Whether you’re an avid builder or an enthusiastic boss-battler, knowing how to make rope in Terraria is an important skill.
Particularly in the early game, rope has many uses. Early game is typically considered pre-hardmode and can last longer than you might expect, so it’s crucial to have rope at your disposal.
Rope is used for moving efficiently up and down the map and for accessing difficult-to-reach locations. This is key for exploration, especially in caves, where mobility can be very limited.
There are four types of rope, each being obtained in different ways.
Rope can also be used to craft rope coils, which can further aid mobility. Rope coils are throwable items that travel in an arc and, on making contact with a single block, will place 10 rope from it.
In this guide, I’ll show you exactly how to make rope in Terraria.
Different Types of Rope
The four different types of rope are:
• Rope – the standard and most common rope
• Web Rope – easy to obtain, crafted by hand
• Silk Rope – easy to obtain, requires a loom
• Vine Rope – arguably the most difficult to obtain
It’s important to note that there’s only one difference in each of the variants of rope and that they are mainly for aesthetic purposes.
This difference is that silk and web ropes are not affected by falling lava. This can prove a major factor for particular situations such as exploring the Underworld. Other than this, all rope operates identically.
How to Obtain Rope
The four variants of rope are acquired in different ways and each with a varying degree of difficulty.
Standard rope is the easiest to obtain, being found in many places. It can be purchased from the Merchant or Skeleton Merchant for 10 copper coins per piece of rope. Alternatively, it can be found randomly by breaking pots, opening chests, or killing slimes.
Web rope is also easy to obtain. No type of workbench is necessary as web rope is crafted by hand using one cobweb per three pieces. Cobwebs can be found in underground areas, in groups of at least five. They are guaranteed to drop a cobweb item when broken.
This is useful because it means that, if you find yourself with a deficit of webs while exploring underground, due to the common nature of cobwebs, web rope is never far away.
On the other hand, silk rope requires silk and a loom to make. Silk is also crafted using a loom and will require seven cobwebs. As mentioned previously, cobwebs are simple to find. So, while it may be more resource costly than the other rope variants, getting silk rope is still an uncomplicated task.
The last type of rope is vine rope. To obtain vine rope, you must break vines while the Plant Fiber Cordage is equipped. Due to the common nature of vines, finding the resource isn’t so much the problem as acquiring the necessary accessory to harvest them.
A rare find in chests, wooden crates, and pearlwood crates, the Plant Fiber Cordage is not an easy-to-get accessory. If you do discover one, it can be useful when exploring the jungle biome.
Alternatives to Rope
If you decide not to opt for rope, there are some alternatives that provide similar mobility to the rope counterpart. These are chains and streamers.
Additionally, these alternatives are more expensive and can’t be crafted into coils. This means that for the early game, using rope is more practical, although, when advancing further into the game, and a more aesthetic approach can be taken, they may be the better choice for you.
Chain can be crafted using ten iron bars or lead bars. It’s important to note that you don’t need ten of each bar, and that they can be mixed. For example, five iron bars and five lead bars can still be crafted into chain. This recipe will produce ten pieces of chain.
Streamers are not crafted, but purchased. During a party event, streamers can be bought from the Party Girl for 50 copper a piece. There are three streamer colors available: blue, pink and green. These cost the same.
With all this in mind, it’s clear that rope is an essential resource in Terraria, particularly for the early game. As explained, there are four kinds of rope, each with varying difficulty of acquisition, but all equally as useful. There are two alternatives to rope, which have the same functionality- these being chains and streamers.