INTRO
If you’re a recovering no-life gamer who’s finally found joy in having a real life and dont want to get sucked into a ridiculously addictive game STOP READING this feature right now. Because once you start playing Terraria it becomes so addictive you'll have to outright delete the game to stop your self from playing it in every free moment.
Terraria is Mine Craft meets Castlevania. There are so many things to do and the game is so expansive that I honestly don’t know how to fully describe it. But I'll try anyway. Terraria is set in a 2d world that looks very similar to Castlevania, but plays very similar to MineCraft.
When you start the game you’ll be asked to create a character and name your first world. Once you complete that your world will be randomly generated from scratch and you’ll be tossed into a grassy area with nothing but a copper sword, a copper pickaxe, a copper axe, and unlimited potential.
Let's dive in.
GETTING STARTED
The first thing you'll notice is that there are several trees in the area, a few shiny ores in the ground and a wandering NPC called the Guide. It will be day time when you spawn and you'll notice that within a few minutes of looking around it will appear to get darker.
It is getting darker. ..but I'll tell you more about that a little later. Right now the first thing you should do is understand the basics of the game. Talking to the guide will reveal hints on what to do next to progress the game. As you complete tasks the guide will give you more advice on what you should consider doing next. Terraria is a very long game so you’ll want to speak to the guide constantly to get a vague idea on what to strive for.
TOOLS
The next important thing to understand in Terraria is how to use the various tools of the game. There are 3 main tools of the game that are critical for progressing forward: Pickaxes, Hammers, and Axes. There are several other tools like buckets, rope, torches, however the 3 main tools below are the most important.
AXES
Axes will allow you to chop down trees and gather wood which is a crucial ingredient for several crafting projects in the game. Most importantly -building houses for NPC’s. Axes can also be used as weapons and have an “axe power” number to inform you how quickly a particular axe can chop wood.
Your starting copper axe can cut down all of the trees in the game... so the main benefit of upgrading your axe is to decrease the time it takes to chop down wood and increase the damage the axe will do upon hitting enemies.
HAMMERS
Hammers will allow you to shatter background walls and certain special background objects like Shadow Orbs or Demon Altars.
Unlike regular walls, background walls sit firmly in the background and as such can not be jumped on. However, they can be easily walked through. The main point of background walls is to keep the natural background of a certain area covered.
Smashing natural background walls will sometimes let light pass through and make it easier to see in dimly lit areas. For a house to be considered livable you’ll need to destroy any natural occurring background walls and replace them with forged walls made out of stone, or wood. Forged walls prevent monsters from spawning in an area and will make the house ‘safe’.
Hammers also have a “hammer power number” that lets you know how quickly they can smash through background objects. You'll need a hammer with a very high hammer power number to break demon altars and shadow orbs.
PICKAXES
Pickaxes are the most important tool in the game and you'll find yourself using your pickaxe more than any other item.
Pickaxes allow you to mine through any terrain in the game, collect ores, and smash through anything that isn't a background object or tree - including enemies. Pickaxes also have a "pick axe power" number that dictates how quickly they can break a certain terrain tile, and what types of terrain tiles they can break.
You’ll want to upgrade your pickaxe first in most cases because unlike axes which can cut any tree, ores and blocks can only be mined by higher tiered pickaxes. You won’t be able to craft better weapons and armor without better ores so you’ll need to collect better pickaxes as soon as you can to progress through the game.
SURVIVING YOUR FIRST NIGHT
It is getting darker, and the first thing you’ll want to do is survive your first night. Because at night certain.. horrible monsters will appear and if you don't get ready you'll be eaten alive. Night is the most dangerous time in Terraria for several reasons. It's much harder to see, the monster spawn rates are much higher, and terror creatures spawn at night that are much harder to deal with than day time creatures.
To survive the first night you’ll want to build your 1st home, a wooden sword, a wooden hammer, and a full set of wooden armor. The first thing you should do is chop down 2-3 trees.
Tip: To get the most wood target the lowest section of the tree to make the entire tree explode into resources.