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Terraria’s Complete Early Game Guide

Terraria title art

Terraria is a 2D survival game that also incorporates crafting, combat, and exploration. The game provides players with a rewarding experience for exploring and progressing. Surviving in the game is straightforward, but players must understand the world, or they may not even survive their first day.

Understanding Your First Day

Building in Terraria

Players spawn in Terraria with a Copper Pickaxe, a Copper Axe, and a Copper Shortsword. While weak gear, they’re still better than nothing, as players need to gather resources and find shelter. Zombies and Demon Eyes spawn at night, making it important for players to find a defense against them. A typical day in the game lasts 15 minutes, making it essential that players speed work to avoid dying at the hands of an enemy. Exploration and breaking every pot you see can help you find easy resources and locate an area where you can seek shelter.

Gathering Basic Resources

If you were wondering why the Copper Axe is useful in Terraria’s early game, it’s an important tool that will allow you to collect wood. This resource will be used for everything, ranging from torches to your first house. It’s recommended that players collect at least 150 wood to survive the night. Gel is another important resource that is used for torches. Stone is used in crafting stations and arrows. All these resources are important, with wood being the most important, so players can create a sufficient shelter, which will keep them safe during the night.

Crafting Your First Tools and Weapons

Combat in Terraria

Armor and weapons made from ore are superior to wooden blades in Terraria’s early game. But players have fewer strong choices when making their initial tools. Wood can be used to create swords, bows, hammers, and many other items. The first thing players must make is a workbench, which then unlocks recipes for other items. Then it’s just a matter of collecting the required resources and crafting the items. 

Building Your First Base

Creating your first base of operations is important for multiple reasons, most important being your safety during the night. The house you build needs to have four walls and a roof, background walls, doors, lights, and a table and chair for the NPCs. These are the game’s requirements for a sturdy base, and you will initially need to use wood for most of the structure.

Exploring the Surface Safely

Fishing in terraria

Exploring is instrumental in players scoring resources and vast treasures, but the world isn’t risk-free. Certain biomes, like the Jungle, have predators that players must be wary of if they don’t become an enemy’s meal. Caves are also filled with enemies, and players should always take a torch with them so they can look out for any traps. 

Mining and Early Ore Progression

Wood weapons and armor only get you so far in the game, and mining for ore is important if you want to fight stronger enemies. Mines are located inside tunnels within caves, and players should take with them wooden platforms and ropes to ensure they make it out safely. Once you mine ores, you must melt them in a furnace to create the item you want. The first tool players should upgrade is their Pickaxe, as it’ll be used extensively while mining. You can then upgrade your armor so you’re better protected against enemies. The ores in the game are Copper/Tin, the one players start with, then it goes up to Iron/Lead, Silver/Tungsten, and Gold/Platinum. 

Getting Your First NPCs

Shop NPC in Terraria

NPCs can start spawning once you meet their requirements. You can also have them move in by adding tables and chairs or individual rooms in your house. They have happiness meters, so making sure they don’t butt heads is smart. Initially, you can just put a table and chair to ensure they spawn at your home. NPCs are important because the Merchant can sell you items, while the Nurse can heal you. Other NPCs like the Arms Dealer and Wizard also provide benefits, making them spawn inside your base beneficial. 

Where To Go From Here

Once you’ve learned the ropes of the game and know how to survive, it’s time to move on to greener pastures. Explore more caves, start upgrading your armor and weapons, and increase your HP. After completing these things, you can then move on to taking on dangerous bosses. Most players usually fight Eye of Cthulhu first when in Terraria’s early game. But King Slime is the easiest boss in the game.

Hannan Mundia

I'm Hannan Mundia, an avid gamer and seasoned journalist who loves talking and writing about video games. From RPGs to platformers, I love immersing myself in all sorts of games to imagine myself in new and wonderous worlds.

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