Help me prepare for hardmode

[Arvandor2]

So, I'm brand new to Terraria, and I want to make my journey into hardmode as smooth as possible. I've read a bunch of stuff, watched a bunch of guides, and have done/crafted the following:

- Beaten all the normal mode bosses (except WoF obviously), and I think all the events? Not sure on NPCs either, pretty sure I have them all, but I think I need to expand the housing for hardmode NPCs. Only have like 3-4 open houses left.
- Liquid mixing farm
- Glowing mushroom farm
- Cobweb farm (which also makes for a good ice cave fishing spot, in my case)
- Base defenses (pressure plate+actuator doors rather than proper doors, with a switch to open lava pits and turn on traps, NPCs located above ground and a few floors up from ground level, with lava on the roof)
- Jungle farm near base with built in Plantera arena
- Antlion farm
- The framework for a Dungeon farm (hollowed out, infrastructure in place, just need traps, conveyor belts, teleporters, etc)
- Boss arena outside (may be too close to home base still...)
- Hellevator and WoF bridge
- Fishing farm with 300+ stone block chunk above for when I get the Clentaminator and can change the biome that way for different fish.

Current To Do list:
- Carve out some more hellevators to protect my jungle and home, at the very least (a daunting task though, I'm seriously questioning if I'm willing to do this. Maybe I'll just bomb my way down)
- Get a bunch of fishing quest stuff done.
- Figure out what's wrong with my regular mushroom farm (seems to not work underground? I'm wondering if I build and then destroy walls to hollow out the background if grass and stuff will start to grow?)
- Build a skybridge
- Possibly build a minecart track for surface travel (Anyone know approximately how many materials this would consume to accomplish?)

Anything else I should do? Any suggestions or thoughts?

 

[Aurora3500]

Beaten all the normal mode bosses (except WoF obviously), and I think all the events? Not sure on NPCs either, pretty sure I have them all, but I think I need to expand the housing for hardmode NPCs. Only have like 3-4 open houses left.

It's not required, but beating the Goblin Invasion at least once before Hardmode is ideal since you'll be able to find the Goblin Mechanic NPC if you have not found it yet. As it will give access to Rocket Boots and the ability to reforge your items to get different prefixes.

Also might recommend creating a few more open houses, around up to 5-6 just to be safe in ensuring you can always get more NPCs.

Hellevator and WoF bridge

If the bridge is at least 1,000 blocks long across the Underworld you'll be good for fighting the Wall of Flesh.

Fishing farm with 300+ stone block chunk above for when I get the Clentaminator and can change the biome that way for different fish.

Some Quest fish are only obtainable from Underground if you already have a quality underground lake for fishing as well. The tricky one might be getting an Ice Biome lake because the Corruption/Crimson/Hallow fish will generally override the local quest fish if your Ice Biome gets infected by one of the 3 spreading biomes.

Figure out what's wrong with my regular mushroom farm (seems to not work underground? I'm wondering if I build and then destroy walls to hollow out the background if grass and stuff will start to grow?)

I believe it is the case that regular mushrooms (not glowing mushrooms) have to be on the surface level to grow. Not completely certain on it, but that may be why that's an issue.

Other than those assuming you have Weapons & Armor from the Jungle/Dungeon and Underworld itself, you should be set for Hardmode. It sounds that you're well prepared Good luck on beating the WoF and on your Hardmode journey

 

[Lord Garak]

Create a large empty space underground and build a lava grinder. This will also farm jungle drops if you have 50 or so jungle grass blocks, same with hallow/crimson/ice

 

[Arvandor2]

It's not required, but beating the Goblin Invasion at least once before Hardmode is ideal since you'll be able to find the Goblin Mechanic NPC if you have not found it yet. As it will give access to Rocket Boots and the ability to reforge your items to get different prefixes.

Yeah, I've beat the goblin invasion a few times. Enough that last night I earned the banner for the little mages that shoot through walls. I do have rocket boots that I combined with the hermes boots to get that combined effect, and did the same with the shield and obisidian skull.

If the bridge is at least 1,000 blocks long across the Underworld you'll be good for fighting the Wall of Flesh.

I think it's a bit longer than that, but yeah. Should be good. Also made it out of ice at the suggestion of one of the Secret Level videos as I guess it turns into blue ice and produces something useful? I don't even remember now =P

Some Quest fish are only obtainable from Underground if you already have a quality underground lake for fishing as well. The tricky one might be getting an Ice Biome lake because the Corruption/Crimson/Hallow fish will generally override the local quest fish if your Ice Biome gets infected by one of the 3 spreading biomes.

