Halocaster
Official Terrarian
Hello! I am the Halocaster, and this is the part one of my upcoming Terraria Expert Mode walkthrough!
Yeah, playing Terraria on expert mode seems hard and takes a lot (yeah I mean a LOT) of patience, but the rewards that this mode offers you is really awesome. I recommend playing this mode after beating the game on Normal mode once. If you are a new player, there's no one that is stopping you on playing Expert mode first. Because why not? This thread covers the whole game at the start while playing on Expert mode. So sit back, relax and read this walkthrough. This guide is for softcore and mediumcore characters only. If you are playing a hardcore character instead, then I still recommend you to read this guide, but some of the details below might not work for you.
Yeah, there are many guides and walkthroughs out there (this is one of the best guides, and I recommend checking this out first: Guide:Walkthrough), but what makes this guide special? What makes this guide stand out? Well, this is an EXPERT MODE guide. This guide can give you some advice that other guides can't give you. This guide also contains information which is not available in some guides.
Notes/Reminder:
- This guide is still work in progress, so this walkthrough will remain unfinished for now.
- Some of the information and details below are not correct or invalid, so please kindly leave a comment if you see something.
- This is how I play the game. You can freely judge me and request some changes in this guide.
LAST UPDATED: August 29, 2019 (8:20 PM, GMT+8)
Table of Elements:
So here you are, sitting on your chair (if you have one LOL), and about to begin your journey.
And now, you are probably asking yourself: "What should I do?", "Can I do this?", "Is this mode really hard to beat?".
What you should do at the start of the game?
I am confident that you can play and beat Expert mode. Expert mode might be a little bit frustrating, and oh wait. It is so frustrating! But eventually, you can beat Expert mode in no time! You should be able to beat Expert mode before the next update (1.4: Journey's End) releases. And that is because MASTER MODE is coming! Master mode will be unlocked after defeating the Moon Lord on Expert mode.
Is this mode really hard to beat?
At first, HELL YEAH. But eventually it seems that it's kinda easy to beat the game at Expert mode. Trust me kiddo, playing Terraria on Expert mode is worth it.
CHAPTER TWO: MAKING A SIMPLE NPC HOUSE AND BASE
Now that you have some decent starting items and weapons, you should make at least one NPC house. This also shows you how I make my base at the start of the game. This house and base may look ugly, but it has everything you need to start the game. You can freely decorate the house and the base after making it. You can skip this chapter if you want to make your own base with your own preferences.
I make most of my base airborne (above ground). That's because I don't want to make traps at the start of the game. Another reason is so Wraiths and Reapers (and also other enemies at Hardmode) can't go into my base. They can float but not fly. I commonly make wood boxes (12x7) for NPC houses (sorry for that) but I add a little spice to it so it looks good (refer to pictures below). I place gray bricks on the wood after making the base part of the NPC house to make it unique. You can just use other blocks such as stone slabs, mudstone block, etc. It may look ugly but I use "hoiks" as doors (check the picture below). It has 2 advantages: NPCs cannot go into other places and in case enemies such as the ones that teleport can't get in or get out of the house (weird, right?).
I divide my base into 4 sections: NPC Town, Storage Room, Crafting Station, and the Herb and Mushroom farm. You don't need to make that all at the start of the game. You can at least make 1-3 NPC houses at the start of the game.
CHAPTER THREE: THE SUN IS GOING DOWN
At this point, you should have created at least one valid NPC house for the guide. You don't want your one and only guide be killed by a zombie. That sucks. Anyways, now that it is nighttime, there are many things you can do while the sun is sleeping.
Nice job. You've made it to your first night in Expert mode! Now, you should explore more and find valuable and helpful loot. You need to make an armor.
I suggest making cactus armor first because it is a good early game armor. You can switch to Gold or Platinum armor later in the game. Now, how do you make the armor safely?
