Terraria ( ) is a 2011 action-adventure video game developed and published by Re-Logic. As a sandbox game, Terraria has no set goals. After creating the player character and choosing the game's difficulty, the player is placed in a two-dimensional, procedurally generated world where they explore, fight enemies, gather resources, and craft equipment. Players beat bosses, a tougher variety of enemies, to gain access to more items, resources, and equipment. By completing select goals, players receive access to non-player characters (NPCs) who sell items and offer services, such as healing and fishing quests. Terraria can be played alone or with others, and features support for modding.
Andrew Spinks commenced development in January 2011; he was assisted by a team of game testers and designers. As of 2025, Terraria is developed by eleven members of Re-Logic. Initially released in May 2011 on the Steam digital store, Terraria has received continuous content updates that have considerably changed it from its first version. The game was originally set to end development in 2012, but it resumed in 2013.
Terraria has since seen the addition of new items, NPCs, enemies, and world difficulties, as well as quality-of-life improvements and crossovers with different games. It has also been ported to other platforms, including home video game consoles, handheld consoles, mobile phones, and operating systems. Despite announcing in 2020 that the game's fourth major update would be its last, Re-Logic has continued developing Terraria.
Terraria has received generally favorable reviews from critics. Gameplay aspects such as exploration, replayability, and amount of content have been praised, and the crafting has been viewed as complex. The lack of a tutorial for PC has been criticized, but the tutorial worlds of Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PS Vita were commended. The combat system, as well as the controls for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and the pixelated sprites, were also positively received. As of 2026, Terraria has sold over 70 million copies, making it one of the best-selling video games of all time. Re-Logic developed Terraria: Otherworld from 2015 until it was canceled in 2018.
Gameplay
Terraria is a sandbox, action-adventure, role-playing, and platformer video game. It offers gameplay that revolves around exploration, building, crafting, combat, survival, and mining, without having any set goals. It is playable in both single-player and multiplayer modes. The game's two-dimensional graphical style is reminiscent of the 16-bit sprites found on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game console. Terraria is noted for its classic exploration-adventure style of gameplay, similar to games such as Minecraft.
When creating a procedurally generated world, the player is able to choose the size of the world from three options. Players start in a world with basic tools and a non-player character (NPC) guide that introduces aspects of the game and provides information on other NPCs and item recipes. Scholar Ji Soo Lim said in his study that the participants had to rely on a wiki to learn more about the game.
The world is divided into biomes, with each having unique enemies and resources. Evil biomes, such as Corruption and Crimson, are populated with tougher enemies and can spread and infect other biomes. A vast array of resources, such as ores, can be found while exploring caves. Some resources may only be found in specific areas of the world, stored in containers or dropped by enemies. Players can use found resources to craft equipment and items, such as weapons, armor, and potions, at crafting stations. The player can also fish, golf, and decorate their homes. Players also begin with low health and mana, which can be increased by finding and crafting specific equipment or items. Terraria has several difficulty modes: the "Classic" mode, and "Expert" and "Master" modes, both of which increase the difficulty in exchange for exclusive items. There is also the "Journey" mode, which allows the player to duplicate items, adjust the world's difficulty, and control weather and time while playing.
The game features a character class system, primarily divided into melee, ranged, magic, and summoner classes. The equipment a player uses defines their class (e.g., melee players use close-range weapons, ranged players use bows and guns), therefore a player's class can change throughout the game if a player changes their equipment. Players can encounter a variety of enemies who appear depending on factors such as time, location, and special events. A more difficult version of enemies, called bosses, attack the player differently than regular enemies and can drop valuable items. They can be summoned either by players using special items or when certain criteria are met.
The defeat of some bosses is directly tied to in-game progression, such as the Wall of Flesh, who advances the game into "hardmode", a stage that introduces tougher enemies, as well as new NPCs, resources, and items. Like bosses, players can also battle enemies and mini-bosses during special events they trigger, such as goblins, pirates, or aliens, in which enemies appear constantly, and they must either be defeated or a certain amount of time must pass before the event ends. There are also seasonal special events, such as a Halloween-themed one, which introduces special paintings, gear, and goodie bags.
By completing specific goals, such as defeating a boss or obtaining a certain item, players can attract NPCs, such as a merchant, nurse, or demolitionist, to occupy houses they have built. Some NPCs can also be acquired by finding them throughout the world. After acquiring NPCs, players may buy or sell items from them or obtain services from them (e.g., a nurse heals a player; an angler offers fishing-related rewards). The happiness status of NPCs is controlled by two factors: the biome they reside in, and the NPCs they are neighbors with. Depending on their happiness, NPCs will lower their prices and sell special items.