I got a stroke of luck here. My cobweb farm is A: In an Ice Biome (and uses the water dump method with actuated blocks to easily break all the webs, the pool makes for an ideal fishing spot), and B: Right next to (on the house side) my first and currently only Hellevator. All I need to do is widen it by one square and wall that side with stone or something and my house, cobwebs, ice fishing, and glowing mushrooms should all be safe to the west. Just have to carve out a hellavator to the east side.

I believe it is the case that regular mushrooms (not glowing mushrooms) have to be on the surface level to grow. Not completely certain on it, but that may be why that's an issue.

I was kind of guessing this might be the case. I'm just wondering if I hollow out the background by building my walls over it and then hammering them out will cause it to count as surface level, or if it's an altitude thing, or what.

Other than those assuming you have Weapons & Armor from the Jungle/Dungeon and Underworld itself, you should be set for Hardmode. It sounds that you're well prepared Good luck on beating the WoF and on your Hardmode journey

I do have everything you can craft from the hellfire ore or whatever, as well as the second best yo-yo, and some decent spells (a big fan of the bouncy/piercing frost bolts). Thanks for the help and the well wishes! =D


Edit: Using bombs to "dig" the hellavator is definitely easier and faster, if a bit pricey (sort of) and not as clean.

Also, I dug out the dirt walls from behind my grass farm (apparently if you connect a wall to one part, then dig that out, it will let you dig out all the connecting dirt too? Odd... But whatever works I guess). And it does indeed work! Mushrooms and grass are now growing as desired =D

 

[Kittyboon]

If you got molten armor, potions, a good bow and sword or mage weapon, i think you'll be all set. Good luck!

 

[Arvandor2]

If you got molten armor, potions, a good bow and sword or mage weapon, i think you'll be all set. Good luck!

Oh I'm not worried about the WoF, I'm just trying to do as much preparation as I can to make my journey into hardmode as smooth and easy as possible. Don't want to be building my dungeon farm IN hardmode, for example.

 

[Arvandor2]

So, a friend suggested finding Lihzahrd temple before hardmode, so I did that and dug an elevator to the entrance. I'm working on a souls/mimic farm before I hit hardmode (didn't know that was a thing, but found out about it and the setup is easier than most of the other farms I've done). And... After that, aside from maybe doing some more fishing and collecting some more crates, I think I'm ready?

 

[Sigma90]

Make a backup copy of your world before entering hardmode. If you encounter a bug*, find you are unprepared** and/or the Crimson/Corruption/Hallow stripes cause problems, you can restore the backup and try again.
* E.g. WoF not dropping the Pwnhammer. Happened to me twice, but on older versions. It's probably fixed by now.
** E.g. I got the Pirate Invasion on my second in-game day of hardmode. Night's Edge sword and Crimson armour are not sufficient and since they swarm your spawn point, it was just a cycle of death. If you have a lava pit, you should be fine.

Exploring most of your world is also something you can do before hardmode. When you smash altars, there's a risk it'll spawn Crimson/Corruption/Hallow in your world. You can see changes immediately on explored sections of your map. If you have a well-explored world, you'll be able to see any spreading biomes before they get too big to control.

Don't want to be building my dungeon farm IN hardmode, for example.

The dungeon doesn't change until you defeat Plantera.

 

[Arvandor2]

Make a backup copy of your world before entering hardmode. If you encounter a bug*, find you are unprepared** and/or the Crimson/Corruption/Hallow stripes cause problems, you can restore the backup and try again.
* E.g. WoF not dropping the Pwnhammer. Happened to me twice, but on older versions. It's probably fixed by now.
** E.g. I got the Pirate Invasion on my second in-game day of hardmode. Night's Edge sword and Crimson armour are not sufficient and since they swarm your spawn point, it was just a cycle of death. If you have a lava pit, you should be fine.

Exploring most of your world is also something you can do before hardmode. When you smash altars, there's a risk it'll spawn Crimson/Corruption/Hallow in your world. You can see changes immediately on explored sections of your map. If you have a well-explored world, you'll be able to see any spreading biomes before they get too big to control.


The dungeon doesn't change until you defeat Plantera.

Oh derp, I'd actually meant to make a backup but forgot to before I took the plunge T_T Ended up with some annoying hallow spots too (like Hallow appeared in my mimic/souls farm that I'd set up, so hallow mimics can appear and ruin my face if I try to AFK it.) Oh well, the pwnhammer did drop, but I haven't needed to use it. I had enough crates from fishing to get my anvil and Orichalcum pickaxe crafted (as well as an adamantite repeater). So unless I really want to craft the armor as well instead of farming for other gear, I can avoid breaking any alters

I farmed up the spider gear, which has been amazing. I've died to each of the mechanical bosses once. Almost got Skeletor down but after all his hands died he did a faster than expected spinning headbutt that killed me instantly.

