Lord's Guide to Terraria Survival: Mining

Mining can be a tough job, expecially when you aren't sure what you are actually doing. This guide will show you the wonders of mining in Terraria (in the early game) and even display some neat tricks that can improve your overall mining experience

Before the Descent

Before you head down to the mines, there are some things you should grab. (don't forget a Pickaxe!)

What to bring

• Armor: If you haven't already gotten 75 of any given type of wood (or cactus) then do so and quickly make a set of armor (cactus is best for now) Sure it gives you 3-6 defence. but 3 is greater than 0.
  
• Torches, and things to make Torches: I would always bring along some Gel and wood just in case I run out of torches while mining. (I can craft some more).
  
• A bow: If you haven't invested in a bow or some other type of long range weapon, now is the time to do so. Underground monsters are stronger than anything you have faced thus far. You will want the extra range.
  
• Rope: Rope is useful for going down into caves (because fall damage hurts).
  
• Recall Potions: so you can make a quick return.

New Villagers!

If you have been exploring for a while, made an infinite NPC house or just made multable npc houses, then you should of gotten some new faces in town! Here are some of the NPC's you could of encountered

Merchant
The Merchant requires a single player to be in possetion of 50 silver coins in order to spawn. He is the first vendor NPC that players will usually get. Here is his stock.

Item Name	Price	Requirement	Comment
Mining Helmet	4 gold	Always	Provides light, it is decent, but go for defense for now
Piggy Bank	1 gold	Always	If you have 1 gold coin, this is what you should spend it on. The Piggy Bank is essentially a void storage. Accessing another piggy, even in other worlds will bring up anything you put in the piggy previously. You can also spend coins that are store in your piggy.
Iron Anvil	25 silver	Always	I would recommend buying this, as it allows you to make metal armor and tools as well as saves you on iron or lead.
Bug Net	25 silver	Always	You'll want to get one of these eventually. You use it to catch critters.
Copper Pickaxe	5 silver	Always	You started with one, why would you need to buy another one?
Copper Axe	4 Silver	Always	You started with one, why would you need to buy another one?
Torch	50 copper	Always	Useful if your low on torches
Lesser Heal potions	3 silver	Always	pretty good if you are running low or haven’t gotten any, you'll probably find more than you need anyway though
Lesser Mana Potions	1 silver	Always	Good for mages
Wooden Arrow	5 copper	Always	Third best thing he sells in my opinion, behind the piggy and safe.
Shuriken	15 copper	Always	Works well on the first boss, we will fight it later.
Rope	10 copper	Always	Super useful if your low on rope
Marshmellow	1 silver	When in a Snow Biome	can apply wood and roast over a campfire for some free food items
Throwing Knife	50 copper	Blood Moon	Deals more damage the shurikens, but shurikens tend to be more useful
Glowstick	10 copper	Always	Useful if you need to do a lot of work underwater
Safe	20 gold	Skeletron is Defeated	Functions similar to the Piggy. Storage is separate from the piggy. Cannot spend money out of a safe like you can with the piggy.
Flare	7 copper	Flare gun in inventory	need more flare ammo for your useless Flare Gun?
Blue Flare	7 copper	Flare gun in inventory	Other flares are preferred
Sickle	60 Silver	Always	Used to gather hay from cutting grass

Demolitionist
The Demolitionist is probably the second vendor you will get. To get him you must have the Merchant alive, and have an explosive in your inventory (gernade, bomb, dynamite ect...). He sells bombs, so he ends up being everybody's favorite vendor...

Item Name	Price	Requirement	Comment
Gernade	75 copper	Always	Small explosion radius, doesn’t destroy tiles
Bomb	3 silver	Always	small explosion radius, destroyed tiles
Dynamite	20 silver	Always	large explosion radius, destroys tiles.

Dye Trader
You get him by having a strange plant in your inventory if you were lucky enough to grab one or defeating one of the three major pre-hardmode bosses (Eye of Cthulhu, Eater of Worlds/Brain of Cthulhu, or Skeletron) with a dye item in your inventory. He sells the dye vat and colored dyes you can't normally get. He will also trade in strange plants for an exotic dye.

