How to Craft in Terraria: Beginner's Guide & Key Craftables

Quick Answer:

How to Craft in Terraria?: Open your inventory (ESC/Tab on PC, Triangle/Y/X on console), look at the crafting panel in the bottom-left, and select an item you have the materials for. The list changes based on what’s in your inventory and which crafting stations or chests are in range.

Crafting in Terraria is all about mashing together the stuff you’ve found, looted from bosses, bought off traders, or nabbed from friends to make gear that helps you defeat the next big enemy or pimp out your base. It’s a core part of the game, and you’ll need to get the hang of it if you ever plan on taking down The Moon Lord.

This guide covers everything from basic hand-crafting to setting up an efficient crafting station area with chests, a Work Bench, Loom, Furnace, and more - so you can make anything from early-game gear to end-game weapons with ease.

How to Craft in Terraria: Accessing the Crafting Menu

To access the crafting menu at any moment, you will need to press the ‘Inventory Key’ while in-game.

This is defaulted to ESC/Tab on PC.

On the Console version of the game, you’ll want to:

• Press Triangle (PlayStation)

• Y (Xbox)

• X (Nintendo Switch)

• Or, if you’ve remapped the key, press that one instead. Don’t know what you remapped it to? Find it in the Settings > Controls.

This will then bring up a HUD (heads up display) which will show your inventory, equipment slots, emotes, NPC book, and a couple more options.

Once it’s opened, direct your attention to the bottom left of the screen, where you can see all of your current crafting options:

This will be based on what you’re carrying, and what is close by (via a chest, more on this later.)

Then all you need to do is click on the item you want to craft.

This is the basics of crafting.

If you want to go beyond the limited number of items you can craft, you’ll need to use crafting stations…

Crafting Stations: What They Are & How To ‘Use’ Them:

Basic crafting, aka crafting by hand, will only get you so far.

You’ll be limited to a small set of items.

As you explore - chopping trees, mining underground, or taking down early bosses like the Slime King - you’ll gather materials that unlock more advanced recipes. But to craft those, you’ll need crafting stations to do so.

The first (and most important early-game one) is the Work Bench:

Work Bench (Early Game Essentials)

The Work Bench (in its various forms) is a crafting station needed for many essential early-game items.

Unlike games such as Minecraft, you do not need to click the Work Bench to create items. Or any other crafting station for that matter.

There is also no need to remember any recipe order, only the number of materials required.

The Work Bench works by expanding what you can and cannot craft when you are standing next to it, and this rule applies to every other crafting station in Terraria.

How to ‘use’ a Work Bench (and other crafting stations)

The player can reach any crafting station within about three blocks to the left or right, three blocks below, or three blocks above their character's height.

This creates a total reach of roughly eight by six blocks, centred below the player.

This is how all crafting stations work.

Since there are many of them, an efficient Terraria setup places them in a specific design so you can access every station from one spot.

But more on that in a bit.

Right now, let’s talk about another item that’s going to be handy when crafting, that ISN’T a crafting station:

You’ll Need Chests (and lots of them)

One thing you’ll want in your crafting station setup is an item chest.

Item chests let you store any item or material you gather in the world.

Just like a workbench or other crafting stations, you can use the materials inside a chest when you are within range and have your crafting menu open.

However, this does not mean you can pull items out without opening the chest - you are simply allowed to use what’s inside for crafting.

The number of chests you can link to your crafting station setup is unlimited. The only restriction is distance, since you need to be close enough to access them.

If you’re a messy Terraria player (let’s face it, most of us are), the benefit is huge.

After a boss fight, you can dump your loot into any chest in the system without worrying about sorting it right away - everything will still be ready to use next time you craft.

All Other Crafting Stations Available:

Some of these are necessary for your Pre-hardcore mode, and others you may never touch, but here is the full list:

