Enjoy some Terraria? Have this massive, hardcore mode centered guide I wrote.

[Milkyway64]

So you've played and replayed the excellent Indie release Terraria again and again, with friends, without friends, and building newer and more intricate bases each time. You are absolutely in love with the game and want more out of it, but find that your full hallow gear and flamethrower can only dominatate the same unicorns and pixies for so long before it all feels so mundane. What does one do?

They try the Hardcore challenge.

This guide may have already been done several times, but hey, I like writing, and I've yet to read any of them. So I'm doing my own guide using my own experience and what I've learned from the wiki to help those worried about facing the challenge. This guide won't be very in-depth. Not for now. It'll just cover what one should expect and ways to solve problems. LOL DISREGARD THAT THIS GUIDE IS COMPREHENSIVE.

First thing to note: this guide assumes singleplayer. Hardcore co-op can be fun, but if even one of you dies, that's it for all of you, unless you LIKE letting your friends play without you. And if you're just going to make a new character, why not just play mediumcore?

Second thing to note: survival > pride. For instance, making a bridge for Wall of Flesh is considered unskilled and cheap, and I've personally seen flame wars over it. That doesn't apply here. Be the cheapest sonovagun you can, because all you have is one shot, and it's all over.

Now, to the guide.

Phase 1: Overworld

So you just started a new world and created a character for it. You clicked on your pink-texted Johnny Bravo expy and it's time to get rolling. One may be overwhelmed and pressured thinking about what's to be laid on them. This is understandable, as corruption could be anywhere and before you'd even see it, an eater of souls may spawn and give you a rough time. That said, locating your boundaries is the absolute most important thing you can do to start with. Make a wooden sword and a good supply of wood platforms, and head either left or right. Always, always, always make sure you have a way back before you need it, and continue until you see corruption. Turn back immediately. If an eater follows you, kill it only after you're a ways away so none of its friends can follow. Return to center spawn. If you were lucky, you now have a good number of shurikens, torches, and maybe a boomerang or blowpipe. Both are okay until you're settled enough for a bow. If you managed to get a spear, then you're in really good shape. Additionally, take note of any deserts. You may not have any in your boundaries, but if you do, then you can get started on alchemy and make extremely useful potions.

Repeat for the other side. If you're really lucky, one side of your world may not have either corruption or jungle. In this case, things are about to get a ton easier, as you could journey to the ocean and score yourself a trident, an EXCELLENT weapon for so early on in the game. Let's assume you're not so fortunate, and you hit corruption or jungle. Return to the center.

By now, it should be getting close to night. Make yourself a shelter anywhere you want within your boundaries, ideally between center and either of your boundaries. The reason for this are goblin invasions. They hit the center of your map, and it's nice to have your home somewhere they won't swarm it and you can fight on your own terms. Now that you have a shelter, you have two options. First is fighting zombies and demon eyes for money and shackles. A warding or menacing shackle at this point will do absolute wonders if you're near that lucky, but anything decent will help immensely. Make goggles from lens you pick up. If you get hurt, simply close the door and regen.

The second thing you can do is dig down and mine for stone and copper. For safety, baricade yourself off every so often. This stops zombies and other monsters from spawning within your hole and sneak attacking you, and they are trivial to take back down when you come back though. For best results, combine both methods: fight zombies and eyes until you are brought to about 50 HP, then mine while you regen. Go back up and repeat.

Second day:

Morning breaks. You should have an nice supply of stone and a bit of copper if you mined, and if you fought, some goggles and maybe a shackle. You should make a furnace if you haven't already. Now it's time to make a bow and some arrows.

If you have the iron, make an anvil and shoot for a copper bow. If not, a wooden bow will suffice. Chop some trees, then use -all- of your stone for arrows. A ranged weapon is absolutely indispensable. The further away you can damage an enemy, the less damage you yourself will take. Once you have a ranged weapon and some ammo, it's time for phase 2. After you make some NPC rooms, of course!

