General Discussion

I'm going to be buying terraria on switch because it's on sale and I've been interested in it for awhile. It's a bit out of my comfort zone with all the fighting since I usually just play peaceful games or turn based fighting games. Anyway, does anyone have any tips for a very new player? I've been watching beginner guides on YouTube but would like to know if there are any specific things to look out for or quirks with the switch version to be aware of. Thanks for any help at all ^_^

all i can say is stick to the caverns and frost caverns since most other biomes are harsh on new characters

oh, also do not go into the dungeon with the old man

I don't have it on Switch, but I've played it a lot on PC, and here are some tips!

- Don't be worried if it takes you a while to beat a boss. I almost always ended up looking up a guide for how to beat them, and it still took me a LOT of tries for most. Take breaks if you need to, look over your gear, and stock up on healing potions and items you can use to buff your character.

- I would build an arena (warning for boss-related spoilers in that link). Personally, I like to use planter boxes, since they're faster to make, easier to build with, and a REALLY easy way of stockpiling potion materials. Unfortunately, they're also pretty expensive (particularly earlygame), so you might want to stockpile wood for platforms. It makes navigation a lot easier if you build a HUGE one across the length of your world, too.

- START WITH A SMALL WORLD. Large worlds are fun to play in, but I promise you it'll be so much more manageable with a smaller world. It'll be such a chore playing in a large world if you're going solo.

- A lot of crafting recipes are difficult to get to and take a lot of grinding. The Guide NPC, last time I played, had a function where you could see what you could craft off of an item that you gave to him, but I would recommend looking up a guide for the really complicated ones.

- Be prepared for a lot of grinding in general. In order to get the best gear, you're probably going to have to fight a lot of the same enemies over and over again. It's not necessary, but it can really help out if you're struggling with a boss or an area.

- The jungle is a nightmare in earlygame. It becomes an even bigger hassle when you enter hardmode. I would avoid it until you've beaten the Corruption or Crimson-specific early bosses at the minimum.

- To my knowledge, the Corruption and Crimson are pretty much equal loot-wise. but I always pick the Corruption because the Crimson has spiders and it's scary :(

- Get wings as soon as you can!!! Wings and flying mounts are incredible and will help you SO MUCH with maneuverability.

- Pretty mid-game suggestion, but the INSTANT you can, make a Minishark. It really helped me beat the first few hardmode bosses.

- Hardmode can be overwhelming, and it likes to drop bosses and raids on your lap out of nowhere. Take breaks if you need to, and focus on getting armor and equipment upgrades. You'll have the choice of deciding what sort of fighting style you like most, and I would recommend trying out all of them (altho no one really has anything good to say about mostly using Familiars lol)

I absolutely love Terraria and think it's one of the best RPGs out there, and I hope you like it too!! :D

I've played terraria for years on PC and it's always been a personal favourite of mine :D! It's great to see people go at it and try it out for the first time, I can promise you that the experience can be very rewarding!

What was said above really, but there's some tips I have too that include specific stuff you might find handy!

- I go with corruption because the aesthetic is more pleasing to me, but the boss is also (to me) much easier than the one in crimson. The crimson boss can be a challenge to hit and predict its movements, which makes it a little more tricky to fight compared to the other.

- Make the best armor you can first!! Focus on armor and weapon upgrades before you fight bosses! Whenever I start a new game I always go for the best armor I can get at the time to fight specific bosses.

- Applying to the above comment, DON'T BE AFRAID TO USE THE WIKI.
Terraria can be a difficult game to play when you don't know too much, especially with all the different item combinations. The wiki is gonna be your biggest ally (I use it even now!!), especially when you wanna make specific weapons/trinkets and figure out when to fight bosses.

- P o t i o n s. Use them, especially during boss fights. Always buy a meal or two from traveling merchants. Combine one big meal with an ironskin and thorns potion and you can take on even the corruption boss with fairly basic armor! Those potions let you tank hits and do damage when struck.

- This is for later game and IS really, really grindy, but I always ALWAYS go for the Ankh Shield. It's an item that completely reduces knockback and makes you immune to every status effect in the game, it's insanely useful especially against enemies that can do damage through effects.
I say it's super grindy because it requires sooooo many items and some are incredibly rare drops, but to me it's always worth it (especially because it also gives you a defense buff by being a shield).

- I always make the Terra Blade (hardmode item, requires you to fight the big moth during solar eclipses since it drops one of the items for crafting!). It's fairly easy to get all the stuff to make it (just a variety of swords from different places, again refer to wiki) and does a ton of damage + has a great ranged ability.

- That being said, for new players I always recommend the melee build because it has the strongest armor and buffs up attack, melee weapons are already pretty powerful alone.
The other builds (ranger, mage, summoner) can be tricky to get used to, at least IMO, especially because of their lacking defense compared to melee. It can make boss fights hard if you're not too good at dodging yet, especially during solo play because the boss is always going to be targeting you.

I hope some of the tips help out!! Good luck, I really hope you enjoy the game as much as I do myself :]

All the stuff mentioned above, plus making a straight hole from the Surface to the Underworld (hellevator). Hellevators save a lot of time you'd otherwise spend spelunking through caverns and they're great for locating hardmode ores, clentaminating your world in hardmode (getting rid of world evil) and fast traveling to the Underworld and everything in between the start and the end of the hellevator.

Hellevators are usually built gradually. Depending on if you mine them manually or with explosives, they can be anywhere from 2-7 blocks wide. I like to add a rope in the middle of my hellevators for fast upward travel, or in case I get knocked by enemies during earlygame.

The biggest downside hellevators come with is the fall damage, but that can be negated with a small pool of water placed just before the underworld starts, holding an Umbrella, using your hook before landing or by equipping a Horseshoe or Wings.