Terraria Expert Mode survival guide
> My Experience
First of all, this guide was made while I was playing expert mode with a mediumcore character in a medium size world.
From my experience, I would say playing expert mode from scratch is a challenge, only for those who enjoyed Terraria already and want something harder.
If you're a casual player (Like me) I recommend playing a normal world. Once you've completed the most of it, create an expert world and use it to get all the rare stuff (Since Expert mode drop rates are higher).
First of all, this guide was made while I was playing expert mode with a mediumcore character in a medium size world.
From my experience, I would say playing expert mode from scratch is a challenge, only for those who enjoyed Terraria already and want something harder.
If you're a casual player (Like me) I recommend playing a normal world. Once you've completed the most of it, create an expert world and use it to get all the rare stuff (Since Expert mode drop rates are higher).
> Priorities:
First of all, you have to make sure what your priorities are, in this guide I'll priorize the following things:
- Armor: A lot of defense will be required if you want to survive against the toughest enemies.
- Ranged weapons: You sure don't want to go melee against your enemies in expert mode.
- Secure home: A place secure enough place to stay your days and nights is pretty much a must.
- Upgrading: You'll need to upgrade your stuff if you want to make any progress.
- Explore: Once all the things above are secured, we can start exploring our world!
First of all, you have to make sure what your priorities are, in this guide I'll priorize the following things:
- Armor: A lot of defense will be required if you want to survive against the toughest enemies.
- Ranged weapons: You sure don't want to go melee against your enemies in expert mode.
- Secure home: A place secure enough place to stay your days and nights is pretty much a must.
- Upgrading: You'll need to upgrade your stuff if you want to make any progress.
- Explore: Once all the things above are secured, we can start exploring our world!
> Surviving on your first day:
First of all, cut down some trees and make a wooden armor (75 wood) and a sword (7 wood). This will grant you 3 defense and a weapon which with you will be able to deal with minor enemies like slimes.
First of all, cut down some trees and make a wooden armor (75 wood) and a sword (7 wood). This will grant you 3 defense and a weapon which with you will be able to deal with minor enemies like slimes.
Second, explore the surface to find some slimes, chests and pots, but don't go too far away!
Once night arrives, it's time to go underground.
Go back to your spawn point and make a little cave on the floor, place a chest, a work bench, and a furnace.
Put on the chest all the useless stuff and make sure you have these items:
- A wood armor
- A melee weapon (You might have found one in a chest, if not, keep using your wood sword)
- A ranged weapon (You might have found one in a chest, if not, craft a bow and some arrows)
- A pickaxe
- Torches
- Either rope or wood platforms
Now is the time to get a better equipment, dig a 2 block wide hole in the ground and place rope/platforms and torches in your way down.
Go back to your spawn point and make a little cave on the floor, place a chest, a work bench, and a furnace.
Put on the chest all the useless stuff and make sure you have these items:
- A wood armor
- A melee weapon (You might have found one in a chest, if not, keep using your wood sword)
- A ranged weapon (You might have found one in a chest, if not, craft a bow and some arrows)
- A pickaxe
- Torches
- Either rope or wood platforms
Now is the time to get a better equipment, dig a 2 block wide hole in the ground and place rope/platforms and torches in your way down.
> Survival tips!
The following things will reduce monster spawning:
- Walls: User placed walls will stop monster spawning
- NPCs: Monsters won't spawn near NPCs
- Light: Same goes for any source of light
- Sunflowers: They'll reduce the spawn rate and give you speed.
*NOTE: If the Eye of Cthulhu randomly appears at night, disconnecting will make it dissapear*
The following things will reduce monster spawning:
- Walls: User placed walls will stop monster spawning
- NPCs: Monsters won't spawn near NPCs
- Light: Same goes for any source of light
- Sunflowers: They'll reduce the spawn rate and give you speed.
*NOTE: If the Eye of Cthulhu randomly appears at night, disconnecting will make it dissapear*
You need to character, so you'll be looking for the following things underground:
- Ores (Tier 1-4)
Tier 1: Copper/Tin
Tier 2: Iron/Lead
Tier 3: Silver/Tungsten
Tier 4: Gold/Platinum
All the ores will be usefull to get new armors, weapons and other stuff, make sure you get them all.
- Life crystals
More HP.
- Chests
You can find a lot of useful stuff in underground chests, like a magic mirror, throwable weapons, potions and more.
- Ores (Tier 1-4)
Tier 1: Copper/Tin
Tier 2: Iron/Lead
Tier 3: Silver/Tungsten
Tier 4: Gold/Platinum
All the ores will be usefull to get new armors, weapons and other stuff, make sure you get them all.