Phase 2: The Underground

So, you have a bow, a small bit of defense, and a merchant wandering around. Now it's time to mine. Either continue from the hole in your house (although that was meant for stone) or find a natural cave to start with. The cave will over more pots and treasure chests (and most notably the chance of a spear) but will make the return trip more dangerous should you emerge at night. Your job is to find iron and copper, as well assome cobweb and life crystals. What you're doing is making a bed ASAP. When you save and quit and return, it drops you at spawn. This can spell disaster if it happens to be night time and you're put away from your base. The five iron bars needed for a sawmill is easy to get, but depending on your luck, cobweb not so much. Try not to go too far down, and again, ALWAYS bring wood platforms, and ALWAYS have a way back before you have to take it. The primary reason you have a bow is for yellow slimes. Until you get some more HP, a wooden sword just isn't adequate for them. If underestimated, they WILL end your run before it even begins. Shoot them from a safe distance, or baricade them off. Going toe to toe with them is a recipe for disaster.

Red slimes are much more bearable, as are cave bats due to their low HP. Again, try not to go too far. A good sign to turn back would be hitting the cavern layer. So, when you have your sawmill, make a loom. Then, make a bed if you can. With the leftover iron, make an iron sword. Make some copper armor if you can (headpiece last, as your goggles offer the same defense as a helm and thus it'd only help for the set bonus) and head back down. With your iron sword, you can more comfortably handle the cavern layer and can thus start looking for chests, silver, and gold safely. If your iron sword has a good prefix, then skeletons fall into the same difficulty zombies were with the wooden sword. You should kill them when you are safe to for a hook, which can save you from dangerous falls.

But your hazards are more numerous than just the skeletons and occasion cave bats. The traps in particular. Dart traps will do 50+ HP and can trigger when you least expect them to (an enemy stepping on the plate you jumped over, for instance) so always, always, always disarm them. A keen eye can identify pressure plates on the ground, but even the most alert of us makes mistakes from time to time. Thus, it is -very, ver important- to pick up the first pressure plate you see and keep it in your hotbar. While holding it, you can see wiring. This will reveal a boulder trap before it can paint the wall with your hardcore guts. Secondly, falls. Enemies knock you back when they hit you. Obvious, right? Well, many a player would scoff the same, but they've had an instance or two where they were trying to make a bridge, only to be bumped into the hole and die. Hilarious times, but you only have one life. Operate around cliffs with extreme caution. If you see an enemy, move away before engaging it. Make your wood platform ladders as big as possible so an enemy flaaing down or a bat flying up won't throw you off. Safety first, always.

While you work, you may be fortunate enough to find treasure and glowing mushroom farms. cloud in a bottle is perhaps the most important thing you can discover, as it will increase your jump hight and, best of all, can be used to negate fall damage in a pinch. Secondly may be a magic mirror. It will teleport you to spawn just like saving and quitting will, but will leave you feeling less empty inside. Anything and everything you can get will help, even if it is to just be selling fodder later, because the sooner you get a mining helmet, the better. Come up as soon as you feel satisfied with your haul to upgrade your sword and buy said helmet as soon as you can. If you nabbed some gold, make a pickaxe immediately. If you had even more, make a golden bow. If not, an iron one may be alright, or even silver if you can bear to delay getting armor. Repeat your mining expedition until you're comfortable with your gear. Gold bow, silver armor(again, headpiece last, as you now have mining helm for utility), gold pick, and silver broadsword is plenty for this point, and you should also have a good amount of HP. 180-220 is a good amount, though beware of the Eye of Cthulhu randomly spawning. Which leads into phase 3.

Phase 3: Corruption and Eye of Cthulhu

You're in gear, now. You may just be ready for your first bossfight. The first thing you want to ask yourself before starting is "What is my defense?"

Silver armor is good, but those confident in their skill can get away with iron. If you have accessories that boost defense, than even those without a lot of confidence can use iron. You want at least a gold or silver bow, and a good supply of flame arrows, at least over 100 if your aim is less than stellar. If you have a mining helmet, feel free to use all of your torches for ammo as they are no longer absolutely essential, and build a small arena. 3-5 platforms to jump between and outmaneuvering the boss is enough, and you can either use a ceiling as a grapple point for even more mobility, or leave it open in the chance a falling star will hit the boss. Boss strategy at the end of this section, as there's more to do!

Okay, so what if you don't feel ready or you simply just want to put it off? Well, with your armor, HP, and decent weapons, the corruption and jungle are no longer boundaries. You can cross them with authority!