Players also have the option to customize their character's appearance when creating a new character, and in-game through equipping various items. Along with this, players can obtain vanity items, which are armor pieces and accessories with only a cosmetic effect, and dyes, which change the color of equipped accessory and armor items. Players can obtain accessories that provide boosts to the player's statistics, such as wings that enable the player to fly or a shield that provides knockback immunity.
Terraria has support for modifications, which is facilitated by the third-party tModLoader, an open source modification of Terraria that allows players to use other custom-made modifications. It received official support when it was released as a free downloadable content (DLC) on the Steam digital distribution service in 2020. Mods for Terraria vary widely in their scope, content, and purpose. Some, such as Thorium and Calamity, add new content, including bosses, weapons, and biomes. Others, such as Terraria Overhaul, add new game and combat mechanics, including seasons, fire spread, and modify the player's movement. Additions, such as Recipe Browser, Veinminer, Magic Storage, and Fargo's Mutant Mod, aim to improve quality of life by streamlining parts of the game. The Terraria community has also developed "modpacks", a type of a modification that bundles several different mods together, such as The Bereft Souls.
Development
Terraria was developed by the independent video game studio Re-Logic and published by 505 Games. Andrew Spinks started developing Terraria in 2011 with support from a team of game testers and designers, including some volunteers. Spinks previously worked as a developer on a Super Mario fan game titled Super Mario Bros X. He built Terraria on the Microsoft XNA framework. Spinks worked out of his living room, the small team collaborating remotely. Scott Lloyd Shelly composed the music. The game received attention early in development following a tweet from Minecraft creator Markus Persson.
Spinks announced that Terraria would not have further content updates in February 2012, so that he could focus on his family; the company instead released a final bug-fix patch. Some fans were unhappy with the announcement. Development resumed in 2013, with Spinks soliciting ideas from the community for future content updates; the developer frequently engages with fans using official forums and social media.
The game's success enabled Spinks to hire a team. As of 2025, Re-Logic comprises eleven people, with most of their staff having been hired from the community.
Release Terraria was released on Steam for Windows on May 16, 2011. This was earlier than planned, since a beta version from a closed playtest had been leaked to the public. A collector's edition of Terraria was released on March 16, 2012. On August 12, 2015, macOS and Linux versions were released.
In September 2012, Spinks announced that Engine Software and 505 Games would port (convert the game to a different platform) Terraria to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game was released for Xbox 360 on the Xbox Live Arcade on March 27, 2013; the PlayStation 3 version had been released on the PlayStation Network in North America on March 26, 2013, and in Europe and Australia on May 15. The console versions introduced a local cooperative multiplayer mode. A downloadable version of Terraria was released for PlayStation 4 on November 11, 2014, and for Xbox One three days later; Its retail release was on December 2, 2014. The console version of 1.3, developed by Pipeworks Studios, was released in February 2018; its mobile version was released in August 2019.
Shortly after the initial console releases, 505 Games announced Terraria release for PlayStation Vita; it was released in Europe on December 11, 2013, and in North America on December 17 the same year. The Vita version included a tutorial world and an online Wi-Fi multiplayer mode.
Spike Chunsoft localized the PlayStation 3 and Vita versions for the release in Japan, including a costume based on Monokuma of the company's Danganronpa series. Spike Chunsoft promoted Terraria with broadcasts and by sharing video footage of the game on Niconico. According to the company, most players who downloaded a demo version of Terraria for PlayStation 3 bought the full game. The Nintendo 3DS version was first released on the Nintendo eShop on December 10, 2015; a Wii U version was released on the eShop in Europe on June 24, 2016, and in North America four days later. A Nintendo Switch version was released on June 27, 2019.
505 Games announced a mobile version of Terraria in May 2013, ported by the Dutch studio Codeglue for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. The studio optimized it for touch screens and integrated the game with Facebook. Terraria was released for iOS on August 29, 2013, for Android on September 13, and for Windows Phone on September 12, 2014. The console and mobile versions received the 1.2 update in 2014.
In February 2021, Spinks announced the cancellation of Terraria Google Stadia version due to the unexplained suspension of Re-Logic's Google account, which had been ongoing for over three weeks. He later clarified that existing Android and Google Play versions would not be affected. Google restored the company's accounts later that month, and Re-Logic released Terraria for Stadia on March 18. Google announced the shutdown of Stadia in September 2022, and the platform was terminated the following January.
Post-release updates Terraria has received many updates since the official release. These updates were released for free, Spinks describing it as "the right thing to do". Terraria is an outlier among the wider industry by not incorporating microtransactions to raise revenue. These updates have contributed to the game's longevity.