Terraria: Progression Guide from Spawn to Moon Lord

Before Your First Boss: Build a Foundation

Terraria's progression is gear-gated — each boss drops materials that enable the next tier. Before fighting anything, establish these basics:

• Base camp: A Workbench, Furnace (smelts ore into bars), and Iron/Lead Anvil (crafts tools and armor). Place them in a room with walls and a door to spawn the Guide NPC — he tells you what items can be crafted from any material you show him.
• Copper/Tin armor set: Mine ore from the surface and shallow underground. Crafting a full set gives a small defense boost that matters in early fights.
• Torches everywhere: Dark underground areas spawn more enemies. Light is both a safety measure and a requirement for later NPC housing.

Pre-Hardmode Boss Order

1. King Slime (optional) — Summoned with a Slime Crown or random spawn. Drops a pet and cosmetics. Skip if you want, fight if you need the early Gel.
2. Eye of Cthulhu — Craft a Suspicious Looking Eye from 6 Lens (dropped by eyeball enemies at night) at a Demon Altar, or it spawns naturally once you have 200 HP and 10 Defense. Drops Demonite or Crimtane ore depending on world type.
3. Eater of Worlds (Corruption worlds) or Brain of Cthulhu (Crimson worlds) — Summoned at Demon/Crimson Altars in their respective biomes, or by breaking three Shadow Orbs/Crimson Hearts with a hammer. Drops Shadow Scales or Tissue Samples needed for Shadow/Crimson armor.
4. Skeletron — Summoned by speaking to the Old Man at the Dungeon entrance at night. Defeat him to gain access to the Dungeon, which contains the Muramasa sword and the Cobalt Shield (prevents knockback — extremely useful throughout the game).
5. Wall of Flesh — Summoned by throwing a Guide Voodoo Doll (dropped by Voodoo Demons in Hell) into the lava at the bottom of the world. This triggers Hardmode. Do not do this until you're ready — build Molten armor from Hellstone bars first, which requires mining in Hell with a Molten Pickaxe or better.

The Hellevator

Before fighting the Wall of Flesh, dig a Hellevator — a straight vertical shaft from the surface to Hell. Mine straight down, placing platforms every 20 blocks to break your fall. This shaft serves double duty: reaching Hell to farm Hellstone ore for Molten armor, and fighting the Wall of Flesh (a horizontal boss that moves across the entire width of the world — you need a clear path to run from it).

Hardmode: Everything Changes

When the Wall of Flesh dies, Hardmode begins. Two things happen immediately: new Hallow and Corruption/Crimson stripes spread diagonally across your world (spreading slowly and converting biomes), and dramatically stronger enemies start spawning on the surface. Do not fight on the surface until you have Cobalt or Palladium armor. Mine the new Hardmode ores underground, in order:

1. Cobalt / Palladium (found from the Cavern layer down) → Cobalt/Palladium Drill and armor
2. Mythril / Orichalcum (deeper) → requires smashing a Demon Altar with the Pwnhammer (dropped by Wall of Flesh)
3. Adamantite / Titanium (deepest) → requires smashing more Demon Altars

Hardmode Boss Order

Hardmode has six major bosses before the final encounter:

• The Destroyer, Skeletron Prime, The Twins (the three Mechanical Bosses) — can be fought in any order. Each drops Hallowed Bars and a specific Soul. All three must be defeated to trigger Plantera's Bulb to spawn in the Jungle.
• Plantera — Defeat after all three Mechanical Bosses. Hard cap on progression. Drops the Temple Key and Plantera's hook. Unlocks Golem and harder enemy spawns.
• Golem — Found in the Lihzahrd Temple (Jungle). Drops Golem Mask, Sun Stone, and crafting materials for endgame gear.
• Lunatic Cultist — Spawns at the Dungeon entrance after defeating Golem (and killing the four Cultists gathered there). Triggers the four Lunar Events.
• Moon Lord — Summoned after defeating all four Celestial Pillars during the Lunar Events. The true final boss.

The Wall of Flesh to first Mechanical Boss transition is the hardest gear check in the game. If you're struggling on the surface in early Hardmode, go underground immediately and mine Cobalt/Palladium before anything else.

Moon Lord Arena

Moon Lord is the true final boss and requires endgame preparation. Build a long flat arena — at least 300 blocks wide — in the sky, with Campfires and Heart Lanterns placed every 30 tiles for passive regeneration. Stock 30+ Greater Healing Potions. Use one of the four Lunar armor sets: Solar Flare (melee), Nebula (magic), Vortex (ranged), or Stardust (summoner). He has three eye-phases plus a core — destroy all three eyes simultaneously, then strike the core to finish the fight.