The desert biome has enemies that can kill you with 2-3 hits. Antlion Chargers and Antlion Swarmers are so annoying. And what's even worse is you're playing on Expert mode! So get there carefully and exit the biome safely. I recommend getting in the desert biome fast, then collecting cactus by breaking the sand block underneath them with a pickaxe. That technique is much faster than using an axe to get the cactus. You need approximately 100 cacti for crafting the whole armor set, the sword and the pickaxe.
I usually explore the whole surface before nighttime because you can find loot on the way. I recommend skipping the Jungle biome but get the loot from the chests. Don't kill any enemies on the Jungle biome to save time. If you find an enchanted sword shrine, you should have ropes and optionally, Climbing Claws. To find an enchanted sword shrine, get to the outer-thirds of the map and then shoot Jester Arrows on the ground if you have some. The specks of dust emit light that will help you find a hole. Get down there and see if the shrine is fake. If it isn't fake, then go get your new and shiny Enchanted Sword! (or, more better, an Arkhalis!)
Another thing that you can do while the sun is awake is to go underground and into the caverns. Find ores, as they will be so important for progressing the game. Kill unique enemies in the caverns, as they might drop helpful items.
PART 2: (currently in the works!)
(will be updated later with pictures)
Yeah, playing Terraria on expert mode seems hard and takes a lot (yeah I mean a LOT) of patience, but the rewards that this mode offers you is really awesome. I recommend playing this mode after beating the game on Normal mode once. If you are a new player, there's no one that is stopping you on playing Expert mode first. Because why not? This thread covers the whole game at the start while playing on Expert mode. So sit back, relax and read this walkthrough. This guide is for softcore and mediumcore characters only. If you are playing a hardcore character instead, then I still recommend you to read this guide, but some of the details below might not work for you.
Yeah, there are many guides and walkthroughs out there (this is one of the best guides, and I recommend checking this out first: Guide:Walkthrough), but what makes this guide special? What makes this guide stand out? Well, this is an EXPERT MODE guide. This guide can give you some advice that other guides can't give you. This guide also contains information which is not available in some guides.
Notes/Reminder:
- This guide is still work in progress, so this walkthrough will remain unfinished for now.
- Some of the information and details below are not correct or invalid, so please kindly leave a comment if you see something.
- This is how I play the game. You can freely judge me and request some changes in this guide.
LAST UPDATED: August 29, 2019 (8:20 PM, GMT+8)
Table of Elements:
- Chapter 1: Starting Off
- Chapter 2: Making a Simple NPC House and Base
- Chapter 3: The Sun is Going Down
- Chapter 4: A New Day for A New Adventure
So here you are, sitting on your chair (if you have one LOL), and about to begin your journey.
And now, you are probably asking yourself: "What should I do?", "Can I do this?", "Is this mode really hard to beat?".
What you should do at the start of the game?
- Chop trees immediately. You will be needing
wood in the whole game. You should
chop at least 5-10 trees.
- Make a workbench. Then, you should craft a wooden sword, because it is better than the
copper shortsword (lol). If you can find some stone on the surface, make a
wooden bow and plentiful of arrows. To make
25 arrows, you need a
wood and a
stone. Later in the day, if you find cobwebs near the surface, craft a wooden yoyo.
- Explore the surroundings. Open chests, smash
pots, and kill enemies, specifically
slimes. The items that you will find in a surface chest is so helpful. If you find a
radar, please equip it if it has a strong modifier or just place it in your inventory. Doing either of this makes a small text appear on your screen, which tells you how many enemies are nearby. A
spear is a good early game melee weapon, which pierces through enemies and repeatedly hurts enemies. A
Wand of Sparking is a decent early game magic weapon, which sets enemies on fire.
Radar and
Climbing Claws are also helpful. Save these items for later.
I am confident that you can play and beat Expert mode. Expert mode might be a little bit frustrating, and oh wait. It is so frustrating! But eventually, you can beat Expert mode in no time! You should be able to beat Expert mode before the next update (1.4: Journey's End) releases. And that is because MASTER MODE is coming! Master mode will be unlocked after defeating the Moon Lord on Expert mode.
Is this mode really hard to beat?