- Life crystals
More HP.
- Chests
You can find a lot of useful stuff in underground chests, like a magic mirror, throwable weapons, potions and more.
Underground Biomes:
- Granite Cave: Keep the distance with your enemies.
- Marble Cave: You have to be really careful here, hoplites can one-shot you and medusas can petrify you.
- Underground Desert: Keep the distance with your enemies.
- Underground Snow: Keep the distance with your enemies and you'll be fine.
- Underground Mushroom: Nothing to worry about.
- Spider Nest: If you manage to keep your distance you might be ok but makes sure you take no damage, spiders hit hard.
- Underground Jungle: Stay away.
- Granite Cave: Keep the distance with your enemies.
- Marble Cave: You have to be really careful here, hoplites can one-shot you and medusas can petrify you.
- Underground Desert: Keep the distance with your enemies.
- Underground Snow: Keep the distance with your enemies and you'll be fine.
- Underground Mushroom: Nothing to worry about.
- Spider Nest: If you manage to keep your distance you might be ok but makes sure you take no damage, spiders hit hard.
- Underground Jungle: Stay away.
> Building a house
Once you have decent gear, you should start building a proper house.
If you plan to play Terraria for a short time, you'll just need to worry about making some rooms for NPCs and chests.
Otherwise you'll have to plan how you want your house to be like.
You'll need (This is an example):
- NPC rooms (60 blocks including the walls)
- Chests room
- Crafting room
- Spawning room (Use a bed)
- Farming places
- Arena (To fight bosses)
Once you have decent gear, you should start building a proper house.
If you plan to play Terraria for a short time, you'll just need to worry about making some rooms for NPCs and chests.
Otherwise you'll have to plan how you want your house to be like.
You'll need (This is an example):
- NPC rooms (60 blocks including the walls)
- Chests room
- Crafting room
- Spawning room (Use a bed)
- Farming places
- Arena (To fight bosses)
> Explore
Time to explore your world!
By now you should have the following things to explore your world:
- Decent armor (Tier 2 at least, 3 recommended)
*NOTE: An alternative armor is the obsidian armor, made with obsidian (Mined with bombs) and silk*
- Torches, ropes and blocks (Alway usefull when exploring)
- A melee weapon (A spear or any other weapon with knockback if possible)
- A ranged weapon (You can craft a bow)
- A pickaxe (Duh)
And last but not least, a way to get home safely, like a recall potion/magic mirror or simply reconnect to your world.
Special biomes:
- Corruption/Crimson: Be careful, the enemies deal great damage.
- Floating Islands: If you're lucky enough, you may find a floating island, they have great loot!
- Pyramid: If you're lucky enough, you may find a floating island, they have great loot!
- The dungeon: You should already know this, but don't go in.
Time to explore your world!
By now you should have the following things to explore your world:
- Decent armor (Tier 2 at least, 3 recommended)
*NOTE: An alternative armor is the obsidian armor, made with obsidian (Mined with bombs) and silk*
- Torches, ropes and blocks (Alway usefull when exploring)
- A melee weapon (A spear or any other weapon with knockback if possible)
- A ranged weapon (You can craft a bow)
- A pickaxe (Duh)
And last but not least, a way to get home safely, like a recall potion/magic mirror or simply reconnect to your world.
Special biomes:
- Corruption/Crimson: Be careful, the enemies deal great damage.
- Floating Islands: If you're lucky enough, you may find a floating island, they have great loot!
- Pyramid: If you're lucky enough, you may find a floating island, they have great loot!
- The dungeon: You should already know this, but don't go in.
> Preparing for your first boss (Eye of Cthulhu)
Okay, time to get some work done! We'll step up and prepare for our first boss!
You can try to fight either Cthulhu or a King Slime, I'll prepare for Cthulhu.
First things first:
The boss can obviously be killed in many ways, with more defense or less defense. I'll try to get the more defense and attack I can to defeat the boss.
To get the things I'll later talk about, you'll need to destroy a Corruption/Crimson orb.
Go to a corruption/crimson biome and find an orb, then just get to it and destroy it using bombs.
(Once you do this, a meteorite could spawn every day)
Okay, time to get some work done! We'll step up and prepare for our first boss!
You can try to fight either Cthulhu or a King Slime, I'll prepare for Cthulhu.
First things first:
The boss can obviously be killed in many ways, with more defense or less defense. I'll try to get the more defense and attack I can to defeat the boss.
To get the things I'll later talk about, you'll need to destroy a Corruption/Crimson orb.
Go to a corruption/crimson biome and find an orb, then just get to it and destroy it using bombs.
