Took out the Wall of Flesh. Wasn't particularly difficult after creating a long walkway. Between the Bee Gun, Arkhalis, and the Cascade yo-yo, it went down in short order.

Corruption is doing its thing all over my ant farm. With all of those surfaces from the mining I've been doing, it's spreading all over the place. Gonna spend a mint on purification powder to try to get it under control.

And I've solved the 'low risk of death' problem. Died, oh, at least five times so far. Got my armor rating up to around 35 but even those stupid fungi spores are hitting for around 70. Cascade is the most reliable weapon for now - the Bee Gun can't punch through the armor these new guys have. Time to start looking for new materials to make better weapons, armor, and accessories. Without those, gonna be a real pain to knock back the Corruption to a manageable area.

Don't even consider purification powder an useful option - aim for the Clentaminator (costs 2 platinum coins) combined with green solution, which can be bought from the Steampunker NPC (who spawns after you defeat at least one mechanical boss).

To prevent the Corruption and Hallow from spreading, digging shafts (at least three blocks wide) is mostly useful, and can be done in a relatively short amount of time. I've had stopped both of them in my first world by that method.

It can be seen on this image: *click* (of course this world has Crimson instead of Corruption)

Is that pic yours?

It looks like those shaft directly intersect the spread which meant some must have gotten past which is a little confusing to me. I really like the the look of this method but if you don't mind I may be pestering you with a lot of stupid questions regarding pulling it off. :P

Ditto. I'm trying to squeeze the spread a bit before hemming it in, though maybe that's the wrong way to go about it; maybe I can make a 'pen' to contain an acceptable amount of Hallow / Corruption and then clear out everything outside of the pen.

Not having the confidence (and kit) right now to deal with any of the Mechanical bosses, powder is my only option. Not the best option, granted, but it's better than nothing.

Maybe I'll make an attempt on The Twins - they look easier than the Destroyer of Worlds. Though with the relatively low damage I'm dealing, maybe Skeletron Prime is the way to go since it won't disappear at dawn.

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Pretty sure my lack of using buffs (for some reason, I do this for every game - rarely use the buff potions available) is going to make life more difficult than it need be. Need to learn to embrace potions to help survive this mining work.

As I already wrote, this has been my first created world, back in version 1.2.0.3 or so.

As soon as I had defeated the Wall of Flesh, the two stripes of crimson and hallow began to spread.

I already had contained the natural crimson to some degree (the one on the east - the wide shaft left to it was dug pre hardmode). I also had mined around my base completely (which was much smaller back then). The picture clearly states that the surface crimson spread which had been there in the eastern part of the mountain base had been dealt with later on. Using the Clentaminator of course.

Well, and to deal with the rest I took my little time and drove shafts and tunnels as to stop those plaques. I've added a picture to show how. *click*

One can say that I cut out huge chunks of the terrain, just to prevent the biomes from spreading further. It's like forest fire fighting.

And I may have confused the second and third shaft, but that's due to the long time that has passed since.

PS: If anyone dares to enter this hardmode world: download link

I just picked up Freddie's glove. XD

Pretty good weapon actually for early on. NO RANGE but it's faster than hell.

Was cordoning off / cleaning up Corruption and I opened up the big map to find any nearby infestations and places where it was growing back; I think I have it figured out now, even using just the Purification Powder. Noticed that Corruption had climbed up my dirt 'ladder' and started working its way across my rudimentary sky bridge. Crap, but easy to clear with the Reaver Shark, with some Ash placement to prevent any inadvertent future spread. Went up the ladder, cleaning as I went, and started clearing the bridge itself. Damn Wyvern showed up. Holy crap! Fights somewhat like a 4,000 hit point worm but with better maneuverability and higher damage. Oh, and if you mirror back home it'll follow you down there.

Gonna try a couple more times - to learn its patterns - and then maybe set up an arena-type area down closer to my nurse. Died three times so far but I'll get him eventually.

Yeah, those Wyverns are a pest in early hardmode.

Yesterday I went to my hardmode world and unplugged this mountain of crates that I had collected - now I have enough hardmode metal bars to build any tool, weapon and armor multiple times. Well, minus Palladium, which comes short 12 bars for the third pair of leggins. I've attached a snapshot. My character wears the third pair of Titanium armor at the moment.

The Wyvern pattern is fairly simple, but until you figure out a way to fight it that works for you, it can be a very dangerous opponent.

One hint: Every segment takes damage from the shared total. A weapon that hits multiple targets and/or pierces can be useful.

Dang - thanks for the reminder. Got a few hundred pre-hard crates to open for the post-hard goodies.

Wait, so I shouldn't open my crates until Hardmode?

Waiting until hardmode means you can get hardmode ores from crates fished up in pre-hardmode.

Is there anything else I should know about in this regard? Should I only mine what I absolutely need and leave a lot of the chests untouched?

Chest contents will not be updated, removed or restocked when you go hardmode. It is generally better to just clear out chests as you find them.

As far as mining goes, other than for decorative purposes the only pre-hardmode ore that has a real impact in hardmode is Iron/Lead to make the summoning devices for the Mechanical Bosses. Gems are useful if you want a Phaseblade to upgrade into a Phasesaber, otherwise decoration time.

Overall, I can't really see much reason to mine much more than required in pre-hardmode.