That reminds me, is there a trick to mining? Sometimes I feel like I'm just aimlessly digging and sometimes I do, going for an hour without finding anything. I usually just get frustrated and start a new world.

Try building a hellevator. Dig a 2 block wide shaft straight down, use a few buckets of water to fill the bottom to negate fall damage for when you jump down, and use either rope or wooden platforms on one side of the shaft to climb back up (unless you have another way back up, i.e. hookshot, magic mirror, equipment that lets you slide down walls and do wall jumps). Dig straight down, and you will start stumbling on seams of ore and caves with more of said seams. It's also a good way to find Life Crystals.

I usually just explore caves (the ones on the surface often go down quite far; some even to Hell) and use something that can throw light past the walls to find ores and other caves, but you could always craft Spelunker potions that light up all the ores and chests around you (really useful for finding underground cabins) if that's what you're struggling to find, or the Hunter potion to light up mobs to find other caves. If you feel prepared for it, the underground jungle is fun to explore. I'd definitely recommend a Spelunker potion or 20 to help find the... hidden fun stuff (uh, not in the Dwarf Fortress sense, but actual fun stuff).

Crafting a bottle and placing it on a shelf, table, or workbench will allow you to craft potions near it. I think all of the buff type of potions require a bottle of water (crafted by having bottles while standing near water; basically, the water is your crafting station, and the bottle is the only ingredient), so show that to the guide to see how to make those potions.

Jonesy89's suggestion of a Hellevator is good too, though I'd make it 3 wide so you can free fall down one side and climb up with platforms on the other (if needed). As a bonus, it'll be useful later in the game when you're ready to tackle Hell. Bear in mind that Hell evaporates water, so stop before the background changes if you're using a water landing pad.

Edit: Oh, right, Jonesy89 mentioned rope as well. I guess 2 wide works with that while still allowing a free fall.

You guys are the best, thank you so much. :D

Note that while the Gold/Platinum part of a Spelunker Potion may seem expensive, you're likely to find more than what you spend if you use them in the deep underground layer (ie. where Skeletons, Black Slimes and Mother Slimes appear). Also, Moonglow grows in the Jungle so that may be a bit dangerous to get at first, but you can be lucky and find Spelunker Potions in chests as well.

You can run the server software and load the world.You can then use the 'dawn' command to set the world time to 4:30 AM.

Generally I find it more fun to play through the night. But if you have absolutely nothing to do, then this will speed things up quite nicely.


[EDIT] Make sure to use the 'exit' command to save your world after setting the time.

Be encouraged, that after you upgrade your equipment, the time of day makes less and less of a difference. I can't remember the point at which I first stopped caring whether it was day or night, but I'm think it might be around tungsten/silver. Another good indoor activity is gardening. Also, I didn't know for a very long time that you could hit "b" and auto-drink all buff potions in your inventory. You definitely want to work up having a collection of iron-skin and regeneration potions to carry with you at all times. Shine potions are also pretty close to being a necessity for night/underground exploration. It's just nice to not have to worry about placing torches all the time.

Also, i forgot to mention there's a really simple trick to locking your NPCs indoors. If you place 1 platform immediately outside the door, it will prevent the door from opening out. It will be inconvenient for you to leave, cause you'll have to turn around and look away from the door before clicking it to open it (doors open in the direction you're facing), but it will prevent your NPC from opening the door out. It will not prevent zombies from opening the door from the other direction.

I usually create a tower and put the NPC houses at the top in joined apartments with no exterior doors. Adding platforms allows me to jump up to talk to them, but I've never seen them jump down. The NPCs always spawn in their housing, and you can review/reassign housing in the interface.

Once you defeat the old man and get access to the dungeon, your first mission is to look for and rescue the mechanic, so you can buy wire clippers and wrenches. Then you can start using actuators and pressure plates to create automatic "sliding" wall/doors that only open when you walk on the plate. If you take the wire clippers into the dungeon, keep an eye out for wiring that connects light switches to lights, and you can harvest it instead of buying it (i always felt like buying wire was a waste of money until I wanted to create a teleport system to take me to way points on the map).

Okay I know about the regular NPCs, but the Traveling Salesman just took a nosedive into my lava moat. Will another one ever show up?

The Travelling Merchants come and go at semi-random intervals (a small chance to show up each day if there's no other event going on). Note that a Travelling Merchant will not stick around if you exit the game and he does not need a free house to appear either.

Cool thing is, after he ate it I got his hat. Now I look like a pimp! :D