, it crafts into bars at a 5:1 ratio so you're gonna need quite a bit. Spending time AFK or doing other things will cause more of each to grow and you will be able to find them easier once you head down there, can farm for biome keys or whatnot at this time, though evil will be spreading rapidly still.


Plantera:
Holy Armor
Blade Staff
and either:
Whip x Ichor Flask
or
Chlorophyte Shotbow x Ichor Arrows

Wings
Boots
Berzerker's Glove / Ranger Emblem
Pygmy Necklace
Summoner Emblem
Avenger Emblem

Mobility is key, and having a good size arena is even more important. Extend Queen Bee arena to one screen wide and maybe even two screens tall. Circle around her and pepper her with whip or arrows, once the hungries spawn they are your biggest threat, whip them down first to survive longer OR burst down her core, there are no half measures here. If you can't kill her before you die to the hungries, build a bigger arena or swap to the whip and kill the adds first. Minimum arena:



Golem:
Pygmy Armor
Pygmy Staff (or Desert Tiger if possible)
Chlorophyte Shotbow x Ichor Arrows

Boots
Hercules Beetle
Pygmy Necklace
Summoner Emblem
Ranger Emblem
Avenger Emblem


Blade Staff kills body too quickly and you get overwhelmed by lasers and fireballs and hands all at once. Shotbow is far better than whip in my opinion, and you can replace wings with Hercules Beetle. The Desert Tiger Staff will outdamage all other summons in most situations, particularly for bosses, but farming the desert key sucks. Pygmy Staff is a great alternative and noticeably better than Sanguine or Blade summons. The arena is pretty simple, just block off the entrance and put a single platform across the ceiling. Leave room to jump up there.

Late Hardmode

Considering beating the Golem is the easiest thing to do after beating Plantera, and he opens up no new (good) equipment, you are in the exact same position as before, but with the added ability to take on the Lunatic Cultist / Lunar Event / Moon Lord.

Your choice as to what you tackle first, I don't have an easy time with anything from this point. You have:
Solar Eclipse (I guess)
Empress of Light
Duke Fishron
Pumpkin Moon
Frost Moon
Martian Madness

Some of these have good items, some do not. Depends a lot on your class, tbh.

The most powerful/useful items to get now, before Moon Lord are, in my opinion:
Terraprisma x Kaleidoscope
Razorblade Typhoon
Tsunami/Eventide
Terra Blade (could've gotten this before Golem tbh)
Witch's Broom (Expert)
Better Wings
Dark Harvest
Razorpine
Betsy's Wrath (gimmicky)
Celestial Stone/Shell

BUT
Why take on any of those events/bosses, when you could do the Lunatic Cultist boss, who is fairly easy, and slowly take down the Lunar Tower of your choice so you can craft your favorite lunar weapon? Both of these are easier than all other options right now, and give you the greatest reward... Doesn't make any sense why that's the case, but it's definitely still your best option.


My favorite option is to defeat the Empress of Light easily, using a minecart track arena, displayed in these guides here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbJZYjiiIOg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p--KCJhXJSw

You can do this at night first to get used to the boss patterns (when to jump, etc.) and also get you her dropped items to use during the day fight. I recommend the Tiki Armor x Kaleidescope x Sanguine Staff, or Megashark x Chlorophyte Bullets. This gives you the Terraprisma, and any of her other drops should you repeat the fight at day or night, setting you up to defeat anything else in the game with ease.

Moon Lord

Good luck, feel free to complete anything else you have left before taking him down, but honestly you can do it with just the Terraprisma and the equipment you had for The Golem. Using the unicorn mount on the Queen Slime arena works pretty well, just shoot at him or whip until he fires his middle laser, where I like to jump over him and start going the other way. You should outspeed the eyes once they come out of his hands, and the heart will go down lickity split. I personally use the Empress of Light minecart track, but you go so fast in the mechanical cart that he keeps teleporting to keep up with you. Slowing down a bit to keep him in range will make the fight pretty easy, just have to keep vigilant about the end of the track and turning around. This fight is more luck than skill with my methods anyways, and if you are having a hard time try going back for some of the equipment I mentioned in the last section.