(Once you do this, a meteorite could spawn every day)
Then you'll be able to get the items I'll use to fight Cthulhu:
- Armor: Meteor armor
- Melee weapon: Phase Saber
- Ranged weapon: Space gun (The meteor armor will make the space gun use no mana)
- Grenades (You can get them from the Demolitionist, great AoE Damage)
- Healing potions (You can craft bigger healing potions with glowing mushrooms)
That'll be the gear I'll use.
Now you should set up the following stuff:
- A battle arena: A big place to fight Cthulhu where you can freely move to dodge it.
- Campfires: To improve health regen.
- Sunflowers: To get a speed buff and lower monsters spawn rate.
- Potions: Endurance, Ironskin & Regeneration.
- Food: Get a "Well Fed" buff by eating something.
- Armor: Meteor armor
- Melee weapon: Phase Saber
- Ranged weapon: Space gun (The meteor armor will make the space gun use no mana)
- Grenades (You can get them from the Demolitionist, great AoE Damage)
- Healing potions (You can craft bigger healing potions with glowing mushrooms)
That'll be the gear I'll use.
Now you should set up the following stuff:
- A battle arena: A big place to fight Cthulhu where you can freely move to dodge it.
- Campfires: To improve health regen.
- Sunflowers: To get a speed buff and lower monsters spawn rate.
- Potions: Endurance, Ironskin & Regeneration.
- Food: Get a "Well Fed" buff by eating something.
I equiped some defensive accessories and build up to 25 armor, which became 35 once I buffed myself.
If you have the same setup I used, the boss will deal little damage, so there's nothing to worry about.
If you have the same setup I used, the boss will deal little damage, so there's nothing to worry about.
You can also use the same strategy to fight Eater of Worlds/Brain of Cthulhu.
> More upgrades!
Now that you own a Nightmare/Deathbringer Pickaxe, you can mine Hellstone. Go down to the Underworld and get a Hellforge and some Hellstone.
I'd recommend crafting the armor and the Imp staff at least (186 hellstone ores).
Make sure you are in a safe place like at the bottom of the Underworld where your only problem are the Imps.
Now that you own a Nightmare/Deathbringer Pickaxe, you can mine Hellstone. Go down to the Underworld and get a Hellforge and some Hellstone.
I'd recommend crafting the armor and the Imp staff at least (186 hellstone ores).
Make sure you are in a safe place like at the bottom of the Underworld where your only problem are the Imps.
> Boss Rush!
Next stops are the Jungle and the Dungeon.
You should be able to freely explore the jungle. Try to find a Bee Hive.
You can get some good loot if you manage to defeat Queen Bee, get the usual potions and be careful with the poisoned debuff since you won't regen health if you're poisoned.
Make sure you equip a Bezoar if you got the drop from a Hornet. (Grants poison Immunity)
Next stops are the Jungle and the Dungeon.
You should be able to freely explore the jungle. Try to find a Bee Hive.
You can get some good loot if you manage to defeat Queen Bee, get the usual potions and be careful with the poisoned debuff since you won't regen health if you're poisoned.
Make sure you equip a Bezoar if you got the drop from a Hornet. (Grants poison Immunity)
The following boss is Skeletron!
Make sure you have a wide surface to fight him and get the following buffs:
Potions:
- Endurance
- Featherfall
- Ironskin
- Magic power potion (If you use magic)
- Regeneration
- Swiftness
- Wrath
Well Fed buff.
You should use a ranged weapon like the Minishark.
Destroy the hands first and then the head, avoid him doing circles around the head and try not to hit it since it is the part that deals the most damage.
Make sure you have a wide surface to fight him and get the following buffs:
Potions:
- Endurance
- Featherfall
- Ironskin
- Magic power potion (If you use magic)
- Regeneration
- Swiftness
- Wrath
Well Fed buff.
You should use a ranged weapon like the Minishark.
Destroy the hands first and then the head, avoid him doing circles around the head and try not to hit it since it is the part that deals the most damage.
Once that's done you're free to explore the dungeon!
Inside you can get cool stuff from the chests whose keys will be dropped by the dungeon slimes, other dungeon enemies (rare), normal chests and pots (rare).
If you manage to get a Shadow Key you'll be able to open all the Underworld's chests.
Quick tip: You can use a Wire cutter to see Dungeon's Trap's wires and avoid traps.
Inside you can get cool stuff from the chests whose keys will be dropped by the dungeon slimes, other dungeon enemies (rare), normal chests and pots (rare).
If you manage to get a Shadow Key you'll be able to open all the Underworld's chests.
Quick tip: You can use a Wire cutter to see Dungeon's Trap's wires and avoid traps.
