How do I progress past the initial tier of gear/crafting in Terraria?

Question

I've been playing Terraria for a few hours. I've got the basics understood - I've built houses for NPCs, explored, mined resources, etc.

At this point I've got a gold Broadsword and some Copper armor. I keep reading about cool stuff on the Terraria wiki, but nearly all of it comes with caveats like "you'd better have a full set of <ridiculous armor> before you try this!"

My question is: what do I do now? I can mine more gold/silver/iron, but that won't improve my gear by much. I'd like to find a Floating Island, but I have no easy way to fly or find them short of using a mapping tool. I'd like to check out the Dungeon in my world, but there's no way I'll be able to defeat its boss with my current gear.

I'm just not sure what exactly my next move(s) should be to progress and get my character to the point where I can explore these advanced areas.

Any tips?

Answer 1

You can go exploring some corrupted areas to destroy the shadow orbs waiting for you at the bottom of chasms.

Each shadow orb destroyed will provide you some loot, and make a meteorite land on the world. Once the meteorite has fallen, go find the site, and mine the meteorite ore. This will allow you to craft some meteorite gear and weapons.

Once you've destroyed three shadow orbs, it will make the Eater of Worlds spawn, alloying you to fight two different bosses.

Note : The shadow orbs are protected behind some ebonstone, which you will not be able to mine with your current pickaxe. Just buy some dynamite from the Demolitionist and use it to access the shadow orb.

Answer 2

You can take on the Eye of Cthulu with a bow and a pile of potions. Farm lenses from the Demon Eyes at night. With 10 lenses at a Demon Altar, you can craft a Suspicious Looking Eye to summon the Eye of Cthulu. Be sure to use the eye at night or the summon won't work.

Once defeated, use the demonite ore dropped to craft a Nightmare Pickaxe which you can use to get hellstone and obsidian to make hellstone bars. Hellstone bars are used to make the highest tiered gear.

Answer 3

If you can get past the Eye Of Cthulhu, the dryad will show up. She will sell you purification dust which will let you convert ebonstone to regular stone and allow you to get to those tasty shadow orbs.

Answer 4

My recommendation is start breaking shadow orbs. I am still not tough / skilled enough to defeat the eye of Cthulhu on my own, but by breaking the third shadow orb, you can spawn the Eater of Worlds.

Although difficult, and although it will take some time, the Eater of Worlds will not de-spawn (like the eye will) once you die. It will also track you down to where you are, so with some patience, and many deaths, you can kill it, yielding a piece of shadow armour and some deamonite to help build the nightmare pickaxe to mine out that meteor which will eventually fall.

Answer 5

A tip is to kill eater of worlds for shadow scales and demonite. Then make a nightmare pickaxe and mine 20 obsidian to make an obsidian skull.

With these two items you can then mine meteorite and hellstone safely without burn damage. I suggest harvesting eater of worlds after that, selling his demonite ore, and buying a minishark + ammo. Then use the meteor to make meteor shots. Then you can kill skeletron. For the dungeon I would advise making a fiery greatsword.