Silver broadsword should do mervelously at fending off the eaters, and gold bow should also make short work of them. If you picked up an enchanted boomerang, it's also a nice weapon, especially if you feel gutsy enough to chasm dive. It makes light, you you can scout far off areas and fight if caught reaching for your torches. While extremely dangerous without a hookshot or cloud in a bottle (both recomended, sometimes, that hook misses...) chasm diving is extremely profitable as there's usually multiple life crystals down there, as well as chests containing pleasant goodies. Just make sure you have a way back up, preferably with platforms placed onto the back wall (you CAN place blocks in midair if there's a destructable wall behind it. Ebonstone wall counts as such.) and don't underestimate the Eaters or Devourers, and make sure to seal explored chasms back up.

Otherwise, just cross, bridging over holes as you go, and into the great beyond! It's a good idea to locate your dungeon and stop by the ocean; as mentioned earlier, the trident is a fantastic weapon and any other goodies you can pick up are nice, too, such as flippers. Just beware of sharks and drowning. A bridge and grappling hook helps a ton, and if it gets too dangerous, simply mirror your way out or save and quit. Once you have the inner most chests, you can either leave satisfied with your haul, or do what players whose oceans spawned their chests further out; stand in shallow water and kill sharks and jelly fish. The jelly fish drop glowsticks, which are awesome for underwater exploring and scouting (underground, never jump into water you can't see the bottom of) and the sharks drop fins. They may also drop a diving helmet, which isn't particularly useful, but will help with looting out the rest of the ocean. (Underground, you can simply create air pockets to breathe.) The shark fins make two incredibly useful potions: hunter and water walking. Water walking potions are essential for anyone even THINKING about venturing near lava, and hunter potions are an amazing asset both underground and when fighting Eater of Worlds. Other than this, the ocean can offer a plentiful sand source, which is handy for potion making and especially useful if your initial spawn boundaries didn't contain a desert.

Once you're acquainted with the entire length of your world and you have a few new toys there's really only one thing left to do.

~~~

BOSS: Eye of Cthulhu

~~~

So you have a small arena, a gold bow, some flame arrows, and armor of some sort. Great, you're almost ready. It's assumed you have a Suspicious Looking Eye to summon him with, as letting him summon naturally isn't recommended. Next, you need some potions.

The essentials are healing potions, (lesser ones will do, but you can pretty easily make normal ones if you ran across a glowing mushroom biome and thus you have no reason not to make them) ironskin potion (in essence will cut 4 damage off of all of the Eye's attacks, which adds up really fast. You've probably found a number of these in jars, but otherwise they are made from the ever common daybloom + raw iron ore. It's worth it once your armor and weapons are equivalent or better) regeneration potion (daybloom + blinkroot, you should have found plenty blinkroot mining) and if you opted a silver bow, especially and archery potion, which is made with daybloom and lens. Swiftness potion is also nice, but not wholly necessary. Still, even if you had no accessible desert early game, you do now, so may as well get the cactus needed. Additionally, soup lasts a long time and is a nice bonus, but you may not have a cooking pot at this time. With these potions and the recommended gear, you basically can't lose unless you think you are invincible. With these potions and gear a tier down, you can still win, but there's a significant risk, especially in phase two. Enough talk of preparation, let's talk about the boss fight itself. Summon him and use the buff hotkey to use all your potions.

The eye has 2400 HP and has two phases. But of course you knew that, or you wouldn't be playing hardcore. Still, it helps to cover everything in a guide. That's what makes it a guide, rather than a vague collection of hints. His pattern is to hover above you, shooting small, homing eye projectiles that will annoy you. They don't cause too much damage, but you should always eliminate them as soon as possible. You can get most as they come by aiming for his iris, but of one slips by, shoot or cut it immediately. The reason for this is because they can still bump you into the boss itself for bigger damage, ESPECIALLY during phase two. You do not want any of his servents alive when he transforms.

After he fires a group of 4-6 at you, he will attempt to ram you, three times in a row. Try to misdirect him. If on the top platform of the boss room, do a jump right before he charges. He should follow you high, and then you can drop through platforms to keep distance. He should then charge down, and you have the room to run to the side. Then, when he goes to charge after you in the direction you ran, you can simply jump up the platforms again. Of course, you can do this in any order, in any direction. What's important is you get the timing down so he charges in a direction you will NOT be going, before you actually move. Running around without a plan is a good way to get cornered or get him in a place so that you have nowhere to go without taking damage. In the event of either of these, a ceiling to hookshot to is a good escape option.