Edit: And it's nothing super complicated, but I do have actuated lava pits and my "doors" are acuated pressure plate doors rather than normal doors, so I'm pretty solid against invasions. Immediately after getting into hardmode I got a blood moon and while things took a bit to die, I held it off just fine =)

 

[Sigma90]

Oh well, the pwnhammer did drop, but I haven't needed to use it. I had enough crates from fishing to get my anvil and Orichalcum pickaxe crafted (as well as an adamantite repeater). So unless I really want to craft the armor as well instead of farming for other gear, I can avoid breaking any alters

You can create another throwaway world then smash altars and mine the hardmode ores there. If the C/C/H ends up spreading everywhere, it doesn't matter. When you're finished, you can bring the ores over to your good world and delete the throwaway world.

Almost got Skeletor down but after all his hands died he did a faster than expected spinning headbutt that killed me instantly.

Like with Skeletron, you only have until sunrise to defeat Skeletron Prime. Once sunrise happens, he starts spinning much faster and is basically a one hit kill.
If you'd like some strategies for S-Prime: Build an arena on platforms. Focus on destroying the Vice and Saw hands first, then attack S-Prime's head. The Cannon's bombs will fall through platforms and the Laser is very inaccurate, so you don't need to worry about those. With a Heart Statue and a couple of buffing potions, I found S-Prime to be the easiest mechanical boss. Also keep in mind that every character can have a summon for extra damage. (Two if you have a Bewitching Table.)

 

[Arvandor2]

Yeah, I've gotten pretty far already since I posted this (died to the Moon Lord once, and crafted that awesome bow of doom, as well as that neat fire chain sword thing and the shark summon). I don't even remember what I did for the mechanical bosses now, though I did have a fairly large arena set up with all the regen goodies (honey pits, heart lanterns, camp fires, heart statues). I'm pretty sure I was using the spider summoning set, which worked very well for Twins and Skeletron, but was kind of obnoxious for Destroyer. I think I ended up using megashark with crystal bullets to murder Destroyer (which also carried me through phase 2 of Plantera as well as the Golem).

I used Beetle Armor and Vampire Knives to slowly whittle down the pillars, but then Moon Lord slaughtered me. I do have a unicorn mount sitting in a chest, maybe I'll try the massive skybridge speed kite method. Throw on my shroomite gear and the pillar bow and see what I can pull off. Just need to set up an AFK hallow farm for unicorn horns so I can craft a bunch of holy arrows.

 

[Mental Mouse]

For future readers, a couple of notes: If you're doing a skybridge, you might as well put your minecart rails on top of that, rather than leveling the landscape. Note that diagonal platforms will not intercept Stars or meteorites, so you'll want to back up diagonal stretches with blocks (or just chests, to ward of the latter).

And a partial alternative to bridging the Underworld is to flood it!

1. Before you start, build a water-duplication rig or few at sea-level, to refill the ocean later. The refilling will be slow, so two or three water-generatiors will be helpful.
   
2. Build a shaft down from one of the oceans., starting with a "cap" on the ocean floors; two layers of trap doors or active stone to make a little airlock room just below the surface.
   
3. Bucket that out so you can work dry, and run your shaft. I made mine 6 wide, I dunno if it has to be that wide. (You'll find enough water on the way that the later lava will be no problem.)
   
4. Once you've gotten it down to the underworld, just go back to the ocean floor and open both gates of your airlock. Party time!

• This will flood about the outer third of the Underworld on that side, basically until the "obsidian houses" get in the way.
  
• Most of the water will evaporate, with some left at the very end, but all that lava will be nicely surfaced with obsidian.
  
• Warning 1: Before it does evaporate, you will be dealing with both Underworld and Ocean/Underwater spawns down there. Meanwhile, the drained ocean will have desert spawns.
  
• Warning 2: You may well want to take the opportunity to mine some Hellstone, but be careful: The evaporation mechanic means that even working underwater, the lava-quenching will be a lot slower than you expect.
• When refilling the ocean, I found that unattended water-generators get cranky -- you may need to go back and occasionally turn them off for a few seconds, to let the water settle. I also built a temporary wall so they could fill a narrower area, then I mined that away from the bottom to fill the rest of the ocean in stages.

 

[Arvandor2]

Well, I killed the Moon Lord! I built an incredibly long Skybridge, but ended up not using its length at all, since I gave it a roof, the roof was all I needed =P Used the DD2 Knight Armor, Ballistae, and the Solar Eruption. Sitting in honey with all my potions going, a camp fire, and a heart lamp, I hardly needed to dodge at all. Even forgot to wire up my heart statues but it ended up not mattering.