Speaking of dye, dye can be worn in the special dye slots which is in the same place as where you equip your armor. It changes the color of whatever slot you put it on to that color (brown dye will change your armor piece brown for example. It can be used to give further customization to your character.

Item Name	Price	Requirement	Comment
Dye Vat	5 gold	Always	Used to create and mix dyes
Silver Dye	1 gold	Always	The closest thing to white dye
Brown Dye	1 gold	Always	Dyes things brown
Shadow Dye	3 gold 75 silver	Full Moon	Dyes things vanta black
Negative Dye	3 gold 75 silver	Full Moon	Makes things their negative color
Team Dye	1 gold	On a Multiplayer Server	Color depends on whatever team you are on. (red, blue, green, yellow, or pink).

Now that you checked out the new vendors, sell some stuff you might not need and hit the caves!

Welcome to the Tunnels!

Alright! We are now entering probably one of the two biggest biomes in the game now! the Underground and the Cavern layer

Underground

When that sexy underground music plays you know your are going to hear that same song at least five more times... well crap.

I Just so happened to get an Gold Portal as well! Expect this picture to come back later (Hint hint)

Enemies
Giant Worm
-Damage 8/16 (head) 4/8 (body)
-Max Life: 30/60
-Notable Drops: Whoopie Cushion (Rare)
Red Slime
-Damage: 12/24
-Max Life: 35/70
-Notable Drops: Gel, Slime Staff (Rare)
Yellow Slime
-Damage: 15/30
-Max Life: 49/90
-Notable Drops: Gel, Slime Staff
**Giant Shelly
-Damage: 16/32
-Max Life: 50/100
Notable Drops: Depth Meter (Rare), Compass (Rare), Rally

--Reoccuring
Blue Slime

--Rare
Pinky

Notable Resourses
Copper (Tin): the weakest ore. You probably shouldn't waist your time mining it, it isn't that much of an upgrade. Tin is equivalent to Copper.
Iron (Lead): Iron is the first resourse you really want. It is still useful even when you already made armor and tools with it! Lead is equivalent to Iron.
Silver (Tungsten): Silver is better than iron. Tungsten is eqivalent to Silver.
Amathyst: Weakest Gem. it is purple.
Topaz: Second weakest gem. It is yellow.
Saphire: Third weakest gem. It is blue
Silt: completely useless right now, but with an item we will get later, it will become useful.

Notable Structures
Mushroom Biome: A Biome made of mud, with glowing mushrooms on top. Glowing Mushroom Biomes are usually riddled with traps, so be careful.
-Glowing Mushroom: Used in shine potion crafting as well as healing potion crafting.
-Mushroom Grass seeds: You will need these later... trust me.
Underground Cabins: Very useful if you find one of these! these contain gold chests which have some good loot in them. See the loot section of the Guide to see what your looking for. They also can have furnature, cobwebs, and statues in them.

The Underground extends from under the surface to the beginning of the cavern (marked with brown background). You really want to get deeper into the Cavern layer... so just get as far down as you can.

Cavern layer

Cavern layer is where it is at! Being the biggest biome in the game, extending from the bottom of the underground to the start of the Underworld, the Cavern has a ton of stuff in it!

More fortune, There is a Nymph down there, A rare mob and the only way to get a Metal Detector.

Enemies
Black Slime
-Damage: 15/30
-Max Life: 45/90
-Debuff: Darkness 15 seconds/30 seconds
Darkness imapirs your vision slightly
-Notable drops: Gel, Slime Staff (rare)
Mother Slime
-Damage: 20/40
-Max Life: 90/180
-Notable Drops: Gel, Slime Staff (Rare), Compass (Rare), Baby Slime
Baby Slime
-Damage: 13/26
-Max Life: 30/60
-Notable Drops: Gel, Slime Staff (Rare)
Skeleton
-Damage: 18-22/36-44
-Max Life: 55-65/110-130
-Notable Drops: Hook (Rare), Ancient Iron Helmet (Rare), Ancient Gold Helmet (Rarer) Bone Sword (Rare), Skull (Stupid Rare (not as rare as Slime Staff))
Cave Bat
-Damage: 13/26
Max Life: 16/32
Debuff (Expert Only): Feral Bite 30-90 seconds
Feral Bite increases damaged, but decreases life regeneraton and can cause other debuffs.
-Notable drops: Depth Meter (Rare), Chain Knife (Rare)
**Salamander
-Damage: 18/36
-Max Life: 65/130
Debuff: Poison 3 seconds/ 6 seconds (spit only)
Poison disables health regen and slowly drains your life
Notable Drops: Depth Meter (rare), Compass (rare), Rally (Rare)
Undead Miner (uncommon)
-Damage 22/44
-Max Life: 70/140
-Notable Drops: Hook (rare), Mining Outfit (Rare), Bone Pickaxe (rare)
Cochineal Beetle
-Damage: 20/40
-Max Life: 40/80
-Notable Drops: Red Husk

