Guide:Getting started with Hardmode

This is a Guide page.
This means the page will walk you through a specific task, strategy, or enemy/boss fight.

---

Status: Under revision (This Guide is currently being revised or has been revised partially. It hasn't met all quality standards yet.)

Issues:
 • This article is very dense. More images would help to break up the text.

Hardmode is the second half of the game, initiated in a world when the Wall of Flesh is defeated for the first time. New, more powerful enemies spawn with new loot, increasing the power level of both enemies and the player dramatically, and the Corruption/Crimson begin to spread and infect nearby blocks. Once started, Hardmode cannot be turned off.

The beginning of Hardmode is very dangerous due to the new threats, and can easily catch newer players off guard. This guide focuses on helping new players recognize and deal with the threats posed in early Hardmode.

Preparations

Initial Hardmode map of a small world on the  Desktop version. Notice the "V" made of the new outburst of Corruption (dark purple) and Hallow (pale pink), which each replace existing world blocks upon the defeat of the Wall of Flesh.

Once Hardmode starts, the more threatening enemies can make a lot of normal actions and travel more difficult. However, you can mitigate this by improving your gear and safety and mitigating risks. Use Pylons or other movement infrastructure to move to and from distant parts of the world quickly and safely. Especially notable is having a Cavern Pylon or Hellevator for rapid and efficient access to the cavern layer.

Make sure you have a good supply of herbs and potions, ideally by farming herbs. Several easy-to-get potions are massive advantages both for speed and safety, such as Spelunker Potions, Hunter Potions, Featherfall Potions, and Mining Potions. Being able to have these potions constantly active during early Hardmode makes early exploration much faster and safer.

Progressing smoothly at the start of Hardmode will require the Pwnhammer and the Molten Pickaxe; you will get the prior from killing the Wall of Flesh, but you should craft the latter in advance if possible. If you are not able to mine Hellstone for the pickaxe, then once Hardmode starts, you will be able to blow it up with Dynamite and collect it that way. Other early Hardmode gear will generally be whatever gear you kill the Wall of Flesh with, but the Emblem that the Wall of Flesh drops is a great addition for extra damage output. If the Night's Edge was crafted in pre-Hardmode, it serves as a reliable weapon for regular enemies, given its decent damage, knockback, and excellent coverage around the player. On Expert Mode and above, the Demon Heart that the Wall of Flesh drops also gives an extra accessory slot.

When Hardmode begins, the evil biome of your world and then new Hallow biome will generate in large strips in your world, fanning out in a V. These strips are very important for early Hardmode progression, but the evil strip can corrupt housing and disrupt Pylons. If you want to prevent this risk in advance, you can plant a large number of Sunflowers near pylons, but this is easier to do after the start of Hardmode as most Pylons will be safe with no intervention.

These strips and the chasms in pre-Hardmode will spread their biomes to nearby blocks, quickly on the surface and slowly underground. Surrounding patches of evil biome with 2 Sunflowers at each end, or a 3 block wide vertical tunnel, will contain their spread.

In  Old-gen console version and Nintendo 3DS version, evil biomes infecting the Jungle poses a threat as they would permanently convert Jungle mud into dirt, making it much harder to purify the Jungle and undo the damage once it is infected. Evil biome spread is also harder to contain in these versions in general, due to random stone blocks in the cavern layer having a chance of being infected when a Demon Altar/Crimson Altar is smashed.

If you have not found it yet, consider looking for the Aether. Shimmer becomes much more useful in Hardmode, allowing you to cycle the Emblem the Wall of Flesh drops and avoid reforge costs on some expensive new Hardmode gear by crafting and decrafting it repeatedly. You can look for the Aether in Hardmode, and it will be faster with faster mining speed, but more dangerous due to the enemies.

The First Steps

Now Wall of Flesh is dead and the world is in Hardmode. Make sure to collect the items the Wall of Flesh drops - the Wall of Flesh will place a square of Demonite or Crimtane Bricks to prevent its items from falling into lava below, but if your inventory fills up before you collect all the drops, the other items may fall down into lava pools below. Make sure you get the Pwnhammer, and the weapons and Emblems the boss gives are also useful.

