On my previous runs of Terraria, I find myself diving into deep caves to get Copper, Iron, Silver and Gold materials first, then taking that loot and going up against an Eater of Worlds, then taking THAT loot along with Meteor equipment to fight Skellitron, then taking on the Dungeon, then taking on Hell, where I get my penultimate equipment from.
But...the problem there is that exploration of The Jungle is completely left out by this order. And I'm not entirely sure where it should go. I think going in without Gold gear would be too dangerous, but Corrupt gear gets me ready for the Dungeon, and after that I usually go to Hell, so...when should I go?
I realize Terraria is an open world, where exploration is entirely dependent on what you want to do, but I feel like I'm not properly optimizing my delving experience by not having a plan for when to explore The Jungle.