He'll repeat this pattern until you knock him down to half health. Make absolutely sure all of his servants are dead before he hits 1200/2400 HP. Now, he'll just do his ramming attack from before, but much more aggresively. He'll charge three times in a quicker succession, then hover for a moment before retreating. This is why it's so important to learn do dodge him, because he'll throw this attack at you over and over, in an attempt to overwhelm you. The big catch? He does almost double the damage of before!

If for any reason your buffs wore off, especially ironskin and regeneration, reapply them with the buff hotkey. The number one rule is to NOT be afraid. If you panic, you risk death. Misdirect him like before, constantly firing at him, and hookshoot to the ceiling if desperate. If you have to get hit, take it and get behind him and pull yourself together. The good news is, his own defense is completely gone, so you deal much more damage back! This more dangerous part of the fight should be significantly shorter than the first, so if you can hang in there with a healing potion, you should outlast him.

Phase 4: Post-fight and More Exploring

You won! You beat the first boss in Terraria! Pat yourself on the back, but not too hard. Your Hardcore quest is just beginning!

So you got about 50 demonite ore, a good number of gold coins, your potions reimbursed, and some funky arrows. What do you do?

You have a choice of three new toys to make, that's what! You can make either a good sword, bow, or axe. The sword in much better than the silver one you've been using, so it's a nice choice if you don't plan on refighting the Eye. If you do, you should unquestionably make a bow. The axe features more damage than the sword, but much, much slower. It, however, has the advantage of also allowing you to harvest wood very quickly and continually swing. Get whichever suits your melee playstyle better.

If you choose to refight, then you can make the other two items, and from there simply sell the raw ore for staggering amounts of money. Fight to your heart's content.

Soon, the dryad should move in, provided she has a room to move into. She sells purification powder, which points you to the corruption. However, here's a list of items you should have before going:

Hermes Boots

Enchanted Boomerang

Cloud in a Bottle

Grappling hook (should have had this long before now, but with your new Light's Bane you should get it -now.- It's too important to continually blow off.)

Gold pick (Again, should have had it before now, but if you've settled with iron or silver, upgrade immediately)

Watch of any sort

If you are missing either of those, go back underground and get them. It's also recommended you build an arena at center spawn for the goblin army.

Once ready, head to the corruption. It's time to chasm dive. If you did this before, enter the one that lead to the tunnel with shadow orbs, tons of demon altars, and life crystals. If not, find that, and seal off all the duds. Make a SAFE way down that doesn't rely on your reflexes to double jump as you near the ground. It's absolutely critical to be safe here, even if it takes forever. Fall damage is POSITIVELY lethal.

So you made it down. If this is your first time, walk from one end to the other, looting it for all it's worth. Then, purify a path to a shadow orb. For best results, wait until after midnight to smash it, and hope a meteorite lands. If you get no notification, wait until the next day before smashing another. Hope you get it.

How it works is when you smash a shadow orb, a 50/50 chance occurs for a meteorite to land that midnight. If it's past midnight, then it's a 50/50 chance to happen immediately. I'm unsure if you only get one chance per night, but to be safe, wait 24 hours between each smashing.

You only have two chances. of them, you'll have gotten a musket and one of the following items:

Vilethorn

Ball of Light

Band of Starpower

Ball o' Hurt

Or a second musket. If you get no meteors, you'd better hope for the ball o' hurt and skip to next phase.

The musket you are guaranteed is an amazing item, capable of replacing your bow outright. It's powerful, the bullet is fast and straight, but the ammo is more expensive to get and there's no chance you can pick your bullets back up. Choose your ranged weapon according to whether you want power or eco friendliness.

So, did a meteor fall? Hope it does. You do NOT want to smash any more shadow orbs, as that will spawn a boss. If a meteor failed to fall, you're going to just have to make do. If it did, go look for it! Just run to both ends of your world until you find it. If you're really unlucky, the following mishaps can occur:

1. it's in the ocean. Better get farming for a diving helmet.

2. it's on a floating island. Better get making skybridges, or simply forget about it.

3. it landed on a large, covered chasm, greatly reducing the haul.

Let's assume it landed in a favorable spot. Buy some some dynamite. 5 or more should do it, then go blow it up! Careful to stay out of the blast radius, and beware the meteorheads. The damage they cause is HUGE, but your sword should make very short work of them. Once you've blown of it away (take care not to blow up too much at once, or it'll start despawning your ore to make room for the new drops) jump down and collect it. Then blow the rest away or mine it maually, just don't get greedy and take out meteor heads as soon as you can. Once the music goes to normal, they stop spawning, and you can mine in peace.