The first goal is to get better gear, and the biggest improvement is mining the new Hardmode ores. The new Pwnhammer you got will let you smash Altars, and this is how you spawn Hardmode ores. Each of the first three Altars you smash will generate a new type of ore - Cobalt or Palladium, Mythril or Orichalcum, then Adamantite or Titanium. After that, the cycle repeats and smashing more Altars generates more of these same ore types. The third altar of each cycle generates the most powerful ore, so smashing 9 or 12 Altars is a good benchmark to aim for, but there is no downside to smashing more.

The first Altar smashed will allow the mechanical bosses and Pirate Invasions to spawn naturally. An inopportune Pirate Invasion can be a major setback early on, but there are ways to mitigate this risk. Natural mechanical boss spawns can be avoided by staying underground all night or exiting and reentering the game. It is possible to do early Hardmode progression without smashing any Altars, but this process is slow and tedious.

If you feel that you need a better weapon before mining for Hardmode ores, the Arms Dealer sells Empty Bullets now, which along with Explosive Powder from the Demolitionist, can craft Exploding Bullets for crowd control. These are best used with a fast and consistent gun like the Phoenix Blaster, but the Shotgun is a new buyable alternative. For summoners, before mining for Hardmode ore, it may be worth it to farm Black Recluses in spider nests for Spider Fangs, as this is their major gear upgrade; however, other weapons crafted from Hardmode ores can make this process much easier.

Hardmode ore mining

You will need a Molten Pickaxe to mine the first tier of Hardmode ores, then need to use this ore to craft a stronger mining tool that can mine the next tier of Hardmode ore. Hardmode ores can be used to craft Pickaxes or Drills - Drills have faster base speeds, but less range and do not benefit from mining speed bonuses or speed-increasing modifiers. However, it is very easy for Pickaxes to outspeed Drills due to this - a Light or Quick Pickaxe will always outspeed its Drill counterpart when supported with a Mining Potion and food buff, in addition to having better range. Pickaxes are almost always the better option to craft.

Use Mining Potions and Spelunker Potions to quickly spot and mine to new ore deposits. If you see ore you cannot mine, make a note of it and look for other ore types you can mine. At this point, it is best to mine in pure caverns, as this area has the least dangerous enemies and is the easiest to mine through. Other biomes do not give enough extra value for the extra threat they pose at this point, and the Underground Jungle and Underground Desert especially are extremely lethal now.

Most enemies at this point are very dangerous relative to the rewards they give, but if you spot a chest out in the open, especially if it hangs off an edge, try shooting it from a safe distance. These may be Mimics, which offer a massive amount of gold and useful accessories when killed. They deal high damage, but cannot go through blocks or fall through platforms, and it is well worth killing these.

You need 45 Cobalt Ore or 54 Palladium Ore for the first Hardmode Pickaxe, and 100 Mythril Ore or 120 Orichalcum Ore to get a new Hardmode Anvil + new Pickaxe. Because these new Pickaxes let you mine the next tier of ore, once you have enough ore to make the next Pickaxe, consider teleporting home and crafting it immediately. The tier 3 ore Pickaxes do not let you mine any new blocks, and in general can be skipped; however, the Titanium Pickaxe with maximum mining speed buffs can reach the maximum mining speed in the game, so it can be worth crafting that. In this case, you need 110 Titanium Ore to craft a Titanium Forge and Pickaxe.

How much ore you mine will depend on what gear you want to work with, but 300 or so Adamantite Ore or Titanium Ore is enough to get a full armor set and a good weapon. Pure summoners do not get much value out of Hardmode ore mining after getting a Hardmode Anvil, but getting a good ore weapon can help them in getting the gear they want; additionally, one may wish to craft a Titanium Mask/Adamantite Helmet if they intend to play tank summoner.