At first, HELL YEAH. But eventually it seems that it's kinda easy to beat the game at Expert mode. Trust me kiddo, playing Terraria on Expert mode is worth it.
CHAPTER TWO: MAKING A SIMPLE NPC HOUSE AND BASE
Now that you have some decent starting items and weapons, you should make at least one NPC house. This also shows you how I make my base at the start of the game. This house and base may look ugly, but it has everything you need to start the game. You can freely decorate the house and the base after making it. You can skip this chapter if you want to make your own base with your own preferences.
I make most of my base airborne (above ground). That's because I don't want to make traps at the start of the game. Another reason is so Wraiths and Reapers (and also other enemies at Hardmode) can't go into my base. They can float but not fly. I commonly make wood boxes (12x7) for NPC houses (sorry for that) but I add a little spice to it so it looks good (refer to pictures below). I place gray bricks on the wood after making the base part of the NPC house to make it unique. You can just use other blocks such as stone slabs, mudstone block, etc. It may look ugly but I use "hoiks" as doors (check the picture below). It has 2 advantages: NPCs cannot go into other places and in case enemies such as the ones that teleport can't get in or get out of the house (weird, right?).
I divide my base into 4 sections: NPC Town, Storage Room, Crafting Station, and the Herb and Mushroom farm. You don't need to make that all at the start of the game. You can at least make 1-3 NPC houses at the start of the game.
CHAPTER THREE: THE SUN IS GOING DOWN
At this point, you should have created at least one valid NPC house for the guide. You don't want your one and only guide be killed by a zombie. That sucks. Anyways, now that it is nighttime, there are many things you can do while the sun is sleeping.
- Get fallen stars. This is the only way to increase mana. You should make a mana crystal first. For PC and Console editions, you can craft a mana crystal out of 3
fallen stars, while on Mobile and other versions can make mana crystals out of 5 stars. (I know 1.3 Mobile is not out yet, but this is a helpful info)
- Go underground. Mine stones and
clay for building, pick ores for armor and weapons, get Blinkroot for Alchemy and stuff. The gold chests that are found in underground contains some valuable loot including
Hermes Boots,
Cloud in A Bottle,
Snowball Cannon (found in Ice Chests) and
Shoe Spikes and more. Also, find
life crystals to increase your maximum health permanently.
- Kill enemies. Some of the loot from the enemies, from the surface to the caverns, is really helpful for progression in the game. Shackles and
Metal Detectors are examples of some of the loot dropped by the enemies.
Nice job. You've made it to your first night in Expert mode! Now, you should explore more and find valuable and helpful loot. You need to make an armor.
I suggest making cactus armor first because it is a good early game armor. You can switch to Gold or Platinum armor later in the game. Now, how do you make the armor safely?
The desert biome has enemies that can kill you with 2-3 hits. Antlion Chargers and Antlion Swarmers are so annoying. And what's even worse is you're playing on Expert mode! So get there carefully and exit the biome safely. I recommend getting in the desert biome fast, then collecting cactus by breaking the sand block underneath them with a pickaxe. That technique is much faster than using an axe to get the cactus. You need approximately 100 cacti for crafting the whole armor set, the sword and the pickaxe.
I usually explore the whole surface before nighttime because you can find loot on the way. I recommend skipping the Jungle biome but get the loot from the chests. Don't kill any enemies on the Jungle biome to save time. If you find an enchanted sword shrine, you should have ropes and optionally, Climbing Claws. To find an enchanted sword shrine, get to the outer-thirds of the map and then shoot Jester Arrows on the ground if you have some. The specks of dust emit light that will help you find a hole. Get down there and see if the shrine is fake. If it isn't fake, then go get your new and shiny Enchanted Sword! (or, more better, an Arkhalis!)
Another thing that you can do while the sun is awake is to go underground and into the caverns. Find ores, as they will be so important for progressing the game. Kill unique enemies in the caverns, as they might drop helpful items.
PART 2: (currently in the works!)
(will be updated later with pictures)
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