Get back to base. Now, make a phaseblade. Any color, up to you. If you don't have the gems, some more mining will take care of that. Use the remainder of the ore for anything you want.

Phase 5: Eater of Worlds, Goblin Army and Shadow Armor

So you have a phaseblade! Well, unless the game's mean to you. In that case, your Light's Bane and War Axe of the Night will have to do. What now? That depends on another element of luck.

The goblin army may have spawned. If you're not living at center spawn, you can usually ignore this, but it may prevent the arms dealer from moving in until they are dead. Furthermore, beating them will unlock goblin tinkerer. If you couldn't get a phaseblade, you may wish to fight them first to reforge your war axe, but you can also simply make more from beating the Eye a couple more times. I recoomend the latter, because goblins, especially the archers, can cause heavy damage.

Thus, you should probably avoid them until you have Shadow Armor, unless they are between you and your corruption. Let's assume the worst and fight them first.

~~~

BOSS: Goblin Army

~~~

Yeah yeah I know they are an "event" and not a boss. Well, they have boss music, and their arival and defeat is announced, so I count them. Plus, they are as tough as any boss and open an essential service on their defeat, so they're as bossy as bosses come!

The worst thing about them is they come like-it-or-not after a shadow orb is broken and you have over 200 HP. They have a small chance to spawn each dawn. Thus, if you're unprepared, tough luck. This is why you should have built a battleground a while back. While you can make anything you want, what's neccessary are walls to block arrows and multiple levels, so you only face portions at a time and not the full brunt. Face them on YOUR terms. Take the fight to them, rather than vice versa. And there's no shame in magic mirroring out if overwhelmed.

The mages, in a good setup, are the real threat. Your weapons can destroy their projectiles, so use all your training from Legend of Zelda and hit them!

As always, safety first. Use some ironskin, soup, and regeneration potions to help out, and take a break if your health gets too low. After winning, you'll have obtained a ton of spiky balls, money, a harpoon if you're lucky (very underrated weapon; it's basically an infinite ammo bow whose firing rate is either really bad or really good based on range) and the goblin tinkerer to spawn somewhere underground. Go find him if you want, and upgrade some of your under-par accessories and weapons (that you don't feel like remaking, such as phaseblade) as well as buy some rocket boots and a workshop. If your hermes boots are great, say, warding or menacing, hold off on spectre boots for now, you need that bonus more than you do the boots.

So whether or not you fought the goblin army, you should be okay for Eater of Worlds. I recommend at least 220 HP and silver armor, as well as most of the same potions. Healing, Ironskin, and regeneration backed up with some soup in case is mandatory, as well as swiftness and thorns if you can afford them. Nothing, however, will be as big a help in this fight as the Hunter potion, made from sharkfins, daybloom, and blinkroot. Take a few of each.

Now, once down in your orb-smashing area, find a small spot to fight in. It should be relatively flat, and just above orb number three. Wall off either side, as well as openings in the ceiling. This is to prevent Eater of Souls packs from entering the fight. Make sure the room is lit. Dig down to the orb. Make sure your hotbar is organized, and that it includes your stone. Dig down, apply buffs, smash the orb, then quickly grapple back to the top and seal the hole!

~~~

BOSS: Eater of Worlds

~~~

What, you thought we we going to make a bridge and throw grenades at him? Pfffthwah! That's what babies do! Besides, I'd argue that that strategy is only good for speed running, it's MUCH easier like this! Advantage number 1. It's tons easier to control and hit EoW. Advantage number 2. It's easier to stop outside interference. Advantage number 3. you have to do it like this anyways if you want more meteors for ammo, as well as the other wonderful things shadow orbs contain.

So, the fight itself. Make sure you have your buffs. ESPECIALLY hunter potion. This lets you see where he's coming from, and without it, you're in for a rough time. The battle is simple. If he comes from the left or right, grapple to the ceiling. If you wish, you could litter the room with spike balls so he takes huge damage if he does this, but it's not necessary. It also requires you to beat goblin army first, and could cause unwanted separations. Ideally, you want him to com from above or below. Sidestep long (if he's coming from below and to the right, go right so he doesn't cave in on you) and go to town with your phaseblade, or, if unlucky, ball o' hurt or war axe. You should be doing tons of damage to each segment as it passes. Repeat this until he breaks into two.