Fishing for Hardmode ores

Hardmode versions of Crates can give Hardmode ores as well, but this is very slow compared to mining for them. The main reasons to fish for Hardmode ores are if you want to avoid the risk of a natural Pirate Invasion or if you want a Titanium Pickaxe in a world that has Adamantite instead.

For fishing up Hardmode ores, fishing in the Hallow or Underground Hallow is the fastest by a wide margin. Divine Crates drop Hardmode ores twice as often as any other Biome Crate, Prismite are useful for Lifeforce Potions, and the Crystal Serpent is a strong early Hardmode weapon. Make sure to use Crate Potions and stack as much fishing power as you can.

Hellstone Crates from lava fishing does guarantee that all crates reeled in can have tier 3 Hardmode ores, but Hellstone Crates only have a 1/6 (16.67%) chance of generating on a given crate roll, making them actually more rare than other Biome Crates with good fishing power.

Gearing up

Hardmode ores and a new Hardmode Anvil allow for much stronger gear than in pre-Hardmode. Repeaters especially are very strong yet easily obtainable weapons, and Unholy Arrows can be bought from the Arms Dealer at any time now, with fantastic crowd control, consistency, and range. Swords and Spears lack in range, but are powerful get-off-me tools and strong options for melee players. Mages benefit from Hardmode ore armors, but need to get a new weapon from elsewhere; the new Wizard NPC also sells the Crystal Ball, which gives a free buff to magic weapons, and Greater Mana Potions, which are enough to fully sustain the mana costs of most magic weapons.

The alternate versions of Hardmode ores produce slightly stronger weapons, but cost more bars to craft. Titanium weapons are better than Adamantite weapons, but Adamantite armor is better than Titanium armor, giving better damage and defense while also being cheaper to craft. Titanium armor's set bonus is difficult and dangerous to use if you are not constantly taking hits. If your world has Titanium, you can shimmer Titanium Ore down into Adamantite Ore to craft that armor set. Lower tier ore armor is also usable, but generally weaker than Adamantite armor.

Summoners want Spider armor and a Spider Staff and Queen Spider Staff, which requires killing Black Recluses in spider nests. You need 52 Spider Fangs(Desktop, Console, Old-gen console and Mobile versions) for the armor and minion, and an extra 24 for the sentry. Black Recluses deal huge damage, have projectile spit, and are heavily resistant to knockback, making them difficult to face at this point, but they cannot move through blocks while minions can be summoned on the other side of blocks, which makes this a bit easier.

Souls and enemies to farm

With better weapons and armor, it is time to focus on getting new and powerful loot from all the new enemies. These are important for further weapon upgrades, a wide variety of accessories, and being able to manually summon the mechanical bosses, which are the next required bosses in progression.

Wings

Wings are the main staple of Hardmode movement, granting a high level of vertical mobility control and reach alongside immunity to fall damage. To craft any given pair of wings, you need 20 Souls of Flight and another item depending on the pair you want. To get Souls of Flight, go to space and kill Wyverns. Wyverns spawn far more frequently when you are near a Water Candle taken from the Dungeon. During the night, higher spawn rates mean more Wyvern spawns, but they can be hard to see, so you should consider a Hunter Potion in this case. They are fast flying worm enemies that circle away from you then rush towards you, with a limited turn radius. You can dodge them by running under them to abuse their turn radius, or fall away from them and shoot along their length using a Featherfall Potion to adjust fall speed. Piercing weapons like Unholy Arrows or an Aqua Scepter are excellent at killing Wyverns quickly. You will need to kill 3-4/2 Wyverns to get enough Souls for a pair of wings.

There are many options for the other crafting ingredient for a pair of Wings. The quickest options to obtain are Angel and Demon Wings, which require 10 Feathers and 15 Souls of Light or Night. However, Fairy Wings, Frozen Wings, and Harpy Wings are better, requiring 99 Pixie Dust, an Ice Feather, and Giant Harpy Feather respectively. Fairy Wings are the most reliable wings to farm for in most scenarios, as Pixie Dust is a common resource from a common enemy. However, if one chooses to farm Ice Golems for Frost Armor, an Ice Feather can be obtained while collecting Frost Cores. Additionally, the Giant Harpy Feather can be obtained from Harpies in pre-Hardmode (albeit at a low droprate).