--Water Mobs
Blue Jellyfish
-Damage: 25/50
-Max Life: 34/68
-Notable Drops: Jellyfish necklace
Piranha
-Damage: 25/50
-Max Life: 30/60
Notable Drops: Hook (rare), Robot Hat (Rare), Compass (rare)
**Crawdad
-Damage: 28/56 (35/70 on jump attack)
-Max Life: 50/100
-Notable Drops: Depth Meter, Compass, Rally

**Out of the three mobs, Giant Shelly, Salamander, and Crawdad, you will only get two of them. the third one will not spawn.

--Reoccuring
Giant worm

--Rare
Pinky
Tim
-Damage: 20/40
-Max Life: 200/400
-Notable Drops: Wizard Hat
Nymph
-Damage 35/70 (10/20 in lost girl form)
-Max Life: 300/600 (250/500 in lost girl form)
-Notable drops: Metal detector (WARNING: In normal mode this is not a 100% drop. And this mob is VERY rare (Rarer than Tim and Pinky)

Notable Resourses
Blinkroot: Alchamey Herb; Blooms whenever it wants.
Lava: A very hot liquid that is found towards the bottom of the Cavern layer. Might be useful due to it being so hot it catches things on fire hmm?
Cobweb: Cobwebs make silk, which is a main ingredient for beds.
Gold (Platinum): Best ore you can mine, Except that glowing stuff... Platinum is equivalent to Gold
Demonite (Crimtain): you can't mine it without a gold or platinum pickaxe. Crimtain is the Crimson equivalent to Demonite, which is Corruption exclusive
Emerald: Stronger than Sapphire. Green
Ruby: Second best minable gem. Red
Dimond: best Minable gem. White
+ Underground Notable Resourse

Notable Structures
For all of these see the Mini-biome list

Marble Cave
Granite Cave
Spider Nest
+Underground Notable Structures

Minibiomes

A Glowing Mushroom Biome

There are 3 turrain structures that have unique mobs in the Cavern layer. These are the Marble Caves, Granite Caves, and Spider Nest.

Spider Nest

Spider nests are dignified by their mass abundance of Cobweb and very dark brown backwall.

Enemies
Wall Creeper
-Damage: 30/60
-Max Life: 80/160
(Pre-Hardmode Exclusive Enemy)

Notable Resourses
Cobweb: There is a ton of it. While you only get 1/4 of the cobweb you break, It is still very much worth your time.
Webbed Covered Chest: These are worth your time, expecially if you haven't found a grapple yet.
-Web Slinger: A 8 hook grapple, the most hooks you can have, but with the shortest range. Still pretty useful until you get an upgrade.

There are three reasons why you want to at least know where one of these biomes is for later. One, The Cobwebs grow back... you can always come back and still get 200+ cobweb by running around collecting it. Two, There is an NPC you can find down here, The Stylist.

The Stylist

The Stylist is a vendor NPC all about your hair. She even offers a hair change for 5g and a recolor for 1g. Before you shrug her off as useless, she does have some unique, animated hair sprites that you acually can't get unless you pay her, so if your like me and would like to make your chacarter look... half decent, then by all means! She also sells Hair dyes that will change the color of your hair depending on certain conditions.