Your goal should be to eliminate the smaller worm as soon as possible. The head is Eater of World's big damage dealer, and when he has two running around, it can be bad. The good news is, each segment retains its HP. Body pieces have 150 each, while the head has about half that. A former body piece becoming a head usually means next hit will kill it. Repeat once the small worm is gone.

Once it starts breaking rapidly, you've almost won. Use a potion if you must, but the worm will constantly drop hearts as you begin to mow it down. Soon, it'll run out of itself, and be officially defeated. Return home.

Make a nightmare pickaxe, and if you can, a piece of shadow armor. Now, make worm food out of rotten chanks and vile powder, which is made from vile shrooms found in corruption. Alternatively, you could just find more orbs and make another room, summoning him "naturally."

All you should need is two more kills, one optimally, and you have a nice set of shadow armor. There's really no reason to keep the leftover demonite and shadow scales unless you REALLY want the breaker, or you want to make bricks. Sell it for a ton of cash.

Phase 6: The Underground Jungle

So you've taken out your second boss, hardcore warrior. You have fantastic armor, fatastic gear, a load of money, and multiple NPCs. Onto the next phase!

First, before going on, you should fight goblin army if you haven't already. With the new armor, they are much less of a threat than before, so mop up.

When you have some Spectre Boots, there's really not much reason to try reforging your accessories to be better. Defense oriented ones are prefered, but damage is also nice. You're going to need it.

Go to your jungle. It's time to head underground! Although not a boss fight, some potions are helpful here. Ironskin and soup, as always, and hunter potions are also good for finding man eaters BEFORE they lay into you unexpetedly.

Explore "casually." All you need are fifteen stingers, 3 vines, and 20 or so jungle spores. You can get all of that without spending a prolonged amount of time down here, which is good, as it's dangerous. Remember to take torches, as mining helmet takes away too much defense, and gather the materials.

If you're feeling confident, and have plenty of potions to last a while, as well as a magic mirror for quick exit, then exploring is actually very worth your time! The chests are nothing special, but life crystals are common down here. You can easily go from 240 to 300 in one go!

The phaseblade really shows its worth in here. Hornets can attack from the dark, and you can pursue them with the dim light the weapon makes. Musket also is an amazing tool to carry.

You may leave once you have 15 stingers and 18 jungle spores, and it you really want Blade of Grass, get 30 of each. Also get three vines, ivy whip has longer reach than your old hook and it returns faster, preventing even more fatal falls!

So once you make the whip, create a thorn chakram. Then, either go back or go underground for life crystals. You should shoot for 300 HP, but a little less is manageable.

Phase 7: Skeletron!

Now, off for Skeletron! With you shadow armor, thorn chakram, and boosted HP, he should be no problem. Take the usual potions, and head to the dungeon!

Preparation is simple. Simply climb on top of the dungeon, and make a small bridge over the "spokes" so you have an even surface. Light it up. Take buffs, summon him, and get up there!

~~~

BOSS: Skeletron

~~~

Skeletron is surprisingly easy. You should be nailing him for 20's at a time with thorn chakram, and at a rapid pace as it comes back quickly when you hit him. Go for the arms first. They don't do a ton of damage, but they are all over you and can add up in a hurry. They only need hit 30 times each to go down, and a good time to get in many at a time is when he spins, where he'll hold them p in the air, immobile. Once one hand is down, avoiding the other gets much easier. Just don't jump into the head by accident!

When both are down, you've already won. He'll simply float above you, and then spin slowly towards your character. Simply slowly back up, spamming him. When he's in melee range, you should be hitting him very quickly, and absolutely tearing through his health reserves!

Don't get a big head, though. The dungeon itself is the real terror!

Phase 8: Dungeon, and choices

So head on in. If you're lucky, you can get a Water Bolt right off the bat. It really, really helps to come in with a clean inventory, the treasure here can stack up quick!

Priority number one is safety. Even if you didn't find anything, please, for the sake of your adventure so far, warp out if you are in danger! Priority number 2 is keys. The adventurous can fully explore the dungeon as is, but the dungeon is also the defacto greatest source of long, deadly drops in the game. It may be worth it to get 3-5 keys, then hunt for floating islands. Let's do that.

