Terraria – When do hardmode ores spawn

From 1.1 With Love

Spawn Switching

By using a on/off wire trigger block you can effectively "open" your bed's wall and invalidate the room it's in, leading you to spawn back at the middle of your world. If you're close enough (wiring only works for 2000 blocks or so) you can just hook up a switch at your spawn that'll change the blocks again and allow you to spawn back at your home base. Otherwise, you might be able to coax a contraption with a statue spawner/pressure plate/lava block to toggle it for you automatically.

This post on the TerrariaOnline forums in particular has an interesting bird-based reset circuit that seems to be fairly popular, but you'll need a bird spawner.

Digging the hard way

From your main base, just dig a hole straight down (the classic "Hellevator", if you will). When you get tired of exploring your caves, just start digging left/right towards your shaft. It'll take a while, but you'll at least probably find some goodies (more caves, ores...) on the way, and getting back will be a lot easier. You can even use a depth meter to align all your "escape routes" to the same depth, so that eventually you can just have one long path across the world that speeds up travel.

Previously, on Terraria...

A trick that worked in 1.0.5 was to start up a multiplayer server and explore with a friend (or just explore with two characters locally), then follow the instructions:

1. Build a room with a bed. A room isn't necessarily required, but will keep the other person safe. It's best to put the bed in a corner.
2. Set your spawn point to the bed.
3. Break the bed and use a mirror. Logging out might work but I don't make any promises.
4. Do whatever you need at your spawn point. When you're done, let your friend know.
5. Put the bed back down in the exact same spot. This is important.
6. Use the mirror again.

If you did it properly, you should travel back to where the bed is. This might not work in 1.0.6, though, and it's only good for exploring together -- if either of you get separated, you'll have to travel back manually.

If you're exploring solo, your only real option is just to take the time to improve the path. Wooden platforms over minor gaps and flattening out bumps will help a lot with horizontal movement, and creating a double shaft with a soft landing area (e.g. water) on one side and a wooden platform tower on the other will make vertical travel easier. Using background walls other than dirt will also stop the enemies from spawning.

You need to start breaking Demon or Crimson Altars with the Pwnhammer. This will spawn three new tiers of ores that you need to mine. The ore you get is determined at random when you smash an altar. The ores are: Cobalt/Palladium, Mithril/Orichalcum, and Adamantite/Titanium. Each altar smashed will spawn some of the next ore in the list, starting at the few new tier. The first spawns Cobalt (or Palladium), the second Mithril or Orichalcum, the third Adamantite or Titanium, then fourth circles back around (Cobalt or Palladium). After each ore is spawned once successive altar smashes will produce less and less of that ore. And each alter smashed will spawn a block of Corruption, Crimson or Hallow somewhere in the world which will contribute to the spread of those biomes. I have heard it suggested that the new ores are more likely to spawn in the underground jungle, but I cannot verify this from my own experience.

Now, I personally like to aim for Excalibur and the Megashark first. That's because you need souls of Might - dropped by Destroyer - to make them. I find him the easiest Hardmode boss to tackle. Because of that, I don't build a lot of hardmode gear (except armor). I only need the swords (I go back and build other stuff later of course). But before I worry about swords or armor, I go for the drills.

It looks something like this:

1. Mine enough cobalt for a drill then mirror out and make it.

2. Return to mine for Mithril. Mine enough for the Anvil and a Drill, then mirror out and make those. I will mine cobalt during this trip down, and if I have enough spare I will make a sword (since you can hold it down and swing it, a property the Mithril and Adamantite swords do not share), then armor pieces.

3. Return and mine for Adamantite and Mithril primarily. Make Adamantite Forge, then drill (though this is not strictly speaking necessary, but it is an upgrade), then make Adamantite armor. Then make Adamantite sword. I will use Mithril armor as a stop gap until I get a full adamantite set.

During this process, you want to farm crystals when you can (if you plan on using guns at all; crystal ammo is amazing) and get as many souls of light/night as possible (can drop from any enemy killed in the underground Hallow/Corruption). Those souls are the gateway item for summoning the new bosses.

Once I can summon the Destroyer, I get a weapon to kill it with. Typically that's a Phasesaber. I make Excalibur (which really speeds up farming him) then I make the Megashark (which I use for the Twins and Skeletron Prime).

My way is not the "best" way, but I find the Destroyer easiest and I rather like those two weapons.Bow lovers can easily substitute repeaters for this process, and you can kill the Destroyer for a Megashark or just try to farm the twins (for the Hallowed Repeater) first. Magic lovers want to forge Crystal Storm.

There are a lot of options. My general advice is not to stop and build a full set of armor/gear at each new metal tier. Build as little as you need to progress to the mining of the next tier. If you are dying a lot, then alter tactics (and if need be, do stop and make some better armor).

Once you kill all of the Mechanical Bosses, the Hard Mode Jungle awaits!