Item Name	Price	Requirement	Comment
Deph Hair Dye	5 gold	Always	Makes you hair change color depending on what depth level you are at
Life Hair Dye	5 gold	400 life	Makes you hair color change depending on how much HP you have.
Mana Hair Dye	5 gold	200 Mana	makes you hair color change depending on how much Mana you have
Money Hair Dye	10 gold	At least 1 platinum coin in your inventory	makes you hair color change depending on the highest value coin in your inventory.
Time Hair Dye	5 gold	On Waning Crescent, Waxing Crescent, and first Quarter Moon nights	Makes you hair color change depending on the time of day
Team Hair Dye	5 gold	Must be on a multiplayer server	Makes you hair change color depending on what team you’re on.
Party Hair Dye	7 gold 50 silver	Party Girl is Present	Makes your hair pink and spit out confetti
Hair Dye Remover	5 gold	Always	removes any active hair dye.

Granite Cave

A large undergorund cave made completly out of Granite. (The dark blue block)

Enemies
Granite Golem
-Damage: 30/60
-Max Life: 110/220
-Notable Drops: Night Vision Helmet (Rare)
Granite Elemental
-Damage: 28/56
-Max Life: 50/100
-Notable Drops: Night Vision Helmet (rare)

Notable Resourses
Granite: Granite is a good building material, being one of the very few nearly black blocks in the game, the eaisest to obtain and earliest you can get than any of these blocks. Also, only Granite and Obsidian Brick have a furnature set to match. Good for a build material.

Underground cabins that spawn in this area are also Granite themed. That is nice.

Marble Cave

Everyone is a bit salty abou Marble Caves, but they are much better since the Wiring Update came out.


Enemies
Hoplite
-Damage: 24/48 (48/96 on ranged attack)
-Max Life: 80/160
-Notable Drops: Javelin, Hook (rare), Gladiator armor set (Rare)

Notable Resourses
Marble: There are only a few white blocks that are good for making structures (buildings) in this game. Marble is the cheapest, most universal, AND, has a furnature set. What is there not to like? The mobs? Yeah, I totally agree with you...

History: In 1.3.0, You had to deal with Medusa as soon as you found one of these biomes. Medusa can inflict the Petrified debuff, which makes you unable to attack or move. While the debuff only lasted around 3 seconds, you take increased fall damage, reguardless if you had wings or a hoseshoe on, and she could petrify you when you were directly above her. As long as you were facing her in her line of sight, she could stun lock you.

But thankfully, You never have to go back there, as the past is in the past, and now not only can she not petrify you when you are above her, she is now a Hardmode mob! Now Marble Biomes aren't as totally annoying!

What Eles to Look For

If you are just running around, mining ore, than you are doing it wrong! Sure that is what you mainly do. But there is more to the Underground than just ore.

Pots

Even though you have broken pots on the surface, there are sill many pots to be broken in this world, and it is your job to break every single one of them. Occationally (Like the picture to the left you have seen before), you will break a pot and a yellow portal will appear. This small portal will give you either 5 10 or 15 gold coins, which is a nice treat, expecially when you get more than one. They also give you torches and recalls, which is nice as well if you happen to be running low.

Underground Cabins

Underground cabins are one of the main reasons your down here! Depending on what level you are at (Underground or cavern) There are diffrent loot you may find. Here are some of the notable ones.

Band of Regeneration: A useful accessory, it increases life regeneration by a little bit.
Magic Mirror: Remeber that item that I said would replace the Recall Potions... this is it. The Magic mirror does the same thing, just on infinie charges.
Cloud in a Bottle: A double jumping accessory and by far the worst one. But that dosen't mean it is bad.
Hermies Boots: Hermies Boots are a must have. They enable your character to do a sprint, which is very useful for boss fighting, expecially in Expert Mode (hint hint).
Extractinator (Rarer than other items): Usually you would find the Extractinator in the Underground desert. I will mention it again later then, as that is when you usually obtain one. However if you were lucky enough to get one, This item is why you should collect Silt and slush.
Shoe Spikes: Remember that Item I said was identical to the climbing claws but can be combined to make the ability better? This is that item... now if only there was a way to combine these two accessories to one accessory... hmm....
Lava Charm (Cavern Layer Only, Rarer than Other Items): The Lava Charm allows you character 7 seconds of lava immunity if you touch lava. It is pretty cool, and if you get one, I will envy you unless I get one myself.

