You beat the Eye of Cthulhu! You must feel awesome now. You got some new nifty weapons, perhaps even maxed out on your armour and obtained some very powerful magical items. What now? We go further than we ever went before. We leave the (relative) safety of our home, and the familiar regions and go into the vast unknown! In this episode of the Terraria guide, let us talk about the new different areas you might fall upon in your travels, and what treasures and dangers await you.
If you beat the Eye of Cthulhu, then you have all the gear you need to explore the rest of the map. Carry a few healing potions, wood for platforms, your weapon of choice and set off! There is no rule which types of areas are closer or further from your house and in which order they appear. The map is generated randomly each time but you should always expect the following: a desert, a jungle, a corrupted zone, entrance to the dungeon (only ever one) and two oceans (one on each end of the map). You could find more than one jungle, desert or corrupted zone, so in some cases expect even more treasures for you to obtain! Let’s jump into the details of each zone, so that you will know what to expect.
On the surface you will notice a lot more mud, the trees will look differently, as will the background and music. There will be pools of water with piranhas, jungle bats as well as jungle slimes. The bats will be a new opponent for you, and a much tougher one than what you might be used to. Since piranhas and jungle slimes attack in a linear fashion they are easy to predict, a swarm of bats could be a serious danger if you have poor armour, or lack healing potions.
This is going to... sting.
When you travel down, no matter if you start your own tunnel or enter a cavern there will be a number of differences between the jungle and standard underground. First of all, you will find a lot of vines everywhere. These block your light so you have to cut them away in order to see more clearly. They will grow back with time, but if you use spells, ranged weapons or even an ordinary sword there should be no problem. Underground you will also meet two new types of enemies, one of them even more deadly than the bat. Hornets, are just that. Big flying bugs with nasty stings. Instead of having to attack you up close they will fire at you from a range, and if they hit you there is a chance of you being poisoned (you lose health for a time). Against poorly armoured characters a single hornet is a huge danger, if not certain death. They can do 40 damage on a single hit, so even if you have maxed out health (400) if you are careless makes you die very quickly. The other creature, with a new type of attack, is the Man Eater/Snatcher. These beasts are essentially jaws with long ropy bodies which will try to reach out for you. Their “attack” can pass through walls, but you will often see the maximum range of their attack, because their heads will struggle at the ends of their bodies. As such, if you do not jump within their range you can hack away at them, but be wary of where they are hidden, so that you do not accidentally get eaten by them.
Perhaps not the way Dr. Jones made it look in the movies... but it is still treasure!
Why would you want to visit the deadly jungle? The treasure. Within the jungle underground you can find golden chests hidden within “Temples”. These are essentially very small rooms made of golden bricks. They are generated randomly, and if you have the right tool the bricks can be collected. The chests themselves will hold “jungle related” loot, such as the Feral Claws (increased melee attack speed). Up to a certain point it is worth your time to explore the jungle underground just like any other underground. Ores are still present, together with chests and monsters which drop items for later crafting. It is not the easiest zone to visit, but if you plan on making certain types of magical items, necessary.
The desert is not as deadly as it looks. You will meet two types of unique enemies here. The antlions and vultures. None of them pose any threat to you, unless you have problems fighting “Evil Eyeball” type enemies, and what is in essence a stationary sand gun. The desert holds very little of interest to you, unless you need a whole load of sand, waterleafs (they grow in the desert) or cactus (used in some potions). Before the 1.1 update the cactus could damage you as you passed through it, now it is harmless. There is no unique treasure in the desert, and unless you are looking for something specific, you won’t spend much time here.
Desert, sunshine... and dead things.
It is very easy to tell when you ended up in the corruption, everything looks evil. Not only that, but flying maws will try to eat you. In the Corruption you will see a number of new enemies, most of which will have highly predictable attack patterns. Eaters of Souls are floating maws, which drift around you and then fly toward you. Smack them once with a blade, and they float back. If you use a Waraxe of the Night the only issue you could have with them, is if they surround you from both sides. The other creature which you could face is called the devourer. It’s like a giant earthworm, only even bigger, and a bit tougher. Most of the enemies in the Corruption are easy, when compared to those of the Jungle. The problem with the corruption comes with travelling.
Taking a leap of faith, over one of the chasms in the corruption. Not that dangerous, since the chasm is not perfectly vertical.
On the surface the corruption will have “dirt” areas, with trees and grass, but also huge ebonstone areas. These will look like shafts, which not even your gold pickaxe will be able to mine. If you fall down one, it could be a long drop with a sudden death, so use your grappling hook or cloud in the bottle to soften the landing. Once you fall down, it could be a hard time getting out, so all your practice with the grappling hook will come to the test.
Aside from the beasties, you will also find chests (like in any underground) and also Shadow Orbs. These will often be encased within the Ebonstone, so you will have a hard time getting to them. However, if you brought dynamite, or some smaller bombs, you can blast through it. Shadow orbs can then be broken with any hammer. HOWEVER, if you destroy three shadow orbs it will summon the Eater of Worlds, the second Terraria Boss. If you want to read the guide on fighting this beastie click this link (once it is done). Shadow Orbs will have all manner of cool and useful loot, so it pays off to open them up, once you can, all the while farming the Eater of Worlds.
There is one ocean on each end of the map. At first they might look like deserts without cacti, but then you see the gigantic pool of water. Why come here? Sometimes there will be a golden chest at the bottom of the ocean, which holds water associated loot. This could be a trident, diving helmet or something of similar underwater theme. Although there will not always be good loot, and there is no guarantee there will be a chest, it does not hurt to check. Since you just have to follow the bottom of the ocean the path is as straight as it can be. Be wary of jellyfish and sharks however. Sharks are especially tough, but the simplest tactic is to keep them at bay with a strong or quick striking weapon. Remember to bring some flippers to swim to the surface for air, or use the mirror once you reach the very edge of the map, to teleport back home, to safety.
Walking along the ocean floor, searching for hidden treasure.
This will look like a big “castle like” construction, standing somewhere in the map. Aside from the building there will be a way leading down, as well as an old man walking around. This is where you fight Skeletron, the third Terraria Boss. In order to summon this boss you have to speak to the Old man and ask about the Curse, only possible during the night. But, if you do not want to do that, you can look inside the building, as long as you do not head below, or instant death follows. Among the books which you can collect you could find a spell, or some quality potions, or even a blue candle, which makes more enemies spawn around you. If you have the grappling hook you can easilly travel over the Dungeon Entrance, and untill you do not get the nightmare pickaxe you cannot recover it. Dynamite will not work.
No brick for me.
At some point, as you dig down, you will reach the Hell level, as I call it. Untill you defeat the Eater of World this will be the last place you want to end up in. There is plenty of lava all about, hellstone bricks will burn you, if you touch them… and the beasties are less than friendly. If you do wish to explore this area, do what I did, and cheat. Build a tunnel made of dirt, with platforms to let you travel up and down. Most beasts will not be able to reach you, and you can build the tunnel from house to house, gathering the pots, and some treasure chests. Note, that if you want to survive a bit longer against lava, use a water walking potion, and you can walk your way through hell. Another potions you could use, to explore some of the houses is the obsidian skin potion, which can be found from time to time. I recommend waiting untill you get the Obsidian skull however, it saves you a lot of hassle.
Once you are done exploring the map, on the surface and below, gathered even more interesting loot, perhaps farmed the poor Eye of Cthulhu a bit more, we move on to fighting the Eater of Worlds. Read the next part of the Guide on how to defeat this boss. Untill then, safe exploring!