Pre-Hardmode Stations

• Work Bench - Basic furniture and wood gear

• Furnace - Smelt ore, craft some blocks

• Hellforge - Smelt ore plus Hellstone bars

• Iron Anvil - Craft tools, weapons, and armor

• Lead Anvil - Same as Iron Anvil

• Placed Bottle - Basic potion crafting station

• Alchemy Table - Potions, powders, special threads

• Sink - Acts as water source

• Sawmill - Extra furniture and Loom

• Loom - Turns cobwebs into silk

• Table and Chair - Craft watches when together

• Work Bench and Chair - Craft goggles, sunglasses together

• Cooking Pot - Cooks basic food items

• Cauldron - Same as Cooking Pot

• Tinkerer's Workshop - Combines accessory functions

• Imbuing Station - Crafts flask buffs

• Dye Vat - Makes dyes and paints

• Heavy Work Bench - Statues and decorative blocks

• Demon Altar - Boss summons, Night’s Edge

• Crimson Altar - Same as Demon Altar

Hardmode Stations

• Mythril Anvil - Hardmode weapons, armour, items

• Orichalcum Anvil - Same as Mythril Anvil

• Adamantite Forge - Smelt late-Hardmode ores

• Titanium Forge - Same as Adamantite Forge

• Bookcase - Craft Hardmode magic weapons

• Crystal Ball - Endless ammo, animated blocks

• Autohammer - Makes Shroomite bars

• Ancient Manipulator - Lunar and Luminite items

Specialised - Pre-Hardmode

• Keg – Brews ale

• Teapot – Makes teacups

• Living Wood (3DS) – Crafts living wood walls

Specialised - Hardmode

• Blend-O-Matic – Crafts asphalt blocks

• Meat Grinder – Crafts flesh/lesion blocks

Themed Furniture – Pre-Hardmode

• Bone Welder – Bone-themed furniture

• Glass Kiln – Glass-themed furniture

• Honey Dispenser – Honey-themed furniture

• Ice Machine – Ice-themed furniture

• Living Loom – Living tree-themed items

• Sky Mill – Sky-themed furniture, clouds

• Solidifier – Slime-themed blocks and items

Themed Furniture – Hardmode

• Decay Chamber – Corruption-themed furniture

• Flesh Cloning Vat – Crimson-themed furniture

• Steampunk Boiler – Steampunk-themed furniture

• Lihzahrd Furnace – Jungle temple-themed furniture

The Essential Crafting Setup (Pre-Hardmode)

You won’t need every crafting station at once, and you may skip some depending on your goals. That said, here’s a solid baseline setup for pre-Hardmode - most of these can be crafted fairly early in your journey:

Core items:

• Work Bench

• Wooden Table

• Wooden Chair

• Furnace

• Anvil

• Sawmill

• Loom

• Chest (Multiple)

And here is the setup we like to use:

Above image from the Terraria Wiki.

If you want to create your own setup, just remember this:

The player can reach any crafting station within about (‘about’ because players do NOT stand on a single block at a time, so calculations are varied) three blocks to the left or right, three blocks below, or the three blocks of their character’s height. This gives a total reach of roughly eight by six blocks, centred below the player.

Crafting Station Progression (And What You Need to Craft Them)

Now you know the general crafting stations and the correct setup, here’s how to craft them and what to prioritise first:

Starting with the Work Bench:

1) Work Bench

Crafted by hand

• 10 Wood - Chopped from any tree (surface biomes).

The first station you’ll make and use. Place it anywhere to unlock a wider range of basic recipes.

2) Wooden Table

Crafted at a Work Bench

• 8 Wood - Chopped from any tree.

Used with a Wooden Chair to make Watches and other early furniture recipes.

3) Wooden Chair

Crafted at a Work Bench

• 4 Wood - Chopped from any tree.

Required alongside a Wooden Table for certain furniture-related recipes.

4) Furnace

Crafted at a Work Bench

• 20 Stone Blocks - Mined from underground or surface stone.

• 4 Wood - Chopped from any tree.

• 3 Torches - Crafted from 1 Gel (dropped by Slimes) + 1 Wood per torch.

Smelts ores into bars, crafts glass items, and processes certain blocks.

5) Iron Anvil / Lead Anvil

Crafted at a Work Bench

• 5 Iron Bars or 5 Lead Bars - Smelted from Iron Ore / Lead Ore at a Furnace (ore mined underground).

Used to craft weapons, armour, and tools. Iron and Lead Anvils work exactly the same, which you make depends on the ore your world generates.

6) Sawmill

Crafted at a Work Bench

• 10 Wood - Chopped from any tree.

• 2 Iron Bars or 2 Lead Bars - Smelted from ore at a Furnace.

• 1 Chain - Crafted from 1 Iron Bar / Lead Bar at an Anvil.

Unlocks advanced furniture recipes and is required to make the Loom.

7) Loom

Crafted at a Sawmill

• 12 Wood - Chopped from any tree.

Used to turn Cobwebs into Silk, which is then used for beds, banners, and vanity clothing.

Bonus: 8) Hellforge

Found in The Underworld - Looted from Ruined Houses.

Works like a Furnace but can also smelt Hellstone Bars. You’ll need an Obsidian Skull, Obsidian Skin Potion, or Lava Waders to safely navigate the lava-filled Underworld when collecting it.

Hardmode Crafting Stations

As a bonus, here are the crafting stations you should add to your general setup once you progress towards hardcore mode.

1) Mythril Anvil / Orichalcum Anvil

Crafted at an Iron/Lead Anvil

• 10 Mythril Bars or 12 Orichalcum Bars - Smelted from ore mined in Hardmode (found underground after breaking Demon/Crimson Altars).

Upgraded Anvil for Hardmode weapons, armour, and tools.

2) Adamantite Forge / Titanium Forge

Crafted at a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil

• Hellforge - Found in The Underworld.

• 30 Adamantite Ore or 30 Titanium Ore - Mined in Hardmode (underground and cavern layers).

Upgraded Furnace that smelts Adamantite/Titanium and Chlorophyte Ores.

3) Ancient Manipulator

Dropped by Lunatic Cultist (Hardmode boss)

End-game crafting station for Lunar Fragments and Luminite Bars, used to make some of the most powerful gear in Terraria.

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