Firexia
Empress of Light
You all know it. Everyone's built one before. It's the classic beginner's house: the wood box. Some people never advance past that stage in building, forever constructing box after box. Sometimes they'll build giant boxes, other times boxes inside boxes, occasionally a box with a triangle roof, but it's always a box. A simple box, made out of one or two materials.
And that's fine. You don't need to build something cool to be a pro Terraria character - Yrimir would still be a beast even if he built all boxes. However, if you build boxes and would like to better your building skills, I'm making this tutorial especially for you. By the end of this tutorial, I hope you will at least know how to start improving your houses. So, without further ado...
The Basic Box
A simple box with simple furniture. Nothing unusual here. From here, there's two main directions you can go when improving your builds. I'll start with the first:
The Shaped House
As you can see, this is infinitely more interesting to look at than the basic box. Basically, it's something that still uses basic materials such as wood, but takes a creative shape like this one. Just add some curves, corners, and some add-on rooms and you're set! This image I've given you is just the tip of the iceberg. Remember, a room doesn't have to be a rectangle shape- it can be anything you want. A trapezoid, a circle, triangle, anything! Just make sure it's closed and has some sort of way in if you want an NPC to live there. And remember, utilize that hammer! Just don't overdo it.
The Fancy House
The basis of this house is variety. Instead of making it out of one or two materials, the builder of this house aims to use as many as possible while still making it look good. Obviously, this takes some level of skill to make, but later on having an eye for this stuff is essential. The best way to go about putting in many different types of blocks is to put in columns and rows, like I have. It looks somewhat like struts, and the spaces in between them are prime spots for windows. As you can see, my example is shaped like a box, to show just how effective variety can be in making your house look good. If you see me using a material that you don't recognize or don't know how to get, just ask! You're also free to ask me what would go well with any specific block.
The Combo House
This can be a bit challenging to make at first. It basically combines the previous two methods, making a varied house with lots of shapes. This is what you want to strive to achieve, since making these houses helps give you your own personal style. Oh, and one last thing...
It's OK to rip ideas from other people's houses!
If you see an idea you like on someone else's build, feel free to use that idea in your own build. Doing this is what'll give you an idea of what you're good at building and what you like building: effectively, your style! I'll give you an example.
This is in one of my personal worlds. If you'll look at the roof, you can see that I'm using fences. That style has been ripped and adapted from a guy on a popular thread on the old Terraria forums (I forget his name; some of you might recognize it though). If you went to the bother to compare my and his roofs, though, you'll see that we're still very different. That's because I've adapted his style to fit my personal tastes. When I first started building this type of roof, they were more similar to his. However, over time I changed them.
So, effectively, a good builder's style is a Frankenstein's Monster of styles: an amalgation of parts that, when brought together, are totally different from what they came from. Remember, just ask if you have any questions or if you want me to rate your build and tell you how to improve it.
Above all, though, just experiment. If you're not sure where to begin, build something like you've never built before. It might be bad, but it's a start.
And that's fine. You don't need to build something cool to be a pro Terraria character - Yrimir would still be a beast even if he built all boxes. However, if you build boxes and would like to better your building skills, I'm making this tutorial especially for you. By the end of this tutorial, I hope you will at least know how to start improving your houses. So, without further ado...
The Basic Box
![De7EXB9.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/De7EXB9.jpg)
A simple box with simple furniture. Nothing unusual here. From here, there's two main directions you can go when improving your builds. I'll start with the first:
The Shaped House
![DmBWYJr.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/DmBWYJr.jpg)
As you can see, this is infinitely more interesting to look at than the basic box. Basically, it's something that still uses basic materials such as wood, but takes a creative shape like this one. Just add some curves, corners, and some add-on rooms and you're set! This image I've given you is just the tip of the iceberg. Remember, a room doesn't have to be a rectangle shape- it can be anything you want. A trapezoid, a circle, triangle, anything! Just make sure it's closed and has some sort of way in if you want an NPC to live there. And remember, utilize that hammer! Just don't overdo it.
The Fancy House
![vvF9k94.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/vvF9k94.jpg)
The basis of this house is variety. Instead of making it out of one or two materials, the builder of this house aims to use as many as possible while still making it look good. Obviously, this takes some level of skill to make, but later on having an eye for this stuff is essential. The best way to go about putting in many different types of blocks is to put in columns and rows, like I have. It looks somewhat like struts, and the spaces in between them are prime spots for windows. As you can see, my example is shaped like a box, to show just how effective variety can be in making your house look good. If you see me using a material that you don't recognize or don't know how to get, just ask! You're also free to ask me what would go well with any specific block.
The Combo House
![xjRdqtW.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/xjRdqtW.jpg)
This can be a bit challenging to make at first. It basically combines the previous two methods, making a varied house with lots of shapes. This is what you want to strive to achieve, since making these houses helps give you your own personal style. Oh, and one last thing...
It's OK to rip ideas from other people's houses!
If you see an idea you like on someone else's build, feel free to use that idea in your own build. Doing this is what'll give you an idea of what you're good at building and what you like building: effectively, your style! I'll give you an example.
![Zw2TExc.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/Zw2TExc.jpg)
This is in one of my personal worlds. If you'll look at the roof, you can see that I'm using fences. That style has been ripped and adapted from a guy on a popular thread on the old Terraria forums (I forget his name; some of you might recognize it though). If you went to the bother to compare my and his roofs, though, you'll see that we're still very different. That's because I've adapted his style to fit my personal tastes. When I first started building this type of roof, they were more similar to his. However, over time I changed them.
So, effectively, a good builder's style is a Frankenstein's Monster of styles: an amalgation of parts that, when brought together, are totally different from what they came from. Remember, just ask if you have any questions or if you want me to rate your build and tell you how to improve it.
Above all, though, just experiment. If you're not sure where to begin, build something like you've never built before. It might be bad, but it's a start.
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