The melee build in Terraria is a classic choice. Since the game was released, it's been a staple in the community and the go-to way to play for many people. The prospect of getting up close and personal with the various enemies you'll face can sound daunting at first, especially if you're an experienced player who knows how dangerous enemies can be.

There are plenty of ways to prevail, some more optimized than others, but all of them are viable so long as you're having fun. Spears, swords, and axes are just a few weapon types that will be examined when creating the best melee build in Terraria.

Fundamentals Of A Melee Build

Balancing Defense And Offense

Throughout your progression through Terraria 1.4, an effective melee user will focus on high defense and plenty of maneuverability. Defense is important, so you won't take too much damage while attacking up close.

Meanwhile, maneuverability is important, so it's easier to dodge attacks and make a quick getaway if needed. Naturally, you'll want to maximize damage output, but having a healthy balance of defense and offense is vital.

Early Game

Upgrade As Quickly As Possible

Though your Copper Shortsword might be what you rely on to kill those first slimes, you'll want to upgrade as soon as possible. The most immediate upgrade available is a Wooden Broadsword that deals 7 damage per hit versus the Shortsword's 5 damage. If you're willing to venture out of spawn a bit, you can also opt for a Cactus Sword that deals 10 damage per hit. The only problem is that it requires you to head to the desert, which can be dangerous earl🐷y on due to the vultures that spawn there.

Once you start mining, you'll want to get Platinum armor, which can be difficult to obtain but is well worth it in the long run. Gold is an acceptable alternative if it's easier to obtain. Eventually, you'll upgrade, but for now, it will provide good defense against your foes. It's also a good setup for your first boss fight: the Eye of Cthulhu, a flying eyeball that can be very deadly for the unprepared.

High defense from the Platinum armor combined with accessories like the Hermes Boots and the Cloud In A Bottle to enable quick movement. It's good to note that there's an NPC available who can change the attributes of your accessories and weapons. He's the Goblin Tinkerer and can be found underground after completing a goblin invasion. The goblin invasion event is a random event that occurs after defeating a boss, so be on the lookout for him when spelunking.

Pre-Hardmode And The Underground Jungle

The Hardearned Bee Keeper

Before heading to the underworld, there's a useful weapon to be procured from the Underground Jungle after defeating the optional Queen Bee boss. Upon reaching the sub-surface ecosystem, you'll find the oversized bee's home with relative ease considering it looks like a giant yellow mass.

To start the fight, just break the larva inside the hive and get ready to dodge. Her moveset is a lot of horizontal dash attacks with the occasional pause. During the fight, she'll spawn bees while hovering. The minuscule bugs can quickly drain your health if you let too many of them attack you, so get rid of them while dealing as much damage as possible during the pauses. After defeating the Queen, there's a 33 percent chance she drops the weapon we're looking for: the Bee Keeper. The Bee Keeper is a sword that spawns in bees that swarm an enemy when hitting them, which lends a large amount of DPS. It'll also be very helpful in the upcoming boss fight.

Optional Pre-Underworld

Crafting Shadow Or Crimtane Armor

For experienced and skilled players, this next step is completely optional and is just to make the underworld a bit safer to grab materials in. To make our adventure in the underworld a bit easier, you'll want to grab a set of either Shadow or Crimtane armor.

Only one can be obtained since the materials required to craft the sets are dependent on your world's evil biome. To craft, you'll have to fight one of the optional Corruption/Crimson bosses a few times to obtain the necessary materials.

Underworld And The Wall Of Flesh

Nab The Best Armor For Melee

Molten Armor is the best possible melee build armor for Pre-Hardmode and our next goal before fighting the Wall of Flesh. It's crafted with 45 Hellstone bars and 45 Obsidian. That's a total of 135 Hellstone you need to mine from the Underworld. It can be a real pain if it's your first time mining for the fiery ore, but the most optimal way is by using an Obsidian Skin potion to be able to dive under the lava pool surfaces and mine as much Hellstone as possible. It's important to note that you'll require a Hellforge to craft those Hellstone bars. They're relatively easy to find in the various tower structures littering the underworld.

