The world
The world is big and mostly ocean, with continents thousands of blocks apart. Biomes are large, so you're in one for a while before you reach the next.
Biomes
There are 14, and each has its own stone, soil and trees.
| Dark Forest | Dense oak forest. The most common one. |
| Pine Highland | Colder slopes with spruce. |
| Meadow | Open grassland with a few trees. |
| Marsh | Low, wet ground with pools, reeds and willows. |
| Barren Peaks | Stone, gravel and dead trees. |
| Sablewood | Black trees, pale fungus and glowing lantern caps. |
| Bloodfen | A warm bog with red moss and standing water. |
| Ash Wastes | Hot and dry. Cinder, dead wood, fire in the cracks. |
| Frozen Reach | Ice and snow, nearly always snowing. |
| Chalk Downs | Open, dry and bright. The safest place in the world. |
| Heath | Moorland with heather, gorse and boulders. |
| Desert | Sand and red sand dunes, cactus. |
| Beach and Ocean | Sand and shingle, then open sea. |
Volcanoes
They're usually near mountain ranges, and you can see them from far off because they smoke. There are three kinds: tall cones, wide shield volcanoes, and calderas with a lake in the middle.
Every so often one erupts. The ground shakes, it goes quiet for a bit, then it blows: an ash cloud, lava bombs that leave craters, and lava running down the sides. In multiplayer everyone sees the same eruption.
Rivers, caves and ores
Rivers are deep enough to sail on. Underground there are long tunnels and big caverns, with stalactites, moss, glowcaps, crystals and ember rock.
Ores get better the deeper you go: coal, copper and iron near the top, then silver and gold, then amethyst, soul ore and ember rock, and blood ore at the very bottom. You need better tools for the deeper ones.
Structures
16 kinds: ruined chapels, keeps, watchtowers, crypts, graveyards, standing stones, cabins, mine shafts, lighthouses, shipwrecks, witch huts, shrines, bridges, ruined walls, villages and arenas. They're connected by roads.
Loot
Chests in harder-to-reach places have better loot. A chest in a house has everyday things. One at the top of a watchtower or the end of a mine shaft is better. The ones under standing stones, at the top of a keep or at the bottom of a crypt always have something rare in them. Treasure maps only turn up in the well-hidden chests.
Villages
A village has a wall, a main street, fields, a barn, a smithy, a tavern and a chapel. The villagers each have a job (smith, innkeeper, priest, merchant, guard, farmer, carpenter, gravedigger, lamplighter), go to work in the day and go home to sleep at night.
Right-click a villager to trade. Each has three trades a day, which restock in the morning. They keep the same names and faces, so you'll get to know them.
The Barrow
The first boss, found in arenas, which are the rarest structure. It starts as a core on an altar. Use a soul shard on it and it pulls blocks off the arena's floor and walls to build itself a body, so it looks different depending on what the arena is made of.
It walks, slams its fist into the ground and sends a shockwave across the floor, stomps, and throws boulders. At half health it gets faster. When it dies it falls apart into blocks. If you leave, it lies back down and you get your shard back.
The Emberfall
There's a second world as well, reached through a gate you build.