As you progress through Hardmode, new and stronger Wings become available, and each requires 20 Souls of Flight. Besides killing Wyverns, you can also decraft your old Wings via Shimmer to get back Souls of Flight that way. It is helpful to check for new wing options as you beat bosses.

Wings also get huge benefits from a Shiny Red Balloon, a Frog Leg, or their upgrades. It is well worth using one of these options alongside wings for a major mobility boost. Featherfall Potions also provide a huge boost to the vertical control that Wings offer, and are easy to craft with the Feathers gathered from killing Harpies while waiting for Wyverns or farming a Giant Harpy Feather.

Underground evil and Hallow

With the V generated at the start of Hardmode, there are now evil and Hallow biomes in the cavern layer. Enemies killed here have a chance of dropping a Soul of Night or Soul of Light respectively, and each biome has its own useful crafting material. Underground Corruption has Cursed Flames that drop from Clingers and World Feeders, Underground Crimson has Ichor that drops from Ichor Stickers, and the Underground Hallow has Crystal Shards that grow on the sides of Pearlstone and other Hallowed blocks and can be mined to collect them.

For mages, 20 of the unique crafting material, 15 of their respective Soul, and a Spell Tome from the Wizard can be used to craft spell book weapons, the Golden Shower, Cursed Flames, and Crystal Storm. On the ranged side of things, the new crafting materials can be used to craft new Arrows, Bullets, and Darts - Ichor Arrows and Crystal Bullets are especially useful, while all of the new dart types are useful. Flasks of Ichor are also very useful for players using minions, as Ichor provides a defense penetration buff that gives more damage the more hits the player can deal. Crystal Shards can also be used to craft Super Mana Potions(Desktop, Console, Old-gen console and Mobile versions), which restore so much mana that they minimize Mana Sickness durations even on the most expensive magic weapons.

These biomes can also spawn Biome Mimics, big, powerful, and aggressive Mimic variants that are immune to knockback and can pass through blocks to kill you. With their fast movement and random actions, it can be hard to deal with them without a lot of empty space; it may be best to leave them alone for now. However, if you can kill them, they offer fantastic weapons, accessories, and extra healing potions. You can also craft Keys of Night(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)/Light(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) to spawn these Biome Mimics on the surface, where you have far more space to deal with them, so you should not feel obligated to kill them here.

Almost all Biome Mimic drops are useful, but Flesh Knuckles(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) are especially notable due to their value to tank builds, while the ranged weapon drops from them are arguably the best weapons against the mechanical bosses overall.

While only one evil spawns with a given world, the other evil's respective seeds can be bought from the Dryad in a Graveyard now. This is useful to farm Ichor in corrupt worlds, for instance, or it can allow for defeating the alternate evil boss for their accessory in Expert Mode.

Mummy variants can spawn on infected variants of Sand Blocks on the surface. Dark and Blood Mummies(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) can drop Dark Shards while Light Mummies can drop Light Shards. These items can also be gathered in infected versions of the Underground Desert, but are far easier, safer, and faster to farm on the surface. These Shards are used to craft the Onyx Blaster(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions), Dao of Pow, and Sky Fracture(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions), along with their respective Soul type.

Events

There are a number of events, such as sandstorms or the powered-up Goblin Army, that can give more powerful weapons and gear now.