As of the 1.4 update, the Molten Armor has received some changes in terms of its melee capabilities. The Molten Helmet provides a boost to critical damage chance, the Breastplate boosts overall damage, and the Leggings boost your attack speed. The Molten set also grants immunity to the 'On Fire!' debuff which is going to play a big part in the upcoming battle.

For a Wall of Flesh arena, build a line of stone blocks that continues for a good while. This step is important because, unlike the other bosses, the Wall of Flesh spans the entire Y-axis of the underworld. It's impossible to escape the fight, and it's not possible to get behind the abomination, so you'll be walking backward while swinging.

Using the Bee Keeper's bees should make quick work of the Hungries that spawn from the meat monster. After dispatching the Hungries, they'll focus on the main wall itself and should deal adequate damage to the large health pool. After a lot of healing, more bees, and a lot of stress, the monster will fall, and you'll be thrust into Hardmode.

Early Hardmode And The Mechanical Bosses

Powering Up Attack And Defense For Hardmode

Hardmode comes with new enemies, new ore, and most importantly, new weapons. The beginning will be very dangerous since the only way to get the new ores to spawn is through smashing demon altars with the Pwnhammer that you picked up fಞrom the Wall of Flesh. It should be noted that despite there being 6 ores that can spawn after smashing an altar, only a combination of three will spaw🤡n.

For example: Cobalt, Orichalcum, and Titanium. After smashing some altars, head underground and mine enough ore until you can craft an Orichalcum/Mythril pickaxe. Don't worry about crafting the armor until you obtain Titanium/Adamantite.

After beefing up your defense, you'll want to craft the weapon you want from the respective ore. Farming the Wall of Flesh is the way to get a great accessory called the Warrior Emblem which increases melee damage by a whopping 15 percent. You can also head undergrounඣd in the𒉰 Corruption/Crimson to farm the Mimics that spawn to get some powerful accessories and other weapon choices.

It's best to get these items before your fight with the Mechanical Bosses to avoid getting stuck due to not being strong enough. With proper preparation and these items, the bosses will be a breeze.

Plantera Hardmode Melee Build

Turtle Or Chlorophyte Armored Focus

At this stage in the game, a melee build has a lot of weapons and armor up for grabs. You can also get your hands on some awesome weapons, like the True Night's Edge.

Turtle Armor and Chlorophyte Armor will also provide the defense you need to survive these big boss battles, while also offering some useful melee modifiers. Turtle Armor, as the name might suggest, is perfect for t🌳urtling; attackers take double damage and all incoming damage is reduced by fifteen percent. Chlorඣophyte Armor summons a Crystal Leaf above your head that occasionally fires a smaller leaf that deals up to 100 damage.

Golem Hardmode Melee Build

Rock The Terra Blade Or Paladin's Hammer

Defeating Plantera opens up the Hardmode dungeon, as well as the Pumpkin Moon and Frost Moon events. This means you'll get access to a bunch of new melee items to perfect your build. Some of the best weapons include the Terra Blade or the Paladin's Hammer.

You'll probably still be rocking either Chlorophyte or Turtle Armor at this point, and these armor sets work just fine for taking down the Golem. The accessories stay pretty much the same, except now you can include the Frozen Shield if you complete the Frost Moon event. To maximize damage, reroll the traits of your accessories to Menacing for a four percent damage increase. When you put on all of the accessories, it adds up to 20 percent bonus damage.

Lunar Events And Moon Lord Melee Build

Maximum Power

This is the stage of the game where your melee build starts to get extremely strong. Powerful endgame weapons, like the Ze🍒nith, are the crowning glory of an endgame Terraria melee build.

Upgrade your armor to Beetle Armor, and later Solar Flare armor, and you'll be at the height of your power. Even in the endgame, the melee accessories are essentially the same, with the Ankh Shield, Mechanical Glove, Solar Wings, Fire Gauntlet, and Warrior Emblem all making an appearance.

The♕ ideal endgame Terraria📖 melee build will include: