Progression guide for items and bosses

This guide is a walk-through for the necessary order of crafting and biome progression and suggested order of defeating bosses. It might be useful for new players planning ahead, or those checking back for content they've missed.

Standard type character is strongly recommended over hardcore, for all players. It is also recommended that new players start in a normal mode world. Hard mode currently doubles the health and damage of all enemies and bosses, for little to no pay-off. This requires highly optimised play, making use of all the best available gear, consumables and skill tree talents. Or an extreme degree of caution and cheesing the bosses.

Players can farm most skills with various AFK methods, to gain earlier advantage from some stronger buffs and useful talents. However, this is unnecessary in a normal playthrough. Especially since skill levelling was made substantially quicker in the 0.5 Desert Update.

Permanent max health foods have also been omitted. They are rare to find optional extras that will help make a playthrough easier by slightly increasing a character's base health.

This is not an achievements guide, but working through all the sections below could bag about half of them.

Boss order and world exploration are theoretically quite flexible, given this is a sandbox game. There is currently only one solid gate to progress: defeating the first 3 bosses. Which separates this guide into two parts.

Part 1: Powering up The Core[edit]

In the first part of the game, the goal is to power up The Core. This is done by activating all three boss statues connected to it. Each is associated with one of the first three bosses. Defeating that boss will drop an essence necessary to activate their statue: Glurch Eye, Ghorm's Horn, and Stolen Crystal Heart.

These three Boss fights can be attempted in any order, as soon as each boss is found. They're all pre-spawned at set distances in the world. Players may chose to prepare more by progressing through these first 4 tiers of equipment based on the materials found in the initially accessible biomes.

But beating bosses also drops good items, unlocks gear, weapons and other things that make it easier to explore and deal with randomly spawned enemies; the statues also act like a crafting workbench, each offering up 3 additional items to craft.

Crafting and Items[edit]

The workbenches chain from one to the next, as players progress through biomes and their ores. There is no requirement to beat bosses, initially.

The Core: Wood[edit]

Wood is easily obtained immediately from first spawn at The Core, in the centre of The Undergrounds, by destroying Roots. Which are also found in most successive biomes.

In hand crafting (by opening main inventory):
Torch - these are key to being able to see in the dark of the underground. Holding the Shift key temporarily pulls torches, from anywhere in inventory, into the currently selected hot-bar slot, for illumination and placement.
Wood Pickaxe helps mine the soft dirt biome walls more quickly. All walls can be slowly broken by punching continuously (except obsidian).
Wood Shovel digs up ground covering tiles, like Ground Slime, or the Dirt Ground itself, potentially allowing water to spread.
Basic Workbench leads onto the next tier of crafting...

The Undergrounds: Copper Ore[edit]

Copper Ore is mined from The Undergrounds' walls that sparkle in the darkness. Plenty of wood is also required, from exploration and/or farming roots.

Basic Workbench:
Chest is the only paintable item storage, as space efficiently as any later on. Adjacent workbenches pull directly from them.
Furnace processes the first 3 tiers of metal ores into bars, which are then used for crafting. They are automatic but slow, so use multiple.
Copper Pickaxe and Copper Shovel more quickly break early terrain.
Copper Hoe tills the ground for planting seeds, to begin gardening. Hoes are also effective for lifting ground covering tiles and harvesting plants.
Watering Can to grow planted seeds.
Salvage and Repair Station is used throughout progress to repair durability loss on all gear. Or scrap it for materials.
Cooking Pot used throughout progression for cooking.
Copper Anvil to craft the Wood or Copper armor sets.
Bed is used throughout progression to relocate a character's respawn point. Its Fiber is more common in Clay Caves.

The Clay Caves: Tin Ore[edit]

Tin Ore is mined from sparkling Clay Blocks. The Clay Caves biome surrounds one half of The Undergrounds, beyond ~150 tiles from the core, at a random angle. Many items still require e.g. Wood or Copper Bar. Fiber can be looted from enemies and breakables in the biome, salvaged from spare gear, or harvested from the plant of the Grub Kapok Seed. Some Gold Ore may also be found, ready for the next tier of crafting.

Tin Workbench:
Tin tools make mining Clay Blocks quicker.
Tin Anvil to craft Bronze armor set, Slingshot (first ranged weapon) and Wooden Shield that blocks 70% of all damage when used (Space key held).
Alchemist's Table allows crafting bombs and e.g. Healing Potion.
Tin Fishing Rod to start fishing for more potent cooking ingredients and other materials.
Bait Workbench crafts bait that modify catching fish/items and are needed for Expert Lure Omoroth summon.
Railway Forge opens up building rail tracks for faster early to mid-game travel.
Carpenter's Table crafts decorative items, including Rug which blocks debuff of e.g. Ground Acid Slime.
Spike Trap to automate enemy mob farming, help with the Hive Mother fight or cheese Ghorm.

The Forgotten Ruins: Iron Ore[edit]

Iron Ore is mined from Stone Blocks and occasionally dropped by enemies in The Forgotten Ruins biome. This grey area is found on the opposite side to The Clay Biome, together fully surrounding The Undergrounds. Gold Ore, found in both stone and clay biomes, Iron Ore and Wood are also needed for crafting.

Iron Workbench:
Smelter Kiln is needed to processes Gold Ore plus the first two outer biome metals.
Iron Pickaxe breaks Stone Blocks quicker.
Large Watering Can and Iron Hoe greatly speed up gardening by watering/harvesting 2x2 tile areas.
Iron Anvil for Iron gear set and Iron Bow.
Jewelry Workbench crafts various necklaces and rings that buff stats.
Electronics Table crafts wiring items including those that power automation (later) and the Table Saw for Planks.
Cartography Table - interacting stores mapping save data for that world, to share between multiple players or different characters.

The Ruins' cities are a top tier source of Ancient Gemstone and Mechanical Part, key for crafting valuable items throughout the next phase of progression. They are dropped from the dangerously coordinated Caveling Enemies and plentiful Large and Small Destructible Ancient Objects.

Bosses[edit]

Name	Notes	NPC
Glurch the Abominous Mass	Found in The Undergrounds at a range of 60 tiles from The Core. Recommend full copper gear with food buffs or tin gear, see strategy guide. Glurch Eye unlocks the Glurch statue. This is used to craft the boss scanners for Ghorm and Malugaz. Glurch also drops Swift Feather for more rapid movement (when tapping Space).	Bearded Merchant NPC is released from Glurch upon death. They sell various basic crafting materials and buy all items.
Ghorm the Devourer	Found circling through The Clay Caves and The Forgotten Ruins, around an orbit at a range of 230 tiles from The Core. Players may want full Iron tier gear before fighting: strategy guide. Ghorm's Horn unlocks Ghorm statue, which allows crafting of Recall Idol, an item which teleports you back to The Core from any location.	Cloaked Merchant NPC can be summoned to any room using the Mysterious Idol drop. Before this, they can be found in The Forgotten Ruins. They sell some advanced crafting materials and the basic boss summons.
Malugaz the Corrupted	Summoned placing a Skull of the Corrupted Shaman at his sigil in a throne room arena. This is found in The Forgotten Ruins at a range of 350 tiles from The Core. Malugaz is an extremely tough boss who will probably still be a challenge while using equipment from the outer biomes. Fight strategy guide. Stolen Crystal Heart unlocks Malugaz' statue.	Spirit Merchant NPCs are summoned at every placed down Ancient Hologram Pod, crafted at Malugaz' Statue. They facilitate crafting boss scanners and summons for the Titan bosses.

Optional bosses[edit]

These bosses are both tough, so should be fought after acquiring gear from the Wilderness.

The Hive Mother

Found in the main Larva Hive Biome dungeon in The Clay Caves at a range of 330 tiles from The Core. It is strongly suggested to explore this sub-biome and fight her after completing crafting tier progression through Iron. Hive Mother strategy guide.

King Slime

Spawned by placing a

Crown Summoning Idol at any slime boss rune. King Slime is about 3 times tougher than Glurch. So many players will do best to wait until they have equipment from Azeos' Wilderness, or later.

Drops King Slime Crown and Royal Gel. When these are equipped together, they make a player allied with slimes, Shrooman and sea creature enemies. Useful for hassle free exploration of The Sunken Sea and Molten Quarry.

Part 2: Gathering titan souls[edit]

After powering up The Core, the player interacts to talk through a dialogue until they unlock their Souls tab and are imbued with the ability to drop The Great Wall.

In multiplayer, every player must talk to The Core, separately, to unlock their own Souls tab.

After travelling out to touch and drop the unbreakable barrier wall, players can return to speak to The Core for a second time. This yields a brief description and approximate compass direction for the first outer biome: Azeos' Wilderness.

Scanners can can be crafted at the Spirit Merchant (technically traded). Each of these marks the exact location of an outer biome boss spawn. Each scanner recipe uses a resource unique to the boss's biome. Either found on the ground or as a mob drop.

Unlike the first 3 core progression bosses, each Titan boss must be summoned before it can be fought for the first time. All 3 have consumable summoning items, also crafted at the Ancient Hologram Pod, housing the Spirit Merchant. Each summon requires an amount of that biome's unique ore, smelted. So mining the walls or boulders is a requirement.

Because access to all 3 outer biomes is given simultaneously, these infinite biomes can, in theory, be attempted in any order. As can their respective Titan bosses. But it's strongly suggested to take them on in the order listed below, due to the workbench upgrade chain, mining damage and mob and boss difficulty scaling.

Upon defeating them for the first time, each of the 3 titan bosses gives the player a unique new soul power ability: Soul of Azeos, Soul of Omoroth and Soul of Ra-Akar. Once a power is collected, the boss's sigil is added to the Souls tab of the character screen. Each sigil can be clicked to toggle that ability on or off.

In action, each ability resembles one of the boss's attacks. They are triggered at random, by doing damage to any creature (including NPCs), potentially causing additional damage. Making them most useful against groups of mobs or bosses, that take many hits.

Part 2.1: Azeos' Wilderness[edit]

Scarlet Workbench[edit]

Scarlet Ore is mined from the tough Grass Blocks and processed into bars using the Smelter Kiln, to craft:

Item	Notes
Scarlet tools	Step up mining and digging damage, while the Scarlet Hoe has a 3x3 tile area, currently the best.
Scarlet Anvil	For crafting Scarlet armor set and swords.
Automation Table	Enables automation of several tasks by crafting: Drill, when powered, extracts much more plentiful metal via mining Ore Boulders. Sprinkler for continuously watering vegetable farms (5x5 area). Conveyor Belt to move enemies in a mob farm, or collect loose items and potentially store them automatically with a Robot Arm.
Distillery Table	Crafts more powerful potions, like Greater Healing Potion, particularly useful for harder boss fights.
Key Casting Table	Allows crafting keys to open all locked chests found while mining walls. From Copper Chests on up.
Boat Workbench	Crafts the basic Boat that makes exploring the next biome much easier.

Additional Items[edit]

Legendary items are entirely optional and potentially very time consuming to assemble.

Rune Song [Legendary]	Illusive materials for this legendary sword are found in unique Wilderness and/or Forgotten Ruins scenes. These instances are dynamically spawned into the world by exploration, causing many players difficulty. See this guide: How to Get the Rune Song.
Mold Biome [Sub-biome]	Blowpipe and Mold Vein Necklace are great for a strong ranged loadout, with poison, recommended for fighting Azeos. They both drop from the enemies in these very difficult sub-biome dungeons, that give little other payoff. Poisonous Sickle has a small chance in dungeon chests. But is guaranteed to be found at the centre of the Main Mold Dungeon, at a radius of 750 tiles from The Core.

Bosses[edit]

Name	Notes	NPC
Azeos the Sky Titan	Summoned in Azeos' Wilderness, at a range of 600 tiles from the core, using Large Shiny Glimmering Object. Drops: Broken Handle for crafting Rune Song, Ancient Pickaxe for crafting Soul Seeker and Azeos' Dash Feather which gives a major mobility boost.	Fishing Merchant can be summoned to a room using the Pile of chum guaranteed drop. Or they can be found before that, in a house in the Wilderness. They sell fish and fishing accessories.
Ivy the Poisonous Mass	[Optional] Found in Azeos' Wilderness at a range of 900 tiles from the core. Drops Poisonous Sickle and a shield that both apply poison on hit. Also, a 2-piece armour plus ring that synergises for higher damage output. These make farming Azeos far easier.