• While raining, Ice Golems can spawn in the Snow Biome, which drop Frost Cores(Desktop, Console, Old-gen console and Mobile versions) for Frost armor, Cool Whip(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions), and Blizzard in a Bottle and Ice Feathers for Frozen Wings. Angry Nimbuses can also drop the Nimbus Rod as a useful magic weapon.
  • Frost armor is most useful for ranged weapons, but can benefit melee weapons. Cool Whip is a strong new whip for summoners, especially for low-damage minions.
  • The golem will fire lasers rapidly at you, and being frozen by these can easily lead to death. Try to block in the Ice Golem to prevent it from moving and whittle it down while avoiding its head.
• Sandstorms now spawn Sand Elementals(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions), which drop Forbidden Fragments(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) for Forbidden armor and the Spirit Flame(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions), as well for crafting a Sandstorm in a Bottle.
  • Forbidden armor is useful as a magic-summon hybrid, but requires using both weapon types to stand out against more specialized sets. The Spirit Flame is a great magic weapon against upcoming bosses, while a Sandstorm in a Bottle is otherwise hard to get and using it to craft a Bundle of Balloons can allow for skipping Wings entirely.
  • Try to stay high off the ground, as Dune Splicers will tear you to shreds otherwise, and shoot down the elemental from a distance.
• The Goblin Army now spawns Goblin Warlocks, which drop a useful weapon for every class besides summoner.
  • See Guide:Goblin Army strategies for more info on dealing with Goblin Warlocks.
• A Pirate Invasion gives a huge amount of money, both from direct drops and sold furniture. Very rarely, it can also give the Coin Gun.
  • See Guide:Pirate Invasion strategies for more info on how to deal with this event.
• Queen Slime can be summoned using a Gelatin Crystal(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions), and can drop the Blade Staff(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) as a powerful new minion or the Gelatinous Pillion(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) as a mobile all-round mount with high fall speed.
  • See Guide:Queen Slime strategies for more info on how to deal with Queen Slime.
• Blood Moons now spawn Clowns that can be killed for Bananarangs and new fishing enemies that can drop the Drippler Crippler(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) and Sanguine Staff(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions), which are the strongest options for their respective classes at this point.
  • However, fished Blood Moon enemies in Hardmode are very dangerous, especially when paired with all the other enemies around them. See Guide:Blood Moon strategies for help on dealing with these enemies.

Other gear of note

• Mimics are rare, but offer powerful defensive utility in Cross Necklace, Star Veil, and Philosopher's Stone, a good hook in Dual Hook, and the Titan Glove. These can all be crafted into powerful and useful accessories.
• Wolves and Basilisks(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) can drop the Lilith's Necklace(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) and Ancient Horn(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) respectively, which can replace Wings entirely when coupled with extra jumps and Featherfall Potion support.
• Pixie Dust and Crystal Shards can be used to craft Greater Healing Potions, helping give more HP back in a pinch.

Moving forward

The next bosses to defeat are the mechanical bosses, which allude to major pre-Hardmode bosses and are a major step up in stats and difficulty. You will need answers to their fast movement and high damage, and you need to deal enough damage to kill them in a single night, or they will despawn (or enrage in the case of Skeletron Prime).

These bosses can spawn randomly during the night if an Altar has been smashed, with an accompanying status message at the start of the night. They can also be spawned manually with their mechanical summon items, which require Iron/Lead Bars and Souls of Night/Light to craft, along with a material associated with the boss' pre-Hardmode counterpart: Lenses for the Twins, Rotten Chunks or Vertebrae for the Destroyer, and Bones for Skeletron Prime. You can buy and shimmer Iron Anvils from the Merchant to get more Iron Bars if need be, while a good enemy farm can make gathering the other materials for these summons much faster and easier.

If you are struggling with the mechanical bosses, consider seeing what Potions you could make use of for the fights, and how you could improve your mobility to avoid attacks. A good pair of Wings loves the extra speed of a Balloon and the extra vertical control of Featherfall or Gravitation Potions. Food buffs from Pumpkin Pies and the speed buff from Swiftness Potions can greatly assist in horizontal acceleration, and an Obsidian Shield can prevent stray hits from ruining your movement with knockback. Ironskin and Regeneration Potions are massive survivability buffs that are easy to craft as well.

For more help with the Destroyer, see Guide:The Destroyer strategies. For more help with the Twins, see Guide:The Twins strategies. For more help with Skeletron Prime, see Guide:Skeletron Prime strategies.