Terraria is an open-ended sandbox 2D game with gameplay revolved around exploration, building, and action. The game has a 2D sprite tile-based graphical style reminiscent of the 16-bit sprites found on the SNES. The game is noted for its classic exploration-adventure style of gameplay

The game starts in a procedurally generated world and the player is created with three basic tools: a pickaxe for mining, a shortsword for combat, and an axe for woodcutting. Many resources, notably ores, can be found while mining or exploring underground caves.