> Pre Hardmode
Now you are free to explore everything within your world. Build farms, farm bosses and enemies, go fishing, make shortcuts to the biomes and finish any crazy project you're making.
It's time to face the Wall of Flesh and start Hardmode!
Make sure you have everything prepared for Hardmode. Hardmode enemies will deal tons of damage even with a good defense.
Here are some things you may want to prepare:
- Max Health and Mana
This is a must, easy to do, great reward.
- Artificial Biomes
Hardmode monsters will be highly dangerous. If you have controlled artificial biomes near your home will be handy.
- Home defense
Make sure your house is a decent fortress. I recommend building traps at both sides to defend against the pirate invasion.
Also, it is recommended to have Sunflowers, Campfires, Heart Lamps and Peace Candles around your base.
- Farms
Prepare the farms you may need (Liquid farm, fishing farm, plants farm)
- Save a lot of money
If you have an artificial Jungle, you can summon Queen Bee there and run to your Home's arena.
You should be able to farm Queen Bee and get some good items as well as a ton of money.
It is highly recommended to have 1 platinum coin to buy the Leaf Wings (Witch Doctor at a Jungle biome at night)
Also, you could reforge your items to get the best modifiers (Warding for accessories)
- Potions
There are some potions that are easy to make and will help you a lot during the early phases of hardmode.
I recommend farming regeneration, ironskin and spelunker potions.
- World backup
Last but not least, having a copy of your world is always a good idea, you may feel uneasy in hardmode and it might be better to just go back and get better stuff.
Now you are free to explore everything within your world. Build farms, farm bosses and enemies, go fishing, make shortcuts to the biomes and finish any crazy project you're making.
It's time to face the Wall of Flesh and start Hardmode!
Make sure you have everything prepared for Hardmode. Hardmode enemies will deal tons of damage even with a good defense.
Here are some things you may want to prepare:
- Max Health and Mana
This is a must, easy to do, great reward.
- Artificial Biomes
Hardmode monsters will be highly dangerous. If you have controlled artificial biomes near your home will be handy.
- Home defense
Make sure your house is a decent fortress. I recommend building traps at both sides to defend against the pirate invasion.
Also, it is recommended to have Sunflowers, Campfires, Heart Lamps and Peace Candles around your base.
- Farms
Prepare the farms you may need (Liquid farm, fishing farm, plants farm)
- Save a lot of money
If you have an artificial Jungle, you can summon Queen Bee there and run to your Home's arena.
You should be able to farm Queen Bee and get some good items as well as a ton of money.
It is highly recommended to have 1 platinum coin to buy the Leaf Wings (Witch Doctor at a Jungle biome at night)
Also, you could reforge your items to get the best modifiers (Warding for accessories)
- Potions
There are some potions that are easy to make and will help you a lot during the early phases of hardmode.
I recommend farming regeneration, ironskin and spelunker potions.
- World backup
Last but not least, having a copy of your world is always a good idea, you may feel uneasy in hardmode and it might be better to just go back and get better stuff.
> Wall of Flesh
To fight the Wall of Flesh you have to be prepared to make a ton of damage.
Making a long corridor with placed Campfires, Honey spots and Peace Candles will nullify all WoF's damage (Except if you touch it).
If you have that setup or something similar, you only have to worry about the WoF's body, you will be able to easily run from it, but once the battle arrives at it's final phase WoF's speed will increase drastically, at this moment you'll have to deal the most damage possible.
Beenades will deal a lot of damage and will destroy the little mouths around WoF. Get your best weapons and other stuff along with the usual potions and go for it!
Good Luck!
To fight the Wall of Flesh you have to be prepared to make a ton of damage.
Making a long corridor with placed Campfires, Honey spots and Peace Candles will nullify all WoF's damage (Except if you touch it).
If you have that setup or something similar, you only have to worry about the WoF's body, you will be able to easily run from it, but once the battle arrives at it's final phase WoF's speed will increase drastically, at this moment you'll have to deal the most damage possible.
Beenades will deal a lot of damage and will destroy the little mouths around WoF. Get your best weapons and other stuff along with the usual potions and go for it!
Good Luck!
> Hardmode!
If you managed to get here, congratulations! You did great!
I wanted to see how much I could achieve, and for a casual player like me, getting to hardmode is enough!
I'm not that good at Terraria so Mechanical bosses kicked my ass and I lost my stuff 2 times now.
I'll finish my adventure here but I wish you good luck!
If you managed to get here, congratulations! You did great!
I wanted to see how much I could achieve, and for a casual player like me, getting to hardmode is enough!
I'm not that good at Terraria so Mechanical bosses kicked my ass and I lost my stuff 2 times now.
I'll finish my adventure here but I wish you good luck!