Life Crystals

A very important part of your underground exploration is to be looking for the heart shaped rocks known as Life Crystals. These suckers will perminately increase your maximum life by 20 every use. HOWEVER Expecially if you are playing on Expert Mode, I would suguest NOT to exceed 180 life until you are ready for the Eye of Cthulhu. Keep in mind that once you get 120 life, you are then able to experience blood moons, and with 140 life, you can encounter Slime Rain (Unless your in Expert mode, reaching these criteria in expert mode will just make them more likely). These two topics are what we will cover at a later date, Just try to collect as many heart crystals as you can, and just don't exceed 200 life until your ready. Which I guarantee your not. You probably don't even have a proper arena set up yet.

Rare Mobs

While not as prevelent as finding Golden Chests, Rare Mobs are something to kill, as they usually give you exclusive drops. Pinky's Pink Gel is used in certain recipies that normal gel can't be used. Tim's Wizzard hat is one of the only mage based hats you can get at this point of the game. the Nymph is the only mob to ever drop a metal detector, and so on.

Gems or a Hook

You need to find these items. If you find a hook you don't need to find Gems, but don't grind for a hook if you can't help it. You'll need 15 of any type of gem in order to create a gem grappling hook. depending on what tier the gem is will determine the length of the hook (Amathyst being the shortest, Diamond being the longest). Personally, I wouldn't make a Ruby or diamond hook unless I had way more rubies and diamonds to spare. A Sapphire Hook should last you most of the game depending on your fancy.

The Icy Underground

If you manage to dig underneath the Snow Biome, you will enter the Underground Snow Biome. This biome hosts a whole new host of enemies, and loot.


Enemies
Ice Bat
-Damage: 18/36
-Max Life: 30/60
-Debuff: Chilled (20 seconds/40 seconds), Frozen (1 second/2 seconds)
Chilled Reduces Movement speed
Frozen Renders you Imoble
-Notable drops: Depth Meter (Rare)
Snow Flinx
-Damage: 26/52
-Max Life: 70/140
-Notable Drops: Compass (Rare), Snowball launcher (Very rare)
Spiked Ice Slime
-Damage: 12/24 (18/36 ranged)
-Max Life: 60/120
-Debuff: Chilled (20 seconds/ 40 seconds), Frozen (1 second/ 2 seconds (Contact) 1.5 seconds/ 3 seconds (Ranged))
-Notable Drops: Gel, Slime Staff (Rare)
Undead Viking
-Damage: 24/48
-Max Life: 70/140
-Notable Drops: Hook (Rare), Compas (Rare), Viking Helmet (Rare)
Cyan Beetle
-Damage: 20/40
-Max Life: 40/80
-Notable Drops: Cyan Husk

--reoccurring
Ice Slime

Notable Loot (From Underground Cabins within the Snow Biome)
Ice Blade: A beam sword, slightly weaker than the Enchanted Sword
Ice Scates: Accessory that allows the negation of ice physics and the abilty to not break thin ice by falling on it.
Snowball Cannon: a decent early game weapon with easy to obtain ammo
Blizzard in a Bottle: Has every Blizzard game ever inside this bottle for free along with 5 Overwatch Loot Boxes Slightly better variant of the Cloud in a Bottle, slightly worse than the Sandstorm in a bottle
micFlurry Boots: a reskin of Hermies boots
Ice Mirror: a reskin of a Magic Mirror
Fish: this fish in preticular allows the summoning of a baby penguin pet.
Ice Machine: Special crafting station, Allows you to craft Ice furnature.

The Snow Biome has it's fair share of amazing loot. However I still prefer the normal underground due to it's easiness and stone. I'd still mine here.

Tactics and a NPC

Here are some quick tips on some tactics you can use while mining!

• Spelunker Potions will help you find treasure, valuable ore, and gems.
  
• You can place blocks in water, use this to your advantage to mine things off the bottom of a lake from underneath.
  