Kind of sad, I hardly used any of my farms at all. The dungeon farm was definitely worth the effort, and the glowing mushroom farm served its use, but the rest? Meh. The Jungle farm especially ended up doing no good at all. Not sure why but it never once spawned a life fruit OR plantera orb. Ended up being more of a bait farm than anything else (and Witch Doctor house). Also ended up making a quick and dirty hallow farm for unicorn horns to make holy arrows with, but then ended up not using those either haha.

Digging a trench around the Jungle however, and blocking off my oceans, WAS very much worth the trouble. Woulda lost them to crimson early and fast.

 

[Mental Mouse]

I've mostly been keeping farms pretty small-scale and as needed.-- a row of trees for each biome (where convenient), 6 planter pots per herb, a couple pits for critters (now doubling for defense as I wired up lava dumps for them, and drains for afterwards). The Crimson and lately Nimbus rods, plus Lightning Sentries, have been doing side jobs as impromptu item farms though -- I was just trying to keep the bats and such out of my face while I fished, but it paid off.

I've got a little single-statue automated farm for mobs (swap in the statue, more lava dump/drain for convenience), which has done well on several counts (Medusa head, woo!), but got embarrassing when I tried Unicorns. (They got out! Just into the museum below, but still...)

I have done a couple of arenas (and did quick platforms for most of the Hives), and improved a bunch of fishing holes, though. I wallled off several biomes with mixed success, but once I got the Clentaminator I was able to get things reasonably sorted out. (But it took me 5 or 6 tries to kill the Destroyer so I could get that. )

I'm about to go fairly big for crystal farming, for the $$$ -- I wish I could find an advisory thread here for that last, as the wiki has only basic farms without much discussion. It's amazing how much coin I've burned through since going Hardmode, even without trying to reforge the Sky Fracture and suchlike! Fortunately, I had a *lot* of crates (and ores) saved up -- I've still got three stacks of crates (2 iron 1 wooden) I haven't opened yet. Might be time to do that and sell more stuff.

 

[Drake katchadorian]

Get these items: Phoenix blaster, nights edge, molten armour web slinger(optional), lightning boots, obsidian shield, horseshoe balloon (blue, sandstorm horseshoe and others), extra double jump sandstorm recommended sand gun is optional, sharanga, horn aplenty TONS of arrows for sharanga, tiger climbing gear, white torches for extra light and you should be set....... though since I'm on 3ds I still haven't killed WoF yet..... that punk....

 

[Mental Mouse]

Get these items: Phoenix blaster, nights edge, molten armour web slinger(optional), lightning boots, obsidian shield, horseshoe balloon (blue, sandstorm horseshoe and others), extra double jump sandstorm recommended sand gun is optional, sharanga, horn aplenty TONS of arrows for sharanga, tiger climbing gear, white torches for extra light and you should be set....... though since I'm on 3ds I still haven't killed WoF yet..... that punk....

If that was meant for me, I'm doing the mage/summoner route. Already had harpy wings (and the Pigron mount) along with frostspark boots. Golden shower and Medusa head did for the Destroyer, along with switching to an open-air fight where I could run, and setting up statues. Now I'm going for the Twins -- I don't expect to use the Medusa head on them, but but now I've got a Nimbus Rod and both Spider rods, plus Sky Fracture, Magic Dagger (the range might make that useless), and Meteor Rod. Still keeping Golden shower in the hotbar. (ETA: Titanium armor and Cross Necklace)

 

[Drake katchadorian]

Pre hard mode items for going into hardmode
[doublepost=1507303687,1507303634][/doublepost]And not you it was for arvandor

 

[Arvandor2]

Pre hard mode items for going into hardmode
[doublepost=1507303687,1507303634][/doublepost]And not you it was for arvandor

You're behind the times. Literally two posts above yours I mention that I've beaten the Moon Lord =P

 

[Drake katchadorian]

OK sorry but I still recommend that equipment for any new characters
[doublepost=1507311691,1507311663][/doublepost]Have any tips for the WoF fight for me?

 

[Mental Mouse]

Pre hard mode items for going into hardmode
[doublepost=1507303687,1507303634][/doublepost]And not you it was for arvandor

I saved up enough crates that I don't need to break any altars. That means I'm fighting the MechaBosses in my own time, and had the chance to collect and craft some Hardmode equipment first.

For WoF: Lets see if I can remember what I did: Molten armor, Crimson Rod, 3 Imps, Lightning Aura Rod, Demon Scythe, Night's Edge. (I had a bunch of other magic weapons, including Flamelash and the Skull book, but IIRC I was leaning on the Demon Scythe.) Frostspark boots, I had Phoenix Blaster, Hellwing Bow, and Star Cannon but not sure I actually used them. Also, I arena'ed the Hell out of the Underworld (so to speak): Started with a bridge, then flooded that side, and made stations every screenswidth with heart lamp, Star-in-a-bottle, peace candle, and whatever banners I had. Lotsa Potions.