But wait! Skybridges SEVERELY impact meteorite spawns. If you care (and you should; at least until you've mined 2 or 3 for meteorshot ammo) smash more shadow orbs, one per night, until you've hit them all or as many meteors as you care about. It takes a while, but it helps. Alternatively you can simply take skybridges back down once you've found one of each treasure, that also takes a while, though.

So make a depth meter, and build a safe, laddered tower to your world size's hotspots, as shown by the wiki in this chart:

"If nothing else helps, you can use a Depth Meter to find the floating islands. They can usually be found at these heights:

Small map - 100-475 ft. (430-475 ft is your best bet, but some have been known to spawn in the high 500's and low 300's 350-375)

Medium map - 500-700ft (650ft is your best bet).

Large map - 500-1000ft. (You may be able to see a floating island at 450)"

And get to it. Primarily, you're after the Lucky Horseshoe. This is an absolutely incredible survival accessory that completely stops fall damage. Secondly, you can get the less helpful, but still cool Shiny Red Baloon (combine with cloud in a bottle for best effect) and also nifty StarFury Sword, which while the least worth it of the three, will be your first real item to use that mana you've been amassing for a while, now. Once you've found all three, the only reason to hunt more is for ore and misc treasures. Just watch out for harpies, they can be dangerous and push you off your skybridge and to your death, and are best handled with a musket. If you're worried, stay in the dungeon long enough and hope for an early Cobalt Sheild, or grapple the ground in a tight spot.

So, back to the dungeon. Now you don't have to worry about any of the shafts being lethal, but there's still numerous dart traps, spike walls, and spike balls straight from Mario World to be worried about, to say nothing of the tough, swarming skeletons. There's a ton of loot down here, as well as The Mechanic, but don't get greedy and, as stressed, pull out! That last treasure chest isn't going anywhere, especially if you are dead.

The Dungeon holds a number of nice items. These are the ones you should look for, in order of priority:

Cobalt Shield

Shadow Key

Muramasa

Handgun

Magic Missile

All five of these are exceedingly helpful for the next phase. Cobalt shield prevents as many lava-related accidents as the lucky horse shoe does falls, the shadow key is needed for some of the best gear in the game, the muramasa is an auto-swing weapon, makes light, and is very fast, so it's a nice tool in general, despite not packing the power some melee weapons do. It's also handy for exploring the dungeon itself, so it's a fantastic first-find. Handgun is essential for later, but as of right now the musket does nicely, and finally, magic missile, while not particularly impressive on its own, is the best scout you can find. You can look way ahead of yourself, hit enemies you'd under no other circumstances be able to, and more. It's an invaluable tool, but if you just can't seem to find one, you aren't screwed or anything.

Lastly, be on the lookout for Life Crystals. They are also rather common down here, and can add another 20-60 life to your reserves.

Phase 9: Catching Up, and Hell

So you're done with the dungeon. If you didn't go floating island hunting, go now. Hell, our next location, is full of big drops and long jumps, two things the horseshoe and baloon help tons with. Secondly, revisit the ocean. Going to hell without a dozen or several water walking potions is suicide. No one can make every jump every time.

It's also helpful to make some buckets and grab some water before going. You can dump it on some of the lava that appears in the lower cavern layer for safety and obsidian, and then use the empty bucket to fill with lava and go make an obsidian generator! Getting an Obsidian Shield is a very good idea before heading down to hell fully, and the leftovers can be used for obsidian skin potions on return visits, or simply sold after being made into additional Obsidian Skulls.

Once you make it to Hell (and you should have had water walking potions on at the first sight of lava) either drop down from your helevator and confirm the presense of solid ground below, or if it's lava. If lava, manually make a landing pad. Alternatively, you could make a safe staircase down. 3 things to note:

1. Voodoo demons. Do NOT kill them anywhere NEAR lava. If their doll falls in the lava, Wall of Flesh summons. Know what that means? Guaranteed death. BE ABSOLUTELY CAREFUL.

2. Water walking potion isn't a luxury, it's life insurance. Sometimes, for some reason, certain pits of lava still hurt you when you stand on it. Thus, avoid them as if you had no potion anyway, unless you come back down with a few Obsidian Skins.

3. Beware the mobs. The monsters down here can drain your HP quick if you're not careful, which you may just not be having made it this far in your hardcore run!