• You don't need to do everything in one trip, if you find no ore and 15 sapphires, it is still worth your time to go back to base to make a grappling hook to make future trips more efficent
  
• Your grapple, and Cloud in a Bottle can negate fall damage by using them at the right time.
  
• If you want to get the mining over with, skip copper/tin.
  
• Bringing a piggy bank with you will increase your inventory space. I wouldn't bring it if you only had one though.
  
• If you have nowhere else to go, there are no laws in Terraria that said you couldn't dig straight down. Just be careful you don't fall into a large cavern and die in darkness.
  
• It would be benificial to begin building a large amount of water to be able to dump into the Lava Layer for later.
  
• If you do find Lava, grab a few buckets of it, it might come in handy.
  
• Items like the Metal detector and the Lifeform Analyzer can help greatly while exploring for finding ores or rare enemies.
  
• If you find the Skeleton merchant, don't be afraid to sell stuff to him. Or even buy some more supplies from him if you are running low.

Skeleton Merchant

Occationally, you will meet the Skeletal Merchant underground. He is a very intresting NPC in the fact that nearly his entire stock changes dependent on when you talk to him. If you want to get an item off him, you will want to keep him around to have the item show up. There will be a lot of moon phases here, so I will just say the phase of the moon here.

Item Name	Price	Requirement	Comment
Bomb	3 silver	Always
Rope	10 copper	Always
Strange Brew	5 silver	Full, New, Third Quarter, First Quarter	Restores 400 mana and 80 health. Best mana restoration potion in the game, but since it gives potion sickness it cannot be used all the time.
Lesser Healing Potions	3 silver	Waxing Gibbous, Waning Gibbous, Waxing Crescent, Waning Crescent
Spelunker Glowstick	1 silver 50 copper	At night or during a full moon	dimly lights up treasure when held
Glowstick	10 copper	During the day that is not the Full Moon
Bone Torch	1 silver	First half of every in-game hour (real life minute)	A fancy looking torch that produces purple light
Torch	50 copper	Second Half of every in-game hour (real life minute)
Bone Arrow	15 copper	Full, Waning Gibbous, New, Waxing Cresent	A grade of arrow between wooden arrows and flaming arrows. Flaming or Frostburn arrows are easier to obtain, so stick with those.
Wooden Arrow	5 copper	First Quarter, Waning Crescent, Third Quarter, Waxing Gibbous
Counterweights	5 gold	Colors sold vary on moon phase: -Blue: Full, New -Red: Waning Gibbous, Waxing Crescent -Purple: First Quarter, Third Quarter -Green: Waning Crescent, Waxing Gibbous	A Yo-yo accessory
Magic Lantern	10 gold	The Night of the Full Moon	Light pet that acts as a spelunker glowstick

As stated before, if you run into the Skeleton Merchant on your adventure underground, don't be afraid to use him to do a quick inventory clean and/or restock before continuing on your way in the mines.

If he is close to selling an item you want, don't be afraid to trap him and stay nearby him until he sells the item you want.

With all that said, you will be spending a lot of time underground. So I suppose I will leave you to that!

Thank You Again!

Thanks for reading this guide too, if you like them... then please wait for more, if you dont... well to freaking bad, I will make more anyway. If there are any mistakes please let me know... because nobody can spell perfectly, expecially me. I am bad at spelling.

Next time on Lord's Guide to Terraria Survival: We add a few new additions to our headquarters after a long time of mining and we take on our first two bosses, The Eye of Cthulhu and the King Slime.

Change log

June 20 2016
-Removed Medusa's bio, as Medusa is now a Hardmode mob. I also editied the flavor text for the Marble biome to not scare kiddies away from it because of a mob that will never spawn.

November 11, 2017
-Revamped the guide entirely!
--Fixed lots of typos!
--Made enemy and biome bios easier to read.
--Made NPC stock more readable by converting them into tables.

November 19, 2017
-Changed the thumbnail for more consistancy

[Lord Washington of America]

I guess, but Meele still has it's uses if something gets too close or you are stuck in closed quarters. I mainly use range to clear rooms or snipe bats :/

[papa nurgle's pizza]

It's kind of ironic that it becomes very important to use ranged weapons underground