Part 2.2: The Sunken Sea[edit]

Octarine Workbench[edit]

Octarine Ore is mined from Limestone Walls and Ore Boulders on islands, then smelted to craft:

Name	Notes
Octarine tools	Incrementally improved equipment.
Octarine Anvil	Crafts Octarine armor set and weapons.
Proficient Jewelry Workbench	For crafting more advanced necklaces and rings. Note: the Jewelry crafter talent, at the end of the crafting skill tree, allows players to make polished versions of craftable jewellery with up to double their regular buff stats.
Portal	Crafted at significant expense, players can teleport between Portals placed anywhere in the world. Greatly speeding up returning to key locations.
Fury Forge	3rd tier of ore processing automation, ready for the next biome.

Additional Items[edit]

Phantom Spark [Legendary]	The crafting materials for this Legendary bow are found in the 3 large Forlorn Metropolis and the Vault, all within The Sunken Sea. Full guide: How to Get the Phantom Spark Legendary Bow.
Forlorn Metropolis [Sub-biome]	Vending Machine sell consumable items that apply buffs that stack with the same ones from cooked food dishes. Scholar's Staff is dropped by Caveling Scholars in this sub-biome dungeon is a hard hitting ranged weapon that can be very useful against Omoroth.
Speeder	Boat for faster water travel. Crafted at the Boat Workbench using Coral planks and Octarine Bars.

Bosses[edit]

These are both very difficult boss fights that are better to be well prepared for:

Name	Notes
Omoroth the Sea Titan	Summoned by fishing, with Expert Lure equipped, in a whirlpool of their watery arena in The Sunken Sea. Found at a range of 1100 tiles from the core. Drops Omoroth armour set, etc.
Morpha the Aquatic Mass	[Optional] Found in The Sunken Sea at a range of 1400 tiles from the core.

Part 2.3: The Desert of Beginnings[edit]

Galaxite Workbench[edit]

Galaxite Ore is mined from some Sandstone Walls and Galaxite Ore Boulders, mostly found inside those walls, too. Its crafted into Galaxite Bars via the Fury Forge.

Name	Notes
Galaxite tools	Incrementally improved equipment.
Galaxite Anvil	Crafts Galaxite armor set and weapons.
Go-Kart Workbench	Crafts Speeder Go-kart and Renegade Go-kart - vehicles for driving over ground. Fun, but not much use for first-time exploration if fighting and collecting items, as these require leaving a kart.

Additional Items[edit]

Soul Seeker [Legendary]	This Legendary pickaxe is crafted at the Ancient Forge, found at a range of 1600 tiles from The Core. Using Cipher Parchment (dropped by Igneous) and Ancient Pickaxe (e.g. dropped by Azeos).
Godsent Armor	This epic 3-piece armor set has a quest equivalent in scope to that of the Phantom Spark. Each of its items is locked in a unique chest in the Titan Temple scene. The unique key for each of these is found in Desert scenes at different radii from The Core: Prince, Queen and King Maze Dungeons. Which are filled with traps.
Oracle Deck	Thread of Fate is found in a small eye shaped Desert scene. It's used to craft this Epic off-hand accessory that brings together the 9 oracle cards.
Crystal_Meteor_Chunk	Is an offhand item giving a large damage buff to all players. It's crafted from Crystal Meteor Shards from the Crystal Meteor scene in the Desert.

Bosses[edit]

Name	Notes
Ra-Akar the Sand Titan	Summon by using Thumper inside their arena in The Desert of Beginnings. Found at a range of 1000 tiles from The Core. Drops: Scarab armor set that buffs thorns damage and adds it to melee and ranged. Which is stronger than it sounds.
Igneous the Molten Mass	[Optional] Found in The Desert of Beginnings at a range of 1400 tiles from The Core. Drops: Magma Armor, Cipher Parchment, Burnzooka works like a higher tier Grubzooka to rapidly mine Stone Blocks or lower.