So, what do you do down here? Explore. You should finally hit 400 HP if you haven't already, and you should hunt for shadow chests. Reason being, sunfury and dark lance are two of the better melee choices in the game (notice how I don't include hardmode. Reason for that) and, if the Terraria gods bless you, a flamelash! Flame lash is a rare magic weapon, so rare, in fact, most worlds never generate one. Is it worth the find? Yes, yes it is. Remember what I said about Magic Missile? It does all that, but is also a usable main weapon to boot. The only less than stellar item you can find is a Flower of Fire, which while the novelty of being Mario is nice, the weapon itself is a bit underpar.

Once you've found your HP cap and shadowchests, it's time to mine hellstone. Hellstone is dangerous. it spawns lava when broken, thus, your best bet is to mine it through walls. Pick a tower, strip the hellstone adjacent to its walls, and when needed, tunnel through the wall and ash to pick the rest in sight out. Also, make sure to grab a hellforge. Use a meteor hamaxe, or take out a block from under it. It's a slow, dangerous process, but with care and potions, you should be able to make full hellstone armor, molten pickaxe, phoenix blaster, and if you want them, a molten fury and fiery greatsword. If you want, go ahead and and make Night's Edge and the flame boomerang. Neither are too important, but can help out if you have the time.

Are you satisfied with yourself so far? Great. You've hit endgame. All that's left are loose ends, making a long bridge over the underworld, and making a ton of meteorshot ammo. Then, the Wall of Flesh. How are we going to beat him? Well, I don't know! This is as far as I've gotten, personally. I'm worried to solo the WoF and start Hardmode until I've OCD'd up every single pre-hardmode item up in the game, stored in my mansion. And I hate giving theoretical advice, so the guide ends here. I'll see you next update, when I've gotten some way into Hardmode. In the meantime, I hope greatly that the 5 hours it took to write this helps out fellow Hardcore players get their stride. Good night!

[Fluxy]

Seeing as I basically did all this with you, I am going to say this equates to what we shoulda done, but I still got the jist of this fast.

Milky, we should do this and get screen caps to show how easy it is to do it. Cause honestly, with some concentration, it ain't hard. Plus, screen caps'd be a good thing to have added to help with this guide in general, and future guides.

[Steve]

I tried hardcore mode with a friend before the last big update happened, it was quite fun,but he ended up giving up after the second try xD. Since then, I haven't found anyone to play hardcore mode with. Playing alone is just not as fun.

[Milkyway64]

Seeing as I basically did all this with you, I am going to say this equates to what we shoulda done, but I still got the jist of this fast.

Milky, we should do this and get screen caps to show how easy it is to do it. Cause honestly, with some concentration, it ain't hard. Plus, screen caps'd be a good thing to have added to help with this guide in general, and future guides.

Screenies would be cool, especially if I wanted to do a full guide.

And Steve, I dislike hardcore multiplayer because of what was stated in the intro of the guide. You BOTH must live, or it either counts as a fail for both of you, or it goes singleplayer anyway by the very nature of Hardcore. Plus, friends can break the game somewhat, as you can take out bosses long before you're supposed to.

[Steve]

It makes the game fun tho, in a weird, painful way. I mean, on single player, if you die, your stuff is gone since you need to create another character and relog into your world,in multiplayer, you can hope for your team-mate to go gather your stuff back, and kinda so on. I guess depends on the "team" and the way people play.

[Milkyway64]

If you have your teammate collect your stuff, that's mediumcore, not hardcore.

Also if you relog into your hardcore world with a new character you're doin it rong. :3

The point of hardcore is so that one life is all you got, and so you must play carefully, like a survival horror. It's not too tough, on my first try I'm already up to right before Wall of Flesh.

[Steve]

Basically, all I see is that in hardcore you will lose your character if you are in multiplayer, assuming you have a friend that picks your stuff up. Unless like you said, you play by strict rules xD, then again, not many are willing to do that, sadly.

[Milkyway64]

Mediumcore: players drop all items on death

Hardcore: Player is deleted on death

Multiplayer can "get around" hardcore's penalty with friends to make it amount to simply "dropping all items", but if you're just going to do that, cut the middle man and play medium core.

Hardcore is about the challenge and seeing how far you can progress a character before he dies. Thus, the fun is in avoiding death entirely rather than just "hey man I just died, pick up my stuff again so I can pretend it never happened."

[Fluxy]

Pretty much I agree with Milky. Not much other things I can say, lol. Softcore Multiplayer ftw though~